JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Duval County may have to wait a little longer to know the future plan for Duval County Public Schools’ back-to-school plan.
A current plan by Superintendent Diana Greene may be changed, DCPS school board members discussed Thursday.
The current plans for elementary, middle and high school all include options for face-to-face, temporary distance learning or full-time virtual instruction.
Board members debated whether or not to push back the school year start date by two weeks.
They discussed using those two weeks for teacher training that would possibly take place online. Some said this training could work through problems teachers may have encountered in the spring when teaching virtually.
These decisions will be revisited on July 23. DCPS must submit a reopening plan to the department of education by the end of July.
This discussion did not change the fact that many teachers are fearful about reopening.
“Teachers and students are being put in harm's way,” said Alex Ingram, a sixth-grade history teacher. “My school is my family. I’m not going to play Russian roulette with my coworkers' lives.”
Ingram and many other teachers took the podium today asking for virtual learning, or at the very least, smaller class sizes and hazard pay for teachers.
“We are teachers, not healthcare workers,” said elementary teacher Sheri Johnson. “I do not want to attend a funeral for my students.”
“We can make up learning gains, we cannot make up lost lives,” Ingram said.