School District Employees Declared 'Essential Workers': Asplen

SARASOTA COUNTY, FL — At Tuesday’s Sarasota County School Board meeting, Superintendent Dr. Brennan Asplen warned the community that Sarasota County Schools was at “a critical point” in operations because of the surge in COVID-19 cases in the region.

Since school started Aug. 10, numerous district employees, particularly in the areas of transportation, custodial and food service, and students have tested positive for COVID-19 and went into isolation or were exposed to someone who has coronavirus and also went into quarantine, he said.

This has led to staffing issues for the district and a number of students missing out on classroom instruction, the superintendent said.

"We are at a point in our operations area — a critical point in our operations area — we won't be able to operate the public school system," Asplen said Tuesday.

To combat this issue, the district has worked with the Department of Health to declare its workers “essential employees,” Asplen said at an emergency school board meeting to discuss a mask mandate for the district Friday.

“We were having a hard time having enough bus drivers and cafeteria workers…to operate as we should be,” he said.

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With the workers deemed “essential employees,” the district has worked with the DOH to create a plan where asymptomatic staff members can quarantine at work while wearing a mask, the superintendent said. This is “exactly what we need to ensure that we operate.”

Since the start of the school year, Sarasota County Schools’ assistant principals have focused their efforts on contact tracing exposed students and staff, leaving them time for little else.

To relieve them of this duty and free up their time, the district is bringing 12 workers on its substitute teachers list to focus on contact tracing, Jody Dumas, assistant superintendent and chief operating officer, said Friday.

“Hopefully taking some of that load off our (assistant principals) and principals so they can actually focus on education,” he said. “I think it will do wonders.”

With workers dedicated to contact tracing, the district’s COVID-19 dashboard will be updated sooner, he added.