More than 63% of Pinellas County students will return to brick-and-mortar schools

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With less than three weeks before the first day of school, a majority of Pinellas County students will return to the classroom, the district recently announced. 

Currently, 62,372 students are planning to attend traditional, brick-and-mortar schools, 63.15% of enrolled students. About 33.65%, or 33,238 students, will be starting the semester with the more hybrid learning option MyPCS Online. Only 3,151 students, 3.2%, are enrolled in Pinellas Virtual School. 

Of the students enrolled in traditional, in-person schools, about 24,457 used the Student Reservation System to sign up, while 37,915 were enrolled as a default because their families didn’t select an option before the deadline. Parents and guardians were told students without a selection would automatically be enrolled in their assigned brick and mortar school.

According to the district, that was done to simplify the process and reduce the number of parents having to log into the system. 

The school system will have more time to prepare for the start of the school year after the Pinellas County School Board unanimously voted last Tuesday to delay the start of the school year two weeks, from Aug. 12 to Aug. 24. Teachers will now start Aug. 13. 

Last Tuesday, the board also released results from a teacher survey asking how they will be able to proceed with the school year. 

From the 7,500 full-time instructional staff, about 13.6% indicated they are unable to go back because of a medical reason. 

That includes 643 teachers with underlying medical conditions, 39 teachers that are over the age of 65 and 345 teachers that live with a person who is high-risk. 

There were also 566 teachers who do not yet feel comfortable going back, 13.3% of the Pinellas County instructional workforce. 

As of Sunday, Pinellas County had 16,658 Florida resident coronavirus cases. Of those, 808 are under the age of 14, about 4%. There are 2,438 cases among people aged 15-24 years, or 15% of total cases. The Florida Department of Health doesn’t break down the 15-24 age demographic, so it’s impossible to tell how many in that group are school aged.