As you know Elyria Schools is offering a Fall back-to-school plan that offers two educational models for parents: An in-person attendance and virtual learning hybrid, and a full online experience through the Elyria Schools Virtual Academy.

Both plans and additional important details about this coming school year are housed at Pioneer Path: Back to School. This site will be continually updated.

As you consider the educational model that best suits your family's needs we wanted to provide you with a sample schedule of the five-day-a-week Virtual Academy for Elyria students.

The Virtual Academy offers a fully online experience taught by Elyria teachers.

In developing this sample schedule (Spanish) the Academic Services Office of Elyria Schools took great care in designing an age- and grade-level appropriate plan for learning that also builds in breaks for the mind and body.

While learning from home, students will focus on core subjects but weekly art, music and physical education activities also will be built into weekly schedules. Attendance will be taken and assignments will be graded.

That said, we understand the possibility of work and personal conflicts with an "at-home" learning model. Teachers will be flexible and work with families as needed.

In the Virtual Academy students will work with their online teachers in real time on the schedule provided.

All students in the Elyria Schools will be assigned a chromebook to use at home and in school if attending through the hybrid model.

Virtual Academy students will be assigned a day to pick up their chromebooks and they will be invited to an online orientation that walks them through the process of signing in and setting up their tablets.

Please remember, to attend the Elyria Schools Virtual Academy you must register by Aug. 3, 2020. (Registration form in Spanish here.)

If your student is attending the in-person/virtual hybrid model of education they will be assigned to one of two cohorts and will attend school two days per week and learn at home three days per week.

Cohort assignments will be made after Aug. 3. There will be a process for requesting a change to your student's assigned cohort if parents have scheduling conflicts.

The start and end times for in-person attendance days in the hybrid model have been adjusted for each level. The school day schedule for the hybrid model is:

• Preschool AM: 9:10-11:40 and PM 12:40-3:10 (EECV and Hamilton)
• Elementary: 9:10-2:40
• Middle School: 7:30-1:45
• High School: Group 1: 8:30-12:40, Group 2: 9:00-1:10

You may recall in our newsletter sent on July 24 that we are planning to open on September 8 and will offer a staggered schedule the first week of school: September 8-11.

Students will be assigned one day during that week to come to school on a shortened schedule.

This gradual return will bring students back to school in smaller groups so they can meet their teachers, review their schedules, receive their materials and get comfortable with the routine of the school day.

Also in that newsletter we explained the district's leveled plan of return this school year.

The situation locally and nationally continues to change with COVID-19 and we must be ready to adapt the school year as necessary. The district designed a leveled plan that aligns with the state-designated “risk levels” set by health officials.

This helps us be prepared for changing scenarios with COVID-19 that might increase or decrease public health-level warnings.

We will keep you informed in the coming weeks as state and local officials continue to provide guidance on re-opening schools.

In the meantime, please reach out to us anytime at mailto:ask@elyriaschools.org. We will respond as quickly as possible.

Thank you and as always...GO PIONEERS!

Amy Higgins

Communications Director

Most recently we introduced a series of virtual tours of buildings that closed permanently at the end of the 2019-2020 school year and of now of brand-new schools opening in September.

All of these videos and so much more can be found at Elyria Schools Pioneer TV on YouTube.

To quickly navigate to the tours of schools, please follow these links.

Next up on our tour schedule: NEW Hamilton Elementary School (coming soon)!

• NEW Ely Elementary School
• Old Ely Elementary School
• Old Northwood Middle School
• Franklin Elementary School
• Windsor Elementary School

Just posted to Pioneer TV this week is a video diary of the week-long demolition process of old Ely Elementary School. You can check it out here.

We also flew our drone over the new campus sites that are under construction and opening in 2021: Eastern Heights Campus and Westwood Campus.

We hope you enjoy these videos and continue to follow us at Elyria Schools Pioneer TV on YouTube!

You'll also find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and at www.elyriaschools.org.

For some of our recent photo albums, you can check us out on Flickr.

Stay connected to Elyria Schools!