The Superintendent for Indian River County schools is recommending the start of the academic school year in Indian County be pushed back to August 24th.

Superintendent Dr. David Moore made the announcement on Monday, ahead of Tuesday’s planned school board meeting.

“We can not rush an opening of schools. We can not use children as an experiment. Their instruction is too valuable. It is too important. We need to get this right on day one,” Moore said.

If the school board does not side with Moore’s recommendation then classes will begin on August 10th.

Despite the recommendation to start school later, parents still had until last Friday to choose how their child will take classes.

” We are not, by any means, going to get this wrong,” Moore said. ” We are going to create a system that ensures that all students are provided quality instruction on Day 1.”

Parents where given the option to allow their child to attend in-person instruction, virtual school with full-time online instruction at home, or transitional distance learning which involves full-time online instruction/live streamed lessons at home.

On Monday, the school district plans to begin distributing district-loaned laptops to students who have opted for online learning.

According to Moore, about 22% of students and their families have opted for the online instruction, while the others plan to attend classes in person.

Students and staff who will be in the in-person setting will be required to wear facial coverings especially when riding a bus or in the hallways between classes.

Both students and staff who have tested positive will also not return to school until they have been symptom-free for at least 10 days and have had no fever for three days.

“We need to ensure our faculty and staff fully understand these procedures, and have the time not only to understand them but fully embrace them, so that when our students come to school, they are safe,” Moore said.