Best of 2021: Top 9 stories in K-12 school this year

At the start of 2021, some local schools were five days a week in-person, but others were still doing fully online classes and some were in hybrid models where kids were in class a few days a week and learning from home a few days. Schools were also offering fully online options for those families who chose it.

Dayton, Trotwood-Madison, Northridge and Yellow Springs were the last locally to go back to some form of in-person classes, around March 1. That was in part because Gov. Mike DeWine asked districts to commit to that date if they wanted their staff to get coronavirus vaccines in February.

Mask or no mask?

Mask policies have changed throughout the COVID pandemic, as schools adjusted to what was happening in the community. When virus outbreaks quieted, many schools dropped mask mandates. When cases and hospitalizations surged, the masks came back.

Most recently, public health officials and Gov. Mike DeWine have urged schools to retain mask mandates, as more Ohioans are currently in hospitals fighting COVID than at any time during the pandemic. But some schools are dropping mask mandates in January, or considering doing so.

Students struggle academically

Ohio K-12 students’ performance on state tests in spring 2021 was notably worse than the previous test cycle two years ago, as expected after 12 months of COVID-related disruption.

There were some students who did very well in online settings. But overall, “performance gaps” got worse, as traditionally high-scoring schools (Oakwood, Brookville, Tipp City, Newton) saw smaller slides, while long-time lower-scoring schools (Dayton, Trotwood, Northridge, Jefferson Twp.) slipped more.

Using the federal money

With $400 million in federal COVID relief funds available to Dayton-area schools, dozens of districts decided to use the money to make health and education-related changes.

Others were thinking big to take advantage of a rare opportunity — Fairborn hired dozens of teachers for student intervention, Dayton made a massive investment in its early grades, and Huber Heights began totally reimagining its approach to high school.

Staffing a major challenge

Hiring school bus drivers has been a struggle for years, as trucking and delivery businesses compete with schools. But many K-12 schools struggled to hire all kinds of staff this year, as the number of applicants for teaching positions, aides, cafeteria staff and other roles dropped locally and nationally.

Miami Valley Career Technology Center officials said they were “blessed” to eventually fill all of their positions. “With that being said, it has been less of an applicant pool and more of an applicant puddle,” Superintendent Nick Weldy said.

Joyous moments

While much of 2021 was a struggle in schools, there were great stories too.

** Dunbar student Myles Lacking earning valedictorian honors and winning state track titles with two Dunbar relay teams.

** Max Allison wrapping up an amazing four years at Carlisle High School and heading off to Harvard.

** Troy Christian senior Maiya Dilbone creating a new food resource for Miami County residents in need.

** Cedarville middle schooler Sophia Lopez reached the national spelling bee and then placed in the top 20 in the United States.

Tragic losses

Thousands of Ohioans died after battling COVID in 2021, and school employees were certainly affected as well.

An inspiring Milton-Union music teacher died after a COVID fight early in 2021. Miamisburg schools lost two employees within a week, including a longtime teacher and coach who died at 42 after being sick with COVID.

In Warren and Butler counties, four teachers from different districts died days apart. Causes were not released, but school communities grieved across the region.

Critical race theory

As “critical race theory” became a national point of debate in schools, the Dayton Daily News investigated just what was in local schools’ curriculum. We found that schools in the greater Dayton area largely don’t require discussion of current events related to racial justice, and don’t have much about racial equality in the past 50 years in their base curriculum.

But what is happening in individual classrooms is difficult to document since the curriculum is treated as a minimum standard and most schools give teachers a lot of autonomy.

New school buildings

More than $650 million in taxpayer-approved funding in the Dayton area is going toward an unusually large number of school districts planning for or constructing new school buildings.

There’s a massive $158 million expansion at the Miami Valley Career Tech Center, an $18 million project in Oakwood that just renovated existing buildings, and ongoing projects in Fairborn, Franklin and West Carrollton.

Read more about these topics

The online version of this story contains links to nearly two dozen of the top education stories of 2021. To see this and other year in review stories, visit www.daytondailynews.com/list/2021/.