Calendar year 2020 began and ended with Yellow Springs school district leaders discussing identified structural needs in the local school buildings and how to address them, but the majority of the year was occupied by the district’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Learning amid COVID
Gov. Mike DeWine was at the forefront in national responses to the novel coronavirus pandemic when in March he temporarily shuttered businesses and activities in Ohio, including all K–12 schools, to help curtail spread of the disease.
DeWine announced the school closures Thursday, March 12, effective at the end of the school day Monday, March 16, and initially set the return date for Monday, April 6. In Yellow Springs, one of those three weeks was already designated as the district’s annual spring break, and so teachers and administrators used the four days between the governor’s announcement and the shutdown to prepare two weeks worth of remote-learning and study materials. Teachers set up an online presence to share assignments and answer questions, but new instruction was temporarily suspended during that time. The district also used that period to come up with a plan to continue remote learning should the shutdown be extended, as many anticipated.