Broward schools looking to get about 10,000 students back into classroom
Between 300 and 400 educators fanned out across neighborhoods in Broward County on Saturday, going door to door trying to reach thousands of students who have either not shown up for school or have attended class sporadically since the beginning of the
COVID-19 pandemic.
The goal is to get as many of them as possible back into the classroom because experience through the pandemic has shown that children learn better when they’re in front of a teacher. The task is monumental, however, given that the list of students they’re trying to reach includes about 10,000 children, schools officials say.
“And, these are going to be students from two different areas,” said interim Superintendent Vicki Cartwright. “In other words, it’s not just children who did not return to school.
It’s also students who are not attending school on an everyday basis. They maybe showed up a day or two for school and we didn’t see them again.”
Broward County Public Schools is the sixth-largest district in the nation, with 204,000 traditional public school students and about 260,000 students altogether when counting those attending public charter schools.
The teachers, counselors, principals, School Board members and Cartwright herself broke up into small groups methodically ticking off addresses as they went house-tohouse knocking on doors and ringing bells Saturday.
The job was akin to sales cold calling. Getting just a few positive responses is considered a success.
“I’ve been doing this for decades with the political thing, and you’re lucky if you get four or five people that answer a door,” Broward Teachers Union President Anna Fusco said