Orange schools plan to reopen Aug. 21
Board members decide to offer both online, on-campus options
Orange County’s public schools will tentatively open Aug. 21, offering both on-campus and online options as the state demanded, the Orange County School Board decided Friday.
But the country’s eighth-largest school district also plans to seek a waiver from Florida’s requirement that traditional, five-day, in-person classes begin next month.
Board members said the decision about when to open campuses for face-to-face instruction should rest with them, in consult with local health officials and based on the prevalence of the coronavirus in the county. Several said it was not safe to open now, with record deaths from the virus reported in Florida, and they doubted it would be in a month.
“Requiring the face to face to begin in August I think is irresponsible given what is going on right now in Orange County,” said board member Karen Castor Dentel.
The board voted 6 to 2 to submit for state approval a plan that would offer parents three options: Have their children return to campus, study through the district’s virtual school or take part in a new program, dubbed OCPS LaunchEd@Home, that will offer live, online lessons that follow a traditional school schedule.
Board members said they were frustrated that if they did not submit such a plan, with an August opening date and an on-campus option, they risked losing state funding and having to lay off teachers. So most decided to vote for it but also seek a waiver.
“We know here in Orange County what is best for Orange County,” said board member Linda Kobert, who proposed the board adopt the plan but also seek a waiver from the August, in-person opening rule. “We are asserting our right as constitutional officers to make the best decision for our community.”
Castor Dentel and board member Kat Gordon voted against the plan. Castor Dentel said she feared the state would reject the waiver and approve the plan, leaving the district stuck with an Aug. 21 opening day for on-campus lessons, neither of which she thought was safe. Gordon said she wanted to do a parent and staff survey before the board voted.
The issue of schools reopening in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic has been contentious, in Central Florida and across the nation. Orange’s board took up the issue Tuesday but tabled a vote after hearing about nine hours of public testimony. Most of those who spoke were teachers who urged the board not to open campuses next month, saying they feared for their health, or that of their family members, if they had to return to in-person classes.
Board members said they wrestled with those teacher worries as well as concerns about parents who need schools open so they can work and children who will continue a “COVID slide,” if they don’t get in-person lessons.
“There are so many things that cause me literally not to sleep at night,” said Chair Teresa Jacobs ahead of the vote.
Superintendent Barbara Jenkins recommended the board adopt the plan, which is similar to plans already adopted by the Lake, Osceola and Seminole county school districts. She said she feared district budgets would be hurt if they did not, but also said she hoped most parents would choose the new LaunchEd option, giving many teachers a way to work from home.
Wendy Doromal, president of the Orange County Classroom Teachers Association, said she was thrilled with the board’s decision and that members listened to teachers’ concerns. “I just think it’s really great they’re taking a stand,” she added.
Jacobs said state has been “appalling,” with heavyhanded and sometimes confusing actions. She noted Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran signed the July 6 order requiring schools to open and then “doubled down” on that requirement Wednesday when asked to rescind it.
But Gov. Ron DeSantis, who tapped Corcoran for the job, has more recently seemed to offer wiggle room.
“What I’ve said from the beginning is we’ve got to work with every community as we see their circumstances,” DeSantis said while speaking in Apopka on Friday. But he also said he thought Central Florida, by next month, “is probably in pretty good shape” and said parents should have an in-person option if they want.
Jacobs said there should be local control rather than a required state plan for reopening.
“When the state’s plan says we should social distance, and then at the end says ‘when feasible,‘ you know what, if all the kids show up, it’s never feasible,” she said. “I think we need to be part of the truth squad here.”
Jenkins said her staff would quickly submit the reopening plan to the Florida Department of Education and would begin surveying parents on which choices they favored and also asking teachers whether they wanted to teach online or in person.
Under the state order, if districts do not submit a plan they can open in person, as usual, and offer their virtual school, which provides self-paced lessons for students to do at home.
Funding for the virtual school is about $1,400 less per student, so if students flocked to that option, because LaunchEd was off the table, the district could lose millions, she said.
The LaunchEd plan, if approved, would be funded at the same rate as in-person schooling, making it a more appealing option, Jenkins said. It would also allow students to keep a connection to their school,
“We know here in Orange County what is best for Orange County. We are asserting our right as constitutional officers to make the best decision for our community.” Linda Kobert, school board member
even if they are not on campus.
Jenkins said that Seminole has begun surveying parents, and 70% so far have said they want their children to study at home, at least to start the new school year.
If that proves true in Orange, Jenkins said, it would allow many teachers to work from home and limit the number of people on school campuses.
Under the plan the board approved Friday, Orange’s first day of school would move from Aug. 10 to Aug. 21. School leaders said that would give them more time to plan for what will be an unusual school year and more time, they hoped, for the county to stop the spread of the virus.
The state order says school boards can choose to not open campuses only if local or state health departments advise reopening is not safe. In South Florida, where counties are under orders limiting gatherings to 10 or fewer people, public schools have said they likely will not open their campuses in August, starting school online.
But Orange County is not under those restrictions, and Dr. Raul Pino, the state health officer for the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, has declined to give the school board a definitive answer on whether reopening is safe.
He has said that is not his role. But he also said Thursday that he has asked state officials to clarify his role and would provide an answer if told to do so.
He has told the school board the virus will spread on campuses once they open “because the schools are a reflection of the community,” he said. “It will come into the schools.”
The key is what measures schools take to reduce the risk of spread and how they contain it once a case is reported, he added.
But many teachers said they did not think face mask requirements, social distancing and enhanced disinfecting could be implemented well enough on campuses to keep everyone healthy.
“We know it’s not safe,” said teacher Megan Kost at Tuesday’s meeting. “None of us can really pretend it is.”
The school district has 18 employees currently on “medical relief of duty” because they have tested positive for the virus, a district’s public information office said. They represent a fraction of the 4,529 school employees who work 12 months a year.
The district would not say where the 18 employees worked, citing privacy laws.
Most of the district’s 12-month employees have been working at schools or other district facilities, but about 275 had permission to work from home because they were either older than 65 or had health conditions that put them at higher risk of illness should they contract the virus, the district said.