As the COVID challenges continued for Danville District 118 in 2021, some residents thought something would happen late in the year, but it didn’t.
A late in the semester changing of bus routes and going virtual with Pre-K had a lot of people thinking the whole district would be going virtual before winter break. But Superintendent Dr. Alicia Geddes was proud of her team for working hard to keep things mostly status quo.
AUDIO: Most people on the outside don’t realize how short we are in buildings and grounds, how short we have been in food service. It became evident with the transportation because we didn’t have enough drivers. But we’ve been equally as short in many of the areas, and we’ve all pitched in together.
On the other hand, there are times when adults have not been all that cooperative on wearing masks during evening school events. Dr. Geddes says, the jury is out on if these events will continue early in 2022.
AUDIO: And what people have to realize, when the staff has worked all day to make sure we can keep the doors open, it becomes difficult to then have to police the parents and adults in the evening. And so it contributes to the burnout of the staff, and they’re to the point where they just don’t feel we can manage these events because of the behaviors. And if this continues we may have to do something different.
Meanwhile, the recent news that the Southern Illinois Health Care Foundation is establishing a new Federally Qualified Health Center at two locations in Danville, one of them at the high school, has Dr Geddes looking towards 2022 for sure.
AUDIO: It can really make a difference for our students, particularly because our health numbers, and the numbers in Vermilion County with health corps morbidities, are just really not where they should be. We hope that this, with students, we can make some changes earlier in their lives.
Finally, some security changes still in progress at Danville High School will continue developing into the new year.
AUDIO: We sent a team to look at metal detectors, and they went to visit three schools in the state of Illinois. And we examined some other measures, so that’s been a long time coming. And I’m just glad that the board gave us the authority to go ahead and make it happen and get things in place. It was really great to see that we’ll be able to do those things now.
Dr. Geddes says the district first began looking at those changes about three years ago.
