DCPS exodus

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say Mayor Bowser is the WORST. I mean the city is pretty well run. But on the school reopening issue, she has not been nearly as aggressive or effective as she could have been.

A few things should have happened:
1. Communication blitz across the hardest hit wards in the city about learning loss, mitigation strategies, HVAC upgrades, nurse technicians and all the things they have done to make school safe. This includes communication on the hyper local level- at churches, rec centers, grocery stores, etc.
2. Mass teacher vaccinations beyond those working in Term 3- rebuild the trust with the teachers. Do virtual walk throughs in the schools with the teachers and staff to rebuild trust. Answer their questions.
3. Give parents and principals a goal for fall 2021- we will do everything in our power to make sure these kids are getting into regular in-person school and hope that it is full day everyday.
4. Ensure that they will revisit the 6 ft apart/cohort rules by June when nearly everyone who wants a vaccine has had an opportunity to be vaccinated.
5. Another communications blitz to everyone about getting vaccinated.

Bowser is pretty bad. She's basically a bystander in the school opening debate. It's hard to imagine another mayor being so passive.

Whether intentionally or not, she’s made the city very family unfriendly in the past year. The decision to prioritize vaccinations for prisoners and homeless over ensuring all teachers were vaccinated quickly pretty much guaranteed a lost year of school; keeping the swimming pools closed all summer when surrounding jurisdictions instituted a sensible registration system; closing parks and playgrounds much longer than supported by science; not granting field permits for organized sports when surrounding jurisdictions continue to play uninterrupted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people apparently so certain that DCPS won't open in the fall? They're clearly going to have SOME distance learning for kids who can't or won't return to school; we know that. The fact that they're planning for that doesn't seem like reason to assume the worst.

There's also no way they're going to announce (or decide) in March what the plans for August or September are. We have no idea what the epidemic is going to look like in a few weeks, let alone a few months. Would you be happier if they promised open schools and then closed them? Or does it maybe make some sense to wait and see, given that this whole once-in-a-lifetime (I hope) situation continues to evolve?

This is the problem. We are sick AF of uncertainty. If I can gain some certainty back in my life by planning to move to a place with full time school already, why not?

This is certainly going to be a lot of people if they keep bungling things. I don’t know if anyone really cares and that’s part of why I want to leave. Feels like DC hates me and every other white MC or UMC person. It’s starting to really suck living here.

The uncertainty isn't D.C.'s fault, and it's not because you're white and middle class or upper middle class. I'm also white and upper middle class. The uncertainty is because of the pandemic! It's the same reason I don't know when I'll be allowed back in my office, or don't know when I'll be able to see my sibling who lives abroad.

Yeah, the situation sucks. But for my family, moving would make it exponentially worse, since we have friends and family here and not in most other cities, and at least one, or maybe both, working parents would have to find a new job somewhere else. And the schools will likely open for something closer to normal in the fall -- and if not, it won't be that much longer at any rate. So are we going to move to avoid another six months of what we've already been through for a year? And then what after that?

Not to mention a support network. I fell ill in February and I had to fight off the offers to bring me food. Yes you will make a new support network out in the burbs but in a pandemic with out school in session, behind a mask? Go for it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say Mayor Bowser is the WORST. I mean the city is pretty well run. But on the school reopening issue, she has not been nearly as aggressive or effective as she could have been.

A few things should have happened:
1. Communication blitz across the hardest hit wards in the city about learning loss, mitigation strategies, HVAC upgrades, nurse technicians and all the things they have done to make school safe. This includes communication on the hyper local level- at churches, rec centers, grocery stores, etc.
2. Mass teacher vaccinations beyond those working in Term 3- rebuild the trust with the teachers. Do virtual walk throughs in the schools with the teachers and staff to rebuild trust. Answer their questions.
3. Give parents and principals a goal for fall 2021- we will do everything in our power to make sure these kids are getting into regular in-person school and hope that it is full day everyday.
4. Ensure that they will revisit the 6 ft apart/cohort rules by June when nearly everyone who wants a vaccine has had an opportunity to be vaccinated.
5. Another communications blitz to everyone about getting vaccinated.

They should have also done surveys of neighborhoods to see how many families actually wanted to return, then just focused on those areas where there enough families who wanted in-person to justify all the resources/time/energy spent on re-opening. In schools where there were less than 11 kids/grade that wanted to return, maybe they could be offered seats in other schools to make up full classes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say Mayor Bowser is the WORST. I mean the city is pretty well run. But on the school reopening issue, she has not been nearly as aggressive or effective as she could have been.

