In-person school plans

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Temp checks are basically Covid theater, anyway. Many people don't have fever (partic kids) and those who do are contagious before the fever, anyway.

They need to design the classroom assuming that someone is sick-- i.e., distancing, masks, open windows, air circulation, etc. They also need to minimize mixing of groups-- i.e., a sick kid could infect the 12-15 in their classroom but unlikely anyone else in the school. Forego the Covid theater so that people don't have a false sense of security.

Except that's not possible for middle school or high school, so it needs to not be a requirement.

That's an odd position to take. Are you just going to explain to the virus about high school class structures to convince it not to spread?

No, it's not an odd position to take. It's the position to take when you start from the premise that middle-school and high-school kids need to be in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wish MCPS would make a statement on teacher vaccines and potential openings. I'm hearing rumblings that teachers are going to start being eligible soon.

I mean, that is what the county and the state are saying. Montgomery County claims it anticipates beginning to vaccinate phase 1B in February. Teachers are in phase 1B.

Whether that actually happens as anticipated is anybody's guess as I assume it depends on whether they actually get the vaccine distribution from the feds. I am cautiously hopeful that there is an actual date they are projecting but like everything else for the past 10 months, I'll believe it when I see it.

No, 1B begins in Jan.

Jan 25th....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My brother teaches at an Urban school district in PA not far From NY. His particular school has high poverty - lots of ESL though the school district overall is middle income. The whole area got hit hard With COVID in the spring coming from NY and covid rates worse then here - still. But they have been hybrid all fall until planned break in December. As planned, they Restarted hybrid this week. All the teachers will be vaccinated Jan 25 week.

I just don’t understand why MD is so different.

And, how many families actually signed up for hybrid? The issue is we don't have enough teachers to do both beyond the safety issues. We have 35 kids per MS class on a good day. We don't have enough classrooms for each teacher to have their own classroom. Kids are mixed up in different classes so they change classrooms multiple times a day plus lunch. Some classrooms don't have windows (not sure how that is safe from a fire standpoint but its still allowed). We have an old boiler system, no HVAC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Temp checks are basically Covid theater, anyway. Many people don't have fever (partic kids) and those who do are contagious before the fever, anyway.

They need to design the classroom assuming that someone is sick-- i.e., distancing, masks, open windows, air circulation, etc. They also need to minimize mixing of groups-- i.e., a sick kid could infect the 12-15 in their classroom but unlikely anyone else in the school. Forego the Covid theater so that people don't have a false sense of security.

Except that's not possible for middle school or high school, so it needs to not be a requirement.

That's an odd position to take. Are you just going to explain to the virus about high school class structures to convince it not to spread?

No, it's not an odd position to take. It's the position to take when you start from the premise that middle-school and high-school kids need to be in school.

Why do they "need" to be in person?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Temp checks are basically Covid theater, anyway. Many people don't have fever (partic kids) and those who do are contagious before the fever, anyway.

They need to design the classroom assuming that someone is sick-- i.e., distancing, masks, open windows, air circulation, etc. They also need to minimize mixing of groups-- i.e., a sick kid could infect the 12-15 in their classroom but unlikely anyone else in the school. Forego the Covid theater so that people don't have a false sense of security.

Except that's not possible for middle school or high school, so it needs to not be a requirement.

That's an odd position to take. Are you just going to explain to the virus about high school class structures to convince it not to spread?

No, it's not an odd position to take. It's the position to take when you start from the premise that middle-school and high-school kids need to be in school.

Why do they "need" to be in person?

PP, we've been at this since March, it's now almost the middle of January, go figure it out for yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My brother teaches at an Urban school district in PA not far From NY. His particular school has high poverty - lots of ESL though the school district overall is middle income. The whole area got hit hard With COVID in the spring coming from NY and covid rates worse then here - still. But they have been hybrid all fall until planned break in December. As planned, they Restarted hybrid this week. All the teachers will be vaccinated Jan 25 week.

I just don’t understand why MD is so different.

And, how many families actually signed up for hybrid? The issue is we don't have enough teachers to do both beyond the safety issues. We have 35 kids per MS class on a good day. We don't have enough classrooms for each teacher to have their own classroom. Kids are mixed up in different classes so they change classrooms multiple times a day plus lunch. Some classrooms don't have windows (not sure how that is safe from a fire standpoint but its still allowed). We have an old boiler system, no HVAC.

In which middle school do you have 35 kids per middle school class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just so we're all clear here:

The CURRENT criteria for reopening school is community spread metrics not vaccination rates among teachers.

Schools will still be subject to following CDC guidelines of wearing a mask and social distancing. The guidelines are not going to change in the immediate future.

Kids are not going to be vaccinated in the immediate future either.

If you or your children cannot follow the CDC guidelines then maybe you should homeschool.

