BOE Fall Plan Meeting

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayle just said children can catch it and have complications.

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/

0 deaths in MoCo in 0-17 age group.

447 cases out of 100,000 population

If you don’t trust him, how can we reopen schools?

Kids will probably be okay if they get it, but their teachers, parents, and grandparents not so much.

Think about the many low income students at my school who live in crowded multigenerational households. That’s a lot of potential trauma. And there are usually 3 or 4 a year who are in family foster care with a grandparent raising them. If that grandparent dies, they will be placed with strangers or even in a group home.

If you actually cared about these ‘low income’ students, you would be actively advocating for them to go back to school.

Guess who is losing out the most with Distance Learning. Lower-income students. They don’t have the help at home to complete assignments, parents can’t hire tutors to fill in the gaps, like all the PPs on here.

We are at a lower income ES and my kid’s teacher only had 5 out of 21 kids participating in DL on a regular basis.

This will exacerbate the Achievement Gap for the next several years.

That really is the sad irony. This board is incredibly focused, maybe too much so, on the achievement gap. Every decision they are making seems geared to protecting the interests of lower performing students. But, the choices they are making are going to hurt those students the most, and no amount of food or chromebook distribution is going to change that. To be clear, I’m not saying they shouldn’t do those things to try to lessen the impact, but students who need food and computers from school are going to be hurt most even with those things provided.

This is 100% correct. This BOE has hung its hat on equity - and now when they have a chance to make decisions in favor of it, they cower. Not surprising, but wholly upsetting.

This exactly.

Where are all the teachers and the Equity Unit employees? Why aren’t they speaking out in favor of returning to school.

Ironic that Trump is the one pushing for schools to open. Maybe if Trump took the angle that lower-income families are suffering, the SJWs in MCPS would get on board.

Or else, it appears to simply be liberal hypocrisy from teachers and staff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayle just said children can catch it and have complications.

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/

0 deaths in MoCo in 0-17 age group.

447 cases out of 100,000 population

If you don’t trust him, how can we reopen schools?

Kids will probably be okay if they get it, but their teachers, parents, and grandparents not so much.

Think about the many low income students at my school who live in crowded multigenerational households. That’s a lot of potential trauma. And there are usually 3 or 4 a year who are in family foster care with a grandparent raising them. If that grandparent dies, they will be placed with strangers or even in a group home.

Except the kid isn't getting it at school and giving it to the grandparent. That's not how this works.

We don't know how this works. Think about everything we "knew" a month ago. This is a new virus. We're going to learn new things about it as we go.

At this point, actually, there's quite a bit of evidence that that's not how it works.

I've seen the links. All the studies are of extraordinarily small groups, which undermine their accuracy. For the international examples, there are some that say schools aren't vectors (like France and Denmark), and some that suggest they are (like South Korea, Israel, Canada and China).

We don't know.

Research scientist here. The bolded is correct. For now, caution dictates we consider children to transmit just as much as adults, because the evidence to the contrary is not credible.

What kind of research scientist? Infectious disease specialist? Immunologist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Then let’s stop wasting time and just work on getting the best DL ever.

+1000

THIS!

Many places doing this and educators advocating for it. It’s a heavy lift to do it well, but with the right PD, we can make it happen.
- teacher trainer

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayle just said children can catch it and have complications.

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/

0 deaths in MoCo in 0-17 age group.

447 cases out of 100,000 population

If you don’t trust him, how can we reopen schools?

Kids will probably be okay if they get it, but their teachers, parents, and grandparents not so much.

Think about the many low income students at my school who live in crowded multigenerational households. That’s a lot of potential trauma. And there are usually 3 or 4 a year who are in family foster care with a grandparent raising them. If that grandparent dies, they will be placed with strangers or even in a group home.

Except the kid isn't getting it at school and giving it to the grandparent. That's not how this works.

We don't know how this works. Think about everything we "knew" a month ago. This is a new virus. We're going to learn new things about it as we go.

At this point, actually, there's quite a bit of evidence that that's not how it works.

I've seen the links. All the studies are of extraordinarily small groups, which undermine their accuracy. For the international examples, there are some that say schools aren't vectors (like France and Denmark), and some that suggest they are (like South Korea, Israel, Canada and China).

We don't know.

Research scientist here. The bolded is correct. For now, caution dictates we consider children to transmit just as much as adults, because the evidence to the contrary is not credible.

What kind of research scientist? Infectious disease specialist? Immunologist?

