Howard County remote until April 2021.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank god we’re moving to private school. HCPSS is such a mess.

It isn't. Most school systems are virtual....l over the country. What's a mess are some parents, thank goodness not many, who are just having trouble accepting reality and are taking it to social media.

The county and school system leadership are both just tremendous. The teachers have gone over and above. Impressed, but also super proud.

Let me guess, teacher?

There are plenty of school systems in the US which are open for in-person instruction including Carroll county until the latest surge of cases. You can be impressed by DL if it works for your student. If it doesn't, no one is forcing you to keep your child in the system. We didn't. Couldn't be happier to have left the virutal instruction for those it works well for -- not our kids.

No, I am not a teacher. I work as a Fed contractor and have been working virtually since March, and will probably be virtual for at least another 6 months. I expect teachers and children to be afforded the same amount of safety as I have.

.
Not working for you? Find a way to make it work, as I have. Understand that the world in peril doesn't owe you something it cannot give right now. Figure out Plan B.

Given that you are so adaptable and have the luxury of working from home, perhaps might consider having some empathy and compassion for those who are struggling?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank god we’re moving to private school. HCPSS is such a mess.

It isn't. Most school systems are virtual....l over the country. What's a mess are some parents, thank goodness not many, who are just having trouble accepting reality and are taking it to social media.

The county and school system leadership are both just tremendous. The teachers have gone over and above. Impressed, but also super proud.

Let me guess, teacher?

There are plenty of school systems in the US which are open for in-person instruction including Carroll county until the latest surge of cases. You can be impressed by DL if it works for your student. If it doesn't, no one is forcing you to keep your child in the system. We didn't. Couldn't be happier to have left the virutal instruction for those it works well for -- not our kids.

No, I am not a teacher. I work as a Fed contractor and have been working virtually since March, and will probably be virtual for at least another 6 months. I expect teachers and children to be afforded the same amount of safety as I have.

.
Not working for you? Find a way to make it work, as I have. Understand that the world in peril doesn't owe you something it cannot give right now. Figure out Plan B.

Given that you are so adaptable and have the luxury of working from home, perhaps might consider having some empathy and compassion for those who are struggling?

You need to have an arrangement. The school system is not a day care provider. The school system is not going to endanger everyone's lives because this is difficult. The federal and state government need to provide funding for the things people need during an unprecedented global pandemic .
As for me? No, it's not great, it's not easy. I would not ever presume it should be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank god we’re moving to private school. HCPSS is such a mess.

It isn't. Most school systems are virtual....l over the country. What's a mess are some parents, thank goodness not many, who are just having trouble accepting reality and are taking it to social media.

The county and school system leadership are both just tremendous. The teachers have gone over and above. Impressed, but also super proud.

Let me guess, teacher?

There are plenty of school systems in the US which are open for in-person instruction including Carroll county until the latest surge of cases. You can be impressed by DL if it works for your student. If it doesn't, no one is forcing you to keep your child in the system. We didn't. Couldn't be happier to have left the virutal instruction for those it works well for -- not our kids.

No, I am not a teacher. I work as a Fed contractor and have been working virtually since March, and will probably be virtual for at least another 6 months. I expect teachers and children to be afforded the same amount of safety as I have.

.
Not working for you? Find a way to make it work, as I have. Understand that the world in peril doesn't owe you something it cannot give right now. Figure out Plan B.

Given that you are so adaptable and have the luxury of working from home, perhaps might consider having some empathy and compassion for those who are struggling?

You need to have an arrangement. The school system is not a day care provider. The school system is not going to endanger everyone's lives because this is difficult. The federal and state government need to provide funding for the things people need during an unprecedented global pandemic .
As for me? No, it's not great, it's not easy. I would not ever presume it should be.

What? This poster never signed up for being an unpaid educational aide. The school system needs to acknowledge that they cannot provide a good education to their students at the moment without outside help from a parent, daycare provider or extended family member. You can teach whatever you want to a google meet but if someone hasn't found the link and the meeting code to help a kindergartener log on, you are teaching to no one.
No one could plan for a pandemic and virtual learning for a year. It's ridiculous to think that somehow this family should have found someone available and affordable to help their children all day when for years, the public school system was the bedrock of the community which did so. It's more than "daycare". It's an unpaid teaching assistant role.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You need to have an arrangement. The school system is not a day care provider. The school system is not going to endanger everyone's lives because this is difficult. The federal and state government need to provide funding for the things people need during an unprecedented global pandemic .
As for me? No, it's not great, it's not easy. I would not ever presume it should be.

