MANSFIELD — The Mansfield City Schools board of education voted Tuesday to cancel classes for next year’s solar eclipse.
The board voted 4-0 to use a calamity day and give students and teachers the day off on April 8, 2024.
Calamity days are typically reserved for times where snow, ice and extreme temperatures make it unsafe to attend school. Next April, it’s an influx of visitors to Richland County that may make it difficult to safely head home at dismissal.
Richland County will experience a total solar eclipse, a rare natural phenomenon that occurs when the moon completely blocks the view of the sun from earth. During a total solar eclipse, the moon’s shadow blocks nearly all sunlight, leaving just a small illuminated rim around the sun.
Richland County will be part of a 124-mile-wide band within the state of Ohio that will experience the total solar eclipse.
According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the total solar eclipse will begin in Cleveland at 3:13 p.m. and conclude four minutes later. A simulator tool on Great American Eclipse predict’s Mansfield’s moments of darkness will be just a few minutes earlier.
“If we are in school, we’ll be letting out at the time when this all will be happening,” Supt. Stan Jefferson said.
Jefferson recommended canceling classes in the interest of safety, but also the historical significance of the day.
A total solar eclipse occurs somewhere on Earth only once every 18 months, according to the Ohio Emergency Management Agency (EMA). Only 21 total solar eclipses have crossed the lower 48 states in the nation’s history.
The last total solar eclipse visible in Ohio was in 1806 and the next total eclipse will be in the year 2099.
Jefferson told the board other local school districts have also canceled classes the day of the eclipse.
In other news, Nikia Fletcher, director of college and career readiness, updated the board on the district’s career technical education (CTE) department.
Fletcher said some of her goals for the coming year is to make more supports available for special needs students enrolled in CTE programs and increasing non-traditional enrollment.
In order to raise awareness of the various CTE pathways before gender stereotypes set in, the district has incorporated program-related activities into its summer S.T.E.A.M. camp and given younger students tours of the high school’s makerspace lab.
“We don’t tell them it’s CTE, we just let them have a whole lot of fun with the things that we do so that when they get to the high school, they’ll remember it and want to reconnect,” Fletcher said.
“We want them to be aware of what’s available so that they can have the opportunity to make a choice before the choice is made for them.”
Fletcher said she hopes such efforts will make students feel more comfortable choosing what interests them regardless of social trends.
“How do I get my girls to like construction?” she said. “How do I get my guys in cosmetology?”
She said programs are also being modernized to meet the needs of local employers. For example, the engineering program is shifting its focus from architecture to robotics and networking will focus less on the hardware and software of computer building and more on cybersecurity and cyber defense.
“We know what’s going on in Lahm and Licking County,” she said. “We want our students to be prepared to compete when those businesses and those opportunities are ready.”
Another goal is to incorporate lessons on entrepreneurship into all CTE pathways.
Lastly, the program will allow students who have 250 hours of offsite or simulated workplace experience to apply that towards their graduation requirements for the state of Ohio.
Under Ohio law, students can use a work-based learning experience can be an alternative way to prove competency, as opposed to standardized test scores.
“This is going to be massive for us. This will give us the opportunity again to increase the pathways to get a student across the stage,” Fletcher said.
The board also:
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Approved curriculum materials for kindergarten through second grade math.
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Approved a $162,575 contract for professional development training through Wilson Language Training Corporation.
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Approved a $42,000 contract with Norwalk-based Resource Solutions Associates for consulting on compliance with the Ohio Department of Education safety regulations and general district safety programming.
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An HVAC maintenance and water treatment contract with Gardiner.
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Heard an update from Supt. Stan Jefferson regarding the “Peace on My Block” initiative. Students will be asked to take a pledge to reject violence, bullying and discrimination.
