Miami-Dade public schools will close until Wednesday thanks to Hurricane Dorian

Already closed for Labor Day, Miami-Dade schools also will keep their doors shut Tuesday thanks to complications from Hurricane Dorian, Superintendent Alberto Carvalho announced during a Sunday afternoon press conference.

At the same event, Mayor Carlos Gimenez announced the county’s government offices would remain open Tuesday, given Dorian’s projected track north of Miami-Dade.

In justifying Tuesday’s closure, Carvalho noted many Miami-Dade teachers and school employees work in Broward, which had already announced its schools would close Tuesday in advance of the potentially more serious winds to the north of Miami-Dade.

Carvalho also said it’s too soon to rule out downed power lines, street debris and other hazards for children who walk to school from their homes.

“It is possible that we will be pleasantly disappointed Tuesday morning with decent conditions,” Carvalho said at his joint press conference with Gimenez at the county’s emergency-operations center in Doral. “But one thing we should never do is risk the safety and security, particularly of children, as bend toward the wish and whim of the adults.”

The school system, with about 33,000 employees, is the largest employer in Miami-Dade. County government, with a payroll topping 25,000, is the second largest. Both have sizable portions of their workforce commute from Broward. Gimenez noted the county could still pivot and decide Labor Day to close on Tuesday, but that he saw no need to shutter government offices on Tuesday. “We will be flexible,” he said, “especially with employees who live in Broward County.”

In a brief interview after the announcement, Carvalho noted unique challenges the school system faces, compared to county government. That includes children walking to school, and the safety of school buses navigating thousands of stops safely after the impact from a major storm. There’s also the issue of dealing with a teacher who can’t make it to work.

“Finding substitute teachers during a school day is a challenge,” he said. “Finding substitute teachers during a crisis or a threat is very difficult.”

Carvalho said the closure will affect all after-school activities, including aftercare.

This story was originally published September 1, 2019 at 5:16 PM.