Sarasota Kids Head Back To School With Online and In-Person Mix

SARASOTA, FL — A mix of online classes and traditional classroom instruction marked the return of school for thousands of Sarasota-area children Monday following an extended summer break and a reminder for students to remember to bring their masks.

Sarasota County Schools spokeswoman Kelsey Whealy told Patch she was not aware of any glitches with respect to the first day of school as of early Monday afternoon.

"We unfortunately won’t have attendance information from the first few days available until later this week," Whealy said.

Genevieve Judge of the Sarasota Police Department told Patch a number of motorists had to be educated about observing the 15 mph school zone speed limits.

"Unsure if folks forgot that it was back to school or not," she told Patch. "It was a mix of warnings and citations."

Patch invited Sarasota-area readers to share their feelings regarding the reopening of school and whether people felt all necessary precautions were being taken to keep children safe.

"No, I feel it is unsafe to allow any kids to go to school without a mask," said one reader. "If a child cannot wear a mask, they should be using the distance learning option."

Jerri Lynne and Marjorie Goff both said they believed school officials had done everything possible to keep kids safe.

Retired high school teacher Lizabeth Riepe said she was uncomfortable sending kids back to classrooms.

"If I was close to retirement, I'd be putting my paperwork in," Riepe shared..

Another retired teacher, Elaine Lampros, questioned whether children would be able to observe social distance recommendations.

"Even though distance learning is certainly not optimum, it is to be preferred to exposing children, and thus their families, until some solution is found to curtailing this deadly virus," Lampros said.

Some 69 percent of Sarasota County children were expected to begin traditional classroom instruction on Monday while some 31 percent of children had been expected to opt for online classes as of Friday.

That breaks down to 25,475 children in traditional classroom settings compared to 10,922 in online classes.

While this is no ordinary school year, at least one thing hasn't changed — back-to-school photos. We found a number of adorable first-day pics on social media that are sure to put a smile on your face.