Microbiologist, who works with doctors and virologists and immunologists.
Please note that any research scientist in the biomedical sciences, or any doctor, can take the time to read primary research papers and understand them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayle just said children can catch it and have complications.

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/

0 deaths in MoCo in 0-17 age group.

447 cases out of 100,000 population

If you don’t trust him, how can we reopen schools?

Kids will probably be okay if they get it, but their teachers, parents, and grandparents not so much.

Think about the many low income students at my school who live in crowded multigenerational households. That’s a lot of potential trauma. And there are usually 3 or 4 a year who are in family foster care with a grandparent raising them. If that grandparent dies, they will be placed with strangers or even in a group home.

If you actually cared about these ‘low income’ students, you would be actively advocating for them to go back to school.

Guess who is losing out the most with Distance Learning. Lower-income students. They don’t have the help at home to complete assignments, parents can’t hire tutors to fill in the gaps, like all the PPs on here.

We are at a lower income ES and my kid’s teacher only had 5 out of 21 kids participating in DL on a regular basis.

This will exacerbate the Achievement Gap for the next several years.

That really is the sad irony. This board is incredibly focused, maybe too much so, on the achievement gap. Every decision they are making seems geared to protecting the interests of lower performing students. But, the choices they are making are going to hurt those students the most, and no amount of food or chromebook distribution is going to change that. To be clear, I’m not saying they shouldn’t do those things to try to lessen the impact, but students who need food and computers from school are going to be hurt most even with those things provided.

This is 100% correct. This BOE has hung its hat on equity - and now when they have a chance to make decisions in favor of it, they cower. Not surprising, but wholly upsetting.

This exactly.

Where are all the teachers and the Equity Unit employees? Why aren’t they speaking out in favor of returning to school.

Ironic that Trump is the one pushing for schools to open. Maybe if Trump took the angle that lower-income families are suffering, the SJWs in MCPS would get on board.

Or else, it appears to simply be liberal hypocrisy from teachers and staff.

Maybe because they realize that it is black and brown families who are getting COViD and dying of it at higher rates? Who don’t have access to good health care? who don’t have savings to prevent eviction when an hourly wage worker gets sick and loses their income?

I’m not convinced that equity considerations dictate offering in person school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayle just said children can catch it and have complications.

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/

0 deaths in MoCo in 0-17 age group.

447 cases out of 100,000 population

If you don’t trust him, how can we reopen schools?

Kids will probably be okay if they get it, but their teachers, parents, and grandparents not so much.

Think about the many low income students at my school who live in crowded multigenerational households. That’s a lot of potential trauma. And there are usually 3 or 4 a year who are in family foster care with a grandparent raising them. If that grandparent dies, they will be placed with strangers or even in a group home.

Except the kid isn't getting it at school and giving it to the grandparent. That's not how this works.

We don't know how this works. Think about everything we "knew" a month ago. This is a new virus. We're going to learn new things about it as we go.

At this point, actually, there's quite a bit of evidence that that's not how it works.

I've seen the links. All the studies are of extraordinarily small groups, which undermine their accuracy. For the international examples, there are some that say schools aren't vectors (like France and Denmark), and some that suggest they are (like South Korea, Israel, Canada and China).

We don't know.

Research scientist here. The bolded is correct. For now, caution dictates we consider children to transmit just as much as adults, because the evidence to the contrary is not credible.

What kind of research scientist? Infectious disease specialist? Immunologist?

Microbiologist, who works with doctors and virologists and immunologists.
Please note that any research scientist in the biomedical sciences, or any doctor, can take the time to read primary research papers and understand them.

And actually, as a researcher in a non medical field, it’s easy to see that we don’t have enough evidence yet. We have anecdotal reports, but not much else
Rely on one way or another yet

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Then let’s stop wasting time and just work on getting the best DL ever.

+1000

THIS!

Many places doing this and educators advocating for it. It’s a heavy lift to do it well, but with the right PD, we can make it happen.
- teacher trainer

Well, it's going to happen, whether people like it or not.

The second wave is coming to the DC area, and I hope you're all ready for it.

Why would it? We've been taking precautions and not lifting restrictions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Then let’s stop wasting time and just work on getting the best DL ever.

+1000

THIS!

Many places doing this and educators advocating for it. It’s a heavy lift to do it well, but with the right PD, we can make it happen.
- teacher trainer

Well, it's going to happen, whether people like it or not.

The second wave is coming to the DC area, and I hope you're all ready for it.

Go back to the basement, freak.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayle just said children can catch it and have complications.

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/

0 deaths in MoCo in 0-17 age group.

