By Sascha Agenor
Welcome Stage II!
After countless long, laborious board meetings, teacher-administration back-and-forth, mysterious updates, and confusing schedule changes, Miami-Dade Public County Schools has announced its plan for the reopening of our schools.
“The decision to transition to Stage II of the District’s reopening plan was made in light of Miami-Dade County’s transition to Phase II of reopening, the marked improvements seen in the series of health metrics identified by medical and public health experts, guidance from the State, and the school system’s overall level of readiness in terms of workforce, facilities and all necessary protocols,” says M-DCPS Office of Communications.
Starting the week of October 5, Stage II will commence and students will be allowed
to attend classes face-to-face like the good ol’ days. The new M-DCPS staggered model
provides the schedule for returning elementary, middle school, and high school students.
How will it work?
According to the official MDCPS newsletter, both virtual and physical high school schedules will begin promptly at 7:20 a.m., with grade 9 returning on Wednesday, October 7, and grades 11-12 returning on Friday, October 9.
Parents should be on the look out for notification cards in the mail that hold the official decision for the model they chose in July. It is essential that students present these notification cards physically in order to enter campus. The official selection can also be found on the student portal, where there is additional information on transportation.
According to the M-DCPS Office of Communication, the public school system has worked diligently to ensure that students are coming back to a safe, low-risk environment. “For the past several months, M-DCPS has been preparing for the reopening of schools through intensive and continuous deep sanitization, maintenance and physical modification of school sites; securing of Personal Protection Equipment, the development of protocols and processes to ensure social distancing at all times; a contact tracing and investigation program and data dashboard to ensure the dissemination of real-time COVID-19 related information, and much more.”
They are also asking parents to not only properly equip their children with facial coverings as they attend school and use public transportation, but to screen their children daily for symptoms of COVID-19 before sending them to school.
But... How do students feel?
Not every student you ask at MAST @ FIU is going to give you the same answer to the question “Online, or Physical?” In fact, you’ll have varying degrees of apprehension and excitement for either answer.
Junior Sebastian Kenny explains what his plans for the school year are- will he be at home the week of October 5, or will he be navigating FIU’s campus, hopeful to see some familiar faces? Why has he chosen either option- and does he have any concerns?
“I will be returning to school physically. I’m doing this because Junior Year is the most important academic year in high school and online is not helping me perform well. Overall, I think our school is very lucky for our small size and large campus, but I think the teachers who are not paid well, have families, and are older/more at risk are getting the worst of it,” the junior states.
Laura Sandoval, a senior, has opted to switch from physical school to online school. “I had originally decided to return to physical school, however, given the circumstances, I decided that remaining home was best in order to protect my family that is immunocompromised...I didn’t expect the schools to reopen at this time and feel it is irresponsible for schools to be reopening given the rise in cases and the lack of precautions that can be taken. I would not want to put my family or my teachers at risk.” Though Laura will continue to learn virtually, she and Kenny share similar sentiments when it comes to risk. "I’m concerned for those returning as most of these people have not followed the CDC guidelines and could present a risk to our school faculty and staff,” she says. “On the other hand, I’m also a bit concerned about the mental health of those remaining at home given the isolation and lack of support in some cases.”
Students of all grades can probably agree that returning to school puts all of those in the physical learning environment at risk, but staying home poses a threat to the mental health and quality of education students receive. As far as teachers go, some have made the decision that the possibility of contracting COVID-19 and putting their loved ones in danger is not worth returning to school. MAST@FIU’s beloved math teacher, Mr. Tisdahl, has made the tough decision to take leave for the rest of the year as he cannot bring back the virus to high-risk family members. (From all of us at MAST... we will miss you!)
What does the future hold?
The simplest answer to this question is: nobody knows. All we can do is hope that with the model proposed, students both in classrooms and in their homes will be provided equal access to quality education and can stay healthy- physically and mentally.
With that being said... see you all next week!
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
For additional information, make sure to visit reopening.dadeschools.net, where you can read the M-DCPS Reopen Smart, Return Safe guide in English, Spanish or Haitian- Creole. You can also download the Dadeschools mobile app to your iPhone or Android device, and follow M-DCPS on their social medias:
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