What? This poster never signed up for being an unpaid educational aide. The school system needs to acknowledge that they cannot provide a good education to their students at the moment without outside help from a parent, daycare provider or extended family member. You can teach whatever you want to a google meet but if someone hasn't found the link and the meeting code to help a kindergartener log on, you are teaching to no one.
No one could plan for a pandemic and virtual learning for a year. It's ridiculous to think that somehow this family should have found someone available and affordable to help their children all day when for years, the public school system was the bedrock of the community which did so. It's more than "daycare". It's an unpaid teaching assistant role.

DP here. What you are describing is not an unpaid teaching assistant role, it's being a parent.

While the public education system provides most of what students need, it has never provided all that students need. Yes, in normal times, most students get most of what they need with fairly little parental involvement, but the public school system has never been meant to be a complete and self-sufficient education for their students. Parents have always been expected to pay attention and address what is not being covered. In some cases, like children with special needs, parents need to do a lot, ranging from getting diagnoses for their children, arranging for IEP's and 504's to arranging for special educator assistance, be it private tutors, or public plans like county and state resources for children with special needs. Even in the case of students without special needs, parents have been responsible for determining if their child needs remedial assistance, enrolling them in such programs like summer school or camps. Parents have to pay attention to the school calendar and arrange for childcare when school cannot meet in person, so for teacher training days, holidays, school closings, snow days, and summer vacation.

Assisting your child in accessing school is part of your parental responsibilities. Trying to say that parents are not prepared to be an unpaid teaching assistant is as outrageous as those who insist that fathers are helping when they feed their children, babysit their child or help with household chores. No, that is called parenting and while mothers do most of parenting, fathers are expect to parent their children sometimes as well. Likewise, while teachers do the bulk of teaching children, parents sometimes need to step up and provide some of their child's education or assist with their child's education. It's parenting.

I can certainly understand people who are unprepared for the strain that the pandemic has caused on their lives, but this is no different than if a school had an environmental problem like a gas leak, fire or structural damage and the building was unusable. If that were to happen, and the school implemented remote learning, parents would need to cope with the situation. This is a world-wide pandemic that makes in-person learning dangerous. While the children themselves are less susceptible and in less danger, they can be carriers of the disease and can infect their family members and others that their family members come into contact with. How would you feel if you became ill because your child was exposed in school and while your child was fine, she came back and infected you. How would you feel if a child took the illness home and infected their grandparent who lived in their house? Or their mother was pregnant and lost the sibling because of exposure to the virus? How would you feel if your child was exposed, and exposed you; you and your child were fine, but you took the virus to work and infected a coworker who became seriously ill or died?

It's not just the risk to the teachers, but the fact that this is an extremely virulent virus and children can become carriers to infect teachers, family members, friends and coworkers. This is also problematic because carriers can be asymptomatic and infectious and can also be infectious for 2-4 days before any symptoms appear.

I sympathize with the PP's problem, but providing support for your child's education is a part of parenting. Yes, I understand that the additional burden of assisting your child is not normal, but part of parenting is learning to adapt to the change of situation and find a backup solution that allows you to work and to provide for your child's participation in school. Endangering thousands of people unnecessarily is not an option just because your child needs assistance with distance learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You need to have an arrangement. The school system is not a day care provider. The school system is not going to endanger everyone's lives because this is difficult. The federal and state government need to provide funding for the things people need during an unprecedented global pandemic .
As for me? No, it's not great, it's not easy. I would not ever presume it should be.

What? This poster never signed up for being an unpaid educational aide. The school system needs to acknowledge that they cannot provide a good education to their students at the moment without outside help from a parent, daycare provider or extended family member. You can teach whatever you want to a google meet but if someone hasn't found the link and the meeting code to help a kindergartener log on, you are teaching to no one.
No one could plan for a pandemic and virtual learning for a year. It's ridiculous to think that somehow this family should have found someone available and affordable to help their children all day when for years, the public school system was the bedrock of the community which did so. It's more than "daycare". It's an unpaid teaching assistant role.

