The St. Joseph grade and middle schools will open registration for the 2020-21 school year next week from August 3rd through August 7th. This year, the district will not host the traditional single all-day registration at the Middle School as in the past.
The district will offer on-line registration this year and encourage everyone who is able to register using the website. Parents who are unable to register on-line can do so in person August 3-7 from 8:00 am to 3:00 pm. The school district asks those individuals registering in person to observe social distancing guidelines.
Parents should receive an e-mail this Sunday with instructions to access the on-line registration system and how to make required payments.
Let there be sports! IHSA releases 2020-21 sports schedule
A collective sigh was heard throughout Illinois around 3:16 this afternoon. The Illinois High School Association announced a modified athletic competition schedule.
"This plan, like nearly every aspect of our current lives, remains fluid," said IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. "Changes may come, and if they do, we will be agile while putting safety and students first. It was important that we provide a framework today for our student-athletes, coaches, administrators, and officials to begin preparing for the 2020-21 school year."
The new schedule includes moving football and volleyball to the spring season and schools hosting just four sports to start the upcoming school year. Golf, cross country, girls tennis and girls swimming will start the Covid Era competition with finals occurring around the October 17.
The adapted schedule features a summer season, which will start on May 3 and runs through June 26.
Here is the release from the IHSA:
The Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors met for a special meeting on July 29, 2020, where the Board announced its intended plans for the 2020-21 school year. The plan has been sent to the Illinois Department of Health (IDPH) for final approval.
"This plan, like nearly every aspect of our current lives, remains fluid," said IHSA Executive Director Craig Anderson. "Changes may come, and if they do, we will be agile while putting safety and students first. It was important that we provide a framework today for our student-athletes, coaches, administrators, and officials to begin preparing for the 2020-21 school year."
The COVID-19 pandemic led the Board to propose unprecedented scheduling changes for the 2020-21 school year. They include playing all sports over the course of truncated fall, winter, spring, and summer seasons. As a result, several team sports will shift to new seasons, including football, boys soccer, and girls volleyball moving from the fall to the spring.
"I applaud our Board of Directors for choosing a model that allows every student-athlete the opportunity for a modified season," said Anderson. "Based on our recent conversations, it is our expectation that today’s plan meets all of IDPH’s safety guidelines and will be approved."
IHSA boys and girls golf, girls tennis, cross country and girls swimming & diving will remain as fall sports, and can proceed to start on August 10 as scheduled. Per Governor Pritzker’s announcement on Wednesday, fall sports will begin with competition limited to conference opponents and other schools in the same general geographical area. Schools will be provided more details in the coming week about the scheduling limits, and scheduling will continue to be assessed throughout each season. The condensed 2020-21 season dates will be as follows (see chart below to see where each sport falls):
Fall: August 10 to October 24
Winter: November 16 to February 13
Spring: February 15 to May 1
Summer: May 3 to June 26
"The Board believes this plan offers the most realistic chance for student-athletes to participate in interscholastic sports while balancing the challenges of a new academic setting and IDPH Guidelines," said Erie High School Principal and IHSA Board President Tim McConnell. "We are an education-based athletic association, and school has to come first. By delaying the majority of the team sports in the fall, it will allow our schools and students the chance to acclimate to what will be, for many, a totally new educational experience. We will do our best to try to give every student-athlete the opportunity for a season this school year."
State Series tournament decisions will be made on a sport-by-sport basis as each season progresses, but providing postseason opportunities remains a priority of the Board. This could potentially include culminating State Series Tournaments after Regional or Sectional rounds, or seeking other non-traditional means to conduct events.
"I understand that today’s announcement will be met with mixed emotions," said Anderson. "Our staff and Board have heard from thousands of people over the past few weeks with ideas, opinions, and proposals on how we should proceed. We respect and understand their passion, because we share in it. It is a great reminder that if we want high school sports to return to normal, we all need to do our part to help stop the spread of COVID-19."
The Board also extended the current Phase 4 Return To Play Guidelines, which will allow sports slated to be played in the winter, spring and summer seasons to allow an additional 20 days of contact for schools between September 7 and October 31 following IDPH Phase 4 Guidelines.
