D. 202 creates four-part video of a year of life during pandemic

On March 17, 2020, all 30 District 202 schools stood completely empty for the first time in recent memory, as the Covid-19 virus shut down the world.

A year later, students have returned to school slowly and safely – both remotely and in hybrid in-person classrooms -- as schools and communities start to return to something resembling “normal life” during  the ongoing pandemic.

The District 202 Community Relations department anticipated the tremendous impact the pandemic would have on students, staff, and families and set out on a year-long project to chronicle one of the most challenging years in the district’s history.

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Today, on the one-year anniversary of schools shutting down, District 202 proudly releases the first of four installments of “Life in a Pandemic.”

Each segment, running about five minutes, takes a candid and comprehensive look at the myriad challenges the pandemic created, including:

• Creating and transitioning to a remote learning system almost completely out of whole cloth last spring;
• Continuing to feed tens of thousands of students who normally would eat at school but now faced food shortages;
• Preparing buildings and operations and planning for returning students to school, despite constant changes in local, state, and national health guidance;
• Finally, bringing students and staff back to school slowly and safely once health conditions improved and vaccinations increased, and planning for a still-uncertain future.

“In my 35-plus years as a professional educator, I have never seen anything like this pandemic,” said Superintendent of Schools Dr. Lane Abrell.

“This wonderful video project accurately and candidly shows every side of this time and all the challenges we had to address,” Abrell said.

“We certainly hit some bumps in the road, but as this video shows, we have persevered, and a year later, I think our district, and our community is stronger for this experience,” he said.