Are you sending your kids to school next month?

[trvlgirlmq]

72 hours is um, not enough.

Yeah. I literally had my mouth hanging open for most of the board meeting.

 

[holden]

Our school board presented their "plan" last night.
These are our options:
1. School starts on time August 3 as a hybrid model - 2 days in school, 3 days online at home, masks recommended but not mandatory
a. this option is for 10 days and then to be re-evaluated?
b. If a student/teacher tests positive, then anyone who came in contact with them goes home for 72 hours, then can come back if they don't have any symptoms
1. Repeat the above as necessary
2. Virtual school - all online at home
a. K-8 must commit for 9 weeks, they can re-evaluate at that time and stay in virtual school or go back to in person school
b. 9-12 must commit for 1 semester (until winter break), can re-evaluate at break and go back for final semester
1. no AP classes, no answer yet on Honors or other advanced classes

My son has made the decision to do virtual school. This is his Senior year and I know how much he will miss his friends. He will also probably have to give up band and marching band (although the competitions will most likely be cancelled they were still going to learn the music in case they could play at football games). I am glad it was an easy decision for him and I really didn't have to say anything as he has been worried about the lack of masks in our community.

Interesting about the AP classes. I have a senior in HS too. The admissions officers for colleges are going to have to totally revamp the way they look at the class of 2021.

 

[trvlgirlmq]

Interesting about the AP classes. I have a senior in HS too. The admissions officers for colleges are going to have to totally revamp the way they look at the class of 2021.

My understanding is that they have hired more teachers for just the online school and I guess it's difficult to get the one's who can teach AP.
Thankfully DS has already taken the ACT and has a decent score. He does do advanced math classes so we are waiting to hear about the 2 he signed up for this year. He is enrolled in college English through our community college and that is usually taught on school campus but I am hoping they move it to online.

 

[gwynne]

I just noted this on another thread. First I've heard of it. Very disturbing.
https://www.foxnews.com/health/over...n-tested-florida-positive-covid-19-report.amp

 

[godisney14]

I’ve been reading online about people who want to have in-person schooling recite the recommendation by the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) as a reason.
Hearing from my peds friends, just know that the AAP did not survey or solicit opinions from their member doctors. It was a unilateral decision by the board.

 

[Magical2017]

Our district understand that having school for more than a few weeks is probably wishful thinking. Their hope is to train the kids how do use Zoom, Google Hangout, and other programs more effectively. If we train them before they have to quarantine, they will have a better understanding of how things are going to work.

We are also putting in the Chromebook contract that the school-issued devices are to be used only for school work and not for parents to use for their work. A huge issue we had was parents were working from home also but using their child's device so the child couldn't do their school work. We know that they weren't used for gaming because all of those programs were blocked and the district could still "see" which sites users went to on each device.

Some I know who teaches elementary school in my state said that the Teacher's Union will not allow teachers to do any unpaid training over the summer. I am not sure how they plan to get ready. I teach at a university and am doing all of my training unpaid. It would stress me out to have to wait until right before the semester to get ready. The spring was a crazy scramble to transition to online over my spring break.

 

[mousefan73]

Here in Germany a small city By us just closed a high school about a week ago due to one teacher testing positive. ( Attn: Bavaria: in Schweinfurt)
But there is good news. They decided to shut the school because the teacher had many contact with other teachers. They then tested all teachers and all students that were in the school at the same time when this teacher was teaching.

We have a rotating system right now Students split into 2’groups and in school a week and the next week virtual/ homeschooling They tested approx 369 teachers and students and the first results are coming back- all negative. Final testing results end this week. The school has since reopened to allow the other group for in classroom teaching.

One can only guess on the contributing factors that do not allow this person to infect so many people. Masks are required unless you’re seated at your desk, teachers can also take masks off when they are teaching in front of the classroom as social distancing is then in effect. Maybe her “viral load” was low? Who knows.But it’s kind of a relief for a parent like myself knowing that when school does begin again in the fall just because one teacher or one person has the virus does not automatically mean that the entire school is infected. But keep in mind by us the numbers are very low anyways. Our region has had zero new cases reported within the past seven days.

 

[trvlgirlmq]

My understanding is that they have hired more teachers for just the online school and I guess it's difficult to get the one's who can teach AP.
Thankfully DS has already taken the ACT and has a decent score. He does do advanced math classes so we are waiting to hear about the 2 he signed up for this year. He is enrolled in college English through our community college and that is usually taught on school campus but I am hoping they move it to online.

Update from last night’s question and answer session. A live teacher will be teaching for K-8 in the virtual option. All HS classes will be a program called Edgnuity. Lessons will be loaded and the kids do the work alone. Supposedly there will be teachers they can contact if they need help! I am flabbergasted by this. How is DS supposed to really learn especially his Calculus and Physics classes! Now I am worried.

 

[Happyinwonerland]

I’ve been reading online about people who want to have in-person schooling recite the recommendation by the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) as a reason.
Hearing from my peds friends, just know that the AAP did not survey or solicit opinions from their member doctors. It was a unilateral decision by the board.

The biggest problem with the AAP recommendations is that some school systems and states (Florida) jumped the gun and decided to reopen schools without first reaching the guidelines for safe reopening. The AAP basically said that having schools open is best IF cases aren't spreading like crazy near you AND you can meet the safety guidelines in the classroom

 

[Happyinwonerland]

Update from last night’s question and answer session. A live teacher will be teaching for K-8 in the virtual option. All HS classes will be a program called Edgnuity. Lessons will be loaded and the kids do the work alone. Supposedly there will be teachers they can contact if they need help! I am flabbergasted by this. How is DS supposed to really learn especially his Calculus and Physics classes! Now I am worried.

i'd recommend budgeting for a tutor

 

[motherof5]

Our district will have a plan set forth hopefully for August 1st. Kids are in need of the social interaction. I fear that even if schools reopen they will close as soon as someone gets sick and we will be constantly changing the plan. Virtual learning was not successful this year.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Philadelphia is doing a hybrid model. A mix of in person and virtual. Yet they’ve cancelled all large public gatherings through March 2021.

