What the Fall may look like -- the hybrid model

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC's reopening plan is here:
https://cdn.flipsnack.com/widget/v2/flipsnackwidget.html?hash=funqraelc&t=&fullscreen=1

On page 19 there is a chart by sector, for K-12 education Phase 1 is “distance learning only” and Phase 2 and 3 are lumped together. In terms of when they expect to change phases, Phase 1 is “Declining virus transmission” and will start on Friday, Phase 2 is “Only localized transmission” and the Mayor said could happen by August 10.

On page 32 there is specific guidance for K-12 schools. The things that jump out at me are a limit of 10 people in a classroom at a time, strict physical distancing and enhanced cleaning. Pages 34-38 are “Recommended Safeguards” for schools.

Phase 4 is a vaccine or a cure.

Bowser has said that DC is going to coordinate with MD and VA in the DC region.

Independent schools can be stricter but they can't be less strict than the guidelines.

Thanks for that link. Our school head said ‘we won’t necessarily follow what the DC public schools opt to do, but we will absolutely follow the public health guidelines as a minimum’. I think this really indicates that ‘full classes school’ is highly unlikely barring a near miraculous decrease in cases.

This is what all the schools should be saying! Isn't part of what you pay for increased staff ratios and facilities/space?? They ought to be able to make the guidelines work 5 days a week at many of these schools, unlike at DCPS where they have many more kids per classroom and fewer staff members.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This is what all the schools should be saying! Isn't part of what you pay for increased staff ratios and facilities/space?? They ought to be able to make the guidelines work 5 days a week at many of these schools, unlike at DCPS where they have many more kids per classroom and fewer staff members.

I think one of the problems at private schools isn’t the overcrowding but the ‘historic’ old class buildings that are simply too small for socially distanced classes. While modern school buildings have more space, many of the historic school buildings’ classrooms are quite tiny.

Of course this is a problem as well in some older public school buildings too.

[Anonymous]

Based on where things stand at the moment, the hybrid model outlined in the first post seems like the right and most likely approach to me.

- Big 3 Parent

[Anonymous]

This sounds like a miserable school exprience for high schoolers. They might as well stick with distance learning if that is how they re going to do it. This a a massive over-reaction IMO.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC's reopening plan is here:
https://cdn.flipsnack.com/widget/v2/flipsnackwidget.html?hash=funqraelc&t=&fullscreen=1

On page 19 there is a chart by sector, for K-12 education Phase 1 is “distance learning only” and Phase 2 and 3 are lumped together. In terms of when they expect to change phases, Phase 1 is “Declining virus transmission” and will start on Friday, Phase 2 is “Only localized transmission” and the Mayor said could happen by August 10.

On page 32 there is specific guidance for K-12 schools. The things that jump out at me are a limit of 10 people in a classroom at a time, strict physical distancing and enhanced cleaning. Pages 34-38 are “Recommended Safeguards” for schools.

Phase 4 is a vaccine or a cure.

Bowser has said that DC is going to coordinate with MD and VA in the DC region.

Independent schools can be stricter but they can't be less strict than the guidelines.

Thanks for that link. Our school head said ‘we won’t necessarily follow what the DC public schools opt to do, but we will absolutely follow the public health guidelines as a minimum’. I think this really indicates that ‘full classes school’ is highly unlikely barring a near miraculous decrease in cases.

Full classes can't happen until phase 4, which is a vaccine or a cure. A"near miraculous decrease in cases" would be phase 3 which would still be hybrid model.

[Anonymous]

Schools will make schedule, staffing and facilities decisions based on the hybrid model. Even if the threat of virus passes they won't be able to jump back to a regular schedule. Most won't be able to switch until the next school year.

[Anonymous]

Interestingly a number of universities (and maybe high schools) are looking at this from a space-availablity standpoint: how many classrooms are empty per hour (including nights and weekends). They are looking at schedule readjustments to maximize the number of classrooms available for various sections to meet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This sounds like a miserable school exprience for high schoolers. They might as well stick with distance learning if that is how they re going to do it. This a a massive over-reaction IMO.

We. Are. In. A. Pandemic. We will get through to the other side relatively soon, but not in six months.

