Onboard with online
Many Columbus suburbs join city in moving classes entirely online this fall
Following stricter guidance from local health departments and demands from teachers unions, central Ohio school districts have done an aboutface on their plans to bring children back into classrooms this fall.
Just weeks after rolling out proposals detailing socially distanced classrooms, masked students and strategies for deep cleaning, several districts — including Bexley, Gahanna-jefferson, Groveport Madison, Upper Arlington, Westerville and Whitehall — announced Wednesday that students will begin the 2020-21 school year completely online. Some decisions are still pending approval from their boards of education.
Officials with Columbus City Schools and South-western City Schools announced the same decision Tuesday. On Monday, Hilliard City Schools officals said that’s also the plan if the number of Franklin County’s coronavirus infections don’t decrease greatly by Aug. 10.
It’s a decision none of them takes lightly, South-western Superintendent Bill Wise said.
“I feel for our families. For many folks we serve, school is an integral part of how they run their personal lives. They have jobs, their children need support, and they expect that, and we want to deliver it,” Wise said.
Originally, his district had hoped to begin completely face-to-face instruction by late September.
“Based on what we know today, that’s probably not realistic in the short term,” Wise said.
Groveport Madison Superintendent Garilee Ogden was set to put the new plan before her district’s school board for a vote Wednesday night.
“We want consistency as much as possible, but right now, as we know, the virus is really calling the shots,” Ogden said. “The decisions we’re making are twofold — to ensure the safety of our students and staff but also our community at large.”
“School is an essential service, and we have kids who are very much at risk when we’re not in session. I have deep concerns about student mental health and the isolation some of our students are experiencing during this COVID-19 crisis. We need to do everything in our power to safely get our kids back in school, even if it is a hybrid model.”
Wednesday’s flood of announcements follows a conversation Tuesday between superintendents and officials with Franklin County Public Health. Both it and Columbus Public Health are now recommending schools in their jurisdictions shift to an entirely virtual format to begin the 2020-21 school year and remain that way until the area’s rate of coronavirus infections declines.
Previously, districts in nearly all Columbus suburbs had announced plans for a hybrid of both inperson and online learning to begin the school year, based on health department guidance at that time. By grouping students into two groups that wouldn’t mingle, classes could be spread out.
Columbus originally had revealed a similar model for students in grades K-8, but the plan was always for high school students to learn online.
Franklin County Public Health Commissioner Joe Mazzola said the county was averaging about 100 new cases of COVID-19 per day in May and most of June. But by mid-july, that daily average had ballooned to nearly 300 cases. That was shortly after districts started releasing plans.
Franklin County still leads the state with its number of coronavirus cases, 16,311, and its deaths related to the virus, 502, as of Wednesday.
“We have yet to see our case counts go back to a level that would give us confidence in a safe return back to the classroom,” Mazzola said.
Hilliard Superintendent John Marschhausen said area superintendents are planning weekly phone calls with health officials to monitor the situation and determine when it might be safe to return — something he, like district families, is eagerly anticipating, he said.
“School is an essential service, and we have kids who are very much at risk when we’re not in session,” Marschhausen said. “I have deep concerns about student mental health and the isolation some of our students are experiencing during this COVID-19 crisis. We need to do everything in our power to safely get our kids back in school, even if it is a hybrid model.”
Rick Lewis, executive director of the Ohio School Boards Association, said many Ohio communities are experiencing similar situations.
On Friday, the Cleveland school district announced its students will start the 2020-21 school year online. Akron did the same Monday night.
Several area districts hadn’t announced changes to their plans as of Wednesday afternoon.
The Licking Heights Board of Education approved a reopening plan Tuesday night that allows hybrid instruction, but officials had noted that the recommendation could change before the week’s end.
And districts in the state’s rural, less-populated areas, which aren’t experiencing as many coronavirus cases, appear to be continuing forward with their plans for in-person instruction, Lewis said.
The Ohio Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, released a statement Tuesday afternoon calling for a switch to completely remote learning in districts that are located in Ohio’s most-infected counties. awidmanneese@dispatch.com @Alissawidman