School returned to ‘normal’ in 2022 — or did it?

When the 2022-23 school year started in August, there was a semblance of normalcy. Sometimes parents and teachers would say “we’ve come out of COVID” or “now the pandemic’s over.”

Even those people who recognized those statements as misnomers — the virus hadn’t gone away and was even surging in some parts of the state — and would amend what they said, seemed to express the optimism that prevailed.

There would be daily reminders that education was still being put through the pandemic wringer — students exhibiting learning lag or social-emotional difficulties, improvement projects subject to delays because of manufacturing shortages and the ever-pressing need to hire teachers.

This would be a year when school districts would be hard-pressed to find activity buses of any variety — new or used.

Yet, with mitigations greatly scaled back and vaccinations readily available, classrooms once again seemed like places where students and teachers could see smiles with each little moment of learning.

Masks didn’t disappear entirely — and for good reason, especially for those with health conditions that made them vulnerable to respiratory illnesses — but folks from the broader community now mingled in stadiums, gymnasiums and auditoriums to see young people achieve.

Aside from COVID-19, other things happened in education. Here are the highlights:

Illinois Report Card

In October, the Illinois State Board of Education released its Illinois Report Card, the snapshot look at public schools.

In the Sauk Valley, Prophetstown-Lyndon-Tampico Middle School, Erie High School, Morrison’s Northside and Southside elementary schools, and the Forreston and Chadwick-Milledgeville junior-senior high schools all received Exemplary designations.

Districts that were able to improve on their Targeted for Improvement designations also celebrated.

Sterling Public Schools, for instance, earned Commendable status after carrying the Targeted tag for several years. “We have more work to do,” said Superintendent Tad Everett. “But we’ll take a moment and relish this.”

One of the initiatives Sterling enacted late in the spring was an early dismissal of students on Friday so groups of teachers could meet in professional learning communities and enact interventions for students who were struggling academically.

Sterling, Dixon and Rock Falls high schools all had graduation rates above 86% (Rock Falls was at 96%).

Moreover, the area’s schools were largely showing growth in English and math — though the baseline had been lowered considerably since the pandemic lockdowns.

Teacher retention — considered an indication of stability — was generally higher than the state average. Still, it was pointed out in Sterling that the ethnicity of teachers didn’t reflect the student body, especially for Hispanics, which the district started to address.

Chronic absenteeism rates among students were notable in the Sauk Valley, but again, fell far below state averages.

Sex education standards

School districts in Rock Falls, Sterling and Dixon, as well as other Sauk Valley communities, did not implement National Sex Education Standards for the 2022-23 school year. Administrators who reviewed the materials said in a variety of ways essentially the same thing: that in their entirety, the national standards were not “developmentally appropriate.”

The issue arose in 2021, when the state Legislature passed the Comprehensive Personal Health and Safety and Sexual Health Education Act, a bill that did not have the support of state lawmakers representing northwestern Illinois. The bill was signed by Gov. JB Pritzker.

Public Act 102-0522 went into effect June 14.

State Rep. Tony McCombie of Savanna, who with her re-election in November emerged as the leader of the Republican caucus, wrote about her opposition to the law: “The goal of sexual education is to help our young people grow into healthier relationships and become healthy adults. SB818 misses the mark. It is not age-appropriate. It is sexually charged, and in some cases not medically accurate. It takes away local control from our schools and requires diligence on [the] part of parents to research and hoops to jump through to opt out for their children.”

Media literacy standards

Starting in 2022, high schools were required to teach media literacy, to provide students with the means to test the reliability and credibility of information found online. Sterling High School paired English studies of World War II propaganda with an emphasis on persuasion and ethics. Dixon High School demonstrates “lateral reading” between browser tabs to compare different accounts, including fake videos.

Excellence in education

Kimberly Radostits, a Spanish language instructor at Oregon High School, was named 2022 Illinois Teacher of the Year. “I love what I do every single day, and it’s something that I hope all of my students get in their future: to do some kind of job, some kind of career where they get to go every single day and feel like they’re living their best life,” Radostits said.

The 36-year-old learned she won the award during a surprise visit from state Superintedent of Education Armen I Ayala. Radostits has been at Oregon for 15 years. She holds a bachelor’s from Northern Illinois University and a master’s from Aurora University.

PJ Caposey, superintendent at Meridian schools in Stillman Valley, was chosen as the state’s best administrator by the Illinois Association of School Administrators at the Joint Annual Conference of Educators in November.

Caposey was selected for his leadership in helping the district recover from financial crisis, addressing limitations in technology and curriculum and addressing high turnover among staff. In 2022, staff retention was at 92.4%.

Two weeks after receiving the award, Caposey was hired to become superintendent at Oregon starting July 1, 2024. He was a former Oregon High School principal.

Later start time

Dixon Public Schools investigated the feasibility of moving the start time of the school day back 45 minutes to 8:30 a.m.

Despite scientific evidence that students performed better with additional morning sleep, the panel spearheading the effort did not recommend the change after a survey showed the community sharply divided over the proposal.

“It’s not the right time, based on the feedback we’re getting,” said Rachael Gehlbach, the board vice president who moderated the committee meeting.

The disruption to families relying on child care arrangements was identified as one of the areas that needs to be addressed the next time the issue surfaces.

Teacher shortage

For several area schools, the candidate pool for teaching openings is getting slimmer, reflecting a nationwide shortage in K-12 instructors.

