The Duval County School Board voted 5-2 Thursday to approve the reopening plans for the upcoming 2020- 2021 school year. Those reopening plans include a 10-day delay to the school year and moves the Duval HomeRoom registration deadline to July 31.
According to a draft resolution filed ahead of Thursday’s special board meeting and since removed, the new back-to-school plan pushes the first day of school for students back from Aug. 10 to Aug. 20.
The delayed start will give district staff time to collect additional personal protective equipment and prepare workspaces, the resolution said. It will also give educators an additional planning day and opportunities for professional development — something school board members were vocal about providing if there was a delayed start.
“I like the delay with a purpose,” board member Lori Hershey said. “With focused professional development, specifically on online instruction.”
Besides the delay start, details in the pending plan are similar to its previous version, which Greene presented last week.
There’s still:
– a brick-and-mortar option five-days-per-week for elementary school students
– a “bridge” option that transitions from partial in-person instruction at the start of school to full-time for middle and high school versions by Sept. 17
– Two distance-learning options for all grade levels: Duval HomeRoom, which allows the student to remain registered at their current school or Duval Virtual Instruction Academy, which transfers the student to full-time virtual school
If the learning methods are approved at the school board meeting, the district will submit the plan to the Florida Department of Education for final approval. Plans that don’t meet the state recommendation for five-days-per-week of in-person learning are due to the department by July 31.
Under the new plan, according to the resolution, 10-month instructional staff would start reporting on Aug. 12. Last week when Greene entertained discussion of a delayed start, she said as long as instruction starts by Aug. 24, educators’ payroll would be unaffected.
As the resolution states, the school year is set to start for students on a Thursday.
It’s worth noting that if school started exactly two weeks late, on Aug. 24, the first day of school would align with the first day of the expected Republican National Convention — something school board members, like Chairman Warren Jones, said should be avoided.
″[It’s a major event that will bring tens of thousands to our city when we have no idea how that will impact our schools,” Greene said at a Jacksonville Meninak Club meeting last week.
If the Duval School Board approves the school year delay, it will become the second Northeast Florida school district that has pushed back its start date. On Tuesday, the St. Johns County School Board voted to delay its school year until Aug. 31.
According to the resolution, the district’s calendar committee is reconvening to propose an updated school calendar to compensate for the later start date.
One part of the previous plans that has remained controversial is the lack of flexibility for teachers. While students could opt to learn from home with Duval HomeRoom, teachers weren’t given the same opportunity.
School board members, including Elizabeth Andersen and Ashley Smith-Juarez, said they’d like to see work-from-home options for teachers.
Though additional information hasn’t been published yet, a work from home resolution and policy waiver is on Thursday’s agenda.
The Duval School Board meeting takes place at 1 p.m. at the Duval County Public School headquarters.