WP Article on LAMB's failure to re-open

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:African-American women are disproportionately like to a) get; b) die from COVID. There are also twice as likely as white people to be caring for elderly parents/relatives. Many white parents on DCUM use poor children (who they couldn't give zero effs about, normally) as a shield for their racist and misogynistic response to African-American teachers and the WTU. It is not laziness and a lack of caring for children that makes teacher skeptical about DCPS/DCPCS back to in-person school plans. It's fear and distrust. You have to counter fear and distrust with confidence building-measures like rapid testing and isolating students within the school building like they do in Scandinavia.

I'd suggest learning a little more before you slander people you don't know as racist. Almost two-thirds of the people who've died in DC from coronavirus are elderly (at least 70 years old). Most elderly people in DC are 1. African-American and 2. Female.

Do you mean libel?

Who do we think are taking care of elderly African-American women? Their African-American daughters, nieces, and daughters-in-law...wait for it...a lot of them work for DCPS or DCPCS.

Not at LAMB! LAMB is an extremely white school.

I mean, it's half Hispanic, about 15% African-American, and about a quarter white non-Hispanic.

Maybe that's a higher percentage of white kids than other schools, but I wouldn't call that "extremely white".

https://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/2017_Equity_Report_Public%20Charter%20School_Latin%20American%20Montessori%20Bilingual%20PCS.pdf

The school could ask its African-American families how many are taking care of elderly relatives (the answer is probably close to zero), and if they want schools to reopen, instead of simply assuming. But that would require LAMB to consult with parents, which is not its strong suit.

I can't find rates specifically for DC (just totals), but at least on a wider scale death rates for Latino/as are similar to African Americans from covid.

https://www.apmresearchlab.org/covid/deaths-by-race

Not in DC. 75 percent of the people who've died were black. 13 percent were Hispanic (about the same as their share of the overall population).

More importantly, the number of people in DC dying from coronavirus has fallen consistently and dramatically. Here's the number of people who've died in DC each month, according to the city:

March -- 11 people
April -- 220 people
May -- 237 people
June -- 85 people
July -- 32 people
August -- 22 people
September -- 21 people
October -- 16 people

16 people is about how many people are murdered in DC each month.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:African-American women are disproportionately like to a) get; b) die from COVID. There are also twice as likely as white people to be caring for elderly parents/relatives. Many white parents on DCUM use poor children (who they couldn't give zero effs about, normally) as a shield for their racist and misogynistic response to African-American teachers and the WTU. It is not laziness and a lack of caring for children that makes teacher skeptical about DCPS/DCPCS back to in-person school plans. It's fear and distrust. You have to counter fear and distrust with confidence building-measures like rapid testing and isolating students within the school building like they do in Scandinavia.

It also helps to focus on facts. Not very many people in DC die from coronavirus -- the numbers have fallen dramatically over the past six months. Only 14 people died in October, which is close to the number who typically die in car accidents each month. Of those who've died, they are disproportionately elderly. 60 percent were at least 70 years old.

Well, you are culling facts that serve your agenda. Long-haul COVID is real and brutal: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/long-haul-covid-patients/2020/10/23/ab7c5324-0712-11eb-9be6-cf25fb429f1a_story.html. Cases are surging in VA and MD where many DC teachers live: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/coronavirus-in-dc-maryland-virginia-what-to-know-on-oct

so no public school till 2023?

Henny-penny, much? When DC, NoVa, and MoCo/PG rates are not surging + a vaccine is available is not 2023.

Ok, 2022. Per fauci widespread vaccine will not be available until late 2021. So that means (according to you) we could start phasing in around January 2022, over a year from now?

If the school waits for a vaccine before reopening, i suspect a substantial share of its student body will leave.

I'll humor you. And go where? Private? (Where are these magic spaces coming from? Where is the money coming from to pay for tuition?) Move from DC? (To where? With what job? How does that help if adjacent jurisdictions are all still DL (as they are now)? You moving to Alabama or Florida as part of a "cut off your nose to spite your face" protest?)

The same people who casually cite scientific data and infectious disease experts as the reason we should be open might want to explore many of the open areas before paying that moving truck; you'd be surprised to learn those jurisdictions are open not because of experts, but because they long ago decided to ignore and devalue experts.

Serious question: would you rather live in a place where they ignore science and your kid MUST go to school even with super high infection and transmission rates or a pace where schools remain closed even if some data would agitate for a voluntary in-person return. Unless you home-school or own/run your own town you don't get to choose.

LAMB parent here. We are big fans of LAMB but if it doesnt open until a vaccine, then we're leaving. We've been going back and forth about leaving DC for awhile in order to be closer to family and maybe LAMB will make the decision for us. Distance learning has put an intolerable amount of pressure on our family. I don't know why you're obsessed with what's happening in Florida or Alabama. The reality is that schools are open across most of the country to various degrees and with various precautions. It's places like DC that refuse to open no matter what (and in defiance of what groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend) that are becoming the outliers. We are worried about what being out of school for so long is doing to our kids. Our jobs are flexible enough that we don't need to live here. Employers in general seem much flexible about working remotely.

