What will it take HoCo to move to virtual

[Anonymous]

Irrespective of whether you like virtual or dislike it, whether you take Covid seriously or think its just a cold, it looks like the next couple of weeks is definitely going to be disruptive. A lot of students and teachers are going to be out and it's going to be impossible to test. Why not just go virtual for 2 weeks and let atleast the testing shortage ride out?

[Anonymous]

Why don’t you put your efforts into calling the school board instead of posting here? Communicate with those who have the power.

[Anonymous]

Geez, why have a school discussion board then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Irrespective of whether you like virtual or dislike it, whether you take Covid seriously or think its just a cold, it looks like the next couple of weeks is definitely going to be disruptive. A lot of students and teachers are going to be out and it's going to be impossible to test. Why not just go virtual for 2 weeks and let atleast the testing shortage ride out?

Would rather have classes combined and subs/local closures than to have the entire school district close again. It was clear they couldn't figure out how to open back up again last year once they decided to go virtual. No good answers but going virtual for the whole county would mean closing until next year knowing HoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Geez, why have a school discussion board then?

I think pp was answering your question by telling you what it would take.

[Anonymous]

It won’t. It was a failed experiment that caused untold damage. They so never again have a widespread closure like last year.

[Anonymous]

The teachers need to take control. They are the only reason the BOE thinks they can pull it off because they are working around the clock, no breaks, while sick and with sick family members -covering for all the staff shortages. They need to say NO. Don't cover. Stay home if sick or exposed.

Watching this nightmare is just too much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Irrespective of whether you like virtual or dislike it, whether you take Covid seriously or think its just a cold, it looks like the next couple of weeks is definitely going to be disruptive. A lot of students and teachers are going to be out and it's going to be impossible to test. Why not just go virtual for 2 weeks and let atleast the testing shortage ride out?

I think it should be on a school-by-school basis. I know several teachers who teach in schools with high Covid rates and they are exhausted. One teacher reported on FB that they are averaging 10-13 teachers out per day and not enough subs to cover, so some classes, the kids are sitting in the cafeteria with one monitor and just hanging out, while other times, teachers who have full classrooms have a bunch of kids pushed into their rooms. Those schools need to go virtual.

On the other hand, we are in a ES with low incident (we had no cases in November, and only 6 cases across December, 5 students and 1 teacher, all were quarantined at home and there was no communal spread). It would be a disservice to our community to go virtual over the case rates at other schools.

Looking at the Covid dashboard for HCPSS, it is clear that there are only a few ES that have significant occurrences, so closing them seems to be premature. And it seems like the majority of the cases in MS are also at some schools, but not all. But, by far, the outbreaks are the worst in the high schools.

So, having a system-wide move to virtual seems to be a bad solution and will only generate even greater friction between the community and the school board and the teachers. However, I do support having the school system set up clear guidelines on transmission and infections rates to be used to determine when a given school should convert to virtual learning. Set the standards and when a school reaches that level, they go virtual. Then anyone can monitor the Covid dashboard and KNOW what the levels are and when the school will be closing. And it means that the schools with higher infection rates will go virtual and the ones with lower infection rates will stay in-person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Irrespective of whether you like virtual or dislike it, whether you take Covid seriously or think its just a cold, it looks like the next couple of weeks is definitely going to be disruptive. A lot of students and teachers are going to be out and it's going to be impossible to test. Why not just go virtual for 2 weeks and let atleast the testing shortage ride out?

I think it should be on a school-by-school basis. I know several teachers who teach in schools with high Covid rates and they are exhausted. One teacher reported on FB that they are averaging 10-13 teachers out per day and not enough subs to cover, so some classes, the kids are sitting in the cafeteria with one monitor and just hanging out, while other times, teachers who have full classrooms have a bunch of kids pushed into their rooms. Those schools need to go virtual.

On the other hand, we are in a ES with low incident (we had no cases in November, and only 6 cases across December, 5 students and 1 teacher, all were quarantined at home and there was no communal spread). It would be a disservice to our community to go virtual over the case rates at other schools.

Looking at the Covid dashboard for HCPSS, it is clear that there are only a few ES that have significant occurrences, so closing them seems to be premature. And it seems like the majority of the cases in MS are also at some schools, but not all. But, by far, the outbreaks are the worst in the high schools.

So, having a system-wide move to virtual seems to be a bad solution and will only generate even greater friction between the community and the school board and the teachers. However, I do support having the school system set up clear guidelines on transmission and infections rates to be used to determine when a given school should convert to virtual learning. Set the standards and when a school reaches that level, they go virtual. Then anyone can monitor the Covid dashboard and KNOW what the levels are and when the school will be closing. And it means that the schools with higher infection rates will go virtual and the ones with lower infection rates will stay in-person.

