Orange teachers protest reopening campuses
Officials weigh 3 options for new school year
The Orange County school district likely will give parents three options for how their children are educated when the new school year starts next month: a return to in-person, on-campus classes or two online choices that would keep students studying at home.
As Orange school leaders spent hours Tuesday discussing the options for reopening schools, upset teachers paraded in cars around district headquarters, urging them to keep campuses closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Dozens of teachers, in cars decorated with homemade signs that read, “Keep schools closed. Keep teachers safe” and “How many students must die?” took part in the protest, fearing there was no safe way to open campuses next month. The new school year is scheduled to start Aug. 10.
The board’s meeting, which began shortly after noon, stretched into the evening. The board is not expected to vote on a reopening plan until its July 14 meeting.
Superintendent Barbara Jenkins, in opening the meeting, said her staff was “trying to provide choices for both employees and teachers” while also meeting state requirements. “We want to be flexible.”
State and school district surveys have shown about one-third of parents want their children back on campus full time.
Board Chair Teresa Jacobs said the Orange district, which surveyed parents in May, might need to do another survey this month, given the spike in cases in recent weeks.
“We need to figure out how to align the demand of our parents with the supply of the teachers,” she said.
Board member Johanna Lopez said she’s been getting a lot of emails from parents about reopening, most showing little support for a traditional in-school lessons. “The only emails I’m receiving are against face-to-face
education,” she said.
The district is considering letting parents choose from three options: A return to traditional classes on campus; online versions of the traditional classes that would allow students to study at home; and the district’s virtual school.
For in-person lessons on campus, the district likely would require temperature checks and face masks or face shields, and it would try to move out furniture to create more space in each classroom. It also might buy partitions to shield student desks. There would be enhanced disinfecting routines and new “sick rooms” for anyone on campus suspected of being infected with the coronavirus, among other measures.
Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran on Monday signed an executive order requiring school districts to make five-day-aweek, on-campus lessons an option for all students whose parents want that when the new school year begins in August.
Deputy Superintendent Maria Vazquez said the state’s order doesn’t mean lots of parents want or will choose a five-day option. But, she said, “We must offer that option to all parents.”
State leaders say in-person lessons are better for academic progress and are needed to jump-start the state’s economy as they allow parents to return to work.
“The state has a moral imperative to do our absolute best to return our schools to full operation by August,” said Taryn Fenske, a spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Education, in an email. “We simply cannot give into fear of the unknown and just stop trying. Our children’s education, the comprehensive health of our families —- mental health and stability in homes —- and our economy are all depending on us to make every effort to reopen our school campuses.”
But many teachers question how schools can reopen when there are now more cases of the coronavirus than there were when Gov. Ron DeSantis closed schools in midMarch. They were upset by Corcoran’s order, fearing it gives local districts fewer options.
“I was just honestly shocked,” said Alexandria Herman, who teaches at Union Park Middle School.
Herman, who took part in the car parade, said that at age 24 she wasn’t too worried about her own health. But she feared reopening campuses would force older teachers to retire early or find other work, hurting public education with the loss of their skills and experience.
“If you want experienced teachers in your school, you then can’t put them in danger,” she said.
The Orange County Classroom Teachers Association doesn’t want schools to reopen for in-person classes until new cases of the coronavirus are declining, not spiking as they have been in Florida.
“People are scared to death,” said Clinton McCracken, an art teacher at Howard Middle School in Orlando and a member of the union’s bargaining team, as he cheered his fellow teachers who drove by honking Tuesday.
Some teachers are worried about their own health if they return to classrooms, McCracken said, and others that they might pick up the virus and bring it home to vulnerable family members.
Dr. Raul Pino, health officer at the Florida Department of Health in Orange County, reviewed for the board the latest on the pandemic in the county.
Based on his advice, Jenkins on Monday canceled in-person graduations that Orange high schools had hoped to hold this month.
Board member Karen Castor Dentel asked how schools would be safe to open next month, given the decision that outdoor, football field ceremonies were not advisable.
Pino said the hope was that cases would decline in coming weeks, but he also cautioned that school leaders had to prepare for the virus to crop up among students and staff.
“Transmission is going to happen. We have to assume it’s going to happen,” he said.
Lopez later asked the key question on many school leaders’ minds: Can schools be reopened safely?
“If the question is, is it safe to open school as they were operating before you closed? The answer is no,” Pino said.
But with precautions, the risk of the virus being transmitted could be reduced, he said.