How can we force our school to reopen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people have returned to their workplaces. Gallup says only one-third of workers are still working from home. 42 percent say they've never worked from home during the pandemic.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/321800/covid-remote-work-update.aspx?utm_source=twitterbutton&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=sharing

Yes. As much as I don't want to go back to my office for a variety of reasons, I'd suck it up if I was ordered to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids are back to school IN DC. In privates and Catholic schools. If you can't see the issue with wealthy kids getting schooling in person, and the rest of us not, I don't know what to tell you.

Which private schools are opened? Last I checked they were all distance learning too

I think basically all private high schools in DC are at least open for hybrid, including Potomac, Madeira, Holton, Landon, Bullis, St Andrews, Flint Hill, SJC, Gonzaga, Georgetown Prep, Good Counsel, Stone Ridge, Visitation and AHC. Holton opens next week, STA and NCS opening in the next couple of weeks.

Catholic elementary schools some also open. Not sure about the non religious private elementaries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids are back to school IN DC. In privates and Catholic schools. If you can't see the issue with wealthy kids getting schooling in person, and the rest of us not, I don't know what to tell you.

Which private schools are opened? Last I checked they were all distance learning too

I think basically all private high schools in DC are at least open for hybrid, including Potomac, Madeira, Holton, Landon, Bullis, St Andrews, Flint Hill, SJC, Gonzaga, Georgetown Prep, Good Counsel, Stone Ridge, Visitation and AHC. Holton opens next week, STA and NCS opening in the next couple of weeks.

Catholic elementary schools some also open. Not sure about the non religious private elementaries.

I think the bigger question is how many kids are enrolled? It’s a lot easier to open a school with an enrollment of 300 than a system of 45,000. My elementary has over 700 kids. That’s the bigger issue no one is talking about. Logistics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people have returned to their workplaces. Gallup says only one-third of workers are still working from home. 42 percent say they've never worked from home during the pandemic.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/321800/covid-remote-work-update.aspx?utm_source=twitterbutton&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=sharing

A lot of folks in DC? Nope.
Tons of hover mothers in DL screens

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have contact info for Mayor Bowser’s office? The main number seems unmonitored. As constituents how are we meant to express our views?

Paul Kihn who is Bowser's deputy mayor for education is at [e-mail]

[e-mail]

City COuncil Chair Phil Mendelson is at [e-mail]

City COuncil education chair David Gross is at [e-mail]

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The reality is kids are attending in person school all across the country.

It really comes down to who you elect for elected officials.

+1

[Anonymous]

Looking at this through a secondary lens -- before you blame teachers or anyone else, take a look at the stringent department of health requirements that schools in DC would have to follow to be able to open to any students. They have to screen students at the door. A school already doing it says it takes 30 seconds per kid. Think about a MS or HS that wants to allow 400 kids/day into the building. It could be hours just to get the kids' butts in their seats. There are requirements about the numbers of total people allowed in each room PLUS social distancing requirements in classrooms that would not even allow some schools to divide their student body in half to do a hybrid model because of classroom size/shape. Kids are not allowed to transition from class to class through the hallways, and the DOH is discouraging even teachers from moving from class to class. This would mean reworking the entire school schedule and revamping all student schedules to get them into some kind of cohort-like thing, which would definitely be incredibly challenging and in a lot of places would be impossible. Plus, of course, the HVAC upgrades, the intensive cleaning schedule, the endless supplies needed, the questions about what you do if your staff gets sick, unknowns about getting kids to and from school, etc. Other states ARE doing hybrid models, but they do not have requirements like this. I've seen schools in other state that have opened in a hybrid fashion, and they keep it very simple: half of the kids in school every day. No long screening process. No "this is the absolute max number of students who could be in one room." No "kids cannot go in the hallways and there is to be no transitioning of classes." It's probably good that DC is being so much more thoughtful (this is the kind of thing that makes our numbers so good, right?) But at the same time, these requirements are so prohibitive that it should really not be surprising that not a lot of schools are moving forward with a plan. It's nearly impossible to make one and follow all of the rules. Then, add on whatever teacher pushback exists, etc. and it becomes a non-starter.

