ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — School districts across Central Florida are meeting this week to discuss reopening plans.
The Florida Education Commission is mandating every school campus be open at least five days a week for learning, taking advice from state and local health departments.
Proposed learning options include traditional in-person learning, at home learning, virtual school, or a hybrid.
What You Need To Know
- District leaders to meet Tuesday to continue working out reopening plans
- Similar options for students being laid out to parents in districts across the region
- Seminole Co. Public Schools holding special board meeting, work session to continue planning reopening
Back to School season can be pretty stressful for teachers, students and families during normal times.
Right now, teachers say that’s amplified because it all comes down to this week to get a master plan to bring students safely back to school.
“It’s an extremely daunting task to reopen the brick-and-mortar buildings in the midst of the pandemic when Central Florida is turning out to be the epicenter of the pandemic,” said Anthony Colucci, president of the Brevard Federation of Teachers.
Colucci says he gets that some school leaders feel like their hands are tied.
Teachers feel that last week’s discussions were just the start, and there’s a lot to work through before reaching a finished, finalized plan.
Weighing the options
A recent robocall to Seminole County parents laid out the likely options for their children, including in-person learning, at-home learning, Florida virtual school, or a hybrid.
Those options look about the same for several other school district across Central Florida, including Brevard and Orange counties.
“It’s great to have options, but again, especially if we’re going to have students on campus, we need to make sure that we have the right safety materials,” said Lake Howell High School teacher Bobby Agagnina.
Agagnina wants nothing more than to get back to classrooms and see his students again, but not at the cost of safety and certainly not with any uncertainty.
“Our teachers aren’t frustrated or mad. They’re just scared because they don’t know,” said Agagnina.
“The Brevard County school district needs to bolster up its plan," said Colucci. "It needs to put the protections in place so our students, our staff, feel reassured when they enter these school buildings."
Seminole County Public Schools will hold a special board meeting and work session on Tuesday to continue to work on reopening plans.
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