Schools were one of the first entities in Illinois to be impacted by action from the government to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

In mid-March, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker shut down schools in one of the first swift actions he took to slow the spread of the coronavirus in Illinois. Dr. Lindsey Hall is the superintendent at Mahomet-Seymour Schools and says they had the blessing of their students being on spring break the week after the Governor's announcement, which allowed them to begin planning.

Dr. Hall says her staff has been stellar through this unprecedented time and feels there was great cooperation and participation to make this new way of teaching work. She feels one of the positives of the situation for schools has been the ability to make decisions at a local level rather than having a cookie-cutter approach.

Assessing students and capturing their progress is going to be as challenging as ever and Dr. Hall indicates they are going to have to accept the challenges and the discomfort in this process. With that in mind, she says they have put together three guiding principals. 

Dr. Hall encourages parents and caregivers of their kids to just take a deep breath and not get stressed or frustrated over this process. She reminds everyone this is only temporary and there will be a return to school eventually.