CINCINNATI — With nearly 3,000 students, 300 teachers and some of the smallest classrooms in the district, Walnut Hills High School is the only school in Cincinnati Public Schools district without a clear plan to return students to in-person learning.
"And they have more bus routes of any school, probably in the state," said Julie Sellers, president of the Cincinnati Teachers Federation.
"It's like leaving a rock concert between bells, you are bumping into everybody all the time," said David Brenner, a parent of two Walnut Hills High School students.
School board members are trying to coordinate a special reopen plan for the school, after CPS announced the district plans to return to a blended learning system on February 1.
"It's like leaving a rock concert between bells, you are bumping into everybody all the time," said David Brenner, a parent of two Walnut Hills High School students.
If the district follows social distancing guidelines of spacing students six feet apart in classrooms, the building poses challenges that would force students to take turns going into the school only one day a week.
The rest of the week would remain virtual for students.
School board member Melanie Bates suggested changing social distancing rules and cutting down spacing from six feet to three.
"Now the criteria has changed through the Ohio state study and three to six are pretty much the same as far as safety goes, so we are going to take a look at what we can do to bring the kids back at least for one day a week," said Bates.
Brenner said he's unsure how comfortable he is sending his children back to the school for in-person learning, and wants the board to develop a way to give students who remain at home equal access to teachers.
"We have a couple people in our family with medical issues," he said. He's concerned that the district doesn't have a plan in place to help students who need to stay at home for safety still obtain the same amount of instruction time from teachers.
Bates said streaming classrooms online would require the district to allocate money to buy new equipment, and teachers would have to adapt as well, since remote learning and in-person learning require different teaching techniques.
