APS - Three cases yesterday
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Anonymous
How many kids do you need to reassign to new schools to get everyone to a 3' distance? Or 6' back in March? |
Anonymous
Dude! Just because you can fit everyone in the school that you're supposed to under NORMAL conditions does NOT mean that you can fit everyone in with appropriate spacing, particularly for lunch and elementary school snacktime. The fact that even with folks dropping out of APS there are STILL 3 elementary schools that are over maximum capacity (UNDER NORMAL CONDITIONS) is amazing. Under normal conditions, without extra spacing, McKinley would normally run three or four lunch starting as early at 10:30 in the morning because its lunchroom was too small for the capacity of kids in the school. You may need to start even earlier than that and run super late with additional spacing requirements. The fact that you're not actually over capacity doesn't really solve all your covid spacing problems. Similarly, if you're going to let elementary school kids eat a snack in their classrooms and unmask, I think you now run into another spacing problem. And there could be other spacing issues -- like, if you can't fit all the required kids in a room with 3 foot spacing, do you need to get another room and then another proctor for the kids? Not sure about that one. Point is there seem to be lots of considerations you are leaving out of your 5 day a week RIGHT NOW calculation. This won't be an issue for me by next fall because my kid will be vaccinated, numbers will be down even further, etc. |
Anonymous
If you read the study summary, they point out that a lot of the increased cases were attributable to adult behavior as a result of reopening. "Using similar event-study models and SafeGraph data (which tracks the movement of individuals aged 16 and older by using cell phone data), we show that time spent outside the home by adults rose sharply in communities with the largest numbers of children after school reopenings. Some evidence also suggests increased mobility in communities with large numbers of seniors, consistent with signaling effects on those not directly affected by the reopenings." With the kids out of the house, more parents were able to go back to work in person and/or do leisure activities during the day and spread covid that way. |
Anonymous
| I guess that's interesting, but in the end does it really matter how much of the increased numbers came directly from the school vs. from increased parental exposure? Those 800 people (some of whom included teachers, which presumably were actual school contact fwiw) still died, numbers are numbers. Folks here have been saying for a while that opening up schools has had no negative effects on covid spread. That's actually quite wrong according to this study. |
Anonymous
Our APS elementary school has already outlawed snacks. No snack. Done. Lunch should be outdoors at all schools. On rainy days our school is still outside under an overhang. With severe weather they'd spread out in hallways, the lobby and classrooms, but that hasn't happened. I think most parents would be happy to go 4 (or 5) days a week knowing that schools could switch to DL on days where severe weather is forecast. For schools without an overhang, APS should have sourced tents. And if APS hasn't already, they need to for the fall since elementary students won't be fully vaxxed until mid-fall. |
Anonymous
It does matter because the adults in Texas are different from here and probably took risks that the population of Arlington Va would not. Look how many people are still wearing masks outside today. |
Anonymous
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APE-types: Where is all the evidence that opening schools caused higher Covid numbers? You guys can't show any proof!
non-APE types: Here is a study showing increased Covid numbers in Texas where schools opened early... APE-types: NOT THAT EVIDENCE! |
Anonymous
| I really hope this thread keeps going past mid-June when schools actually close for the summer. Ghost posts from angry parents arguing that schools still have time to change up their schedules and open up. Time passes and it's 2028 and parents are still posting here about what APS should have done differently during covid. Occasionally people who would have died come in and post that they're still not dead. Good times. |
Anonymous
It’s been cute how they pick and choose “data” and “science”. 
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Anonymous
| Look, if APS did a poll today about whether I’d want my kid to go back 4 days a week for the rest of the year, and they went with majority rules, then yes, I would be all for that (and we are pretty cautious, anxious people). But am I going to sign up to speak at the school board and go to rallies and align myself with the crazy APE parents? No thanks. |
Anonymous
| 0 new cases reported in Arlington today.... |
Anonymous
Yes - lots of yellows and blues on the dashboard. Even a green! https://www.apsva.us/school-year-2020-21/aps-covid-19-dashboard/ And my kids have already started SOLs so this is great news......FOR THE FALL. |
Anonymous
And that dashboard was from last Friday before the 0 cases. So this Friday's dashboard will look even better. |
Anonymous
The cases are dramatically down across the different DMV counties. The vaccines and associated rollout have been unbelievably effective. |
Anonymous
And many of our school neighbors were able to plan accordingly and act aggressively to prioritize the return of kids to the classroom for as much of the remaining year as they could, so, wait, what? why didn't or couldn't APS do the same???? |