For Miami-Dade schools to open at all by Aug. 24, these eight criteria need to be met

Miami-Dade County Public Schools has laid out eight criteria that must be met for any kind of physical schooling by the first day of school on Aug. 24.

The topic was brought up six hours into Wednesday’s School Board meeting. The criteria were the result of a closed-door meeting held Tuesday with medical and public health experts as well as Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez. That meeting also may have violated Florida’s Government in the Sunshine Law.

“The No. 1 question on everyone’s mind is are we going to reopen schools,” said Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who introduced the criteria. “We want to do the right thing.”

The eight criteria are:

▪ A sustained COVID-19 positivity rate of less than 10%, trending toward 5%, for 14 days. Miami-Dade County is currently over 30%; one month ago, that figure was 6%.

▪ A steady reduction in number of individuals hospitalized.

▪ A sustained reduction in ICU bed occupancy.

▪ A continuous reduced viral burden for 14 days with a decrease of virus-positive individuals.

▪ An increase in viral specific COVID-19 test availability with decreased wait time.

▪ A turnaround time for test results less than 48 hours.

▪ An increase in quantity and quality of contact tracing.

▪ Ensuring vaccinations for school-aged children. Carvalho said many parents who would’ve taken children for regular immunizations have not done so. He said the district is launching an awareness campaign.

“Based on where we are today, we don’t meet the criteria,” Carvalho said. “It is difficult to predict where we’ll be on Aug. 24.”

School officials had hoped to begin the 2020-21 school year in the school house five days a week, with mandatory masks and social distancing. The plan approved by School Board members July 1 called for smaller class sizes and classrooms in larger spaces, like cafeterias, gyms and media centers. It also allowed the school district to pivot to fully online learning or a hybrid model of in-person and online distance learning depending on data related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Miami-Dade County continues to be the epicenter of the outbreak. The county is still in Phase 1 as the state reported 10,000 new cases Wednesday, surpassing a total of 300,000 cases.

School officials had said previously that physical schooling was only possible if the county entered Phase 2.

Parents were surveyed over the past week and a half on their preference of either sending their child to school or opting for continued online distance learning. Carvalho said as of Tuesday, the school district received 207,000 responses.

Of those, 103,000 parents — 50% — preferred sending their children to school “as long as local health conditions allow it,” he said.

Another 101,000 parents — 49% — opted for My School Online, a more rigid and formal online schooling curriculum compared with the flexible learning done in the spring. He said 3,200 parents opted for another option, such as Florida Virtual School.

The school district is still waiting on responses from the parents of 43,000 students. Carvalho said the default option for those students whose parents do not give a preference will be in-school learning.

If at least 25% of a school’s population opts for online learning, then the school can accommodate students whose parents choose to send them to school. If fewer than 25% opt for online learning, parents will be surveyed July 13-20 on which hybrid model they prefer.

A hybrid model means half the school’s population would alternate learning in-school and online. In that scenario, parents will decide whether they prefer sending their child to school every other day or two days at a time.

Carvalho said parents will be notified of how their preference will be accommodated at their child’s school by July 27.

Carvalho told the School Board that the district’s later start date of Aug. 24 buys time to watch Broward and Palm Beach counties start their school year first and evaluate if a change in action is necessary. He also mentioned the possibility of pushing back the first day of school, which is allowable under the state’s plan.

Board member Lubby Navarro pushed back against that notion. She said she wanted to give parents ample notice so they could make decisions.

“I disagree with the statement that we have time,” Navarro said. “We are running out of time.”

Board member Mari Tere Rojas expressed disbelief that the county would reach acceptable positivity rates.

The closed-door meeting held Tuesday appears to have been in violation of Florida’s Government in the Sunshine Law. Board members Martin Karp and Rojas were the firs to say Wednesday that they listened into the meeting. Other board members also recalled details from that meeting.

With a few exceptions (like seeking legal counsel), the Sunshine law that determines that meetings must be made public “applies to any gathering of two or more members of the same board to discuss some matter which will foreseeably come before that board for action.”

When a Miami Herald reporter inquired about this meeting — which Carvalho mentioned on nationally syndicated “Meet the Press” on Sunday that he was “bringing back” the health experts that were a part of past public meetings, a district spokeswoman wrote in a text the meeting was “internal ... involving select medical experts and [the Superintendent] and the Mayor [Gimenez].”

Another spokeswoman told the Herald that board members received a link to listen to the board meeting. The appointed reopening committee, comprised of about two dozen medical and public health experts plus community members, already held three virtual meetings. The last two that were open to the public.

In an emailed statement, spokeswoman Daisy Gonzalez-Diego said Tuesday’s meeting was not a violation of the sunshine law.

“This was a meeting of medical experts convened by the Superintendent and the Mayor to provide advice and guidance,” she said. “Board members did not interact with each other or with anyone participating in the meeting. ...Tuesday’s meeting was not part of the work group that met previously and advised the District for the reopening of schools plan.”

Tuesday’s meeting, however, did include members from that work group.

Although the School Board already approved the district’s flexible learning plan, Chairwoman Perla Tabares Hantman reiterated that School Boards ultimately decide to close or open schools. Navarro raised possible Sunshine violation issues.

“Any meeting pertaining to the reopening should be [in the] sunshine,” she said. “We should have the ability to participate.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 7:53 PM.