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Clock Keeps Ticking To Figure Out How School Year Will Begin In South Florida

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – The clock keeps ticking to figure out how the school year will begin in South Florida.

In Miami-Dade, the district is asking families to go online by Wednesday to declare their preference for August, which includes full on-campus learning, something virtual or a combination.

No campuses will reopen though unless the county is in Phase 2 of its reopening plan.

In Broward, four options remain on the table, though the superintendent is on record saying he sees no path to schools fully reopening in five weeks.

The governor is now changing how sees the school situation in South Florida.

"I'm not gonna dictate how everything goes… Miami is different," said Gov. Ron DeSantis at a press conference at Jackson Memorial Hospital. "I've told the commissioner of education to work with these districts. Understand, we have a very diverse state. The response here is just gonna be different than other parts of the state."

Teachers like Josh Paolino are waiting for the outcome of the Miami-Dade County Public School's survey so they can begin planning.

"You need time to design the curriculum based on whatever model we have. Are we going to teach physically? Are we going to have a hybrid online?" he said.

Paolino is part of a group of teachers who want to make clear that "changing from online to a hybrid or schoolhouse model is not simply a matter of flipping a switch" because that "type of planning work we do changes under each model."

"We have been told there are three possible models: in-home, a hybrid, which still needs discussion… and we have the full online model, which we are in much more favor of," he said.

Online is favored because teachers are familiar with it and because of the health concerns – not only for kids, but for their own ranks.

"Nationwide 1/4 of all teachers have some type of underlying conditions that may affect their health when it comes to COVID," Paolino said.

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