Reopening Schools - Preliminary Ideas

[UPDATE: The News-Gazette had more on this very topic a couple days after this post. Excerpt:

As they try to prepare for next school year, superintendents are trying to create some semblance of a plan without knowing what’s coming next. The Illinois State Board of Education hasn’t issued guidelines for the upcoming school year yet, so districts are planning for three different possibilities: a return to full-on remote learning, all students back in school, or some sort of a hybrid model where a portion of students are in school at a given time.

Full article here.]

There have been several news stories about potential and very preliminary plans for schools reopening in the fall with the ongoing concerns about COVID-19. Our region has been doing better than others when it comes to keeping infections and outbreaks contained (see previous Cheat Sheet update on the coronavirus updates here). The current Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation out of the University of Washington has their latest forecast models here.

People might remember their projections from earlier in the pandemic being used by the White House. Their projections have continued to incorporate new information, new policies, and how populations have adhered to those policies. Here is the latest as of this posting on total death and daily death projections going into the next school year (click to enlarge graphs):

The projected plateau of daily deaths bottoms out towards the end of summer and appears to rise with the reopening of schools and typical epidemiological factors in the fall. As always, none of this is written in stone and depends on our own behaviors and sometimes good or bad fortune with outbreak events. The Atlantic had a recent article looking at various challenges facing schools in general here.

The Daily Illini had an overview of the Parkland hybrid fall plan here. Excerpt:

For Parkland students, this would mean on-campus courses will be marked as such, but part of the coursework would still be completed online, according to a Parkland College press release.

On-campus courses would still have to follow social distancing guidelines, meaning students may be divided into smaller groups and classes larger enrollments may require staggered scheduling.

Additionally, many on-campus meetings may end after Nov. 20 in order to minimize contact after Thanksgiving break. The classes would still continue online through the end of the regularly scheduled semester.

Some career classes may meet on-campus until the end of the semester, though.

That full article here. The University of Illinois is still formulating its plan, but there have been some updates on that process. Tom's Mailbag had some questions and answers on the subject last week here. Excerpt:

Urbana campus spokeswoman Robin Kaler said a decision on fall instruction would be made in mid-June...

Earlier this week, however, Provost Andreas Cangellaris said that the draft recommendation from an academic affairs team called for an end to on-campus instruction at the fall break. After that, students would return home for eight days of online instruction and six days of exams.

That seems to fall in line with what other Big Ten schools are planning.

Full Tom's Mailbag article here with the U of I planning question the second question down. Other recent articles noted an ACT/SAT testing waiver being approved and an updated timeline on a fall plan within the next couple weeks:

A draft of that report recommended ending in-person instruction at Thanksgiving break, with the last eight days of instruction and exams held online to reduce travel back and forth to campus.

It also said that if central Illinois is in Phase 4 of the governor’s “Restore Illinois” plan, which is likely, classes with more than 50 students would have to be held entirely online.

And to help spread out students, classes may be held in the evening, on Saturdays and in non-academic spaces, the report stated.

That full article from Wednesday here. Illinois Newsroom had coverage and links for the draft plan here as well as faculty safety concerns and opposition to reopening in the fall.


I'm still catching up on Unit 4 and District 116 meeting information, but I have some highlights from the coverage so far. Illinois Newsroom had an interview with Unit 4 Superintendent Zola about potential issues with the fall here. Excerpt:

I think we learned a lot in this first chapter of COVID-19 around food, and what our families need. We’ve created a pretty significant platform around remote learning. We also are finding that by providing devices to homes and by mitigating the access to technology that we are beginning to sort of level that playing field. I would sense that if there is another stay-at-home order in the fall, that we’re going to be in a much better place in terms of the timely response and also making sure families already have devices. We’re not going to have to roll out the numbers of devices that we did this spring. I’m in several conversations. We have an area superintendents group that meets with the regional superintendent on a regular basis. I’m in a larger group called the large urban districts, and so that’s large school districts across the state. So those are two spaces where we’ve begun to have some conversations about what school might look like in the fall...

I think schools will raise their value level in the fall. I think parents are going to be grateful when we reopen. I think they’re going to be appreciative of what school has been for them and for their children, I think they’re going to be excited to return in the fall, and whatever version that looks like, hopefully a somewhat normal version where the bus comes up and the students get on, and we’re able to feed them breakfast and do some learning and have a healthy lunch and some recess time.

