By: Ted Dabrowski
Students in one of Illinois’ best-funded school districts haven’t been in a classroom since the beginning of the pandemic and there’s little sign their school doors will open soon. Not surprisingly, that has many parents in the north shore suburbs of Deerfield and Highland Park more than frustrated. Board members of Township District 113, made up of two high schools serving more than 3,500 students, have shown no signs of wanting to open up even as nearby districts increasingly add in-person learning options.
Deerfield High School parent Laura Nieder is one of those concerned about the lack of an in-person option in her district. “We need our schools open for the social emotional health and academic success of students. D113 can’t be the only district in Lake County to isolate students at home with remote learning,” she recently told Wirepoints.
Another parent, Michelle Bernstein, disapproves of the board’s inaction. “Instead of finding ways to mitigate and open the schools safely, like every high school around us,” she said, “our Board and Superintendent continue to find excuses and use unattainable metrics to keep us closed.”
The Board’s actions are in direct opposition to what’s happening in the rest of Illinois and across the country, where arguments for reopening continue to add up. Both sides of the political aisle are now pushing for schools to open. The CDC says survival rates for children infected by the virus is at 99.997%, while for teacher-aged adults aged 20 to 50, it’s just slightly lower at 99.98%. Schools haven’t been found to be vectors for transmission, anyway.
Vaccines, too, are on the way, with Illinois teachers now in the “essential worker” category that puts them in line for inoculations beginning January 25.
Many school districts surrounding D113 have already found ways to mitigate the risk of COVID. Most reopened in the fall and proved their mitigations worked in stopping the transmission of the virus. That’s allowed those districts to recently increase the percentage of kids attending in-person schooling.
Nearby Glenbrook School District now offers a full day, in-person option for students, five days a week. New Trier High School is increasing its attendance this month, allowing for up to 50 percent of its students to attend in person on certain days. And high schools in Lake Forest and Stevenson are also operating hybrids.
Even the Chicago Public Schools, a district with 350,000 students and a far more complex system, recently opened its doors to in-person learning.
Many D113 parents are also frustrated by the lack of transparency from its school board. Michelle Bernstein says board members have been unresponsive to parents’ concerns. “At each public meeting, parents are allowed to ask questions, but we are told by the Board that the questions will not be answered at that time. Most are never answered and emails are ignored. There is very little transparency as to the real reasons the District is choosing to keep our kids locked out of school.”
Yet other parents are frustrated because they pay some of the highest property taxes in the country for their schools. D113 spends $28,000 per student, with nearly 95 percent of that coming from local property taxes. Parent Walter Heil says “property tax payers are looking closely at how the district can justify collecting taxes when operating costs are significantly reduced under the current environment of closed facilities.”
A 2019 district-by-district comparison provided by the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) shows D113 spent the 14th-most in the state out of nearly 850 school districts.
The overwhelming amount of those costs is driven by labor costs. The school’s superintendent total compensation, according to ISBE, is just shy of $300,000. The total compensation of the district’s top 20 officials averages about $200,000 each. And D113 teachers, on average, make $118,000 each.
It’s natural, then, for parents to expect more than online learning, which has widely been deemed a failure across the country.
District 113 Superintendent Bruce Law was believed to originally support a reopening, according to Bernstein. She showed Wirepoints emails from Law where he admitted that ”School just does not work very well for high school students if it’s delivered remotely.” He also noted that “The EEOC has said that fear of coming to work is not a protected category, so anyone who simply refuses to come to work out of concern of becoming sick will not be in our employ.”
But since then, Law has backtracked and he and the school board have yet to ask teachers to come back to the classroom.
Concern about school reopenings has jumped recently as the result of the suicide by Glenbrook North student Dylan Buckner. The star quarterback’s death has been a strong reminder that the mental health of students cannot and should not be ignored during the pandemic.
That risk is further compounded by the fact that many parents need to work and must make the hard choice between leaving their kids at home alone or not working and foregoing earnings. Nearly 20 percent of D113 students come from a minority background, many from Highwood, and that places significant stress on the lives and livelihoods of far too many families.
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It will be increasingly difficult for D113 board members to continue to argue in favor of closed doors. In the past couple of months alone, the CDC, UNICEF, The New York Times Editorial Board and Chicago Public Schools have reiterated the need for school openings.
