Ohio's top educators explain draft plan to re-open schools

And Thursday, we got a glimpse at the "draft" plan to re-open schools.
The 12-page document is clearly marked as a "draft" for the purpose of "discussion and development."
We spoke with a few of the educational leaders appointed to the group creating the document as a guideline for re-opening schools.
They tell us specific health guidelines, such as wearing a mask, daily temperature checks, and frequent cleaning are only included, at this point, as a discussion guide for local leaders.
Although, the governor may make them a requirement later.
"I think it's going to be heavy on stimulating conversation and not so heavy on giving directives or firm guidelines," said Richard Lewis, Chief Executive Officer of the Ohio School Boards Association.
The document, however, does not tell district specifically if they will re-open. those on the board say that decision will likely be at the discretion of local leaders.
"A lot of these interventions that would be required to keep schools safe, will require more resources, will require more people and if there aren't the resources to do that it might mean schools have to stay closed and have to continue with remote learning," said Scott DiMauro, President of the Ohio Education Association.
"What we have to look at is, how many students do we have in a classroom, are there ways we can divide up those students so that they're not in such close contacts, do we need to have students reporting at different times of the day, or do we only need some students coming in and others learning remotely," explained Melissa Cropper, President of Ohio Federation of Teachers.
Their reasoning for leaving that decision to the schools is because they say it's not a "one size fits all" decision.
"I would probably tell you, you are going to see schools taking a lot of different approaches," said Lewis. "You may find the rural schools of Southeast Ohio have a completely different operational plan than the urban districts in the state, some of the small districts that have less than 1,000 students are obviously going to have different challenges, still challenges nonetheless, but different challenges than the larger suburban districts."
The draft version of the plan has not yet been finalized. Those we spoke with said they're unsure when a final version will be released, and noted more meetings are scheduled with possibly more stakeholders weighing-in.
All three agreed the biggest take away for teachers, parents and school leaders is "communication" and "collaboration."