Cancel Virtual Academy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Masks can and should stay.

Forever?

I mean, I suppose masks CAN stay forever. However, whether or not you think masks SHOULD stay forever, the reality is that for most people, they won't. With obvious exceptions, for example for people who are performing surgery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Masks can and should stay.

... For those who want it. Mask away!!! For the rest of us who believe in vaccines and are willing to take the risk of breakthrough cases, I hope your insistence on masking does not impact the freedom of our kids to not wear masks soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all families are in VA for Covid. Some are, some aren’t. vA is part of MCPS. It’s no different from them opening up another in person building.

I am pulling the information from the information we are getting from VA. If you were involved with VA or even spent a few minutes learning about it you would know it.

If you’d like our kids to return in person for families who choose it due to Covid, what are you willing to do to make it safer for them to return.

Even if MCPS does away with VA the state is not going to offer one. How do I know? Because unlike you, I contacted the state and MCPS to look at all our options prior to getting accepted into VA as a back up plan as we decided as a family our kids were not going in person last fall. Some of us actually put effort and research into this. The state of MD approved two programs that are private pay and looked terrible. Those are the only two options they offered. There was no live teaching and it was either self taught or videos with periodic check ins. If you also followed old threads some of us talked about it as we were scrambling on what to do with our kids. You should research this before you rant and want to shut down VA.

But, again, if you aren’t willing to be part of the solution in keeping kids safe in school, then stop critiquing our choice to keep our kids virtual. We checked out in person school. There is no distancing, kids half masked, very limited testing and everything back to normal. It’s an old building and walking through it I did not see the portable air filters as promised.

Nothing beyond vaccinations. Covid is here to stay, and either you learn to exist out in the real world or you don't. We're looking forward to masks coming off by next school year.

Masks can and should stay.

Mandatory masks won't stay. They'll finish out this school year with them, but next school year the policy will change. At most, they'll say that unvaccinated students need to mask as an incentive to get vaccinated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not all families are in VA for Covid. Some are, some aren’t. vA is part of MCPS. It’s no different from them opening up another in person building.

I am pulling the information from the information we are getting from VA. If you were involved with VA or even spent a few minutes learning about it you would know it.

If you’d like our kids to return in person for families who choose it due to Covid, what are you willing to do to make it safer for them to return.

Even if MCPS does away with VA the state is not going to offer one. How do I know? Because unlike you, I contacted the state and MCPS to look at all our options prior to getting accepted into VA as a back up plan as we decided as a family our kids were not going in person last fall. Some of us actually put effort and research into this. The state of MD approved two programs that are private pay and looked terrible. Those are the only two options they offered. There was no live teaching and it was either self taught or videos with periodic check ins. If you also followed old threads some of us talked about it as we were scrambling on what to do with our kids. You should research this before you rant and want to shut down VA.

But, again, if you aren’t willing to be part of the solution in keeping kids safe in school, then stop critiquing our choice to keep our kids virtual. We checked out in person school. There is no distancing, kids half masked, very limited testing and everything back to normal. It’s an old building and walking through it I did not see the portable air filters as promised.

China is beating pets over the head with crowbars now. They've decided on a "Zero Covid" strategy, so can't take any chances. How far do you think MCPS/MoCo should take it...is this too far in the name of "Zero Covid"?

https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/15/china/china-dog-killed-covid-mic-intl-hnk/index.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every county, or at least he bigger ones have VA. Googling to see it, even Baltimore City has one. At some point, if you have 10-40K students in VA, you'd have to create a entire new school system, vs. separate schools like each county did now. If that poster wants to go through the state, fine, however they can argue all they want but MCPS has been clear that they are committed to keeping VA.

Doing it through the state makes no sense except if you mandate each county use the same exact curriculum so kids can move in and out of VA to in person easily. Although the state taking over the curriculum may not be a bad thing if they brought textbooks back.

I get why it there might be substantial value to making it easy to go to/from virtual during the pandemic. But we're nearing the end-game on COVID, with the 5-11yo vaccines rolling out. Of the kids whose parents choose to keep them in virtual next fall, I think it is safe to assume *most* will never return to their old in-person schools. So there's very little benefit to keeping the virtual curriculum aligned with the physical schools that happen to be geographically close to the students.

