Introductory videos, a virtual fireside chat program and discussions with counselors are all part of the 8th grade registration process at Homewood-Flossmoor High School this year.

The usual Saturday event, that would start with a benefit pancake breakfast and end in the library for a meeting to set the incoming freshman’s schedule, has been tossed aside this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Registration will be online. The Voyage to Excellence Open House at 7 p.m. on Jan. 28 is virtual, and Zoom meetings with counselors are being scheduled. The H-F Parents Association fireside chat featuring the superintendent, principal and staff, was conducted on Zoom.

Because students are remote learners this year, feeder schools haven’t done the full battery of tests, so H-F is relying on teachers and counselors to provide information on the 8th graders. Those insights should help families and H-F staff develop a class schedule that will best suit their needs and abilities.

“Recommendations are so important for our 8th graders. Normally at this time we have standardized data and we don’t have that now, so it’s going to be a little bit of a challenge,” District 233 Superintendent Von Mansfield told members of the school board’s Planning Committee at its Jan. 14 meeting. “So to mitigate that we have to look at some qualitative data to get our understanding of who those kids are.” 

Chairman Debbie Berman thanked H-F staff for all the work they are doing above and beyond their expected duties.

“We want to know about (these 8th graders) so they can thrive in H-F in whatever that environment might be in August of 2021 and the normal tools we have to gain that information are just not available, so our administration worked really, really hard with our feeder schools to get that information so we can give them the skills that they need,” she said.

Each department at H-F has produced an 8- to 10-minute video giving an educational look at its programs and introducing faculty to help students and families select the courses and schedule that works for them.

Principal Jerry Anderson said 275 families of incoming freshmen participated in a virtual meeting. The district will be sending information on class placement to families on Feb. 1 and Feb. 5 to help with registration. The district is planning another Zoom program on Feb. 8.

Anderson said there is discussion about hosting meetings with individual families, much like H-F did for first semester parent-teacher conferences.