APS cancels Summer school for many previously qualified students due to lack of staffing

[Anonymous]

I think many of us are just over this constant shit storm. No one wins, but someone has to take one for the team, and while teachers shouldn't have to work summer (it's in the contract) it's just more shit on parents and families who have yet another thing reneged on.

There are families at all levels who would have been planning for summer school, making their care arrangements and other plans around it. To have it taken away when there are few other alternatives for the summer now is incredibly insensitive. It's the same problem with the school year in that parents keep being strung along and having everything pulled from under them at the last minute. Yes, there are teachers with families who might not be inclined to work this summer, when their salary won't cover the cost of camps, but APS SHOULD HAVE FIGURED THIS THE f*** OUT!

How hard is that? Bonuses didn't work? Did you offer child care? Did you offer to start new, graduating teachers this summer early to meet need? J-1 Visas? Make it work. I think that's all we were asking. The rest of us have to make it work.

At my job, we worked this whole time with no vaccine. I'm DoD and civilians were dead last to be offered vaccines, even though we had to go to work this whole time in person in some capacity. We currently work shifts starting at 0400 to keep the numbers low in our facility, so I have little sympathy for APS to not get it's shit together and make it work. We all have our sacrifices to keep our jobs and school not working the way it should has already cost some people their careers.

We're all fried. Everyone. As tax payers, we expect the school system to work for us. I think APS knows that we can't all go private (unless there are dozens of new private schools opening). A 7% loss of students is a big deal and it's the students with means who are leaving.

I'm just disappointed for the families who were counting on summer school to educate their kids and now need a place for them to go when most camps cut numbers and are full. I'm so thankful we weren't even entertaining summer school.

I mean - I also work there and honestly don't know a single person who isn't looking for a new job and trying to quit, because of how we were treated. Just like I don't know any teachers who are signing up to teach summer school for pennies after being treated they way they have been this past year. The lessen here isn't be more like D** The lesson is that labor is finite resource that has to be properly compensated and treated with some minimal amount of respect. Or you will lose them. People vote with their feet. Always.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely right! Treat your people with respect and dignity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listen, if it makes you feel better, summer school was going to be like 4 hours a day for 4 weeks. It is not very robust because it’s usually literally just doing the minimum to try to get the kid up to grade level or pass. So APS definitely screwed up offering it before they could staff it and then having the nerve to put it back on teachers but you’re not missing out on like, 2 months of 8 hour a day full school. It just isn’t like that.

To put it in perspective 20 days x 4 hours of in person instruction would be far more than my elementary student has received this school year. Right now she's getting 80 minutes per week. Everything else is by iPad.

80 minutes a week?? Is she still at home? If she’s in person and still learning on the iPad I’m not sure summer school would’ve been terribly different even if she had qualified

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I think many of us are just over this constant shit storm. No one wins, but someone has to take one for the team, and while teachers shouldn't have to work summer (it's in the contract) it's just more shit on parents and families who have yet another thing reneged on.

There are families at all levels who would have been planning for summer school, making their care arrangements and other plans around it. To have it taken away when there are few other alternatives for the summer now is incredibly insensitive. It's the same problem with the school year in that parents keep being strung along and having everything pulled from under them at the last minute. Yes, there are teachers with families who might not be inclined to work this summer, when their salary won't cover the cost of camps, but APS SHOULD HAVE FIGURED THIS THE f*** OUT!

How hard is that? Bonuses didn't work? Did you offer child care? Did you offer to start new, graduating teachers this summer early to meet need? J-1 Visas? Make it work. I think that's all we were asking. The rest of us have to make it work.

At my job, we worked this whole time with no vaccine. I'm DoD and civilians were dead last to be offered vaccines, even though we had to go to work this whole time in person in some capacity. We currently work shifts starting at 0400 to keep the numbers low in our facility, so I have little sympathy for APS to not get it's shit together and make it work. We all have our sacrifices to keep our jobs and school not working the way it should has already cost some people their careers.

We're all fried. Everyone. As tax payers, we expect the school system to work for us. I think APS knows that we can't all go private (unless there are dozens of new private schools opening). A 7% loss of students is a big deal and it's the students with means who are leaving.