I agree with you- and I wonder if our kids are at the same elementary. I am concerned though with the equity of having some schools go virtual while others stay in person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Irrespective of whether you like virtual or dislike it, whether you take Covid seriously or think its just a cold, it looks like the next couple of weeks is definitely going to be disruptive. A lot of students and teachers are going to be out and it's going to be impossible to test. Why not just go virtual for 2 weeks and let atleast the testing shortage ride out?

I think it should be on a school-by-school basis. I know several teachers who teach in schools with high Covid rates and they are exhausted. One teacher reported on FB that they are averaging 10-13 teachers out per day and not enough subs to cover, so some classes, the kids are sitting in the cafeteria with one monitor and just hanging out, while other times, teachers who have full classrooms have a bunch of kids pushed into their rooms. Those schools need to go virtual.

On the other hand, we are in a ES with low incident (we had no cases in November, and only 6 cases across December, 5 students and 1 teacher, all were quarantined at home and there was no communal spread). It would be a disservice to our community to go virtual over the case rates at other schools.

Looking at the Covid dashboard for HCPSS, it is clear that there are only a few ES that have significant occurrences, so closing them seems to be premature. And it seems like the majority of the cases in MS are also at some schools, but not all. But, by far, the outbreaks are the worst in the high schools.

So, having a system-wide move to virtual seems to be a bad solution and will only generate even greater friction between the community and the school board and the teachers. However, I do support having the school system set up clear guidelines on transmission and infections rates to be used to determine when a given school should convert to virtual learning. Set the standards and when a school reaches that level, they go virtual. Then anyone can monitor the Covid dashboard and KNOW what the levels are and when the school will be closing. And it means that the schools with higher infection rates will go virtual and the ones with lower infection rates will stay in-person.

I agree with you- and I wonder if our kids are at the same elementary. I am concerned though with the equity of having some schools go virtual while others stay in person.

I understand the concern about equity, but this is not a normal situation. The concern is that all schools are treated equitably and this is why we need to have set standards for closures based on the transmission and infection rates. When the school rises to X% infections, then the school converts to virtual learning until the infection rate drops below X%. Then all schools are treated equitably and by the same rules. While this does create different teaching levels based on which schools are virtual vs in-person, the rule is published and as long as the rules are applied equitably, that is all that the school district can provide.

Treat it like an active shooter situation, a natural disaster, or a facility failure. If one school has a gas line leak that takes a week to repair, does the entire school system shut down while the one school gas line is repaired? If a tornado blew through and demolished half of one school, would the entire school district close?

And my kids attend Hammond ES.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The teachers need to take control. They are the only reason the BOE thinks they can pull it off because they are working around the clock, no breaks, while sick and with sick family members -covering for all the staff shortages. They need to say NO. Don't cover. Stay home if sick or exposed.

Watching this nightmare is just too much.

Teachers take control? Like last year? From an elected board which the parents elect?

Hmm…how far behind did the kids test on average in fall? How many other places are closing down?
Teachers can work to rule. They still won’t risk closing down the district without the state of Maryland lifting the requirement for
180 in-person days unless teachers accept working until August.

[Anonymous]

The superintendent's message makes it clear that they will avoid going virtual if at all possible.

https://news.hcpss.org/news-posts/2021/12/returning-to-school-following-winter-break/

There is no change to our scheduled reopening on Monday, Jan. 3. The Maryland State Department of Education and State Superintendent provided clarification before the break that “we must keep schools open for in-person instruction” and that approval for virtual instruction will be considered “only on a case-by-case basis under the most exigent of circumstances”.

[...]

Virtual Instruction: Throughout the pandemic, we have maintained dialog with HCHD and school administrators to assess when high levels of unavailable staff result in operational limitations that require the school to move temporarily to a virtual instruction model. If a school moves to virtual instruction, it will remain virtual only until adequate numbers of staff and/or students may return safely and instruction is able to be provided in an in-person setting. These decisions will be made on a case-by-case basis in collaboration with HCHD, while still meeting the State’s requirements and expectations regarding in-person instruction.

[Anonymous]

I think that if Howard County schools have outbreaks like PG was seeing before Christmas you will shut down.
My kids are in PGCPS and right before Dr. Goldson made the call to shut down, 25% of students in my kid's middle school were being sent home for quarantine. That number was single digits the week before so it was clear that in a short time the majority of students and staff would be impacted.
Their school was one of many in the County.
Omicron is really, really contagious so unless your staff and students are in high quality masks and are able to social distance, you will at a minimum have school wide closings once they reopen. My child's class has 25 students and at least 8 tested positive before Christmas. The number is probably higher since not everyone has been tested.

[Anonymous]

I just checked the HCPSS Covid dashboard. There are exactly ZERO cases of COVID reported at my kid's high school, even though many, many kids are out. In fact, the county is only listing 9 COVID cases TOTAL among all the high schools. Come on, are we really supposed to believe this?

HCPSS will never move to virtual as long as they are only looking at those (false) numbers.

[Anonymous]

HCPS should not shut down system wide, only if teacher illness necessitates it.