Update: The school board voted to delay the start of school until August 24.

Original story below:

HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. -- The Hillsborough School District Board of Education is expected to vote Thursday on a measure that would delay the start of school by two weeks next month, to August 24.

The start of fall sports in Hillsborough County have already been delayed until August 10.

As school board members vote on a pushed-back start date for the 2020-21 school year, arguments from both sides are still coming in.

Teachers against schools reopening will protest outside the school board meeting.

Wednesday night, Gov. Ron DeSantis delivered a statewide address with his arguments of why schools should and need to reopen.

"It's often asked whether it's safe to return kids to school, but it should also be asked how safe it is to keep schools closed," DeSantis said. "You can bet your bottom dollar keeping schools closed will exacerbate achievement gaps between different groups, lead to more kids dropping out of school, disproportionally impact the least economically affluent Floridians."

How many students will be returning to brick and mortar schools next month is still a big question mark for districts statewide.

In Hillsborough County only around half to the districts more than 200,000 parents completed the declaration of intent that was due last Sunday.

The results showed only a slim majority would return to classrooms while almost 50,000 will continue eLearning from home for at least the first half of the school year.

Local principals are now reaching out to parents that did not submit a declaration of intent, asking it be completed as soon as possible.

The Pinellas County School Board will vote on pushing back the start of school to August 24 next week at their board meeting on July 28.