There is a benefit to keeping it with the county, in that many kids won’t need the VA for their whole school experience. They may need it just a couple years, or even just one semester. (I’m a NP who hasn’t carefully read all these very long posts.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every county, or at least he bigger ones have VA. Googling to see it, even Baltimore City has one. At some point, if you have 10-40K students in VA, you'd have to create a entire new school system, vs. separate schools like each county did now. If that poster wants to go through the state, fine, however they can argue all they want but MCPS has been clear that they are committed to keeping VA.

Doing it through the state makes no sense except if you mandate each county use the same exact curriculum so kids can move in and out of VA to in person easily. Although the state taking over the curriculum may not be a bad thing if they brought textbooks back.

I get why it there might be substantial value to making it easy to go to/from virtual during the pandemic. But we're nearing the end-game on COVID, with the 5-11yo vaccines rolling out. Of the kids whose parents choose to keep them in virtual next fall, I think it is safe to assume *most* will never return to their old in-person schools. So there's very little benefit to keeping the virtual curriculum aligned with the physical schools that happen to be geographically close to the students.

There is a benefit to keeping it with the county, in that many kids won’t need the VA for their whole school experience. They may need it just a couple years, or even just one semester. (I’m a NP who hasn’t carefully read all these very long posts.)

PP here. I agree. Made sense to have MCPS its own VA aligned with its own curriculum. Many VA students will return next school year, having been vaccinated.

My point just starts with *next* school year. Waiting yet another semester or year isn't going to change anything during the 2022-2023 school year. The kids that don't return then aren't likely to come back anytime soon, if ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all families are in VA for Covid. Some are, some aren’t. vA is part of MCPS. It’s no different from them opening up another in person building.

I am pulling the information from the information we are getting from VA. If you were involved with VA or even spent a few minutes learning about it you would know it.

If you’d like our kids to return in person for families who choose it due to Covid, what are you willing to do to make it safer for them to return.

Even if MCPS does away with VA the state is not going to offer one. How do I know? Because unlike you, I contacted the state and MCPS to look at all our options prior to getting accepted into VA as a back up plan as we decided as a family our kids were not going in person last fall. Some of us actually put effort and research into this. The state of MD approved two programs that are private pay and looked terrible. Those are the only two options they offered. There was no live teaching and it was either self taught or videos with periodic check ins. If you also followed old threads some of us talked about it as we were scrambling on what to do with our kids. You should research this before you rant and want to shut down VA.

But, again, if you aren’t willing to be part of the solution in keeping kids safe in school, then stop critiquing our choice to keep our kids virtual. We checked out in person school. There is no distancing, kids half masked, very limited testing and everything back to normal. It’s an old building and walking through it I did not see the portable air filters as promised.

Nothing beyond vaccinations. Covid is here to stay, and either you learn to exist out in the real world or you don't. We're looking forward to masks coming off by next school year.

Masks can and should stay.

Mandatory masks won't stay. They'll finish out this school year with them, but next school year the policy will change. At most, they'll say that unvaccinated students need to mask as an incentive to get vaccinated.

Agreed. We definitely won't have masks next year. But while hate to say it, I think the mask fanatics have been loud enough to screw up the rest of this school year with a mask mandate. At least in MCPS. (I suspect we'll see MSBE tomorrow discuss a plan that would allow individual districts to lift the mandate this school year, but McKnight seems intent to run the school into the ground now that just about everyone hates her.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Agreed. We definitely won't have masks next year. But while hate to say it, I think the mask fanatics have been loud enough to screw up the rest of this school year with a mask mandate. At least in MCPS. (I suspect we'll see MSBE tomorrow discuss a plan that would allow individual districts to lift the mandate this school year, but McKnight seems intent to run the school into the ground now that just about everyone hates her.)

Superintendents have been running MCPS into the ground since at least 2009 - or at least that's what I've read on DCUM since 2009. MCPS must be at South African diamond mine levels by now...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every county, or at least he bigger ones have VA. Googling to see it, even Baltimore City has one. At some point, if you have 10-40K students in VA, you'd have to create a entire new school system, vs. separate schools like each county did now. If that poster wants to go through the state, fine, however they can argue all they want but MCPS has been clear that they are committed to keeping VA.

Doing it through the state makes no sense except if you mandate each county use the same exact curriculum so kids can move in and out of VA to in person easily. Although the state taking over the curriculum may not be a bad thing if they brought textbooks back.