Mcps has not made any kind of public statement about how they're going to handle contagious children at school but they're going to have to have some kind of plan in place. unfortunately parents will either knowingly or unknowingly send contagious children to school and then either refuse to pick them up or not be able to pick them up immediately

MCPS will not be doing regular COVID testing or testing at all. They will not be doing temperature checks or any type of risk mitigation. They are not enforcing masks. They don't have enough sinks in every school to promote hand washing.

Going back is not based off teachers getting vaccinated but community spread. Without kids being vaccinated, there is a huge risk of spreading it to both students and families. Teachers can also be carriers even if vaccinated.

The issue is those pushing reopening are generally ones who don't care about the community spread and will send their kids to school sick.

Instead of telling those of us concerned to homeschool, grow up, use birth control as you cannot handle the kids you have and hire help.

Where did you get this information? I am very concerned that there won’t be temperature checks or health screenings like there are at day care or a doctor office.

Mcps has said that they would not be doing temp checks or testing. From a logistical standpoint it creates too much of a bottleneck if you hundreds of kids waiting in line to get their temperature checked and recorded especially if temperature is not a great metric for proving someone's contagious,usually if you get sick you are contagious prior to running a temperature. (If a child is feverish then they obviously should be isolated from their class and picked up from school immediately) but the cons of trying to temperature check every child everyday is not worth it.

I would like to see some kind of random sample testing or something to keep an eye out for asymptomatic spread but again it's a big logistical challenge and you would have to get all parents to consent to having their child tested.

There's going to have to be some kind of random testing. I've had multiple kids tell me that a relative is sick with covid and then you see said relative wandering around no mask or isolating from their family. If school was open with the parent know to not send their child to school if they are contagious but asymptomatic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Temp checks are basically Covid theater, anyway. Many people don't have fever (partic kids) and those who do are contagious before the fever, anyway.

They need to design the classroom assuming that someone is sick-- i.e., distancing, masks, open windows, air circulation, etc. They also need to minimize mixing of groups-- i.e., a sick kid could infect the 12-15 in their classroom but unlikely anyone else in the school. Forego the Covid theater so that people don't have a false sense of security.

Except that's not possible for middle school or high school, so it needs to not be a requirement.

That's an odd position to take. Are you just going to explain to the virus about high school class structures to convince it not to spread?

No, it's not an odd position to take. It's the position to take when you start from the premise that middle-school and high-school kids need to be in school.

I think it's 100% feasible in MS-- There are only a handful of elective options and there are definitely at least 15 kids who are in any combination of an elective-language-math level.) It would take more organization than schools might like to do (and possibly kids would be in an art/music elective different from their first preference), but heck, my 6th grader has at least 8 close friends in the same combination of these three things, so I have to believe there are 7 more out there with the same class preferences.

HS it gets trickier, but I think it's still feasible in a lot of cases--especially for freshman and sophomores. Juniors and seniors tend to specialize more but there could definitely be a core set of classes students take together so that there would only be 2 or 3 switches rather than 7. (And given that we're talking hybrid rather than pure face-to-face, those classes that would cause the cohort to mix could just be offered 100% online. )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Temp checks are basically Covid theater, anyway. Many people don't have fever (partic kids) and those who do are contagious before the fever, anyway.

They need to design the classroom assuming that someone is sick-- i.e., distancing, masks, open windows, air circulation, etc. They also need to minimize mixing of groups-- i.e., a sick kid could infect the 12-15 in their classroom but unlikely anyone else in the school. Forego the Covid theater so that people don't have a false sense of security.

Except that's not possible for middle school or high school, so it needs to not be a requirement.

That's an odd position to take. Are you just going to explain to the virus about high school class structures to convince it not to spread?

No, it's not an odd position to take. It's the position to take when you start from the premise that middle-school and high-school kids need to be in school.

Why do they "need" to be in person?

PP, we've been at this since March, it's now almost the middle of January, go figure it out for yourself.

Can’t figure it out. You need child care. Your problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Temp checks are basically Covid theater, anyway. Many people don't have fever (partic kids) and those who do are contagious before the fever, anyway.

They need to design the classroom assuming that someone is sick-- i.e., distancing, masks, open windows, air circulation, etc. They also need to minimize mixing of groups-- i.e., a sick kid could infect the 12-15 in their classroom but unlikely anyone else in the school. Forego the Covid theater so that people don't have a false sense of security.

Except that's not possible for middle school or high school, so it needs to not be a requirement.

That's an odd position to take. Are you just going to explain to the virus about high school class structures to convince it not to spread?

No, it's not an odd position to take. It's the position to take when you start from the premise that middle-school and high-school kids need to be in school.

I think it's 100% feasible in MS-- There are only a handful of elective options and there are definitely at least 15 kids who are in any combination of an elective-language-math level.) It would take more organization than schools might like to do (and possibly kids would be in an art/music elective different from their first preference), but heck, my 6th grader has at least 8 close friends in the same combination of these three things, so I have to believe there are 7 more out there with the same class preferences.

