APS Teachers In School for only one week of prep

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pardon me but why did you put medical steering committee in quotes.

You just made my day!

Ha! I actually loved that post. I found it entertaining. The APE crowd got pretty touchy when someone had the gall to ask who was on their medical steering committee.

I had not paid attention to that but now I do find it really odd that this group formed a medical steering committee. Who ARE these people and how much time do they have on their hands... first all those signs and now this?

APE is batsh@t crazy!

That’s mean. I take it back. A lot of people are under a lot of stress and they are making decisions and or comments without really using their brain or their heart.

I have the same problem. I know some in my neighborhood. One is fairly nice, but definitely doesn’t think CoVID is a thing. One wants her kids to be able to socialize at school, because she’s so nuts, no one will set up play dates with them. I don’t know if she is aware of that- that she is the problem. One family is pretty nice... I can’t figure out why they got in bed with these people. I mean, that’s the thing- maybe they want schools open, and put that sign up, but...some of these people ARE nuts. They’ve convinced themselves this is the right thing. They BASH teachers. Also... all of them have means, but talk extensively about the needs of low-income families. If you cared about that kid before, how come you never, ever invited them to a birthday party?

If you tell your kid from day one that virtual school is the worst thing that ever happened to them, and they won’t learn anything.... you have created your own self-fulfilling prophecy. That’s the case with one of them- she’s had her kids involved in all of this shit since this summer. No wonder they’re depressed, hate their teachers, etc.

I’m sorry, but it’s true. And yeah- I am sorry. They are just kids, and I know these people love them very much. They do, but it’s all really messed up, and some of them don’t see it.

it's been a messed up year for a lot of folks in what was already a messed up county. But there is no end in sight and people only have so much patience.

I disagree- I see an end to this thing.

Me too - and if APS is having a hard time getting teachers back in the classroom, I'm willing to bet there are teachers in other parts of the country that earn much less that would be willing to relocate and take their spot for the major pay increase. We need to start thinking about alternative ways to make this happen, but I do think there is an end in sight, one way or the other.

I also want to add that you get what you pay for. This school system attracts the best and the brightest, because of its salary and benefits. We have excellent teachers, be we compensate them fairly. There is no teacher in this country that is overpaid.

Hahahahah. You’re new to APS aren’t you? Best and brightest??? I beg to differ.

We switched 2 kids to private. Best and brightest are NOT in APS

I am sure there are great private school teachers, but as rule of thumb, most do not have a professional teaching license, which is a good standard to measure qualifications by, and, my understanding is they are paid much less.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the deal with the anonymous tweet about 25% of these phase one teachers/staff contracting Covid? Are there any legs around that?

No, there isn't. If it were anywhere close to true, APS would be required to report it and it would turn up in the Covid outbreak dashboard for Arlington (there have been zero in K-12 schools in Arlington County for the entire pandemic). You only need two confirmed cases in a facility to have it be listed as an outbreak.

Also worth noting that the tweet appears to have been deleted.

If you look on the latest on AEM, an APS staff person who works with the superintendent posted that they did indeed announce 55 have been infected, however that includes staff not working in person in schools. The major issue is that there’s been no transparency on this unlike other local counties.

Yeah and why did this have to leak through staff and then AEM before he admitted that? Come on APS. Other schools are disclosing Covid cases. Be better.

Oh my God. Which county on the DMV are had handled this better than APS? I am all ears...

Because APS knows it will just create more reason to kick the can further and further and further.. unlike folks in other counties that are being more realistic..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SOLs should be great this year,

This year's SOL scores are going to be largely ignored due to the circumstances. Teachers are screwed next year, though, when they'll count again and teachers will have to deal with all of this year's learning loss in addition to teaching next year's curriculum to get students prepared for SOLs.

Plus so many of the more affluent families, who have a disproportionate share of the high-performers on SOLs, are leaving for private, and many won't come back next year. So the drop-off in average SOL performance is going to be even worse. If you compare the monthly enrollment numbers for September and December, the higher-performing schools are seeing much larger decreases in enrollment.

Good. The entitled awful APE families who are screaming at teachers and claiming to care about poor kids can just leave. Please leave.

[Anonymous]

I still want to know which DMV county has handled reopening during the pandemic better than APS. All I have seen is lots of promises dates and cancellations. I am not faulting any of them- this is such a fluid situation- but APS, in my humble opinion, has been heads abs shoulders above the rest. Only one hiccup teacher workday in November. Not bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SOLs should be great this year,

This year's SOL scores are going to be largely ignored due to the circumstances. Teachers are screwed next year, though, when they'll count again and teachers will have to deal with all of this year's learning loss in addition to teaching next year's curriculum to get students prepared for SOLs.

Plus so many of the more affluent families, who have a disproportionate share of the high-performers on SOLs, are leaving for private, and many won't come back next year. So the drop-off in average SOL performance is going to be even worse. If you compare the monthly enrollment numbers for September and December, the higher-performing schools are seeing much larger decreases in enrollment.

Affluent leaving for private, yes. High performers, I haven’t seen that. Highest performers in my kids middle school seem to be still there. Many chose DL.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the deal with the anonymous tweet about 25% of these phase one teachers/staff contracting Covid? Are there any legs around that?

No, there isn't. If it were anywhere close to true, APS would be required to report it and it would turn up in the Covid outbreak dashboard for Arlington (there have been zero in K-12 schools in Arlington County for the entire pandemic). You only need two confirmed cases in a facility to have it be listed as an outbreak.

Also worth noting that the tweet appears to have been deleted.

If you look on the latest on AEM, an APS staff person who works with the superintendent posted that they did indeed announce 55 have been infected, however that includes staff not working in person in schools. The major issue is that there’s been no transparency on this unlike other local counties.