The Board also verified that IHSA by-laws do not prevent schools who are conducting remote learning from participating in IHSA sports and activities. Participation will remain a local school and district decision, regardless of the learning plan a high school is utilizing.
The Board discussed IHSA activities for the 2020-21 school year but did not take any action. The IHSA’s activity offerings include Bass Fishing, Chess, Debate, Drama & Group Interpretation, Individual Events, Journalism, Music & Scholastic Bowl.
"We believe we can still offer many of our activities via virtual contests," said Anderson. "The Board has asked our staff to investigate those possibilities, and we will report back soon on if and how each can be held."
Further details on items such as sport season and practice limitations will be released to IHSA schools following IDPH approval of the plan.
Three IHSA Board members (Hasson, McMahan, Rogers) were present at the IHSA office for the meeting, while the other eight Board members attended electronically. The chart below outlines the new IHSA schedule for the 2020-21 school year:
Junior high sports season in holding pattern, IESA waits for clarity from the state
Facing the same restrictions as the high school athletics, the Illinois Elementary School Association, board of directors released a statement after yesterday's video conference meeting concerning the prospect of junior high school sports this fall.
The association has submitted questions to the Illinois Department of Public Health and Governor J.B. Pritzker's office seeking clarification on a number of issues in current restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. A reply from the two state entities tasked with public safety during the current pathogenic outbreak has yet to be delivered to the organization that oversees 15 sports and activities for the 7th and 8th grade levels.
The state's response will determine if there will indeed be a scholastic sports season or how the individual sports seasons could be modified by the IESA to allow for competitive athletics starting sometime next month when students are slated to return to instruction either in person or via online as students in Illinois underwent in March of this year.
Here is the full statement released on the IESA website:
On Wednesday, July 15, the IESA Board of Directors met via a Zoom conference call to discuss the possibility/practicality of holding IESA activities in the 2020-21 school year and specifically the fall activities of golf, softball, baseball, cross-country, and girls basketball. Also included on the call was the Executive Director of the IHSA, Mr. Craig Anderson.
As included in the email from the IESA Executive Director to the IESA membership that was sent on Tuesday, July 14, the IESA has sent several emails to the Governor's Office and Illinois Department of Public Health seeking guidance regarding interscholastic activity participation and health and safety requirements. The answers that we receive from these agencies will have a significant impact on the type of activity and/or format of the activity that we are able to offer during this school year. To date, we have not received answers to our inquiries.
Our goal is to return to play but as an education-based organization, we must always take into account the health, safety, and well-being of students. Because of the ever-changing landscape, the IESA Board simply felt that until we receive answers, it would not be prudent at this time to make a decision to cancel fall activities knowing that a decision like that is devastating to the very students and schools IESA serves. An update on the status of fall activities will be sent to the membership no later than July 24.
ViewPoint | "Consider letting God love you today"
Viewpoints
I've been a bicycle rider my whole life. Fifty years ago, this month I was riding my bike about six miles round trip to Bible school at Tomahawk, Kentucky. I did so for an entire week.
During the week, I was one of several young people who prayed the prayer to receive Christ. On Sunday morning in 90-degree July heat I put on the best clothes I owned and rode my Western Auto yellow three speed bike almost five miles one way over two mountain hills to Inez, Kentucky.
I was a bit wet with sweat after that ride. I parked my bike in the front yard of Russell Williamson and went into First Baptist Church to make my decision for Christ public. Russell Williamson was a state hall of fame basketball coach, educator and businessman. Two years later I would be ordained beside Russell Williamson.
Later that night, my parents would drive me back to church to be baptized. Since that day I've had the opportunities to travel the country and I've been all over the world. And, it just keeps getting better, all by the grace of God. He has been a lot better to me than I could ever be to him as I know I'm probably one of the most imperfect people God ever created.
Still, I marvel at God's grace, provisions and all that he allows me to do and enjoy.
