VERO BEACH, Fla. — Beachland Elementary School has closed because of a COVID-19 breakout and won't reopen until after Labor Day, Indian River School District said Thursday night.
Spokesperson Cristen Maddux told WPTV-TV the school, which has roughly 500 students, was shut down because "we continued to see positive staff and student cases. Closing the school has more to do with the staff shortage.”
According to the school's dashboard, there are 12 students and 12 staff members listed as cases with "school impact." In the entire district there are 198 students' cases and 108 staff members affected.
Also, 368 students are quarantined among the roughly 17,000 students in the district.
All of the students will continue learning from home and will obtain lessons remotely through Canvas, the school district's online learning platform, Maddux said.
On Wednesday, Superintendent Dr. David Moore told WPTV that the school year is already proving to be challenging.
"What we've experienced in the first two-and-a-half weeks of school absolutely is a new environment," said Moore. "This is 1,000 times worse than at any point it was last year."
On Tuesday, the school district approved a mask mandate through Sept. 14 for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade with only medical exemptions allowed. In all 10 counties in the state are defying Gov. Ron DeSantis' order.
"Our job is to provide a free and appropriate public education for all students, and when you don't have teachers, you don't have support staff, you can't do that," Moore said.
Following are the cases and quarantines in school districts:
Palm Beach School District (enrollment 163,045)
2,506 total (2,237 Wednesday)
2,223 students (1,994 Wednesday). Quarantine 5,269 Wednesday, 5,050 Tuesday
283 employees (2431 Wednesday)
Martin (enrollment 19,038)
233 total cases (174 Wednesday). Quarantine: Total 1,751 (1,357 Wednesday), 1,717 students (1,229 Wednesday), 34 staff (30 Wednesday)
195 students (142 Wednesday)
38 employees (32 Wednesday)
St. Lucie (40,827 enrollment)
469 total cases (434 Wednesday)
348 students (320 Wednesday)
121 employees (114 Wednesday)
Okeechobee (enrollment 6,410)
165 total cases (161 Wednesday)
117 students (105 Wednesday). Quarantine: Total 2,313, 2,305 students, 5 employees (2,218 total, 2,213 students, 5 employees Wednesday)
58 employees (56 Wednesday)
Indian River (enrollment 17,792)
383 total cases (293 Wednesday).
275 students with 198 school impact, 2 no school impact, 75 student home test (195 Wednesday with 149 school impact, 0 no school impact 46 student home test). Quarantine students 368 (347 Wednesday)
108 employees (98 Wednesday)