DeSantis reverses funding cut for Indian River County schools after district's mask mandate

INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The school district was poised to lose about $1.3 million in funding after disobeying the state by imposing a mask mandate last fall — but not anymore.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Thursday that the district — as well as 11 other districts that implemented mask mandates against his administration's regulations — would still be eligible for $200 million in funding, overruling the legislature's decision to exclude them.

In a letter DeSantis wrote Thursday to education commissioner Manny Diaz Jr., he instructed the Department of Education to ignore the decision and "reward eligible schools for their achievements, as districts' actions have no bearing on a school's eligibility."

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School Board member Brian Barefoot applauded the governor's decision, calling it a "relief" the district would not be penalized for the mandate.

"Our mandate was for two weeks, when no one knew what was going on," Barefoot said.

The brief mandate was implemented after two teachers died from COVID-19 and two elementary schools temporarily closed because of the virus, he said.

"We didn't know what to expect," Barefoot said. "We did what we thought was right."

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The $200 million Florida School Recognition Program, which provides bonus funding to schools based on exemplary test scores, was slated to provide $1.3 million to Indian River schools. Funding from the program goes towards teacher bonuses and improving classrooms.

But the bonus was suddenly on the chopping block this year, all because the district briefly implemented a mask mandate last fall.

The district took a "tiered" approach to masking at the beginning of the semester, where only schools with high numbers of COVID-19 cases were required to implement mask wearing. But 10 days later, the School Board reversed the decision and instead "highly recommended" mask wearing in schools with many cases.

Still, lawmakers used their budget implementing bill to penalize the district, the smallest of the 12 districts that defied the governor's orders to let parents decide whether they would mask their kids. Other districts included Alachua, Brevard, Broward, Miami-Dade, Duval, Hillsborough, Leon, Orange, Palm Beach, Sarasota and Volusia.

The $200-million cut from those districts would've been dispersed among the state's other 55 school districts which did not impose mask mandates.

But after eliminating the cut from the state's budget Thursday, DeSantis reiterated his support for punishing the districts and school board members who were responsible for defying his orders, but not the schools themselves, which actually receive the funding from the program.

"At most, districts are a pass through, as districts have no lawful means to spend these funds," he wrote.

Staff writer Colleen Wixon contributed to this report.

Thomas Weber is a Digital Now Reporter at TCPalm. You can reach him at thomas.weber@tcpalm.com or 813-545-9113. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: DeSantis strikes cut to Indian River County schools' funding