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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

DP not against some F2F but do we really need to get into an argument about the difference between COVID and the flu? Where have you been?

[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.

They put it on hold about a month ago, according to a Bethesda Beat article.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Every time I pass by our local mcps elementary school there have been at least 3-4 work trucks parked out front.

That's a promising sign. Are they MCPS trucks (it'll have the logo on the door) or a private company? Did you notice the company name if so?

Some schools are due for renovation work -- could it be related to that?

I'd really like schools to be open for some form of F2F in the fall, but I'm really concerned they just can't pull it off in 8 weeks.

Our middle school was already scheduled for minor renovations over the summer, and I know they were going ahead with those. Many schools have projects done over the summer, like gym floor replacement/refinishing, bathroom renovations, etc., that can't be done with students in the building.

[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.

They put it on hold about a month ago, according to a Bethesda Beat article.

They didn't put it on hold because it didn't exist in the first place.

Here's what happened: they delayed the release of the final report for the boundary analysis.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/schools/after-delays-interim-boundary-analysis-report-released/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

DP not against some F2F but do we really need to get into an argument about the difference between COVID and the flu? Where have you been?

Plus, schools in the US do close for flu sometimes.
Maryland
VA (in early 2020)
PA (also in early 2020)
Texas
Oregon
NY
Ohio
MI
Indiana
Alabama
ID
Tennessee
Arkansas
IL
NJ
Maine
CA

I stopped counting articles

https://www.the74million.org/when-schools-close-due-to-the-flu/

Oklahoma

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

U of Alabama, U of Georgia, and U of Washington have already had outbreaks with hundreds of cases, including some staff and teachers, and in-person classes haven't even started yet. Colleges are going to be a major problem in the fall, if this past month is any indication. And it's impossible to keep outbreaks contained to campus once they've started, especially since younger adults are less likely to show serious symptoms. They're going to be walking around town spewing the COVID, thinking they're just hung over.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

U of Alabama, U of Georgia, and U of Washington have already had outbreaks with hundreds of cases, including some staff and teachers, and in-person classes haven't even started yet. Colleges are going to be a major problem in the fall, if this past month is any indication. And it's impossible to keep outbreaks contained to campus once they've started, especially since younger adults are less likely to show serious symptoms. They're going to be walking around town spewing the COVID, thinking they're just hung over.

Meanwhile, in Montgomery County, which is where MCPS is, there was the lowest daily increase in COVID-19 cases — 0.22% — since mid-March.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/coronavirus/county-has-lowest-daily-increase-in-covid-19-cases-since-mid-march/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

U of Alabama, U of Georgia, and U of Washington have already had outbreaks with hundreds of cases, including some staff and teachers, and in-person classes haven't even started yet. Colleges are going to be a major problem in the fall, if this past month is any indication. And it's impossible to keep outbreaks contained to campus once they've started, especially since younger adults are less likely to show serious symptoms. They're going to be walking around town spewing the COVID, thinking they're just hung over.

Meanwhile, in Montgomery County, which is where MCPS is, there was the lowest daily increase in COVID-19 cases — 0.22% — since mid-March.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/coronavirus/county-has-lowest-daily-increase-in-covid-19-cases-since-mid-march/

The numbers are going down. But Montgomery County still has 50 new cases a day, which is what they have in the whole of South Korea, or Denmark, or Switzerland. It’s still a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

U of Alabama, U of Georgia, and U of Washington have already had outbreaks with hundreds of cases, including some staff and teachers, and in-person classes haven't even started yet. Colleges are going to be a major problem in the fall, if this past month is any indication. And it's impossible to keep outbreaks contained to campus once they've started, especially since younger adults are less likely to show serious symptoms. They're going to be walking around town spewing the COVID, thinking they're just hung over.

Meanwhile, in Montgomery County, which is where MCPS is, there was the lowest daily increase in COVID-19 cases — 0.22% — since mid-March.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/coronavirus/county-has-lowest-daily-increase-in-covid-19-cases-since-mid-march/

The numbers are going down. But Montgomery County still has 50 new cases a day, which is what they have in the whole of South Korea, or Denmark, or Switzerland. It’s still a lot.

Please stop moving the goalposts. I'm getting tired of the

-But Texas! But Florida!

-But Montgomery County/Maryland!

-Still, not South Korea!

dance. It's not relevant.

According to what some of the PPs are saying, South Korea's schools should be closed because cases are high in Texas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

U of Alabama, U of Georgia, and U of Washington have already had outbreaks with hundreds of cases, including some staff and teachers, and in-person classes haven't even started yet. Colleges are going to be a major problem in the fall, if this past month is any indication. And it's impossible to keep outbreaks contained to campus once they've started, especially since younger adults are less likely to show serious symptoms. They're going to be walking around town spewing the COVID, thinking they're just hung over.

