During a special work session of the Yellow Springs school board, conducted online Saturday morning, March 6, the district superintendent said she is working on a plan to increase students’ in-person classroom time to near pre-pandemic levels.
The local schools, which began the academic year with 100% online instruction, went to a “hybrid” model combining online and in-person classes effective March 1, with elementary school students in their building two half days a week, and middle and high school students attending in-person classes two full days a week.
Now, the superintendent is talking about bringing everyone into their buildings for at least four full days a week beginning in April.
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
With the expectation that the district will be going to voters for more funds in the form of a facilities bond levy in late 2021, Treasurer Emrick presented the annual five-year financial forecast during the school board’s most recent regular meeting Thursday, Nov. 12.
Prepared, as it is each fall, and updated in May for submission to the county auditor, the current forecast shows a widening gap between revenues and expenses, with the district’s cash balance going under the desired 30-day operating balance in fiscal year 2022, and then falling into the red by fiscal year 2024. Each fiscal year runs July 1 through June 30.
Yellow Springs School District leaders anticipate a $30 million price tag, at minimum, to upgrade the district’s buildings, whether those improvements take the form of new construction or major renovations.
The amount, presented during a school board work session Saturday morning, Nov. 21, is similar to projected total costs, ranging from about $27 million to $31 million, listed when the district began an active push in 2017 to address identified facility needs at its two campuses.
“Now we’re almost four years further down the road,” Superintendent Terri Holden told the board. “Where do we go from here?”
The facilities issue isn’t going away, board President Steve Conn said at the start of the meeting, which was conducted online and streamed on the district’s YouTube Channel.