Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
‘This should have been in place months ago’
School board criticizes delay in finishing reopening plan in Palm Beach County
With Palm Beach County readying to reopen schools for in-person classes, possibly as early as two weeks from now, School Board members are scrambling to finalize policies that “should have been in place months ago.”
During Wednesday’s school board meeting, officials didn’t hold back their frustration as the school district discussed numerous issues, including sick leave for teachers because of COVID-19 and how they’ll determine which teachers will be allowed to work remotely. It remains to be seen how the rush to be ready will affect how smoothly it goes whenever schools do reopen.
“The parent emails and teacher emails were getting are, ’How can I possibly make decisions on what I want to do until we have all the information?” School Board chairman Frank Barbieri said.”We don’t have the information out there and we’re going to start school in a week-anda-half?
Earlier week, Palm Beach County commissioners voted to ask the governor to enter Phase 2 of reopening this upcoming Tuesday. The Palm Beach County School District has long said it will reopen brick-and-mortar schools
one week after entering Phase 2, meaning more that 170,000 students and their families could have the option to return to campuses by mid-month.
Any student who wants to physically attend school will be allowed to, while students who prefer virtual learning can continue their coursework remotely. The school district reached out to parents this week to find out their preference for their children.
Palm Beach County began the school year on Aug. 31 with virtual learning. As the district begins moving toward in-person instruction, one of the key issues is determining which teachers will be allowed to work remotely.
As of Wednesday night, the School Board still was discussing that issue. Visibly frustrated, Barbieri said “this policy should have been in place months ago.” The school board chairman wasn’t alone in his frustrations.
“It doesn’t take a mindreader to see how very, very frustrated I am,” School Board member Barbara McQuinn said during a presentation on teacher sick leave and remote-teaching opportunities. “We haven’t even gotten to the end of this presentation and options for our employees get worse as we go along.”
“This committee, which appalls me we didn’t have a month ago. We knew employees were going to want to know how they can take whatever leave.”
During Wednesday’s meeting, board members vented about a “failure” in communication as they’ve attempted to inform parents what in-person instruction will look like.
McQuinn aired some frustrations, specifically at the district’s inability to lay out specific guidelines, including how far apart students must be from each other.
“Principals to my understanding have been told that first we’re [doing] 6 feet [social distancing]; now we’re 3 feet,” McQuinn said. “Lunches will be scheduled to allow social distancing whenever possible. So far, that’s where we are. And ’whenever possible’ doesn’t reassure a parent.”
“How as a parent can I make the decision to say my child is coming back to school when I don’t know if they’re 6 feet or 3 feet?
“If I don’t know if I’m in the overflow group. How is the overflow group different from learning from home? The questions are so overwhelming that we’re not going to get the information we want from this survey.”