It’s all masks all the time as Broward County students and teachers return to class
A sea of masked teenagers flooded through the gates of Cypress Bay High School early Wednesday for the first day of classes, as the school’s marching band and cheerleaders welcomed them onto the Weston campus.
Jorge Altuna, 16, who is part of the student council, said he was excited to go back to in-person instruction after more than a year of virtual learning — even though he has to wear a mask all day.
“It’s a public safety matter,” said the high school junior, who donned a simple black mask. “I am excited to come back in a safe way.”
By the end of the day, Interim Superintendent Vickie Cartwright called the first day a success with nearly 100% compliance of the district’s mask mandate.
“Mask wearing in Broward County Public Schools was not an issue,” said Cartwright at an afternoon news conference. “Our students complied, our visitors to campus also complied and to that point, community, thank you. While the numbers are as high as they are, right now this is something that is needed in order to ensure we keep our students in our schools.“
The district was one of two that defied Gov. Ron DeSantis’ order, which requires school officials to make facial coverings optional. Broward leaders said last week masks were a way to help stop the recent spike in COVID-19 cases. Both the Broward Teachers Union and the Broward Principals and Assistants Association asked the School Board this week to mandate stricter protocols, including vaccine mandates and weekly testing for unvaccinated employees.
Cypress Bay, which has nearly 5,000 students, was one of the first stops on Cartwright’s busy first day of school schedule. She and several School Board members took a tour of the campus and visited classrooms in a new building.
“You can feel the excitement,” said School Board Member Debra Hixon. “We have taken every precaution possible, and we are ready.”
As of Wednesday, 257,785 students were enrolled, Cartwright said.
Also on Wednesday, more than 30,000 students returned to the Archdiocese of Miami’s 57 schools in Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties. Students were required to wear masks, unless they show proof of vaccination.
Mask mandate
The return to school in Broward comes as COVID-19 continues to spread at a rapid rate in South Florida because of the extremely contagious delta variant. On Tuesday, there were 23,335 new COVID-19 cases in Florida, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Tuesday data released Wednesday.
At the end of July, the Broward School Board decided to follow the CDC’s updated recommendations for K-12 schools that everyone — even those who have been fully vaccinated — should wear a mask inside.
The decision came despite protests from parents who didn’t want their children to have to wear masks all day.
Then DeSantis issued an order saying that parents should have the right to choose. Broward briefly backpedaled, but then voted in favor of masks. Broward and Alachua counties now face possible sanctions by the State Board of Education.
At the afternoon conference, Cartwright said the district was waiting for communication from the state board as to what the next steps are.
“Our School Board members here, they don’t want to go against the governor. That is not what this is about,” she said. “They also believe as elected officials and taking the oath to the Florida Constitution that they are exercising their rights under the Constitution and their duty to provide for a safe environment for the local school district.”
Meanwhile, Broward School Board members on Tuesday approved giving a one-time, $250 bonus to school employees who show proof that they are fully vaccinated by late October.
The bonus wasn’t enough to protect everybody, the Broward Principals and Assistants Association and the Broward Teachers Union said Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told the State Board of Education meeting at Miami-Dade College’s Wolfson Campus that he would “do the right thing” for students and staff. Later Wednesday, the Miami-Dade School Board voted to join Broward in mandating masks for all students who don’t have a medical waiver.
By the numbers
Ahead of the 2021-22 school year, the district hired 1,040 teachers. The district still had 365 vacancies, Cartwright said.
Every campus had a school safety officer and a nurse in place. The schools were also equipped with panic alarms in order to comply with the recently instituted “Alyssa’s Law.” The law is named after Alyssa Alhadeff, who was killed during the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018.
As for COVID-19 issues, Cartwright said that prior to Wednesday there were 436 students and 191 staff members in quarantine.
At Dolphin Bay Elementary
At Dolphin Bay Elementary in Miramar, Fabiola Douyard dropped her 6-year-old daughter, Christina Dusheine, off with her princess backpack and flower mask. She adjusted the mask one last time before saying goodbye to her first-grader.
“With kids being affected by this surge, we are worried,” said the ICU nurse. “We just hope everything is OK.”
At Cypress Bay, teachers had their classrooms ready to go as students began piling in.
Principal Kassandra Fried said the first day of school is always exciting, but this year “is truly a homecoming.”
“Our students have not been together on campus for a year and a half approximately and so it’s just pure excitement and exhilaration,” Fried said.
Grant Cavalier, who teaches accounting 1 and 2 at Cypress Bay, said he couldn’t wait to see his students.
“To have kids back — that’s why I am a teacher,” he said. “If I wanted to sit in front of a computer, I’d have a desk job.”
Miami Herald staff writer David Goodhue contributed to this report.
This story was originally published August 18, 2021 at 10:28 AM.