A few things should have happened:
1. Communication blitz across the hardest hit wards in the city about learning loss, mitigation strategies, HVAC upgrades, nurse technicians and all the things they have done to make school safe. This includes communication on the hyper local level- at churches, rec centers, grocery stores, etc.
2. Mass teacher vaccinations beyond those working in Term 3- rebuild the trust with the teachers. Do virtual walk throughs in the schools with the teachers and staff to rebuild trust. Answer their questions.
3. Give parents and principals a goal for fall 2021- we will do everything in our power to make sure these kids are getting into regular in-person school and hope that it is full day everyday.
4. Ensure that they will revisit the 6 ft apart/cohort rules by June when nearly everyone who wants a vaccine has had an opportunity to be vaccinated.
5. Another communications blitz to everyone about getting vaccinated.

Bowser is pretty bad. She's basically a bystander in the school opening debate. It's hard to imagine another mayor being so passive.

Look at the mayor of Chicago. She tried really hard to reopen schools and she made it happen in a city with far stronger unions and much worse coronavirus rates. The difference is effort. Bowser doesn't try.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The actually really rich people in DC already send their children to expensive private schools. Surveys show that the lower-income people don't want to send their students in person. So this issue largely affects the middle class and upper middle class people. Do those people have any political clout, do their tax dollars matter? I'm not sure, but there does seem to be a tipping point, especially now that people cannot responsibly call those in favor of open schools "teacher killers" since teachers (unlike most parents) have access currently to the highly effective vaccines.

Well, the UMC and MC do contribute the most to the income tax totals. According to the above posted link. So one would think their tax dollars do matter. It is convenient, though, to suggest that their desire to have their kids in person in public school is racist. That means they can't advocate for themselves in this highly Dem city.

+1. I desperately want schools to reopen full time, 5 days per week for every student who wants it. But here's the thing: the wealthy already have their kids in private schools, and the lower classes don't advocate for decent education. It's the MC/UMC who have turned around the schools and these are the people who will be forced to suburbs and exurbs to get decent public schools. DCPS is heading towards reverting back to 1990's levels of poor quality schools. DC doesn't care about us and many teachers actually preferred teaching to a predominantly LC community. The only people who will miss us is other MC/UMC people.

Aside from the obnoxious perspective you have here about "turning around" the schools and how bad they were years ago (which wasn't really true anyway for the schools in the neighborhoods where most DCUM posters live), this just doesn't ring true. You aren't being "forced" to the suburbs to get a decent education; MCPS just opened for the time in any capacity this week, and at any rate, if you don't think MCPS has big problems of its own these days, you should talk to some Montgomery County parents or teachers.

But more to the point, the pandemic is going to end, sooner than it feels like now. And are all the people who have moved to D.C. in recent decades really going to be happy that they've moved to the suburbs once it does? I doubt it.

I think "where most DCUM posters live" is WOTP, and wouldn't be UMC or MC. We're talking EOTP and UMC or MC. I know it's convenient to shit on the rich, but for the most part the schools EOTP aren't great, but this is where the MC of DC live.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The actually really rich people in DC already send their children to expensive private schools. Surveys show that the lower-income people don't want to send their students in person. So this issue largely affects the middle class and upper middle class people. Do those people have any political clout, do their tax dollars matter? I'm not sure, but there does seem to be a tipping point, especially now that people cannot responsibly call those in favor of open schools "teacher killers" since teachers (unlike most parents) have access currently to the highly effective vaccines.

Well, the UMC and MC do contribute the most to the income tax totals. According to the above posted link. So one would think their tax dollars do matter. It is convenient, though, to suggest that their desire to have their kids in person in public school is racist. That means they can't advocate for themselves in this highly Dem city.

+1. I desperately want schools to reopen full time, 5 days per week for every student who wants it. But here's the thing: the wealthy already have their kids in private schools, and the lower classes don't advocate for decent education. It's the MC/UMC who have turned around the schools and these are the people who will be forced to suburbs and exurbs to get decent public schools. DCPS is heading towards reverting back to 1990's levels of poor quality schools. DC doesn't care about us and many teachers actually preferred teaching to a predominantly LC community. The only people who will miss us is other MC/UMC people.

I don't agree. Your take is far too cynical for me, PP. Many people would miss an UMC exodus over schools remaining closed in this city. They would included parents all over the SES spectrum who'd see a drop in PTA funds, and the programs they support, at their DCPS, teachers who value teaching diverse classes, neighbors who are sorry to see neighbors flee sinking schools, city officials who worry that the tax base is shrinking etc. etc.

