ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – The Orange County School Board decided the district will reopen as planned.
This news comes after school officials received recommendations from the medical advisory committee created to help schools reopen amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The board voted 6-2 to reopen schools on Friday as planned. Earlier in the meeting board member Melissa Byrd said she is weighing the risks and believes there are a lot of parents who need their children in schools.
“We also have to look at this from the whole child. I don’t want to be responsible for anyone getting COVID, or for anyone to lose their home or job,” Vice-Chair Pam Gould said.
Board members addressed questions about PPE, LaunchEd technical issues and COVID-19 testing availability.
“That many children in small rooms are going to be a recipe for disaster, it will be anxiety-inducing,” one person said in a public comment.
The Medical Advisory Committee sent its formal recommendation to the school district Friday afternoon, after a two-hour meeting earlier in the day.
During the committee meeting, the group of doctors, nurses, and hospital leaders agreed to recommend face-to-face learning starting on Aug. 21 is reasonable, with caveats.
The medical committee made the following recommendations to the school board:
- Allow for school reopenings but with staggered start dates for elementary, middle and high schools.
- Reopen only elementary schools scheduled on Aug. 21
- Reopen middle, high schools at a later date, possibly Aug. 31.
“We recommend the Board consider delaying the start date for face-to-face instruction to Monday, Aug. 31 for middle schools and high schools due to the higher potential for transmission and a potentially more complicated contact tracing process,” Dr. Vincent Hsu, OCPS Medical Advisory Committee member, wrote. “Delaying the start date allows time for further reduction in community spread and to assess the experience and resources needed in the event of a potential transmission event in one of the lower grades.”
Read the full list of recommendations here.
About 30% of the county’s 48,896 high school students and 27% of 31,898 middle school students are attending in person this school year, according to the school district.