DP here. What you are describing is not an unpaid teaching assistant role, it's being a parent.

While the public education system provides most of what students need, it has never provided all that students need. Yes, in normal times, most students get most of what they need with fairly little parental involvement, but the public school system has never been meant to be a complete and self-sufficient education for their students. Parents have always been expected to pay attention and address what is not being covered. In some cases, like children with special needs, parents need to do a lot, ranging from getting diagnoses for their children, arranging for IEP's and 504's to arranging for special educator assistance, be it private tutors, or public plans like county and state resources for children with special needs. Even in the case of students without special needs, parents have been responsible for determining if their child needs remedial assistance, enrolling them in such programs like summer school or camps. Parents have to pay attention to the school calendar and arrange for childcare when school cannot meet in person, so for teacher training days, holidays, school closings, snow days, and summer vacation.

Assisting your child in accessing school is part of your parental responsibilities. Trying to say that parents are not prepared to be an unpaid teaching assistant is as outrageous as those who insist that fathers are helping when they feed their children, babysit their child or help with household chores. No, that is called parenting and while mothers do most of parenting, fathers are expect to parent their children sometimes as well. Likewise, while teachers do the bulk of teaching children, parents sometimes need to step up and provide some of their child's education or assist with their child's education. It's parenting.

I can certainly understand people who are unprepared for the strain that the pandemic has caused on their lives, but this is no different than if a school had an environmental problem like a gas leak, fire or structural damage and the building was unusable. If that were to happen, and the school implemented remote learning, parents would need to cope with the situation. This is a world-wide pandemic that makes in-person learning dangerous. While the children themselves are less susceptible and in less danger, they can be carriers of the disease and can infect their family members and others that their family members come into contact with. How would you feel if you became ill because your child was exposed in school and while your child was fine, she came back and infected you. How would you feel if a child took the illness home and infected their grandparent who lived in their house? Or their mother was pregnant and lost the sibling because of exposure to the virus? How would you feel if your child was exposed, and exposed you; you and your child were fine, but you took the virus to work and infected a coworker who became seriously ill or died?

It's not just the risk to the teachers, but the fact that this is an extremely virulent virus and children can become carriers to infect teachers, family members, friends and coworkers. This is also problematic because carriers can be asymptomatic and infectious and can also be infectious for 2-4 days before any symptoms appear.

I sympathize with the PP's problem, but providing support for your child's education is a part of parenting. Yes, I understand that the additional burden of assisting your child is not normal, but part of parenting is learning to adapt to the change of situation and find a backup solution that allows you to work and to provide for your child's participation in school. Endangering thousands of people unnecessarily is not an option just because your child needs assistance with distance learning.

Except schools are open all around the country. No outbreaks. Private schools in the area are open. No outbreaks.
It's a pandemic and life has changed, but it has also exposed serious issues with the public school system and it's inability to re-open safely like other districts and organizations. I don't agree that it's an unpaid teaching role, but it's much more than most families can handle. It's also not working well for my own family, but we are managing. It's difficult seeing our neighbors trot their kids off to their school every day knowing my own kids are not doing well with virtual learning.
Here's to 2021. Maybe we will figure it out and get kids back in schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You need to have an arrangement. The school system is not a day care provider. The school system is not going to endanger everyone's lives because this is difficult. The federal and state government need to provide funding for the things people need during an unprecedented global pandemic .
As for me? No, it's not great, it's not easy. I would not ever presume it should be.

What? This poster never signed up for being an unpaid educational aide. The school system needs to acknowledge that they cannot provide a good education to their students at the moment without outside help from a parent, daycare provider or extended family member. You can teach whatever you want to a google meet but if someone hasn't found the link and the meeting code to help a kindergartener log on, you are teaching to no one.
No one could plan for a pandemic and virtual learning for a year. It's ridiculous to think that somehow this family should have found someone available and affordable to help their children all day when for years, the public school system was the bedrock of the community which did so. It's more than "daycare". It's an unpaid teaching assistant role.

