As valley school districts end their first full school year of dealing with the coronavirus how will they handle things this fall after state health restirctions are officially lifted?

What will be different or what will be the same?

Local school contacted by 21 News say they want to get back to some normalcy this fall which is what they say is best for their students. That means everyone going back to in-classroom learning Monday through Friday.

"Our goal will be to return to that five day a week without masks and that 6 foot spacing is not going to be possible with the return of all of our students," said Andrew Tommelleo, Liberty Superintendent.

Many districts are still waiting to hear from the state health department and department of education for their recommendations but it does look like masks will simply just be optional.

All schools say, though, they plan to keep up with expanded cleaning and sanitizing. East Palestine even hired an extra custodian last year to target Covid. The superintendent says that person will stay on because student sickness in general was way down.

"She has a sprayer. She's goes around and does all of the common areas, cafeteria, stairwells, door handles, any place that people are touching throughout the day," said East Palestine superintendent, Chris Neifer.

 Superintendents say they need to make sure they get all of their students caught up academically as at-home learning caused some to lag behind.

"We looked at 700 students and about 200 were at some point behind where they would normally be so that can range from a little bit of a gap to a larger gap," said Lance Hostetler, superintendent at United Local.

Many schools are adding special programs during and after school to make sure all students are caught up academically and socially.