Students across central Ohio will head back into classrooms for in-person learning plans on Monday.
Hilliard City Schools, Dublin City Schools, Olentangy Local School District, and Gahanna Jefferson School District will all send students back into the buildings five days a week.
Students at Reynoldsburg City Schools and Columbus City Schools will return with blended plans which will have students in classrooms a few days a week.
Columbus City School Board President Jennifer Adair said the district has worked with several partners to make sure students can learn safely.
“We are following all of the health guidelines and so we are doing enough. The Columbus Department of Health and the Children’s Hospital have both looked at our plans and they say that they are great. But you know it is COVID, so we could have issues but we have a protocol in place,” Adair said.
The Columbus Global Academy and Columbus North International School will both receive students on Monday. Students will notice signs encouraging distancing and sanitizing throughout the building. The two schools will also space out students for lunch by using the auditorium and cafeteria and students were given clear backpacks to use instead of using lockers.
In other districts, safety measures look similar. Hilliard and Dublin schools will have students wear masks and social distance.
Julie Watson has two students attending school in Hilliard and one attending school in Dublin. She said she’s felt comfortable with health measures taken to prevent COVID throughout the school year.
“I think they really need to be in the classrooms, you know we’ve gotten really lucky with tutors and the E-learning has been really well set up. There’s just nothing like that one on one interaction in the classroom with both the other students and teachers,” Watson said.
For Hilliard and many other districts, students who were enrolled in hybrid plans this semester were given the option to head to school five days a week.