Blueprint No. 5 — 4.24.20
A Q&A with Orland School District 135 Superintendent John Bryk, a look at how the Orland Park Public Library is boosting its digital presence and Mayor Pekau on WGN.
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The Orland Park Public Library has expanded its online offerings since closing on March 16 | Photo by Kyle LaHucik
A1 — The Front Page
Headlines about Orland Park and its people
MAYOR PEKAU ADDRESSES CONCERT SERIES: Last night, during a live interview on WGN, Mayor Keith Pekau — mislabeled by the TV news network as Frank Pekau — addressed questions about the Village’s plan to continue its summer concert series. “As decisions go, this was a pretty easy one,” Pekau told WGN. The Village would lose $214,000 if it were to cancel the contracts today, he said. Asked by WGN anchor Micah Materre if this is a “health vs. wealth” situation, the mayor said 90 days from now he believes the public will have different information and will be in a better position in regards to Covid-19. “I’m an optimist,” he told the anchors, saying he’d like to see things return to normal. Asked what Orland Parkers’ response to the concert series decision has been, Pekau said it’s been about 50/50. Pekau also said that he welcomed Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s decision today to extend the stay-at-home order to the end of May because the governor opened “everything that was put in our letter” and more, referencing a letter he and other mayors wrote to Pritzker asking for certain businesses to be reopened.
ETHICS ORDINANCE: Orland Park approved a revised ethics ordinance for Village officials at a Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, Jon DePaolis reports in the Richard Free Press.
5K AT HOME FOR A CAUSE: Relay For Life of District 230 and the St. Baldrick’s Foundation are hosting a virtual 5k run/walk this Saturday to raise money for their respective organizations. “You could run a 5K in your neighborhood while properly following CDC health precautions. You could walk with your ‘shelter in place’ family around your home a few hundred times! You could even run those quick 3.1 miles on your trusty old treadmill that might be doubling as a clothing rack currently!” More info found here.
‘OUTSTANDING ACTIVITY ADVISORS’: In lieu of the canceled Illinois Directors of Student Activities Awards Banquet, Sandburg recognized three student club advisors. The teachers include Sandburg Debate’s Lainee McGraw, Sandburg Chess’ Patrick Latortue and Sandburg Scholastic Bowl’s Mike Woolley.
Covid-19 Tracker
As of Thursday, the total Illinois count climbed to 36,934 confirmed cases and 1,688 deaths.
Here in Orland Park, there are 163 confirmed cases, according to the Cook County Department of Public Health. As of Thursday, nine Orland Park residents passed away due to Covid-19, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner.
The Chicago Tribune is working to remember the lives of those lost to the pandemic. Tribune journalists have written obituaries of two Orland Park residents: Nancy Halbauer, 62, a teacher; and William Hollaar, 71.
‘Kids might not be back in August’: District 135 is preparing for possibility that eLearning extends into the fall
I interviewed Orland Elementary School District 135 Superintendent John Bryk yesterday on how the school system has adjusted to Covid-19 so far, what it plans to do going forward and more. Bryk has been with the district for five years, in varying roles, and was approved as superintendent in January, after several months as interim.
Below is our Q&A, edited for length.
Superintendent John Bryk, as seen during our interview yesterday. | Zoom screenshot
KYLE: You were approved as Superintendent about a month or so before the pandemic started. I imagine you didn’t expect to be thrust into this. How has it been so far?
SUPERINTENDENT BRYK: We're all in the same boat here, school district-wise, so I think, obviously, it's a challenging time for everyone. I just try to remain even keel in every situation, quite honestly.
It has been challenging, to put it mildly. But I think as long as we always keep our students in the forefront and in their best interests and try to help out families because I know it's challenging for families. All of a sudden, everyone has, every parent has really, in a sense, become a teacher, whether they want to or not. Parents are always teaching, but I think this is just a little bit different to where they're required to assist in their child's learning. So I think we're just trying to make that as easy as possible for everyone. That's really in the forefront of a lot of my thoughts right now.
KYLE: Did the district have an official eLearning or remote learning program in place prior to the pandemic, or is this something that you had to evolve on the spot?
BRYK: We did not have one prior to this. As this was turning out to be a foregone conclusion, we did get a bit of a head start, probably about a week in advance where we met as an administrative team and just talked about, ‘Hey, we need to get a plan going here, just in case this really kicks in.’ So we got a pretty good head start. We got some guidance from the regional office saying that the state was going to ease some of its restrictions for an eLearning plan because generally it's a quite lengthy process to get an eLearning plan through. You have to have public hearings and go through various processes to get that approved. But I think being in [this situation], obviously, they wanted schools to be prepared.