[Anonymous]

OK, so how is it that thousands of public elementary schools have reopened all around the country, including in NYC. Most of the kids in public school in this country now attend safely 2, 3 even 5 days a week, but not in DC.

Figure it out. Make it work. Our children need to return to school this school year for a hundred good reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK, so how is it that thousands of public elementary schools have reopened all around the country, including in NYC. Most of the kids in public school in this country now attend safely 2, 3 even 5 days a week, but not in DC.

Figure it out. Make it work. Our children need to return to school this school year for a hundred good reasons.

X10000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looking at this through a secondary lens -- before you blame teachers or anyone else, take a look at the stringent department of health requirements that schools in DC would have to follow to be able to open to any students. They have to screen students at the door. A school already doing it says it takes 30 seconds per kid. Think about a MS or HS that wants to allow 400 kids/day into the building. It could be hours just to get the kids' butts in their seats. There are requirements about the numbers of total people allowed in each room PLUS social distancing requirements in classrooms that would not even allow some schools to divide their student body in half to do a hybrid model because of classroom size/shape. Kids are not allowed to transition from class to class through the hallways, and the DOH is discouraging even teachers from moving from class to class. This would mean reworking the entire school schedule and revamping all student schedules to get them into some kind of cohort-like thing, which would definitely be incredibly challenging and in a lot of places would be impossible. Plus, of course, the HVAC upgrades, the intensive cleaning schedule, the endless supplies needed, the questions about what you do if your staff gets sick, unknowns about getting kids to and from school, etc. Other states ARE doing hybrid models, but they do not have requirements like this. I've seen schools in other state that have opened in a hybrid fashion, and they keep it very simple: half of the kids in school every day. No long screening process. No "this is the absolute max number of students who could be in one room." No "kids cannot go in the hallways and there is to be no transitioning of classes." It's probably good that DC is being so much more thoughtful (this is the kind of thing that makes our numbers so good, right?) But at the same time, these requirements are so prohibitive that it should really not be surprising that not a lot of schools are moving forward with a plan. It's nearly impossible to make one and follow all of the rules. Then, add on whatever teacher pushback exists, etc. and it becomes a non-starter.

One -- please consider paragraphs.

Two -- it's not all or nothing. I am skeptical of any argument against schools opening that starts with "Think about a MS or HS that wants to allow 400 kids/day into the building." Why would I think about that when MS and HS kids are not the most in need of in-person school, and when almost everyone agrees that the real need is to address ECE and early elementary grades, since those kids get the least out of DL and also poses the greatest challenges to families in terms of childcare. Plus, these younger children are shown to pose the lowest possible risk to community spread. Not zero, but way, way less than HS students.

If you start there, then we're not talking about schools getting 400 HS students through a symptoms check point. We're talking about schools getting maybe 100 or 150 kids aged 3-8 through the door. Much more manageable, especially because kids this age tend to be easier to get into a routine and get high compliance than in MS or HS. It's also not that weird for kids this age to spend the entire day in one classroom with the same teacher. They would have to make some adjustments for specials and PE, but that's nothing compared to the change for MS or HS students who get much more specialized instruction.

And if you focus on that population, the HVAC requirements become more approachable too because you can focus on just the elementary and K-8 schools and wait on the MS and HS buildings.

And if you can get all of this done for PK3 through maybe 3rd or 4th grade, which actually sounds pretty manageable, then you have a plan in place that you could watch for a few months to see how it goes. That would give you a ton of data and a jumping off point for adapting the plan for older elementary grades, MS, and HS, assuming the Covid numbers support that for Term 3.

It's like no one involved in this process has ever had to implement new policies or adjust to a new environment before. It's not that hard, and just requires the ability to organize ideas, identify prioritize, and execute. It is unreal to me how incompetent people are acting.

[Anonymous]

It started with "looking at this through a secondary lens" so if you don't care about secondary, you had the chance to opt out from reading a post that was not about ECE or elementary reopening. Not sure why it's not okay to bring up secondary reopening when this is a major portion of our school system.

