Painesville, Wickliffe schools among those returning to in-person instruction –

Amid a surge in coronavirus cases fueled by the omicron variant, Northeast Ohio area schools are returning to in-person learning to kick off the second half of the school year.

Some area districts delayed the start of classes by a few days while others started on schedule.

Painesville City Local Schools Superintendent Josh Englehart said his district’s priority has been to keep kids learning in-person given guidance from the CDC and Ohio Department of Health.

“It has been widely recognized in the health community that not having kids in school for in-person learning has come at great costs to their wellness, which presents a significant risk against which the risk of COVID transmission must always be balanced,” he said. “This puts us locally in very difficult positions involving very difficult decisions.

“In Painesville, we’ve seen the deleterious effects of not keeping our kids in school, and we’ve resolved to do absolutely everything possible to keep them in school this year,” the superintendent added. “With this being the case, we have worked very hard to implement every layer of protection put forward by the CDC/ODH/LCGHD in order to be able to remain open for our kids and families.”

Englehart says the district makes every decision around COVID-19 in consultation with the Lake County General Health District, stating they’ve advised the school district with the strength of their protocols that they could be open this week, with the vast majority of transmission occurring outside of school.

The Wickliffe City School District is also returning for in-person instruction, with many of their prior safety measures still in place.

“We have not put any new safety measures and protocols in place as the Wickliffe Schools have had a mask mandate since the beginning of the school year and the district is following the same cleaning protocols that were put in place at the beginning of the pandemic,” Superintendent Joe Spiccia said. “We are following the guidelines and recommendations of the Ohio Department of Health and the Lake County General Health District regarding safety measures and protocols.”

Wickliffe Schools sent a message to parents Dec. 30 addressing concerns of what the future held for instruction methods, mitigation measures and face coverings.

“If new information from public health and the medical community is presented, we will adjust based on the information,” Spiccia said, noting that parents should remain prepared to move from in-person instruction to remote instruction if necessary.

That same day, the Cuyahoga County Board of Health issued a document outlining considerations for schools related to COVID, with the Lake County General Health District agreeing with the recommendations.

The Cuyahoga health board stated in the document it continues to identify the benefits of in-person instruction, indicating that if a district chooses to move to remote learning it should do so only to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in their particular community, to address staffing issues, and remote instruction should last no longer than two weeks.

Also on Dec. 30, the Educational Service Center of Northeast Ohio, whose members includes schools like Wickliffe, said that four of 44 districts that responded to a survey sent out are starting 2022 with remote learning, with others at the time considering such a move.

They also found with the exception of three of those districts, all are starting after the break with a mask mandate.