MIAMI - Gary Desrouilleres isn't overly fond of high school but he's raring to get back to class now. Desrouilleres is among the thousands of Florida students who've had, in some cases, more than a month off from school because of the devastating hurricanes that have hit in recent weeks.
Schools in six of the hardest-hit counties — Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee, Palm Beach, Polk, and St. Lucie — reopen Monday.
"I'm ready to go back," said Desrouilleres, 16, a sophomore football player and wrestler at Fort Pierce Central High School. "I don't like being bored."
State officials said only two districts — Escambia and Santa Rosa — will remain closed this week. Classes are expected to resume Oct. 11 in those districts.
Many schools across the state suffered heavy damage because of Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne; estimates of damage to St. Lucie and Martin county schools alone totaled $50 million.
Slowly, though, things are returning to normal. Each of the state's community colleges and universities will be open Monday, as will Pensacola Junior College, which was hit hard by Hurricane Ivan.
Classes at the University of West Florida in Pensacola will resume Tuesday, but the school's field house — which lost three-quarters of its roof — is closed and 2,000 trees that once lined the campus are now gone.
"Our campus landscape is vastly different than it was when classes began this fall," the school's president, John Cavanaugh, wrote in a message posted on the university's Web site.
Many districts are adjusting class locations because of damage and sports schedules because of cancelations. Some schools are unable to provide busing to all locations; Martin County students who live on barrier islands hit by Frances and Jeanne will be taking ferry boats to bus stops for the foreseeable future.
The hurricanes are likely to be the centerpiece of Monday's lesson plans, if only to put students' minds at ease.
"You really have to discuss their issues," said Bill Connolly, the student services coordinator for Martin County, "before you can get back into the routine of spelling, math and reading."
From Yahoo! - Fla. Schools Set to Open in Storms' Wake
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PurdueWx80
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Scorpion
Got those priorities straight, huh? LOL. Don't blame you a bit...but bite your tongue. FL doesn't need anymore 'canes! School out or not...
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Stormsfury
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WeatherEmperor
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Our schools in South Alabama missed 8 or 9 days (Mobile and Baldwin counties) and have to make up every single day. We were hoping for a waiver, as they did after Hurricane Frederic 25 years ago, but that doesn't seem like it's going to happen. There's even talk of taking days away from Christmas vacation. If we have any kind of wintry precipitation later on, the kids may be going to school year round!
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mascpa
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My son missed 12 school days. I've heard that four of the days will be waived but the other eight must be made up. Canceled a couple of "Teacher Planning Days" (whatever they are, I never could figure that out), don't get Veteran's Day off, couple less days at Christmas and rescheduled spring break. They say they still expect school to get out for the summer on the same day as originally planned. Hope so because we already have plans for next June.
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I couldnt find anything on the Palm Beach district page. Hmmm. But here's a link to the Governor's executive order. If you can find your way through the legalese, there's stuff about waiving the 180 day requirement.
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/mainpage/em/news/04/ivan/0921_03.htm
Also, here is a link to the Education Dept's letter on the same topic:
http://www.fldoe.org/news/2004/2004_09_21-2.asp
Starting at about the 9th or 10th paragraph, they talk about making up days. It says they should plan on making up 5 days and request a waiver for the rest.
http://www.dep.state.fl.us/mainpage/em/news/04/ivan/0921_03.htm
Also, here is a link to the Education Dept's letter on the same topic:
http://www.fldoe.org/news/2004/2004_09_21-2.asp
Starting at about the 9th or 10th paragraph, they talk about making up days. It says they should plan on making up 5 days and request a waiver for the rest.
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WHhurricaneh8ter
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I live in Polk County and they have already made the decision on the make-up days for what we missed during Charley and Frances. October 15, December 20 & 21 and January 3-5. That's five days of the Christmas vacation! I think it stinks! My mom works for the school board and isn't happy with the decision because we are having family here at Christmas. Now we missed a week because of Jeanne! I'm not in school anymore, but my friend is a teacher and we were trying to plan something for Spring Break, but now we aren't sure there will be one! I think they should just waive a few days. I doubt it will hurt anything.
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Anonymous
Scorpion wrote:Yeah I start school tomorrow. Maybe the hurricanes will keep coming every 3 weeks and we get school off again.
Please..............No more hurricanes in Florida. My poor grandmother's nerves are all frazzled after FOUR 'canes! She resides in N. Fort Myers.
I hope you get many more days off from school though.
It's just that I feel that Floridians have endured enough hurricanes for the next 10 years, and then some. It's going to take a while to get the rebuilding done!
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Getting back into the swing of things has been horrible.
Report cards for our first semester come out in less than 2 weeks!
The kids here actually missed 10 days out of 37.
We're not cutting our wednesday's short by the regular hour anymore, and have planned on 4 full days of make-up... But the kids are missing some important instruction time.
I can't wait to see what it does to the FCAT!!!
Report cards for our first semester come out in less than 2 weeks!
The kids here actually missed 10 days out of 37.
We're not cutting our wednesday's short by the regular hour anymore, and have planned on 4 full days of make-up... But the kids are missing some important instruction time.
I can't wait to see what it does to the FCAT!!!
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The schools in the Pensacola are were HAMMERED. SO many roofs from schools were ripped off and many classrooms ruined from water damage. It's aweful. The kids will have had pretty much a 1 month layoff (Sept 14-Oct 11) because of Ivan! And no folks-that was not from storm surge damage! It was extreme wind damage.
I go to the University of West Florida. It just got started back up today-but it's a mess over there. The basketball facility was ripped to shreds. It's still standing but it doesn't look pretty. 30 million damage alone at the University.
It was extreme wind damage.
I go to the University of West Florida. It just got started back up today-but it's a mess over there. The basketball facility was ripped to shreds. It's still standing but it doesn't look pretty. 30 million damage alone at the University.
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