Just spoke to an MCPS teacher who said she was 99% sure MCPS will be DL in the fall

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My principal said (not officially, in a casual capacity ) that she expected full DL in the fall and hybrid in the spring

This makes the most sense. They can focus on getting distance learning right and it gives them more time to figure out how to do the hybrid option (which is more complicated, and I don't see how they will be ready in 8 weeks). They should try to get kids with IEPs or special considerations in the building at least one day of the week in the fall though.

No they should not. My kid will not go. No way. No how. If he falls behind, he falls behind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:God I hope it's the 2 day in-person option....

I'm almost as certain as the teacher friend that it will be the hybrid. All of the districts who have announced already mentioned working with neighboring jurisdictions. If MCPS went against what everyone else is doing I'd be shocked.

The shoe is on the other foot: it's the other districts who will be forced to reconsider their plans. The cautious districts will decide at the last minute, and the way cases/hospitalizations are trending, they will decide for DL.

They're trending down in Montgomery County and Maryland.

You really believe MD can become an impregnable fortress while the rest of the country goes to the dogs?

Is Texas going to infect Maryland?

Yes. Of course, it could be Florida, or Arizona, or Alabama that infects us, or all of the above. But as long as interstate travel is open, it’s extremely likely. China and S Korea had gotten their numbers down lower than MD, and had to shut schools again as hotspots flared up again. Australia was down to a handful of cases, and has had to lock down certain areas again as numbers spiked.

Without a hermetically-sealed bubble, their problems will inevitably become our problems.

[Anonymous]

https://briefly.co.za/69617-775-schools-hit-by-covid-19-1169-teachers-523-students-infected.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Because MCPS does not put kids' education first. They make sure they can serve meals (from 10 sites to over 40+ sites), worry about equity (students need to have time to get meal so nothing in between 11am-1pm), spend resource on hiring consultant to examine school boundaries, spend resource on restorative justice, etc....

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Agree with this PP.

MCPS is just TOO big to effectively handle something like Covid. Smaller districts can be more nimble and solve the issues as they come up. MCPS is just paralyzed with inaction.

I have never understood the idea that big school districts can't decide to do things.

It may be more difficult to adjust 200+ schools than 10 schools, yes, I get that. It may be more difficult to train thousands of teachers than hundreds. But the idea that MCPS's size leads to inaction? That makes no sense.

Is MCPS still planning on to change school boundaries? I thought they don't have resources (time & money) to do so with COVID. I haven't heard any more updates on that lately, so I assume that they have halted that plan for now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It won't be hybrid for the Whitman cluster - because Pyle is at double its capacity.

Also the bus situation. Those buses transport ES / MS and HS kids each day. Sometimes they are overcrowded - that completely defeats the purpose of hybrid school.

Also cleaning between bus routes will take too much time.

Its a no brainer. It will be DL til January - and that will be confirmed once vaccines are rolled out.

Everything else is just noise.

Yup...but people are in denial. I really feel for those who can't accept the situation...and understandably so. It is a mess.

[Anonymous]

If they expect the rates to get higher in the Fall/Winter, there will be no school this year. And millions will lose their jobs and kids will fall behind because teacher’s unions absolutely suck. Even more than the lazy whiny teachers who are non stop about their pay, holidays, work load, class size, etc...

There are plenty of essential workers out there getting the same pay doing their jobs. Colleges are going back. Daycares are already back.

Public schools? Heavens no!!! We just can not do it.

Pathetic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Is MCPS still planning on to change school boundaries? I thought they don't have resources (time & money) to do so with COVID. I haven't heard any more updates on that lately, so I assume that they have halted that plan for now.

Yes, MCPS is still planning to change school boundaries.

However, MCPS was not ever planning to immediately change school boundaries, and presumably is continuing to not plan to immediately change school boundaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Is MCPS still planning on to change school boundaries? I thought they don't have resources (time & money) to do so with COVID. I haven't heard any more updates on that lately, so I assume that they have halted that plan for now.

Yes, MCPS is still planning to change school boundaries.

However, MCPS was not ever planning to immediately change school boundaries, and presumably is continuing to not plan to immediately change school boundaries.

Each individual boundary change needs a boundary study. The boundary analysis that was released this year was intended to gather data to understand the impacts of current boundaries on schools' capacity, diversity and whether students live close to their schools to inform future boundary changes, which were going to happen no matter what (especially with the new schools that will be built - e.g. Woodward and Crown).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My principal said (not officially, in a casual capacity ) that she expected full DL in the fall and hybrid in the spring

This makes the most sense. They can focus on getting distance learning right and it gives them more time to figure out how to do the hybrid option (which is more complicated, and I don't see how they will be ready in 8 weeks). They should try to get kids with IEPs or special considerations in the building at least one day of the week in the fall though.

No they should not. My kid will not go. No way. No how. If he falls behind, he falls behind.

