PEPPER PIKE, Ohio -- Orange City Schools Superintendent Lynn Campbell says the district is getting closer to a return to full-day, in-person learning for all students.
“Soon, I will be coming forward with a plan for an all-day-model return, if the board supports that,” Campbell told the Orange Board of Education Monday (Jan. 25). “As soon as I can see, with these mitigation strategies we have, when this plan can come to fruition, I’ll give the board all the information I have.
“I will come to (the board) when I feel that we are fully ready to mobilize and implement a plan as safely as possible and as successfully as possible. At that time, I would put a timeline out, as well, that I will share with the board.”
The school board meeting was held in person at the Pepper Pike Learning Center, with board members and administrators wearing face masks and seated at least 6 feet from one another.
Campbell said that in the Cuyahoga County Board of Health’s latest update to county superintendents on Friday (Jan. 22), it recommended that school districts consider moving toward a five-day, in-person model by March 1.
“The governor (Mike DeWine) has put out that incentive, not only for in-person learning, but also as an incentive for districts to want to be involved in vaccination (for staff members) as well,” he said. “And we are committed to that.”
The Orange School District has been in a hybrid learning model -- with students attending school for half a day and learning remotely the rest of the day -- since Jan. 11. Prior to that, it was in a fully remote model for the entire academic year, except for a three-week period in November when the district also shifted to the hybrid model.
“As I look at the numbers I’ve been tracking (related to COVID-19 cases in the district’s three primary ZIP codes and in Cuyahoga County), we’re in a better place than we were in November,” Campbell said.
“At the superintendents’ roundtable Friday (Jan. 22), the (Cuyahoga County) Board of Health called this recent change in direction a plateau.
“But, they said, ‘Let’s not sit back, and we can’t put our guard down,’ because we’re still looking at 400 to 600 cases a day in the county. They also said that the mitigation strategies are more important than ever,” he said.
A key mitigation strategy, Campbell said, is the installation of the REME Halo air purification system in all district buildings and on school buses. The school board approved an $83,000 contract to purchase the system in December.
Campbell has said that the system -- which features ultraviolet lighting and ionization technology -- has been proven to mitigate against bacteria and viruses, including the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.
Another mitigation strategy for the district, Campbell said, is the addition of plastic dividers in classrooms. He said Ted Roseberry, the district’s director of business operations, has been working to equip classrooms with tri-fold shields around students’ desks.
“The classroom dividers are one more level to protect the direct person-to-person contact of small droplets that can escape through (face) masks,” Campbell said.
Campbell added that the district is also looking into some mitigation strategies for buses.
“We would make available to parents a shield for their child’s mask, if they’re comfortable with that,” he said. “We can’t put dividers on buses, but we could offer a shield, and we would provide that at no charge to families if they request it.”
Campbell said the district’s COVID-19 dashboard has been “holding steady, with not much change” in recent weeks.
According to the dashboard -- updated Tuesday (Jan. 26) -- the district has no active student cases, one active staff case and 12 students and one staff member in quarantine.
Cumulatively, the dashboard indicates that there have been 27 student cases and 40 staff cases since the school year began in late August.
Parent: ‘It’s time for action’
Courtney Lepene, a district parent who lives in Pepper Pike, spoke to the board -- wearing a face mask -- before Campbell’s comments.
“I’m very thankful that our school is offering hybrid, in-person learning at this time, and I was very encouraged to hear back in December that our district was looking toward transitioning into full-day, in-person school at some point,” she said.
“However, it is now the end of January, and we have yet to hear a specific plan or timeline for transitioning to full-day, in-person school.
“It’s time for action, and your constituents should not be left in the dark any longer. A recent survey indicated that about 75 percent of elementary and middle school families are interested in full-day, in-person school for their children.”
Lepene noted that many neighboring school districts -- including Beachwood, Solon and Chagrin Falls -- are offering full-day, in-person learning for their elementary school students, and some districts are also making full-day options available for middle school and high school students.
“They have demonstrated that full-day, in-person learning works,” she said.
