CHARLOTTE COUNTY (WSNN) – To go to school, or to go virtual? That’s the question Charlotte County parents are struggling to answer in the midst of this pandemic.
The uncertainty of 2020 begs a lot of questions from parents.
“What if the teacher gets sick? What if a child gets sick in my child’s class? Are they going to quarantine the whole class? Are they going to open school and then close schools,” Punta Gorda mom of three, Katrina Ivanoff, said.
Ivanoff had plans to enroll her kids at Deep Creek Elementary school, but she says she’s on the fence about her options.
Charlotte County schools are giving parents three options: in person learning; virtual school with a deadline to register by the end of the month, or homeschooling.
When we reached out to the school board for answers to some of Ivanoff’s questions, they responded via email.
“The answers to all of these questions are premature at this point,” School Board chair, Wendy Atkinson, said.
Ivanoff fears making the wrong choice for her kids.
“I worry about if I don’t put them back to school, what that’s going to do my children, and if I put them in school, what’s that going to do. There’s just not good way around this,” Ivanoff said.
Punta Gorda mom, Nadine Cortez, has one child in middle school and another in elementary school. she says she wants to put them back in school, but feels the options are too vague.
“In March, when they did decide to cancel school and go virtually, we didn’t have a quarter of the cases that we have now, and they’re willing to send these children back with no plan,” Cortez said.
And what about parents of students requiring specialized therapy and learning?
Ruth Ann Kitt’s 17-year-old daughter is non-verbal, confined to a wheelchair with quadriplegic cerebral palsy. Kitt says she wants to go virtual but her daughter needs in-person physical therapy.
“From my understanding, you have to choose one or the other, and there is nothing that combines both,” Kitt said.
The school plan only mentions Students with disabilities once, and it’s in relation to masks.
“And it’s a shame because that’s all part of her learning,” Kitt said. “The physical, mental, and academic. It shouldn’t be excluding therapies, if we pick the virtual option.”
Parents also fear the learning obstacles masks may create.
“I wonder how are these teachers going to teach when they’re constantly telling a child to put their face masks on,” Ivanoff said.
They want answers. Time is ticking with school right around the corner, and a looming decision.
“We do only have till the 31st to apply them for virtual school, so the sooner we have information, the better,” Cortez said.
Atkinson said in an email chain when they have more concrete answers, they will pass that information along to parents.
Atkinson also said in an email, “I do not want anyone on the school board placed in a ‘gotcha’ moment.”
At SNN, that is not our intent, we are just trying to help parents as much as possible to prepare themselves and their kids for the school year.