APS cancels Summer school for many previously qualified students due to lack of staffing

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The simple fact, and one teachers pointed out early on, is that APS should not have offered summer school to anyone outside of ESY until they knew the staffing numbers. From there, they could have offered summer school to additional families as staffing allowed. Summer school is not usually offered on this scale and is usually partially staffed by Fairfax teachers since they don't usually offer summer school. They tried enticing teachers to work the summer with a "bonus" that after taxes is pretty measly. Teachers have many reasons for not wanting to work summer school and it really doesn't matter what they are because summer school isn't part of their contracts. APS shifting the blame to teachers is ridiculous- this is 100% on Syphax.

I agree with this but if they had done it that way there would have been lots of complaints from parents about hearing about summer school eligibility too late and having already paid for summer camps or childcare or whatever is necessary that conflicts. I'm a parent, not a teacher, and it already happens that way sometimes in terms of timing of when you have to sign up for camps etc. I'm not saying they handled this wonderfully but there were downsides however they planned it. And they needed the board etc. to approve more money for bonuses before they could offer and before they could know how many teachers would be interested.

I'm glad that they are prioritizing ESY and early level English language learners at least.

[Anonymous]

No teacher no know is making any decisions based on what posters say on this board. I am not teaching summer school because I don't want to. I plan to sleep in, sit by the pool and go on vacation. I'm fried. I'm just hoping most of my colleagues return in the fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Honestly. Teachers want to travel and see family for the first time in 18 months. Like the rest of us. They don’t want to commit to summer school. It’s not hard to see that!!don’t blame them. I’m taking lots of leave this summer.

+1

I just hope they come back in the fall after all of the abuse and bullying by obnoxious parents.

Those are the same parents who are now complaining about summer school!

I mean, how much are parents supposed to take also?

We've received zero extra work days for planning or supporting our children's virtual education. No extra money to pay for tutors or virtual day camp or pods.

Our own kid who has tested behind grade level all year now can't go to summer school. We asked recently for reading intervention to try and recover lost learning time and assist with the low testing scores. The Vice Principal who was in the meeting immediately and coldly responded that "reading intervention is only for kids who are 2-3 grade levels behind". So, I guess kids who are somewhat behind are just left to their own devices to figure out how to work through the struggle. We hired a tutor starting last summer to try and help reduces the gaps for our child and while that has been tremendously helpful, the point of public school is not for parents to count on Lexia and privately paid for interventions to provide an education for their child. This has gone one for over one year at this point, and enough is enough.

Well said! I feel exactly the same way. What child wants do Lexia and Dreambox this Summer? Enough screen time already. These kids need in person learning. I will suck it up and take money paid for pod for Summer tutoring, but why should I have to when APS failed my kid. Even worse the families thst dont hzve the resources, there is nonplan B or C. THIS is not about TEACHERS. We understand your position, this is about an ADMINISTRATION that failed us ALL. I dont get Summers off or school days, but manged between my own patients to help my child and paid a lot of money for help when I couldn't. Even on those Asynchronous Mondays, so much learning lost! STOP THINKING IT IS ALL ABOUT PEOPLE HATING YOU, IT IS PEOPLE HATING THE SITUATION! OUR KIDS GOT THE WROST HAND.

[Anonymous]

My child was offered summer school (no IEP, no 504) b/c of learning loss. All of her standardized tests scores went down. For example, she's in 2nd but test scores are lower than March/Feb of her 1st grade year. So she's either screwed or we pay for a tutor. Of course we will pay for a tutor but what if we couldn't?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:They are now testing student athletes each day, every day.
It's not even something that is actually needed.
Why didn't they use the money that was went towards paying for a company to do that testing and direct it towards direct financial incentives to teachers?
I think more teachers would have been willing to do it for more money.

The money might be earmarked for testing. Even if not it probably not enough to make a significant difference. If $500-1000 isn’t a big enough incentive I’m not sure more money would solve the issue.

Yes, it is ear marked for testing and actually I believe was earmarked specifically for sports testing.

They are most definitely NOT testing student athletes each day, every day. They are only testing athletes if the athlete and parents agreed that the benefit of getting tested (not wearing a mask while playing/practicing the sport) was worth getting something stuck up the student's nose 6 days a week. On the two teams my DDS play for, a total of 2 athletes agreed to this.

It's a spit test. My kid's entire team opted in as a team.

Maybe for your kid; not for mine.

[Anonymous]

Not sure how PP above can claim "THIS is not about TEACHERS" when a large portion of comments this thread are from angry parents upset that teachers aren't choosing to spend their summer teaching school. I mean, it might not be about teachers for YOU, but it is for the angry RN and other posters.

[Anonymous]

Friends who bailed for private tell me that they are also getting summer enrichment. I feel like a fool.

