Majority of Manatee County families want a full return to school, survey says

A majority of Manatee County families are hoping for a full reopening in the 2020-21 school year, according to a survey from the school district.

More than 20,000 people answered the brief survey before it ended on Sunday. More than 17,700 people — 86 percent — identified as a parent or guardian, while 6 percent identified as teachers. The remaining people identified as community members or district employees.

“If you have a student(s) enrolled in the School District of Manatee County, and the conditions of the pandemic were what they are now, which plan do you prefer for the 2020-2021 school year?”

More than 11,300 people — 55 percent — chose a full return to school. Another 21 percent said they preferred a “blended schedule,” meaning groups of students would rotate between in-person and online learning each week, allowing for more social distancing.

The third option, a full-time continuation of online learning, was preferred by 17 percent of people. The remaining 7 percent had no child in school, and the second question was aimed at them.

“If you DO NOT have a student(s) enrolled in the School District of Manatee County, which plan do you prefer the school district adopt?”

More than 6,300 people — 61 percent — chose a full return to school, while 21 percent chose the blended model and 18 percent chose full-time online learning.

The survey also offered three open-ended questions, and the district was working through more than 29,000 written responses.

The School Board will discuss the survey results and how to move forward at 10 a.m. on June 25, during a meeting dedicated to reopening plans. Residents can watch the meeting on Spectrum Channel 646, Frontier Channel 39 and www.mstv.us, along with Apple TV and Roku devices.

Marylola Hepp and her husband, Franco, opted for a full return to school. Their children — a daughter entering third grade and a son beginning elementary school — needed an in-person education, the couple said.

And if the children return to school, their mother could search for a job and return to the workforce. Online classes are time consuming, and Hepp said she lost her job as a line cook during the pandemic, when restaurants closed.

“We can’t educate them and pay our light bill,” she said.

Hepp filed an unemployment application in March, and as of Thursday afternoon, it was still pending, she said. The bills piled up, and her husband recently sold a project car that he owned for five years.

“We went from two incomes to one, and it’s tough,” he said. “I know we’re not the only family like that.”

Safety in the new school year

Regardless of the school board’s final decision, which will come sometime after the June 25 discussion, it was likely that safety measures would continue, Superintendent Cynthia Saunders has said.

Board members approved up to $325,000 in spending, enough to provide every employee and student with a mask. Saunders previously said that a mask would be useful in crowded areas, such as hallways and school buses.

“Once you’re in a classroom and I can have the spacing requirements or the protective barrier, my expectation is the students are going to be allowed to take the mask off,” she said at the board’s June 11 meeting.

Temperature checks, coupled with routine cleaning and hand washing, have been discussed. It was also likely that individual schools would be temporarily closed and disinfected throughout the year, as new cases of COVID-19 arise.

While most people are home for the summer, the district confirmed on Monday that Palmetto High School was disinfected after a district employee tested positive for the respiratory illness.

In its update on Thursday morning, the Florida Department of Health reported five new deaths and 25 new cases in Manatee County. Locally, there were more than 1,500 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 122 deaths in total.

Regardless of its final plan, the district reassured families that online learning would remain an option if they were uncomfortable with a return to school. Thousands shared their interest on the survey.

More than 3,100 people — 16 percent — said they would continue with online learning if the district moved forward with a full or partial reopening. Another 59 percent said they had no interest in continuing with the digital classroom, and 26 percent said they were unsure.

In an email to the Bradenton Herald, Palmetto resident Stacia Deitrich said she was eager for her children to have an in-person education and social lives. However, she was more concerned about safety.

“If the data and the science indicates that we need to take action to keep our society safe from this virus, then we need to have the willingness to consider all possibilities,” she wrote. “At this point, we have a while to go until school opens, so we need to wait and see what this virus does.”

This story was originally published June 18, 2020 at 12:07 PM.