DP here. What you are describing is not an unpaid teaching assistant role, it's being a parent.

While the public education system provides most of what students need, it has never provided all that students need. Yes, in normal times, most students get most of what they need with fairly little parental involvement, but the public school system has never been meant to be a complete and self-sufficient education for their students. Parents have always been expected to pay attention and address what is not being covered. In some cases, like children with special needs, parents need to do a lot, ranging from getting diagnoses for their children, arranging for IEP's and 504's to arranging for special educator assistance, be it private tutors, or public plans like county and state resources for children with special needs. Even in the case of students without special needs, parents have been responsible for determining if their child needs remedial assistance, enrolling them in such programs like summer school or camps. Parents have to pay attention to the school calendar and arrange for childcare when school cannot meet in person, so for teacher training days, holidays, school closings, snow days, and summer vacation.

Assisting your child in accessing school is part of your parental responsibilities. Trying to say that parents are not prepared to be an unpaid teaching assistant is as outrageous as those who insist that fathers are helping when they feed their children, babysit their child or help with household chores. No, that is called parenting and while mothers do most of parenting, fathers are expect to parent their children sometimes as well. Likewise, while teachers do the bulk of teaching children, parents sometimes need to step up and provide some of their child's education or assist with their child's education. It's parenting.

I can certainly understand people who are unprepared for the strain that the pandemic has caused on their lives, but this is no different than if a school had an environmental problem like a gas leak, fire or structural damage and the building was unusable. If that were to happen, and the school implemented remote learning, parents would need to cope with the situation. This is a world-wide pandemic that makes in-person learning dangerous. While the children themselves are less susceptible and in less danger, they can be carriers of the disease and can infect their family members and others that their family members come into contact with. How would you feel if you became ill because your child was exposed in school and while your child was fine, she came back and infected you. How would you feel if a child took the illness home and infected their grandparent who lived in their house? Or their mother was pregnant and lost the sibling because of exposure to the virus? How would you feel if your child was exposed, and exposed you; you and your child were fine, but you took the virus to work and infected a coworker who became seriously ill or died?

It's not just the risk to the teachers, but the fact that this is an extremely virulent virus and children can become carriers to infect teachers, family members, friends and coworkers. This is also problematic because carriers can be asymptomatic and infectious and can also be infectious for 2-4 days before any symptoms appear.

I sympathize with the PP's problem, but providing support for your child's education is a part of parenting. Yes, I understand that the additional burden of assisting your child is not normal, but part of parenting is learning to adapt to the change of situation and find a backup solution that allows you to work and to provide for your child's participation in school. Endangering thousands of people unnecessarily is not an option just because your child needs assistance with distance learning.

Except schools are open all around the country. No outbreaks. Private schools in the area are open. No outbreaks.
It's a pandemic and life has changed, but it has also exposed serious issues with the public school system and it's inability to re-open safely like other districts and organizations. I don't agree that it's an unpaid teaching role, but it's much more than most families can handle. It's also not working well for my own family, but we are managing. It's difficult seeing our neighbors trot their kids off to their school every day knowing my own kids are not doing well with virtual learning.
Here's to 2021. Maybe we will figure it out and get kids back in schools.

PP that you are quoting. Yes, schools are open all around the country. But you are wrong about "no outbreaks". There are schools in at least 12 states that are closing due to outbreaks. There are schools where some students are in person and some are at home quarantining and the schools are not set up for a mismatch of home and distance learning. Teachers are struggling to adapt when the situation is changing on a weekly basis. I know teachers who designed a hybrid curriculum back in August and September and in November had their schools closed and had to redo their lessons and assignments around kids being home full-time. And schools where some kids are weeks ahead of their peers because some classrooms are open and others are quarantined. I know school districts where teachers have become infected and died (I have two friends who are teachers in other states who have had a co-worker die from Covid-19 after being exposed at school). The amount of trauma being introduced to those school systems from teachers infected at school and dying is horrible.