- CDC director Dr. Robert Redfield Says Data Supports Face-to-Face Learning in Schools.
- UNICEF: “…the benefits of keeping schools open outweigh the costs of closing them.”
- New York Times Editorial Board: Keep Schools Open, New York
- Chicago Public Schools: CPS to start in-person learning in January; CTU responds
Locally, Illinois is relaxing its COVID restrictions across the state as restaurants and other businesses partially reopen. And the state’s vaccination phase 1B beginning on Jan. 25 has expanded the “essential workers” definition to include teachers.
D113’s next board meeting is January 25, with the open session beginning at 7 pm at the District 113 Administration Building, 1040 Park Avenue West, Highland Park. Parents are encouraged to call in/walk in to the board meeting with concerns. Alternatively, they can gather at the district in cars to show solidarity for an in-person learning option.
For parents who want to communicate via email directly with the board and the superintendent, below are the email addresses of each member.
- Jodi Shapira, President, jshapira@dist113.org
- Ken Fishbain, Vice President, kfishbain@dist113.org
- Stacey Meyer, Secretary, smeyer@dist113.org
- Gayle Byck, gbyck@dist113.org
- Elizabeth “Lizzy” Garlovsky, egarlovsky@dist113.org
- Michael Perlman, mperlman@dist113.org
- Dan Struck, dstruck@dist113.org
- Bruce Law, Superintendent, blaw@dist113.org
Read more from Wirepoints on COVID and school reopenings:
- Every Illinois school parent should know these COVID facts
- Please, Illinois, lift the ban on high school sports
- Seven facts parents and teachers should know about the risks of reopening Chicago Public Schools
- Want to save more Illinoisans from COVID? Vaccinate the elderly first
- True inequality: In-class education at Chicago’s Catholic schools, but remote learning at public schools
Appendix
A set of state lawmakers want to extend CPS’ current school closing moratorium to February 1, 2027 – the same year CPS is set to transition to a fully-elected school board. That means schools like Manley High School, with capacity for more than 1,000 students but enrollment of just 78, can’t be closed for anther three years. The school spends $45,000 per student, but just 2.4% of students read at grade level.
Hopefully, all media will get the message, in Illinois, too.
Ted joined Tom Miller of WJPF to talk about Illinois’ highest-in-the-nation property taxes, why lawmakers don’t want to touch the tax’s cost drivers, just how much Illinoisans’ tax burden has grown over the decades, why Gov. Pritzker failed to meet his promise to reform property taxes, and more.
Venice cusd 3 is in an impoverished area yet is number 5 in spending? I wonder how they swing that?
Regarding the “Township HS 113 admins receive $150,000-plus in compensation” chart. The ISBE figures are often less than the actual compensation figures due to the criteria that the ISBE uses to define compensation. The ISBE figures are a good ballpark and starting point. If one wants more exact figures: Submit a FOIA request to the school district for the desired administrator contracts which sometimes reveals compensation not included in the ISBE figures. Obtain the collective bargaining agreement from the school district to determine the stipend schedule (the ISBE figures don’t itemize stipends which are common in teacher pay), if any… Read more »
Actually I think it is Illinois is #1 state for discrepancy of spending between high and low paid school districts, as opposed to pay, which may or may not mean it is #1 in pay discrepancy.
And to be completely frank, this is one of the only reasons why IL is a decent place for the above average income household to continue living in IL. Most of your real estate tax dollars stay local and pay for the schools (usually means salaries and pensions) but occasionally for buildings, facilities and equipment. That’s why schools like New Trier, Stevenson, Prospect, Hersey, Hinsdale, etc, are consistently high performing school districts. They may not score as well as the Magnet and Selective school around the country, but for non-selective, general admission schools, they are really some of the best… Read more »
Debtsor – you are correct about the quality of certain schools. I live in Fairfax County Virginia, one of the wealthiest counties in the nation, and save for the TJ magnet school there is no high school in Fairfax that approaches the quality of a Deerfield, Stevenson or New Trier. Of course the taxes are really high, but parents are willing to pay. The education in even the top schools was better in the 70’s from a “woke” standpoint. We were taught that communism, particularly as practiced by the Soviet Union, China, the Eastern bloc, and Cuba was essentially evil.… Read more »
The teachers are still enjoying the beaches in the south, please wait till the weather warms up.