447 cases out of 100,000 population

If you don’t trust him, how can we reopen schools?

Kids will probably be okay if they get it, but their teachers, parents, and grandparents not so much.

Think about the many low income students at my school who live in crowded multigenerational households. That’s a lot of potential trauma. And there are usually 3 or 4 a year who are in family foster care with a grandparent raising them. If that grandparent dies, they will be placed with strangers or even in a group home.

If you actually cared about these ‘low income’ students, you would be actively advocating for them to go back to school.

Guess who is losing out the most with Distance Learning. Lower-income students. They don’t have the help at home to complete assignments, parents can’t hire tutors to fill in the gaps, like all the PPs on here.

We are at a lower income ES and my kid’s teacher only had 5 out of 21 kids participating in DL on a regular basis.

This will exacerbate the Achievement Gap for the next several years.

That really is the sad irony. This board is incredibly focused, maybe too much so, on the achievement gap. Every decision they are making seems geared to protecting the interests of lower performing students. But, the choices they are making are going to hurt those students the most, and no amount of food or chromebook distribution is going to change that. To be clear, I’m not saying they shouldn’t do those things to try to lessen the impact, but students who need food and computers from school are going to be hurt most even with those things provided.

This is 100% correct. This BOE has hung its hat on equity - and now when they have a chance to make decisions in favor of it, they cower. Not surprising, but wholly upsetting.

This exactly.

Where are all the teachers and the Equity Unit employees? Why aren’t they speaking out in favor of returning to school.

Ironic that Trump is the one pushing for schools to open. Maybe if Trump took the angle that lower-income families are suffering, the SJWs in MCPS would get on board.

Or else, it appears to simply be liberal hypocrisy from teachers and staff.

Maybe because they realize that it is black and brown families who are getting COViD and dying of it at higher rates? Who don’t have access to good health care? who don’t have savings to prevent eviction when an hourly wage worker gets sick and loses their income?

I’m not convinced that equity considerations dictate offering in person school.

Do you think sustained DL will overall be beneficial or harmful to lower-income students and their education?

Do you think the sustained DL will widen or narrow the Achievement Gap?

MCPS cites Equity as a driving force for almost all decisions. Why should this be any different?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Then let’s stop wasting time and just work on getting the best DL ever.

+1000

THIS!

Many places doing this and educators advocating for it. It’s a heavy lift to do it well, but with the right PD, we can make it happen.
- teacher trainer

Well, it's going to happen, whether people like it or not.

The second wave is coming to the DC area, and I hope you're all ready for it.

Why would it? We've been taking precautions and not lifting restrictions.

People have vacationed in hotspots and bringing back the virus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayle just said children can catch it and have complications.

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/

0 deaths in MoCo in 0-17 age group.

447 cases out of 100,000 population

If you don’t trust him, how can we reopen schools?

Kids will probably be okay if they get it, but their teachers, parents, and grandparents not so much.

Think about the many low income students at my school who live in crowded multigenerational households. That’s a lot of potential trauma. And there are usually 3 or 4 a year who are in family foster care with a grandparent raising them. If that grandparent dies, they will be placed with strangers or even in a group home.

If you actually cared about these ‘low income’ students, you would be actively advocating for them to go back to school.

Guess who is losing out the most with Distance Learning. Lower-income students. They don’t have the help at home to complete assignments, parents can’t hire tutors to fill in the gaps, like all the PPs on here.

We are at a lower income ES and my kid’s teacher only had 5 out of 21 kids participating in DL on a regular basis.

This will exacerbate the Achievement Gap for the next several years.

That really is the sad irony. This board is incredibly focused, maybe too much so, on the achievement gap. Every decision they are making seems geared to protecting the interests of lower performing students. But, the choices they are making are going to hurt those students the most, and no amount of food or chromebook distribution is going to change that. To be clear, I’m not saying they shouldn’t do those things to try to lessen the impact, but students who need food and computers from school are going to be hurt most even with those things provided.

This is 100% correct. This BOE has hung its hat on equity - and now when they have a chance to make decisions in favor of it, they cower. Not surprising, but wholly upsetting.

This exactly.

Where are all the teachers and the Equity Unit employees? Why aren’t they speaking out in favor of returning to school.

Ironic that Trump is the one pushing for schools to open. Maybe if Trump took the angle that lower-income families are suffering, the SJWs in MCPS would get on board.

Or else, it appears to simply be liberal hypocrisy from teachers and staff.

Maybe because they realize that it is black and brown families who are getting COViD and dying of it at higher rates? Who don’t have access to good health care? who don’t have savings to prevent eviction when an hourly wage worker gets sick and loses their income?