West Carroll entered the summer with seven vacancies. Teachers with specialities, such as those with special education certification, proved harder to find.

By late July, the state’s job bank showed Amboy, Meridian, Byron, East Coloma-Nelson in Rock Falls, Ashton-Franklin, Paw Paw and Forrestville all with multiple openings.

Filling late resignations with teachers at neighboring districts is becoming more prevalent, creating a merry-go-round of openings from a diminishing labor pool just as the school year is about to start.

Education Pathways

High school students interested in pursuing careers in education took part in a Pathways Education Symposium in the spring at Sauk Valley Community College. Ayala was the keynote speaker.

The program is one where high school seniors can fulfill requirements that will reward them with certification on their diploma and give them a head start on college requirements. It is designed to address the teacher shortage that 87% of state superintendents say they have.

About 80 students from 11 schools in the Regional Office of Education 47 participated in the symposium — part of an effort to promote teaching as a career path, said Chanda McDonnell, Pathway navigator for the office.

Pathways are being developed in other academic pursuits and vocations. Rock Falls High School, for instance, provided its first manufacturing certification during its 2022 spring break.

Ten students from four Sauk Valley area high schools were among the 596 Class of 2022 graduates who earned College and Career Pathways endorsements on their diplomas. Rock Falls High School led the way with four endorsements. Amboy High School had three, Dixon High School had two, and Forreston High School had one.

In the autumn, more than 1,000 eighth graders from 12 area schools took part in a career exploration Pathway Playground at SVCC.

SVCC Impact

Sauk Valley Community College’s new earned tuition program lets high school students who volunteer 25 hours each of their four years get three years in tuition and fees provided they maintain a 2.0 grade point average and are enrolled in a certificate, degree or transfer program.

So far, only the Class of 2026 is eligible to participate. In November, 764 students had logged 6,144 volunteer hours with 132 area not-for-profit organizations. It was started in 2021 as a pilot program but in May 2022 it was offered to schools through its taxing district.

Going green

Amboy’s school district was awarded federal grants worth $790,000 on Oct. 26 for the purchase of two 72-passenger electric buses and charging stations that would be manufactured in Illinois by Lion Electric.

“It’s really a great deal for the district,” Superintendent Joshua Nichols said. “We can see and test something at extremely low cost to the district.”

Meanwhile, Dixon Public Schools moved forward toward an agreement with Future Green to install solar panels on all the district’s campuses in exchange for entering a power purchase agreement for 25 years. Estimates show the initiative could save the district $2 million over the term.

Science students at Sterling High School under instructor Tim Kelleher constructed an electric car from a reusable kit made by The Switch Lab of Sebastopol, California. Members of the school board got behind the wheel of the car and drove through the adjacent streets and parking lot behind the high school in June.

Private school startups

The Sauk Valley, in which more than one-third of the population is Roman Catholic, has a long history of supporting schools affiliated with the Rockford diocese.

In 2022, the area saw Protestant evangelicals initiate private school efforts, largely citing dissatisfaction with academic standards in public schools and a desire to have a religion-aligned curriculum.

Sauk Valley Christian Academy opened in September and conducted classes at New Life Lutheran Church in Sterling. The process for establishing a similar school at the former David L. Rahn Junior High in Mt. Morris is underway. Both sites are affiliated with a network of private schools started by the Rev. Randy Blan 16 years ago and based at Families of Faith Christian Academy in Channahon. The movement is called GRACE, an acronym for Gracefully Reclaiming a Conservative Education.

Recovery-funded construction

Area schools began several improvement projects, often allocating COVID-19 recovery money. Rock Falls High School completed an overhaul of its kitchen, cafeteria and new heating and air conditioning including the gymnasium. It applied $1.2 million from the education portion of the American Rescue Plan Act funds. The rest was paid for from the school maintenance project grant program and the county school facilities occupational tax.

Dixon Public Schools approved a three-year plan to spend $4.5 million in COVID-19 relief, devoting$ 1.3 to address learning loss and evidence-based interventions. Another $460,000 went to the K-8 English Language Arts Amplify program, which the district selected after a rigorous pilot program.

Sterling schools applied recovery money to renovate the boiler and heating and air conditioning improvements at the high school. Sterling is also directing the federal relief funds for a new science curriculum.

Other notables

— Sterling, Rock Falls High School and Dixon schools all ratified agreements with their teachers’ unions in 2022.

— Merit Namaste Rose, an eighth-grader at the Mount Morris junior high, spelled “geocaching” and “vaccination” en route to winning the Lee-Ogle-Whiteside Regional Spelling Bee.

— Oregon named its football field’s robotic lining machine “Mikey” in honor of late groundskeeper Michael Myers.

— Sterling’s elementary schools are having young students use “rock, paper, scissors” to resolve playground disputes.

— Sterling’s Washington school unveiled in December a vending machine that dispenses books for students who are rewarded with a token for good behavior or achievement in reading.

— Dixon Public Schools postponed a plan — as initially directed by the state board of education — to request students provide information on sexual orientation and gender identity during registration. ISBE said concerns about student privacy required a revision of the policy, which was signed into law by Gov. JB Pritzker.

— Rock Falls student Remington Collins performed “The Star Spangled Banner” at the state girls basketball tournament. She sang without accompaniment and simultaneously conveyed the lyrics in American Sign Language in a moment that wowed those in attendance.