That full article here with a lot of information about Summer programs, budgets, feeding kids, and more.

District 116 Board of Education had a study session meeting on June 2nd (agenda, video) where they discussed remote learning and registration planning going into the fall. It was a long meeting and I haven't had a chance to wade through it, but it appeared that they are still working out managing the fall and coronvirus safety concerns and touched on the topic in those two presentations.

As has come up in the Urbana City Council and among activists and protesters locally and nationally, there has been another look at police officers in schools. Illinois Newsroom had an overview of the issue here. The same safety and budget concerns with putting Student Resource Officers into schools remain along with concerns about the school to prison pipeline for minority students who tend to face disparities in school discipline (including in Urbana schools).

It's not a lot of information yet, and a lot of it depends on how the coronavirus projections diverge from actual infections and deaths over the summer. The interrupted Spring semester was a crash course in a sudden and extreme scenario where super spreader events could have created untold numbers of uncontrolled outbreaks. With some luck and hard work, the Fall semester should be far less extreme, even if far from the normal we'd like.


[Updated: Original post published on 6/12/2020 at 10:39am.]

Urbana City Council 6/8-10

Urbana's City Council had another two part meeting this week due to overwhelming community input and participation at the regularly scheduled Monday meeting. A local issue of police use of force in the Aleyah Lewis case had increased attention and pressure with national attention on the subject of police brutality in the wake of the killing of George Floyd.

Nationwide and international protests that resulted from another brutal death caught on video in contrast with official police description were further fueled by brutal assaults on journalists and protesters by police afterward. It is in this context that a groundswell for more dramatic changes and impatience for the status quo swept into local marches, protests, and local government.

The Urbana Mayor and Chief of Police Bryan Seraphin have both been out in public assuring residents they take these issues seriously and are committed towards reviewing use of force policies and considering reforms. Both have made a variety of public statements to this effect and showed up to one of the larger local protests along with Champaign officials and police representatives. Prior to the second half of this City Council meeting on Wednesday, both appeared at the Champaign Community Coalition with the same message (video available here).

The Monday regular meeting ran long with public comments and emailed public input being read into the record. Like the previous Committee of the Whole meeting last week, they recessed and reconvened the meeting on Wednesday to finish the agenda items, including a budget presentation and approve updates to the Emergency Order for outside dining and cocktails to go.

Public input was overwhelmingly in opposition to or supporting a delay in re-appointing Chief Seraphin among other annual appointments on the agenda. Those supporting his appointment included people who had a working relationship with Seraphin over the years. Testimonials from Preston James known in City of Urbana government for his work in criminal justice reform and reentry work and the Cunningham Children's Home and their reliance on a working relationship with the Urbana Police to ensure the safety and success of their programs stood out among the handful of endorsements.

Council member Jared Miller summed up the overwhelming opposition Wednesday night before the vote to re-appoint Seraphin as 140 voices and emails in roughly 48 hours, including spontaneous protests Monday night in front of the City Building as the City Council appeared to cut off public input and continued protests on Wednesday night that appeared to have expanded to 50-60 people disrupting traffic in front of the City Building.

The vote still came in 5-1 with only Council member Miller in opposition to re-appoint Chief Seraphin. The arguments from City Council members to approve noted the at-will nature of the appointment, concerns about having a power vacuum at this delicate time, and a strong working relationship with Seraphin on previous criminal justice reforms. From Mayor Marlin to other City Council members there was a repeated argument that Chief Seraphin was a credible voice with the police department itself, which would be needed to get "buy in" for any reform measures enacted.

Council member Maryalice Wu argued in her support for appointment that the demand for change puts the onus on Seraphin to lead and demonstrate change in the department or the Council would have to revisit the decision on his leadership.

In other appointment news, previous Urbana City Clerk Phyllis Clark was appointed to fill that same position after the health related resignation of Clerk Charlie Smyth. Applications for appointment to the City Council's Ward 2 are available from the City's website here after Eric Jakobsson announced his impending retirement at the end of the month.


