It’s official this time: Miami schools will begin their staggered reopenings on Monday

After several hours-long meetings and votes and revotes, Miami-Dade County Public Schools will begin its staggered reopening of schools on Monday with all students who wish to be back in class by Friday, Oct. 9.

The School Board voted last week for schools to open later in October, citing concerns about school preparedness. But a letter from Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran cornered the school district to follow its original reopening plan from July, calling for an Oct. 5 reopening, or face budget shortfalls of anywhere from $54 million to $85 million.

After 7 p.m. Tuesday, the School Board voted unanimously on the new timeline with many caveats.

Classes to begin Monday for some students

For those families who opted for in-person learning through a survey they took from the district in July, students in Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, first grade and students with disabilities who follow a modified curriculum will be welcomed back in the classroom Monday.

All other elementary school students, plus students in grades 6, 9 and 10, can start Wednesday, Oct. 7. All other students can return on Friday, Oct. 9. A non-opt teacher planning day is set for this Friday.

Carvalho said he reached out to Corcoran on Friday, and Corcoran returned his call on Monday. Carvalho said he received a verbal confirmation from the commissioner that it would be OK to stagger school reopenings.

The new timeline hinges on a written confirmation of “negative fiscal impact” from the state, conversations with the district’s unions regarding safety, health and welfare of employees and full compliance with all provisions and procedures including protocols laid out in the district’s reopening plan it submitted to the state July 31.

The passed proposal also instructs the School Board Chair to communicate with the state regarding timelines and plans for school reopening.

District to identify schools that aren’t ready for reopening

The district must also identify and request amendments for any schools that aren’t ready for reopening; Carvalho said he had questions about ventilation and air conditioning for a “handful” of schools.

For those schools (Carvalho didn’t specify), the district must submit a detailed plan to the state as required by Corcoran’s letter. Parents of children attending those schools will find out by Thursday or Friday whether those students will continue learning online or attend a surrounding school with space.

Carvalho said the district has replaced 40,000 air conditioning filters and a “significant number” are MERV 13 filters, which are the minimum rating ideal during a pandemic.

But, “I need to be honest, they’re not the majority,” he said, explaining that schools statewide are not built with HVAC systems that have the power to push out circulation through those filters.

When asked how parents can find out what changes have been made to their child’s school, a school district spokeswoman responded in an email, “Parents should inquire at their school as to what changes were undertaken.”

Only six schools have bipolar ionization in use, installed as part of the district’s general obligation bond program. They are Andrea Castillo K-8, Lake Stevens Elementary, Miami Palmetto Senior High, Southwest Miami Senior High and North County K-8.

A spokeswoman said the district is currently evaluating its windowless schools and “will be providing recommendations as to additional air-purifying devices as a pilot,” though they’ve had filter changes and fresh air adjustments.

Many called on the School Board to stand firm in its decision to delay opening schools. Some saw the district’s pressure as political and perceived Corcoran’s letter as bullying.

Many teachers object to reopening plan

A small teacher cohort called the Rank and File Members of Miami-Dade protested outside school board headquarters Monday afternoon. The United Teachers of Dade rallied around the district with Corcoran’s and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ faces on a hearse.

Several members of the United Teachers of Dade spoke at the meeting prior to board discussion and testified to showing up at schools and checking for proper protocols.

The union’s director of member advocacy, Joe Minor, said he personally made unannounced visits. He said some schools have PPE, some await delivery and others are on back order. He said some schools have marked restricted seating and others haven’t.

“I contend that nothing has changed,” Minor said. “Not one was ready.”

UTD president Karla Hernandez-Mats said the union was appalled at the threatening letter sent to the district by Corcoran, which said it behooved the district to open schools by Monday or prove exemptions on a school-by-school basis. She said the letter tried to undermine the board’s authority.

“Last week you took a very wise and prudent decision,” Hernandez-Mats said, referring to the board’s vote to push back the school reopening date to mid-October. “We can assure you that none of the schools we visited yesterday were 100% ready” despite the district’s goal of being ready by Sept. 25.