I think the HCPSS model of being virtual by quarter is a good one. The one element I can see possibly revising is trying to get small groups of special needs students to return to school as the students that need the in-person education the most, provided that they can find a qualified teacher that is neither high-risk themselves or have family members that are high-risk to teach the classes, and they should move their classes to rooms like cafeterias, gymnasiums and other large rooms with good ventilation. In small group settings where you can ensure that you have distance and ventilation, you can adapt to small groups, but there is no real way to safely handle more than about 1/4 of the student population in more than half of the HCPSS schools. There is no way to discuss the wide-spread return to class for the majority of the student body under the current conditions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

You need to have an arrangement. The school system is not a day care provider. The school system is not going to endanger everyone's lives because this is difficult. The federal and state government need to provide funding for the things people need during an unprecedented global pandemic .
As for me? No, it's not great, it's not easy. I would not ever presume it should be.

What? This poster never signed up for being an unpaid educational aide. The school system needs to acknowledge that they cannot provide a good education to their students at the moment without outside help from a parent, daycare provider or extended family member. You can teach whatever you want to a google meet but if someone hasn't found the link and the meeting code to help a kindergartener log on, you are teaching to no one.
No one could plan for a pandemic and virtual learning for a year. It's ridiculous to think that somehow this family should have found someone available and affordable to help their children all day when for years, the public school system was the bedrock of the community which did so. It's more than "daycare". It's an unpaid teaching assistant role.

DP here. What you are describing is not an unpaid teaching assistant role, it's being a parent.

While the public education system provides most of what students need, it has never provided all that students need. Yes, in normal times, most students get most of what they need with fairly little parental involvement, but the public school system has never been meant to be a complete and self-sufficient education for their students. Parents have always been expected to pay attention and address what is not being covered. In some cases, like children with special needs, parents need to do a lot, ranging from getting diagnoses for their children, arranging for IEP's and 504's to arranging for special educator assistance, be it private tutors, or public plans like county and state resources for children with special needs. Even in the case of students without special needs, parents have been responsible for determining if their child needs remedial assistance, enrolling them in such programs like summer school or camps. Parents have to pay attention to the school calendar and arrange for childcare when school cannot meet in person, so for teacher training days, holidays, school closings, snow days, and summer vacation.

Assisting your child in accessing school is part of your parental responsibilities. Trying to say that parents are not prepared to be an unpaid teaching assistant is as outrageous as those who insist that fathers are helping when they feed their children, babysit their child or help with household chores. No, that is called parenting and while mothers do most of parenting, fathers are expect to parent their children sometimes as well. Likewise, while teachers do the bulk of teaching children, parents sometimes need to step up and provide some of their child's education or assist with their child's education. It's parenting.

I can certainly understand people who are unprepared for the strain that the pandemic has caused on their lives, but this is no different than if a school had an environmental problem like a gas leak, fire or structural damage and the building was unusable. If that were to happen, and the school implemented remote learning, parents would need to cope with the situation. This is a world-wide pandemic that makes in-person learning dangerous. While the children themselves are less susceptible and in less danger, they can be carriers of the disease and can infect their family members and others that their family members come into contact with. How would you feel if you became ill because your child was exposed in school and while your child was fine, she came back and infected you. How would you feel if a child took the illness home and infected their grandparent who lived in their house? Or their mother was pregnant and lost the sibling because of exposure to the virus? How would you feel if your child was exposed, and exposed you; you and your child were fine, but you took the virus to work and infected a coworker who became seriously ill or died?

It's not just the risk to the teachers, but the fact that this is an extremely virulent virus and children can become carriers to infect teachers, family members, friends and coworkers. This is also problematic because carriers can be asymptomatic and infectious and can also be infectious for 2-4 days before any symptoms appear.

I sympathize with the PP's problem, but providing support for your child's education is a part of parenting. Yes, I understand that the additional burden of assisting your child is not normal, but part of parenting is learning to adapt to the change of situation and find a backup solution that allows you to work and to provide for your child's participation in school. Endangering thousands of people unnecessarily is not an option just because your child needs assistance with distance learning.

