PEORIA, Ill. — With Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s extension of the stay-at-home order, schools across the state will be shifting to remote learning.
The extension through Apr. 30 means the very earliest schools could go back to in-person instruction would be May 1.
Peoria Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Sharon Desmoulin-Kherat said it all likely means in-person instruction won’t happen again this school year.
“That’s probably correct,” she said. “And we have devised our operation to align with that thinking.”
Desmoulin-Kherat said there were 200 teachers online on Monday doing professional development, such as brushing up on the online learning platform Microsoft Teams.
“I think it’s an opportunity to experiment,” she said.
“People are excited. We’re nervous, also.
“We’re literally flying the plane and building it at the same time.”
For students who don’t have the proper connectivity means, the district has been delivering devices on the same Monday, Wednesday, Friday schedule they use to deliver meals.
Desmoulin-Kherat said over 200 devices were delivered Monday and 700 were going to be delivered Wednesday.
Even though, as Pritzker said during his announcement, grades given to students will function more as guidelines than as instruments for passing and failing, Desmoulin-Kherat explained students must still complete assignments.
Any assignments not completed will be given an “incomplete” mark, and must be made up during the summer.