I’m not convinced that equity considerations dictate offering in person school.

It appears that MCPS leadership (BOE and Jack Smith) and teachers can pick and choose when to advocate for Equity.

If Jack Smith truly believed what he wrote in his post from July 11, getting lower-income students back in school would be a priority.

https://bethesdamagazine.com/bethesda-beat/opinion/opinion-july-4-in-a-country-unable-to-protect-black-americans-life-liberty/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Then let’s stop wasting time and just work on getting the best DL ever.

+1000

THIS!

Many places doing this and educators advocating for it. It’s a heavy lift to do it well, but with the right PD, we can make it happen.
- teacher trainer

Well, it's going to happen, whether people like it or not.

The second wave is coming to the DC area, and I hope you're all ready for it.

Why would it? We've been taking precautions and not lifting restrictions.

People have vacationed in hotspots and bringing back the virus.

Where is the proof of that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Research scientist here. The bolded is correct. For now, caution dictates we consider children to transmit just as much as adults, because the evidence to the contrary is not credible.

What kind of research scientist? Infectious disease specialist? Immunologist?

Herpetologist? Meterologist? Astrophysicist?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
dcmom wrote:
Wow, Smondroski has her own super detailed plan.


Haven't they already considered the possibility of every single thing she is mentioning.


This is nothing new.

Essie McGuire just said that having all elementary students in school would require all the elementary and middle school buildings and some of the high school buildings. That shoots down much of what Somdrowski was proposing.

Wolff now saying that exploring Smondrowski proposal isn't really viable and that exploring this would push back the date of getting decisions out to the the public. "Good or bad, we have to communication decisions."

That doesn't make sense. If MS and HS are doing 100% distance learning, what's the problem with using those buildings for ES kids?

Smondrowski's plan includes no school for MS or HS?

That makes sense to me. Older kids can learn more effectively remotely than younger kids. Older kids can socialize more effectively remotely than younger kids. Older kids seem to be more at risk from the disease and are more likely to spread it than younger kids.

Believe me, I don’t think this is ideal at all, but I definitely understand the rationale of this plan under the circumstances.

Older kids can learn less ineffectively remotely than younger kids. Older kids can develop mental health problems from lack of social contact more effectively than younger kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayle just said children can catch it and have complications.

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/

0 deaths in MoCo in 0-17 age group.

447 cases out of 100,000 population

If you don’t trust him, how can we reopen schools?

Kids will probably be okay if they get it, but their teachers, parents, and grandparents not so much.

Think about the many low income students at my school who live in crowded multigenerational households. That’s a lot of potential trauma. And there are usually 3 or 4 a year who are in family foster care with a grandparent raising them. If that grandparent dies, they will be placed with strangers or even in a group home.

If you actually cared about these ‘low income’ students, you would be actively advocating for them to go back to school.

Guess who is losing out the most with Distance Learning. Lower-income students. They don’t have the help at home to complete assignments, parents can’t hire tutors to fill in the gaps, like all the PPs on here.

We are at a lower income ES and my kid’s teacher only had 5 out of 21 kids participating in DL on a regular basis.

This will exacerbate the Achievement Gap for the next several years.

That really is the sad irony. This board is incredibly focused, maybe too much so, on the achievement gap. Every decision they are making seems geared to protecting the interests of lower performing students. But, the choices they are making are going to hurt those students the most, and no amount of food or chromebook distribution is going to change that. To be clear, I’m not saying they shouldn’t do those things to try to lessen the impact, but students who need food and computers from school are going to be hurt most even with those things provided.

This is 100% correct. This BOE has hung its hat on equity - and now when they have a chance to make decisions in favor of it, they cower. Not surprising, but wholly upsetting.

This exactly.

Where are all the teachers and the Equity Unit employees? Why aren’t they speaking out in favor of returning to school.

Ironic that Trump is the one pushing for schools to open. Maybe if Trump took the angle that lower-income families are suffering, the SJWs in MCPS would get on board.

Or else, it appears to simply be liberal hypocrisy from teachers and staff.

Maybe because they realize that it is black and brown families who are getting COViD and dying of it at higher rates? Who don’t have access to good health care? who don’t have savings to prevent eviction when an hourly wage worker gets sick and loses their income?

I’m not convinced that equity considerations dictate offering in person school.

Exactly. Black and brown families have long been offered a crappy product by MCPS. Now they are being asked to risk their entire household’s health and very life to receive that crappy product. Of course, people want to stay home and do DL.