High hopes for normal school year diminished

Frustrations mount as South Florida districts try to keep virus at bay

This year was supposed to mark the return of a normal in-person education for Florida’s children.

Instead, a surge of COVID-19 cases has forced thousands of students to stay home, complicated classwork, burdened teachers and raised doubts about whether the virus can truly be curbed in schools. And the school year just began. Palm Beach County, which started Aug. 10, already has more than 4,500 students assigned to home. Broward County, which started Wednesday, has quarantined 535 students. Miami-Dade County schools will resume classes Monday.

South Florida parents worry their kids will fall further behind, especially if they have to endure multiple weeklong quarantines. Test results showed huge drops in student achievement last year with students learning at home.

“Let’s see how much school we can miss this year. Might as well home-school. I mean seriously,” said Jenn Ward, a parent at Hollywood Hills Elementary.

School districts are taking extra steps to manage as the pandemic tears through South Florida. They are expanding tutoring services and homework hotlines and directing teachers to make all classwork available online. And

in a move that’s drawing the ire of many teachers, they’re asking them to use cameras to simultaneously teach quarantined students, returning to a hybrid teaching method that many say was ineffective last year.

Jupiter parent Talia Sampson said she has several friends whose kids have been quarantined.

“It’s ridiculous. It’s being made up as we go,” she said. “No one was ready for what they should have already anticipated months ago.”

When students are exposed

More than 1,000 students were sent home from Palm Beach County schools only days into the school year, disturbing parents and short-circuiting their ability to recover from last year’s academic losses.

Students are quarantined if they test positive for COVID19 or were within 6 feet of someone with a confirmed case for 15 minutes or longer. A student could be quarantined whether they use a mask or not, but vaccinated students do not have to quarantine in most cases.

Quarantines are shorter. Last year, many students had to quarantine for two weeks or more. Now they must wait four days after possible exposure and get tested for COVID-19. If it’s negative, they can return to school.

If they don’t get tested and have no symptoms, they can return after seven days. If they have symptoms or test positive, they must wait 10 days to return.

“Because of the importance of in-person learning to educational, social, emotional and mental well-being, removing healthy students from the classroom for lengthy quarantines should be limited at all costs,” according to a state Health Department rule issued Aug. 6.

School officials say the delta variant, considered far more contagious than the virus common last school year, makes it likely the number of students quarantined will increase.

In addition, the state ended the option of students learning at home, as half of South Florida students did last year.

The move was aimed to reverse poor academic results, but it means that school districts have less space to spread people out.

Politics in the classroom

The state also is prohibiting districts from requiring that all students wear masks, a rule that has sparked an angry debate about whether masks are critical to containing COVID-19 in schools at a time when students are required to be there.

Broward County has refused to comply with the rule, requiring almost all students to wear masks. Palm Beach County complied for the first two weeks but reversed course after sending 4,500 students home due to possible COVID exposure. Nearly all students must be masked starting Monday.

Justin Katz, president of the Palm Beach Classroom Teachers Association, said Gov. Ron DeSantis should have allowed the option to learn remotely. That would have let students spread out more and possibly reduced the need for quarantines.

“The governor, while espousing choice, eliminated the choice for parents to keep their kids home and work in a remote environment,” Katz said. “We are living in circumstances dictated by conditions set by people who do not live in Palm Beach County.”

DeSantis has maintained that in-person school is best for kids’ well-being. He has noted that districts with low in-person enrollment, particularly districts in South Florida, had some of the biggest drops in student achievement last year.

Cameras in the classroom

With the end of remote learning, districts planned to end the practice of teachers simultaneously teaching students in class and at home. But now that’s starting to return with the large number of quarantines.

Palm Beach County schools are allowing, but not requiring, teachers to turn on their webcams and microphones so quarantined students can observe class. Unlike last year, teachers won’t be expected to interact with students at home, a letter to teachers said. The district may ask the teachers union during bargaining for this be available to all quarantined students.

“I’m worried about us sending students into quarantine and not having proper instruction,” Palm Beach County School Board member Marcia Andrews said.

Palm Beach County has already agreed to pay teachers $25 an hour to serve as tutors from 3 to 5 p.m. for students in quarantine.

Broward has expanded its homework hotline, which had been available only after school. Now the service, which uses educators in various subject areas, also has hours from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Despite the Broward County School Board buying more than $9 million in cameras during the past two years, only audio feeds are currently being used so far this school year, due to concerns from the Broward Teachers Union.

Hollywood parent Rod Velez said his son A.J. was quarantined three times last year at Beachside Montessori Village. If it happens this year, he wants to make sure there’s audio and video.

“If this is not done properly, it’s really going to mess up my kid’s learning,” Velez said. “I want my kids to have all the information. I don’t want them stuck at home with a headset. To me, that’s not learning.”

The School Board approved $4 million to buy multidirectional cameras for elementary teachers Tuesday, outraging Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco. She was similarly upset when the district spent $5.2 million for secondary schools last year.

The cameras are designed to allow a teacher to move around a class without being tethered to a computer.

“You want to shove cameras down our throats again this year,” Fusco told the School Board. “Teachers are overworked and underpaid. You don’t even know how these cameras work. They don’t work. You throw money on useless cameras without consulting us.”

Jeff Moquin, an administrator for Broward schools, said the state is requiring the district to actively engage in learning during quarantine in order for students to be counted as present.

Fusco said she knows quarantines can be frustrating, but she doesn’t want them relaxed without guidance from federal health officials.

“I don’t want to have a chance on kids testing positive because we’re worried a kid might lose some instruction time,” she said. “I think kids will be able to weather being out a few days. Kids can bounce back. They’re resilient.”