NP. Another LAMB family considering leaving as DL is a disaster for our 7yo. And that’s not the fault of the teachers but if a school with a fully renovated building with large open areas, classrooms with windows that can open, top of line HVAC system and a spacious outdoors not to mention parents that would trip over themselves buying enough TP and cleaning products for the next year can’t make it work, I’m ready to move on.

Right. This. I am another LAMB parent considering moving to my home state where schools are all open at least hybrid, after the holidays. So far they have almost no reported cases in any school (suburban area). I would try to maintain enrollment in LAMB via attendance at some of the daily classes.

So how are you going to get residency in this other state for your kids to attend school there, but also keep attendance at LAMB? Wouldn't this be residency fraud? You can't be residents of two states and attendance is based on residency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'll humor you. And go where? Private? (Where are these magic spaces coming from? Where is the money coming from to pay for tuition?) Move from DC? (To where? With what job? How does that help if adjacent jurisdictions are all still DL (as they are now)? You moving to Alabama or Florida as part of a "cut off your nose to spite your face" protest?)

So I and many others I know discuss these options:
1. private (generally the parochial schools because they are just as expensive as the current pod/nanny/tutoring/daycare going on)
2. dropping out of charters and going IB if DCPS opens and the charters don't
3. moving to the nearest suburb with public schools that open (and retaining current job but having a shitty commute)
4. moving closer to or in with family (NYC, for ex) (also some discuss moving in with family in other countries) (this one relies on the ability to continue teleworking)

I'll note that many of these choices (aside from #1) would be forced through financial hardship; no one really WANTS to do these things. But, for example, a friend is a single mother being forced by her public sector job to go to work in-person soon; she's got to send her young kids somewhere and doesn't make enough money for a nanny, etc., nor does she have family in the area. What does she do?

Enter for a CARES room? Take federal CARES Act leave until 12/31? Apply to be a CARES babysitter? She’s got some options.

Almost certainly this person is expecting to go back in 2021, so the leave doesn't matter. And how is someone who already has a job but no time and not enough money going to replace their salaried job with working in a CARES classroom? That makes no sense.

None of these three options are available for someone with a kid in a charter.

Then leave the charter and enroll in your inbound Dcps. I mean come on. The beauty of charters is that you can leave when it no longer works for you!

Ah yes, unenroll from your school to maybe have a chance to get into a CARES classroom. Definitely a realistic solution. Although I am sure you knew that all of your responses have been completely flippant.

No this is learned helplessness. There are options. Options she doesn’t like/doesn’t want to do....but that doesn’t mean there are no options

lol I love this "here are some options that aren't really options!" "literally everyone has a way to solve this problem! I don't know what it is but I swear it exists!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'll humor you. And go where? Private? (Where are these magic spaces coming from? Where is the money coming from to pay for tuition?) Move from DC? (To where? With what job? How does that help if adjacent jurisdictions are all still DL (as they are now)? You moving to Alabama or Florida as part of a "cut off your nose to spite your face" protest?)

So I and many others I know discuss these options:
1. private (generally the parochial schools because they are just as expensive as the current pod/nanny/tutoring/daycare going on)
2. dropping out of charters and going IB if DCPS opens and the charters don't
3. moving to the nearest suburb with public schools that open (and retaining current job but having a shitty commute)
4. moving closer to or in with family (NYC, for ex) (also some discuss moving in with family in other countries) (this one relies on the ability to continue teleworking)

I'll note that many of these choices (aside from #1) would be forced through financial hardship; no one really WANTS to do these things. But, for example, a friend is a single mother being forced by her public sector job to go to work in-person soon; she's got to send her young kids somewhere and doesn't make enough money for a nanny, etc., nor does she have family in the area. What does she do?

Enter for a CARES room? Take federal CARES Act leave until 12/31? Apply to be a CARES babysitter? She’s got some options.

Almost certainly this person is expecting to go back in 2021, so the leave doesn't matter. And how is someone who already has a job but no time and not enough money going to replace their salaried job with working in a CARES classroom? That makes no sense.

None of these three options are available for someone with a kid in a charter.

Then leave the charter and enroll in your inbound Dcps. I mean come on. The beauty of charters is that you can leave when it no longer works for you!

Ah yes, unenroll from your school to maybe have a chance to get into a CARES classroom. Definitely a realistic solution. Although I am sure you knew that all of your responses have been completely flippant.

No this is learned helplessness. There are options. Options she doesn’t like/doesn’t want to do....but that doesn’t mean there are no options

lol I love this "here are some options that aren't really options!" "literally everyone has a way to solve this problem! I don't know what it is but I swear it exists!"

It’s up to her to decide what she wants to do. It’s isn’t up to me or you to find her options. It appears she just wants to complain. That’s fine and it’s within her rights. But seriously, find another school, quit the job, join a pod, find a new job. Stop complaining and start finding a solution.

