By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
It came as a shock to many school officials last month When Gov. Mike DeWine announced all K-12 schools would close due to the coronavirus pandemic.
When DeWine today extended those closures till the end of the school year, it was expected.
“Absolutely. It’s what we’ve anticipated,” Bowling Green City Schools Superintendent Francis Scruci said after the governor’s announcement.
“I think it’s a good decision,” Scruci said.
“Socially-emotionally, it may have been a good thing” for students to reunite with friends and teachers, he said. But going back for a couple weeks would not likely be very academically beneficial.
So for Bowling Green students, teachers and parents, it means another five weeks of online learning. The last day of school is scheduled for May 29.
DeWine said the decision was based on two factors: continuity of learning and health risk to students, teachers and community.
With the shift on March 17 to online learning, some school districts in Ohio have opted to grade students on a pass/fail basis. But Bowling Green school administrators, who were meeting late this afternoon, have decided to stick to the normal grading system.
“We are not doing pass/fail,” Scruci said. “We are assigning grades.”
But the district is changing the traditional testing for the end of the year.
“We will not be doing comprehensive final exams for high school classes,” Scruci said. “We just don’t think it would be a fair assessment of what kids know.”
Also at DeWine’s press conference today, the governor said no decision has been made yet about whether schools will reopen in the fall. DeWine said schools are preparing for how they might do things differently if they return to brick and mortar schooling.
If teaching has to occur online, Scruci said the summer will provide some valuable time for teachers to prepare for the fall.
“I feel like this first go-round for us was learn as you go,” he said.
Like many students, teachers and parents, Scruci prefers face-to-face learning.
“I’m still hopeful we’ll be in the buildings” this fall, he said.
Social distancing for students would be incredibly difficult, he added.
“I don’t know if we’ll be able to put kids in a building and have them not gravitate to each other,” Scruci said.