“The Orange School District that I grew up with, and which I’m proud to be a part of today, was always leading by example and the envy of school districts around the state. It’s time we start getting back to that.”
Parents recognize that the district has been dealing with “a very tough situation,” Lepene said.
“But we can no longer be paralyzed by waiting for the next significant development to occur with regard to the pandemic,” she said. “The decision to return to full-day, in-person learning, at least for the elementary students, needs to be made.
“Every day that our children are not in full-day, in-person school is another day of missed opportunity for development.”
Board member agrees
Board member Jeffrey Leikin said he doesn’t understand why the district appears to be locked into returning all students in the district to full-day, in-person learning at the same time.
“With the elementary school kids, the risk (of contracting COVID-19) is smaller,” he said. “Our governor is encouraging schools to get elementary kids back as soon as possible.
“I don’t understand why there’s no option to bring the elementary school kids back sooner, especially the kids who need special attention.”
Leikin said based on what he has heard, the neighboring districts that have brought elementary school students back “have not had a problem doing it safely.”
“I just don’t know the impediment and why we have to bring everybody back together, as you say,” he told Campbell.
Campbell said Moreland Hills Elementary School “has a numbers crunch” that he doesn’t think those other school districts are dealing with.
In addition, Campbell said, the district’s elementary school building is going to require more planning than its other two buildings when the students do return.
“The easiest one to bring back right now would be the high school, except transportation is not making it possible,” he said. “But it’s actually going to be more complicated to get everybody back at the elementary school, based on the logistics of that building.
“And we want full-day. We’re not going to truncate the day to five hours or less. So there are many complications.”
Leikin replied, “Everybody recognizes the fact that these (elementary school) kids are the ones the most harmed by being away from school.”
“If we could just consider bringing them back as soon as possible. ... I want to know why we can’t do what other schools are doing,” he said.
Board Vice President Melanie Weltman said, “The key is that we want to do what’s best for the kids.
“I think we all see that the shortened day is harder on them, and it’s more challenging for elementary kids,” she said. “But I think we all agree on that.”
Board member Beth Wilson-Fish said, “I don’t think there’s anyone sitting here saying we don’t want our kids back.
“We just want to do it in a safe manner, and I want everybody to feel really good about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it,” she said. “We have to make sure that every single, solitary human being that comes out of this campus is as safe as we can possibly make them.”
Wilson-Fish said she’s heard just as many concerns from parents of high school students who want their children back in school full-time, as well.
“They’re very worried about their high school students’ social-emotional well-being, and those preparing for college and to take ACTs,” she said.
Wilson-Fish said she’s “thrilled that our teaching staff and every staff member here that interacts with children is going to have the opportunity to get that vaccine, if that comes to fruition.”
“It’s going to protect our staff, and I think all around we’re going to all start feeling so much better about implementing this model full-time,” she said.
Campbell said 425 district employees have expressed interest in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to school staff members in February.
“That’s really good, considering there’s about 500 total (district employees),” he said.
Prom dinner set at Rock Hall
In other action, the board approved a contract with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame to provide a prom dinner for Orange High School seniors on April 24 at that venue in Cleveland, at a cost of $8,000.
It also approved a contract for All Access Caterers to cater the dinner, at a cost of about $19,200 for an estimated 320 guests.
The contracts were presented to the board for review on Jan. 11. The district has paid a $1,000 deposit to the Rock Hall to reserve the date for the event.
Weltman asked Orange High School Principal Paul Lucas how difficult it would be to shift the event to another venue if necessary, due to the pandemic.
“That’s prom season, so trying to get another outside, external vendor could be difficult,” he said. “We have plans for how we could get the amount of attendees down, how we would trim that.
“The Rock Hall is pretty big, so they should be able to get a decent amount in. But we’ve also discussed, if the Rock Hall’s just totally out, could we do some things on campus, to hold some sort of prom for the kids?”
Leikin, a 1977 Orange High School graduate, noted that his prom was at the high school.
“It could be there this year, too,” Lucas said.
The board’s next meeting is at 6 p.m. Feb. 8.
Read more from the Chagrin Solon Sun.