December 22, 2024
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Dist. 111 to eliminate Learning Anywhere, Anytime days

By Stephanie Markham
As a result of the elimination of the Kankakee School District's Learning Anyway, Anytime program, students will spend the equivalent of nearly an extra week in the district classrooms beginning with the 2025-26 school year. In this file photograph, then-King Middle School student Ke’Shawn Bellany concentrates on a worksheet.

As a result of the elimination of the Kankakee School District's Learning Anyway, Anytime program, students will spend the equivalent of nearly an extra week in the district classrooms beginning with the 2025-26 school year. In this file photograph, then-King Middle School student Ke’Shawn Bellany concentrates on a worksheet. (Tiffany Blanchette)

KANKAKEE — The monthly remote learning days in Kankakee schools known as Learning Anywhere, Anytime will be a thing of the past starting next school year.

Kelly Gilbert, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said that District 111 will no longer be using LAA days starting in the fall of 2025.

The monthly LAA days will be replaced with weekly early-release days each Wednesday.

Gilbert said the change will add more than 35 hours of instructional time to the school calendar — or nearly a full week in a classroom.

The early release days will be regular attendance days, but students will attend for only a partial day of instruction.

Students at the elementary and middle school levels will be released at 2:30 p.m., and students at the junior high and high school levels will be released at 1:30 p.m.

Teachers will use the remainder of the school day for professional development.

The same system is used locally at Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School, which also has early release days on Wednesdays.

The Kankakee School Board approved the change Dec. 9 as part of the 2025-26 school calendar.

The monthly LAA days were started in the 2019-20 school year, with students expected to continue their lessons online during the school improvement days.

Teachers were to be available to help students in the first half of the day and undergo training in the second half of the day.

Through its competency based education waiver with the state of Illinois, the district is able to make substitutions for the time and location where learning takes place.

“The original intent of the days was to have students who were struggling or needed support come in to receive that support, but attendance has decreased over time,” Gilbert said. “I can only speak to this school year; we have less than 10 students in attendance on e-learning days. So we would be gaining back, by having those be actual school days, all that time for our students.”

However, Gilbert said that getting students to come to school is important, especially with the majority of the district’s schools designated in the state’s school report card as targeted, comprehensive or intensive.

These three report card designations mean the school is not meeting state achievement levels.

“That allows us to be able to support them in improving their academic achievement, enhancing their skill development, providing enrichment, maintaining those high expectations and ultimately improving our student outcomes,” Gilbert said.

Staff and parents were surveyed about the potential shift from LAA days to early release days.

Superintendent Teresa Lance said that staff “overwhelmingly” wanted to move to the early-release model.

Parents and families also supported the shift, Lance said.

“We weren’t surprised that parents and family members wanted to go to early-release,” Lance said. “I think what surprised us is that 50% of them wanted to switch now, but we just believe, talking with the transportation department, it just makes sense to wait until next school year.”

https://daily-journal.com/news/dist-111-to-eliminate-learning-anywhere-anytime-days/article_6dc3d710-bd83-11ef-bd4c-a78ebb468645.html