Other Meeting Highlights:

Monday's video (available here) started off with some technical announcements explaining the new webinar format being used on Zoom to avoid last week's Zoom bombing problems. Mayor Marlin apologized for those vulgar interruptions and graphic images. She explained that they were going to do audio comments first to avoid the frustrating delays of the Committee of the Whole experience last time.

She explained that due to the overwhelming number of emailed public comments she'd be enforcing the two hour time limit for public participation. Protests started outside of the City Building when she cut off reading emailed public comments into the record prior to that two hour limit (video from one of the protesters here).

Minnie Pearson of the Champaign County branch of the NAACP spoke along with Carol Spindel of the local ACLU in support of criminal justice reforms (direct video link here). They focused on looking and revising use of force policies, restricting neck holds and banning knee holds. Pearson noted a need to adopt and implement the NAACP 10 shared principles as with other local government and departments and demilitarization of the police. She went on to demand a greater effort in honest communication with the community.

Public comments that followed stressed the need for more police accountability, empowering Urbana's Civilian Police Review Board, and more dramatic reforms shifting funding from police budgets to programs and services that would alleviate reliance on policing. This was in addition to specific requests for a transparent and independent investigation into the Aleyah Lewis case and opposition to the reappointment of Chief Seraphin.

Mayor Marlin began reading emailed public comments at 7:43pm (or around the 50 minute mark of the video here). As summarized above, most were in opposition of Chief Seraphin's reappointment. There were several that followed what appeared to be a form or script from local organizers, a fact that Council member Brown used to dismiss opposition to the Seraphin appointment. For a local issue to get enough attention and participation in organized opposition to merit elected officials to publicly address and diminish its relevance, however, tends to highlight that it was relevant enough they couldn't simply ignore it either.

Having listened to the comments read into the record, there are appeared to be plenty of various and sincere opposition around the same themes, however. Opposition or delay of the Seraphin appointment, dropping charges against Aleyah Lewis, putting the arresting officers on administrative leave pending an independent investigation, and empowering the CPRB.

Cunningham Township Supervisor Danielle Chynoweth took to social media to criticize the Mayor after comments were cut short and the meeting went into closed session for another matter. People began coming out and protesting in front of the City Building at this time as well.

When the meeting returned to open session there was some discussion about how to split the time and agenda items. The agenda was moved around to get the Committee of the Whole agenda items through and then start fresh on Wednesday with the budget presentation.

The budget presentation began at the beginning of the Wednesday night meeting (video available here). The discussion included the financial status of the City going into the pandemic and now official recession. The City's work to address deficits and other budget issues has left it in a better position to endure the economic fallout of the pandemic, but there are still a lot of unknowns about future funding. Right now the budget maintains current services to residents, but the City will have to continue to assess and reassess as we find out whether or not we'll recover faster or slower economically.

The question and answer discussion after the budget presentation focused on a lot of technical details and nuances. Examples were the revenue streams from cannabis, the equipment fund for the Fire Department, potentially reconsidering a K-9 unit vehicle given new cannabis laws and potential upcoming police reforms and spending priorities. The budget discussions will continue on Monday with more presentations and Council input. The planned date for the big budget vote is June 22nd.

Urbana City Council Committee of the Whole 6/1-3

Catching up on Urbana's City government has been a slow process. This post covers the recent City Council's two day Committee of the Whole meeting which ran nearly seven hours total. It will summarize and highlight as opposed to a full write-up (link to jump to part 2 below). There was news coverage of the first half of the meeting by the Daily Illini here and Illinois Newsroom here. They both mentioned the racist and vulgar "Zoom bombing." Excerpt from Illinois Newsroom:

At their Monday night Committee of the Whole meeting, Urbana City Council members condemned the police custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.  Earlier Monday, several city officials had participated in a demonstration on the streets of downtown Urbana in George Floyd’s memory. But afterwards, the city council members heard criticism of some of their own officers, regarding the arrest of Aleyah Lewis made by Urbana Police in April.

Close to 100 people showered the online council meeting with Zoom calls and emails. They said that Urbana Police would not have wrestled and body-slammed the 21-year-old Lewis if she had been white. Lewis was arrested on April 10 during a gun investigation involving her companion...

Many of those who spoke or emailed demanded that charges against Lewis be dropped, and the officers who arrested her be placed on administrative leave, pending an investigation.

