Students return to school in Central Florida facing new security rules and ongoing bus worries
By Alissa Gary
Central Florida public school students return to school Monday as school districts debut enhanced safety rules, open new campuses and wrestle with the ongoing bus driver shortages.
Student safety is a top concern for school districts across the state, most of which also start the 2024-25 school year Aug. 12. This year, that includes an initiative to keep all campus doors locked at all times, in accordance with a new state law.
“Our parents need to know,” said Orange County Sheriff John Mina, at a Friday news conference, “that our deputies have been instructed and will risk their lives for the safety of their children.”
This year, parents and other visitors will need to show identification at a camera stationed outside before entering school lobbies.
In Seminole, a sheriff’s office dog will randomly sniff through classrooms in search of any weapons hidden in students’ backpacks.
In Osceola County, the district will begin random weapons searches of middle and high school students’ backpacks and try out a weapons-detection system at Osceola High School.
The hope is the quick random searches will deter students from packing weapons and other items, like vaping devices, that are not allowed on campus, said Superintendent Mark Shanoff.
“Then a classroom can get on with the business of learning,” he said.
Seminole County Public Schools in July debuted a remodeled bus equipped with computers and desks to make school registration easier for families. Once school starts, the “one-stop shop” will continue running, offering English classes, homework help and other community support initiatives, said Minnie Cardona, a district employee who helps run the bus effort.
Dubbed the “Student Success Express,” the bus was parked most recently at Tuskawilla Middle School and Action Church in Sanford, where 30 people boarded to get help.
Lynn Ruperto got on Thursday morning to register two of her children for school at Tuskawilla, the same school she attended when she was a teen. She said doing paperwork on the bus was convenient.
“Instead of having the small little office getting packed up with parents,” she said, “the bus is ideal. I’m all for it.”
Three new campuses are slated to open in Orange, the fourth-largest school district in the state. The Osceola school district will open two new K-8 schools to accommodate enrollment growth in the fast-growing county.
School districts remain short of bus drivers and worried about teacher vacancies, though officials said there are fewer teaching jobs unfilled this year than last.
Orange County Public Schools still needed about 100 bus drivers on Friday.
Superintendent Maria Vazquez said only 2% of classrooms are missing teachers — and she expects all classrooms to be staffed on the first day of school.
In Osceola, Shanoff said the district had 72 instructional vacancies on Wednesday, down from more than 100 at the same time last year. District staff will help make sure no classroom is without a teacher next week, he said.
In Lake County, the first-ever graduate of Tavares High School’s teaching academy, is returning to the district as a kindergarten teacher at Astatula Elementary School.
Like similar initiatives in other Central Florida school districts, Lake’s grow-your-own program aims to help combat the ongoing teacher shortage. The program is a partnership with the University of Central Florida. Teacher Ashley Ellixson, who graduated from Tavares High in 2021, has now earned her college degree and will start work Monday.
The first week of school always means more traffic and then inevitable bus delays. In response, OCPS launched a tracker on its website so parents can monitor their students’ bus status.
The district also decided students will have to scan an ID to board their buses, an initiative that’ll help drivers ensure students are getting on and off the buses as expected.
“Inevitably, the first day of school we always find some child that didn’t make it home in time,” said Bill Wen, the district’s transportation director. “This will help us narrow down that search.”
Despite the worries, back-to-school still delights school leaders, they said.
“This time of year is so exciting,” said Teresa Jacobs, chair of the Orange County School Board. “We see all these smiling faces of kids coming in, faculty comes in, staff comes in. They’re all renewed and rejuvenated.”