APS - Three cases yesterday

[Anonymous]

Look, I know that other places did things differently. But I’m so proud my state and school system are both led by doctors.

[Anonymous]

Isn’t Duran a doctor of education (PhD)? You all make no sense!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Saying that no one has died due to keeping the schools open in the face of high covid numbers is incorrect according to the Texas study which showed that an additional 20,000 people caught covid as a result of keeping schools open which resulted in 800 additional deaths. Saying that no one died is ignoring all of those people, and ignoring the mothers and fathers of Arlington children who did catch covid and die and surely would have done so in larger numbers had the schools stayed open. The fact that you are not effected in North Arlington when you work from home and get your groceries delivered or are able to take many covid precautions that makes the disease safer for you does not mean that the disease has not been killing less fortunate people in this county who have not been able to take the same precautions and/or need to continue to work lower paid jobs where exposure is a daily issue and thus chances of exposure increase.

It's nice for you that you don't know anyone who has died from the disease here, but you are lucky. But your luck does not negate the experiences of other less fortunate people in this county with less fortune than you, even if you appear to be unaware of them.

People in Texas didn’t die because of COVID spread in schools. They died because adults did stupid things once their kids were in school. It’s absolutely insane to me that anyone thinks taking away education from children was the answer. We hurt the young to keep (by and large) older people alive instead of expecting adults to bear the brunt of closures to keep other adults alive. If a bunch of grownups in Texas couldn’t stop themselves from engaging in high risk activities then that is on them. It’s not an excuse to dismantle public education as we know it and make young children sit on iPads all day.

And JFC are you really comparing Arlington to TEXAS?! People there were protesting wearing masks even during the height of the pandemic whereas our cautious community is continuing to mask for the most part even once vaccinated.

We put the brunt of this pandemic response on children and young families and APS just let it happen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just think these other measures you're talking about are harder than you think and because of that don't merit the extreme anger you have about them. (For example, there are lots of people out there like you who are upset there isn't more school but who actually have middle school and high school kids -- you take it as a given that these parents aren't going to be angry that their chance at in person school is being totally cut off by another group of kids, but in Arlington that's something that could totally happen. Get off my lawn! And then arguments for another month before the school board would need to make a contentious ruling. there may be other reasons why a high school building might not be appropriate for an elementary school kid, just in terms of safety, like some of the very very long wide staircases. Had you even considered something like that? But to you this is something you can send the kids into blind.) But whatever, you're not going to convince me and I'm not going to convince you and it's pointless to argue anymore.

You’re right. It’s just too hard. Which is why all the surrounding school districts are in the same position ... oh wait.

I agree with the PP that it’s too late now to change anything even though there’s close to zero cases of COVID in Arlington (many of us saw the writing on the wall weeks ago that this was the direction we were headed). Onward to the fall, but it’s still worth discussing how poorly the pandemic was handled compared to surrounding jurisdictions.

Maybe using high schools wouldn’t have worked, but why didn’t APS even re-poll parents about their learning preferences sooner. Duran was citing old data for months about selections from November. The email that came out after 95% of families selected in-person learning for fall read as if this came as a shock. He was incredibly out of touch and seemed caught off guard that the vast vast majority of families want in-person learning.

And he didn’t do a very good job of communicating what, if any, creative solutions had been looked into for sending the younger kids back. They got pumped in with all the other students who can actually read and operate Teams meetings on their own. The fact they didn’t separate out reopening talks for the youngest age group shows me how little APS cares about early education. Instead we get excused about logistical challenges. Then he clung on to the phrase “equity” as an excuse for inaction.

To you, the logistics of sending kids back would have been easy because you have no idea what's entailed so of course it's possible. You don't care if buildings are over capacity or classrooms are too small to work (in ways that perhaps other locations don't need to deal with) -- to you it's easy because your knowledge of APS doesn't get in the way of making assumptions about how easy it is. And nothing anyone else tells you about it makes a difference, either, because your cousin has a seven year old in Missouri who is back in school full time.

This is what makes it not worth having a discussion with you. It's not a discussion, it's a willful imposition of your opinion on everyone else. No thanks, I'm good.

Cousin in Missouri? Are you joking? How about Falls Church City. Loudoun. Fairfax. I’m sorry you’re ok accepting excuses just because Duran said so.

