JACKSONVILLE, Fla — Duval County Public Schools are nearly running out of time to submit a reopening plan to the Department of Education, which will include the schools’ start date.
Currently, students are set to open their books back up and start school either virtually or in brick-and-mortar Aug. 10. Some teachers and parents are saying this is just too soon, making the board reconsider their decision. The debate went on for hours at last week’s school board meeting deciding just how the schools should handle reopening.
“There are a lot of teachers that want to go back,” said second-grade teacher Darlene Miller, who wants to start on time. “You don’t know what kind of house a child has to go home to.”
Miller said for some children, school is their safe haven, and they’ve gone months without it. Miller said there are also parents who are essential workers and will need to continue to pay for childcare.
“Teachers are not babysitters, no,” Miller said. “But if a child is sitting in daycare all day, they are also not learning.”
Parents like Eunice Barnum say, it may be hard, but it’s just not worth the risk.
“You are throwing all of our children’s lives and health to the wind,” Barnum said.
Barnum doesn’t understand why brick-and-mortar was closed at the beginning of the pandemic, but now with a higher number of cases and deaths, the schools are ready to reopen.
“If you needed to protect them early on, don’t you still need to protect them now that it is worse?” Barnum said.
In the previous school board meeting, members discussed using a two-week extension for virtual training purposes for teachers to work out any kinks that may have happened when teaching virtually in the spring.
DCPS says they won’t comment on the issue until after Thursday’s meeting when the schools’ reopening plan has been voted on.