We don’t need whites to be diverse. And my school never had any pta funds so oh well.
There are schools with 100 students, not every school is an overcrowded one.
As for taxes we have people living here making way more than this group, we’ll be ok.
No one, and I mean no one will stop you from leaving. Eventually you’ll just be replaced after the pandemic settles. Just like teachers can replaced so can you. Literally you guys are ridiculous.

I do actually love this thread though, another time white people show us how some of you have your heads waaaay up where the sun doesn’t shine.

[Anonymous]

if most of DCUM posters move to the suburbs before Corona ends, that would be great by me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The actually really rich people in DC already send their children to expensive private schools. Surveys show that the lower-income people don't want to send their students in person. So this issue largely affects the middle class and upper middle class people. Do those people have any political clout, do their tax dollars matter? I'm not sure, but there does seem to be a tipping point, especially now that people cannot responsibly call those in favor of open schools "teacher killers" since teachers (unlike most parents) have access currently to the highly effective vaccines.

Well, the UMC and MC do contribute the most to the income tax totals. According to the above posted link. So one would think their tax dollars do matter. It is convenient, though, to suggest that their desire to have their kids in person in public school is racist. That means they can't advocate for themselves in this highly Dem city.

+1. I desperately want schools to reopen full time, 5 days per week for every student who wants it. But here's the thing: the wealthy already have their kids in private schools, and the lower classes don't advocate for decent education. It's the MC/UMC who have turned around the schools and these are the people who will be forced to suburbs and exurbs to get decent public schools. DCPS is heading towards reverting back to 1990's levels of poor quality schools. DC doesn't care about us and many teachers actually preferred teaching to a predominantly LC community. The only people who will miss us is other MC/UMC people.

Aside from the obnoxious perspective you have here about "turning around" the schools and how bad they were years ago (which wasn't really true anyway for the schools in the neighborhoods where most DCUM posters live), this just doesn't ring true. You aren't being "forced" to the suburbs to get a decent education; MCPS just opened for the time in any capacity this week, and at any rate, if you don't think MCPS has big problems of its own these days, you should talk to some Montgomery County parents or teachers.

But more to the point, the pandemic is going to end, sooner than it feels like now. And are all the people who have moved to D.C. in recent decades really going to be happy that they've moved to the suburbs once it does? I doubt it.

I think "where most DCUM posters live" is WOTP, and wouldn't be UMC or MC. We're talking EOTP and UMC or MC. I know it's convenient to shit on the rich, but for the most part the schools EOTP aren't great, but this is where the MC of DC live.

And EOTP schools are the ones having trouble filling their in-person seats. DCUM is really not representative of what most DC parents want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say Mayor Bowser is the WORST. I mean the city is pretty well run. But on the school reopening issue, she has not been nearly as aggressive or effective as she could have been.

A few things should have happened:
1. Communication blitz across the hardest hit wards in the city about learning loss, mitigation strategies, HVAC upgrades, nurse technicians and all the things they have done to make school safe. This includes communication on the hyper local level- at churches, rec centers, grocery stores, etc.
2. Mass teacher vaccinations beyond those working in Term 3- rebuild the trust with the teachers. Do virtual walk throughs in the schools with the teachers and staff to rebuild trust. Answer their questions.
3. Give parents and principals a goal for fall 2021- we will do everything in our power to make sure these kids are getting into regular in-person school and hope that it is full day everyday.
4. Ensure that they will revisit the 6 ft apart/cohort rules by June when nearly everyone who wants a vaccine has had an opportunity to be vaccinated.
5. Another communications blitz to everyone about getting vaccinated.

Bowser is pretty bad. She's basically a bystander in the school opening debate. It's hard to imagine another mayor being so passive.

Look at the mayor of Chicago. She tried really hard to reopen schools and she made it happen in a city with far stronger unions and much worse coronavirus rates. The difference is effort. Bowser doesn't try.

She has shown zero leadership on an issue critical to families - school reopening. Instead of finding workable solutions and fighting for resources she abdicated her responsibilities and told principals to figure it out. Now a few schools are open part time and she will claim victory and say schools are open. PP came up with some great ideas - why can’t our ejected officials do the same?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: And EOTP schools are the ones having trouble filling their in-person seats. DCUM is really not representative of what most DC parents want.

Yeah, that's probably true. Do we actually have any data on any of this at all?

At any rate, I think with the MC you get the additional complexity of the charter schools and reopening. Since many of the DCPS EOTP are not great (or perhaps are fine up to about 3rd grade), you see a lot of the MC lotterying into charters in some sort of effort to do better than the IB schools. And the charters are a completely mixed bag about reopening. The charters are still beholden to OSSE, so the EOTP MC are still having to put pressure there (at least). And it still feels like shouting into the wind.