And the thing is, I hired a retired teacher to come help tutor my child (in addition all the extra work DH and I put in to help with school work this year). Our child is actually academically ahead this year. But I have genuine concerns about the number of kids beginning their public school education behind the curve and with no chance to catch up because even summer school offerings are limited. Even assuming opening schools more days this past year was absolutely not doable (as you’re so blindly willing to believe), don’t you at least expect APS to put together a plan to catch kids up? I’m concerned next year is going to be full of remedial work for all students to catch up the ones lagging behind. Which is going to cause the kids who are on track or ahead to have another year of not being academically challenged. Why does APS not seem to have any plans to fix anything? Simply opening the doors in the fall is the least they can do, yet some parents act as if we should be celebrating basic competence.

It would be equitable if all people could afford to do that.

It would be, but they can’t. So now we’ve created a public school system in which those who can afford to will pay for tutors and/or send kids to private school. And if anyone who cannot afford to do the same for their children complains then they’re shot down because it’s only equitable that everyone else suffer equally.

Just wait for next fall. Instead of catching up the bulk of kids this summer, APS will now be catering to a bunch of lagging students in the fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t Duran a doctor of education (PhD)? You all make no sense!

So?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just think these other measures you're talking about are harder than you think and because of that don't merit the extreme anger you have about them. (For example, there are lots of people out there like you who are upset there isn't more school but who actually have middle school and high school kids -- you take it as a given that these parents aren't going to be angry that their chance at in person school is being totally cut off by another group of kids, but in Arlington that's something that could totally happen. Get off my lawn! And then arguments for another month before the school board would need to make a contentious ruling. there may be other reasons why a high school building might not be appropriate for an elementary school kid, just in terms of safety, like some of the very very long wide staircases. Had you even considered something like that? But to you this is something you can send the kids into blind.) But whatever, you're not going to convince me and I'm not going to convince you and it's pointless to argue anymore.

You’re right. It’s just too hard. Which is why all the surrounding school districts are in the same position ... oh wait.

I agree with the PP that it’s too late now to change anything even though there’s close to zero cases of COVID in Arlington (many of us saw the writing on the wall weeks ago that this was the direction we were headed). Onward to the fall, but it’s still worth discussing how poorly the pandemic was handled compared to surrounding jurisdictions.

Maybe using high schools wouldn’t have worked, but why didn’t APS even re-poll parents about their learning preferences sooner. Duran was citing old data for months about selections from November. The email that came out after 95% of families selected in-person learning for fall read as if this came as a shock. He was incredibly out of touch and seemed caught off guard that the vast vast majority of families want in-person learning.

And he didn’t do a very good job of communicating what, if any, creative solutions had been looked into for sending the younger kids back. They got pumped in with all the other students who can actually read and operate Teams meetings on their own. The fact they didn’t separate out reopening talks for the youngest age group shows me how little APS cares about early education. Instead we get excused about logistical challenges. Then he clung on to the phrase “equity” as an excuse for inaction.

To you, the logistics of sending kids back would have been easy because you have no idea what's entailed so of course it's possible. You don't care if buildings are over capacity or classrooms are too small to work (in ways that perhaps other locations don't need to deal with) -- to you it's easy because your knowledge of APS doesn't get in the way of making assumptions about how easy it is. And nothing anyone else tells you about it makes a difference, either, because your cousin has a seven year old in Missouri who is back in school full time.

This is what makes it not worth having a discussion with you. It's not a discussion, it's a willful imposition of your opinion on everyone else. No thanks, I'm good.

Cousin in Missouri? Are you joking? How about Falls Church City. Loudoun. Fairfax. I’m sorry you’re ok accepting excuses just because Duran said so.

And the thing is, I hired a retired teacher to come help tutor my child (in addition all the extra work DH and I put in to help with school work this year). Our child is actually academically ahead this year. But I have genuine concerns about the number of kids beginning their public school education behind the curve and with no chance to catch up because even summer school offerings are limited. Even assuming opening schools more days this past year was absolutely not doable (as you’re so blindly willing to believe), don’t you at least expect APS to put together a plan to catch kids up? I’m concerned next year is going to be full of remedial work for all students to catch up the ones lagging behind. Which is going to cause the kids who are on track or ahead to have another year of not being academically challenged. Why does APS not seem to have any plans to fix anything? Simply opening the doors in the fall is the least they can do, yet some parents act as if we should be celebrating basic competence.

It would be equitable if all people could afford to do that.

It would be, but they can’t. So now we’ve created a public school system in which those who can afford to will pay for tutors and/or send kids to private school. And if anyone who cannot afford to do the same for their children complains then they’re shot down because it’s only equitable that everyone else suffer equally.

Just wait for next fall. Instead of catching up the bulk of kids this summer, APS will now be catering to a bunch of lagging students in the fall.

