River Trails Condominium Complex Fire Update

July 19, 2018

Topic: Community

Our CCSD21 community suffered a tragedy yesterday with the five alarm fire which destroyed several buildings in the River Trails Condominium Complex in Prospect Heights.  At least 26 CCSD21 students attending Frost Elementary or Holmes Middle School and 13 students attending Wheeling High School lost their homes in this fire.

It is truly an amazing thing to see the outpouring of offers of support from not just our district employees and residents, but from across the state.  

I want to take a moment to inform you of what CCSD21 is doing to support our students and families in need:

Last evening, CCSD21 social workers began contacting the families of all students affected.  We are currently in communication with families to identify immediate needs and will work with them to ensure those needs are met, particularly as we approach the new school year.  

We are working with our community partners to pull together daytime programming through summer camps or other options so affected children have a safe and engaging environment where they can play, learn, and experience some level of normalcy in a very uncertain time in their lives.

We are coordinating with the Village of Prospect Heights, the Red Cross, and other local agencies to provide assistance where needed.  This may include hosting recovery services in our facilities and being an additional conduit of contact for displaced families.

It is our instinct to wish to make donations of clothing or other material items in the immediate hours after an event of this type, however often times relief agencies and municipalities are not able to handle those items.  At this time, the best option is to donate funds either through the Red Cross or other relief agencies, or for our CCSD21 families, through the Katie Samsel Foundation. District 21 operates the Katie Samsel Foundation which accepts donations to support D21 students and their families in circumstances just like this.  We have activated a Katie Samsel link through our webstore. If you would like to make a donation, please click here.  

On behalf of the entire CCSD 21 community, I thank you for your caring and concern.

Respectfully,

Dr. Michael Connolly

Superintendent