PICKERINGTON, Ohio (WCMH) — Pickerington schools are planning to return to regular in-person instruction on April 5, the district said Monday in a letter to parents.
The transition will occur upon return from spring break.
“We realize that an April 5 return date is later than some of our neighboring school districts, however, our safe return date has been directly dictated by the order with which vaccinations were made available to staff,” the letter read.
The first doses of COVID-19 vaccinations for district personnel are scheduled for Friday, Feb. 26, so the entire district will learn remotely that day. The second dose will be administered in late March.
The district has been on a hybrid model of in-person and remote instruction for most students, with some fully remote. Although the hybrid students will move to in-person instruction in April, the students who opted for full remote instruction will continue to do so after the transition.
In addition, calendar changes were announced in connection to snow days that caused the cohort learning group that attends on Mondays and Tuesdays to have fewer in-person learning days than the Thursday-Friday cohort. For any future missed Mondays or Tuesdays, that group will attend in-person on the Wednesday of that week.
And the district has identified students who are in danger of failing, especially at the high school level, and will require those students to attend on Wednesdays in addition to their regular cohort days, starting this week.