WESLEY CHAPEL Fla. — Students and staff across the State of Florida are getting ready to settle into a new normal as a new school year quickly approaches.
Staff at Pasco-Hernando State College want to make sure students and co-workers feel as safe as possible when they are back on campus.
Kevin O'Farrell, Provost for the Porter Campus, said college took the virtual learning opportunity to fine-tune safety measures around the campus, which houses a little more than 4,000 students.
"As you can see one of the things that we have done is install plexiglass protective shields at all of our high transaction touchpoint spaces," O'Farrell said. "Hand sanitizer bottles. Extra stations within the campus too."
The state college received more than $3 million dollars through the CARES Act to offset costs related to COVID-19 compliancy. The money will fund everything that allows the college to function due to the pandemic.
That includes everything from new hires, instructional designers to Zoom licenses.
Large signs are sprinkled around campus to remind people to social distance along with spaced out seating in common areas.
"A significant reduction in spacing and we have done that throughout the entire campus too so in all of our lobby areas where we could not physically remove the chair signs on the chair you know saying, please don't sit here," O'Farrell said.
Despite online courses taking the reigns, O'Farrell said they didn't lose any students during the summer session.
As for the fall semester, like the pandemic, school leaders are waiting to see how that will play out.
For more information on the steps Pasco-Hernando State College is taking as they prepare to reopen, click here.