What will happen to people who opt out of DL but don’t homeschool? Does the child just repeat the grade they were originally supposed to do the following year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My principal said (not officially, in a casual capacity ) that she expected full DL in the fall and hybrid in the spring

This makes the most sense. They can focus on getting distance learning right and it gives them more time to figure out how to do the hybrid option (which is more complicated, and I don't see how they will be ready in 8 weeks). They should try to get kids with IEPs or special considerations in the building at least one day of the week in the fall though.

No they should not. My kid will not go. No way. No how. If he falls behind, he falls behind.

What will happen to people who opt out of DL but don’t homeschool? Does the child just repeat the grade they were originally supposed to do the following year?

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My principal said (not officially, in a casual capacity ) that she expected full DL in the fall and hybrid in the spring

This makes the most sense. They can focus on getting distance learning right and it gives them more time to figure out how to do the hybrid option (which is more complicated, and I don't see how they will be ready in 8 weeks). They should try to get kids with IEPs or special considerations in the building at least one day of the week in the fall though.

No they should not. My kid will not go. No way. No how. If he falls behind, he falls behind.

What will happen to people who opt out of DL but don’t homeschool? Does the child just repeat the grade they were originally supposed to do the following year?

Isn't it the law that you have to either attend school or provide documentation of homeschooling?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My principal said (not officially, in a casual capacity ) that she expected full DL in the fall and hybrid in the spring

This makes the most sense. They can focus on getting distance learning right and it gives them more time to figure out how to do the hybrid option (which is more complicated, and I don't see how they will be ready in 8 weeks). They should try to get kids with IEPs or special considerations in the building at least one day of the week in the fall though.

No they should not. My kid will not go. No way. No how. If he falls behind, he falls behind.

What will happen to people who opt out of DL but don’t homeschool? Does the child just repeat the grade they were originally supposed to do the following year?

Isn't it the law that you have to either attend school or provide documentation of homeschooling?

Yes, but if people refuse to do it, I don’t see what alternative they have then to have the child repeat the year missed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It won't be hybrid for the Whitman cluster - because Pyle is at double its capacity.

Also the bus situation. Those buses transport ES / MS and HS kids each day. Sometimes they are overcrowded - that completely defeats the purpose of hybrid school.

Also cleaning between bus routes will take too much time.

Its a no brainer. It will be DL til January - and that will be confirmed once vaccines are rolled out.

Everything else is just noise.

Yup...but people are in denial. I really feel for those who can't accept the situation...and understandably so. It is a mess.

+1. Just imagine what would happen if they had F2F and someone gets COVID-19? Everything will shut down down again and the expenses of a thorough cleaning at at school. DL learning at that school will commence assuming none of the teachers got COVID-19 either. Parents will be furious that they required F2F schooling and risks their DC in the first place without vaccinations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It won't be hybrid for the Whitman cluster - because Pyle is at double its capacity.

Also the bus situation. Those buses transport ES / MS and HS kids each day. Sometimes they are overcrowded - that completely defeats the purpose of hybrid school.

Also cleaning between bus routes will take too much time.

Its a no brainer. It will be DL til January - and that will be confirmed once vaccines are rolled out.

Everything else is just noise.

Yup...but people are in denial. I really feel for those who can't accept the situation...and understandably so. It is a mess.

+1. Just imagine what would happen if they had F2F and someone gets COVID-19? Everything will shut down down again and the expenses of a thorough cleaning at at school. DL learning at that school will commence assuming none of the teachers got COVID-19 either. Parents will be furious that they required F2F schooling and risks their DC in the first place without vaccinations.

They would put the kids and teacher in that class in quarantine with "distance learning" for the duration of the quarantine (or maybe the kids, teachers, and staff in that school). Meanwhile the rest of MCPS would keep going to school. And after quarantine, the class/school would go back to school too.

There, I imagined it. It wasn't very hard.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It won't be hybrid for the Whitman cluster - because Pyle is at double its capacity.

Also the bus situation. Those buses transport ES / MS and HS kids each day. Sometimes they are overcrowded - that completely defeats the purpose of hybrid school.

Also cleaning between bus routes will take too much time.

Its a no brainer. It will be DL til January - and that will be confirmed once vaccines are rolled out.

Everything else is just noise.

Yup...but people are in denial. I really feel for those who can't accept the situation...and understandably so. It is a mess.

+1. Just imagine what would happen if they had F2F and someone gets COVID-19? Everything will shut down down again and the expenses of a thorough cleaning at at school. DL learning at that school will commence assuming none of the teachers got COVID-19 either. Parents will be furious that they required F2F schooling and risks their DC in the first place without vaccinations.

They would put the kids and teacher in that class in quarantine with "distance learning" for the duration of the quarantine (or maybe the kids, teachers, and staff in that school). Meanwhile the rest of MCPS would keep going to school. And after quarantine, the class/school would go back to school too.

There, I imagined it. It wasn't very hard.

Yeah it's not that hard. Pp are you honestly saying we shouldn't go back to school because it's possible that 1 PERSON gets covid? Like that's not legitimate. More than one person in a school gets very sick with the flu every year and they don't shut school down for it.