COLUMBUS — Only 29.1% of Ohio students are currently attending class in person full time.

Gov. Mike DeWine made that announcement during his press conference on Monday. He presented Ohio Department of Education (ODE) statistics dated Dec. 3 showing that only 245 of the state’s 609 school districts are conducting in-person classes on a full-time basis. The agency reports that 451,155 of Ohio’s 1,547,909 students are attending in-person classes full time.

ODE figures show that 185 school districts are delivering classes to students entirely by remote means. That amounts to 691,861 of Ohio’s 1,547,909 students, or 44.7% of the students enrolled.

Another 177 school districts are conducting “partial in-person” classes, accounting for 25.1% of the state’s students, ODE reports.

Using protocols outlined in its reopening plan, Galion City Schools is currently offering in-person classes on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday with remote learning on Wednesday.

Crestline Exempted Village Schools Superintendent Matt Henderson announced in a letter dated Dec. 6 that the district would be conducting classes remotely for the rest of the fall semester effective Dec. 7 for the middle and high school and effective Dec. 8 for Pre-K and elementary school.

“Over the last 18 hours, our situation has changed compared to how we began a week ago and we are now facing the same issues with COVID-19 and illness we had back in October when we went remote as a district,” Henderson stated in the letter. “I do not take these decisions lightly and always consider the safety of our students and staff as the most important factor. … This is due to the impact of one positive case among the student population on the (middle school/high school) side along with some feedback from our health professionals. Contact tracing for students will begin once the health department receives the verification of a positive case. Also, there is an increase in quarantine among our elementary population along with illness with two or more symptoms.”

Wynford High School students in ninth through 12th grade were scheduled to begin remote classes on Dec. 8, according to Principal Julie Miller.

“As of right now, the plan is for the (high school) to return to school on Wednesday, Dec. 16,” Miller stated in a letter posted Monday on the school district website. “At the current time the (high school) has over 80 students that are quarantined, with this number growing quickly over the last several days, we felt it was necessary to switch to remote learning for the high school students only. The middle school currently only has 3 students quarantined, as a result they will remain face-to-face. The buses will still be running and will still continue to pick up our middle school students.”

At Bucyrus City Schools, middle and high school students are taking classes remotely through the end of this week, according to the district website. Elementary school students are operating via “split sessions” through Dec. 22.

All students at Colonel Crawford Local Schools and Buckeye Central Local Schools were scheduled to return to in-person classes on Dec. 7.

All buildings in the Northmor Local School District remain open, according to the latest update Superintendent Chad Redmon posted to the district website on Dec. 4.

As of the Dec. 3 report, Crawford County remained at Level 3 (red) on the Ohio Public Health Advisory System. The next report is due out Thursday.

On Monday, the Galion City Health Department reported 47 new cases of COVID-19 within its jurisdiction since Dec. 1. There are 111 active cases and nine people are currently hospitalized, according to the city health department. The agency reported that 356 of the 487 people diagnosed with the virus since it began have recovered.

Officials said they have determined that 13 of the 20 deaths reported have been due to COVID-19. Two deaths were due to “other causes” but the individuals had been diagnosed with the virus. The health department is awaiting information about five other deaths of individuals “(who had tested positive) as to whether COVID was a contributing factor.”