A group of parents in Broward County want something that some might see as a wild idea in the coroanvirus pandemic: a return to full time school, five days a week inside buildings across the county.
The group, Broward Parents for the Return to School, has created a Facebook page with over 3,000 members and has plans for a demonstration next Tuesday at a workshop for the Broward School Board.
“This illness isn’t going anywhere,” Jennifer Herman, a Hollywood resident with three daughters in the school system, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “My kids want to go back to school. They need to go back to school.”
The district set a date of August 19 for reopening schools last week, with students likely to receive a blend of in-class instruction and distance learning when the school year starts. Superintendent Robert Runcie said the goal is to have students receive at least 50% of their learning time inside a classroom.
“We know that whatever we do it won’t be ideal because the only ideal thing is to open schools at 100% and if we felt we could do that and balance all the health and safety requirements I wouldn’t be here in front of you," Runcie said.
Many of the parents in the group say virtual schooling was unsuccessful for their children once schools were closed in mid-March at the start of the pandemic.
“Missing school for so many weeks set my son back,” Ashley Goldstein of Coconut Creek, who has a nine-year-old son on the autism spectrum, told the paper.
