COLUMBUS – Ohio’s schools will not reopen this school year, despite Gov. Mike DeWine’s plan to begin a phased-in reopening of the state’s businesses on May 1.
No decision has been made about the fall but DeWine says one possibility is a combination of distance learning and classroom instruction with each district coming up with a plan.
“We have a local government system, we have local schools, we like our local schools, we like the local control. It’s a combination of state control and local control but ultimately decisions are made locally,” he said.
There is the possibility that we will have a blended system this fall — some distance learning as well as some in-person learning. That's just a possibility and each school district is different.
— Governor Mike DeWine (@GovMikeDeWine) April 20, 2020
DeWine says he is concerned for the continued safety of students, teachers and communities.
He says returning students to their classrooms could lead to new cases of COVID-19.
DeWine says teachers and administrators also expressed concern about another disruption to a school year negatively affecting students, who need continuity.
This is certainly not how we expected to end the school year when we kicked it off last August. But this is a new reality that school districts across the country are now facing, and we must adjust to delivering quality educational experiences to our students remotely. -Talisa Dixon, Superintendent/CEO, Columbus City Schools
The [Ohio Education Association] appreciates the Governor’s leadership in making decisions focused on the health and safety of all Ohioans as our state faces the continued challenge of dealing with the COVID-19 public health pandemic… We call on Congress to provide additional relief to help us meet the needs of Ohio’s students and local school districts. Schools will reopen and when they do, we must welcome our students back to a more equitable, safe and dynamic learning environment that meets the promise of public education that all students, parents, families and educators deserve. -OEA President Scott DiMauro
DeWine said he was not planning to allow day-care centers to reopen, saying that they still posed the same high risk of spreading the coronavirus.
He also said he wasn’t going to bow to pressure to reopen businesses any earlier than his target date of May 1.
He says many small business owners had told him that they were concerned about the economic toll they would pay if the reopened, only to shut down again because of a spike in COVID-19 cases.
“One of the things they’ve told me is ‘Mike, don’t open back up, don’t have me come back out and then, a few weeks later, pull the rug out.’ They’ve told me, men and women: ‘I can’t do that again,’” DeWine said.
There were 12,919 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 in Ohio Monday, about one-fourth of them in the state’s prison system, a figure that increased suddenly after testing was stepped up.
A total of 509 Ohioans have died from COVID-19.
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The state Controlling Board Monday approved $8.5 million in funding for local health departments and transit systems.
The appropriations for health agencies were the second wave of distributions of federal funds, coming on top of to $15.6 million that was approved on March 25.
The funding will support monitoring, investigation, containment and mitigation of the coronavirus by local health departments; the purchase of specimen collection kits for testing; medications; preparedness and response efforts and support for the state’s Special Pathogen Treatment Center
The board also approved an appropriation increase of $81.9 million for the Ohio Department of Transportation through the $2.2 trillion coronavirus rescue package approved by Congress. The money will be used for rural transit systems to purchase personal protective equipment for employees and to cover lost revenue as a result of the pandemic.
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The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center is the first health system in Ohio to launch a new clinical trial that uses inhaled nitric oxide to keep COVID-19 patients out of intensive care.
Continuously pulsed inhaled nitric oxide is administered to patients who require oxygen but before a ventilator is needed to support breathing according to said Dr. Sitaramesh Emani, principal investigator and cardiologist at the medical center.
Inhaled nitric oxide is a well-established, safe and effective treatment to dilate arteries in the lungs, improving oxygen in the blood stream, Emani said.