It's back to school time in the Florida Keys as students in Monroe County returned to class on Wednesday.
Emotions were mixed from parents who dropped their children off on campuses across the county to start the 2022-23 school year.
“In person to me, counts as real education. That’s what really, makes me feel better as a mother,” said Anita Carrillo from Key Largo.
School officials were happy to see students getting back to face-to-face learning after two years of at-home classes and hybrid learning.
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“I'm super excited about getting back to our old ways of what we were doing before COVID,” said Darren Pais, the principal of Key Largo School.
Some parents did admit to being nervous about the return after years of virtual learning.
“I’m a bit nervous for her because this is the first time going into physical school," said Rochelle Burnett, whose daughter started the second grade Wednesday. "She always did virtual school.”
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Pais said some changed were made with the return.
“Pick ups and drops off, we had to rearrange all those morning things and all of our supervision duties at school, everything has changed," he said. "We put our cafeteria back to normal, so they can actually talk to each other.”
Monroe is the first South Florida county to return to school. Broward County's first day is August 16th and Miami-Dade County's first day is August 17th.
