Duval schools superintendent reflects on COVID-19 challenges this past school year: ‘We quickly moved to thriving’

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Duval County Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Diana Greene took time Monday to reflect on the challenges the district faced this past school year due to COVID-19.

Greene said it was the most challenging in her career, but her students, teachers, and staff persevered in the 2020-21 school year.

RELATED: Bus stop registration opens Monday for Duval County Public Schools

COVID-19 forced the school district to adapt to online learning and new social distancing policies and after a long and lengthy process, the school board decided to rename six Duval County Schools with Confederate ties.

“There were days that I felt like MacGyver was somewhere in the building working things out for us,” Greene said.

Now Greene is looking forward to getting back to normal in the 2021-22 school year.

“It’s more the ‘new’ normal for us but we will continue to remain focused on teaching and learning, taking care of the students and also keeping some of the COVID-19 measures that we implemented in place,” Greene said.

AUGUST 2020: 172 Duval teachers absent; Dr. Diana Greene steps in to teach

That includes keeping hand sanitizer inside the schools and access to school clinics and health staff.

Temperature checks will go away and desk shields will only be used for elementary age students in small groups activities.

The district says face coverings will be optional although highly encouraged for students not yet vaccinated.

Greene said a majority of students have opted to return to in person learning.

RELATED: Duval County schools offering free meals through summer

“However, for those families, we still have DVIA (Duval Virtual Instruction Academy), our virtual school that is K-12th as an option,” she said.

Despite all the countless obstacles of the school year, Greene ended her end of the school year review by saying how proud she was of “Team Duval.”

“We not only made it. We started in survival mode but we quickly moved to thriving,” Greene said.

DCPS said it’ll also be opening up five vaccination sites at high schools in the next couple of weeks for students ages 12 and up to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

Greene told Action News Jax those details will be released soon.

READ: Florida Board of Education bans Critical Race Theory in the classroom

©2021 Cox Media Group