Meanwhile, in Montgomery County, which is where MCPS is, there was the lowest daily increase in COVID-19 cases — 0.22% — since mid-March.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/coronavirus/county-has-lowest-daily-increase-in-covid-19-cases-since-mid-march/

The 3-day average is 77 cases/day. Daily numbers aren't that accurate a measure since we just had a 3-day weekend and a lot of testing centers only operate during the workweek.

MoCo is definitely improving, that's for sure. It's still #2 or #3 highest in MD though. We are now at over 15,000 cases. The entire neighboring state of VA has 66k cases, with about 8.5x the population of MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

U of Alabama, U of Georgia, and U of Washington have already had outbreaks with hundreds of cases, including some staff and teachers, and in-person classes haven't even started yet. Colleges are going to be a major problem in the fall, if this past month is any indication. And it's impossible to keep outbreaks contained to campus once they've started, especially since younger adults are less likely to show serious symptoms. They're going to be walking around town spewing the COVID, thinking they're just hung over.

Meanwhile, in Montgomery County, which is where MCPS is, there was the lowest daily increase in COVID-19 cases — 0.22% — since mid-March.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/coronavirus/county-has-lowest-daily-increase-in-covid-19-cases-since-mid-march/

The 3-day average is 77 cases/day. Daily numbers aren't that accurate a measure since we just had a 3-day weekend and a lot of testing centers only operate during the workweek.

MoCo is definitely improving, that's for sure. It's still #2 or #3 highest in MD though. We are now at over 15,000 cases. The entire neighboring state of VA has 66k cases, with about 8.5x the population of MoCo.

Some people are just bound and determined to see EVERY glass as half empty.

Here are the test positivity rates: https://twitter.com/MDHealthDept/status/1280140506362712069/photo/1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

U of Alabama, U of Georgia, and U of Washington have already had outbreaks with hundreds of cases, including some staff and teachers, and in-person classes haven't even started yet. Colleges are going to be a major problem in the fall, if this past month is any indication. And it's impossible to keep outbreaks contained to campus once they've started, especially since younger adults are less likely to show serious symptoms. They're going to be walking around town spewing the COVID, thinking they're just hung over.

People can test positive for MONTHS. My husband is on day 73 and is STILL testing positive. Hasn't been symptomatic or contagious in over 50 days. Testing people as they come on campus will show plenty of positive cases. Doesn't mean they are contagious or active. It just means they need to quarantine for the 14 days.

2. Southern colleges are not making their students wear masks which is ridiculous. They are in their own element. The U of Alabama students were throwing covid contest parties. U of Miss are having massive frat parties already.

3. U of Wash had 117 cases out of 1000 greek house residents - all living in close quarters. That is not bad for the outbreak they have had. I bet more than half of those positive cases are just lingering and the more that get in before classes start in Sept, the better.

4. NONE of the cases are actively sick or hospitalized.

You are not going to be able to hide from this and shelter in your homes. Our country does not have a leader that was able to actively slow down the virus. We will never be able to move on with our lives. A vaccine could easily be another year away. People don't want to wear masks and people want their "rights" to stay the same. I don't agree with it, but I am also not sheltering in my home for 18+ months because of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

U of Alabama, U of Georgia, and U of Washington have already had outbreaks with hundreds of cases, including some staff and teachers, and in-person classes haven't even started yet. Colleges are going to be a major problem in the fall, if this past month is any indication. And it's impossible to keep outbreaks contained to campus once they've started, especially since younger adults are less likely to show serious symptoms. They're going to be walking around town spewing the COVID, thinking they're just hung over.

Meanwhile, in Montgomery County, which is where MCPS is, there was the lowest daily increase in COVID-19 cases — 0.22% — since mid-March.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/coronavirus/county-has-lowest-daily-increase-in-covid-19-cases-since-mid-march/

The numbers are going down. But Montgomery County still has 50 new cases a day, which is what they have in the whole of South Korea, or Denmark, or Switzerland. It’s still a lot.

Please stop moving the goalposts. I'm getting tired of the

-But Texas! But Florida!

-But Montgomery County/Maryland!

-Still, not South Korea!

dance. It's not relevant.

According to what some of the PPs are saying, South Korea's schools should be closed because cases are high in Texas.

You seem to be arguing with several different people, so it’s not actually moving the goalposts. Someone said cases were falling in MoCo so it was okay to open schools normally. I said it didn’t matter much to me if they were falling since they were still relatively high compared to other places. And they are.

[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.

This is exactly what just happened in South African schools. Ugh. https://briefly.co.za/69617-775-schools-hit-by-cov...ers-523-students-infected.html

[Anonymous]

I don’t know how widely this has been reported but federal agencies are struggling to obtain adequate PPE and are slowing down re-openings. Does anyone think that MCPS can acquire sufficient PPE?