Going Remote

[DisneyJamieCA]

My kids survived their first day back. They all said their classes were half full and my oldest says it sounds like half the senior class is out with out Covid. Sounds like the rapid tests they provided were worth it!

I have professional development days and we get kids back on Wed. Should be interesting.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Our students come back today. We were told to start sending Chromebooks home with kids every night starting today because we may have to take some virtual days. We only have 10 to use, so I know they will use them sparingly. I think the biggest problem here isn't so much the worry of it spreading within the school, but the amount of teachers that are out. You can't have school if you don't have staff.

 

[Ursula J]

Nothing to add on the school front except best of luck to all. Masks: check Project N95 for vetted masks, including Kn95

 

[HeatherC]

So today 1,000 Boston Public teachers are out. How is this smart sending everyone back like this? There is absolutely no learning going on with this much disruption. Other districts around here have no bus drivers.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Depends on the school and state. I’m on a border so I have some friends who live in one state while I’m in the other. It honestly depends on the school, state, county, everything you can think of. Most part is hybrid learning has returned to an extent.

 

[mjkacmom]

I don’t want to brag, but apparently my county is the worst in the country right now. Rutgers is going remote until the 31st, students staying home.

 

[GreatLakes]

So today 1,000 Boston Public teachers are out. How is this smart sending everyone back like this? There is absolutely no learning going on with this much disruption. Other districts around here have no bus drivers.

This will play out all over the country, in many industries, but hopefully only for a few weeks as the current strain burns through the population. We have had at least one location closed due to lack of staff every day since before Christmas. If people can't work businesses and schools will need to close or open in extremely limited capacity. If a school can't teach it becomes essentially a place to park a kid for 6 or 7 hours for him to be exposed and bring the virus home.

No matter how badly people want schools and businesses to be open and how many laws there are about it you can't have anything opened with no employees to open it.

 

[Kestryl]

Well. I just tested positive. I have no symptoms (yet). My spouse- a public school teacher- is the one who feels sick (sore throat, congestion), but I have quick-turnaround PCR testing through work, so figured I could be a kind of barometer. My husband still has 1-3 days to get his results from his test today. There are no rapid tests available til Friday.

Yesterday was a snow day. He had called off today stating he was sick, and got grief about missing school without a positive test. They told him he should come back tomorrow if he doesn’t have a fever. Despite the fact that he is waiting on a Covid test result, I’m positive, and he is actually sick. (Nothing too bad, but still sick, you know?)

It’s possible he has a different bug and I’m just a one off asymptomatic/presymptomatic case. But the simplest explanation is we both have it.

And yeah. The school’s reaction is… not comforting, to say the least. Feels more like they want to exhibit an illusion of control versus transparency.

 

[Ursula J]

I don’t want to brag, but apparently my county is the worst in the country right now. Rutgers is going remote until the 31st, students staying home.

You did it! Way to go!
(We have to laugh sometimes, right?)

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

So my oldest daughter came home today and said they have 300 students out with Covid, including over half the senior class (school is just under 2000 students). Really starting to feel like a when, not if, with 5 of the 6 of us in schools.

 

[Makmak]

We flip flopped today. We were supposed to go in person, and now we are virtual.
Not surprised.

This is going on many, many places. There are serious staffing issues, making it impossible to function. And as another poster mentioned there is a “perfect storm” of flu, URI, COVID, etc going around like crazy. It’s day two and our bus drivers are all doing double or triple routes because so many are out sick, and we are short staffed on bus drivers. Many teachers and lunch staff are out so that our teachers have lost their prep hour and must “cover” the classrooms of teachers who are out. So that means we have certain classes that have a different teacher every hour, teachers that now must do all of their prep outside of school hours, bus drivers that are exhausted oh and our long time lunch lady quit because she’s too overwhelmed with the behavior problems in the lunchroom and lack of support staff (since many had quit prior) to help her. This is day two back……it’s going to get really interesting this semester. My friend teaches in a neighboring city and said if they lose one more person they will have to go virtual. They have kids that sit at the school until 5:00 waiting for “their turn” on the bus and school ends at 3:00. Teachers and other staff are “covering “ classes since they don’t have enough teachers. They are basically in a scramble all day every day to have the legally required supervision of the students. There is not a lot of learning happening.
EDITED: bc autocorrect hates me

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Then you have what's going on in Chicago. District officials said they would cancel classes entirely tomorrow (buildings would be open but no class) if the teachers union votes to go remote. But according to the news article I read this issue played out January 2021 too (and at that point school had been remote since March 2020).

After a certain point you have to wonder if people are fighting for the right things, it plays out time and time again eventually fights tend to be less about the actual issue and more about something else.

 

[DisneyHardin]

Our district has 6700 teachers and 94000 students. Today over 400 teachers were out and over 16000 students were out. The powers that be told us to send Chromebooks home with every kid today, but then sent an email about 5 PM that said there would be in person school tomorrow.

 

[anniemae]

Our school won't go virtual, last year there was so much backlash from parents. They have really relaxed the covid protocols. Used to clean desks between classes, enforce distancing, crack windows etc. Not so much anymore.

