When Keys students return to classrooms over next few weeks, it won’t be ‘normal school’
Fewer students in school buildings. Masks required in class. Lunches served in the classroom, not in cafeterias.
Socially distanced desks. One-way hallways. Signs reminding everyone to wash their hands.
When Florida Keys public school students return to classrooms over the next few weeks, things will look far different from when they had last been in school in the spring.
“It’s not even going to look like normal school,” said Andy Griffiths, a school board member from Key Haven. “It’ll be less than half the kids in the buildings.”
As COVID-19 infection rates have subsided in the Keys, Monroe County school officials announced this week a return to face-to-face education in classrooms.
Remote learning began a week ago. But the school district plans to start welcoming some kids back to school on Monday and then on Sept. 8, to begin a staggered schedule for orientation.
“On Sept. 14, schools will open for business,” said schools spokeswoman Becky Herrin, adding they will operate under a “moderate exposure” plan filled with safety protocols.
It’s time, said four of the five school board members on Friday.
“Our kids are suffering with this virtual learning,” said Bobby Highsmith, a school board member from Key West. “It’s as good as can be under the circumstances but it’s not nearly as good as face-to-face learning.”
Board Chairwoman Mindy Conn, of Sugarloaf Key, said some kids need extra help they can’t get at home.
“Unfortunately, not everyone’s home life is great,” Conn said. “School is a respite. It gets them out of their current circumstances. We are able to make sure they get fed.”
In some cases, grandparents are quitting their jobs to help their families with remote learning.
“It’s a mess,” Griffiths said.
School Board Vice Chairman John Dick, of Marathon, has a wife who teaches in the public schools and his daughter is a principal.
“My grandkids will be in school,” Dick said. “I just think with the conditions we have in Monroe County now I think we’re all better off going to school.”
Dick believes the majority of parents want a return to the classroom for their children.
Not everyone can afford to stay home, Dick said.
“It’s the poor people who really are hurting big time in this thing,” he said.
Highsmith pointed out that the return to the classroom is voluntary.
“This is an option,” Highsmith said. “We are not forcing anyone to come back to school, not teachers or students, who don’t feel safe.”
Under the plan, students in grades pre-K-5 will attend school five days a week with their assigned teacher.
Students in grades 6-12 will return on a part-time basis and attend virtual school on days they are not in the classroom. Students will be in an “A” or “B” group and they will then attend school on the days assigned to their group.
Highsmith said his son, a sophomore, will be on the AB plan, which means attending school online on the days he’s not at the high school campus.
This schedule will keep the student population in schools at a safe level, Herrin said, and fewer students will allow for social distancing in the classroom, along with fewer students in hallways and other public areas.
School board member Sue Woltanski, of Tavernier, was the holdout in a 4-1 vote Tuesday on the administration’s decision to implement the plan that’s already been approved by the board.
Griffiths said the board didn’t need a vote because the plan was already approved.
But Woltanski said they moved up the timeline, and noted the Keys’ COVID-19 infection rates weren’t so good a few weeks ago.
“It was really moving the return up a week and, really, our data only just started looking good,” Woltanski said. “We don’t really know what it will look like two weeks from now.
Woltanski has two high school-aged children. She’s not wholly against returning to face-to-face instruction in a school building.
“Yes, I’m going to send them back to face-to-face if the numbers are good,” Woltanski said. “If I think it’s going to be worth them leaving the house for.”
This story was originally published August 28, 2020 at 4:30 PM.
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