Akron reopening schools in small groups
After nearly a year, Akron Public Schools will reopen its school buildings on Feb. 1 for a select group of students who need additional supports during online learning.
The district is moving forward with its “Remote Plus” plan, where teachers identify small groups of students in prekindergarten through 12th grade to come to their school buildings for interventions, special education services, mental health support or hands-on career and technical education classes. Those students will still do the bulk of their learning online.
The program previously was slated to start at the end of November, but district leaders held off as cases of COVID-19 continued to rise in Ohio and Summit County. A tentative launch at the beginning of the second semester, which was Tuesday, also was delayed. The district has not yet formally announced Feb. 1 as a start date, but updated its school reopening website with the date, and it was confirmed by the teacher’s union and a district spokesman.
Families of students chosen for access to in-person supports will be notified Monday.
“Students selected for remote plus were determined by teachers and principals using a set criteria that identifies students not responding well to the academic/social-emotional intervention or enrichment being provided remotely and that would benefit from site-based support,” the district’s website states.
“For those students selected for remote plus, school staff will call each family to determine if the family wants their child to come in for support.”
It’s unclear how many students will benefit, but it will depend on how many teachers volunteered for the program in each building. The district is not forcing teachers to return to schools if they are not yet comfortable teaching in-person.
Remote Plus is the district’s first step toward returning students to school.
Akron last week pledged to the state it will reopen schools five days a week in March, allowing for teachers and other staff to get early access to vaccinations.
But for Remote Plus, teachers staff won’t have had the full two doses of the vaccine yet, or likely even the first dose, as vaccinations for teachers are scheduled to begin Feb. 1.
The school district has been fully remote since March, unlike all of its suburban Summit County peers, which have had at least some in-person learning this school year.
But Akron school board members, citing a low tolerance for risk and health disparities that adversely affect many of the district’s students and their families and make them more vulnerable to adverse outcomes from COVID-19, opted for the more cautious approach.
Logistics of reopening the district also have grown complicated, as up to 40% of families have indicated they would keep their students home even if the district reopened schools. That would require a large number of teachers to continue teaching the online-only students, possibly splitting up classes and reassigning students and teachers.
While some students have thrived in a remote learning environment, free of the distractions of their classrooms, a larger number of students earned failing grades in the first quarter this year than last year, district leaders have previously said. There also is concern about seniors who need credits to graduate on time. District leaders have not addressed how that will work come March.
For Remote Plus, middle and high schools will have the flexibility to decide how many students they should serve, but the more they include, the less frequently everyone will be able to come during the week.
The middle schools had an average of six teachers who volunteered, according to the district. High schools each have an average of 14 teachers who volunteered to return, a district spokesman said.
Substitute teachers also willbe used to fill in gaps to serve as many students as possible.
Contact education reporter Jennifer Pignolet at jpignolet@thebeaconjournal.com, at 330-996-3216 or on Twitter @Jenpignolet.