HS it gets trickier, but I think it's still feasible in a lot of cases--especially for freshman and sophomores. Juniors and seniors tend to specialize more but there could definitely be a core set of classes students take together so that there would only be 2 or 3 switches rather than 7. (And given that we're talking hybrid rather than pure face-to-face, those classes that would cause the cohort to mix could just be offered 100% online. )

Not at our MS. Mine is not with 8 other kids. Nor do they have staff like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Temp checks are basically Covid theater, anyway. Many people don't have fever (partic kids) and those who do are contagious before the fever, anyway.

They need to design the classroom assuming that someone is sick-- i.e., distancing, masks, open windows, air circulation, etc. They also need to minimize mixing of groups-- i.e., a sick kid could infect the 12-15 in their classroom but unlikely anyone else in the school. Forego the Covid theater so that people don't have a false sense of security.

Except that's not possible for middle school or high school, so it needs to not be a requirement.

That's an odd position to take. Are you just going to explain to the virus about high school class structures to convince it not to spread?

No, it's not an odd position to take. It's the position to take when you start from the premise that middle-school and high-school kids need to be in school.

Why do they "need" to be in person?

PP, we've been at this since March, it's now almost the middle of January, go figure it out for yourself.

Can’t figure it out. You need child care. Your problem.

Maybe you didn't notice that this is about middle school and high school? Or maybe you're a bot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Temp checks are basically Covid theater, anyway. Many people don't have fever (partic kids) and those who do are contagious before the fever, anyway.

They need to design the classroom assuming that someone is sick-- i.e., distancing, masks, open windows, air circulation, etc. They also need to minimize mixing of groups-- i.e., a sick kid could infect the 12-15 in their classroom but unlikely anyone else in the school. Forego the Covid theater so that people don't have a false sense of security.

Except that's not possible for middle school or high school, so it needs to not be a requirement.

That's an odd position to take. Are you just going to explain to the virus about high school class structures to convince it not to spread?

No, it's not an odd position to take. It's the position to take when you start from the premise that middle-school and high-school kids need to be in school.

Why do they "need" to be in person?

PP, we've been at this since March, it's now almost the middle of January, go figure it out for yourself.

Can’t figure it out. You need child care. Your problem.

Maybe you didn't notice that this is about middle school and high school? Or maybe you're a bot.

Has to be a bot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Temp checks are basically Covid theater, anyway. Many people don't have fever (partic kids) and those who do are contagious before the fever, anyway.

They need to design the classroom assuming that someone is sick-- i.e., distancing, masks, open windows, air circulation, etc. They also need to minimize mixing of groups-- i.e., a sick kid could infect the 12-15 in their classroom but unlikely anyone else in the school. Forego the Covid theater so that people don't have a false sense of security.

Except that's not possible for middle school or high school, so it needs to not be a requirement.

That's an odd position to take. Are you just going to explain to the virus about high school class structures to convince it not to spread?

No, it's not an odd position to take. It's the position to take when you start from the premise that middle-school and high-school kids need to be in school.

Why do they "need" to be in person?

PP, we've been at this since March, it's now almost the middle of January, go figure it out for yourself.

Can’t figure it out. You need child care. Your problem.

Maybe you didn't notice that this is about middle school and high school? Or maybe you're a bot.

Has to be a bot.

Or a Russian Troll!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My brother teaches at an Urban school district in PA not far From NY. His particular school has high poverty - lots of ESL though the school district overall is middle income. The whole area got hit hard With COVID in the spring coming from NY and covid rates worse then here - still. But they have been hybrid all fall until planned break in December. As planned, they Restarted hybrid this week. All the teachers will be vaccinated Jan 25 week.

I just don’t understand why MD is so different.

And, how many families actually signed up for hybrid? The issue is we don't have enough teachers to do both beyond the safety issues. We have 35 kids per MS class on a good day. We don't have enough classrooms for each teacher to have their own classroom. Kids are mixed up in different classes so they change classrooms multiple times a day plus lunch. Some classrooms don't have windows (not sure how that is safe from a fire standpoint but its still allowed). We have an old boiler system, no HVAC.

In which middle school do you have 35 kids per middle school class?

The one my child attends.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Temp checks are basically Covid theater, anyway. Many people don't have fever (partic kids) and those who do are contagious before the fever, anyway.

They need to design the classroom assuming that someone is sick-- i.e., distancing, masks, open windows, air circulation, etc. They also need to minimize mixing of groups-- i.e., a sick kid could infect the 12-15 in their classroom but unlikely anyone else in the school. Forego the Covid theater so that people don't have a false sense of security.

Except that's not possible for middle school or high school, so it needs to not be a requirement.

That's an odd position to take. Are you just going to explain to the virus about high school class structures to convince it not to spread?

No, it's not an odd position to take. It's the position to take when you start from the premise that middle-school and high-school kids need to be in school.

Why do they "need" to be in person?

PP, we've been at this since March, it's now almost the middle of January, go figure it out for yourself.

Can’t figure it out. You need child care. Your problem.

Maybe you didn't notice that this is about middle school and high school? Or maybe you're a bot.

MCPS has the equity hubs for ES who need child care. And, other places are open too.