TAMPA, Fla. — The Hillsborough County School Board was supposed to talk about mental health support in schools Tuesday morning at their regularly scheduled workshop. Before they did that, the board addressed the obvious question on parents' minds: What does the new ruling in favor of the Florida Education Association mean for their children?
Late Monday afternoon, a judge sided with Florida's largest teachers' union in its battle with the state over school reopening plans.
Leon County Circuit Judge Charles Dodson granted the Florida Education Association's motion for a temporary injunction against Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran's emergency order to reopen classrooms for in-person learning.
The court's ruling and injunction means local school boards around Florida can "make safety determinations for the reopening of schools without financial penalty," the order reads.
READ MORE: Judge sides with Florida's largest teachers' union in school reopening lawsuit against state
Technically the judge's order would give Hillsborough the option to start school online for everybody for the first four weeks as they had originally voted on at an August 6 special meeting. However, Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran's appeal of the order pauses any action from the district at this time.
Tuesday morning, the Hillsborough County School Board Attorney, Jim Porter said, "The order basically struck out all the provisions in the emergency order that dealt with having a plan in place in order to open schools. That’s a very positive thing for local governments and especially Hillsborough. The judge recognizes the decision about opening schools and the running of schools belongs solely and squarely within the realm of local school boards, not in Tallahassee."
Porter then went on to explain that because of the state's appeal, the district is in a "holding pattern" until the lawsuit plays itself out.
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He addressed the board saying, "The most conservative thing to do would be to follow the lawsuit and see where it leads."
Hillsborough Superintendent Addison Davis also weighed in at the workshop saying, "My recommendation would be to continue to plan as previously approved originally so that we continue to stay in the funding model outlined by the Florida Department of Education."
Davis reminded the board that if the Department of Educations wins the appeal and Hillsborough doesn't open their schools, they could lose roughly $200 million in state funding, something Davis said would lead directly to teacher layoffs since 80 percent of their budget is teacher and staff salaries.
Davis also noted that parents and teachers want consistency moving forward.
The board agreed to discuss the lawsuit further at the board meeting at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
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