[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:African-American women are disproportionately like to a) get; b) die from COVID. There are also twice as likely as white people to be caring for elderly parents/relatives. Many white parents on DCUM use poor children (who they couldn't give zero effs about, normally) as a shield for their racist and misogynistic response to African-American teachers and the WTU. It is not laziness and a lack of caring for children that makes teacher skeptical about DCPS/DCPCS back to in-person school plans. It's fear and distrust. You have to counter fear and distrust with confidence building-measures like rapid testing and isolating students within the school building like they do in Scandinavia.

It also helps to focus on facts. Not very many people in DC die from coronavirus -- the numbers have fallen dramatically over the past six months. Only 14 people died in October, which is close to the number who typically die in car accidents each month. Of those who've died, they are disproportionately elderly. 60 percent were at least 70 years old.

Well, you are culling facts that serve your agenda. Long-haul COVID is real and brutal: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/long-haul-covid-patients/2020/10/23/ab7c5324-0712-11eb-9be6-cf25fb429f1a_story.html. Cases are surging in VA and MD where many DC teachers live: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/coronavirus-in-dc-maryland-virginia-what-to-know-on-oct

so no public school till 2023?

Henny-penny, much? When DC, NoVa, and MoCo/PG rates are not surging + a vaccine is available is not 2023.

Ok, 2022. Per fauci widespread vaccine will not be available until late 2021. So that means (according to you) we could start phasing in around January 2022, over a year from now?

If the school waits for a vaccine before reopening, i suspect a substantial share of its student body will leave.

I'll humor you. And go where? Private? (Where are these magic spaces coming from? Where is the money coming from to pay for tuition?) Move from DC? (To where? With what job? How does that help if adjacent jurisdictions are all still DL (as they are now)? You moving to Alabama or Florida as part of a "cut off your nose to spite your face" protest?)

The same people who casually cite scientific data and infectious disease experts as the reason we should be open might want to explore many of the open areas before paying that moving truck; you'd be surprised to learn those jurisdictions are open not because of experts, but because they long ago decided to ignore and devalue experts.

Serious question: would you rather live in a place where they ignore science and your kid MUST go to school even with super high infection and transmission rates or a pace where schools remain closed even if some data would agitate for a voluntary in-person return. Unless you home-school or own/run your own town you don't get to choose.

LAMB parent here. We are big fans of LAMB but if it doesnt open until a vaccine, then we're leaving. We've been going back and forth about leaving DC for awhile in order to be closer to family and maybe LAMB will make the decision for us. Distance learning has put an intolerable amount of pressure on our family. I don't know why you're obsessed with what's happening in Florida or Alabama. The reality is that schools are open across most of the country to various degrees and with various precautions. It's places like DC that refuse to open no matter what (and in defiance of what groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend) that are becoming the outliers. We are worried about what being out of school for so long is doing to our kids. Our jobs are flexible enough that we don't need to live here. Employers in general seem much flexible about working remotely.

NP. Another LAMB family considering leaving as DL is a disaster for our 7yo. And that’s not the fault of the teachers but if a school with a fully renovated building with large open areas, classrooms with windows that can open, top of line HVAC system and a spacious outdoors not to mention parents that would trip over themselves buying enough TP and cleaning products for the next year can’t make it work, I’m ready to move on.

Right. This. I am another LAMB parent considering moving to my home state where schools are all open at least hybrid, after the holidays. So far they have almost no reported cases in any school (suburban area). I would try to maintain enrollment in LAMB via attendance at some of the daily classes.

So how are you going to get residency in this other state for your kids to attend school there, but also keep attendance at LAMB? Wouldn't this be residency fraud? You can't be residents of two states and attendance is based on residency.

Residency fraud! In DC! I can't believe it. I am going to faint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'll humor you. And go where? Private? (Where are these magic spaces coming from? Where is the money coming from to pay for tuition?) Move from DC? (To where? With what job? How does that help if adjacent jurisdictions are all still DL (as they are now)? You moving to Alabama or Florida as part of a "cut off your nose to spite your face" protest?)

So I and many others I know discuss these options:
1. private (generally the parochial schools because they are just as expensive as the current pod/nanny/tutoring/daycare going on)
2. dropping out of charters and going IB if DCPS opens and the charters don't
3. moving to the nearest suburb with public schools that open (and retaining current job but having a shitty commute)
4. moving closer to or in with family (NYC, for ex) (also some discuss moving in with family in other countries) (this one relies on the ability to continue teleworking)

I'll note that many of these choices (aside from #1) would be forced through financial hardship; no one really WANTS to do these things. But, for example, a friend is a single mother being forced by her public sector job to go to work in-person soon; she's got to send her young kids somewhere and doesn't make enough money for a nanny, etc., nor does she have family in the area. What does she do?

Enter for a CARES room? Take federal CARES Act leave until 12/31? Apply to be a CARES babysitter? She’s got some options.

Almost certainly this person is expecting to go back in 2021, so the leave doesn't matter. And how is someone who already has a job but no time and not enough money going to replace their salaried job with working in a CARES classroom? That makes no sense.

