Masked & Ready, Students Returned To Classrooms At Coral Park Elementary After One Day Closure

MIAMI (CBSMiami) -Students at Coral Park Elementary School headed back to their classrooms on Thursday after positive coronavirus cases forced the school to suspend in-person learning the day before.

On Wednesday, the school in Miami pivoted to a day of solely online learning following reports a student and employee at the school tested positive for COVID-19.

"You know it's always a little bit of concern, but all you can do is trust," said Stephanie Trujillo who dropped off her kindergarten son at Coral Park Elementary on Thursday. "He needs to be in school. I saw what happened yesterday in online learning. They need to be around kids. As long as everybody is taking the right precautions inside and outside the school, hopefully we can get this going."

Coral Park Elementary became the second public school in Miami-Dade County to close because of positive cases. MAST Academy was also forced to pivot to a day of online learning earlier this week following reports of two students testing positive for the virus.

"If children are exhibiting symptoms, do not send them to school," said MDCPS Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Monday.

Students who chose to go back to in-person learning began returning to the classroom on October 5. Since then, Miami-Dade Public School's online dashboard reports 27 positive cases between employees and students.

As of Thursday, Coral Park Elementary School has reported 3 positive cases since re-opening. Poinciana Elementary School also reported 3 positive cases followed by Kendale Lakes Elementary and MAST Academy at 2 reported cases each.

The decision to close Coral Park Elementary School for one day on Wednesday, the school district said, was made of an "abundance of caution".

"The transition ensured that those who came in close contact with the individuals were notified and that all buildings in the school were thoroughly sanitized," said MDCPS Chief Communications Officer, Daisy Gonzalez-Diego. "As always, our actions will be guided by the health and wellbeing of our students and employees."

Miami-Dade began a staggered return to classrooms on October 5th.

In these less than two weeks, the school district's online dashboard shows 28 positive cases between employees and students as of Thursday.

In Broward, where a staggered return to the classroom began on October 9th, the school district's dashboard looks at reported cases concerning schools that goes back 30 days. On Thursday, they reported 46 employees and one student tested positive at 37 different schools.

Since most schools across the rest of the state went back September 6th, the health department has set up a database to keep track of reported cases.