Yellow Springs school district leaders are making plans for students to return to in-person classes, but exactly when that will be is uncertain.

Yellow Springs resident Chasilee Crawford is an ICU, or intensive care unit, nurse at Springfield Regional Medical Center. She volunteered to work in the hospital’s designated COVID-19 specific ICU when it was formed last March, and has been caring for patients who are severely ill with the disease ever since.

The Yellow Springs school board approved a plan for the district’s second semester, which starts Jan. 19, to begin transitioning students back to the classroom for in-person instruction.

With the expectation that the district will be going to voters for more funds in the form of a facilities bond levy in late 2021, Treasurer Emrick presented the annual five-year financial forecast during the school board’s most recent meeting.

Yellow Springs School District leaders anticipate a $30 million price tag, at minimum, to upgrade the district’s buildings, whether those improvements take the form of new construction or major renovations.

Administrators’ recent focus on pandemic-related school closures, and the accompanying transition to online instruction, drastically slowed the facilities conversation, but didn’t sideline it completely.

In the News’ ongoing “Facing Race” series, we turn this week to the local school district for a look at how the schools are reckoning with race and implementing new efforts, alongside continuing initiatives, to counter racism’s presence and effects.

Founded by high school intervention specialist Donna Haller, and initially launched in January 2019 under the auspices of the area Big Brother Big Sister organization, the local group struck out on its own and formed a governing board of trustees that summer.

The series of ticketed shows, which began in early June and ran for four months — as allowed by a temporary use permit for the agriculturally zoned property — may now continue through Aug. 5, 2021.

This is the first part of a two-part article. The second part will feature responses of families to the school district’s reopening plans, including a deeper look at the recent parent/guardian survey, as well as the thoughts of local teachers.