None of these three options are available for someone with a kid in a charter.

Then leave the charter and enroll in your inbound Dcps. I mean come on. The beauty of charters is that you can leave when it no longer works for you!

Ah yes, unenroll from your school to maybe have a chance to get into a CARES classroom. Definitely a realistic solution. Although I am sure you knew that all of your responses have been completely flippant.

No this is learned helplessness. There are options. Options she doesn’t like/doesn’t want to do....but that doesn’t mean there are no options

lol I love this "here are some options that aren't really options!" "literally everyone has a way to solve this problem! I don't know what it is but I swear it exists!"

It’s up to her to decide what she wants to do. It’s isn’t up to me or you to find her options. It appears she just wants to complain. That’s fine and it’s within her rights. But seriously, find another school, quit the job, join a pod, find a new job. Stop complaining and start finding a solution.

the dilemma for LAMB going forward is that it can open, and deal with the fallout from its crybaby teachers, or if can stay closed, and watch a chunk of its student body withdraw.

[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:African-American women are disproportionately like to a) get; b) die from COVID. There are also twice as likely as white people to be caring for elderly parents/relatives. Many white parents on DCUM use poor children (who they couldn't give zero effs about, normally) as a shield for their racist and misogynistic response to African-American teachers and the WTU. It is not laziness and a lack of caring for children that makes teacher skeptical about DCPS/DCPCS back to in-person school plans. It's fear and distrust. You have to counter fear and distrust with confidence building-measures like rapid testing and isolating students within the school building like they do in Scandinavia.

It also helps to focus on facts. Not very many people in DC die from coronavirus -- the numbers have fallen dramatically over the past six months. Only 14 people died in October, which is close to the number who typically die in car accidents each month. Of those who've died, they are disproportionately elderly. 60 percent were at least 70 years old.

Well, you are culling facts that serve your agenda. Long-haul COVID is real and brutal: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/long-haul-covid-patients/2020/10/23/ab7c5324-0712-11eb-9be6-cf25fb429f1a_story.html. Cases are surging in VA and MD where many DC teachers live: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/coronavirus-in-dc-maryland-virginia-what-to-know-on-oct

so no public school till 2023?

Henny-penny, much? When DC, NoVa, and MoCo/PG rates are not surging + a vaccine is available is not 2023.

Ok, 2022. Per fauci widespread vaccine will not be available until late 2021. So that means (according to you) we could start phasing in around January 2022, over a year from now?

If the school waits for a vaccine before reopening, i suspect a substantial share of its student body will leave.

I'll humor you. And go where? Private? (Where are these magic spaces coming from? Where is the money coming from to pay for tuition?) Move from DC? (To where? With what job? How does that help if adjacent jurisdictions are all still DL (as they are now)? You moving to Alabama or Florida as part of a "cut off your nose to spite your face" protest?)

The same people who casually cite scientific data and infectious disease experts as the reason we should be open might want to explore many of the open areas before paying that moving truck; you'd be surprised to learn those jurisdictions are open not because of experts, but because they long ago decided to ignore and devalue experts.

Serious question: would you rather live in a place where they ignore science and your kid MUST go to school even with super high infection and transmission rates or a pace where schools remain closed even if some data would agitate for a voluntary in-person return. Unless you home-school or own/run your own town you don't get to choose.

LAMB parent here. We are big fans of LAMB but if it doesnt open until a vaccine, then we're leaving. We've been going back and forth about leaving DC for awhile in order to be closer to family and maybe LAMB will make the decision for us. Distance learning has put an intolerable amount of pressure on our family. I don't know why you're obsessed with what's happening in Florida or Alabama. The reality is that schools are open across most of the country to various degrees and with various precautions. It's places like DC that refuse to open no matter what (and in defiance of what groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend) that are becoming the outliers. We are worried about what being out of school for so long is doing to our kids. Our jobs are flexible enough that we don't need to live here. Employers in general seem much flexible about working remotely.

NP. Another LAMB family considering leaving as DL is a disaster for our 7yo. And that’s not the fault of the teachers but if a school with a fully renovated building with large open areas, classrooms with windows that can open, top of line HVAC system and a spacious outdoors not to mention parents that would trip over themselves buying enough TP and cleaning products for the next year can’t make it work, I’m ready to move on.

Right. This. I am another LAMB parent considering moving to my home state where schools are all open at least hybrid, after the holidays. So far they have almost no reported cases in any school (suburban area). I would try to maintain enrollment in LAMB via attendance at some of the daily classes.

So how are you going to get residency in this other state for your kids to attend school there, but also keep attendance at LAMB? Wouldn't this be residency fraud? You can't be residents of two states and attendance is based on residency.

