Classes set to begin for 2021-22 school year

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The 46,000 students in the St. Johns County public school system will return to classes Aug. 16 for the 2021-22 academic year.

Teachers will precede them for five days of planning beginning Monday, Aug. 9.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, the district has posted its health and safety protocols for the coming year. With the availability of three coronavirus vaccines, some of the measures have been relaxed.

Face masks will be optional both in school and aboard buses.

On July 30, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order ensuring that parents have a choice on whether their children wear masks.

“The federal government has no right to tell parents that in order for their kids to attend school in person, they must be forced to wear a mask all day, every day,” said DeSantis. “Many Florida schoolchildren have suffered under forced masking policies, and it is prudent to protect the ability of parents to make decisions regarding the wearing of masks by their children.”

In addition, temperature checks will no longer be a daily routine, and desk shields will no longer be mandatory in St. Johns County public schools.

However, social distancing will continue to be observed and the protocols mandate that classrooms provide adequate space to keep student seating at least three feet apart.

Maximum capacity of stadiums, auditoriums, cafeterias and gymnasiums will be 75%.
Students who become sick will be taken to a designated isolation space, and parents or guardians will be notified to pick them up.

The practice of posting COVID-19 numbers on the district’s dashboard will be re-evaluated. In the final posting for the 2020-21 school year, made June 10, 238 students and no employees were under quarantine.

Pine Island Academy will open this year at 805 Pine Island Road in Nocatee. The K-8 school — the “home of the Dolphins” — will welcome 826 former Palm Valley Academy students living in the Crosswater Village communities, Coastal Oaks, Tidewater, Snowden Village and along Pine Island Road.

Pine Island Academy is the district’s 49th school.
The school district is the largest employer in St. Johns County, with 5,298 full and part-time employees, 2,931 of whom are instructional staff.
The county is also home to 18 private schools.

The first day for students at The Bolles School is Aug. 12. Classes begin one day earlier at Palmer Catholic Academy.

St. Johns County School District, St. Johns County, school, Ponte Vedra High School. Nease High School, Pine Island Academy, Palm Valley Academy. The Bolles School, Palmer Catholic