South Florida schools prepare for coronavirus, starting with newly enrolling students

Long before federal health officials warned that Americans should start making preparations, including the possible shutdown of schools, some South Florida education leaders started planning for the threat of coronavirus.

On Wednesday, as more outbreaks of the deadly virus were reported in Brazil and Italy, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho held a press conference to share the Miami-Dade school district’s contingency plan should there be an outbreak in Miami.

“If there is one place where a contagion can actually spread, it can be the schoolhouse,” he said.

The district is adding hand sanitizers in school buses and at entrances, exits, cafeterias, gyms and other areas where students congregate in schools, he said. And new international students will no longer be able to register at individual school sites. They will be directed to two reception centers, in the north and south of the county, staffed with a nurse who will ask questions related to the coronavirus.

Carvalho said 50 to 60 students from outside the country have enrolled in the school system over the past few days.

“Just the nature of the virus, the exponential expansion of the virus, how quickly it then spread to other countries and continents told us that its arrival in this country was not a matter of if it would happen but when it would happen and where and how far and how widespread would it become,” Carvalho said, adding that there has not been a single confirmed case in Florida.

Large posters with information about the coronavirus and how to report it are being installed in every school. The district is also creating informational videos about the virus to be shown in schools.

Carvalho said the district is sending counselors to high schools, where students have expressed concern about the virus hype. He announced a moratorium on all international travel for students, including planned trips to Italy and Scotland for 30 students each at Miami Beach Senior High and John A. Ferguson Senior High.

Principals and assistant principals have been told to be on the lookout for students, teachers and staff exhibiting fever, cough and difficulty breathing, the flu-like symptoms of coronavirus. An email sent Jan. 28 by the district’s chief operating officer, Valtena Brown, asks administrators to monitor attendance daily to see if anyone is absent for three consecutive days. It also stresses promoting personal hygiene and the upkeep of clean facilities.

Carvalho added that employees can relay symptoms they’ve seen to healthcare providers, such as Nicklaus Children’s Hospital, via videoconferencing. Miami-Dade School Board member Martin Karp, who successfully passed an initiative directing the superintendent’s staff to create coronavirus protocols, questioned whether school administrators have the support and training to recognize symptoms.

“I’m not sure that we’re doing all that we need to do, but I know this is a work in progress,” said Karp, who did not attend Wednesday’s press conference. “It’s not just sharing info about how to wash hands but it’s really for our administrators, for different schools to know what to do and what to look for. I think we still have work to do in that area.”

Carvalho shared some worst-case scenario specifics Wednesday. He said groups of students could be isolated, as could a whole school. In the unlikely event that schools must be shut down, Carvalho said the district has an excess of 200,000 devices, including laptops and tablets purchased with funds from the general obligation bond passed by voters in 2012, that could be distributed to students to continue learning from home.

Asked about the Broward County school district’s plans at a ribbon cutting ceremony at Flanagan High School, Superintendent Robert Runcie said the district is treating the virus “as you would serious flu challenges that would come in our schools.” He emphasized spreading information, not fear and panic.

Runcie told reporters the district is circulating information on “common sense health precautions.” He said the district is creating plans but did not give specifics.

This story has been updated to clarify that only international students will be directed to register at reception centers.

This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 6:17 PM.