I think we're as prepared as any to get this started. And, you know, we've gotten a lot of positive comments from parents on how we got this process implemented. I wish I could say I had anything to do with it, but it was definitely our curriculum department, our technology department, our entire district, our teachers, our staff. Everybody played a substantial role in executing this plan.
KYLE: What have been some of the biggest takeaways that you've had so far?
BRYK:I think it's tough to think that there's going to be a seamless educational approach, that there is going to be gaps in the process, there's going to be gaps in learning. For us as a district to assume that, you know, that there are adults at home with kids all the time assisting them with this, I think would be shortsighted on our part. So trying to put yourself in their position of having a child at home.
Some families probably are unemployed at this point. Some are probably working long hours, and trying to provide support to families to bridge that gap because not everybody is on an equal playing field at this point. I mean, when you're in the classroom there with the teacher, and you're there with all your students, everyone's getting the same content, hopefully getting the same supports and providing assistance with students. Now, it's just a little bit more challenging to do that. So that's really our biggest concern is to try to make sure that we provide everyone equal opportunity and access to education. But, again, to think that there's an adult home with every child that we have in our district is – I haven't done any research — but I'm guessing that it could be their older brother and older sister who's in high school who is also probably trying to accomplish eLearning while possibly helping their brother or sister.
Come August, if children are back in school, there is going to be some slippage, for lack of a better word, trying to get kids back on track, [such as getting] fourth graders up to par when they move to fifth grade. So there's a lot of work to be done on trying to reintegrate students and how we make up for that lost time.
KYLE: Does District 135 require teachers to have a certain number of hours or a certain number of days per week where they have video interactions with students because that in-person, or that video, social interaction, for young students is critical.
BRYK: We don't have a requirement, but I will tell you, I know there are a large number of teachers that are doing that. We do have a required time during the day that teachers are available for students, and that is between 9 am and noon.
Based off the emails that I've received from parents praising our staff, there's lots of staff that are available well past 12 o'clock and during the evenings because they're trying to work with parents that may be at work and don't have an opportunity to actually communicate with the teacher at that time. So, I know we have this specific time, but I know that there are plenty of teachers that are available throughout the day for parents to ask questions, even for students as well.
KYLE: What are some of the long-lasting impacts that you think will come of this? Have any digital learning trends been accelerated because of COVID, or anything like that?
BRYK: I think it might be a little too early to tell, at least for me, what comes out of this. I think that this eLearning wasn't designed to be a long-term process; eLearning was designed to be for a snow day or two snow days.
I don't know if we're ever going to come across this in our lifetime again. I think that we're hopefully going to learn, based on feedback from staff and parents and students, on what we could do better.
I think we're learning that face-to-face time is extremely important for people. So how do we get to that point to where let's just say we do have, say, an 11 o'clock every day where teachers meet with their students. I mean, is it even possible for everyone to do that? We're a one-to-one district where people have iPads, but is there an adult at home to assist a child that maybe can't do that on their own at that particular time?
Again, I think going back to how do we level the playing field when it comes to this? I don't know exactly what the right answer is for that. I think we're learning as we go — we're going through our weekly discussions on ‘How do we make this more productive?’ ‘How do we help?’ ‘How do we provide more supports based on feedback from our principals?’
KYLE: You bring up August, coming back in the fall. You know, there's some concerns that the virus might not even abate by then, or it might come back again in the fall. So is the district prepared to extend eLearning next fall, if needed?
BRYK: Well, we're definitely preparing for that possibility. We'll definitely be more prepared than we were even at this point.
That is a realistic possibility that we're planning for — that kids might not be back in August. [These are] conversations that we're having on a weekly basis.
KYLE: Are you communicating with other districts in the area? Who are some of the other stakeholders that you've been discussing future plans with?
BRYK: We speak with our fellow elementary districts that feed into District 230. We generally meet once a month and talk about various things. We actually just met today on a Zoom meeting with the superintendents from Districts 230 and then District 127, 117, 118, 140 and 146. Those are all districts that feed into 230. Everybody shares what's going on in their district and trying to work off each other's successes and just bounce things off each other. It's been extremely helpful to hear that you're not alone in this particular situation. You really pick up some great ideas from your colleagues, as well.
