“There may be other cities or countries that go back to school, but their Covid-19 case numbers are very low,” said Rolline Sullivan, a mother of four in Duval County, home to Jacksonville. “The most important thing I think is missing is science.”
“I don’t want to plan a funeral for anyone in my family, much less my school. The people at my school are my family,” said Lauren Hammock, a teacher at Duval County Schools for 23 years.
Students and their families have a choice: They can study entirely online or attend classes beginning August 10, but Duval County Elementary Schools will be open five days a week. Middle and high schools will operate on a hybrid schedule, which will not require daily attendance at a physical school.
The district says that masks will be required on buses and “throughout the day,” but not during physical education, band, or music classes.
Some superintendents, including the principal of Broward County Schools in South Florida, recommend that schools start completely online next month, but there is no uniformity.
Thirty miles southeast of Jacksonville, in the oldest city in the country, St. Augustine, Tim Forson is already inside a high school. As a St. Johns County superintendent of schools, he walks the halls where, in one class, a dozen students recently took an algebra test to earn high school credit. In another wing, teachers were training.
Forson knows he faces challenges, as the head of his school district and as the father of a five-year-old boy. “I have doubts. That probably makes me even more attentive to what we are doing in our schools,” he said. “The fact that he is not just your son, he is my son.”
Your daughter will be going to school in person in less than four weeks. He has seen her struggle to wear a mask at home and believes that face shields may be a better option for younger students. Children will be required to wear face covers on buses and transition areas. In the classroom, students will have to use them only if social distancing is not an option.
But there are still many fears. “I want you to know that teachers are updating and making wills. I have heard this from several teachers, and I, a healthy 38-year-old, have prepared my own will,” said teacher Andrea Clark in a virtual public meeting. from the St. Johns School Board.
“We know that if we go back to buildings full time and at full capacity, most of us will die,” he said.
Families have had until Friday to decide whether their children will go to school in person or online. Forson told CNN that as of Wednesday, about 12% of parents had chosen virtual learning.
Forson knows that he may not be able to keep coronavirus out of all his schools. But when asked if he thought the teachers would die, he replied, “My God, I hope not. He would certainly never take an action that I think would cause the teachers to die.”
This story has been updated to correct that 12% of parents had chosen virtual learning, according to Tim Forson.
.