I know we'll have the inflammatory "shit on charters" poster coming in in a half second, here. She'll let us know that charters are racist and stuff, so again, the MC who are trying to find a decent education for their kids are not allowed to say anything.

OR we'll get the parent of kids at the few good EOTP schools....

Sigh. DC education is pointless unless you are rich.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say Mayor Bowser is the WORST. I mean the city is pretty well run. But on the school reopening issue, she has not been nearly as aggressive or effective as she could have been.

A few things should have happened:
1. Communication blitz across the hardest hit wards in the city about learning loss, mitigation strategies, HVAC upgrades, nurse technicians and all the things they have done to make school safe. This includes communication on the hyper local level- at churches, rec centers, grocery stores, etc.
2. Mass teacher vaccinations beyond those working in Term 3- rebuild the trust with the teachers. Do virtual walk throughs in the schools with the teachers and staff to rebuild trust. Answer their questions.
3. Give parents and principals a goal for fall 2021- we will do everything in our power to make sure these kids are getting into regular in-person school and hope that it is full day everyday.
4. Ensure that they will revisit the 6 ft apart/cohort rules by June when nearly everyone who wants a vaccine has had an opportunity to be vaccinated.
5. Another communications blitz to everyone about getting vaccinated.

Bowser is pretty bad. She's basically a bystander in the school opening debate. It's hard to imagine another mayor being so passive.

Whether intentionally or not, she’s made the city very family unfriendly in the past year. The decision to prioritize vaccinations for prisoners and homeless over ensuring all teachers were vaccinated quickly pretty much guaranteed a lost year of school; keeping the swimming pools closed all summer when surrounding jurisdictions instituted a sensible registration system; closing parks and playgrounds much longer than supported by science; not granting field permits for organized sports when surrounding jurisdictions continue to play uninterrupted.

THIS - her inability to reopen safe outdoor spaces for children to move and play, shocks me. If she won't do that, why would she work hard to reopen schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say Mayor Bowser is the WORST. I mean the city is pretty well run. But on the school reopening issue, she has not been nearly as aggressive or effective as she could have been.

A few things should have happened:
1. Communication blitz across the hardest hit wards in the city about learning loss, mitigation strategies, HVAC upgrades, nurse technicians and all the things they have done to make school safe. This includes communication on the hyper local level- at churches, rec centers, grocery stores, etc.
2. Mass teacher vaccinations beyond those working in Term 3- rebuild the trust with the teachers. Do virtual walk throughs in the schools with the teachers and staff to rebuild trust. Answer their questions.
3. Give parents and principals a goal for fall 2021- we will do everything in our power to make sure these kids are getting into regular in-person school and hope that it is full day everyday.
4. Ensure that they will revisit the 6 ft apart/cohort rules by June when nearly everyone who wants a vaccine has had an opportunity to be vaccinated.
5. Another communications blitz to everyone about getting vaccinated.

Bowser is pretty bad. She's basically a bystander in the school opening debate. It's hard to imagine another mayor being so passive.

Look at the mayor of Chicago. She tried really hard to reopen schools and she made it happen in a city with far stronger unions and much worse coronavirus rates. The difference is effort. Bowser doesn't try.

She has shown zero leadership on an issue critical to families - school reopening. Instead of finding workable solutions and fighting for resources she abdicated her responsibilities and told principals to figure it out. Now a few schools are open part time and she will claim victory and say schools are open. PP came up with some great ideas - why can’t our ejected officials do the same?

if opening schools is the most critical thing to you - congratulations for being so lucky

for a lot of families its paying the rent and having enough to eat

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say Mayor Bowser is the WORST. I mean the city is pretty well run. But on the school reopening issue, she has not been nearly as aggressive or effective as she could have been.

A few things should have happened:
1. Communication blitz across the hardest hit wards in the city about learning loss, mitigation strategies, HVAC upgrades, nurse technicians and all the things they have done to make school safe. This includes communication on the hyper local level- at churches, rec centers, grocery stores, etc.
2. Mass teacher vaccinations beyond those working in Term 3- rebuild the trust with the teachers. Do virtual walk throughs in the schools with the teachers and staff to rebuild trust. Answer their questions.
3. Give parents and principals a goal for fall 2021- we will do everything in our power to make sure these kids are getting into regular in-person school and hope that it is full day everyday.
4. Ensure that they will revisit the 6 ft apart/cohort rules by June when nearly everyone who wants a vaccine has had an opportunity to be vaccinated.
5. Another communications blitz to everyone about getting vaccinated.

