Will County Gazette

During its Feb. 21 meeting, the Crete Monee School District 201u Board of Education discussed the use of clear backpacks for the next school year.

The district required clear backpacks for grades 3-12 for the current school year, and the current plan is to require them for all students in the district for 2023-24. The board discussed the issue because officials said they wanted guidelines for the backpacks to be decided and published early so that families would know the expectations before the school year begins.

Last year, the district provided backpacks to students but did not explicitly state the clear-backpack requirement before school supply lists were released. It also did not explain the specifics of what clear backpacks meant, and many families either purchased backpacks or bought clear ones that did not meet the criteria. As a result, the district spent approximately $80,000 on replacement backpacks for students, a fiscal burden the district does not want to repeat next year.

"I don't think I personally I don't think it's my pleasure to do that where the district absorbs [the cost]," board member Maurice Brown said. "But it is my pleasure that we have a tight program to make sure it achieves our goal of having clear backpacks be a standard. So, if you guys can come up with something where the parents could absorb it, that's fine. But it's the standard, it's clear, it's concise, and it's going to happen on the first day of school and throughout the school year."

Other board members debated whether the district should just supply clear backpacks to all students or simply list them specifically on the supply list and have parents buy them along with other supplies. But after deciding to re-evaluate the program next year—and perhaps then add clear backpacks to the school supply lists—the board voted to make room in the budget to purchase compliant backpacks for all students this year.