SARASOTA, Fla. — Many teachers have been calling for remote learning, at least for the first part of the school year due to the number of COVID-19 cases.
Sarasota school board members will consider online-only learning at their meeting Tuesday. The president of the Sarasota Classified/Teachers Association says the majority of members don't feel it's safe to go back, and some are opting to take leave.
“I don’t know if we’re going to be able to staff our schools safely because between the teachers, the aides, the bus drivers saying I’m going to take a year off because I don’t want to get sick, I don't know if we'll have enough people to staff our schools,” Patricia Gardner said.
She pointed out there’s already a teacher shortage, and there has been trouble with having enough substitute teachers in the past.
The Florida Department of Education just signed off on a plan for schools in Monroe County, which includes Key West, to start with remote learning for the first 30 days. The executive director of the teachers’ union believes based on the number of cases here and the similarity of districts’ plans, it would also be approved.
Some new estimates from researchers at the University of Texas at Austin show how likely it would be to have infected students if classrooms opened right now. The research published in The New York Times shows a map indicating Florida would have more infections than other states in the first week of school-based on recent infection prevalence.
The estimates are based on schools with 500 students and staff. Based on the data, Sarasota schools would have five infections in the first week of school. Hillsborough is one of the largest school districts in the country. Researchers would anticipate six infections there.
Across the bay in Pinellas, four people would likely be infected. If there were only 100 students and staff at school, all of those districts would have one case of COVID-19 based on the estimates.
In situations where there are learning pods with just 10 people, that number would be zero. Researchers admit though, there are many unknowns about how kids transmit the virus.
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