Manatee delays start of school by one week, offers three options for 2020-21 year

Manatee County public school students will start school a week later than originally planned, whether on their campuses or online from their homes, the school board decided Tuesday.

The board voted 3-2, with board member Dave Miner and Vice-Chair Charlie Kennedy dissenting, to move forward with Superintendent Cynthia Saunders’ proposal to start school Aug. 17.. The plan could change before and after the start of school, as the COVID-19 pandemic evolves. Board chair Gina Messenger and members James Golden and Scott Hopes voted in favor.

As of Tuesday night, the school district planned to offer three options for all grade levels:

• A return to the normal in-person, five-day schedule.

• A full-time continuation of online learning.

• A hybrid schedule, in which students would rotate between in-person and online learning each week.

“I do want to make it clear, a teacher is not delivering all three of these items,” Saunders said. “They will be delivering one. They’ll either be the face-to-face teacher, the hybrid teacher or the full-time eLearning teacher.”

The superintendent said schools would reach out to individual families and inquire about their preferred option, and that families had until July 22 to choose one of three plans. Otherwise, the default schedule is a return to five days of in-person learning for elementary students and sixth-graders, and hybrid classes for students in grades seven through 12.

‘I wouldn’t be sending them to school’

Golden said nothing was safe — whether it be schools, bars or other operations — until there was a COVID-19 vaccine.

“If it were up to me and I were the supreme ruler and person in charge of the world, I would not open schools — period,” Golden said.

“But this is not a perfect world, and we all have to take some risks,” he said, adding that families would ultimately make the best decision for their children, picking from the various options.

His comments were echoed by Hopes, who has a master’s degree in epidemiology and biostatistics.

“If I had children in school today, knowing what I know with my background, I wouldn’t be sending them to school,” Hopes said. “That’s the bottom line. I would not be sending them to school. That being said, we have given parents a full array of options to meet their individual needs and the desire of their family.”

The Florida Department of Health reported 153 new cases of COVID-19 in Manatee County on the same day as the meeting, while the local death toll stood at 140.

Two days prior, Florida smashed the national record for daily infections. And during a recent meeting, Saunders said the pandemic affected more than 350 district employees since mid-March, meaning they either contracted the virus or interacted with someone who tested positive.

As of last week, nearly 470 children in Manatee County — or 43.7 percent of those screened — tested positive for COVID-19.

“Why are we talking about bringing students and teachers and employees together when it seems to be escalating all around us?” Miner said Tuesday evening

Miner and Kennedy said they felt it was too early to completely reopen classrooms. They also questioned the legality of a recent order by Richard Corcoran, the state’s education commissioner, which called for schools to reopen five days a week.

Kennedy hoped to push back on the order but none of the other board members joined him on Tuesday night. Still, he vowed to share his opinion with the commissioner on Wednesday.

“I will go up to the Board of Education meeting tomorrow morning in Tampa and I will tell him that myself,” Kennedy said.

Tuesday’s board meeting was closed to the public as a precaution against COVID-19. Technical issues plagued the digital stream for two hours, frustrating online viewers, but the television broadcast seemed to continue as planned.

To watch the full two-hour meeting, visit www.vimeo.com/manateeschools.

School board chair opposes mask mandate

Messenger said she disagreed with one aspect of the reopening plan: a mask requirement.

“I really do not believe we should be mandating masks all day,” Messenger said.

As of Tuesday night, the district will require all employees and students to wear face coverings in school buses and district buildings. The district will provide cloth masks and accept a medical waiver for those who have a reason not to wear one.

However, a face shield would still be required in place of a mask, according to the plan.

Messenger said she preferred an earlier draft of the plan, which required masks only when social distancing was impossible, or when other safety measures, such as Plexiglass barriers, were unavailable.

The previous plan also allowed teachers to use their own discretion in the classroom, but the other four board members supported more stringent mask guidelines.

“I’m wearing one because the board has made it clear they want to support this,” Messenger said. “I am supporting the team and what the board wants, but it can give a false sense of security. The mask can be effective if it’s used in conjunction with many other pieces, such as cleaning surfaces, good hygiene and distancing.”

“However, I have seen all too often when someone has a mask on and they no longer follow the rest of the CDC’s recommendations,” she continued.

The district also planned to require daily temperature checks for employees and random checks for students, along with the regular cleaning and disinfecting of campuses.

But despite their best efforts, district officials and board members said, it was likely that schools would temporarily close throughout the year, as new cases of COVID-19 arise.

When a case is discovered in local schools, the district will report to the county health department, along with school employees and families, according to a fact sheet on the district’s website.

Students and staff members “will be subject to 14-day isolation from date of the last known exposure” if they interact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.

“We are going to have faculty that are going to contract this,” Hopes said. “We already have faculty that are contracting it.”

Why not stay online?

Dozens of people decorated their cars and circled the district administration building before Tuesday’s meeting, pushing for online classes throughout the district in August.

“Do I send hospital bills to Saunders or DeSantis?” one sign read.

“Yes, I miss my students. Yes, I want to see them. No, I won’t risk my life or theirs!” another said.

During the meeting on Tuesday night, Superintendent Saunders said online learning was not feasible district-wide, at least for now.

“Our decision and our discussion and my recommendation could change,” she said. “But I will tell you, to date, I am not prepared — our community and our school district is not prepared — to offer complete online out of the gate.”

“In March, we had been with our students for three-quarters of the school year,” she continued. “We knew them. We knew which ones needed a device. We knew which ones had a device at home. We could easily determine internet access. It will be very challenging for us to get that same information without any of these students showing up on our campus.”

The school district released a community survey in early June, and more than 11,300 people — 55 percent of those who responded — said they preferred a full return to school. Another 21 percent said they preferred the hybrid model, while 17 percent chose the full-time continuation of online learning. The remaining people said they had no child in school.

However, as noted in recent board meetings, the recent spike in COVID-19 cases may affect the results if Manatee were to re-survey the community.

This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 9:09 PM.