This is only miserable if measured against what happens during normal times. These aren’t normal times. A lot of people remain in denial about this. After two months, it’s time to graduate to another stage of grief, folks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC's reopening plan is here:
https://cdn.flipsnack.com/widget/v2/flipsnackwidget.html?hash=funqraelc&t=&fullscreen=1

On page 19 there is a chart by sector, for K-12 education Phase 1 is “distance learning only” and Phase 2 and 3 are lumped together. In terms of when they expect to change phases, Phase 1 is “Declining virus transmission” and will start on Friday, Phase 2 is “Only localized transmission” and the Mayor said could happen by August 10.

On page 32 there is specific guidance for K-12 schools. The things that jump out at me are a limit of 10 people in a classroom at a time, strict physical distancing and enhanced cleaning. Pages 34-38 are “Recommended Safeguards” for schools.

Phase 4 is a vaccine or a cure.

Bowser has said that DC is going to coordinate with MD and VA in the DC region.

Independent schools can be stricter but they can't be less strict than the guidelines.

This is how companies and offices in my industry are opening up. Europe as well as states in the south and west are already at Phase 2, 50 person gatherings, day cares all opening with slight modifications (entry/exit doors, less hallway time, no button elevators that stop at each floor, at risk older people/sickly WFH, lots of washing hands).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This sounds like a miserable school exprience for high schoolers. They might as well stick with distance learning if that is how they re going to do it. This a a massive over-reaction IMO.

We. Are. In. A. Pandemic. We will get through to the other side relatively soon, but not in six months.

This is only miserable if measured against what happens during normal times. These aren’t normal times. A lot of people remain in denial about this. After two months, it’s time to graduate to another stage of grief, folks.

Thank you. This is not fearmongering or negativity. It's a fact-based assessment of what is most likely to happen. This is way more serious than a lot of people are prepared to accept.

[Anonymous]

We'll have a lot more informative data "results" on how last week's reopenings proceeded and how in-person schools in the EU, Asia and UK proceeded in 2-4 weeks times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My question about a hybrid model is about staffing. Do schools hire twice as many teachers or are they expecting teachers to expose themselves to the same
Number of children pre-pandemic? These ideas about teachers floating in to a static student group still scare me as a parent. Whose to say one teacher doesn’t pick up something from one student group and pass it to another?

No additional teachers, kids come half as often. Either half days or 2 days a week or every other week (4 days a week).

Right, but this way the teachers are still mixing between cohorts. I don't see a way around that for larger privates with more than 18 students per class. Current CDC guidelines recommend no more than 10 per cohort total, including the teacher. (So, one teacher and 9 students.) The teachers can absolutely be vectors between cohorts, rendering the model pretty ineffective for transmission control (and contact tracing--the idea of stable cohorts was to allow one cohort to be absent due to illness while others carried on, if there's cohort mixing even by staff, then it renders a whole-school or whole-grade shut down more likely).

A modular approach could work. 4 weeks of English class, all day, same kids, same teacher. Then 4 weeks of Math, then 4 weeks of Science... Would really reduce the mixing among cohorts.

That sounds unnecessary and horrendous for continuity and retention of materials.
We'd rather homeschool or hire a tutor for higher efficacy and mastery of materials. We aren't going to do some throw spaghetti education attempts at the wall all in the name of being hyper-risk averse versus everywhere else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interestingly a number of universities (and maybe high schools) are looking at this from a space-availability standpoint: how many classrooms are empty per hour (including nights and weekends). They are looking at schedule readjustments to maximize the number of classrooms available for various sections to meet.

University task force here. Main issue is dorms. Professors are a mixed bag, many prefer virtual lecture or recorded ones. I have no comment on that. I find it sad, but I went to school overseas in small tutorial groups, which I would LOVE to roll out now.

However college student age bracket has very low number and % of severe COVID cases and death cases, many asymptomatic when they happen to even be tested.

Many more gap year requests are getting granted than ever before and we have phases of temp cost costs ready to roll out every four months. Similar to most non profits we are in touch with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop the gross speculation. Just stop.

+1

+1 it is as if these people get a sick kick out of hoping we remain locked down. Life is moving on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When the second wave hits in October everything will shut down again. You will have two months of hybrid tops.

No. Stop fearmongering.

Going pretty well in other countries. No outbreaks after over a month.
https://news.yahoo.com/reopening-schools-denmark-did-not-125523543.html