TOLEDO, Ohio — Two area school districts moving from virtual learning to in-person learning after Governor Mike DeWine announced Lucas County's decrease in COVID-19 rates.
Washington Local Schools officials were the first to announce their plans to return to the classrooms following the downgrade of COVID-19 alert level from "red" to "orange" on the state scale.
Superintendent Dr. Kadee Anstadt says this plan has kids learning in person about nine days sooner than they expected.
The district will have a staggered re-entry to buildings starting Sept. 21 with kindergarten through third grade students.
"We'll go back initially in a hybrid, just to make sure we're teaching good protocols, good practices, all of that. Eventually, we'll ramp up to be able to have our kids go at least four days a week" Dr. Anstadt said.
Four days a week is something new the district is able to do because 1,700 hundred of their students chose the Panther Virtual Academy for the whole year.
"That changed everything for us because it took so many kids out of our buildings. Now, as we prepare to go back and we're thinking hybrid, maybe getting kids in a split-session," she said. "Honestly, the class sizes are small enough in all cases that we can really get kids back into the classrooms safely."
Dr. Anstadt says there are still a number of things they'll have to overcome this school year, but getting kids back in the building is a step in the right direction.
Student schedules for the beginning of the year can be viewed here.