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Local school district plans 'soft opening' to help students, teachers adjust to COVID-19 practices

Soft openings are meant to introduce students to the changes at school.

STRONGSVILLE, Ohio — In a few weeks, students will walk into Strongsville schools for a two-week long phase-in. Dr. Cameron Ryba, the Strongsville Schools Superintendent says it’s intended to be a transition period with purpose.

“It's going to get them to practice and understand the blended learning. So, they'll see what it's like to go into school one day and be at home the next,” says Dr. Ryba.

Thanks to the pandemic, Twinsburg City Schools Superintendent Kathi Powers says her district will also do a soft reopening so students can learn and adjust to the new daily health and safety protocols.

“Temperature taking, hand sanitization, how we walk in the hallways with routing of students keeping them six foot socially distance from each other,” explains Powers.

The main focus will still be on learning, but in a way that looks and feels different whether in person or online.

“So, it's going to give kids a chance to practice in smaller groups that in-person learning and learn all the procedures and protocols and differences of how school is going to be,” says Dr. Ryba.

There will also be an opportunity for teachers to learn their classrooms better to determine if there was any regression and figure out what their students need.

“That soft reopening will provide the teachers with an opportunity to do some baseline assessments to benchmark where our students are skill wise,” says Powers.

The soft opening phase in will have an emphasis on safety, however the bigger goal is that students know that they can be successful this school year even with so many changes.

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