Bowser is pretty bad. She's basically a bystander in the school opening debate. It's hard to imagine another mayor being so passive.

Look at the mayor of Chicago. She tried really hard to reopen schools and she made it happen in a city with far stronger unions and much worse coronavirus rates. The difference is effort. Bowser doesn't try.

She has shown zero leadership on an issue critical to families - school reopening. Instead of finding workable solutions and fighting for resources she abdicated her responsibilities and told principals to figure it out. Now a few schools are open part time and she will claim victory and say schools are open. PP came up with some great ideas - why can’t our ejected officials do the same?

if opening schools is the most critical thing to you - congratulations for being so lucky

for a lot of families its paying the rent and having enough to eat

"AN issue critical to families" Damn. Reading comprehension.

Mindboggling that opening schools and having kids receive an education is the subject of sneering condescension. Bowser could have said "we are a city with a lot of at risk kids who need to have education." She didn't do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are people apparently so certain that DCPS won't open in the fall? They're clearly going to have SOME distance learning for kids who can't or won't return to school; we know that. The fact that they're planning for that doesn't seem like reason to assume the worst.

There's also no way they're going to announce (or decide) in March what the plans for August or September are. We have no idea what the epidemic is going to look like in a few weeks, let alone a few months. Would you be happier if they promised open schools and then closed them? Or does it maybe make some sense to wait and see, given that this whole once-in-a-lifetime (I hope) situation continues to evolve?

This is the problem. We are sick AF of uncertainty. If I can gain some certainty back in my life by planning to move to a place with full time school already, why not?

This is certainly going to be a lot of people if they keep bungling things. I don’t know if anyone really cares and that’s part of why I want to leave. Feels like DC hates me and every other white MC or UMC person. It’s starting to really suck living here.

The uncertainty isn't D.C.'s fault, and it's not because you're white and middle class or upper middle class. I'm also white and upper middle class. The uncertainty is because of the pandemic! It's the same reason I don't know when I'll be allowed back in my office, or don't know when I'll be able to see my sibling who lives abroad.

Yeah, the situation sucks. But for my family, moving would make it exponentially worse, since we have friends and family here and not in most other cities, and at least one, or maybe both, working parents would have to find a new job somewhere else. And the schools will likely open for something closer to normal in the fall -- and if not, it won't be that much longer at any rate. So are we going to move to avoid another six months of what we've already been through for a year? And then what after that?

Not to mention a support network. I fell ill in February and I had to fight off the offers to bring me food. Yes you will make a new support network out in the burbs but in a pandemic with out school in session, behind a mask? Go for it.

You’re assuming a lot of us don’t already have other support networks. Our families lives elsewhere. Our work is now remote. School is already full time in many of these places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say Mayor Bowser is the WORST. I mean the city is pretty well run. But on the school reopening issue, she has not been nearly as aggressive or effective as she could have been.

A few things should have happened:
1. Communication blitz across the hardest hit wards in the city about learning loss, mitigation strategies, HVAC upgrades, nurse technicians and all the things they have done to make school safe. This includes communication on the hyper local level- at churches, rec centers, grocery stores, etc.
2. Mass teacher vaccinations beyond those working in Term 3- rebuild the trust with the teachers. Do virtual walk throughs in the schools with the teachers and staff to rebuild trust. Answer their questions.
3. Give parents and principals a goal for fall 2021- we will do everything in our power to make sure these kids are getting into regular in-person school and hope that it is full day everyday.
4. Ensure that they will revisit the 6 ft apart/cohort rules by June when nearly everyone who wants a vaccine has had an opportunity to be vaccinated.
5. Another communications blitz to everyone about getting vaccinated.

Bowser is pretty bad. She's basically a bystander in the school opening debate. It's hard to imagine another mayor being so passive.

Look at the mayor of Chicago. She tried really hard to reopen schools and she made it happen in a city with far stronger unions and much worse coronavirus rates. The difference is effort. Bowser doesn't try.

She has shown zero leadership on an issue critical to families - school reopening. Instead of finding workable solutions and fighting for resources she abdicated her responsibilities and told principals to figure it out. Now a few schools are open part time and she will claim victory and say schools are open. PP came up with some great ideas - why can’t our ejected officials do the same?

if opening schools is the most critical thing to you - congratulations for being so lucky

for a lot of families its paying the rent and having enough to eat

You're absolutely right. The mayor shouldn't care whether her constituents have a decent education. She couldn't possibly care about multiple things, as a mayor.