What the Fall may look like -- the hybrid model

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thank goodness our school is in MD and can reopen much earlier than in DC.

Yeah people are laughing joe group gatherings at more than 10 people is in phase 2 or 3 in neighboring states yet DC may have put it in phase 4. Hahaha. Moving offices now....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC's reopening plan is here:
https://cdn.flipsnack.com/widget/v2/flipsnackwidget.html?hash=funqraelc&t=&fullscreen=1

On page 19 there is a chart by sector, for K-12 education Phase 1 is “distance learning only” and Phase 2 and 3 are lumped together. In terms of when they expect to change phases, Phase 1 is “Declining virus transmission” and will start on Friday, Phase 2 is “Only localized transmission” and the Mayor said could happen by August 10.

On page 32 there is specific guidance for K-12 schools. The things that jump out at me are a limit of 10 people in a classroom at a time, strict physical distancing and enhanced cleaning. Pages 34-38 are “Recommended Safeguards” for schools.

Phase 4 is a vaccine or a cure.

Bowser has said that DC is going to coordinate with MD and VA in the DC region.

Independent schools can be stricter but they can't be less strict than the guidelines.

THIS IS NOT WASH DC'S RE-OPENING PLAN AT ALL.

THIS IS MERELY ONE CONSULTANTS RECOMMENDATION RE-POSTED HERE.

It already conflicts with what's re-opening this Friday in Wash DC so disregard it. It also conflicts greatly with the VA, MD and several other states, particularly in regards to groups of 10 not phasing out earlier.

No dice PP. If you were in my literacy class you'd get an F for lack of reading comp and for conflating opinion with approved legislation. Always footnoting things also helps catch errors like this, as does being less reliant on random Google searches.

If you go to https://coronavirus.dc.gov/reopendc the linked document is the only link.

[Anonymous]

Has Sidwell announced their arrangements for the Fall? Heard second hand they will have a hybrid-like model with some kids in school and some out, different class schedules, etc, but wasn't sure if that was official yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has Sidwell announced their arrangements for the Fall? Heard second hand they will have a hybrid-like model with some kids in school and some out, different class schedules, etc, but wasn't sure if that was official yet.

No school has made an official announcement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has Sidwell announced their arrangements for the Fall? Heard second hand they will have a hybrid-like model with some kids in school and some out, different class schedules, etc, but wasn't sure if that was official yet.

There are a number of options on the table, and they are contingency planning, trying to anticipate what the health officials will be requiring, both in Montgomery County and DC (LS and MS/US respectively)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My question about a hybrid model is about staffing. Do schools hire twice as many teachers or are they expecting teachers to expose themselves to the same
Number of children pre-pandemic? These ideas about teachers floating in to a static student group still scare me as a parent. Whose to say one teacher doesn’t pick up something from one student group and pass it to another?

No additional teachers, kids come half as often. Either half days or 2 days a week or every other week (4 days a week).

Right, but this way the teachers are still mixing between cohorts. I don't see a way around that for larger privates with more than 18 students per class. Current CDC guidelines recommend no more than 10 per cohort total, including the teacher. (So, one teacher and 9 students.) The teachers can absolutely be vectors between cohorts, rendering the model pretty ineffective for transmission control (and contact tracing--the idea of stable cohorts was to allow one cohort to be absent due to illness while others carried on, if there's cohort mixing even by staff, then it renders a whole-school or whole-grade shut down more likely).

A modular approach could work. 4 weeks of English class, all day, same kids, same teacher. Then 4 weeks of Math, then 4 weeks of Science... Would really reduce the mixing among cohorts.

That sounds unnecessary and horrendous for continuity and retention of materials.
We'd rather homeschool or hire a tutor for higher efficacy and mastery of materials. We aren't going to do some throw spaghetti education attempts at the wall all in the name of being hyper-risk averse versus everywhere else.

There are schools that use this model exclusively even now, so it isn't new and untried. It allows more depth and focus on fewer subjects at one time (like college), so for many people the ability to learn and retain information is better than trying to simultaneously tackle 7 subjects.

[Anonymous]

What does have to do with a lower school or middle schools the ? You can’t learning to read or basic math or a foreign language by treating it like a dIy college literature class tutorial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has Sidwell announced their arrangements for the Fall? Heard second hand they will have a hybrid-like model with some kids in school and some out, different class schedules, etc, but wasn't sure if that was official yet.

There are a number of options on the table, and they are contingency planning, trying to anticipate what the health officials will be requiring, both in Montgomery County and DC (LS and MS/US respectively)

DC has laid out pretty explicitly what they're doing. The only question is what phase we're going to be in come September. Phase 2 and 3 are the same for schools, and Phase 4 isn't happening this fall. So really the only question is whether we're in Phase 1 -- distance learning -- or Phase 2/3, modified in-person.

[Anonymous]

dC is one of the only states with a totally different and much later phase for 50 person sized gatherings.

I suspect they will amend it to Phase 2 or 3 like everywhere else. Looks like their $$$ consultants didn’t consult even VA or MD on that one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:dC is one of the only states with a totally different and much later phase for 50 person sized gatherings.

I suspect they will amend it to Phase 2 or 3 like everywhere else. Looks like their $$$ consultants didn’t consult even VA or MD on that one.

DC has completely different rules for K-12 schools than for other types of organizations. Unless they change the rules for schools the rules for 50 person gatherings have no impact on schools.

[Anonymous]

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/05/28/863944333/antibody-tests-point-to-lower-death-rate-for-the-coronavirus-than-first-thought

[Anonymous]

But even a virus with a fatality rate less than 1% presents a formidable threat, Rivers says. "That is many times more deadly than seasonal influenza," she says.

Quoted from the study. We don’t need to stay on lockdown forever but it serves no one to pretend it is not serious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:But even a virus with a fatality rate less than 1% presents a formidable threat, Rivers says. "That is many times more deadly than seasonal influenza," she says.

Quoted from the study. We don’t need to stay on lockdown forever but it serves no one to pretend it is not serious.

agree it is definitely serious. But the mortality rate is about the same as the flu for those under 65. so in the context of attending school in the fall it is not as serious as some are portraying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But even a virus with a fatality rate less than 1% presents a formidable threat, Rivers says. "That is many times more deadly than seasonal influenza," she says.

Quoted from the study. We don’t need to stay on lockdown forever but it serves no one to pretend it is not serious.

agree it is definitely serious. But the mortality rate is about the same as the flu for those under 65. so in the context of attending school in the fall it is not as serious as some are portraying.

The point of closing schools and limiting class size when they reopen isn't to keep kids from getting sick. COVID-19 can be highly contagious and one of the characteristics has been "super-spreader" events where 50, 100 or more people get infected at the same time. The only known way of preventing super-spreaders is to limit interpersonal contact. It makes no difference how severe the infection is in kids, they can still act as super-spreaders. If we go back to the level of community spread we had in March we'll have to lock down again.

[Anonymous]

This will all be over in two months. There may be a trickle of severe cases but that’s it.