JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Bolles and Episcopal announced to parents and students that the schools will offer online classes only when they reopen from spring break and Providence has extended its spring break an extra day to make extra precautions against coronavirus before students return.
This comes the morning after the Florida Department of Health announced the first positive cases in Duval and Clay counties. Cases in St. Johns and Nassau counties were announced earlier in the week. The Florida Department of Health has announced there are 42 positive cases of COVID-19 in the state.
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Episcopal’s head of school announced that remote learning will be implemented on March 23, when spring break ends. Adam Greene said teachers have been preparing for this for two weeks.
Episcopal has also canceled all extracurricular events, practices, and rehearsals for the week of March 23.
“We make this decision for the health, safety, and well-being of our community following the travel that many are taking during spring break, and because of the volatile nature of this pandemic,” Greene said. “There is considerable anxiety about this unprecedented situation, and our goal is to provide predictability and flexibility as well as ongoing learning for our students.”
Bolles announced that its four campuses will be closed to all but boarding students, resident families and essential personnel staring Saturday. When spring break ends March 23, students will remain at home and take classes virtually through its distance learning program.
“While this was a difficult decision and a challenging step to take, we felt compelled to align our actions with recent decisions being made by universities, organizations, teams and businesses across our state and around our country,” Bolles President and Head of School Tyler Hodges wrote in an email to parents.
While the amount of time all classes will be held virtually isn’t known, Hodges hoped the campus could reopen are in-person classes resume on April 6.
A media spokesperson for Providence said students will be taught via virtual classroom beginning Tues., March 17 through March 31. All sports and extracurricular events planned at Providence are canceled through March 31.
On Tuesday, students at Providence will have scheduled times for each grade to go to school and get necessary materials from their lockers.
For complete information, visit our Coronavirus special section.