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SARASOTA COUNTY – Schools in North Sarasota County re-opened today following Hurricane Ian. 

“It was a very, very smooth, extremely smooth opening today as far as operations concern, getting everybody back into classes,” said Sarasota County Schools Superintendent, Brennan Asplen. 

Sarasota County Schools have reopened in phases, Phase 1 including all traditional public schools in and north of Venice.

“Part of our plan is to have South County Schools open on October 17th and we will be ready to go, our construction, rebuild and repair is still ongoing and a food shipment is expected on Wednesday, so we’ll be ready with food as well,” said Asplen. 

Since September 30th, the school district has put in efforts to assess, clean and repair all school buildings

“Including water extractions, generators, electric repair, debris removal, plumbing, sewage, roof repair and so on, and I must say that our contractors have done an amazing job working on our schools knowing that we need to get these open as soon as possible to get our students back into school,” said Asplen. 

School officials are taking any learning loss into consideration to get students back up to speed

“The teachers will assess where they are, where they left off and look at each student’s individual needs, what did they suffer outside of school and then connect them with the necessary support within the school through the district and or the school,” said Assistant Superintendent and Chief Academic Officer, Chris Renouf. 

As well as providing counselors, social workers, nurses and school psychologists.

“Our number one priority is the safety of our students, that includes the emotional safety and the physical safety of both our students and our staff, our team is working diligently to ensure that everybody that needs something gets exactly what they’re looking for,” said Executive Director of Student Services, Debra Giacolone. 

The Sarasota county school district will host an Employee Hurricane relief support event tomorrow, October 11th  at STC North Port from 10 to 2PM with free food and resources for staff.