School districts around the country are developing plans and preparing to make decisions whether to hold classes, in-building, virtual, or, even not at all. There will be national impacts, of course, however, school boards, communities, and districts, will make the final decisions.
• The U-46 Board of Education, in the second largest school district in the State, for Elgin area schools, has a proposal to vote on Monday. The proposal is all first-quarter online-only classes, until approximately October 9. Then, the Board would determine if it’s safe for hybrid learning, classroom and online. Many teachers and administrators are urging extra caution in consideration for the invisible sickness agent, COVID-19. Fear is real for the spread of the novel virus, which is real.
• Elgin is the site of the transfer of Captains Rich and Linnea Forney from the Aurora Salvation Army to the Elgin Salvation Army effective this month. They made great strides in the new Aurora Salvation Army community center building at 550 Redwood Drive, Aurora, not quite ready for occupancy.
• The Aurora Salvation Army’s new team, Captains Joaquin and Gabriela Rangels, have served as officers for 14 years in both Kansas City and Chicago. They will lead Sunday worship services, emergency services, and twice-weekly food pantry. “We are thrilled to be here,” said Gabriela Rangel in the press release by the Aurora Salvation Army.
Chris Vleisides photo
• The push to be counted n the U.S. Census has accelerated. Figures released last week show that in the United States, 62% of households had filed their Census forms, which takes approximately 10 minutes to fill out. In Illinois, 66.8% of the households had filed; 72.9% in Kane County, 68.9% in Aurora; 69% in Elgin; and 83% in Geneva. Filing U.S. Census forms leads to government funds to help keep communities functioning and provide extra money for projects which augment development. An element of understanding is important and encouragement should be widespread.
• Wisely, the State has been divided into 11 regions from the original four for responses to COVID-19. The seven regions, by counties, most of us might be interested in, include: Chicago; suburban Cook County; West Suburban (DuPage and Kane); North Suburban (McHenry and Lake); South Suburban (Will and Kankakee); North-Central, (partially, Kendall, Grundy, LaSalle, Bureau, Henderson, Henry, Knox, Livingston, McLean, Peoria, Putnam, Rock Island; North, (partially, DeKalb, Boone, Lee, Ogle, Winnebago).
Clear and concise, week 29
• We may never make a dent in the spoken word, however, in the written word it should remain: The plural of person is persons, and not people. People is a true reference to aggregrate groups, such as U.S. Census Bureau people, Native American people, business people, sports people, delivery people, or, architectural people, for examples.
• Use of the word different is not necessary in a sentence in which there is an assessment of various items. We went to 10 sites is correct without the use of the word different. Each site is implied to be different and use of the word different leads to less clarity.