No plan to close South Florida schools as COVID numbers rise in the schools, counties

David Goodhue, Colleen Wright
·3 min read

Public schools in both Miami-Dade and Broward counties saw their confirmed COVID-19 cases jump by well over 100 in a week’s time, a trend that started shortly after students were allowed back to in-person learning in early October.

Despite the rise, neither school district has immediate plans to close schools down and return to online-only classes.

The same is true in Monroe County, where cases in Florida Keys public schools jumped from 46 students, teachers and non-teaching staff last Friday to 62 by the end of this week, a 35 percent increase.

The island chain saw a spike in confirmed novel coronavirus cases this month, with the Florida Department of Health reporting 99 infected people Friday in Monroe County. Since the pandemic began, a high case count in the Keys has been around 30.

The percent positive rate — the percent of all COVID tests performed that come back positive — in all three counties is also increasing at a pace that concerns health officials.

When schools opened in the fall, the rate was under 5% in all three counties. This week in Miami-Dade, the rate climbed to over 9% and to more than 7 percent in Broward. In the Keys, the daily positivity rate reached a high of 20 percent, state health officials said Friday, jumping from from 11.78% to 20.38%.

However, while officials said they are closely monitoring schools, tracing shows that the cases so far have not originated there.

“They’re not considering closing now because, while our numbers are slowing increasing, none of it is because of school,” said Becky Herrin, spokeswoman for the Monroe school district.

At Wednesday’s meeting of the Miami-Dade County School Board, there was no discussion about closing schools.

“No determination has been made at this time,” Natalia Zea, district spokeswoman, said in an email to the Herald.

Students walk to the MAST Academy on the first day back of in-person learning, Wednesday, Oct. 7. A few days after the school reopened, administrators closed the school for one day due to two students testing positive for COVID-19.
Students walk to the MAST Academy on the first day back of in-person learning, Wednesday, Oct. 7. A few days after the school reopened, administrators closed the school for one day due to two students testing positive for COVID-19.

Broward schools officials also have no immediate plans to shut down in the midst of the rising numbers, which the teachers’ union finds troubling. The percent positive rate began the week at almost 9%, and the week ended at almost 8%.

“They actually talked about not closing schools due to the governor not OK with it,” Anna Fusco, president of the Broward Teachers Union, said about School Board members who met this week. “I think it’s deplorable. The virus is spreading and people are walking around acting like it’s not happening.”

While Gov. Ron DeSantis is against closing down schools as a means of stopping the spread of the coronavirus, the ultimate decision is up to individual school districts.

Funding, however, is distributed by the state. Districts often follow guidance set by the Florida Department of Education to avoid having dollars withheld.

In Miami-Dade, the number of confirmed cases the school district posted on its online dashboard Friday was 729, up from 548 cases Friday, Nov. 13.

In Broward, confirmed cases rose over a seven-day period from 448 to 578 on Friday, according to that district’s dashboard.

The numbers are likely significantly higher, however, because districts only post cases on their respective ledgers after the Department of Health confirms them. School officials in all three counties urged people not to view the dashboards as up-to-date measures of the COVID situation in schools.