Maybe you don't care about secondary and you think those kids are not in need. That is probably because you're not a stakeholder in a secondary education setting, which is fine, but it's worth having the whole picture and some people would disagree and say that MS and HS students do need to be in school.

You shouldn't criticize the numbers brought up in a post about secondary reopening, as 400 students is less than 1/3 of the total enrollment of a few secondary schools in the district. This is in fact, an accurate assessment of the number of students who could need to be let through the door once a transition to a hybrid model happens.

I am not sure why it was so upsetting for you to have to read through some of the policies that are in place through the DOH that are prohibitive to schools reopening. I don't think it is unfair to bring up this sub group of students who need an education, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looking at this through a secondary lens -- before you blame teachers or anyone else, take a look at the stringent department of health requirements that schools in DC would have to follow to be able to open to any students. They have to screen students at the door. A school already doing it says it takes 30 seconds per kid. Think about a MS or HS that wants to allow 400 kids/day into the building. It could be hours just to get the kids' butts in their seats. There are requirements about the numbers of total people allowed in each room PLUS social distancing requirements in classrooms that would not even allow some schools to divide their student body in half to do a hybrid model because of classroom size/shape. Kids are not allowed to transition from class to class through the hallways, and the DOH is discouraging even teachers from moving from class to class. This would mean reworking the entire school schedule and revamping all student schedules to get them into some kind of cohort-like thing, which would definitely be incredibly challenging and in a lot of places would be impossible. Plus, of course, the HVAC upgrades, the intensive cleaning schedule, the endless supplies needed, the questions about what you do if your staff gets sick, unknowns about getting kids to and from school, etc. Other states ARE doing hybrid models, but they do not have requirements like this. I've seen schools in other state that have opened in a hybrid fashion, and they keep it very simple: half of the kids in school every day. No long screening process. No "this is the absolute max number of students who could be in one room." No "kids cannot go in the hallways and there is to be no transitioning of classes." It's probably good that DC is being so much more thoughtful (this is the kind of thing that makes our numbers so good, right?) But at the same time, these requirements are so prohibitive that it should really not be surprising that not a lot of schools are moving forward with a plan. It's nearly impossible to make one and follow all of the rules. Then, add on whatever teacher pushback exists, etc. and it becomes a non-starter.

One -- please consider paragraphs.

Two -- it's not all or nothing. I am skeptical of any argument against schools opening that starts with "Think about a MS or HS that wants to allow 400 kids/day into the building." Why would I think about that when MS and HS kids are not the most in need of in-person school, and when almost everyone agrees that the real need is to address ECE and early elementary grades, since those kids get the least out of DL and also poses the greatest challenges to families in terms of childcare. Plus, these younger children are shown to pose the lowest possible risk to community spread. Not zero, but way, way less than HS students.

If you start there, then we're not talking about schools getting 400 HS students through a symptoms check point. We're talking about schools getting maybe 100 or 150 kids aged 3-8 through the door. Much more manageable, especially because kids this age tend to be easier to get into a routine and get high compliance than in MS or HS. It's also not that weird for kids this age to spend the entire day in one classroom with the same teacher. They would have to make some adjustments for specials and PE, but that's nothing compared to the change for MS or HS students who get much more specialized instruction.

And if you focus on that population, the HVAC requirements become more approachable too because you can focus on just the elementary and K-8 schools and wait on the MS and HS buildings.

And if you can get all of this done for PK3 through maybe 3rd or 4th grade, which actually sounds pretty manageable, then you have a plan in place that you could watch for a few months to see how it goes. That would give you a ton of data and a jumping off point for adapting the plan for older elementary grades, MS, and HS, assuming the Covid numbers support that for Term 3.

It's like no one involved in this process has ever had to implement new policies or adjust to a new environment before. It's not that hard, and just requires the ability to organize ideas, identify prioritize, and execute. It is unreal to me how incompetent people are acting.

Your child must not attend an upper NW elementary school. Even if only 50% of the kids come on one day...that’s over 350 kids to get in the door.

[Anonymous]

This chancellor is not up to figuring out such a complex task. Didn’t you read the news articles when DC hired him? Indiana was glad to be rid of him