It’s That Time of Year Again…Back to School (Amid COVID-19)

On Tuesday, the Brevard County School Board held one of their regularly scheduled meetings, but with some irregular concerns, complete with protesters outside.

As we all know, the whole country has been in the midst of a pandemic since March 2020, putting many stores, workplaces, and schools out of commission. Over the last few months numerous states reopened and tried to get back to life as usual. Unfortunately, reopening may have been premature. In the last few weeks, several states have seen a resurgence of COVID-19 cases, but none has been hit harder than Florida. Due to the influx, most counties have return (in some form) to initial “Phase 1” reopening requirements, which include closed salons and gyms as well as greatly reduced capacity/takeout only for restaurants.

Despite this reversion, some politicians, on a local, state, and national level, have been championing a push to reopen schools nationwide by August for upcoming school year.

Last week, the Brevard County School Board presented their proposed plan for reopening schools within CDC guidelines. This initial plan included 3 feet social distancing and masks as a recommendation, but not a mandate for children.

However, today, after over three hours of public comment, it became quite evident that members of the community, including parents, teachers, medical professionals and students felt that the plan did not do enough to adequately protect staff and students.

One of the first comments was from Anthony Colucci, President of the Brevard Federation of Teachers. He said, “The decision you are making should not be one of convenience, comfort, or politics, it should be based on science. With no guarantee of social distancing everyone needs to wear a mask…it’s what needs to be done. The District’s plan is especially lacking when it comes to arrivals, dismissals, and lunchtime. It’s shocking that there is no plan to stagger students in these instances. Also, the District plan offers nothing for high risk employees. Bolster up your plan before putting staff and students in harm’s way.”

Similar concerns were voiced by a majority of commenters. One asked “Will you be sending your own children or grandchildren to a brick and mortar school this August?” Others requested that wearing masks be mandated. Still others opined that rushing to reopen would result in rolling resignations from teachers and staff, forced retirement due to health declines and even mandatory relocation of staff as a consequence of low enrollment due to those families who choose to keep their kids home.

There was also much criticism of Governor DeSantis, who many claimed was “strong-arming” the District into reopening with little to no guidance. One commenter reiterated his quote regarding the virus in which he said “the virus should be treated like a trip to Home Depot or Walmart…get essentials and go home” as a way to support their position that there should be no sports or extracurriculars. Similarly, many felt if forced to return, at a minimum, the first semester should be a mixture of online and in person learning to reduce in-school hours.

Some, more frustrated community members, felt that “reopening safely is an oxymoron” and that the District should have come up with more creative, innovative solutions. Noting that no only should CDC guidelines be the minimum done, but also that teachers are required to give data on their classes and the District should be required to provide metrics on reopening in a similar fashion.

It was also interesting to see the youth and students of Brevard take an active interest in their fate as well. Several students made public comments and proposals on a variety of issues including, suggestions for an alternate block schedule, revised AP and college testing dates, and requests for year-round courses (particularly for creative electives). As well as concerns regarding cleaning schedules for classrooms in-between sessions and whether there will be consequences for students would don’t adhere to the requirements.

Though in the minority, there were few commenters who thought returning to school was a good idea. One person said, “The virus is not going away and we have to learn to live with it…key word being live”.

Overall, most agreed that to open and stay open, while minimize COVID cases, we must proceed with an abundance of caution.

Still, numerous questions remained, such as: At what point will we reclose of there’s an outbreak or even just a few confirmed cases? What medical professionals have been consulted in the development of the District’s plan? It’s difficult to convince adults to comply with guideline how will student do it?

In response to the clear apprehensions by the public, the District outlined their current reopening plan, which had been revised following additional CDC guidelines release in the last week. The plan also proposed moving the start of the school year back by a week from August 11th to August 17th.

Additionally, they emphasized that community leaders provided input and feedback through a portal and workgroup in preparation of the plan. However, they were clear that the plan and implementation isn’t final, and it will need revisions as the school year proceeds.

In an attempt to ease the public, the District emphasized the following precautions:

•They have secured a supply of face masks, face shields, PPE, hand sanitizer and Plexiglas dividers for all schools in the district
•All HVAC filters will be or have been changed
•The Florida Department of Health has helped with staffing nurses and health techs (though some schools still currently have vacancies)
•Visitors will be limited to emergencies, enrollment, or vital meetings
• Vendors must complete a self-screening
• Staff with underlining issue can seek ADA and FMLA protections

It was also stressed that “Parents are our first level of daily health check defense. We implore them to do exams and temperature checks every morning and keep their kids home if symptomatic.”

Regarding new cases and reclosing schools, Christine Moore, stated that response team will meet daily to discuss these on a case by case basis, maybe twice daily, stating “the grass cannot grow under our feet on these decisions”.

Board members also reiterated that the Executive Order mandated reopening and that a decision not to open in August would cause the District to lose funding (noting that even delaying to September could result in a loss of money), or worse, Brevard could face removal of board members in exchange for a people who would vote to reopen.

Despite the mid-meeting news that Broward County, in conjunction with their local health officials, decided today to continue e-learning for the foreseeable future; the Brevard School Board further defended their decision by saying, all children are entitled to Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) and because of that their hands are tied in many regards. Cheryl McDougal plead on behalf of the Board that “the Florida Department of Education and Governor DeSantis did not take safety into consideration [when issuing their order]. But we are very concerned about safety, if you look at the requirements set for us by the Governor, we are doing the best we can within the mandate that we got.” There was also much concern among members that the local Department of Health declined to issue specific guidelines or recommendations on the safety of reopening. Vice Chair Matt Susin challenged members of the Board to push to obtain additional guidance from the Department of Health or other regulatory agencies as “we need more answers”.

Despite nearly 12 hours of discussion and public comment, the Board was not tasked today with voting on this issue as it had already previously decided to reopen. However, they did have the option to reverse that decision which they declined to do. Although they decided to make revisions to “beef-up” the reopening plan and set specific, regular dates to re-evaluate the effectiveness and necessity of it, it seems as though schools in Brevard County will be reopening August 17th, with face-to-face teaching, 5 days per week as required by the Governor’s executive order.