 

[Mango7100]

Well. I just tested positive. I have no symptoms (yet). My spouse- a public school teacher- is the one who feels sick (sore throat, congestion), but I have quick-turnaround PCR testing through work, so figured I could be a kind of barometer. My husband still has 1-3 days to get his results from his test today. There are no rapid tests available til Friday.

Yesterday was a snow day. He had called off today stating he was sick, and got grief about missing school without a positive test. They told him he should come back tomorrow if he doesn’t have a fever. Despite the fact that he is waiting on a Covid test result, I’m positive, and he is actually sick. (Nothing too bad, but still sick, you know?)

It’s possible he has a different bug and I’m just a one off asymptomatic/presymptomatic case. But the simplest explanation is we both have it.

And yeah. The school’s reaction is… not comforting, to say the least. Feels more like they want to exhibit an illusion of control versus transparency.

Hope he feels better and that you stay asymptomatic. Knowing the school district you are in, I’m not surprised. If you don’t acknowledge it it doesn’t exist right? DH said the medical team told him they had the most positive tests last week than any other time in the pandemic, and that was with half the workforce on vacation. He also did a rapid PCR since we travelled and was negative today. I did a rapid test on the kid tonight before she goes back to school tomorrow just to check

 

[Disneylover99]

This is going on many, many places. There are serious staffing issues, making it impossible to function. And as another poster mentioned there is a “perfect storm” of flu, URI, COVID, etc going around like crazy. It’s day two and our bus drivers are all doing double or triple routes because so many are out sick, and we are short staffed on bus drivers. Many teachers and lunch staff are out so that our teachers have lost their prep hour and must “cover” the classrooms of teachers who are out. So that means we have certain classes that have a different teacher every hour, teachers that now must do all of their prep outside of school hours, bus drivers that are exhausted oh and our long time lunch lady quit because she’s too overwhelmed with the behavior problems in the lunchroom and lack of support staff (since many had quit prior) to help her. This is day two back……it’s going to get really interesting this semester. My friend teaches in a neighboring city and said if they lose one more person they will have to go virtual. They have kids that sit at the school until 5:00 waiting for “their turn” on the bus and school ends at 3:00. Teachers and other staff are “covering “ classes since they don’t have enough teachers. They are basically in a scramble all day every day to have the legally required supervision of the students. There is not a lot of learning happening.
EDITED: bc autocorrect hates me

Oh, I totally get it. I’m a teacher. We had a virtual staff meeting today. Everyone was there. Several teachers were either recovering from COVID or caring for family members with it. Being online at the moment is for the best, or we’d have zero supply teachers to help us.

 

[mrodgers]

Rapid tests aren't very accurate and are prone to false negatives. Both of my friends' kids tested negative with a rapid test and positive with PCR tests.

Can say the same with PCR and reported false positives, so you still don't know if your friends' kids actually have it or not.

 

[mrs. magoo]

Well here in Western NY we maybe going virtual nothing official yet but we have been told to make sure you have your devices and the kids have their chromebooks. Today the buses were running up to 2 hours late because so many bus drivers are out.
On a personal note, my 20 year daughter tested positive yesterday. She is vaccinated and boosted. I am in school because I am vaccinated and boosted and have no symptoms so I can come to school. My daughter does have symptoms - like a cold. I feel like it is just an eventuality that everyone in the house will come down with it.

 

[Christine]

Well here in Western NY we maybe going virtual nothing official yet but we have been told to make sure you have your devices and the kids have their chromebooks. Today the buses were running up to 2 hours late because so many bus drivers are out.
On a personal note, my 20 year daughter tested positive yesterday. She is vaccinated and boosted. I am in school because I am vaccinated and boosted and have no symptoms so I can come to school. My daughter does have symptoms - like a cold. I feel like it is just an eventuality that everyone in the house will come down with it.

My coworker is positive right now (caught it from his visiting daughter over Christmas). He's had active symptoms for at least 5 days now, yet his wife has not gotten it nor has his other two adult children. They were all vaxed with J&J over the summer but have not yet been boosted. Very odd.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Depending on the district mask requirements come back into play for everyone if the positivity and quarantine level rises (for example the district my house is in the percent is 3, if it rises above that masking for all occurs for 2 weeks and presumably rolling count until the positivity is below the threshold).

Remote is going to be seldom used in my state due to laws.

Update to my post

One of the big 3 school districts in the county activated masks for all due to covid cases. For this district it's the same as the one my house is in "3% of students or staff in the buildings were quarantined or excluded because of COVID-19, the masks will go back on" This district (which I haven't checked the other two to see if they follow exactly the same) does it as a building by building metric. Right now 4 out of the 5 high schools were reactivated with masks, 4 of the middle schools and the alternative school has masks back on. K-6th presently are required to wear masks regardless by a county mandate although that may change soon.

I did notice this district that went masks required put out their inclement weather plans yesterday (we're expected to get some overnight but not too too much) and Plan C calls for remote learning. I think the usage of remote learning in this way will be interesting to see how it plays out (I don't anticipate overnight/tomorrow to cancel school) due to the law which prohibits more than 40 hours of remote learning and weather is not an exemption unless it's something so extraordinary that it causes long-term issues with the ability to get or operate in school. I know this was a topic of discussion last year wondering how many schools would utilize remote learning for inclement weather.