Except schools are open all around the country. No outbreaks. Private schools in the area are open. No outbreaks.
It's a pandemic and life has changed, but it has also exposed serious issues with the public school system and it's inability to re-open safely like other districts and organizations. I don't agree that it's an unpaid teaching role, but it's much more than most families can handle. It's also not working well for my own family, but we are managing. It's difficult seeing our neighbors trot their kids off to their school every day knowing my own kids are not doing well with virtual learning.
Here's to 2021. Maybe we will figure it out and get kids back in schools.

PP that you are quoting. Yes, schools are open all around the country. But you are wrong about "no outbreaks". There are schools in at least 12 states that are closing due to outbreaks. There are schools where some students are in person and some are at home quarantining and the schools are not set up for a mismatch of home and distance learning. Teachers are struggling to adapt when the situation is changing on a weekly basis. I know teachers who designed a hybrid curriculum back in August and September and in November had their schools closed and had to redo their lessons and assignments around kids being home full-time. And schools where some kids are weeks ahead of their peers because some classrooms are open and others are quarantined. I know school districts where teachers have become infected and died (I have two friends who are teachers in other states who have had a co-worker die from Covid-19 after being exposed at school). The amount of trauma being introduced to those school systems from teachers infected at school and dying is horrible.

I think the HCPSS model of being virtual by quarter is a good one. The one element I can see possibly revising is trying to get small groups of special needs students to return to school as the students that need the in-person education the most, provided that they can find a qualified teacher that is neither high-risk themselves or have family members that are high-risk to teach the classes, and they should move their classes to rooms like cafeterias, gymnasiums and other large rooms with good ventilation. In small group settings where you can ensure that you have distance and ventilation, you can adapt to small groups, but there is no real way to safely handle more than about 1/4 of the student population in more than half of the HCPSS schools. There is no way to discuss the wide-spread return to class for the majority of the student body under the current conditions.

Not the poster you are responding to, but I take issue with the bolded. The current health metrics should not control discussions and planning for a widespread return. In the alternative, if we need metrics for when such discussion is appropriate, they need to be established. Discussions now can help to frame the specific measures and metrics that need to be in place in order to reopen for more than small groups. I agree with you that schools can't reopen now or with the level of community spread we are seeing now. But discussing and planning for a return should continue.

[Anonymous]

80% of schools are back in hybrid or full in person. Yet somehow here we can’t go back all year. Numbers are LOWER in areas that have been full time since August.


Our poor kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:80% of schools are back in hybrid or full in person. Yet somehow here we can’t go back all year. Numbers are LOWER in areas that have been full time since August.


Our poor kids.

No, they aren't at 80%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:80% of schools are back in hybrid or full in person. Yet somehow here we can’t go back all year. Numbers are LOWER in areas that have been full time since August.

Our poor kids.

You need better news sources. The absolute worst is the ping-ponging nature of in-person/hybrid/closing that many school systems are going through. I have friends who are teachers and others who are parents in NY and the fact that the NY state and city leadership can't even follow the metrics that they've announced is driving everyone crazy. Open a few weeks ago, supposed to close at 9% positivity rate, which they've achieved, but, oh, now they are not sure 9% is enough to close. They find out more through watching the public news than they get from the school system itself. This is no way to learn. The parents and teachers have no idea if school will be in-person, virtual or hybrid. You can't plan when you have no idea what will happen and the leadership doesn't either.

In many of the largest school districts they are all virtual. It is a mix but nowhere near 80%.

https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-12-07/us-schools-go-back-and-forth-on-in-person-learning

In contrast, school systems in Detroit, Boston, Indianapolis, Philadelphia and suburban Minneapolis in recent weeks abandoned in-person classes or dropped plans to bring students back because of soaring infections.

[...]

At least four school districts in South Carolina have returned to all-virtual learning. The largest so far, Orangeburg County, sent its 12,000 students home to learn, starting Monday, until at least the end of Christmas break. Nearly a quarter of the state’s districts are teaching in person every day.

[Anonymous]

I hate to revive this dumpster fire of a thread, but looks like the board just approved the use of a hybrid model for a March 1 return.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate to revive this dumpster fire of a thread, but looks like the board just approved the use of a hybrid model for a March 1 return.

I'll believe it when I see it. I'm pro-reopening but I believe the return should be guided by the metrics, which is why I think they should have been working all along on planning the best possible hybrid model rather than continually putting the decision off.

