Mount Healthy to hold early learning center ribbon-cutting; district plans remote instruction Oct. 11–22 amid rising COVID absences

Superintendent Dr. Hawkins told the Mount Healthy City Board of Education the district will hold a grand opening and ribbon cutting for the new early learning center on Sunday, Oct. 24, and that the district plans a period of remote instruction from Oct. 11 through Oct. 22. "We are planning to do a period of remote instruction the last week of the quarter, which will start on October 11 and go through October 22," Dr. Hawkins said, citing the need to move classrooms into the new facility and to interrupt rising COVID transmission.

Dr. Hawkins said the move to remote instruction is both operational and public-health driven: the district will deep-clean buildings and provide time to transition preschool classrooms into the new center. She noted that COVID-related absences have been significant recently — "last Monday, 25 percent of the teachers were out at the high school" and "today, at North Elementary, 28% of students were absent" — and that the remote period is intended to be instructional rather than a "snow day." The district plans to provide devices and mobile internet hubs to families lacking home internet and to expect teachers to deliver instruction through Google Classroom and schedule Google Meet sessions for students needing extra help.

The superintendent also reported community support and grants: donor David Montgomery gave cleats and gloves to the football team, and the district received a grant from Good Sports to procure elementary athletic equipment via an online catalog over two years. Board members asked whether testing would be disrupted; Dr. Hawkins said teachers will still be available remotely and students would continue scheduled learning activities.