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Students at Akron Public Schools will begin a return to in-person learning a week ahead of schedule, but still after the state鈥檚 March 1 deadline.

The school board approved the decision Monday. The original reopening plan had students back in the classroom March 22.

The change comes after a district survey found nearly 70 percent of families want to return to in-person instruction. For those families, students will return to school in two groups: students with learning disabilities and kindergarten through second grade students on March 8 and the rest of the district one week later, on March 15.

Students and staff will be required to wear masks and maintain a distance of three-to-six feet from each other, said Superintendent David James. Buildings will be sanitized, he said, and additional measures are in place to prevent spread of the coronavirus.

鈥淚鈥檓 confident,鈥� James said. 鈥淲ith everything our staff has put together, I think we鈥檒l be okay in terms of a safety protocol.鈥�

For the 30 percent of families who don鈥檛 want their kids to return to the school buildings, a remote option is still available, James said.

Elementary schools are seeing the highest demand for in-person instruction, he said, but the district is seeing even split among 11th and 12th graders. Teachers will be divided between in-person and remote lessons based on the needs of each school, James said.

Some students have handled remote learning well, he said, but there is a need for in-person instruction in the community.

鈥淔or many of our students, there鈥檚 a learning loss,鈥� James said. 鈥淲e need to come up with a plan by April 1 for how we鈥檙e going to deal with that learning loss over the summer.鈥�

Akron schools faced criticism from Gov. Mike DeWine for not pushing to return on March 1 鈥� the state鈥檚 condition for providing school staff with COVID-19 vaccines. But no two districts have the same needs, James said, and administrators have done what they can to meet DeWine鈥檚 timeline.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 know what other districts were doing,鈥� James said. 鈥淚 just said, 鈥榃e can鈥檛 be the only district in Ohio that doesn鈥檛 meet that March 1 date. We need to do whatever we can to move it up.鈥欌��

All staff who signed up to be vaccinated will have received both doses by the time students return, James said, and the shots were rolled out to coordinate with teachers鈥� schedules, depending on if they would be working with the March 8 or March 15 student groups.

The district has worked closely with the teachers鈥� union on the return plan, said Akron Education Association President Patricia Shipe.

鈥淲e鈥檝e always wanted to get back in, but we wanted to return students and faculty back to the building safely, in a safe manner,鈥� Shipe said. 鈥淲e believe that has been accomplished.鈥�

Some staff were previously concerned the return to in-person learning would result in students having to change teachers in the middle of a grading period. But Shipe said the current return plan allows classes to keep the same instructor through the end of the period.