If you watched the last BOE meeting, the dysfunction continues. It is infuriating.

[Anonymous]

For anyone who is reading this and who has watched the Howard County BOE meetings, I have a question. The old board members and now the new ones regularly ask about the HVAV and ventilation issues. Each time they do, district staff launch into a long explanation about upgraded filters and other things that I don't understand because I'm not an expert in HVAC.

What exactly do the Board members and/or unions want to happen with the HVAC? Is there something specific they want done that has not been addressed?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For anyone who is reading this and who has watched the Howard County BOE meetings, I have a question. The old board members and now the new ones regularly ask about the HVAV and ventilation issues. Each time they do, district staff launch into a long explanation about upgraded filters and other things that I don't understand because I'm not an expert in HVAC.

What exactly do the Board members and/or unions want to happen with the HVAC? Is there something specific they want done that has not been addressed?

Viruses are particularly small and you need to have air filters that are designed to catch smaller particles in order to help ensure that there is as little transmission of Covid-19 as possible. You need to have filters with a MERV rating of at least 13 to catch particles as small as viruses. Standard systems use MERV-8 or MERV-10 filters which are less likely to stop the HVAC from blowing the viruses from one area to another.

Additionnally, it helps to have as many separate HVAC units as possible with the different units not sharing ventilation. This means that you can have one HVAC unit group each group of rooms and the air that is circulated in one unit vents outside (and draws in air from outside) separate from the other units. Some buildings are designed with different units sharing an air source. If that exists, it is easier for virus particles from one part of the school to get drawn back into the system and blow out to another set of rooms, which only increases the chance the someone who is contagious in one part of the school can transmit it to other parts of the school. Older buildings are more likely to have ventillation shared across multiple sections. In those situations, you can sometimes separate the sections with a minimal amount of duct work providing that you have separate ventillation units.

In any event, the BoE asked and was assured that at a minimum, all of the schools have had filters upgraded to higher rated MERV factor filters. That's the minimum that needs to be done and it is a relatively low-cost upgrade that can be done. Filters usually have to be replaced regularly anyways, so replacing filters slightly earlier and upgradiing them to higher rated filters is a pretty low cost maintenance upgrade that will help a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For anyone who is reading this and who has watched the Howard County BOE meetings, I have a question. The old board members and now the new ones regularly ask about the HVAV and ventilation issues. Each time they do, district staff launch into a long explanation about upgraded filters and other things that I don't understand because I'm not an expert in HVAC.

What exactly do the Board members and/or unions want to happen with the HVAC? Is there something specific they want done that has not been addressed?

Viruses are particularly small and you need to have air filters that are designed to catch smaller particles in order to help ensure that there is as little transmission of Covid-19 as possible. You need to have filters with a MERV rating of at least 13 to catch particles as small as viruses. Standard systems use MERV-8 or MERV-10 filters which are less likely to stop the HVAC from blowing the viruses from one area to another.

Additionnally, it helps to have as many separate HVAC units as possible with the different units not sharing ventilation. This means that you can have one HVAC unit group each group of rooms and the air that is circulated in one unit vents outside (and draws in air from outside) separate from the other units. Some buildings are designed with different units sharing an air source. If that exists, it is easier for virus particles from one part of the school to get drawn back into the system and blow out to another set of rooms, which only increases the chance the someone who is contagious in one part of the school can transmit it to other parts of the school. Older buildings are more likely to have ventillation shared across multiple sections. In those situations, you can sometimes separate the sections with a minimal amount of duct work providing that you have separate ventillation units.

In any event, the BoE asked and was assured that at a minimum, all of the schools have had filters upgraded to higher rated MERV factor filters. That's the minimum that needs to be done and it is a relatively low-cost upgrade that can be done. Filters usually have to be replaced regularly anyways, so replacing filters slightly earlier and upgradiing them to higher rated filters is a pretty low cost maintenance upgrade that will help a lot.

Thanks. But they said they did that over the summer. Here is Monday's meeting - HVAC is addressed around 1:50. They have gone over these things at multiple meetings. What else needs to be done?

https://hcpsstv.new.swagit.com/videos/112023