Increase in students for new semester

Less social distancing will be enforced as more teachers, kids coming to classrooms

Broward schools will start a new semester Wednesday with more students, more teachers and fewer protections against COVID-19.

The district is also striving to make the new semester more traditional for students who arrive on campus, ensuring they learn in a classroom with a teacher and are not in a gym or auditorium with a laptop and headphones.

The changes come as the district tries to comply with a new state order requiring that schools bring more struggling students back to campus. But many parents have complained that the on-campus experience has been subpar, mirroring the same e-learning kids can get at home.

Only 26% of kids attend school on campus in Broward, the lowest in the state. It’s closer to 45% in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties.

Recent data shows distance learning may not be working for many kids. The number of F’s this semester have more than doubled from a year ago.

It’s unclear how many kids will return for the spring semester, but a parent survey said it may be about 39%.

To make the experience more appealing, the district is eliminating unpopular “overflow rooms” where kids learn by computer in a large room with students taking different subjects.

“Some parents and students are taking a wait-and-see attitude about whether it

will be different,” Superintendent Robert Runcie said. “They don’t want to be warehoused and sitting in a gym or an auditorium. They want to be sure they’re in a classroom interacting with a teacher.”

To do that, the district, required most of its 1,700 teachers who had been working remotely due to medical conditions to return to campus this week. The Broward Teachers Union has filed a lawsuit opposing that action.

The changes are also raising concerns among some parents, as the district may not adhere to strict COVID19 protocols, even though cases in the county and state are rising.

“Due to more students returning to campus, many classrooms will have relaxed physical distancing protocols,” said a newsletter from Eagle Ridge Elementary in Coral Springs.

Students and employees must continue to wear masks, but Eagle Ridge and other schools may no longer keep kids 6 feet apart, which is recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“This alarms me tremendously,” Eagle Ridge parent Lindsay Joly said. “With the number of cases we are seeing lately, this seems like a terrible choice.”

John Moreno-Escobar, who has a son at Sawgrass Elementary in Sunrise, received a note saying “social distancing may be relaxed” if more students come to campus. He planned to hold a virtual meeting Monday night with parents worried about this..

“Parents are seeing cases going up, and they are genuinely concerned about COVID-19,” he said.

Runcie said most schools should be able to maintain 6 feet of distancing. But he said some school districts in Florida and the U.S. separate students by only 3 feet “and they’re not seeing any real difference in transmission.” Although the district has had about 1,523 COVID cases in schools this year, experts say most students and employees contracted it off campus and didn’t spread it in school. Runcie said he believes schools are safe for students to return.