Tropical Storm Eta swept by the south west coast of Florida with high winds and heavy rains this week and caused several Florida schools to close facilities and cancel facility use reservations.
Facilitron partners Lee, Sarasota, Manatee and Polk counties in SW Florida were in the path of the storm and all closed for at least one day, while Manatee took extra precautions and closed for three days. Lake County in Central Florida also closed for Thursday as a precaution.
Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties did not report any closures.
Here are Facilitron partner district closures (with specific dates) in Florida:
Sarasota County Schools: 11/11
School District of Lee County: 11/11
Polk County Schools: 11/11 – 11/12
School District of Manatee County: 11/11, 11/12 and 11/13
Lake County Schools: 11/12
The storm’s meandering path up from Central America then across Cuba and taking a left turn when crossing the Florida Keys left districts with less time that usual to prepare for shutdowns and cancellations of scheduled facility use events. Districts were able to work quickly however with Facilitron’s Florida account team led by Senior Account Manager Rhonda Allen to manage cancellations, to notify renters and handle refunds or rescheduling.
“Fortunately, there were less displaced events than usual given most of our districts weren’t back fully open due to the pandemic,” Allen said, “but we were able to manage everything easily, cancelling and notifying renters.”
“We’ll work the remainder of the week to reschedule events so that renters and district administrators will have as little disruption as possible. That’s what we do.” Allen continued.
There was one report from Lake County, where the weakened storm was tracking Thursday afternoon, of a homeowners meeting unable to cancel looking for a volunteer custodian so they could continue as planned Thursday night despite the closures.