PINELLAS PARK, Fla. — Pinellas County School’s Superintendent Kevin Hendrick held a press conference at Pinellas Park High School on Tuesday morning announcing the reopening of all schools countywide, on Wednesday. 

What You Need To Know

  • Pinellas County School’s Superintendent said schools will reopen Wednesday

  • Pinellas Park High School was the most severely damaged school during Hurricane Milton 

  • Next week, Pinellas School Board will talk about make up days; Superintendent Hendrick says they'll likely add one day in January, and one day in February

Hendrick said the district will be treating it like the first day of school and says it’s important for families to get back into their routines. On Tuesday, all teachers and staff returned to school, making final preparations for students. 

School officials say Pinellas Park High School had the most damage where windows broke, and water got in. Hendrick says emergency restoration crews were already working at the two elementary schools severely damaged during Helene, and they rushed over on Friday to start stabilizing the high school.

As of Tuesday morning, he says power has been restored to all schools, and between the districts’ maintenance crews and contractors, repairs are complete.

Hendrick said he talked to the State Department of Education after Helene about waiving time missed, but the state didn’t approve it. Now, he’s waiting to hear back on time missed due to Hurricane Milton. He says students missed 10 days total between the two storms.

“The school year is all about hours and minutes, not days. There’s not a magic number of days, it is about the number of minutes. We’ll be sharing with our board next week a proposal that looks at adding some days that would have been off second semester that would now be on, and then adding some minutes to every day to catch up and exceed the number of minutes,” said Hendrick.

Hendrick said the plan is to add one day in January, and one day in February. He says they will not be taking away from Thanksgiving break. The board will take it up next week. 

Hendrick says if families are concerned about students not having school supplies to return to school, not to go out and purchase them. The Pinellas Education Foundation did a donation drive after Helene and has plenty of school supplies for any students needing them.