LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – Thousands of students returned to the classroom on Monday as the Lake County school district has put widespread changes in place due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Karyn Roman is a freshman at South Lake High School and chose in-person learning to begin the year.
"This is like a circumstance that we haven't seen and so everyone is just trying to figure everything out and we don't know really know everything," she said.
District leaders said about half of all students have opted to return to the classroom with the other half choosing one of three distance learning options.
"It's a typical first day, but not so typical in that we've got these four options all going on at once," communications officer Sherri Owens said.
Owens said enhanced safety measures are happening at every school, like mask requirements, social distancing and enhanced cleaning.
[Everything you need to know about Lake County’s back-to-school plan]
“Our regular custodial staff is doing a lot of cleaning of high-touch areas and we’re just being really, really diligent to try and keep our students and staff safe through all of this,” Owens said.
To accommodate students learning at home, 4,000 Chromebooks were delivered to schools last week and more than 5,000 are expected over the next two weeks.
“That process is still ongoing,” Ownes said. “Many of the students already have (the Chromebooks), but there are more on the way,” Owens said.
The first day of school comes after district leaders said thousands of students took part in free coronavirus tests, which were offered last week. Owens said the county's testing partnership will continue throughout the year and officials will be monitoring for any issues in every school.
“Parents have been very patient with us as we’ve worked through some of the logistics and we just know it’s going to get better and better as the year goes on,” she said.