And a bunch who are light years ahead of their peers because they had parents with access to tutors and pods and second houses and space and time and everything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t Duran a doctor of education (PhD)? You all make no sense!

I'm pretty sure his PhD didn't include a class in pandemic response or disaster relief planning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Saying that no one has died due to keeping the schools open in the face of high covid numbers is incorrect according to the Texas study which showed that an additional 20,000 people caught covid as a result of keeping schools open which resulted in 800 additional deaths. Saying that no one died is ignoring all of those people, and ignoring the mothers and fathers of Arlington children who did catch covid and die and surely would have done so in larger numbers had the schools stayed open. The fact that you are not effected in North Arlington when you work from home and get your groceries delivered or are able to take many covid precautions that makes the disease safer for you does not mean that the disease has not been killing less fortunate people in this county who have not been able to take the same precautions and/or need to continue to work lower paid jobs where exposure is a daily issue and thus chances of exposure increase.

It's nice for you that you don't know anyone who has died from the disease here, but you are lucky. But your luck does not negate the experiences of other less fortunate people in this county with less fortune than you, even if you appear to be unaware of them.

People in Texas didn’t die because of COVID spread in schools. They died because adults did stupid things once their kids were in school. It’s absolutely insane to me that anyone thinks taking away education from children was the answer. We hurt the young to keep (by and large) older people alive instead of expecting adults to bear the brunt of closures to keep other adults alive. If a bunch of grownups in Texas couldn’t stop themselves from engaging in high risk activities then that is on them. It’s not an excuse to dismantle public education as we know it and make young children sit on iPads all day.

And JFC are you really comparing Arlington to TEXAS?! People there were protesting wearing masks even during the height of the pandemic whereas our cautious community is continuing to mask for the most part even once vaccinated.

We put the brunt of this pandemic response on children and young families and APS just let it happen.

Yep. APS decided not to advocate for education or the interests of kids. It tried to fix the local, state and national COVID response while neglecting its core responsibility.

Besides, this thread isn't about January, but about why on earth APS isn't open now with vaccinated adults and super low rates. It's shameful Duran didn't plan for a way to get students back more days this year. He cries logistics, but he created half the problems with students needing to switch teachers multiple times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Saying that no one has died due to keeping the schools open in the face of high covid numbers is incorrect according to the Texas study which showed that an additional 20,000 people caught covid as a result of keeping schools open which resulted in 800 additional deaths. Saying that no one died is ignoring all of those people, and ignoring the mothers and fathers of Arlington children who did catch covid and die and surely would have done so in larger numbers had the schools stayed open. The fact that you are not effected in North Arlington when you work from home and get your groceries delivered or are able to take many covid precautions that makes the disease safer for you does not mean that the disease has not been killing less fortunate people in this county who have not been able to take the same precautions and/or need to continue to work lower paid jobs where exposure is a daily issue and thus chances of exposure increase.

It's nice for you that you don't know anyone who has died from the disease here, but you are lucky. But your luck does not negate the experiences of other less fortunate people in this county with less fortune than you, even if you appear to be unaware of them.

The studies did not show that, there was no direct attribution from schools opening to an increase in cases. IIRC the studies were looking at adults cell phone activity and such which showed greater movement. If you're going to quote these statistics you need to provide proof that schools opening was the cause of the COVID cases.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APE-types: Where is all the evidence that opening schools caused higher Covid numbers? You guys can't show any proof!
non-APE types: Here is a study showing increased Covid numbers in Texas where schools opened early...
APE-types: NOT THAT EVIDENCE!

+1,000

Yup.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t Duran a doctor of education (PhD)? You all make no sense!

I'm pretty sure his PhD didn't include a class in pandemic response or disaster relief planning.

He has an Ed.D, not a Ph.D., in Organization and Leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Isn’t Duran a doctor of education (PhD)? You all make no sense!

I'm pretty sure his PhD didn't include a class in pandemic response or disaster relief planning.

how would you know?

[Anonymous]

Do the APE wenches not know how to read a graph? So tired of their relentless whining. STFU already.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do the APE wenches not know how to read a graph? So tired of their relentless whining. STFU already.

Dumb APEer is now complaining about wearing masks because of the "CDC guidelines". But when CDC guidelines said 6' she DGAF what the CDC said.

Why won't she go away?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the APE wenches not know how to read a graph? So tired of their relentless whining. STFU already.

Dumb APEer is now complaining about wearing masks because of the "CDC guidelines". But when CDC guidelines said 6' she DGAF what the CDC said.

Why won't she go away?!

where is this?