This is a an interesting question this year. I have my K student enrolled in day care. She does all educational activities there and logs on to zoom once a day for her attendance at her charter. Obviously she goes to day care because I can’t leave her home alone but I wonder how it’s really that different to put your kid in school somewhere else like PP plans.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:African-American women are disproportionately like to a) get; b) die from COVID. There are also twice as likely as white people to be caring for elderly parents/relatives. Many white parents on DCUM use poor children (who they couldn't give zero effs about, normally) as a shield for their racist and misogynistic response to African-American teachers and the WTU. It is not laziness and a lack of caring for children that makes teacher skeptical about DCPS/DCPCS back to in-person school plans. It's fear and distrust. You have to counter fear and distrust with confidence building-measures like rapid testing and isolating students within the school building like they do in Scandinavia.

It also helps to focus on facts. Not very many people in DC die from coronavirus -- the numbers have fallen dramatically over the past six months. Only 14 people died in October, which is close to the number who typically die in car accidents each month. Of those who've died, they are disproportionately elderly. 60 percent were at least 70 years old.

Well, you are culling facts that serve your agenda. Long-haul COVID is real and brutal: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/long-haul-covid-patients/2020/10/23/ab7c5324-0712-11eb-9be6-cf25fb429f1a_story.html. Cases are surging in VA and MD where many DC teachers live: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/coronavirus-in-dc-maryland-virginia-what-to-know-on-oct

so no public school till 2023?

Henny-penny, much? When DC, NoVa, and MoCo/PG rates are not surging + a vaccine is available is not 2023.

Ok, 2022. Per fauci widespread vaccine will not be available until late 2021. So that means (according to you) we could start phasing in around January 2022, over a year from now?

If the school waits for a vaccine before reopening, i suspect a substantial share of its student body will leave.

I'll humor you. And go where? Private? (Where are these magic spaces coming from? Where is the money coming from to pay for tuition?) Move from DC? (To where? With what job? How does that help if adjacent jurisdictions are all still DL (as they are now)? You moving to Alabama or Florida as part of a "cut off your nose to spite your face" protest?)

The same people who casually cite scientific data and infectious disease experts as the reason we should be open might want to explore many of the open areas before paying that moving truck; you'd be surprised to learn those jurisdictions are open not because of experts, but because they long ago decided to ignore and devalue experts.

Serious question: would you rather live in a place where they ignore science and your kid MUST go to school even with super high infection and transmission rates or a pace where schools remain closed even if some data would agitate for a voluntary in-person return. Unless you home-school or own/run your own town you don't get to choose.

LAMB parent here. We are big fans of LAMB but if it doesnt open until a vaccine, then we're leaving. We've been going back and forth about leaving DC for awhile in order to be closer to family and maybe LAMB will make the decision for us. Distance learning has put an intolerable amount of pressure on our family. I don't know why you're obsessed with what's happening in Florida or Alabama. The reality is that schools are open across most of the country to various degrees and with various precautions. It's places like DC that refuse to open no matter what (and in defiance of what groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend) that are becoming the outliers. We are worried about what being out of school for so long is doing to our kids. Our jobs are flexible enough that we don't need to live here. Employers in general seem much flexible about working remotely.

NP. Another LAMB family considering leaving as DL is a disaster for our 7yo. And that’s not the fault of the teachers but if a school with a fully renovated building with large open areas, classrooms with windows that can open, top of line HVAC system and a spacious outdoors not to mention parents that would trip over themselves buying enough TP and cleaning products for the next year can’t make it work, I’m ready to move on.

Right. This. I am another LAMB parent considering moving to my home state where schools are all open at least hybrid, after the holidays. So far they have almost no reported cases in any school (suburban area). I would try to maintain enrollment in LAMB via attendance at some of the daily classes.

So how are you going to get residency in this other state for your kids to attend school there, but also keep attendance at LAMB? Wouldn't this be residency fraud? You can't be residents of two states and attendance is based on residency.

This is a an interesting question this year. I have my K student enrolled in day care. She does all educational activities there and logs on to zoom once a day for her attendance at her charter. Obviously she goes to day care because I can’t leave her home alone but I wonder how it’s really that different to put your kid in school somewhere else like PP plans.

Do you live in DC? That’s the difference

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:African-American women are disproportionately like to a) get; b) die from COVID. There are also twice as likely as white people to be caring for elderly parents/relatives. Many white parents on DCUM use poor children (who they couldn't give zero effs about, normally) as a shield for their racist and misogynistic response to African-American teachers and the WTU. It is not laziness and a lack of caring for children that makes teacher skeptical about DCPS/DCPCS back to in-person school plans. It's fear and distrust. You have to counter fear and distrust with confidence building-measures like rapid testing and isolating students within the school building like they do in Scandinavia.

It also helps to focus on facts. Not very many people in DC die from coronavirus -- the numbers have fallen dramatically over the past six months. Only 14 people died in October, which is close to the number who typically die in car accidents each month. Of those who've died, they are disproportionately elderly. 60 percent were at least 70 years old.

Well, you are culling facts that serve your agenda. Long-haul COVID is real and brutal: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/long-haul-covid-patients/2020/10/23/ab7c5324-0712-11eb-9be6-cf25fb429f1a_story.html. Cases are surging in VA and MD where many DC teachers live: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/coronavirus-in-dc-maryland-virginia-what-to-know-on-oct

so no public school till 2023?

