Manatee County schools to close for two weeks, as coronavirus threat looms

As the new coronavirus forced universities, theme parks and major sporting events to shut down, Florida schools were hesitant to announce closures on Friday morning. All K-12 campuses in Manatee County were expected to reopen after spring break, but that changed by the day’s end.

In a series of news releases, the school district said it was “directed” by the Florida Department of Education to extend its spring break, while the state said it was a “strong recommendation” from the state’s education commissioner, Richard Corcoran.

Corcoran wanted to extend spring break for all of Florida’s schools, which have different schedules. The state recommended that Manatee County reopen schools on March 30, one week later than scheduled, while other schools would return before Manatee, according to the DOE’s news release.

State testing would also be delayed by at least two weeks, the DOE reported.

“Keeping students healthy and safe is my No. 1 priority, and that is why we are recommending that districts follow the CDC’s guidance for Florida,” Corcoran said in a prepared statement.

Teachers get only one week off in Manatee

The Manatee district said employees would work between March 23 and March 27, and all extracurricular activities for students, including athletic contests, would be postponed for the next two weeks.

“Instructional personnel will work on professional development and training while support personnel will conduct the regular business operations of the district and prepare for the return of students on March 30,” the update states.

In a recent email to families, Superintendent Cynthia Saunders said the district would undergo “intensive-cleaning and disinfecting” during spring break. She said updates would be posted to the district’s website, social media and the MySDMC phone app.

“I have been in education as a teacher, principal and administrator for more than 30 years and what has taken place in the last two weeks is totally unprecedented in my experience,” Saunders wrote.

“The pandemic known as coronavirus has forced organizations and individuals across America and the world to make decisions that would have been unthinkable just a few short weeks ago,” she continued.

The United States had more than 1,600 confirmed cases of the virus, including two in Manatee County, according to state and federal agencies. As of Friday, there were 41 deaths in the country.

At least five U.S. states closed all their schools or extended their spring breaks for the next several weeks, hoping to slow the transmission of COVID-19. As of early Friday afternoon, they were Maryland, Ohio, Michigan and New Mexico and Oregon.

In Florida, prevention efforts led to the cancellation of March Madness basketball tournaments, the temporary closure of Walt Disney World and the delay of the Coachella music festival.

Beloved events in Manatee County were also canceled or postponed, including the Bradenton Farmers’ Market, the Anna Maria St. Patrick’s Day Parade and the Spirit of Manatee Awards Luncheon.

And while Florida’s university system directed all of its campuses to start using off-campus instruction “as soon as possible,” most K-12 schools had yet to follow suit — until Friday evening.

“I know our students, employees and community will rise up to meet the challenges before us,” Saunders said in a prepared statement.

When should a school close?

A handful of schools began to close as the weekend drew closer. Two counties temporarily closed a total of three schools by Friday morning, according to the Florida Department of Education.

“If you are contemplating a school closure, we respectfully request that you contact us as soon as possible, so that we may work with you to ensure that our students’ interests are always front and center,” the DOE said in a March 11 memo to superintendents.

By Friday afternoon, a handful of campuses were closed in Hillsborough, Okaloosa, Pasco and Pinellas counties. Palm Beach County was the first to close all of its schools, followed by Miami-Dade County.

With support from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the education commissioner followed the sporadic closures with a statewide directive to shut down schools for two weeks, according to Manatee’s news release.

“The Coronavirus pandemic is having an unprecedented impact on our society and across the world, so it is not surprising that it is now directly impacting our schools,” Saunders said.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, schools should weigh the pros and cons of shutting down, and they should consider extending spring break. The federal agency said it was especially important to slow COVID-19 transmission in Florida, which has a large population of elderly residents.

A temporary closure allows schools to disinfect the campus, increase social distancing and protect the health of older staff and people with compromised immune systems, the agency said in its latest guidance.

But students might interact with large groups outside of school, where monitoring is even harder, and it could hinder students’ academic progress. Closures also hurt students who rely on school meals, along with families who lack child care or the technology needed for online learning.

All school districts should coordinate with local health officials to make a decision, especially in areas with community spread. Schools should also consider a short-term closure if an infected person was on campus, allowing time for cleaning and needed investigations, according the CDC.

“In places where school closures are necessary, the anticipated academic and economic impacts and unintended impacts on disease outcomes must be planned for and mitigated,” the agency reported.

Sarasota County Public Schools recently issued a survey to families, gauging their technology needs “in the unlikely event of a traditional public school closure,” according to a news release.

Manatee schools confident they can manage a closure

Manatee schools had yet to issue a survey on Friday, but district officials were confident in their ability to handle a long-term closure after spring break, if that were to happen, district spokesman Mike Barber said earlier in the day.

He said the district would loan computers and internet hotspots to families in need, and that all students would continue their learning on Schoology, an online service.

“We feel like we have the resources to do that,” he said.

The school district, Barber said, was also focusing on students who rely on school for a daily meal. More than 14,000 local students qualified for free or reduced-price lunches in the current school year, according to the state education department.

“This hasn’t been finalized, but we would probably set up a sack lunch or breakfast situation, where parents could drive through,” he said. “Those are the kind of conversations we’re having.”

This story was originally published March 13, 2020 at 1:42 PM.