Vice Chair Steve Gallon, whose daughter attends an elementary school, made an impassioned speech before proposing the framework that was later approved by the board.

Board members upset about reopening plan

Gallon made it clear that the board had no input or approval of the original reopening plan. Carvalho and district leaders showed the board a powerpoint presentation on July 29. The district submitted the plan to the state for approval the next day, ahead of the July 31 deadline.

He said that plan “has now tied the hands of this board and poses a drastic financial threat. ...Our hands appeared to be tied by a plan submitted to the state by the superintendent.”

Gallon brought up Broward County Public Schools, which received an identical, word-for-word letter from the state also on Friday. Broward’s board chair, Donna Korn, wrote back to Corcoran that same day and said the board was “confused” by the letter, as the district is following its approved state plan of opening after the first quarter wraps up Oct. 16.

Corcoran wrote back to Broward on Monday and completely disregarded Korn’s letter. He included statistics showing that COVID data points were trending in the right direction.

The Broward County School Board will hold its own emergency meeting Thursday.

Gallon said the comparison between Dade and Broward “is apples to oranges.” He pointed out that Broward’s plan was 23 pages and explicitly gave a date of no later than Oct. 16. Miami-Dade’s plan is 12 pages and said a decision would be made by Sept. 30 on whether to open schools by Oct. 5.

“We have the ability to take this plan and rip it up,” he said, literally ripping a packet of paper. “However, ripping up that plan has consequences.”

The district’s chief financial officer, Ron Steiger, said the state could argue that it could pay Miami-Dade what it pays Florida Virtual School per student. The school district, which is getting paid its projected enrollment, which is 8,000 students more than the student body currently enrolled, receives $7,900 per student. Florida Virtual gets $5,300 per student.

Steiger explained that if Corcoran decided to strip all flexible funding guaranteed by the state, the district could potentially lose up to $320 million for those students who opted for online learning since that model of learning is not outlined in statute.

Steiger said if the board lost millions, the board would face “extremely difficult decisions that you have to make...the ramifications will be substantial.”

Steiger later said that 122,000 students out of a total student population of 255,000 in district-run schools have chosen to stay virtual with My School Online. The district received assurance that those students will be fully funded for the entire year.

“We have that flexibility all year long,” Steiger said.

Board member Lubby Navarro was also miffed that the district never communicated the board’s decisions to the state following the July 30 submission of the reopening plan.

Gallon pointed out that the board scrapped K12, the company that made the malfunctioned online learning platform that was later scrapped. K12 was also in Miami-Dade’s reopening plan, though the state did not object to that change.

“We just don’t sit here and allow for an action of the board to pass quietly,” Navarro said. “It was not a quiet vote of this board.”

Cleanliness concerns in some schools

Navarro hesitated about the cleanliness of the schools and asked whether they would be safe for reopening.

“We have to be frank with ourselves,” she said. “We in some schools can eat off the floors. But there’s some buildings and some bathrooms in this school and areas where germs congregate that are going to be the living ground for this illness, and that gravely concerns me.”

It concerns teachers and staff, too. Last week, 136 applications from workers seeking accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act were in the pipeline, and all but 30 were cleared, Carvalho said, noting these were people who would not be returning to work. Since then, the district has received another 145 requests for accommodation.

Board members seemed frustrated at their situation.

“The record reflects that I have for a long time or from day one expressed discontent with the reopening and how it was developed & presented to us,” Chair Perla Tabares Hantman said. “I want you to remember that we are where we are today because of all (this). The board never approved what the DOE accepted and approved.”

Hernandez-Mats, the teachers union president, gave this statement:

“Political agendas prevailed tonight,” she said. ”We are appalled that our leadership would put politics over public safety and we are sad because tonight we saw a unanimous vote that discarded everything they said they stood for last week.”

“Today, we know that each student, educator and employee has a price tag on their life.”

This story was originally published September 29, 2020 at 3:27 PM.