President Andrew Spar with the Florida Education Association said Florida school districts are struggling to keep classrooms staffed with teachers adding the pandemic is to blame.
“Create that stability, guarantee no cuts, zero cuts for the education budget. Keep the money that was promised for the 20-21 school year in place,” Spar said.
[TRENDING: ‘God, forgive me:’ Mom arrested on murder charge | Trump pushes for 2nd round of $1,200 direct payments | Daylight Saving Time debate]
Through a letter, Spar called for Governor Ron DeSantis to maintain education funding as it was designed in the 2020-2021 General Appropriations Act.
On Friday Parents from several school districts along with Orange County Public school board member, Angie Gallo, were present during a virtual press conference held by the FEA.
Gallo explained how OCPS is being transparent about COVID-19 cases in schools by launching a new dashboard online for parents and staff.
“We’ve definitely had challenges, we had to cancel football games, we had to cancel sports so it’s been hard on the teachers, the parents and the students,” Gallo said.
And while there are cases in some schools, Dr. Raul Pino with the Department of Health in Orange County explained schools are actually doing better than expected.
" I can tell you I’m pleasently surprised that the numbers in our schools continue to be this low. Although, we have a large number of people in quarantine... we have very few in isolation," he said.
For the last two weeks, students and teachers at Olympia High School had to pivot to online learning after several positive cases of COVID-19 at the school.
According to the district, students and staff are set to return to campus on Monday, Sep. 21.