MCPS Officially announces schools opening as planned

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s yesterday’s number. Today’s is likely to be higher.

That said, is there evidence of omicron transmission in schools?

Please don't start that again. Studies cannot separate school and community transmission. No study about school transmission has been able to withstand scrutiny because of confounding factors. It stands to reason that unmasked, elbow-to-elbow seating during daily lunch are super-spreader events with Omicron, which is 10 times more transmissible than Delta. So please just stop with that question. Schools can safely open only when cases are low. They will have a hard time staying open now when positivity is over 20%. Whether it's system-wide, individual school closures, or granular classroom closures, we will have a very rocky January.

All parents can do is send in their children with KF94 masks, or N95 masks if their faces are adult-sized.
If they are worried, they need to pull their children from lunch, or pull their children out entirely - unfortunately, that's reserved for people who can afford it.

Are you genuinely arguing for permanent school closures for months every winter? That is what the bolded means in practice. Covid is permanently here.

New poster, and no, that's ridiculous. Asking for a one-time 2-week closure is very different than months every winter. Cases right now are way higher than rhey have ever been, but just like everywhere else that's had an omicron wave, they'll fall right back down in a couple weeks. Quick huge spike, then quick big fall-- the perfect scenario for a brief pivot to virtual.

[Anonymous]

The county can't even keep libraries open on Sundays, I'm expecting a lot of school closures over the next month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s yesterday’s number. Today’s is likely to be higher.

That said, is there evidence of omicron transmission in schools?

Please don't start that again. Studies cannot separate school and community transmission. No study about school transmission has been able to withstand scrutiny because of confounding factors. It stands to reason that unmasked, elbow-to-elbow seating during daily lunch are super-spreader events with Omicron, which is 10 times more transmissible than Delta. So please just stop with that question. Schools can safely open only when cases are low. They will have a hard time staying open now when positivity is over 20%. Whether it's system-wide, individual school closures, or granular classroom closures, we will have a very rocky January.

All parents can do is send in their children with KF94 masks, or N95 masks if their faces are adult-sized.
If they are worried, they need to pull their children from lunch, or pull their children out entirely - unfortunately, that's reserved for people who can afford it.

Are you genuinely arguing for permanent school closures for months every winter? That is what the bolded means in practice. Covid is permanently here.

New poster, and no, that's ridiculous. Asking for a one-time 2-week closure is very different than months every winter. Cases right now are way higher than rhey have ever been, but just like everywhere else that's had an omicron wave, they'll fall right back down in a couple weeks. Quick huge spike, then quick big fall-- the perfect scenario for a brief pivot to virtual.

Yes, exactly!

[Anonymous]

Great. So to summarize:
We are going to open, go find an unavailable test if you are able.
Athletics can continue but masked extracurriculars cannot, but just for the first week
We will have test kits for everyone over the next two weeks after you’ve all been inadvertently exposed
Then we will make you isolate for 10 days
We are not actually going to tell you what virtual instruction will look like if you need to quarantine or isolate
But we ARE going to provide kn95 masks for staff — students you don’t have union representation and your health is secondary
We won’t close system-wide because that would be unpopular but all 209 schools will probably separately close soon enough, but not because we closed them!

Ughhhhh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The county can't even keep libraries open on Sundays, I'm expecting a lot of school closures over the next month.

They will be open Sundays starting this month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s yesterday’s number. Today’s is likely to be higher.

That said, is there evidence of omicron transmission in schools?

Please don't start that again. Studies cannot separate school and community transmission. No study about school transmission has been able to withstand scrutiny because of confounding factors. It stands to reason that unmasked, elbow-to-elbow seating during daily lunch are super-spreader events with Omicron, which is 10 times more transmissible than Delta. So please just stop with that question. Schools can safely open only when cases are low. They will have a hard time staying open now when positivity is over 20%. Whether it's system-wide, individual school closures, or granular classroom closures, we will have a very rocky January.

All parents can do is send in their children with KF94 masks, or N95 masks if their faces are adult-sized.
If they are worried, they need to pull their children from lunch, or pull their children out entirely - unfortunately, that's reserved for people who can afford it.

Are you genuinely arguing for permanent school closures for months every winter? That is what the bolded means in practice. Covid is permanently here.

New poster, and no, that's ridiculous. Asking for a one-time 2-week closure is very different than months every winter. Cases right now are way higher than rhey have ever been, but just like everywhere else that's had an omicron wave, they'll fall right back down in a couple weeks. Quick huge spike, then quick big fall-- the perfect scenario for a brief pivot to virtual.

Yes, exactly!

I am amazed that anyone trusts MCPS to close for two weeks only. No one is predicting this surge to be done by then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s yesterday’s number. Today’s is likely to be higher.

That said, is there evidence of omicron transmission in schools?

Please don't start that again. Studies cannot separate school and community transmission. No study about school transmission has been able to withstand scrutiny because of confounding factors. It stands to reason that unmasked, elbow-to-elbow seating during daily lunch are super-spreader events with Omicron, which is 10 times more transmissible than Delta. So please just stop with that question. Schools can safely open only when cases are low. They will have a hard time staying open now when positivity is over 20%. Whether it's system-wide, individual school closures, or granular classroom closures, we will have a very rocky January.

All parents can do is send in their children with KF94 masks, or N95 masks if their faces are adult-sized.
If they are worried, they need to pull their children from lunch, or pull their children out entirely - unfortunately, that's reserved for people who can afford it.

Positivity rate means the percentage of tests coming back positive. 20 percent of the population in MoCo do NOT have Covid. The number is less than 2 percent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The county can't even keep libraries open on Sundays, I'm expecting a lot of school closures over the next month.

They will be open Sundays starting this month.

