Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

CCS Cancels Return For Most Students, Begins To Plan Next Steps

Columbus City Schools abruptly announced Tuesday afternoon that a planned return to part time in-person learning has been postponed for most students until mid-January.

Alison Holm reports that at the evening’s lengthy meeting, the district superintendent and school board members tried to outline some of the challenges ahead.

On what was supposed to the be the second day of in-person and online meetings between teachers, principals and parents about a return to the classroom for students in the hybrid learning program, Superintendent Talisa Dixon sent a letter to staff announcing that the return was on hold. Only students with specific complex needs and Career and Technical Education vocation students will begin to return to schools November 2nd.

 

Dixon says that leaves over 47,000 students in the remote education program and the self-guided Digital Academy where they are until mid-January. And that gives district officials a little more time to try and solve challenges that have arisen in the mean time.

 

“And our reality now is how do we continue to do this, educate our students, for the next ten weeks. The next ten week – what does that look like? How can we be more creative, more innovative, provide more resources for our students and families for the next ten weeks.”

 

Dixon says the immediate need is to make sure that district officials get – and communicate more clearly to families – what the data says about the risks and benefits of different learning models. To that end she says the district, Columbus Public Health, Ohio State, and the ESC of Central Ohio will begin developing the “CATS” or COVID Analytics and Targeted Surveillance dashboard for their website.

 

The district will also beef up tech support for families who have struggled with connectivity. The district has distributed over 38-thousand Chromebooks for students, and 22-hundred hotspots. And they will begin to offer evening hours on the IT hotline, so parents can call support staff directly.

 

Dixon says the district will also upgrade the food service provided to families, including hot breakfasts and lunches and more variety. Recruit more Learning Extension Centers, where students can get in-person help and support. And provide transportation for students who are in shelters or otherwise need to get a quiet place to do their work.

 

She says there are some things that are not a priority. Like the state mandated third grade test November 2.

 

“Instead of trying to figure out a way to get thousands of kids in a space just for one purpose, as we see the number of cases increase and we see that many adults are afraid of that number of cases and they don’t want to jeopardize their health and the possible health of the student. We’re looking at some other options for this.”

 

Dixon says while the online models have tried to make the best of the current situation there are clear signs that some students are falling behind. Attendance data from the six regions of the district range from 58 to 71%, and in all regions attendance numbers for black and Hispanic students lags behind their white counterparts. She says she’s empowering the regional superintendents to use the data to work with their schools to address those gaps.

 

While the district received a lot of pushback from parents who felt it was too soon to send students back to school buildings, board member James Ragland says he’s hearing the opposite. He’s concerned about what happens to students who’s parents can’t make sure their kids get to school online.

 

“We’ve looked at attendance data and it shows by region that many of out poorer regions – our blacker regions – are the ones that are having the most difficulty with attendance in our virtual learning format. How do we adequately address the needs of those parents that don’t have the resources to continue to stay at home, and their lives and the lives of their children depend upon us opening our doors back as soon as possible?”

 

Superintendent Dixon says in the coming weeks the district will continue to expand the blended learning model for the district, and will reevaluate plans in December for the following semester. In the meantime, staff who had begun to trickle back into buildings will begin working remotely on Monday.

Related Content