KYLE: Are there any plans or any ideas about potential summer classes to make up for any gaps in learning from this semester or any differences this summer to prepare for next year?
BRYK: We're still working through that. We have an extended school year for students with special needs. But at that point, we're still waiting for guidance from the Illinois School Board of Education and the governor's office, even if we can do that on-site, possibly having to do that remotely as well, like we're doing. As far as extra opportunities for students, I think that's something that we're still looking at, we have some questions from parents about that. At this point, we're just trying to provide resources and options. I don't know if it would be exactly how it is now with eLearning where there would be constant with a teacher on a daily basis. I can't say we're going to rule it out, but it might be an opportunity where we provide various resources for parents to use to have available with their child over the summer, but it's still something that we're working through.
KYLE: You bring up zoom, and we're using zoom right now ourselves. Have you experienced any of the Zoombombing, as they call it? Has the district had any issues with that?
BRYK: We have not. I know that there's a few situations where I think maybe one or maybe two, where a student may have done something that they weren't supposed to do. But it's been fairly pain-free. My director of technology has kept me up to speed.
KYLE: For the junior high students, I'm sure they're all bummed out about graduation. Are there any formal plans in place yet for those commencement ceremonies?
BRYK: Right now, our thought is just to postpone for the potential to be able to conduct a traditional graduation. I know that there's a lot of districts doing a lot of different things. And, you know, is there a potential to have a traditional graduation with trying to socially distance and possibly limit the number of participants as far as guests? You know, that's a possibility. I think we want to get as close to the real thing as possible, if at all possible. So if it ends up being maybe June or July. If that's a possibility, I think that the school board and the administration are definitely open to that.
I've actually created a Google Doc with our group to see ‘Hey, if you hear of certain things and ideas [for re-envisioned graduation ceremonies] ... share it.’ There's no need to reinvent the wheel if we don't have to, and there's a lot of people doing some fun things.
But we're just going to try to hold out hope that we can all have a traditional graduation, and we know it's an important milestone for students. They don't have the opportunity to be with each other. Some of them have been together since they were four or five years old, and I know that they live in the same neighborhoods, and most of them will go to to Sandburg High School, but for them to spend one last time together as classmates, I think it's important, and if we could make that happen, we're going to do everything we can to do that.
KYLE: Has next school year’s budget been impacted at all, or do you expect any of this to have an impact on the budget going forward?
BRYK: I think there's definitely some financial concerns. I think that there's going to be concern whether the state is going to be able to pay the evidence-based funding that they've committed themselves to. I think locally we would definitely anticipate an increase in property tax appeals, whether it be residential or commercial, which is something that always seems to be increasing on a yearly basis. The state's ability to fund education is going to be a concern for us. So, budgeting wise, I mean, about 75% of our budget is salaries and benefits. So when you have an $84 million budget, that's a substantial chunk in your budget that is already locked up, written in stone. We have to have teachers, we have to have all our support staff that keep this district moving forward and operating. So yeah, I mean, if you're asking me in a word, am I concerned? Yes would be the word. There's sales tax issues, probably for the village as well.
I think every public entity is going to be concerned about funding moving forward. We're going to look at every way we can to try to spend wisely as we do on a daily basis, but you know, obviously in these times you just have to keep thinking more and more on how we can make this possible to try to be as fiscally responsible as we can. Again, I can't reiterate [enough] that we do that on a daily basis already. But this is just going to become more challenging. That's really what it is.
KYLE: Do you expect any teachers to lose their jobs?
BRYK: No, we do not. We still have vacancies that are being interviewed for. We do not anticipate any of that occurring moving into next fiscal year.
KYLE: Now a few months into your official role as superintendent, have you formulated some of the goals that you have?
BRYK: First and foremost, really my focus is always providing opportunity for students, as much opportunity as we possibly can and providing them the necessary supports to succeed, not just academically. I think our district does a great job in providing a lot of extracurricular activities for students and focusing on the whole child. I know that a big concern always is test scores for schools, but me, personally, I don't look at them as test scores, you look at them as developing children into young adults moving forward. Making sure that the staff has all the resources that they need to succeed.
KYLE: I imagine a lot of families want to know if this is a role that you plan to be in for a while because I believe you're the sixth superintendent in about 10 or 12 years. So I imagine a lot of families want to know if there'll be some stability in the position.
