Surreal... Zoom capacity email in Regional Quarantine Program

[Anonymous]

I am not even going to say anything... I will just post the MCPS email I received from my kid's elementary school yesterday at 9:00PM!

"We apologize for the late email, but we just received some important information about the regional quarantine instructional program. The zoom capacity has been reached for each grade level and the program is making changes for the remainder of the week. Please see below.

If you have a student accessing regional quarantine instruction for tomorrow, please note that the anticipated enrollment exceeds the current capacity of our Zooms. We will be adjusting the model to accommodate an unlimited number of students starting next week, but for tomorrow and Friday, please note the following changes.

Math: Instructors will break the 9:45-10:45 session into two parts. If you try to log in at 9:45 and cannot access the Zoom, the limit has been reached. Please try to log in to the 2nd session at 10:20 am.

Literacy: Instructors will break the 11:00-12:15 session into two parts. If you try and log in at 11:00 am and cannot access the Zoom, please try again at 11:35 am.

We do apologize for the disruption this will create for your families, as we look for flexible ways to support all of the families who want to access quarantine instruction while unable to attend school due to COVID safety protocols.

[Anonymous]

Hogan and others refused to restrict businesses in time, so I said before Christmas that an organized pivot to virtual would be necessary for two weeks in January, to mitigate hospital saturation and ensure that families could plan.

Parents yelled that it wasn't fair that schools should close before businesses, some claimed they preferred the daily uncertainty and potential chaos, others said they'd already closed too long in 2020-21, etc...

I know some families are regretting that a better planned and organized pivot wasn't executed.

It's sad that people come up with reasons that have nothing to do with our current situation (continuity of learning) to reject common sense measures. We didn't need to shut down for Delta, despite the spike in cases and hospitalizations. We needed to shut down briefly for Omicron, given the historic peak of hospitalizations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Hogan and others refused to restrict businesses in time, so I said before Christmas that an organized pivot to virtual would be necessary for two weeks in January, to mitigate hospital saturation and ensure that families could plan.

Parents yelled that it wasn't fair that schools should close before businesses, some claimed they preferred the daily uncertainty and potential chaos, others said they'd already closed too long in 2020-21, etc...

I know some families are regretting that a better planned and organized pivot wasn't executed.

It's sad that people come up with reasons that have nothing to do with our current situation (continuity of learning) to reject common sense measures. We didn't need to shut down for Delta, despite the spike in cases and hospitalizations. We needed to shut down briefly for Omicron, given the historic peak of hospitalizations.

No, we didn't. MCPS isn't responsible for hospital capacity. What does that have to do with quarantine (not illness)-driven Zoom capacity?

[Anonymous]

Honestly, the workaround they came up with on short notice seems pretty good to me.

I deal with Zoom capacity at my workplace though (everyone's licenses have capacity up to 1,000, but we have a special shared license up to 3,000 for the 6 - 10 meetings a year we need it for - and the licensing is quite complex so it isn't just "go click a button online and add more capacity"), so I'm sympathetic to this.

[Anonymous]

I think the point is MCPS should have anticipated this. It's not like we were the first country hit with omicron. There's data from other countries that shows how fast it spread and if you looked at projections you could tell that there would be thousands of students in quarantine right now.

They had months to plan for this and could have come up with a plan that includes masks, testing, virtual learning, buses, etc. so we wouldn't be in this mess.

I think MCPS is doing the best it can during the crisis but it's not like it came out of the blue.

[Anonymous]

If this is not an equity-related reason to switch to virtual, I don't know what its.

MY BRAIN IS EXPLODING.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, the workaround they came up with on short notice seems pretty good to me.

I deal with Zoom capacity at my workplace though (everyone's licenses have capacity up to 1,000, but we have a special shared license up to 3,000 for the 6 - 10 meetings a year we need it for - and the licensing is quite complex so it isn't just "go click a button online and add more capacity"), so I'm sympathetic to this.

This is not a "workaround they came up with on short notice". The regional quarantine instructional program has been in place since September. Once cases and quarantine numbers started to skyrocket, no one bothered to figure out whether the program's Zoom licenses would be sufficient to handle the uptick. How can you be sympathetic to elementary school kids who are in quarantine having access to only 30 minutes of reading instruction and 30 minutes of math per day? That's it. 1 hour of school. Sympathetic? It's inexcusable, embarrassing and sad.

[Anonymous]

MCPS planning ahead and anticipating anything is a joke. It is clearly above their capabilities. Dr Mcnight is a bureaucrat. Nothing more, nothing less. She does not have the ability to improve MCPS

[Anonymous]

Wednesday 9PM MPCS sends this message regarding NEXT DAY class! The lack of minimal capacity to anticipate issues is evident.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If this is not an equity-related reason to switch to virtual, I don't know what its.

MY BRAIN IS EXPLODING.

Um. What?

Yes, let's switch to virtual, so half of the kids in virtual "school" don't even log on because, wait for it, they have little support at home. Your post makes zero sense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If this is not an equity-related reason to switch to virtual, I don't know what its.

MY BRAIN IS EXPLODING.

It's appears it's already exploded given your illogical opening premise.

[Anonymous]

I thought kids didn’t need to quarantine if they are fully vaccinated following an exposure. So all these kids are unvaxxed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, the workaround they came up with on short notice seems pretty good to me.

I deal with Zoom capacity at my workplace though (everyone's licenses have capacity up to 1,000, but we have a special shared license up to 3,000 for the 6 - 10 meetings a year we need it for - and the licensing is quite complex so it isn't just "go click a button online and add more capacity"), so I'm sympathetic to this.

This is not a "workaround they came up with on short notice". The regional quarantine instructional program has been in place since September. Once cases and quarantine numbers started to skyrocket, no one bothered to figure out whether the program's Zoom licenses would be sufficient to handle the uptick. How can you be sympathetic to elementary school kids who are in quarantine having access to only 30 minutes of reading instruction and 30 minutes of math per day? That's it. 1 hour of school. Sympathetic? It's inexcusable, embarrassing and sad.

They wouldn’t have to quarantine if they were vaccinated.

[Anonymous]

It is urgent to replace leadership at MCPS. This zoom fiasco is unacceptable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, the workaround they came up with on short notice seems pretty good to me.

I deal with Zoom capacity at my workplace though (everyone's licenses have capacity up to 1,000, but we have a special shared license up to 3,000 for the 6 - 10 meetings a year we need it for - and the licensing is quite complex so it isn't just "go click a button online and add more capacity"), so I'm sympathetic to this.

This is not a "workaround they came up with on short notice". The regional quarantine instructional program has been in place since September. Once cases and quarantine numbers started to skyrocket, no one bothered to figure out whether the program's Zoom licenses would be sufficient to handle the uptick. How can you be sympathetic to elementary school kids who are in quarantine having access to only 30 minutes of reading instruction and 30 minutes of math per day? That's it. 1 hour of school. Sympathetic? It's inexcusable, embarrassing and sad.

It is for two days and then they will have it fixed by next week. Are you just looking for something to entertain you? This seems like a ridiculous amount of outrage. Kids inherit 11 schools that went into quarantine had to miss an entire day. Many kids are missing instruction due to staff absences. None of it is ideal but this isn’t;t something MCPS is proposing to do to your kid forever. It. is. for. two. days.