In a December 22, 2020 Highland Park Patch article, Jonah Meadows explains some of the politics involved in Township High School District 113 school board elections. https://patch.com/illinois/highlandpark/highland-park-school-board-elections-be-uncontested-april On November 19, 2020, the 44 member District 113 Caucus (independent of the school district), endorsed 3 of 6 candidates for the April 6, 2021 school board election in which 3 of the 7 member board members are up for re-election. http://www.caucus113.com/endorsed-candidates.html Per the Patch article, those 3 candidates are the only candidates in that particular election. The 3 candidates are Jodi Shapira (incumbent), Jaime Barraza, and Rick Heineman. Incumbents Stacey Meyer and… Read more »
For an objective picture of the current data on COVID community transmission in Lake County and how it compares to the State’s recommendations on school operations, see this link and form your own conclusion: https://www.dph.illinois.gov/countyschool?county=Lake
The suburban ‘Karen’s’ get what they asked for.
Debtsor has previously pointed out the dynamic on local school boards — being progressive and woke (I’ve come to hate the word “woke”, but it succinctly describes the cancer of progressivism). I don’t know, as I’ve never served on one. But I can imagine the general type of people that might wish to do so (always exceptions). If you think about it, school boards attract activists. People who always want to be in everyone’s business and have a control fetish. In other words — Progressives. It makes complete sense why these school boards are afraid of their own shadow and… Read more »
Yes, and local media trolls the social media for board member dissenters and tells the public to wreck their lives. I read a story, back in 2017, about a local school board member a few towns over from me. The board member called the pink hat wearers in washington a vulger term on his facebook page. I won’t post the town or name to protect the man’s name and reputation, I don’t want to contribute any links to the story. The local media gave the cancel culture a roadmap to destroy his life. They pointed out his business, and they… Read more »
This is the prototypical 25 year old journalism major with her first job at a local. She has been told throughout her life that life is meaningless unless she is an activist for what she believes in. These kids believe that journalism is a way to advocate, not to tell a neutral story of both sides like journalism of yore. And it just so happens that what she believes in is what her professors believe in. And her professors like socialism and critical race theory. If the 50 year old woke woman from the burbs is a “Karen” I call… Read more »
Brittany is a good name for the AWFLs they are (Affluent White Female Liberal). The crazy thing is that this AWFL local reporter has a direct line to the local Progressive Political Group. The group is a crazy old lady who is so far left that 20 years ago she was a communist (a female Bernie) but today the local journalist reveres her as a Wise Sage Elder of the Local Community. Anytime there is a political story the journalist runs to the Wise Sage Elder asking for a quote about whatever progressive topic she writes about. In the past… Read more »
fire them all!!!!! they are a disgrace to their profession. another union game plan that fails the students
Wake up, this is all less about covid and more about what it feels like to be semi retired. These teachers want to be semi retired at home. Nobody likes commuting time stolen from their lives. But workers in IT or engineering can work just fine from home, teachers have a job that requires being there, so go back.
Snowflake parents in both towns-
Next time vote republican! LOL
The Republican brand is toxic to these voters just as the Democrat brand is toxic outside of urban areas. There is no way they can fix it. The R/D divide is now a cultural fight and the R’s are the plebs, and the north shore rich folk can’t ever be associated with that trash. I’d venture to say that these voters may go the rest of their lives never voting for another Republican agai.
Parents in Deerfield and Highland Park- Rise up and demand they be fired!
Do nor sit idle and do nothing!
Dist 505 has approx 35 students depending on what article you read. I counted 25 employees (8 full time teachers) including bus drivers.
Rondout dist 72 has approx 141 students.
Isnt it about time to stop paying these lazy slobs for not working,always some excuse for not going back to work but they still have their hands out grabbing a paycheck-how many places can you not work and still get paid FOR MONTHS!!-what a joke these greedy non working so called ” teachers” are!-and i use the term ” teachers” loosely
The leadership of District 113 is dedicated to developing progressive, effete and woke snowflakes. I visited my alma mater a couple of years back and the administration wanted to build an expensive artificial field in addition to the other over the top facilities there. I mentioned to the woman giving the tour that all of this luxury (better than what I had on scholarship at one of the top schools in the country) had no impact on the success of the teams, and that athletics for some in the school should be about more than about putting extracurriculars on a… Read more »