Greetings Riverside Brookfield Families and Students,
I hope this message finds you and your families safe and well. Just yesterday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker announced that all schools will remain closed through the end of the 2019-20 school year; thus suspending in-person learning and extending remote/elearning.
Like you, we are devastated by the reality that our school community will not be able to reconvene in-person this school year due to this public health crisis; however, feel confident in the continuing efforts put forth by our teaching staff, support staff and administrators into creating a robust and flexible effective elearning plan. We will also be continuing providing meals to students as well as counseling/social services.
The final chapter of this school year hasn’t been written yet. These past few weeks have proven our school community is more resilient, more capable and more compassionate than maybe what we previously realized. Our school spirit has been on display through virtual spirit week themes, “Class of 2020 Friday Night Lights Celebration”, digital meetings between coaches and students, and live lessons from teachers. We have students working with homeless shelters to provide meals, teachers creating face mask equipment for 1st responders and departments donating much needed Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to Loyola MacNeal, a local health partner. I’m confident our collective strength will shine through during the remainder of the school year, and we will emerge even stronger.
Having said that, yesterday’s announcement will result in significant and multiple scheduling changes in our school. As this announcement about the end of the school year was just made by Governor Pritzker yesterday, it will take us some time to sort out the many schedule details that are on the books, including senior awards, summer school/camps, local scholarship night, Apollo awards, graduation and other essential programming. Rest assured that as soon as we find the best solutions, we will share them with you all. In addition, plans will be underway soon for the return to in-person learning next school year.
It’s important we continue to work together and support students by creating a positive, flexible and accessible learning environment at home. I know this is not the school year that any of us imagined, but I want to thank you for your patience and understanding as we have dealt with this unprecedented situation together. It must be extremely difficult to balance professional and family obligations in this current environment. I can't thank you enough for all that you are doing. Paws-Up! Woof, Woof, Woof! Go Bulldogs!
With high hopes for a positive elearning experience,
Dr. Freytas
Principal
Principal