Here I am today, fifty years later and I don't feel like God has ever turned his back on me or excluded me from his care. There have certainly been some bumps in the road and some rough times along the way. The way life is there are bound to be more curves and some tough terrain. It's just life.
If you think you are going to sail through life unscathed from bruises, cuts and some pain then you haven't lived long enough to know better. Eventually you'll know the journey of life is not always a smooth ride.
However, I want to say I'm grateful for life and the opportunity to live life. This is a difficult time in the world for everybody in different ways. Covid-19, business failures, financial and personal struggles exclude none of us and to some extent are inclusive of us all.
Today, allow me to give thanks for my 50-year pilgrimage of faith in Christ. It's been quite a trip.
If you have not opened your heart to God's love today in Christ, please consider it. I'm not talking about joining a church or acting like some ridiculous religious people act. But, consider letting God love you today because he does and he will take you further than you can ever imagine.
Dr. Glenn Mollette
Money Matters:
Why liquidity and diversification is important in your investment plan
This is part 2 in this month's Money Matters with guest columnist Jake Pence. You can read part one What's the best way to invest in your future here.
by Jake Pence, Guest Columnist
Next, picking up where we left off, we need to talk about liquidity.
To keep it simple, liquidity is how easily an asset can be bought and/or sold. Another way to think about liquidity is how easily the asset can be turned into cash. The stock market has a clear advantage in terms of liquidity, but it still warrants a discussion.
Stocks are very liquid. In fact, stocks are so liquid that last summer, I was able to sell Amazon for $1,800/share, Tesla for $250/share, and Zoom for $85/share without Robinhood tapping me on the shoulder and saying, “You might not want to do that …”
Those companies now trade for $3,300/share, $1,700/share, and $275/share, respectively, and I still live in my parent’s basement.
I don’t tell that story to downplay liquidity because having quick access to your capital is advantageous in many scenarious; however, I tell that story to highlight how liquidity makes it easy for an investor to make emotional, rash, and in my case, downright stupid decisions. At that time, I did not have the trading savvy or financial discipline to hold a stock for more than a year.
All in all, if you value having easy access to your capital and have the financial discipline to manage that liquidity, then the stock market will better suit you.
Real estate, on the other hand, is a relatively illiquid investment. Whenever you want to pull money out via a refinance or cash out of the investment via a sale, then there is going to be a process that you must follow. The process will likely take a few months. Depending on the transaction, you could fall on either side of that timeline; however, it doesn’t take seconds like it does with stocks. If you don’t need your capital in the short-term, then real estate investing will be a great option for you.
Another important criteria is asset diversification. Diversification is the act of placing your investments in a variety of asset types, industries, etc. so that your exposure to any one asset type is limited.
Diversification is extremely important in an investment portfolio because if you’re only invested in airline stocks and then a global pandemic halts all air travel … well, you’re in trouble.
It is easier to diversify your portfolio within the stock market than it is real estate. You can still diversify your real estate portfolio, but it will take more than a few hours on Yahoo Finance to do so.
To make diversification even easier for stock market investors, you could buy a mutual fund that is already diversified. In real estate, you can diversify your portfolio by purchasing different asset types (apartments, self-storage, single-family-homes, etc.) in different locations (Illinois, Indiana, Tennessee, etc.). This will take more time, capital, and energy; however, it can and should be done.
I firmly believe that a well-balanced portfolio should include both stocks and real estate.
If your entire portfolio is in stocks, then you are heavily reliant upon company executives, Wall Street, and government decision makers for your financial future. If your entire portfolio is in real estate, then the cyclical nature of real estate markets will present challenges. Overall, a combination of Wall Street and Main Street investing will create a balanced portfolio.
In my next installment I will briefly discuss taxes and how investing can potentially lower your tax annual liability.
About the author:
• Jake Pence is the President of Blue Chip Real Estate and a consultant for Fairlawn Capital, Inc.. A 2019 graduate from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois, he is a 2016 graduate from St. Joseph-Ogden High School where he was a three-sport athlete for the Spartans. You can view his latest acquisitions and advice on his YouTube channel here.
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