TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo Public Schools announced part of its plans on welcoming students back to school on Friday.
TPS Chief of staff Jim Gant said the district will follow a color-coded system of green, yellow and red.
Category green means that all students will be able to learn by attending class in-person, five days a week.
Category red means that all students will be learning from in the virtual classroom, five days a week.
"But at any time we can be in RED where we're only remote, or if there's a vaccine that comes in or a changes in the guidance we might go GREEN. So, it's important that the families understand that we've got to be a little flexible in this, and we do. And we're asking them to be flexible and patient with us as well." said TPS chief of staff James Gant
Category yellow will be a split schedule, with one group of students attending class in person and one group of students learning at home, then switching.
Gant said as of now, students are expected to start the school year in the yellow category. This means students will have a split schedule and will be split into two groups - Group A and Group B.
On Mondays and Thursdays, Group A will learn inside the classroom, while Group B will learn online. The groups will then switch on Tuesdays and Fridays. On Wednesdays, all students will learn virtually while staff inside the building will use that day to clean.
Gant said TPS hopes to announce decisions on masks, transportation and meals soon, but under additional guidance from the state.
It is uncertain when that new information will come in.
"There's a lot more information that we've got to provide to our families, and we're going to do it on a consistent basis and provide them that information. I want to thank the families for filling out the survey that they did. We had over 5,000 families which did that, and that has actually guided some of our decision making process too as well." said Gant
Gant added that hopefully the TPS Board of Education comes to a resolution to start school a week later than the current Aug. 20 start date, to create more time for people potentially impacted by the new schedules to plan accordingly.