By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
After five months of learning from their teachers on a screen, Bowling Green City School students will be back in their classrooms sometime between Feb. 16 and March 1.
With more than 300 people watching the online meeting Thursday evening, the board voted unanimously to start in-person learning in a hybrid form soon. The exact start date won’t be known until the district finds out when the first doses of COVID-19 vaccines will be given to school staff.
“We’re hopeful it will be sooner rather than later,” Superintendent Francis Scruci told the board. “We’re at the mercy of the allocation team in Ohio.”
Scruci said the district may receive word on Friday about when the vaccines will be available for its educators.
“Tomorrow we should know – fingers crossed,” he said. “As soon as I get a confirmation date, we’ll send a parent blast and a teacher blast.”
Possible start back dates
The motion to return to in-classroom learning, made by board member Ryan Myers, hinges on which Friday in February is the vaccination date.
If the vaccinations are done on Feb. 12, students will return on Feb. 16. If the shots are given on Feb. 19, the return date will be Feb. 23. And if the shots are given on Feb. 26, students will return the week of March 1.
Under a commitment by the district in exchange for getting staff vaccinations, Bowling Green City Schools must be back with at least in-person hybrid classes by March 1.
“Unfortunately, that day is mandated with or without a vaccine. I need that to be understood,” Scruci said.
The district’s hybrid program will have half of the students attend school on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and the other half on Thursdays and Fridays. Monday will be a deep cleaning day of the buildings.
Classified staff that had been laid off due to a reduction in force during COVID will be recalled by Feb. 16. The transportation staff recall date will be determined by when the students return.
Despite sometimes “polar opposite opinions” on the board, Myers said, the vote to return was unanimous.
What teachers had to say
A total of 205 teachers were surveyed by the Bowling Green Education Association to learn their feelings about students returning to school. Eighty-two percent responded, with their input shared Tuesday by teachers Bob Marzola and Kisha Nichols.
Teachers were asked if they feel comfortable with students coming back with the following factors:
- After teachers receive one dose of the vaccine – 24%
- After they receive both doses of the vaccine – 40%
- Once herd immunity is achieved – 8%
- Comfortable now, without getting vaccine yet – 28%
The majority preferred returning in a hybrid form, not all students four days a week.
When asked to survey their classrooms, 83 percent said their rooms had space for 6-foot social distancing if using a hybrid model.
If reducing that to 3-foot social distancing, and having all students at once, 52% said their classrooms could not meet those standards.
Marzola said teachers have been varied in their preferences since the beginning of the school year.
Nichols said the staff felt comfortable with the matrix set up by the board in November.
“However, we know we are being forced by the governor,” to have in-person classes in exchange for the vaccines. “You’ve made the choices that are safest for our teachers, and our students, and our families,” she said to the board.
Subs in demand
Scruci cautioned that finding substitute teachers may be difficult as the district goes to in-classroom learning.
“We’re all trying to pull from the same group of substitutes,” he said of neighboring school districts.
“We’ll do everything we can to cover these as best we can” – even if it means taking a classroom himself, Scruci said.
There may be days when the classes have to return to remote learning if subs cannot be found, he added.
“I don’t believe it will be a big deal for us if we have to go virtual for a day or two,” Scruci said. “It’s going to take some navigation, but I think we’re going to be fine.”
Board member Tracy Hovest also pointed out that the vaccinations should ease the demands for substitute teachers.
School vaccine process
All the school districts in the county have been working with the Wood County Health Department to streamline the school vaccine process. It has been decided that all the districts will receive the first and second doses on Fridays, in case teachers need to recover over the weekend.
Three vaccination sites will be set up in the county, with Bowling Green Middle School to serve schools in the southern part of the county, Penta Career Center to serve the northern school districts, and Perrysburg to serve that district and several private schools in the county.
It is estimated that 1,000 school personnel will be vaccinated at Bowling Green Middle School.
Though preschool teachers are not covered under the state’s vaccine plan for educators, Scruci assured that Bowling Green’s preschool teachers will be offered vaccines.
No chance for more choice
Scruci said the administration discussed the possibility of offering other choices to families – in addition to the new hybrid and the NOVA online learning.
“On the surface it seems easy,” he said.
But continuing remote learning as it has been so far this year is not an option. It would spread intervention specialists too thin, secondary staff can’t flip from one subject to another, it would end the relationships which have formed between teachers and their students so far this year, Scruci said.
“We certainly would love to accommodate all of our families. Unfortunately, it’s just not possible,” he said. “Please trust, if we could make this happen, we would.”
Future school board meetings
The February board of education meeting will be remote – but will offer the public a chance to participate via Zoom. Instructions will be forthcoming. There has been no public input at board meetings since COVID hit in March.
The March board meeting will be held in-person, in the performing arts center, which can hold between 175 and 200 people socially distanced, Scruci said.
“I think if we’re asking our teachers to go back and our students to go back,” the board should meet in person, too, Hovest said.
Board President Norm Geer agreed. “The board should consider going back as well,” he said.
Board member Jill Carr said that everyone present must wear masks and be socially distanced.