I get why it there might be substantial value to making it easy to go to/from virtual during the pandemic. But we're nearing the end-game on COVID, with the 5-11yo vaccines rolling out. Of the kids whose parents choose to keep them in virtual next fall, I think it is safe to assume *most* will never return to their old in-person schools. So there's very little benefit to keeping the virtual curriculum aligned with the physical schools that happen to be geographically close to the students.

There is a benefit to keeping it with the county, in that many kids won’t need the VA for their whole school experience. They may need it just a couple years, or even just one semester. (I’m a NP who hasn’t carefully read all these very long posts.)

PP here. I agree. Made sense to have MCPS its own VA aligned with its own curriculum. Many VA students will return next school year, having been vaccinated.

My point just starts with *next* school year. Waiting yet another semester or year isn't going to change anything during the 2022-2023 school year. The kids that don't return then aren't likely to come back anytime soon, if ever.

Kids are in VA for a variety of reasons and many of us have not made the decision of when as there are too many issues going into it. It’s not just vaccines for many of us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all families are in VA for Covid. Some are, some aren’t. vA is part of MCPS. It’s no different from them opening up another in person building.

I am pulling the information from the information we are getting from VA. If you were involved with VA or even spent a few minutes learning about it you would know it.

If you’d like our kids to return in person for families who choose it due to Covid, what are you willing to do to make it safer for them to return.

Even if MCPS does away with VA the state is not going to offer one. How do I know? Because unlike you, I contacted the state and MCPS to look at all our options prior to getting accepted into VA as a back up plan as we decided as a family our kids were not going in person last fall. Some of us actually put effort and research into this. The state of MD approved two programs that are private pay and looked terrible. Those are the only two options they offered. There was no live teaching and it was either self taught or videos with periodic check ins. If you also followed old threads some of us talked about it as we were scrambling on what to do with our kids. You should research this before you rant and want to shut down VA.

But, again, if you aren’t willing to be part of the solution in keeping kids safe in school, then stop critiquing our choice to keep our kids virtual. We checked out in person school. There is no distancing, kids half masked, very limited testing and everything back to normal. It’s an old building and walking through it I did not see the portable air filters as promised.

Nothing beyond vaccinations. Covid is here to stay, and either you learn to exist out in the real world or you don't. We're looking forward to masks coming off by next school year.

Masks can and should stay.

Mandatory masks won't stay. They'll finish out this school year with them, but next school year the policy will change. At most, they'll say that unvaccinated students need to mask as an incentive to get vaccinated.

Agreed. We definitely won't have masks next year. But while hate to say it, I think the mask fanatics have been loud enough to screw up the rest of this school year with a mask mandate. At least in MCPS. (I suspect we'll see MSBE tomorrow discuss a plan that would allow individual districts to lift the mandate this school year, but McKnight seems intent to run the school into the ground now that just about everyone hates her.)

Most kids don’t care about masks. It’s the parents who need to make a statement. The same ones screaming about Trump, who is long gone, and cannot set a good example for kids.

But, if you are demanding we send our kids back, then our kids are owed at least cdc guidelines and it to be safe that they return. No masks, no distancing or other precautions makes it unsafe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all families are in VA for Covid. Some are, some aren’t. vA is part of MCPS. It’s no different from them opening up another in person building.

I am pulling the information from the information we are getting from VA. If you were involved with VA or even spent a few minutes learning about it you would know it.

If you’d like our kids to return in person for families who choose it due to Covid, what are you willing to do to make it safer for them to return.

Even if MCPS does away with VA the state is not going to offer one. How do I know? Because unlike you, I contacted the state and MCPS to look at all our options prior to getting accepted into VA as a back up plan as we decided as a family our kids were not going in person last fall. Some of us actually put effort and research into this. The state of MD approved two programs that are private pay and looked terrible. Those are the only two options they offered. There was no live teaching and it was either self taught or videos with periodic check ins. If you also followed old threads some of us talked about it as we were scrambling on what to do with our kids. You should research this before you rant and want to shut down VA.

But, again, if you aren’t willing to be part of the solution in keeping kids safe in school, then stop critiquing our choice to keep our kids virtual. We checked out in person school. There is no distancing, kids half masked, very limited testing and everything back to normal. It’s an old building and walking through it I did not see the portable air filters as promised.

Nothing beyond vaccinations. Covid is here to stay, and either you learn to exist out in the real world or you don't. We're looking forward to masks coming off by next school year.

Masks can and should stay.