Henny-penny, much? When DC, NoVa, and MoCo/PG rates are not surging + a vaccine is available is not 2023.

Ok, 2022. Per fauci widespread vaccine will not be available until late 2021. So that means (according to you) we could start phasing in around January 2022, over a year from now?

If the school waits for a vaccine before reopening, i suspect a substantial share of its student body will leave.

I'll humor you. And go where? Private? (Where are these magic spaces coming from? Where is the money coming from to pay for tuition?) Move from DC? (To where? With what job? How does that help if adjacent jurisdictions are all still DL (as they are now)? You moving to Alabama or Florida as part of a "cut off your nose to spite your face" protest?)

The same people who casually cite scientific data and infectious disease experts as the reason we should be open might want to explore many of the open areas before paying that moving truck; you'd be surprised to learn those jurisdictions are open not because of experts, but because they long ago decided to ignore and devalue experts.

Serious question: would you rather live in a place where they ignore science and your kid MUST go to school even with super high infection and transmission rates or a pace where schools remain closed even if some data would agitate for a voluntary in-person return. Unless you home-school or own/run your own town you don't get to choose.

LAMB parent here. We are big fans of LAMB but if it doesnt open until a vaccine, then we're leaving. We've been going back and forth about leaving DC for awhile in order to be closer to family and maybe LAMB will make the decision for us. Distance learning has put an intolerable amount of pressure on our family. I don't know why you're obsessed with what's happening in Florida or Alabama. The reality is that schools are open across most of the country to various degrees and with various precautions. It's places like DC that refuse to open no matter what (and in defiance of what groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend) that are becoming the outliers. We are worried about what being out of school for so long is doing to our kids. Our jobs are flexible enough that we don't need to live here. Employers in general seem much flexible about working remotely.

NP. Another LAMB family considering leaving as DL is a disaster for our 7yo. And that’s not the fault of the teachers but if a school with a fully renovated building with large open areas, classrooms with windows that can open, top of line HVAC system and a spacious outdoors not to mention parents that would trip over themselves buying enough TP and cleaning products for the next year can’t make it work, I’m ready to move on.

Right. This. I am another LAMB parent considering moving to my home state where schools are all open at least hybrid, after the holidays. So far they have almost no reported cases in any school (suburban area). I would try to maintain enrollment in LAMB via attendance at some of the daily classes.

So how are you going to get residency in this other state for your kids to attend school there, but also keep attendance at LAMB? Wouldn't this be residency fraud? You can't be residents of two states and attendance is based on residency.

This is a an interesting question this year. I have my K student enrolled in day care. She does all educational activities there and logs on to zoom once a day for her attendance at her charter. Obviously she goes to day care because I can’t leave her home alone but I wonder how it’s really that different to put your kid in school somewhere else like PP plans.

Do you live in DC? That’s the difference

Tell that to the LAMB parents who live in Maryland.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I'll humor you. And go where? Private? (Where are these magic spaces coming from? Where is the money coming from to pay for tuition?) Move from DC? (To where? With what job? How does that help if adjacent jurisdictions are all still DL (as they are now)? You moving to Alabama or Florida as part of a "cut off your nose to spite your face" protest?)

So I and many others I know discuss these options:
1. private (generally the parochial schools because they are just as expensive as the current pod/nanny/tutoring/daycare going on)
2. dropping out of charters and going IB if DCPS opens and the charters don't
3. moving to the nearest suburb with public schools that open (and retaining current job but having a shitty commute)
4. moving closer to or in with family (NYC, for ex) (also some discuss moving in with family in other countries) (this one relies on the ability to continue teleworking)

I'll note that many of these choices (aside from #1) would be forced through financial hardship; no one really WANTS to do these things. But, for example, a friend is a single mother being forced by her public sector job to go to work in-person soon; she's got to send her young kids somewhere and doesn't make enough money for a nanny, etc., nor does she have family in the area. What does she do?

Enter for a CARES room? Take federal CARES Act leave until 12/31? Apply to be a CARES babysitter? She’s got some options.

Almost certainly this person is expecting to go back in 2021, so the leave doesn't matter. And how is someone who already has a job but no time and not enough money going to replace their salaried job with working in a CARES classroom? That makes no sense.

None of these three options are available for someone with a kid in a charter.

Then leave the charter and enroll in your inbound Dcps. I mean come on. The beauty of charters is that you can leave when it no longer works for you!

Ah yes, unenroll from your school to maybe have a chance to get into a CARES classroom. Definitely a realistic solution. Although I am sure you knew that all of your responses have been completely flippant.

No this is learned helplessness. There are options. Options she doesn’t like/doesn’t want to do....but that doesn’t mean there are no options

lol I love this "here are some options that aren't really options!" "literally everyone has a way to solve this problem! I don't know what it is but I swear it exists!"