That full article here. More background on the Aleyah Lewis case from the News-Gazette here, and the George Floyd case from NPR here.

Reminder: there is a regular City Council meeting tonight (agenda) at 7pm. It streams live at 7pm here. It will be available later on the City Council website here.


COW Meeting Part 1. June 1 (agenda, video):

Many of the public comments also demanded that the Civilian Police Review Board be empowered as a tool for the community to be better informed and hold police accountable. There were many complaints that the Board was failing its basic functions, not issuing required reports, and was too heavily influenced or controlled by the Urbana Police Department itself. Others accused City Staff of undermining it.

Minnie Pearson, the President of the NAACP of Champaign County, spoke of the history and trauma of brutality faced by African-Americans like her throughout her lifetime. From Emmet Till to George Floyd. Linking the national issues and the local, she noted that the violence has been going on for 400 years, but now it's being caught on film. The local Alayeh Lewis was also record on video and came to the attention of the public online. Her full comments are available here in the video.

Danielle Chynoweth, long a player in Urbana government noted her own role in creating the CPRB and expressed her shame in what it had become. In her comments she lamented the compromises that watered it down in the first place and the "shambles" it was in now. She also had an overview of local accusations of police abuse over the years and tied it to the national issue of police brutality in light of the George Floyd case. Her full comments are available here in the video.

There were some complaints that many who wished to speak were forced to wait for hours while the Council and others spoke first and emails were read into the record. One speaker also expressed frustration that the Urbana Police Chief, Bryant Seraphin, made initial comments, but left before any public comments were read or shared.

Council member Jared Miller noted that as Chair he had read 30 emailed public comments, which took roughly an hour, and he still had 44 emails with public comments remaining. The Council decided that all of emailed public comments would be added to the record of the meeting and be available to the public (with redactions for email addresses and other requirements).

The meeting was continued to Wednesday, June 3rd to complete the City business on the agenda (including two presentations and several ordinances). Mayor Diane Marlin was interviewed in a segment that appeared on WCIA that day available here.


COW Meeting Part 2. June 3 (agenda, city website video, YouTube video (missing first 6 minutes):

The second part of the meeting began with an announcement about steps taken to against Zoom bombing. Settings were changed to prevent audio and video disturbances. Additional emailed public comments were added to the record.

The meeting began with an overview police review boards in general and then a nearly hour long question and answer period between the new Chair of the Urbana Civilian Police Review Board, other members of the board and City staff.

The discussion addressed the lack of required reports being filed and attempts to remedy some of the previous shortfalls. It addressed technicalities in the language of the ordinance on issue such as requiring a notary to confirm the identity of the complainant. The notary issue has become a serious impediment with coronavirus social distancing rules. Before the Urbana police staff performed this role when a complaint was submitted. There was a discussion of the language being on the form due to previous police practice and not required by the ordinance itself. There was further discussion of potential requirements under State law and questions about why other localities, such as the City of Champaign operate without a notary requirement in light of possible related State statutes.

At the end of the CPRB discussion, Council member Miller expressed his hope that the Council doesn't lose sight of the bigger police reform picture that constituents are demanding beyond simply empowering the CPRB.

There was a presentation on the Capital Improvement Plan (the first of two installments) which typically documents the financial and budget planning of the City in accordance with the Department of Housing and Urban Development funding requirements. The Mayor noted that this presentation was easier to follow for laymen compared to previous presentations. For folks wanting to get into the weeds and details of budgets and future projects, there was a lot of information here.

There were a few interesting questions that popped up on what would potentially happen with old firehouse properties that had to be replaced and a discussion about private sewer systems. The public information on private sewer systems, a map of where they exist, and other records revealed some concerns about "vulnerability" to the city. I honestly couldn't tell if they were talking about some sort of legal liability or environmental or public safety vulnerability.

If I'm understanding the issue, it appears that there are some small private sewer systems built a long time ago within the City's full sewer system where records don't necessarily exist. Other documents on the rest of the system reveal information about them, but there are some concerns about mapping out the full system.

There were overviews of each of the ordinances on the agenda. All were sent to the full City Council with a recommendation to approve. The first two ordinances related to a development at.

