HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. - School campuses in Hillsborough County will not be reopening on August 24 as originally planned.
What You Need To Know
- School start date remains August 24, but classes will start online only
- Board voted Wednesday after hearing from medical experts
- Next board meeting is September 8 to reevaluate situation
Instead, all students will start school that day, but the first four weeks will be exclusively online. The vote was made official Wednesday.
Now it’s up to parents and the school district to figure out the logistics - and fast.
“There will be stresses on this, stresses for families and stresses for child care,” said Superintendent Addison Davis.
The school district will have to scramble to figure out ways to get students devices, internet, and a system to keep attendance that works.
Board members heard from a panel of experts Wednesday from Tampa General Hospital and USF. Many say that’s what swayed their vote.
“They didn’t bring emotion to the responses,” Davis said. “They really brought clinical statistics to inform the board.”
Roughly 77,000 Hillsborough County students were planning to return to brick and mortar schools on August 24.
But now that everyone will be online, the district says e-learning will look different than it did in the spring.
Students will attend during regular school hours and follow a standard school schedule.
Teachers will also provide live instruction.
“We see that there’s a decline in positivity rates, there’s also a decline the number of cases per day and we’re moving in the right direction,” Davis said.
A big date to remember is September 8. That’s when the school board will meet again and analyze CDC and health department data to see if they can safely reopen brick and mortar schools after the four weeks is done.
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