Yeah and why did this have to leak through staff and then AEM before he admitted that? Come on APS. Other schools are disclosing Covid cases. Be better.

Because APS knows it will just create more reason to kick the can further and further and further.. unlike folks in other counties that are being more realistic.. [/quot

Speak for your own kids. Mine are doing fine AND they won’t be entitled assholes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the deal with the anonymous tweet about 25% of these phase one teachers/staff contracting Covid? Are there any legs around that?

No, there isn't. If it were anywhere close to true, APS would be required to report it and it would turn up in the Covid outbreak dashboard for Arlington (there have been zero in K-12 schools in Arlington County for the entire pandemic). You only need two confirmed cases in a facility to have it be listed as an outbreak.

Hi APE. Nice try.

I was in the staff meeting. You were not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SOLs should be great this year,

This year's SOL scores are going to be largely ignored due to the circumstances. Teachers are screwed next year, though, when they'll count again and teachers will have to deal with all of this year's learning loss in addition to teaching next year's curriculum to get students prepared for SOLs.

Plus so many of the more affluent families, who have a disproportionate share of the high-performers on SOLs, are leaving for private, and many won't come back next year. So the drop-off in average SOL performance is going to be even worse. If you compare the monthly enrollment numbers for September and December, the higher-performing schools are seeing much larger decreases in enrollment.

Affluent leaving for private, yes. High performers, I haven’t seen that. Highest performers in my kids middle school seem to be still there. Many chose DL.

Yes, I’m sure you have access to all of this data across APS to support this claim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the deal with the anonymous tweet about 25% of these phase one teachers/staff contracting Covid? Are there any legs around that?

No, there isn't. If it were anywhere close to true, APS would be required to report it and it would turn up in the Covid outbreak dashboard for Arlington (there have been zero in K-12 schools in Arlington County for the entire pandemic). You only need two confirmed cases in a facility to have it be listed as an outbreak.

Hi APE. Nice try.

I was in the staff meeting. You were not.

So then which schools had two or more cases at the same time?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the deal with the anonymous tweet about 25% of these phase one teachers/staff contracting Covid? Are there any legs around that?

No, there isn't. If it were anywhere close to true, APS would be required to report it and it would turn up in the Covid outbreak dashboard for Arlington (there have been zero in K-12 schools in Arlington County for the entire pandemic). You only need two confirmed cases in a facility to have it be listed as an outbreak.

Hi APE. Nice try.

I was in the staff meeting. You were not.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of schools everywhere in the area where you have multiple cases and they have not been reported as outbreaks. I not sure why- maybe they can’t link them to one another. Also, there’s a backlog. Some of the stuff is not popping up on VDH every Friday like it should be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the deal with the anonymous tweet about 25% of these phase one teachers/staff contracting Covid? Are there any legs around that?

No, there isn't. If it were anywhere close to true, APS would be required to report it and it would turn up in the Covid outbreak dashboard for Arlington (there have been zero in K-12 schools in Arlington County for the entire pandemic). You only need two confirmed cases in a facility to have it be listed as an outbreak.

Hi APE. Nice try.

I was in the staff meeting. You were not.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of schools everywhere in the area where you have multiple cases and they have not been reported as outbreaks. I not sure why- maybe they can’t link them to one another. Also, there’s a backlog. Some of the stuff is not popping up on VDH every Friday like it should be.

With that said, I was NOT in the APS staff meeting! My knowledge comes from Fairfax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the deal with the anonymous tweet about 25% of these phase one teachers/staff contracting Covid? Are there any legs around that?

No, there isn't. If it were anywhere close to true, APS would be required to report it and it would turn up in the Covid outbreak dashboard for Arlington (there have been zero in K-12 schools in Arlington County for the entire pandemic). You only need two confirmed cases in a facility to have it be listed as an outbreak.

Also worth noting that the tweet appears to have been deleted.

If you look on the latest on AEM, an APS staff person who works with the superintendent posted that they did indeed announce 55 have been infected, however that includes staff not working in person in schools. The major issue is that there’s been no transparency on this unlike other local counties.

Yeah and why did this have to leak through staff and then AEM before he admitted that? Come on APS. Other schools are disclosing Covid cases. Be better.

Because a 0.8% infection across a large population that aren’t even in the same physical location simply isn’t news right now. It’s completely expected.

[Anonymous]

You know what, though? This bickering really needs to stop. A vaccine is here, it’s being distributed... we should all be really pleased. The end is in sight, and it’s only a matter of time. We’ve made it this long...! We can do this.

[Anonymous]

And the reality is- SOL scores probably will drop. Who cares? If you’ve survived this without losing someone you love, feel grateful. The kids will be ok.

[Anonymous]

I’m an APS teacher with kids in APS at all levels. I will get my first shot tomorrow and second shot mid February. 2 weeks after that I will have full effects. I would like to see APS commit to getting everyone vaccinated (they are not even close, 2000/7000 this weekend will have shot 1). I would be ready to go back March 1 but I don’t know if enough staff will be ready at that point vaccine wise. They really need to get more vaccine out so we can go back. Additionally for student safety I would like more mitigation i the buildings primarily with ventilation and outdoor lunches. I haven’t eaten in a restaurant since early March and I will not start now since it’s been identified as a high-risk activity. If APS can improve mitigation and finish vaccinating staff, let’s go!

I don’t feel these requests are too much to ask for safe working conditions. I also think the more affluent parents demanding in-person with the equity argument are really full of crap. The most needy students at my school are the ones who more frequently selected virtual. They will struggle more in the new 3-5 concurrent model.