With the solar eclipse likely to snarl traffic and offer a galactic-size distraction, many area schools are closing for the day on Monday.
The celestial event will hit northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio right smack at the time when many students will be boarding buses to head for home.
And at the same time that tens of thousands of people will be stopped, standing, or parked to don their eclipse glasses and look towards the sky.
While some schools are not open for classes that day, most are handing out eclipse glasses and switching to e-learning. Some have created special curriculum around the eclipse.
Huntington County Community Schools created such a curriculum. Lessons around the eclipse will be posted by the teachers on Friday, and then are to be completed by students by Wednesday.
Even those school districts not in the path of the totality, such as Fort Wayne Community Schools, will see more than 95 percent of the sun blocked.
Below is a partial list of school closures for Northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio:
Northeast Indiana
- Ivy Tech
- North Adams Community Schools
- North Adams Community Schools
- Adams Central Community Schools
- South Adams Community Schools
- Fort Wayne Community Schools
- Northwest Allen County Schools
- East Allen County Schools (Spring Break)
- Southwest Allen County Schools
- Huntington County Community Schools
- Central Noble Community Schools
- MSD of Wabash County (early dismissal)
- Wabash City Schools
- Norwell Community Schools
- Bluffton-Harrison Community Schools
- Southern Wells Community Schools
- Whitley County Community Schools
- Smith-Green Community Schools
Northwest Ohio
- Van Wert City Schools
- Crestview Local Schools (spring break)
- Paulding Exempted Village Schools–closed