That was the plan, but no longer.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/news/library-system-to-delay-restoration-of-sunday-hours/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Great. So to summarize:
We are going to open, go find an unavailable test if you are able.
Athletics can continue but masked extracurriculars cannot, but just for the first week
We will have test kits for everyone over the next two weeks after you’ve all been inadvertently exposed
Then we will make you isolate for 10 days
We are not actually going to tell you what virtual instruction will look like if you need to quarantine or isolate
But we ARE going to provide kn95 masks for staff — students you don’t have union representation and your health is secondary
We won’t close system-wide because that would be unpopular but all 209 schools will probably separately close soon enough, but not because we closed them!

Ughhhhh

Perfect summary!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s yesterday’s number. Today’s is likely to be higher.

That said, is there evidence of omicron transmission in schools?

Please don't start that again. Studies cannot separate school and community transmission. No study about school transmission has been able to withstand scrutiny because of confounding factors. It stands to reason that unmasked, elbow-to-elbow seating during daily lunch are super-spreader events with Omicron, which is 10 times more transmissible than Delta. So please just stop with that question. Schools can safely open only when cases are low. They will have a hard time staying open now when positivity is over 20%. Whether it's system-wide, individual school closures, or granular classroom closures, we will have a very rocky January.

All parents can do is send in their children with KF94 masks, or N95 masks if their faces are adult-sized.
If they are worried, they need to pull their children from lunch, or pull their children out entirely - unfortunately, that's reserved for people who can afford it.

Are you genuinely arguing for permanent school closures for months every winter? That is what the bolded means in practice. Covid is permanently here.

Not at all, and this is what's irritating about people like you, whose ulterior motive is to confuse the issue. We managed to keep schools open in the fall. We should have opened schools for a good portion of the first wave. We should agree as a society to enforce mask mandates and close indoor entertainment and food venues before restricting schools. We should have test-to-stay permanently in place, and a real contact-tracing system (useless now in our current surge, of course, but very useful at other times).

There are so many things we can do to keep schools open that we are NOT doing. The consequence is that now, cases are at an all-time high, and schools will be forced to close in some manner.

It's infuriating beyond measure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s yesterday’s number. Today’s is likely to be higher.

That said, is there evidence of omicron transmission in schools?

Please don't start that again. Studies cannot separate school and community transmission. No study about school transmission has been able to withstand scrutiny because of confounding factors. It stands to reason that unmasked, elbow-to-elbow seating during daily lunch are super-spreader events with Omicron, which is 10 times more transmissible than Delta. So please just stop with that question. Schools can safely open only when cases are low. They will have a hard time staying open now when positivity is over 20%. Whether it's system-wide, individual school closures, or granular classroom closures, we will have a very rocky January.

All parents can do is send in their children with KF94 masks, or N95 masks if their faces are adult-sized.
If they are worried, they need to pull their children from lunch, or pull their children out entirely - unfortunately, that's reserved for people who can afford it.

Positivity rate means the percentage of tests coming back positive. 20 percent of the population in MoCo do NOT have Covid. The number is less than 2 percent.

Can you see your way out of your paper bag, to understand that positivity is a reflection of how many people in the population have Covid???

Of course 20% have Covid. More than 20%, but those people either are asymptomatic or refuse to test or can't find tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That’s yesterday’s number. Today’s is likely to be higher.

That said, is there evidence of omicron transmission in schools?

Please don't start that again. Studies cannot separate school and community transmission. No study about school transmission has been able to withstand scrutiny because of confounding factors. It stands to reason that unmasked, elbow-to-elbow seating during daily lunch are super-spreader events with Omicron, which is 10 times more transmissible than Delta. So please just stop with that question. Schools can safely open only when cases are low. They will have a hard time staying open now when positivity is over 20%. Whether it's system-wide, individual school closures, or granular classroom closures, we will have a very rocky January.

All parents can do is send in their children with KF94 masks, or N95 masks if their faces are adult-sized.
If they are worried, they need to pull their children from lunch, or pull their children out entirely - unfortunately, that's reserved for people who can afford it.

Are you genuinely arguing for permanent school closures for months every winter? That is what the bolded means in practice. Covid is permanently here.

Not at all, and this is what's irritating about people like you, whose ulterior motive is to confuse the issue. We managed to keep schools open in the fall. We should have opened schools for a good portion of the first wave. We should agree as a society to enforce mask mandates and close indoor entertainment and food venues before restricting schools. We should have test-to-stay permanently in place, and a real contact-tracing system (useless now in our current surge, of course, but very useful at other times).

There are so many things we can do to keep schools open that we are NOT doing. The consequence is that now, cases are at an all-time high, and schools will be forced to close in some manner.

It's infuriating beyond measure.

What you said times one million. Every time we try and interject some sanity into the discussion we get a barrage of trolls demanding no masks and screaming about teacher's unions. If you guys don't work for Cato or Heritage I have to say you probably should apply. You're obviously doing their job.

[Anonymous]

Are you going to keep kids home, enroll virtual or wait and see what happens next week in terms of spread? What is the situation of hospital occupancy in MC? Are they prepared for any spike that may results from in person school next week?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you going to keep kids home, enroll virtual or wait and see what happens next week in terms of spread? What is the situation of hospital occupancy in MC? Are they prepared for any spike that may results from in person school next week?

Going to go to school, of course. And are they prepared from any spike that may result from bars and restaurants next week?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where is the official announcement?

Sorry forgot the link. https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/publicinfo/community/school-year-2021-2022/Community-Update-20211230.html?fbclid=IwAR118Vz36k1BR001aCDS2AoNPXKtilNwk28Z5bwV1d8N3c6mZBpDfYxmn1o

Why isn't this published anywhere but on this site? Did it go out in an email? It's on on the MPCS website. When is the plan to send out to the public?