PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Families in Pinellas County were asked to select a learning option for their students at the start of the school year whether it be in-person or online and commit to that selection for the first nine weeks of the school year.
Nearing the end of that first quarter, the district allowed parents to change their learning format and the results showed about 12,700 additional students will return to campus for the start of the second quarter on Oct. 27.
Superintendent Dr. Michael Grego revealed the district had about 14,000 students change their selection from online to in-person and roughly 1,000 students opt to learn online instead of on-campus.
Grego called it a gradual change saying, "We’ll come from a 60/40 district to about a 70/30 district with about 30 percent of our students remaining virtual."
At a news conference Monday, Dr. Grego along with the district's medical advisory team discussed the safety measures surrounding in-person learning. Dr. Ulyee Choe, the Director of the Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County said he's pleased with the COVID-19 mitigation efforts implemented by the school district.
"We have not seen any major outbreaks. We have not seen major secondary transmissions within our schools. It’s safe to say the schools are not driving the epidemic here in Pinellas County," said Choe.
Choe lead a team of medical professionals this summer in consulting Pinellas County Schools on its reopening plans. The doctors continue to offer advice about health on campus.
Dr. Nichelle Threadgill, another doctor on the medical advisory team, praised the mask mandate as a primary reason transmission remains low in schools and allows for safe in-person learning.
"As a pediatrician, as a mother of kids who attend school, public schools, I see and recognize the value of in-person learning and being part of an in-person classroom," Threadgill added.
10 Tampa Bay asked Superintendent Grego about the disruption to scheduling and staffing as nearly 13,000 students return to the classroom.
Grego recognized that staffing will be the most complicated challenge and each school will have individual scenarios to look at but also said district leadership will try to make the transition as seamless as possible. Grego even praised simultaneous teaching as a way to more easily bring kids back to the classroom.
"People were critical of the simultaneous teaching but that’s where it comes in. We’re not really having new teacher positions. Those seats were always saved for those students," said Grego.
"Simultaneous teaching," also called "hybrid teaching," is when an educator is teaching in-person students in the classroom and online students at the same time. It's been a point of controversy for teachers and parents who said it's too much for educators to juggle. Now, Grego believes students can easily slide from an online student to an in-person student all with the same class and teacher.
The medical professionals reiterated the importance of social distancing and mask wearing within the school as more students return but also pointed out the role the community plays in school safety.
"If we have disease in the community, you have to expect a certain amount of cases to come into the school as we’ve seen. The way to keep that low is to keep the community rates low," said Dr. Allison Messina, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg.
A spokesperson with Pinellas County Schools said the district launched a COVID-19 dashboard with the number of cases by date or school back in August. You can view the dashboard here.
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