ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Superintendent Dr. Reginald Lawrence of Rock Island-Milan School District #41 gave his annual State of the Schools address at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 7.
Lawrence recapped the 2020-2021 school year and discussed plans for the 2021-2022 academic year.
The previous school year had a blended learning style curriculum, giving parents and students the option to be fully remote, or participate in a hybrid program allowing for in-person classes for two half days per week.
In February 2021, the school district reported 51.8 percent of parents wanted to send their children to as many in-person learning days as possible; 20.1 percent preferred blended learning with two half-days a week, and 28 percent of parents wanted to keep their child fully remote.
The study consisted of 2,641 parents who accounted for 3,432 of the district's students at the time of the survey.
All Rock Island-Milan School District students resumed in-person classes on August 2.
During his address, Lawrence shared his joy of returning to in-person classes.
"It's really difficult, you know, not having human interaction," Lawrence said. "We're all human beings and social creatures, not having that opportunity to see friends to see your teachers and such."
He explained the school district will continue implementing mitigations to help slow any spread of coronavirus.
"My biggest wish and goal is to keep our doors open all year," Lawrence said. "We're going to continue to listen to the experts and follow the guidelines and move forward with our [mitigation] strategy to keep everyone in."
The district's budget was also a topic of discussion.
Lawrence says the 2021-2022 tentative budget is displayed on the district's website. He anticipates $71.89 million in revenues and $71.84 million in expenditures.
An additional $32 million will be added to the final budget from the CARES Act.
A lot of those funds will be directed towards the 100-plus year-old buildings in the school district.
"Those dollars are allowing us to work on air quality in our buildings, also allowing us to speed up some of that work using those funds."
More information regarding the district's budget plans and other topics in Dr. Lawrence's address can be found here.
