Last week, we announced that Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South will be serving as COVID-19 vaccination sites for our employees and vendors, as well as the employees from our feeder districts, the La Grange Area Department of Special Education ​(LADSE), and the villages of Hinsdale, Darien, Willowbrook, Clarendon Hills, Oak Brook and Burr Ridge. We also shared that we will be administering 1,800 doses of the vaccine to employees from our district, our feeder districts and LADSE starting this week (Feb. 4, 5 and 6). 

In order to accommodate the vaccination process and ensure that the students in our hybrid model continue to receive the maximum amount of time available for in-person instruction, we are revising our schedule for the weeks of Feb. 1 and March 1 (second dose of the vaccine needs to be administered four weeks after the first one) as follows:

Below is the updated schedule for these two weeks. 

*Intervention, innovation and collaboration time on these days will be conducted remotely.

Below is the COVID-19 data for the district as of Friday, Jan. 29.

You can access the dashboard where this information is being stored by visiting https://bit.ly/3d93aws.

Students from Hinsdale South and Hinsdale Central were recently recognized by the Alliance for Young Artists & Writers in conjunction with its Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Below are the names of the students, the awards they won and the categories in which the awards were received.

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards honor "the vision, ingenuity and talent of our nation’s youth, and provide opportunities for creative teens to be celebrated." You can learn more about them by visiting https://www.artandwriting.org/.

We congratulate all of the award winners on being recognized for their amazing work.

Hinsdale South's Illusions Art Magazine has been awarded a First Place with Special Merit by the American Scholastic Press Association (ASPA). Illusions was also named the Most Outstanding High School Art Magazine for 2020. You can view the entire list of winners by visiting http://bit.ly/36pL9b5.

We congratulate everyone who worked on the publication, including students Nathan Roth (editor in chief), Mika Tarver and Becca Sitasz (assistant editors), and faculty sponsor Janet Roller-Schmidt. This is a tremendous and well-deserved honor.

You can check out the award-winning edition of Illusions by visiting https://bit.ly/3otWWvq.

The following faculty and staff members were selected as the winners of Hinsdale Central's Make A Difference Award for second quarter.

The school community recognized these individuals for "going above and beyond the call of duty for students, especially during these trying times."

We congratulate all of the winners, and thank them for everything they do on behalf of our students.

The speech teams from Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South finished in first and fifth place respectively at the recent Downers Grove South Varsity Invitational. Both schools also had top three finishes in several individual events.

We congratulate the two teams on their continued success.

The Hinsdale Central Debate Team had several top 10 finishes (JV and novice levels) at the Convocation of Eagles Tournament on Jan. 23.

We congratulate the team on its success at the tournament.

Junior Zaynab Rehman wrote an article for Hinsdale South's Stinger newsmagazine about the highly successful "Her Drive" event organized by students Lizzie Tabachnikov, Sarah Frankel and Keira Hagen. Through this event, the school community collected 10,691 vanity products, hygiene items, period products, bras, underwear and diapers for people in need. You can access Zaynab's story by visiting http://bit.ly/39v2wJs.

Meanwhile, the website for the Devils' Advocate at Hinsdale Central currently features an article by senior Natalia Berti about how Central students and sisters Amelia and Stephanie Zayed turned their interest in makeup into a startup business called ZBeauty. You can access Natalia's story by visiting http://bit.ly/3tbFsaq.

Social and emotional learning (SEL) plays a critical role in the growth, development and success of our students. Our efforts to incorporate SEL into our classrooms and weave it into the culture and climate of our buildings have benefited greatly from our partnerships with organizations such as the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL).

While we are incredibly proud of our SEL work, it must continue to evolve in order to ensure that we are truly meeting the needs of every student we serve. That is "Transformative SEL," which is the intentional convergence of social and emotional learning and equity, will be a guiding force for this work going forward.

You can learn more about this by visiting http://bit.ly/3t8LPLR.

The District 86 Transition Family Group will be hosting a virtual information night on Feb. 11 at 6:30 p.m. that will feature a presentation about independent living/housing for individuals with disabilities given by the Center for Independent Futures and the Ray Graham Association.

You can access additional information about this event by visiting https://bit.ly/3abxLsi.

If you missed the edition of Board Briefs for the District 86 Board of Education meeting that was held on Jan. 28, please visit https://conta.cc/39uA0rr.

Dr. Madeline Levine will be the next featured presenter for the 2020-21 Community Speaker Series. During a webinar being held on Feb. 10 from 7 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., Dr. Levine will help parents/guardians identify the skills that children need to succeed in a tumultuous future. She will also offer day-to-day solutions they can use to raise kids who are ready to face the challenges ahead.

The webinar is free and open to the public. However, registration is required if you want to take part in the livestream of the event, or watch the recording of it afterward.

Please visit http://conta.cc/39i2OlO to register for or learn more about the webinar.