LCS reveals over 3,000 students plan to return to brick and mortar Nov. 3

WTXL Tallahassee | by Kristian Thomas | October 12, 2020

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Leon County Schools is releasing the official numbers of students opting to go back or leave the physical classroom after the school board opened up a portal last month allowing parents to switch their earlier decisions.

Over 3,000 students will return to brick and mortar for the second nine weeks of the school year.

Superintendent Rocky Hanna announced 55 percent of the district’s students will now be in-person.

Exactly 3,400 students will be coming out of digital learning on November 3.

Despite the return of students, the district says there still be space in classrooms to social distance.

To do that some students, mainly in secondary education, will not have the same teacher they started the year with depending on class capacity at their individual schools.

Hanna says the numbers are low enough for safety and staffing capabilities.

“We didn’t have the mass exodus that people feared from the digital academy into brick and mortar, which is good because we can continue that social distancing and get more than the six feet which can help us reduce the number of kids that are having to quarantine,” said Hanna.

LCS says students will be contacted by their schools on what to expect with potential class changes, class size, and classroom expectations. They say infection in schools has been minimal, seeing only 76 cases since August 31 and they have all come from outside the schools.

“We’re in a better place now and their parents want them to come back to brick and mortar. So now teachers have about three weeks now to adjust schedules for our students that are returning and to shift things around and well continue to do this each nine weeks.”

Hanna says this process will continue until the end of the school year, meaning a portal will open near the end of each nine weeks allowing parents to opt-in or out of a learning platform.

While they are happy for students to come back they are still encouraging parents who can keep their children in digital learning to do so in order to keep class capacity down.

LCS says they will have a major announcement for teachers at their Tuesday meeting as well as an update on Chromebooks