BRYK: I don't plan on going anywhere. This is finishing up my fifth year in the district. I have been in a couple different roles.
I plan on being part of this district as long as they'll have me. This is not a stepping stone position for me.
This is an outstanding place to work, and it's an outstanding group of people to be with. The board has been extremely supportive and helpful to me, personally, and I know to a lot of other people as well. I'll be happy to be here as long as they have me.
KYLE: Is there anything else you wanted to add?
BRYK: Just expressing my thanks to all of the nearly 800 employees that we have and colleagues and fellow staff members that we have in our district and the efforts that they put into to make this eLearning process successful. And all the support that we receive from the board and all the parents that I know that are doing a lot more than anyone thought.
The Orland community has been tremendous during this process. So I just like to thank them all for all the support that they provided. And everyone's here willing to help. So if anybody has any questions or needs help, we're definitely here to do that.
Orland Park Public Library open ‘24 hours a day’ with bolstered online, social media presence in response to Covid-19
Since moving to a temporary online-only presence on March 16, the Orland Park Public Library has “learned a lot,” Library Director Mary Weimar said in a statement.
“We retrained staff to produce video content, post to social media, virtually assist patrons and help with the library website and online calendar,” Weimar said.
Similar to restaurants, the library attempted curbside pickup so patrons could continue receiving physical items, but the Board of Trustees quickly realized the best route would be to discontinue in-person services.
In the face of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic that shifts by the day, the library serves as a resource for those seeking accurate information, Weimar said. Librarians can assist patrons with finding peer-reviewed articles and other sources of factual information.
“There has been a huge effort behind the scenes to get virtual storytimes going and provide patrons with relevant information to the current COVID-19 pandemic,” Weimar said.
Avery, a young library patron, participates in the OPPL’s “Stay at Home Challenge” | Photo submitted
For parents and guardians thrown into teacher mode and for adults working remotely for the first time, there are online encyclopedia providers, audiobooks services, video services, internet providers and others offering free or discounted resources, Weimar said.
“The library has been working to curate lists of good, free and discounted offers and to inform the public about them,” Weimar said.
To adjust to this new reality, the library has created a digital application for obtaining a library card so patrons can access online resources and ebook services, the director said.
With the Illinois stay-at-home order extended until the end of May, the library is rolling out more digital resources, challenges, games, virtual storytime, crafts, DIY experiments, webinars and more.
This includes turning reading challenges into remote activities, such as the “1,000 Books Before Kindergarten” program for children under 5 years old and the “Stay at Home Challenge” for youth ages 5 to 18. Adults can partake in the “Opie’s Reading Road Trip.” The library will soon offer a Stay at Home BINGO card, as well.
“We have had emails from teachers and patrons who expressed their gratitude in helping them get started with ebooks,” Weimar said. More than 150 new patrons have signed up for the library’s streaming service, Hoopla Digital, since March.
“Borrowing and usage is up on online services across the board,” said Weimar. “We can see that student use of the Tumblebooks resource was over four times higher than usual in March. Still, not all of our patrons are online, and we have thought of that.”
A pen pal program for Orland Parkers to write letters to senior living facility residents is in the works, Weimar said.
Down the road, when Orland Park and the rest of society reopens, a trip to the library will look a little different.
“We will be spreading out study stations and rethinking seating when the library reopens to help patrons with social distancing,” Weimar said. “We very much miss all of our patrons, and we encourage any patron who needs help accessing the library’s resources to reach out to us via email or through social media.”
Top-notch Teacher
Ms. Fasel, Social Worker at Meadow Ridge
Meadow Ridge Assistant Principal Lisa Weston writes in her nomination form:
“Ms. Fasel always gives 100%. During the eLearning process, she has made extra efforts to connect with students, parents, and faculty. Ms. Fasel has created online tools for social emotional learning for all students in the building. She genuinely cares about people and goes the extra mile in all situations. Ms. Fasel is smart, kind, and an asset to Meadow Ridge school.”
On-deck
Orland School District 135 will host a special Board of Education meeting Monday at 7 p.m. Details of the virtual meeting and information on how to submit questions to the board can be found here.
Nominate a Notable Neighbor here.
Nominate a Stellar Student here.
Nominate a Top-notch Teacher here.
Social Hour
Follow along on Twitter | Connect on LinkedIn | Send news tips and dog pics @ 708.359.9917 | Submit ideas on how to cope with the pandemic @ kyle.lahucik12@gmail.com |