Smoke and Mirrors? School Board Agenda Item Suggests In-Person Learning Not Automatic When Phase Two Begins
Palm Beach County Pediatric Positivity Rate Remains Near 15-Percent
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — Read the language closely. While there is significant focus this Tuesday on Palm Beach County School Superintendent Dr. Donald Fennoy’s plan to make in-person learning available to everyone at once, it is unlikely to happen anytime soon.
If you missed Monday’s big announcement, Fennoy called for an emergency School Board meeting Wednesday to approve a new plan that eliminates the “phased in” approach to in-person learning — a plan where schools would reopen to certain grades in a slow, methodical approach.
The plan was approved by the School Board in July. But Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Florida Dept. of Education, which wants everyone in school now, didn’t like it. So Fennoy crafted a new plan — with, perhaps, some hidden language.
The backstory: schools were expected to almost automatically open in-sync with Palm Beach County moving to “phase two” of DeSantis’ reopening plan. Now, it appears that’s not going to happen.
The backstory: schools were expected to almost automatically open in-sync with Palm Beach County moving to “phase two” of DeSantis’ reopening plan. Now, it appears that’s not going to happen.
Here’s is the agenda item for Wednesday’s just-called School Board Meeting:
Palm Beach County’s current Phase 1 status of Florida’s COVID-19 Recovery Plan necessitates the 2020-21 school year open with a distance learning virtual instructional model. On July 15, 2020, the School Board approved a reopening plan which, based on feedback from the Florida Department of Education, is now being revised.
The amended plan still calls for the School District to begin the school year in a distance learning environment with a parental choice to return to brick and mortar classrooms when public health conditions permit. The phased re-entry of students by grade level or program included in the July 15 plan has been removed. The return of students to in-person instruction when health conditions permit will be determined by parental choice.
Health conditions will be evaluated on a weekly basis to determine when entering Phase 2 according to the Governor’s Plan for Reopening of Florida, in addition to metrics being recommended by the Superintendent’s Health Advisory Committee.
Here’s the key section:
Health conditions will be evaluated on a weekly basis to determine when entering Phase 2 according to the Governor’s Plan for Reopening of Florida, in addition to metrics being recommended by the Superintendent’s Health Advisory Committee.
That language provides tremendous latitude to Superintendent Fennoy and the Palm Beach County School Board to keep “distance-learning only” in place once “phase 2” begins. The Palm Beach County pediatric positivity rate is nearly 15-percent. The Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics says schools should NOT open for in-person learning until the pediatric positivity rate is consistently in the range of 3 to 5 percent.
Here is the complete “new” reopening plan, updated on August 10, 2020.
