Late last week, DOE Commissioner Richard Corcoran released Emergency Order  2021-EO-02 giving school districts much-needed flexibility when it comes to testing  used this year for promotion and graduation.

I am incredibly grateful for the leadership of Commissioner Corcoran and Governor  DeSantis during this pandemic and for their emphasis on ensuring that the needs of our  students remain at the forefront of our conversations, executive actions, legislation and  planning for the future. I thought recovering from Hurricane Michael was the most  difficult challenge I would be faced with as your Superintendent but the pandemic  proved me wrong. Making sure we do everything possible to focus on the safety of our  students, our staff and our families, while also trying to keep students focused  academically, has been a monumental challenge for us all. I must say, however, that I  am so proud of the way our entire community responded to this challenge and I’ll be  eternally grateful for the immense sacrifices of our employees who have been  determined to keep school going despite numerous obstacles.  

Every day I get dozens of calls and emails from companies offering to “help” us reopen  school and they are always quite surprised to hear that we’ve been in school since  August and that, as you can see from our website, our Covid numbers have been  extremely low thanks to the diligence of our students and staff and the support of our  families.  

We may not all agree on masks or vaccines but I’ve been so grateful for the  community’s support and the appreciation our employees have felt, and continue to feel,  as we finish out this very strange school year. We were #850Strong after Hurricane  Michael decimated our community and we’ve managed to dig even deeper to come  together in new and creative ways (while social distancing of course) as a result of  Covid-19. I am so proud to call Bay County my home.  

While the entire order from Commission Corcoran is quite lengthy, and can be read in  its entirety on the DOE website at http://www.fldoe.org/em-response/, I thought it might  be helpful if I summarized some of the most important points: 

Please review the links to the documentation of this order below in the links provided. 

DOE Emergency Order

EO-02Webinar

2021-EO-02