Columbus City School Families and Teachers Call on Superintendent Dixon to improve communications, collaborate with the teacher’s union and school staff, and deploy a comprehensive survey to student caregivers before finalizing plans.

A large group of concerned parents and caretakers, including Columbus City School teachers and staff, are calling on Superintendent Dixon and the school board to reconsider their current plan for school reopening. Most concerning is the lack of communication that the Columbus City School Board has demonstrated with their recent announcement to return to school on October 19, 2020, earlier than originally announced in July and without approval from the Columbus Education Association, the local teacher’s union. This has not gone unnoticed in the district community, and caregivers and parents of CCS students are actively organizing a petition and social media campaign to amplify individual concerns and demonstrate collective support for teachers and the CEA.

This revised Blended Learning Plan has raised concerns about how the return and reduced teacher-to-student instructional time will affect children academically, and that the district is not giving teachers, staff, and administration enough time or resources to safely prepare their schools and classrooms. Additionally, over the past two weeks school-related coronavirus cases in Ohio have increased week over week.1 A total of 38 cases have been reported in nearby Olentangy Public School District and another 29 at Delaware Christian.2

While the particular concerns of each family in the district are unique, there is a common concern that the reopening plan was poorly communicated and lacked necessary engagement with stakeholders including students, families, school staff and administrators, namely the teachers and unions. The group also acknowledges that the current remote learning models do not work for all families, and calls on the CCS administration to step in as leaders to help solve these challenges in a safe and supportive manner.

A petition was released on October 6, 2020, and received over 300 signatures overnight. The petition can be found here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/press-pause-on-the-premature-return-to-blended-learning-for-columbus-city-schools?source

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1Bamforth, E. (2020, October 1). Ohio reports 284 new student, 156 new staff coronavirus cases in K-12 schools. Cleveland.com.
https://www.cleveland.com/news/2020/10/ohio-reports-284-new-student-156-new-staff-coronavirus-cases-in-k-12-schools.html

2Ohio Department of Health. (n.d.). COVID-19 Dashboard. Ohio Department of Health. https://coronavirus.ohio.gov/wps/portal/gov/covid-19/dashboards/schools-and-children/schools