The last group of ordinances dealt with funding and planning that included COVID-19 relief and spending. There was a presentation on that (video here) as well as questions and answers about technical details on housing subsidies, rental assistance, and small business assistance.

Some of the jargon and acronyms can get mind numbing on coronavirus relief funding that the federal government included with the CARES Act. The mechanisms that already existed for federal dollars to reach local programs were used to avoid re-inventing the wheel. So, in local government meetings, you'll hear Council members rattle of terms like "CDBG-CV funds." You probably don't need to know that it's referring to additional COVID-19 related spending in addition to the usual federal Community Development Block Grants. I didn't even like typing that last sentence. It's federal relief funding due to the pandemic.

Local governments are being encouraged to spend the money quickly to help protect the economy, but there are still a lot of concerns to avoid waste, "duplication" of payments from other programs, and ensuring that they will be reimbursed. Federal funding like this is usually reimbursed like clockwork and wouldn't normally be a concern for local governments to spend their money knowing the program will reimburse them. But this emergency funding happened quickly and the federal guidance isn't final yet.

Local government officials may be more aware than most that not dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's is a recipe for bureaucratic nightmares. It truly is the little things that get you. So there's a bit of anxiety on funding that is normally extremely reliable. A lot of folks would probably feel better once they know for sure they're within the final guidance and requirements for certain.

If you're catching up on Urbana City government like me, this was probably a good place to start. Even if it was a nearly 7 hour crash course.

Coronavirus Updates 6/5

It was announced that the daily flyer / announcement updates (see 6/3 informational flyer here) will become a weekly update on Wednesdays. The website will still have daily updated coronavirus information here. Public testing sites like the one at Marketplace Mall will also be open to everyone now, regardless of whether they have symptoms or other factor. WAND had more on the opening of testing to all here.

There was a meeting of the Joint Information Center with some questions from the media after the local updates from C-U Public Health District administrator Julie Pryde and City of Champaign Mayor Deb Feinen. The video of that meeting is available here. Previous videos are available at the C-UPHD website at this link and under the heading "Champaign County Joint Information Center Public Outreach Videos" near the bottom of the page.

A highlight from the questions was an explanation about people who attended the protests and the need to get tested. Administrator Pryde explained how long one should wait to get tested after a possible exposure. The way this infection takes hold and the way PCR tests work, at least 4 days is probably good to avoid a higher chance of a false negative. She reminded listeners that the testing is a tool, not a certainty, however. She encouraged vigilance and safe distancing as in some cases it can take longer (e.g. 14 days).

Mayor Feinen explained her latest Executive Order and how it expanded additional hours for private spaces that would apply to certain businesses. The City is looking to expand outdoor seating options next week. While Urbana is adding some more public music options this week, that's something Champaign isn't doing yet, but also considering.

WAND had an article with an overview of the changes from the State's Phase 2 to Phase 3 with a lot of additional details here. A snippet with a basic overview of Phase 2 and Phase 3 from the public chart:

 

WCCU had an article yesterday specifically looking at Phase 3 guidance for Illinois schools and the very different setting kids will be entering when they return to classes. There was a link to the full guidance from the Illinois State Board of Education here.

The News-Gazette's latest update today suggests signs that we could be moving to phase 4 in the central region if outbreaks and cases can be kept under control and within our regional hospital capacities:

To advance to Phase 4 of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s five-phase Restore Illinois plan three weeks from now, regions will have to hit the same metrics that they did to move on to Phase 3 last week.

So far, so good for the central region, which includes Champaign, Douglas, Ford, Piatt and Vermilion counties.

More on that at the full article with today's Champaign County updated numbers (including 4 new cases for a cumulative total of 675). WCCU had a brief overview of the County numbers today here. More data from the C-UPHD website here.

I missed the June 1st Board of Health special meeting and update mentioned in my last coronavirus update that covered the previous May meeting. I don't have any additional details on that yet.

A few other recent highlights:

Smile Politely had a quick blurb about a COVID-19 Relief Fund grant and a link to additional information here.

WCIA had an article about the Housing Authority of Champaign County's Youthbuild program providing care packages to seniors as part of COVID-19 assistance.

Unit 4's summer food program is still going on this summer. More details on that from WCIA here.