I'm just disappointed for the families who were counting on summer school to educate their kids and now need a place for them to go when most camps cut numbers and are full. I'm so thankful we weren't even entertaining summer school.

I mean - I also work there and honestly don't know a single person who isn't looking for a new job and trying to quit, because of how we were treated. Just like I don't know any teachers who are signing up to teach summer school for pennies after being treated they way they have been this past year. The lessen here isn't be more like D** The lesson is that labor is finite resource that has to be properly compensated and treated with some minimal amount of respect. Or you will lose them. People vote with their feet. Always.

Just look at all the news stories about minimum wage employees refusing to work and fast food places can’t staff their restaurants. The labor market is undergoing a serious reckoning right now. Industries will experience it differently but many were treated poorly by their employer this past year and now realize they don’t owe their life to an employer who doesn’t care about them and doesn’t pay or treat them well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Listen, if it makes you feel better, summer school was going to be like 4 hours a day for 4 weeks. It is not very robust because it’s usually literally just doing the minimum to try to get the kid up to grade level or pass. So APS definitely screwed up offering it before they could staff it and then having the nerve to put it back on teachers but you’re not missing out on like, 2 months of 8 hour a day full school. It just isn’t like that.

To put it in perspective 20 days x 4 hours of in person instruction would be far more than my elementary student has received this school year. Right now she's getting 80 minutes per week. Everything else is by iPad.

80 minutes a week?? Is she still at home? If she’s in person and still learning on the iPad I’m not sure summer school would’ve been terribly different even if she had qualified

No. She's doing what APS calls "in person" but most content is still being delivered by iPad on in person days. Only one class is actually taught in person.

[Anonymous]

Upset Glebe lady, you are all over this board with your complaints over and over. If you spent the time you spend complaining on this board actually helping your kid, I think her situation would improve but jmho.

[Anonymous]

Just look at all the news stories about minimum wage employees refusing to work and fast food places can’t staff their restaurants. The labor market is undergoing a serious reckoning right now. Industries will experience it differently but many were treated poorly by their employer this past year and now realize they don’t owe their life to an employer who doesn’t care about them and doesn’t pay or treat them well.

This x1000!!!

Fast food, teachers, nurses - too many people were told to risk health and life so someone else could be comfortable. There is going to be a reckoning and it is about time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Upset Glebe lady, you are all over this board with your complaints over and over. If you spent the time you spend complaining on this board actually helping your kid, I think her situation would improve but jmho.

Seriously.

[Anonymous]

Physician here. An essential worker is an essential! If you want to be in job that isn’t important , requires dedication and sacrifice and very necessary, then don’t be a teacher. I never once complained that my employer asked me go to VHC to take care of Covid patients. I never questioned anyones intentions. I took the proper precautions , followed CDD guidelines and did my job. I am still alive and kicking. There was no need for closing schools and hiding. Everyone who was essential needed to rise up, wear PPE, gloves and work. We are supposed to be in a different class all together and it’s sad teachers didn’t understand that but every other essential worker did. Sorry to break it to you...masks actually work and that was all that was really needed. That is the truth the private schools teachers and the rest of the public schools systems knew already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I understand the frustration of PPs above with a system that won't provide resources for a kid who is doing below average but is not failing enough to meet APS guidelines to receive services. But in this case where APS is in debt and has limited resources, I'm not sure what you would recommend. I'm sure you don't mean to suggest that your kid should receive services in front of the kids who ARE two or three grades behind.

You're not really questioning the ranking of APS's actual triaging, you're questioning the management that got APS to its need to triage in the first place. I don't think that's really Duran, I think that's Murphy, but nobody on your team was upset with Murphy when it was happening. (PS: I was not a Murphy fan and much prefer Duran.)

And now people are mad that people can pay private schools to provide services that APS isn't offering? Oh you sweet summer child, come here and let me explain this thing called MONEY to you and how it can buy you and your family things that are not offered on the regular menu.

