North Cook News

Oak Park River Forest High (OPRF) board member Ralph Matire sought clarification that the district is doing all It can to provide educational opportunities for students through the pandemic.

After Assistant Superintendent Greg Johnson described different measures taken to assure students complete required work, Martire asked about tracking a student's progress.

“I’m assuming those are precisely the issues someone on your team tracks with kids if a kid is in danger of not graduating,” Matire said at a recent special board meeting. “Am I right about that? Those are the issues you were trying to help the students with?”

Johnson replied yes and said he was proud of the efforts being made to raise students' grades.

“It’s nice to know you’ve focused on these things,” Matire said.

School officials have struggled with the question of what should be required of students to move to the next level in this unprecedented school year ever since members of ROYAL (Revolutionary Oak Park Youth Action League) – which has students at the school – requested that grading policies for the second semester be changed to account for the pandemic and the impact it has had on student learning.  

The two sides met late last month to discuss the issue. Several school board members were in attendance.

In addition to a no-fail policy, ROYAL is seeking a commitment from the school board that all students receive credit for their current classes, all seniors graduate with 'Bridge Cash Scholarship Pandemic Assistance,' students be given credit for taking part in mental health and healing activities, and a vow that the school will work with ROYAL "as a student community partner where ROYAL shall be given the power to implement recommendations and hold OPRFHS accountable for learning through the COVID19 pandemic and the U.S. racial violence pandemic.”

School officials countered by insisting they are doing all they can to make learning accessible to all students, saying they “deliberately enhanced our academic and social-emotional supports in an effort to ensure that all students, particularly those who struggled, have had equitable access to learning.”