NORTH MIAMI, FLA. (WSVN) - As teachers and staff from Miami-Dade County Public Schools make final preparations to return to classrooms with COVID-19 safety measures in place, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho visited several schools and hosted a special event in Coral Gables.
The countdown to the classroom is on. Some 300,000 students are set to return Monday morning in Miami-Dade.
Teachers spent the weekend making preparations.
“We’re ready to go for tomorrow, we’re ready to welcome all of our students back, we have all of our protocols in place,” said a teacher. “They’ve been out for a little while, and it’s time for them to come back and get back to our regular schooling methods.”
The classroom comeback will include masks, and with that, a rolling battle between the governor and local school districts.
Both Miami-Dade and Broward have defied the governor’s executive order giving parents an option over masks, and so far with Broward, the state has threatened to withhold school board salaries.
“We are pivoting away from what has been a distracting conversation about protocols now to a focus on teaching and learning, on accelerating the academic potential of every single student and recognizing the unfinished learning that they all emerged with this year,” Carvalho said.
Beyond the masks, in Miami-Dade, the district is spending close to $900 million on renovations and upgrades districtwide, and students are returning to some changes, including guaranteed after-school programming, health professionals in every school, screening or observation rooms in every school, as well as free breakfast and lunch to every child in the district.
In the meantime, the superintendent is pushing everyone who can to roll up their sleeves.
“We are making a big push for the vaccination of individuals who are 12 and older,” he said. “That includes students as well as adults. It is the best to prevent real harmful effects associated with COVID-19.”
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