I'm a pp with another child who is 3 grade levels behind too. Also, the tutoring is coming from savings b/c I was covid downsized and our income covers expenses most months, but not all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I think many of us are just over this constant shit storm. No one wins, but someone has to take one for the team, and while teachers shouldn't have to work summer (it's in the contract) it's just more shit on parents and families who have yet another thing reneged on.

There are families at all levels who would have been planning for summer school, making their care arrangements and other plans around it. To have it taken away when there are few other alternatives for the summer now is incredibly insensitive. It's the same problem with the school year in that parents keep being strung along and having everything pulled from under them at the last minute. Yes, there are teachers with families who might not be inclined to work this summer, when their salary won't cover the cost of camps, but APS SHOULD HAVE FIGURED THIS THE f*** OUT!

How hard is that? Bonuses didn't work? Did you offer child care? Did you offer to start new, graduating teachers this summer early to meet need? J-1 Visas? Make it work. I think that's all we were asking. The rest of us have to make it work.

At my job, we worked this whole time with no vaccine. I'm DoD and civilians were dead last to be offered vaccines, even though we had to go to work this whole time in person in some capacity. We currently work shifts starting at 0400 to keep the numbers low in our facility, so I have little sympathy for APS to not get it's shit together and make it work. We all have our sacrifices to keep our jobs and school not working the way it should has already cost some people their careers.

We're all fried. Everyone. As tax payers, we expect the school system to work for us. I think APS knows that we can't all go private (unless there are dozens of new private schools opening). A 7% loss of students is a big deal and it's the students with means who are leaving.

I'm just disappointed for the families who were counting on summer school to educate their kids and now need a place for them to go when most camps cut numbers and are full. I'm so thankful we weren't even entertaining summer school.

I mean - I also work there and honestly don't know a single person who isn't looking for a new job and trying to quit, because of how we were treated. Just like I don't know any teachers who are signing up to teach summer school for pennies after being treated they way they have been this past year. The lessen here isn't be more like D** The lesson is that labor is finite resource that has to be properly compensated and treated with some minimal amount of respect. Or you will lose them. People vote with their feet. Always.

Just look at all the news stories about minimum wage employees refusing to work and fast food places can’t staff their restaurants. The labor market is undergoing a serious reckoning right now. Industries will experience it differently but many were treated poorly by their employer this past year and now realize they don’t owe their life to an employer who doesn’t care about them and doesn’t pay or treat them well.

This is not why they are not working! They are not working because unemployment benefits are more than their wages or equal. Please dont compare teachers to those minimum wage workers as teachers had ot far better than most of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Physician here. An essential worker is an essential! If you want to be in job that isn’t important , requires dedication and sacrifice and very necessary, then don’t be a teacher. I never once complained that my employer asked me go to VHC to take care of Covid patients. I never questioned anyones intentions. I took the proper precautions , followed CDD guidelines and did my job. I am still alive and kicking. There was no need for closing schools and hiding. Everyone who was essential needed to rise up, wear PPE, gloves and work. We are supposed to be in a different class all together and it’s sad teachers didn’t understand that but every other essential worker did. Sorry to break it to you...masks actually work and that was all that was really needed. That is the truth the private schools teachers and the rest of the public schools systems knew already.

The teachers didn’t make the decision to close schools.

[Anonymous]

blame the real problem - the school board and Duran. Teachers aren't the problem, they were given the worst direction, and guidance this year. No strong leader at the helm and terrible communication. Parents aren't the problem either, they were not communicated with clearly, lied to repeatedly, and just want their children to get an education. The school board failed us all miserably.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Upset Glebe lady, you are all over this board with your complaints over and over. If you spent the time you spend complaining on this board actually helping your kid, I think her situation would improve but jmho.

Perhaps that's because it's more than one person? You think only one parent is pissed by the use of iPads in the classroom. Ha.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Upset Glebe lady, you are all over this board with your complaints over and over. If you spent the time you spend complaining on this board actually helping your kid, I think her situation would improve but jmho.

Perhaps that's because it's more than one person? You think only one parent is pissed by the use of iPads in the classroom. Ha.

+1 for being pissed about iPads (among other things).