As many of you are aware, our Board of Education recently approved our Tentative Back-to-School Plan. This plan included following CDC guidelines, with masks being strongly recommended indoors and being required on school buses. We recently received notification from the Illinois State Board of Education that our recognition status has been lowered to "on probation". I was notified this morning of a conference with ISBE Monday afternoon. Within 60 days of this conference, we are required to submit an approvable corrective action plan, or our status will become "Nonrecognized."
Both IHSA and IESA have now issued statements saying that schools that are "on probation" on the date of seeding will not be eligible to participate in State series competition. (September 3rd is the seeding date for Jr. High Softball and Jr. High Baseball.) Since we are a sports cooperative, both St. Elmo and Brownstown student athletes will be affected.
The St. Elmo Board of Education will meet in special session on Monday, August 30th at 6:30 p.m. to discuss the current situation.