Burgundy Farm

[Anonymous]

Do you think when refusing to come to work the Burgundy teachers realized they would put the school out of business and subsequently lose their jobs? How did they not realize this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it all DL or a hybrid?

All DL. No hybrid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone who has school-age children is trying to manage remote learning this year. I can understand not wanting to pay $35k for online learning that you can get through your county for free — I would not pay that either. So withdraw. But teachers do not have to risk dying because you do not want to balance working, children at home, and their education. You are not special.

We are a burgundy family and we are doing just that. Asking for our money back.

Report back!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow! While I agree with some of the concerns about lack of transparency and other issues at Burgundy and understand the child care concerns, it is amazing to me how so few people in this set of posts acknowledge that the CDC says that we are at 50,000 new COVID cases per day, but should be under 10,000 before we can get things under control. Sure, we are doing OK in Northern Virginia right now, but that is because many people have diligently followed the CDC's advice despite the madness in other areas of the country. Look at Georgia. They rushed to send their kids back to school and generated many new COVID cases. And what about the documented concerns that many people are left with chronic illnesses and disabilities even if they are not hospitalized? What about the more vulnerable members of childrens' households? What about the welfare of the more vulnerable among our teachers. Burgundy teachers are not alone in their concerns. An NPR/Ipsos poll found that 82% of teachers are concerned about coming back to school and 2/3 prefer to teach primarily remotely: https://www.npr.org/2020/08/06/898584176/most-teachers-concerned-about-in-person-school-2-in-3-want-to-start-the-year-onl. All I have seen on this forum is a lot of whining about inconvenience. Start talking about COVID risks vs. pros and cons of distance vs. on-campus learning. Personally, I don't trust teachers to be able to enforce social distancing among younger kids, especially among those who can't seem to control their impulses and there have been several in my daughter's classes. Teachers will have a huge burden to control these kids and at personal risk. And all that crap about open space goes out the window when it is raining, snowing, or just freezing. And don't tell me a kid can learn better sitting on a tree stump than they can sitting in a classroom or in front of a computer. There are only so many fru-fru nature lessons that Burgundy can teach. And by the way, I attended the July Burgundy Town Hall and the school did NOT promise on-campus learning in September. We were told that the school had a plan to try to do that, but that it was unsure how things were unfolding with COVID and therefore would re-evaluate and report back to parents in early August, which is what it did.

Burgundy parent here.

1. Georgia schools started in person without a mask mandate. Any proposed on campus learning would follow recommended masking protocols.
2. Northern VA data is fairly good good. We are not trending up (unlike the rest of VA) (https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/key-measures/).
3. A poll that covers all teachers to me is irrelevant. I hope Burgundy polled teachers and wish they had shared the results with the community. Public schools don't have similar space and resources. I would not be in favor of a school with no outdoor space returning in person. Burgundy is not in that situation and specifically advertised they can offer outdoor physically distanced education. They even have a map with outdoor learning locations on campus. Without the outdoor space, it would not make sense to hold classes in person.
4. I am extremely disappointed in the lack of clear communication on the part of the administration. This is a huge failure of leadership.
5. They should offer an off-ramp for those parents who cannot manage their job+zoom classroom+hypothetical half days. A half day in person with zoom specials in the afternoon does not provide smart infection control or reasonable feasibility for parents.
6. Highlighting point 4 for good measure. It's the total about-face that has me deeply disappointed. They described in person plans in detail two weeks ago. Apparently without checking with faculty if that was feasible.
7. Offer high-risk teachers a pathway to become lead distance teachers. They can and should do more than 90 minutes of live zoom, which is what it seems is all that is being offered. That's insufficient. I know SSAS students who were in FULL DAY school this spring. Made me question why our day typically involved 60-90 minutes in person.
8. Cross-train specials teachers who are willing to be in person. They can become homeroom teachers to "pinch hit" for high risk teachers. Specials teachers this spring engaged in no face to face synchronous education with the students. Their skills and talents are not being utilized well at all. This enables high risk faculty to be protected and not have to teach in person before they are able to do so safely.

7. I’m not sure why you think the remote is only 90 minutes synchronous? The schedule for lower school has 1-2 live specials a day which is already 30-80 minutes. Plus the morning with homeroom teaches says 2-3 academic zooms at 20-45 minutes each and also morning meeting/social time.

In middle school it has 4 hours (240 minutes) of synchronous sessions a day.

I think you made a lot of valid points, but teachers can't jump in each others lanes this easily. It would be heard to "cross- train" a homeroom teacher to be a specials teacher in a few weeks, and vice verse. This actually made me smile

[Anonymous]

The Burgundy teachers have really let down my 6 year old. I doubt we will get our money back but we are considering just skipping the year. We feel too disappointed with Burgundy to come back next year. The school may or may not have made e right decision, but how it was handled and communicated was an epic failure that damaged my trust in the school forever. I’m not even sure we can look the teachers in the eyes via distance learning, I feel so hurt and abandoned. The teachers are the only ones being cared for here, not families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you think when refusing to come to work the Burgundy teachers realized they would put the school out of business and subsequently lose their jobs? How did they not realize this?

