At his Tuesday Coronavirus press briefing Governor DeWine said that schools would be reopening in the Fall. DeWine hedged his bet saying “we fully intend to have school in the fall,” “Our goal is to have kids in the classroom,”. Coronavirus precautions and guidelines for classrooms are being developed by education and health officials but even with them in place the decision to open will be in the hands of local school boards and superintendents. “The caveat is, we don’t know exactly where this pandemic is going,” DeWine said. “Anything I say could be washed away by new facts.” DeWine said local districts would have a “great deal of flexibility.”
The Governor also talked about drawing down either some or all of the $2.7 billion rainy day fund to offset a huge hole in the coronavirus-cratered state budget for next fiscal year. This would be the first time in years that the fund has been touched.Leaders of the biggest state employee union and Ohio’s largest teachers union are calling on DeWine to spend the savings to offset reductions.
Later this week DeWine says he will have good news for the reopening of other venues in the state including zoos and museums.