Some families of students learning from home want to return to school and Tuesday night the Clinton Board of Education discussed how to handle a return to class as the end of the semester is on the horizon.

According to Superintendent Curt Nettles, these discussions have been ongoing over the last few weeks, and for him and Board President, Dan Matthews, the focus is on the younger students, specifically those at Lincoln and Douglas Schools and Clinton Elementary School.

The district plans to bring remote learners back at the start of the second semester because the district is paying for a curriculum for those families to use. According to Nettles, after talking with teachers, he believes it would be difficult to go against their original plan but believes they could find alternate solutions.

Matthews called the meeting with CES Principal Sacha Young and her teachers were a very good meeting. He explains the challenges ahead with COVID, students' activities outside of school and any mitigation efforts that could be coming by Gov. JB Pritzker makes for a lot of uncertainty.

Chris Hammer is also a teacher at Lincoln High School and sympathizes with the challenges for teachers. It was brought up assessing students for where they are and the challenges that could be brought up by bringing them in mid-semester.

Matthews indicates kids are falling farther behind in the remote learning setting and Matthews believes something needs to be done for them but admits he does not know what that looks like.

Hammer realizes the challenges parents are facing right now and believes perhaps a lot of parents overestimated how effectively they could teach their kids in the home.

At the end of the discussion amongst board members, Matthews stated the decision would be to wait until the next semester to bring students back, however, he implored teachers to be mindful of what will be necessary to make sure those students get caught up and bring those resources to the board's attention.