MANATEE COUNTY (WSNN) – As we enter the second week of school for Manatee County students, the district reflects on the good and the bad.
“It’s unlike any first year, the first day, the first week of school that we’ve ever had,” Manatee County School District communication director, Michael Barber, said.
Barber says the first few weeks are always chaotic, but this year has an added layer of difficulty.
“In addition to dealing with the COVID issues, we’ve had to transform the way that we’re offering instruction to all of our students,” Barber said.
There are three different types of learning methods: in-person, hybrid, and virtual learning. He says among the 49 schools in the district, there are 50,000 students they have to make schedules for.
Last week, SNN spoke to educators, who wished to remain anonymous, saying a major issue is overcrowded classrooms.
“The classes are larger than pre-COVID,” anonymous teacher,” anonymous teacher, “Mindy,” said.
“I’m sitting with more students in a classroom than I have taught, in easily the last 10 to 15 years,” anonymous teacher, “Anne,” said.
Barber’s response?
“I do believe there are instances out there where there are too many students in a specific classroom. That happens every single year.”
He says sometimes students show up in schools in greater numbers than expected. So they do a 10-day count.
“What we do after that 10-day count, we redistribute our teachers and other instructors to even out the number of teachers with the number of students.”
This happens every year, but he says it’s more important now because of the social distancing restrictions.
“It’s going to take us some time to do it, but we feel confident that we will be able to get it done.”
Barber says plans to stay and serve the parents and students.
“The main thing for us is just to continue doing what we’re all here to do, and that’s to keep educating our kids even in the midst of something as challenging as this,” Barber said.
He says 48-percent of students are learning in-person, five-days a week, 23-percent are doing hybrid learning, on-campus two-times a week, and 25-percent are learning virtually. So 70-percent of students are back on campus.
