Back to School: Miami Valley CTC students return to classes ahead of transition to virtual learning

ENGLEWOOD — Today is the first day some students will return to the Miami Valley Career Technology Center in Englewood, ahead of the school transitioning to all virtual learning next week.

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Juniors will be on the campus today with no seniors in classes. Friday, the grade levels switch, with seniors on campus and juniors not in attendance. Virtual learning starts Monday for all students and will continue through Sept. 4, as a part of the school’s restart plan.

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The school said they were thrown a unique challenge to change their reopening plan quickly, following the recommendation from Public Health Dayton & Montgomery County for schools to start online that was announced July 31.

“In July, the district had developed a solid plan for educating students and shared that with stakeholders,” Superintendent, Dr. Nick Weldy said. “With the Public Health-Dayton and Montgomery County’s recent recommendation to start the year with online learning, we were forced to change that plan quickly and move to more additional online learning for three weeks."

“Our goal is to return students as soon as it is safe enough to our blended learning schedule that was share in July. Our students, parents and staff have been great and we appreciate their flexibility and patience.,” Weldy said.

In addition to the quick change of plans, MVCTC faced challenges developing their plan due to the hands-on equipment used in classrooms and the requirements to clean them consistently as an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19.

“MVCTC has a huge amount of hands-on equipment when compared to other schools. This must be cleaned each time it is used. That takes time and lots of cleaning resources. Fortunately, the district has a solid plan in place to ensure this happens,” Weldy said.

On the first day back Thursday, Weldy said students were happy to be back at school and were following health and safety protocols.

“Students who I greeted today were very excited to be back on campus and ready to go. Every single student that I greeted today already had their mask on and was following the guidance. It was great to see that everyone understood and followed the social distancing and masking expectations,” Weldy said.

Cox Media Group