[Anonymous]

I understand the frustration of PPs above with a system that won't provide resources for a kid who is doing below average but is not failing enough to meet APS guidelines to receive services. But in this case where APS is in debt and has limited resources, I'm not sure what you would recommend. I'm sure you don't mean to suggest that your kid should receive services in front of the kids who ARE two or three grades behind.

You're not really questioning the ranking of APS's actual triaging, you're questioning the management that got APS to its need to triage in the first place. I don't think that's really Duran, I think that's Murphy, but nobody on your team was upset with Murphy when it was happening. (PS: I was not a Murphy fan and much prefer Duran.)

And now people are mad that people can pay private schools to provide services that APS isn't offering? Oh you sweet summer child, come here and let me explain this thing called MONEY to you and how it can buy you and your family things that are not offered on the regular menu.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
I’m a teacher and I saw first hand that virtual was harder for my children and my students than it was for me.

We teachers got vaccinated early so we could support our students and many have failed to do so. Summer school is a chance to make it up to the kids but now some are backing away from that duty.

It's not a "duty." It's an optional additional contract outside of their existing contract.

You don't sound like a teacher. You sound like an entitled parent pretending to be a teacher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Even with the most supportive parents and admin I would want the summer off if I were a teacher this year. Wouldn’t you?

APS teacher here. This is me. I’m exhausted and need a break before we hit the ground running in the fall. I want to spend time with my own kids this summer and have time to see family members I haven’t seen in over a year.

Selfish. The rest of us work year round and often for less pay.

LOL! Then quit your job and go work for that sweet, sweet first year teacher salary. No education degree required. You'll be taking a massive pay cut, but I'm sure that's fine with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm so surprised there are not enough "warm bodies" to fill these positions.

Hope all the teachers out there have a great summer and come back refreshed and ready for the upcoming school year.

Yeah, really. It's been damn near impossible to even get subs this year, let alone attract these fabled replacement "teachers" who entitled parents simply assured us would be beating down the doors if those horrible, horrible existing teachers DARED to decide to quit or leave.

Weird.

[Anonymous]

I think many of us are just over this constant shit storm. No one wins, but someone has to take one for the team, and while teachers shouldn't have to work summer (it's in the contract) it's just more shit on parents and families who have yet another thing reneged on.

There are families at all levels who would have been planning for summer school, making their care arrangements and other plans around it. To have it taken away when there are few other alternatives for the summer now is incredibly insensitive. It's the same problem with the school year in that parents keep being strung along and having everything pulled from under them at the last minute. Yes, there are teachers with families who might not be inclined to work this summer, when their salary won't cover the cost of camps, but APS SHOULD HAVE FIGURED THIS THE f*** OUT!

How hard is that? Bonuses didn't work? Did you offer child care? Did you offer to start new, graduating teachers this summer early to meet need? J-1 Visas? Make it work. I think that's all we were asking. The rest of us have to make it work.

At my job, we worked this whole time with no vaccine. I'm DoD and civilians were dead last to be offered vaccines, even though we had to go to work this whole time in person in some capacity. We currently work shifts starting at 0400 to keep the numbers low in our facility, so I have little sympathy for APS to not get it's shit together and make it work. We all have our sacrifices to keep our jobs and school not working the way it should has already cost some people their careers.

We're all fried. Everyone. As tax payers, we expect the school system to work for us. I think APS knows that we can't all go private (unless there are dozens of new private schools opening). A 7% loss of students is a big deal and it's the students with means who are leaving.

I'm just disappointed for the families who were counting on summer school to educate their kids and now need a place for them to go when most camps cut numbers and are full. I'm so thankful we weren't even entertaining summer school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Friends who bailed for private tell me that they are also getting summer enrichment. I feel like a fool.

I mean, they are paying for that. There are other options for summer enrichment for all kids, you just have to pay!

[Anonymous]

Listen, if it makes you feel better, summer school was going to be like 4 hours a day for 4 weeks. It is not very robust because it’s usually literally just doing the minimum to try to get the kid up to grade level or pass. So APS definitely screwed up offering it before they could staff it and then having the nerve to put it back on teachers but you’re not missing out on like, 2 months of 8 hour a day full school. It just isn’t like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Listen, if it makes you feel better, summer school was going to be like 4 hours a day for 4 weeks. It is not very robust because it’s usually literally just doing the minimum to try to get the kid up to grade level or pass. So APS definitely screwed up offering it before they could staff it and then having the nerve to put it back on teachers but you’re not missing out on like, 2 months of 8 hour a day full school. It just isn’t like that.

To put it in perspective 20 days x 4 hours of in person instruction would be far more than my elementary student has received this school year. Right now she's getting 80 minutes per week. Everything else is by iPad.