Reminder - We will be following a revised schedule this week due to the Labor Day holiday. More specifically, we will be forgoing the Wednesday remote schedule in favor of one that will enable us to maximize the amount of instructional time for our students.

Below is the updated schedule for the week.

Below is the latest news and information about the district's return to school plan.

You can access the district's return to school website by visiting https://bit.ly/2BRclDM. You can also access DCHD's COVID-19 dashboard by visiting https://bit.ly/3lrBt5L.

Alexandra Collins, who is a junior at Hinsdale Central, is one of six youth leaders from across North America who earned a Brower Youth Award from the New Leaders Initiative program. Alexandra was recognized for co-founding Students Against Ethylene Oxide (SAEtO), which "harnesses the energy of young people to fight for a ban of ethylene oxide emissions, particularly near schools and residential areas."

Alexandra and her fellow award winners will each receive $3,000. They will also be honored during a two-part virtual event being held on Oct. 15 and 20.

You can access additional information about the Brower Youth Awards and New Leaders Initiative by visiting https://bit.ly/2YZqrep. You can also access a Doings Hinsdale article about Alexandra's accomplishment by visiting https://bit.ly/31RH6m7.

We congratulate Alexandra on this well-deserved honor and applaud her efforts to raise awareness about this important issue.

Students from District 86 turned in outstanding performances on the world language national examinations that were administered during the 2019-20 school year. This week, we will spotlight the accomplishments of the students from Hinsdale South. Next week, we will highlight the achievements of the students from Hinsdale Central.

Students from Hinsdale South earned 15 gold medals, 21 silver medals, 34 bronze medals and 49 honorable mentions for the scores they received on the Spanish, French, German and Latin national exams they took last year. We want to give a special shoutout to Ethan Mercoleza for being among the students from across the country who won the Platinum award (highest score in the nation) on the French II exam. We also want to recognize Kareem Chahin, Andrew Metzger, Dhruv Vaze and Emiliano Wiberg for earning honors on two different language tests.

We congratulate the nearly 120 students from South who were recognized for their incredible success on the world language national examinations. You can access a complete list of the school's honorees by visiting https://bit.ly/2F4co00. We also want to thank world language teachers Lynmari Nackovic, Amy Piccoli, Courtney Mikulcik, Cherie Lodl and Dr. Peter DeRousse for all they do to help our students learn, grow and achieve.

Maggie Buoy, who is a social worker at Hinsdale Central, was interviewed by The Hinsdalean for its "Ask an expert" feature. In the piece, Maggie, who was recently named the 2020 School Social Worker of the Year by the Illinois Association of School Social Workers, talks about why she decided to work with adolescents. She also talks about how adopting a team approach and remaining flexible have helped her and her colleagues meet the needs of students.

You can check out the interview with Maggie by visiting https://bit.ly/2DrG4UB.

District 86 came in at number five on the list of the best school districts in Illinois for 2020 according to Niche, which is a K-12 and college school search website. Niche developed its list by analyzing a variety of public data sets, reviews and survey responses.

You can check out the list of schools by visiting https://bit.ly/3bqXRba.

Ansh Shah, a Hinsdale Central senior and captain of the boys tennis team, organized an exhibition match between himself and former teammate Andrew Buhelos, who is now at Southern Methodist University in Texas, to help raise money for COVID-19 relief in India. To date, Ansh has raised approximately $1,400 in donations from the match and a GoFundMe campaign he launched on Aug. 25. All proceeds will benefit the Rural Healthcare Foundation, which is based in India and helps rural villages and underdeveloped areas with healthcare and sanitation.

You can access a Doings Hinsdale article about the match by visiting https://bit.ly/3lPKk1h and the GoFundMe page by visiting https://gf.me/u/yt7ugy.

We commend Ansh on his efforts to raise money and awareness for this important cause, and wish him continued success in securing donations for the Rural Healthcare Foundation.

The family and consumer science departments for Hinsdale South and Hinsdale Central have created and distributed more than 150 kits that students who are enrolled in culinary courses are able to use at home to get hands-on experience while the district is in the Remote Learning 2.0 model.

The next District 86 Board of Education meeting will be held on Thursday, Sept. 10 at 6 p.m. The agenda and packet of materials for the meeting, as well as instructions for how to participate in the session, will be posted on BoardDocs (https://bit.ly/394u9as) and shared via email tomorrow (Sept. 8).