It’s up to her to decide what she wants to do. It’s isn’t up to me or you to find her options. It appears she just wants to complain. That’s fine and it’s within her rights. But seriously, find another school, quit the job, join a pod, find a new job. Stop complaining and start finding a solution.

It's fascinating to me that you can only imagine a world where 1. it is easy to find a better job and 2. one can afford to pay for private school and 3. one is sufficiently socially-connected to be able to join an educational pod (which I guess you're assuming is free). Now that's privilege. Some people out there are really stuck between a rock and a hard place, which apparently makes them "whiners."

What do you tell your friends when they are telling you about their struggles? Do you have friends?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:


It’s up to her to decide what she wants to do. It’s isn’t up to me or you to find her options. It appears she just wants to complain. That’s fine and it’s within her rights. But seriously, find another school, quit the job, join a pod, find a new job. Stop complaining and start finding a solution.

Good christ. I'm the person that described my friend. She's not complaining. I offered her story as a reason she would have to leave a charter. Way to make up a strawman just to bash it.

[Anonymous]

Charters don’t really care about parents. They aren’t set up for that. Especially not LAMB. They have a massive waitlist and large donors. So leave or don’t. But threatening to leave is just dumb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Charters don’t really care about parents. They aren’t set up for that. Especially not LAMB. They have a massive waitlist and large donors. So leave or don’t. But threatening to leave is just dumb.

I agree that they aren't set up for parents (especially not LAMB), and I agree that LAMB won't care at all if many parents leave. I think other charters with shorter waitlists definitely are more responsive to parents, as retention is a factor in their Teir ranking, and they want to move up the Tier scale.

It does beg the question, though: What DOES matter to LAMB? What would make them listen to parents? Maybe a WP article? IDK. It doesn't seem like the board much cares about parents.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:African-American women are disproportionately like to a) get; b) die from COVID. There are also twice as likely as white people to be caring for elderly parents/relatives. Many white parents on DCUM use poor children (who they couldn't give zero effs about, normally) as a shield for their racist and misogynistic response to African-American teachers and the WTU. It is not laziness and a lack of caring for children that makes teacher skeptical about DCPS/DCPCS back to in-person school plans. It's fear and distrust. You have to counter fear and distrust with confidence building-measures like rapid testing and isolating students within the school building like they do in Scandinavia.

It also helps to focus on facts. Not very many people in DC die from coronavirus -- the numbers have fallen dramatically over the past six months. Only 14 people died in October, which is close to the number who typically die in car accidents each month. Of those who've died, they are disproportionately elderly. 60 percent were at least 70 years old.

Well, you are culling facts that serve your agenda. Long-haul COVID is real and brutal: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/long-haul-covid-patients/2020/10/23/ab7c5324-0712-11eb-9be6-cf25fb429f1a_story.html. Cases are surging in VA and MD where many DC teachers live: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/coronavirus-in-dc-maryland-virginia-what-to-know-on-oct

so no public school till 2023?

Henny-penny, much? When DC, NoVa, and MoCo/PG rates are not surging + a vaccine is available is not 2023.

Ok, 2022. Per fauci widespread vaccine will not be available until late 2021. So that means (according to you) we could start phasing in around January 2022, over a year from now?

If the school waits for a vaccine before reopening, i suspect a substantial share of its student body will leave.

I'll humor you. And go where? Private? (Where are these magic spaces coming from? Where is the money coming from to pay for tuition?) Move from DC? (To where? With what job? How does that help if adjacent jurisdictions are all still DL (as they are now)? You moving to Alabama or Florida as part of a "cut off your nose to spite your face" protest?)

The same people who casually cite scientific data and infectious disease experts as the reason we should be open might want to explore many of the open areas before paying that moving truck; you'd be surprised to learn those jurisdictions are open not because of experts, but because they long ago decided to ignore and devalue experts.

Serious question: would you rather live in a place where they ignore science and your kid MUST go to school even with super high infection and transmission rates or a pace where schools remain closed even if some data would agitate for a voluntary in-person return. Unless you home-school or own/run your own town you don't get to choose.

LAMB parent here. We are big fans of LAMB but if it doesnt open until a vaccine, then we're leaving. We've been going back and forth about leaving DC for awhile in order to be closer to family and maybe LAMB will make the decision for us. Distance learning has put an intolerable amount of pressure on our family. I don't know why you're obsessed with what's happening in Florida or Alabama. The reality is that schools are open across most of the country to various degrees and with various precautions. It's places like DC that refuse to open no matter what (and in defiance of what groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend) that are becoming the outliers. We are worried about what being out of school for so long is doing to our kids. Our jobs are flexible enough that we don't need to live here. Employers in general seem much flexible about working remotely.

NP. Another LAMB family considering leaving as DL is a disaster for our 7yo. And that’s not the fault of the teachers but if a school with a fully renovated building with large open areas, classrooms with windows that can open, top of line HVAC system and a spacious outdoors not to mention parents that would trip over themselves buying enough TP and cleaning products for the next year can’t make it work, I’m ready to move on.

