COVID-19: Portage County Schools discuss their Level 3 Learning Models

Gershon Harrell and Ky Kallinowski

COVID-19 had swept through the nation, schools within the Portage County school district were forced to come up with alternative learning models for the 2020-21 school year.  

The Ohio Department of Public Health implemented the Ohio Public Health advisory system—a color coded system designed to help individuals, businesses and communities figure out the best way to respond to the virus.  

• Yellow, Level 1 active COVID-19 spread and exposure
• Orange, Level 2 COVID-19 spread and exposure have increased
• Red, Level 3, COVID-19 exposure is dangerously high and activity should be limited
• Purple, Level 4, there is severe exposure of COVID-19 and people should only leave home for necessities

School districts such as the Kent City School District, Aurora City School District and Crestwood School district were in school five days out of the week while the spread of COVID-19 was in the orange. 

However, when Portage County went into the red, Kent City School district implemented a hybrid model of learning. 

According to the Kent City School District website, approximately 1,000 of their students attended class Wednesday and Friday, while another 1,000 that attend class Tuesday and Thursday and an additional 1,000 are 100 percent learning online. 

Unlike the Kent City School District, the Aurora City School District had their kids in school five days out of the week since their school year began. 

“What we’re doing is not tied to the levels and color coding,” said Paul Milcetich, assistant superintendent of Aurora City School District.  “We have our instructional delivery model that we’re offering K-5 and 6-12.”  

For students in grades K-5, they have designated online teachers for students who are doing school online, while grades 6-12 have synchronous learning for students who are 100 percent online. 

Milcetich said, they began with the basic premise that it was important for kids to be in school five days out of the week but with safety guidelines in place such as social distancing and wearing a face mask to reduce the spread. 

“We keep a close eye on COVID-19 numbers and the data,” Milcetich said. “But we did not think it was a good idea to color code our system because what ends up happening is you could be toggling back and forth between instructional models, and causes a lot of inconsistency.”

But on Friday, Nov. 14, the superintendent of Aurora City School District, Michael Roberto made a public announcement via youtube that due to the high number of cases the district will be doing remote learning from Tuesday, Dec. 1 to Friday, Dec. 4. 

Currently Portage County has 2,760 confirmed cases, 215 hospitalizations and a total of 67 people have died. 

Roberto addressed that there is a temptation to blame Kent State University for the high numbers, but according to a map shown the Portage County Health District the city of Aurora has one of the highest number of cases in the county. 

At Crestwood Local School District, superintendent David Toth said they are also in school for five days out of the week as well, with 18% of their students in attendance. 

Their original plan for when they rose into level 3 was to implement a hybrid learning model. 

“We looked at the cases in our school district between staff and our students,” Toth said. “So far we only had two [who tested positive for COVID-19]… decided that we’d be better off having school everyday.” 

The week of Nov. 16, Crestwood Local School district has one active case for a student at an intermediate school and one more active case for a member of their staff. Throughout the school year, the district has had a total of six cases. 

Milcetich said, the students and staff are probably more safe at school than anywhere else. 

“The community, that’s where the spread is. It’s a community spread, you know, spread when people are in stores or gatherings, it’s all those things and letting down their guard,” Milcetich said. 

COVID-19: Portage County Schools discuss their Level 3 Learning Models https://t.co/5q4kjld4yL

— Here to Read (@HarrellGershon) November 18, 2020