Perhaps this isn’t what happened.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think when refusing to come to work the Burgundy teachers realized they would put the school out of business and subsequently lose their jobs? How did they not realize this?

Perhaps this isn’t what happened.

It is what happened. This is fact, not speculation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you think when refusing to come to work the Burgundy teachers realized they would put the school out of business and subsequently lose their jobs? How did they not realize this?

Maybe now burgundy can sell their campus (which was the best thing about the school) to a school with capable admin and teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you think when refusing to come to work the Burgundy teachers realized they would put the school out of business and subsequently lose their jobs? How did they not realize this?

Perhaps this isn’t what happened.

I will bet you 35K it is exactly what happened

[Anonymous]

Arriving at the DL decision is acceptable if you have transparent and honest communication with the community about why this decision is necessary. Keep people informed and communicate regularly up to date information. It would be acceptable if all of a sudden NOVA became a “hot spot” or the CDC changed its recommendations, but to repeatedly signal school will reopen and then have an about face with zero warning just a few weeks before school starts is a colossal failure. Reading between the lines (would love to know exactly what was behind this decision, but again lack of transparency and reasonable communication), it seems that the admin and teachers were not in lockstep about reopening plans. I think it is a total failure of leadership (looking at you HOS and Board) that this wasn’t determined earlier on. You’ve had five months to plan for this. The communication coming from the HOS and the Board has been so extraordinarily bad that I would encourage them to rethink their service to the school.

[Anonymous]

It's an analogy, but if you want a connection I have an even better example. As the result of fighting during the Vietnam war, my dad lost several fingers, rendering him unable to play his instrument, which was a huge part of his life before, ever again. Should he never complain or be unhappy about that, just because others lost legs or died in that same war? He's glad he's not dead and can walk for sure, but he's unhappy that he doesn't have his fingers.


I’m sorry about your father and grateful for his service. I still think loss of life and limb is not comparable to what people are complaining about on these forums. Hardship is relative but losing a family member or being hospitalized for an extended period of time or not being able to safely care for aging parents just isn’t the same as being disappointed and frustrated that schools are starting remotely. It’s just about perspective. And focusing frustrations on the real culprit which is the uncontrolled pandemic. But I am happy to agree to disagree.

Thanks for being so polite and respectful, I appreciate it. And to be clear, I am not blaming the teachers at any school for this. My issue is that the school my child goes to over promised and under delivered. I am the only person working in my family and we are stretched really thin, even though I earn a decent salary (by government standards, not private sector standards). I'm really in a bind right now, because I just don't have the $ to pay for someone to watch my child all day every day on top of tuition. We'll figure something out one way or the other, definitely, but I am really struggling to deal with this on top of all of the other family/professional/emotional problems that have been put upon me right now, some of which relate to the pandemic and some of which don't. Honestly, money isn't everything and many of our family's problems wouldn't be fixable with any amount of money (my husband's illness and my child's anxiety and depression). I am genuinely grateful not to be in the position of, for example, the family covered in the Washington post who are living out of their car in Florida. But I'm still struggling, and this is another big blow.

[Anonymous]

The July letter, which I just re-read, outlined in-person, remote & hybrid models and stated that there would be an update closer to the start of school, in mid- August. There was an update at that time, which may not have been what was hoped for or planned, but reflected poorly trending numbers (positivity rate in Alex City rising to nearly 6% over the past 2 weeks), new info about child transmissions, and probably resulting trepidation from teachers. What would you have done differently? A letter every week saying that they are still coming up with a plan to be announced in mid-August? I am not a fan of remote learning, but I don’t recognize this Burgundy community anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The July letter, which I just re-read, outlined in-person, remote & hybrid models and stated that there would be an update closer to the start of school, in mid- August. There was an update at that time, which may not have been what was hoped for or planned, but reflected poorly trending numbers (positivity rate in Alex City rising to nearly 6% over the past 2 weeks), new info about child transmissions, and probably resulting trepidation from teachers. What would you have done differently? A letter every week saying that they are still coming up with a plan to be announced in mid-August? I am not a fan of remote learning, but I don’t recognize this Burgundy community anymore.

+1000

[Anonymous]

Bait and switch is a common theme - total double talking. So glad we’ve changed schools before the new year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The July letter, which I just re-read, outlined in-person, remote & hybrid models and stated that there would be an update closer to the start of school, in mid- August. There was an update at that time, which may not have been what was hoped for or planned, but reflected poorly trending numbers (positivity rate in Alex City rising to nearly 6% over the past 2 weeks), new info about child transmissions, and probably resulting trepidation from teachers. What would you have done differently? A letter every week saying that they are still coming up with a plan to be announced in mid-August? I am not a fan of remote learning, but I don’t recognize this Burgundy community anymore.

+1000

I love all this talk about community. It completely and conveniently eliminates the obvious fact that the school is a business and families pay a lot money to this business for a service. Families are paying customers who will not receive the service they have paid for. Businesses that don’t deliver don’t call out “but we are a community!!” To their long-standing customers and get forgiven. Customers get refunds and/or take their business elsewhere. Sorry to all the teachers who want to see it otherwise but you are kidding yourselves.