VOLUSIA

Volusia postpones school start date; Flagler will vote next week

Cassidy Alexander

calexander@news-jrnl.com

The Volusia County school district will delay its start date for students to Aug. 31, as it joins numerous other Florida districts in trying to prepare for the coronavirus pandemic. Teachers are still scheduled to start on Aug. 11.

Additionally, the Flagler County school district could delay its student start date to Aug. 24, and its teacher and staff start date to Aug. 10. Currently, students are set to start on Aug. 10 and staff on Aug. 4.

In both districts, the goal is two-fold: Give more time for the number of coronavirus cases in both communities to go down, and give teachers enough time to train for the new ways of teaching and learning that are necessary during the pandemic.

In both districts schools will reopen with a multitude of health and safety measures in place, in accordance with state requirements. But families will also have the choice to enroll in the districts’ existing virtual school options, or participate in remote learning — where they join the in-person classes from home during the regular school day.

Students in Volusia County were supposed to start on Aug. 17, two weeks sooner than they will now. The School Board already discussed postponing the start date by a few days to allow for some campuses to be used as polling places during the primary election.

Despite the change in start date, the district will still be required to meet instructional hour requirements from the state. The district can get away with not making up five of the 10 days, and will make up the other five by canceling a professional development day in September and 28 early release days. Under this plan, there will be 171 student days and the first semester will end after Winter Break.

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The district also considered an Aug. 24 start date, but the calendar committee recommended Aug. 31. The School Board unanimously approved that plan.

The Flagler County School Board began discussing the possibility of postponing school at a workshop on Tuesday, and will vote on it at a special meeting next week. Board members had questions but were initially supportive of the idea.

Cathy Mittelstadt, the district’s new superintendent who took over in the midst of the pandemic, suggested pushing back the start date to allow for the district to get staffing allocated in the right places and to train teachers on how to provide remote or virtual instruction.

“This summer is like no other that I’ve ever experienced in education,” she said, comparing preparing for remote learning options to opening a new school. Something that takes preparation.

So far, 1,300 students in the Flagler County school district have signed up for the iFlagler virtual school option (compared to 55 students last year). An additional 2,100 have signed up for remote instruction, where they will watch in-person classes from home. And about 1,160 students are in “limbo,” meaning they began the process of enrolling in iFlagler but did not finish it and could have switched to another option.

Combined, that’s 4,560 students of the district’s approximately 13,000 who have indicated they are not interested in in-person learning next year — or 35% of students.

The same information is not available in Volusia County, which has not yet surveyed families about what options they’re interested in.

The Volusia County School Board also reviewed a draft policy that will require face coverings on campuses wherever social distancing cannot be maintained.

Lastly, the board also formally approved early plans to offer students a remote learning option called “Volusia Live,” and will forward them to the state for approval.