FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie announced the steps that need to be taken to welcome students back to the classrooms.
The school board has been hosting several meetings nearly every two weeks to evaluate the possibility of reopening classrooms in the county.
“At the top of everyone’s mind is ‘When are we going to return to school?’ I assure you we are as anxious as everyone else to know the answer,” Broward School Board Chair Donna Korn said.
The earliest schools could possibly reopen, according to the latest update, would be in October. On or around Sept. 22, a workshop will be held for school administration officials. Here, they will discuss the state of the county.
There a number of criteria that must be met in order for the district to properly reopen. Officials said they will look at the positivity rate along with hospital capacity and the supply of personal protective equipment, such as hand sanitizer, face masks and disinfectants.
“We’re relying on a number of providers to be able to stock up on these critical supplies,” Runcie said.
If officials decide that they are in a place where they can start the process of reopening schools, some time in October would be the intended date.
As of Tuesday, COVID-19 cases have continued on a downward trend, but a consistent positivity rate of below 5% must be achieved first.
“Over the past 14 days, ending with data through last Friday Sept. 4, what we’ve received from the Broward County Department of Health, in which we get our data, Broward County remains in phase one of reopening,” said Runcie. “We must be in, at least, phase two prior to bringing our kids back to school. We must also consider four additional gating criteria in addition to the phase that the county is in. These are criteria that we deem extremely important for reopening our campus — those are: disease regression, the ability to manage the spread, health system capacity and district safeguards.”
If students return to classrooms during the fall, there is concern among officials that a spike in COVID-19 cases could close down school buildings again. The district is advising parents to mentally and physically prepare for some uncertainty.
“We need to be prepared for a challenging school year, which could be a roller coaster,” Runcie said.
The district said they are mindful that they need to work with the counties north and south of them — Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties — at some capacity to ensure that all three areas are trending in a good direction.
Miami-Dade County is now sending out newsletters to parents asking them to rate the K12 program that their students are using for virtual learning.
Even if the Broward school district wished to reopen its classrooms, they cannot do so until the county is in Phase 2 of its reopening plan.
7News asked Broward County officials for their stance on possibly moving into Phase 2, and they said there are currently no plans to submit a Phase 2 reopening to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
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