 

[Renarr]

Some I know who teaches elementary school in my state said that the Teacher's Union will not allow teachers to do any unpaid training over the summer. I am not sure how they plan to get ready. I teach at a university and am doing all of my training unpaid. It would stress me out to have to wait until right before the semester to get ready. The spring was a crazy scramble to transition to online over my spring break.

I'm a building union representative in my area, and my guess is that it's not that the union will not allow teachers to do any unpaid training over the summer as much as require teachers to do the training over the summer. If a teacher wants to attend an unpaid training of their own volition, they're more than welcome to; I know I've already been to a handful of webinars this summer and also doing some sketching of what next year looks like in my classroom, knowing that in the spring I did this and had to toss 80% of my ideas out the window because they weren't permitted. What we usually end up having to push back on our district for is offering unpaid "optional" trainings that give you information that really should be part of mandatory trainings (our districts once wanted to push our state-mandated CPR, recognizing allergy shock, and related medical recognitions into unpaid "optional" offerings). But I do think that this leads to a reduction in offerings over the summer.

In my experience, where some of this gets tricky is that there are some teachers for whom the summer training just isn't viable, for whatever reason (some of them more legitimate and understandable than others). So, in reality, any training of the sort that needs to be done in preparation for this year has to really also be available during our back-to-work in-service days. What often happens is that my specific district is that while we are encouraged to do differentiated instruction in our classrooms, professional development is often rarely differentiated in my district, meaning that any summer training on this would likely be repeated for them in the fall in-service days. It makes professional development less effective over time, because each year, lessons have to be catered in a way where they reach the first-year teacher (and to be clear, professional development should be available to reach our teachers earlier in their career), but that usually comes at the expense of meaningful development for the more veteran teachers. Or in the case of technology-based professional development, it feels like there should be three tracks: the "Oh, yeah, while you were talking, I already ported this over to my website and created my own SchoolTube channel" crowd, the I'm-reasonably-proficient-with-technology-once-I've-seen-it-once-or-twice crowd, and the "I placed my paper gradebook on the monitor, but my kids say they can't see their grades [through the online grade portal]" crowd.

Another issue that's popping up in our specific case is that the terms of next year's instruction is still being negotiated, so it's unclear what systems specifically to prepare professional development for, and the person who would help develop these protocols is on our district bargaining team, so the development of summer classes has been on hold.

 

[holden]

Our district explained its plans in detail last night. I’m choosing the in-person instruction for DD13.

Her school is switching to block scheduling. She’ll have 4 periods a day. Teachers will rotate where possible so kids can stay with the same group in the same room. Masks are required. Kids will be 6 feet apart. Seats will be assigned everywhere - classroom, bus, cafeteria- so contact tracing can be performed if necessary. If the schools have to shut down, DD13 will have synchronous learning. This is one of the reasons I chose the in-person option.

The other options are online (via Edgenuity) or hybrid (2 days out of the 6 day cycle in person). Hybrid students will have class together in a separate area of the school. On the home days hybrid kids will have asynchronous learning.

We have to commit to one of the 3 options by 7/27.

 

[monsterkitty]

Some I know who teaches elementary school in my state said that the Teacher's Union will not allow teachers to do any unpaid training over the summer. I am not sure how they plan to get ready. I teach at a university and am doing all of my training unpaid. It would stress me out to have to wait until right before the semester to get ready. The spring was a crazy scramble to transition to online over my spring break.

The teachers aren't getting trained. They are using the first few weeks of school to train the kids so that the kids can be better prepared.

My district has paid teachers for required district trainings forever. However, continuing education classes that are required by the state to renew your license are not paid by the district and teachers are not paid for their time. So in order to renew your teacher's license, we have to pay for the college credits plus we have to use our own time.

 

[justafigment27]

We still haven’t been given any options, but just took a survey. DD16 has heard from a pretty credible source that high school schedules will come out the second week of August (normally out in April). That leads me to believe that they expect to have a working plan in place by the beginning of August? But then, yesterday, our governor talked about potentially closing things down again and not allowing for in person learning in the fall if we keep on our upward trajectory, but our county has few cases ... so IDK. It’s a cluster. Seems impossible to plan anything because the rules keep changing. I feel terrible for all of these people working hard to plan things at not only our local schools, but at the college level as well. It’s an impossible task.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Our district will have a plan set forth hopefully for August 1st. Kids are in need of the social interaction. I fear that even if schools reopen they will close as soon as someone gets sick and we will be constantly changing the plan. Virtual learning was not successful this year.

It's not going to be the kind of social interaction it used to be.

 

[godisney14]

Does anyone find it ironic that school boards and district staff all over the country are meeting remotely because of concerns with the virus. But, those meetings are about how to send teachers and children into school within the next month or two?

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Does anyone find it ironic that school boards and district staff all over the country are meeting remotely because of concerns with the virus. But, those meetings are about how to send teachers and children into school within the next month or two?

Our teachers have been posting about that on social media a lot in the last two weeks. The irony is not lost.

 

[lifesavacation]

Does anyone find it ironic that school boards and district staff all over the country are meeting remotely because of concerns with the virus. But, those meetings are about how to send teachers and children into school within the next month or two?

It is ironic but they have different functions. Schools are places to educate young people whereas the school board functions to make decisions. If the school board was comprised of young people then I’d probably think it was a head scratcher.