BRADENTON, Fla. - Face masks will likely become routine for students in Manatee County schools, should they open this August. 

What You Need To Know

On Tuesday night, school board members approved a wide variety of COVID-19 related expenses including a large amount of disinfecting products, infrared thermometers, plexiglass separators for some classroom desks and tables, and cloth face masks. 

District leaders plan to use up to $325,000 to purchase two cloth face masks for every teacher and student, Superintendent Cynthia Saunders confirmed. 

“If we are going to say you need them in certain instances then we do feel that we need to provide them,” she said. 

The school district is in the early stages of planning what the formal requirements would be for wearing face masks in the classroom. Saunders said that students would not be required to wear them all day, but would likely need to in crowded areas where social distancing was not possible. 

“The expectation is that if we can have the social distancing in classroom spaces, they certainly would not have to wear a face mask,” she said. 

Temperature checks may also be mandatory for students and staff.  

Plexiglass partitions will likely be used in some classrooms where desks cannot be spaced apart. In all, the school board approved just over $4.7 million to be used for COVID-19 related expenses. According to Saunders, some of that is excess money from other areas of the district’s budget that has been re-allocated. Some of the expenses will be paid for by CARES act funding the district is set to receive. 

School leaders are also asking parents to fill out an online survey that outlines three options for the new school year. They are asked to consider if they will want to send their children back to school full-time, continue online school full-time, or adapt to a hybrid concept where half of a school’s students will attend in-person for half the week. 

Saunders said if parents chose to start the year with online school, their child with still be assigned a classroom teacher. 

“They will be following the same curriculum and pacing guides that the schools are, so if any parents chose as the school year progresses, they can come back and will be able to fit right in,” she said. 

While the district plans on ordering the products needed to prepare for the school year, they won’t have a reopening plan in place for a matter of weeks.