Right. This. I am another LAMB parent considering moving to my home state where schools are all open at least hybrid, after the holidays. So far they have almost no reported cases in any school (suburban area). I would try to maintain enrollment in LAMB via attendance at some of the daily classes.

So how are you going to get residency in this other state for your kids to attend school there, but also keep attendance at LAMB? Wouldn't this be residency fraud? You can't be residents of two states and attendance is based on residency.

This is a an interesting question this year. I have my K student enrolled in day care. She does all educational activities there and logs on to zoom once a day for her attendance at her charter. Obviously she goes to day care because I can’t leave her home alone but I wonder how it’s really that different to put your kid in school somewhere else like PP plans.

Do you live in DC? That’s the difference

Exactly. Per the letter of the law and DL requirements, what you are doing isn't wrong.

[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:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:African-American women are disproportionately like to a) get; b) die from COVID. There are also twice as likely as white people to be caring for elderly parents/relatives. Many white parents on DCUM use poor children (who they couldn't give zero effs about, normally) as a shield for their racist and misogynistic response to African-American teachers and the WTU. It is not laziness and a lack of caring for children that makes teacher skeptical about DCPS/DCPCS back to in-person school plans. It's fear and distrust. You have to counter fear and distrust with confidence building-measures like rapid testing and isolating students within the school building like they do in Scandinavia.

It also helps to focus on facts. Not very many people in DC die from coronavirus -- the numbers have fallen dramatically over the past six months. Only 14 people died in October, which is close to the number who typically die in car accidents each month. Of those who've died, they are disproportionately elderly. 60 percent were at least 70 years old.

Well, you are culling facts that serve your agenda. Long-haul COVID is real and brutal: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/long-haul-covid-patients/2020/10/23/ab7c5324-0712-11eb-9be6-cf25fb429f1a_story.html. Cases are surging in VA and MD where many DC teachers live: https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/coronavirus-in-dc-maryland-virginia-what-to-know-on-oct

so no public school till 2023?

Henny-penny, much? When DC, NoVa, and MoCo/PG rates are not surging + a vaccine is available is not 2023.

Ok, 2022. Per fauci widespread vaccine will not be available until late 2021. So that means (according to you) we could start phasing in around January 2022, over a year from now?

If the school waits for a vaccine before reopening, i suspect a substantial share of its student body will leave.

I'll humor you. And go where? Private? (Where are these magic spaces coming from? Where is the money coming from to pay for tuition?) Move from DC? (To where? With what job? How does that help if adjacent jurisdictions are all still DL (as they are now)? You moving to Alabama or Florida as part of a "cut off your nose to spite your face" protest?)

The same people who casually cite scientific data and infectious disease experts as the reason we should be open might want to explore many of the open areas before paying that moving truck; you'd be surprised to learn those jurisdictions are open not because of experts, but because they long ago decided to ignore and devalue experts.

Serious question: would you rather live in a place where they ignore science and your kid MUST go to school even with super high infection and transmission rates or a pace where schools remain closed even if some data would agitate for a voluntary in-person return. Unless you home-school or own/run your own town you don't get to choose.

LAMB parent here. We are big fans of LAMB but if it doesnt open until a vaccine, then we're leaving. We've been going back and forth about leaving DC for awhile in order to be closer to family and maybe LAMB will make the decision for us. Distance learning has put an intolerable amount of pressure on our family. I don't know why you're obsessed with what's happening in Florida or Alabama. The reality is that schools are open across most of the country to various degrees and with various precautions. It's places like DC that refuse to open no matter what (and in defiance of what groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend) that are becoming the outliers. We are worried about what being out of school for so long is doing to our kids. Our jobs are flexible enough that we don't need to live here. Employers in general seem much flexible about working remotely.

NP. Another LAMB family considering leaving as DL is a disaster for our 7yo. And that’s not the fault of the teachers but if a school with a fully renovated building with large open areas, classrooms with windows that can open, top of line HVAC system and a spacious outdoors not to mention parents that would trip over themselves buying enough TP and cleaning products for the next year can’t make it work, I’m ready to move on.

Right. This. I am another LAMB parent considering moving to my home state where schools are all open at least hybrid, after the holidays. So far they have almost no reported cases in any school (suburban area). I would try to maintain enrollment in LAMB via attendance at some of the daily classes.

So how are you going to get residency in this other state for your kids to attend school there, but also keep attendance at LAMB? Wouldn't this be residency fraud? You can't be residents of two states and attendance is based on residency.

This is a an interesting question this year. I have my K student enrolled in day care. She does all educational activities there and logs on to zoom once a day for her attendance at her charter. Obviously she goes to day care because I can’t leave her home alone but I wonder how it’s really that different to put your kid in school somewhere else like PP plans.

Do you live in DC? That’s the difference

Exactly. Per the letter of the law and DL requirements, what you are doing isn't wrong.

Hmm. I guess you're right, I'd be committing residency fraud - not here, but in the other state, where I'd do what so many MDers do here, using a relative's address to access the public schools. Oh well!