On Saturday, March 14, the decision was made to cancel North House Folk School’s campus and classes through April 12, 2020, but like a lot of other enterprises contending with COVID-19, not all is lost.
“The decision to cancel classes was tough but we know it is the right thing to do, said North House Folk School Executive Director Greg Wright. “Our goal is to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and protect our students, instructors, staff, and neighbors. Our plans are to keep our administrative offices open and our school store available via online and phone orders, but the campus will be closed to the public.”
Wright also reported that many of their staff are working remotely, but a core staff team on campus is available to respond to phone and email questions and work on campus projects.
Even though this time of year is considered the “shoulder season” for a lot businesses, for North House, that isn’t the case. The school has grown every year. In 2018, the yearly enrollment was 7,058, up from 5,517 in 2017. Much of that growth has occurred in the winter months, although December is always the school’s lowest period for students and classes.
North House has over 450 classes and multiple special events on its calendar for 2020, but Wright noted, “We will stay abreast of the very dynamic realties created by COVID-19. We anticipate some additional course cancellation will be necessary, and on a rolling basis, we will assess if and when to do so.”
“Unfortunately cancellations included some of the free programming we do with our community schools as well as our growing after-school Youth Handworks Club and Spring Break Craft Camp. Serving local youth is one of the programming elements we relish, which makes these decisions even harder.”
North House has long been a special place for the kids in Cook County.
During the school year Cook County I.S.D. 166 industrial arts and culinary arts students come to the school to learn how to timber frame, smoke meat or bake from a wood-fired oven. And since 1998, the third, fourth, and fifth grade students take yearly field trips to the school to make wooden boats and learn other crafts.
As far as the coming year, Wright confirmed planning for future classes continues as does scheduling of special events. Given that numerous classes have been cancelled and with hopes of honoring the unique opportunity each of these classes represents, North House plans to actively expand its schedule of course offerings in the second half of 2020.
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