Miami-Dade School Board voted to resume in-person classes on October 5

DORAL, FL – Miami-Dade School Board voted to resume in-person classes on October 5 following a state request to reopen schools earlier than what was already planned by the school district.

During the first in-person meeting of the new school year, the board decided to listen to the state after Florida Education Commissioner, Richard Corcoran, send a letter addressed to Superintendent Alberto Carvalho and Board Chair Perla Tabares-Hantman asking them to move up the date to resume classes scheduled between October 14 and October 21.

But as Local 10 News reported, during Tuesday’s meeting, shortly after 7 p.m., the board decided in favor of starting the reopening plan on October 5 up until October 9 when the last group of students would return. 

“It’s very frustrating,” said Miami-Dade School Board Member Lubby Navarro, as reported by Local 10. “Very frustrating to my community to see this back and forth, and I think we should have thought this more thoroughly.”

Meanwhile, Miami-Dade School Board Member Martin Karp said, “we want to take everybody’s considerations into mind. We want to be sensitive and we want to get this right, because it’s about lives.”

As for Miami-Dade Teacher’s Union, according to a statement, they are not happy with the new direction the reopening plan has taken. 

“We are appalled that our leadership would put politics over public safety and we are sad because tonight we saw a unanimous vote that discarded everything they said they stood for last week. Today, we know that each student, educator and employee has a price tag on their life,” reads part of the statement. 

Within the parents community, responses have been both positive and negative. Some argue there should be more local control over the reopening plan, others are tired of combining work with homeschooling while others claim the district is not ready for what’s coming.