The Sarasota County School Board took steps on Tuesday toward assuring families that officials expect the next school year will be a return to normal and that they plan to allow several COVID-19-related policies to expire.
The School Board will allow a policy requiring students to wear masks for the majority of the day and to sit behind a tri-fold desk shield during a “mask break” to end on June 30.
Next school year the district will no longer ask teachers to provide concurrent learning, teaching students both in person and remotely at the same time via web cameras.
The district will ask teachers to develop plans for how students can continue learning next year if they have to go into quarantine, without relying on the concurrent learning model, which has been widely panned by teachers, administrators and parents.
21 hours ago Share Following directives from the state, district leaders will consider a policy that would not make face masks mandatory for the new school year.
Sarasota School Board members are considering letting the district’s face mask policy sunset June 30.
Board members revisited the policy, which requires all students and staff to wear a face covering while on campus or in district vehicles, after Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran sent a letter to Florida districts asking them to make masks optional for the 2021-22 school year.
Students have been wearing masks since August, but health officials are now saying numbers of COVID-19 cases may be low enough to consider an optional policy.
Staff COVID-19 cases decrease in Sarasota, Manatee schools
Both Sarasota County and Manatee County school districts recorded low numbers of employees testing positive for COVID-19 this week, as access to vaccinations expands.
Manatee Schools had no staff test positive for the week as of Friday morning, the first time that has happened this school year. In Sarasota County, seven staff members tested positive this week, the lowest number of positives since October.
That is a dramatic shift from weeks ago, when competition for the shot was fierce, limited to senior citizens and required people to sign up in an online registry to qualify.
Sarasota students wonât be cutting loose after school district approves senior prom, bans dancing
Kimberly Kuizon reports
SARASOTA, Fla. - For high school seniors in Sarasota County, prom will look and feel different.
For one thing, only seniors will be allowed. And just like the movie Footloose, no dancing will be permitted. I was really looking forward to my senior dance, lamented student Megan Duffy. I don’t think it would be as fun as it happened in the past, said Sarasota High School junior Alyssa Avalos. Knowing that we do have a prom is a good thing, but knowing the circumstances of it, it does suck, offered SHS senior Emilise Avendano.