Mandatory masks won't stay. They'll finish out this school year with them, but next school year the policy will change. At most, they'll say that unvaccinated students need to mask as an incentive to get vaccinated.

Vaccines is your criteria for safe. Others of us feel differently and because you will not be part of the solution thank goodness MCPS gave us another option. When you can show me long term studies on the vaccine and that it’s 100% then I’ll agree. But when you keep need more shots in several months time, it’s not even as effective as the flu vaccine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Since Covid vaccines are now available for all school going ages, should VA be canceled starting MP3? Time to go back to normal. This way standardized testing like CogAT can be administered in time for ES and MS magnet programs.

What is wrong with you? You don’t want to give a small number of kids a different choice that they already have?

I’ll answer this. The answer for these posters is no. Post after post of these petty, greedy people so offended at the prospect that a minor increase in student pool means that Larla now may have to be in a program with black, brown, and lower SES kids who are nonetheless extremely bright and will absolutely succeed in the magnet.

Many of our kids should be in the magnet programs but it has nothing to do with VA and as a program VA has to be much cheaper to run. Changing the magnet requirements to lower the standards makes no sense nor does it not make sense to offer gifted programs at every school especially in MS. But, the equity parents won and everything has to be equal so it is what it is. But, saying VA should not exist because of equity is bizarre when VA has a very diverse group of families.

Bullying to get VA shut down makes no sense given it costs far less for MCPS to run and in no way impacts their family. And, if they were to need it, it’s there as an option. And, to try to bully us into returning our kids saying it’s safe as we have vaccines really speaks volumes of those living in their own bubble. Covid is what it is because of people like them. And, it’s here to stay because of people like them so all we can do it be cautious and stay away from them.

[Anonymous]

The problem is too many parents are irresponsible and too few are getting their kids vaccinated, I'm willing to bet Covid infections increase in schools in the coming weeks.

It sucks that we are dependent on MCPS for virtual because they are likely to pull out the rug on us sooner rather than later. A dependable, permanent state option is the ONE thing I envy FL and some other states. Health concerns aside my kids learn better in virtual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not all families are in VA for Covid. Some are, some aren’t. vA is part of MCPS. It’s no different from them opening up another in person building.

I am pulling the information from the information we are getting from VA. If you were involved with VA or even spent a few minutes learning about it you would know it.

If you’d like our kids to return in person for families who choose it due to Covid, what are you willing to do to make it safer for them to return.

Even if MCPS does away with VA the state is not going to offer one. How do I know? Because unlike you, I contacted the state and MCPS to look at all our options prior to getting accepted into VA as a back up plan as we decided as a family our kids were not going in person last fall. Some of us actually put effort and research into this. The state of MD approved two programs that are private pay and looked terrible. Those are the only two options they offered. There was no live teaching and it was either self taught or videos with periodic check ins. If you also followed old threads some of us talked about it as we were scrambling on what to do with our kids. You should research this before you rant and want to shut down VA.

But, again, if you aren’t willing to be part of the solution in keeping kids safe in school, then stop critiquing our choice to keep our kids virtual. We checked out in person school. There is no distancing, kids half masked, very limited testing and everything back to normal. It’s an old building and walking through it I did not see the portable air filters as promised.

Nothing beyond vaccinations. Covid is here to stay, and either you learn to exist out in the real world or you don't. We're looking forward to masks coming off by next school year.

Masks can and should stay.

Mandatory masks won't stay. They'll finish out this school year with them, but next school year the policy will change. At most, they'll say that unvaccinated students need to mask as an incentive to get vaccinated.

Vaccines is your criteria for safe. Others of us feel differently and because you will not be part of the solution thank goodness MCPS gave us another option. When you can show me long term studies on the vaccine and that it’s 100% then I’ll agree. But when you keep need more shots in several months time, it’s not even as effective as the flu vaccine.

This is amazing- so you're arguing we need to keep VA for anti-vax families?! Someone ought to take a screenshot of this and send to the BOE, lol.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Masks can and should stay.

... For those who want it. Mask away!!! For the rest of us who believe in vaccines and are willing to take the risk of breakthrough cases, I hope your insistence on masking does not impact the freedom of our kids to not wear masks soon.

DP- I am one that will let my DC ditch the mask as soon as they are allowed, BUT being realistic I just don't see them going away this school year. Isn't the vaccination rate among high schoolers pretty high? And yet they are still required to wear them. All I'm saying is don't get your hopes up.