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Online Structure: Covid Style Amanda M Hirsch

Following recent surges in the positive results of Covid-19, the risk of students going online is actively rising.

After the last seven months, covid rates have gone up from practically zero a day, all the way up to the most recent 18,402 cases in a day. This rise of cases is making some nervous, while others stay calm.

Aric Thomas, principal at WKHS says, "It is our goal to remain in-person throughout the pandemic and to keep students in school in a safe manner." Recently, Columbus City Schools have been closing schools due to staffing shortages. Say Worthington were to go online, it would be treated as if it was a snow day, and students are to refer to Schoology.

Dr. Neil Gupta (director of Secondary Education) explained that, "As a district, we have been working to increase the number of substitute teachers interested to work in Worthington since the school year began. We monitor the absence reports on a daily basis to determine any needs at certain schools. We are proud of our staff who have helped in situations to cover classrooms to support one another. This could come from staff at the school level or at the district level. This would continue to be our next line of action to fill classrooms if substitute teachers are not available.

As we continue to monitor the absence rate of our staff (teachers, bus drivers, food service, custodians, etc.), we also continue to monitor COVID rates and talk regularly with our health departments for guidance.

We also talk regularly with surrounding school districts who’ve experienced a shortage in substitute teachers to consider the possibilities of a remote school day at a school impacted."

Gupta continued, "Our data doesn’t reflect that [moving to remote] this would occur at this time, but we are planning for the possibility and reminding staff to continue using our learning management systems - Seesaw at the elementary level and Schoology at the secondary level. We understand elementary school students may need a device to access the online platform, so arrangements would be made for families to pick one up at school if the need arises."

As Covid cases continue to be reported, Gupta states that, "each day, we [district staff] monitor the attendance of our staff. Depending on the situation, a school may need to shift to a remote setting for one day or multiple days. As we review our data thus far, we are seeing absence rates change at schools daily, so there is not an indication that it would be for multiple days in a row."

While rates are unsure, schools could go remote for one day or multiple days. "It is our goal to remain in-person throughout the pandemic and to keep students in school in a safe manner" Gupta reiterated.

"Obviously we are seeing some of the closures around Ohio due to staffing shortages, but for the most part the illnesses are not a result of things going on in schools. If we were to institute a temporary shutdown or closure for a few days, we will use our learning management system, Schoology, to deliver content and lessons. Right now, we would not have Zoomed sessions for students to attend but that may change if the closures were extended. ... We definitely have past experience in supporting instruction in a remote environment. We shifted quickly to create lessons in an online format and support learning during that time. We also learned a lot in how best to create assignments and engage students. We would continue to use our learning management systems as the hub to communicate assignments and learning for students."

"In the event we would need to communicate any changes in learning," Gupta explained, "our process has been to communicate in multiple methods - emails to families, posting information on social media, and sharing messages on our district website."