Several Items Suggest No In-Person Learning Anytime Soon.
Key Issues Still Unresolved.
BOCA RATON, FL (BocaNewsNow.com) — A look at today’s Palm Beach County School Board Workshop Agenda is telling. Multiple agenda items are related to COVID-19, and suggest there is still no official plan to return to “brick and mortar” schools, despite the school board’s constant stance that it would happen when Palm Beach County itself moves to “Phase 2.”
Here are the agenda items for today’s non-voting workshop:
(Language directly from the agenda).
School Board Member Dr. Debra Robinson will discuss the following: ask the Board to discuss and consider directing the Superintendent to outline metrics by which we would return to brick and mortar schools, in case the courts agree that it is the locally elected school board and superintendent team that should make these decisions. I propose that the Superintendent request guidance from his ad hoc Health Advisory Committee (HAC). Further will ask that the Superintendent ask the HAC to provide guidance regarding procedures in response to a reported or documented COVID-19 case or contact at a school or ancillary setting.
School Board Member Dr. Debra Robinson will discuss the following: ask the Board to discuss directing the Superintendent to work with Legal, Purchasing and others to outline the appropriate pathway to allow/encourage/arrange weekly COVID-19 testing at every school and facility for those staff and students who wish to be tested. It appears that the public sector options for widespread testing do not exist. Therefore, to protect our students, staff, families and communities, ask that we find ways to arrange for private entities to provide this testing option.
School Board Member Marcia Andrews will discuss the following as it relates to COVID-19/Open Brick and Mortar Schools/Distance Learning:
– safety precautions for instructional employees and assignments of instructional employees who request distance learning as we return to brick and mortar during the presence of COVID- 19 through collaboration with District and CTA (Memorandum of Understanding, etc.); and
– safety precautions for non-instructional employees and assignments of non-instructional employees that may differ as we return to distance learning/brick and mortar during the presence of COVID-19 through collaboration with District, SEIU, etc. (Agreements, etc.).
School Board Member Marcia Andrews will discuss establishing a COVID-19 Dashboard similar to the Hillsborough County Schools model.
Today’s workshop is “NON VOTING,” which means no decisions will be made on any item. The next voting school board meeting is next week, suggesting any reopening, at the earliest, could be weeks away.
