Manatee County schools closed ahead of Tropical Storm Idalia’s arrival in Bradenton

The School District of Manatee County announced countywide school closures for Tuesday and Wednesday as Tropical Storm Idalia approaches the Bradenton area.

All Manatee County schools and support sites will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday, due to several schools being scheduled to open as shelters Monday afternoon.

The following schools are set to open as shelters starting at 2 p.m. Monday:

• Virgil Mills Elementary School, 7200 69th St. E., Palmetto

• Jesse P. Miller Elementary School, 6014 Third St. W., Bradenton

• Freedom Elementary School, 9515 State Road 64, Bradenton

All extracurricular activities and athletic events, including Extended Day programs, are set to end Monday evening at 6 p.m. and will resume once school reopens.

Bradenton Christian School and Saint Stephen’s Episcopal School followed suit and announced on Facebook that they would also be closed Tuesday and Wednesday.

There have also been some higher education closures in the area, with New College of Florida canceling classes and extracurricular activities, including athletics, for Tuesday and Wednesday.

New College’s interim president Richard Corcoran made the announcement in a letter to the college’s community, saying that the move was one of precaution.

Classes are expected to resume Thursday if the campus does not suffer damage or power loss from Tropical Storm Idalia.

The University of South Florida also announced that all classes will be canceled and all campuses will be closed Tuesday and Wednesday.

Classes are set to resume and campuses are expected to reopen and return to normal business hours on Thursday, however, a final decision on re-opening will be decided Wednesday, USF said in a press release.

Residence halls on the Tampa and St. Petersburg campuses remain open at this time, however USF said that they are assessing evacuation orders for portions of Pinellas County and the possibility of evacuating residence halls in St. Petersburg.

If residence halls in St. Petersburg close, residential students from St. Petersburg who do not have alternative housing options would be relocated to the Tampa campus by the university, they said in a press release issued Monday afternoon.

USF Health clinical facilities will be open on Tuesday through the end of the work day and will be closed on Wednesday, they said, with USF Health scheduled to resume normal clinical operations on Thursday.

Additional updates will be shared via USF’s website and through their social media channels.

For Manatee County Schools, information regarding hurricane makeup days, if needed, will be communicated once school resumes, the district said on Facebook.

For more information, you can check the district website at https://www.manateeschools.net.