APS Level 2 Return to school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just feel like there are parents who will never been satisfied. fully 40% of schools are still virtual. Many private schools are hybrid or in person. Great. Go enroll in one. Duran is announcing return dates for March and he has said he is committed to having teachers/staff vaccinated as much as possible before the return. That's not a bad thing. The return is in sight.

As for summer school, good luck getting teachers to teach. There is no money in the budget to pay for increased salaries that would be necessary (and may not even be successful) in staffing summer school. Teachers work on contracts and summer school isn't included in the contract, it's in addition to the regular school-year contract. APS can't make something out of nothing.

Do I want my kids to return-yes. I want COVID to be over. I want everyone (including my kids) to be vaccinated so I feel they are safe in the return as well. I am okay with sending them back because I feel that research shows that it can be done safely but I'm not blind to the risks there are for adults and so I want them vaccinated. But overall my kids are doing okay and learning and progressing.

If only it were that easy. EVERY private school in the area is full. Not everyone who wants to leave can. There is no where to go. That's why parents are so frustrated. They have no options.

Great your kids are doing ok. A LOT are not. There are a lot of kids just turning the ipad on and tuning out. It's going to take years to dig out of this disaster the SB created. Public school kids in this area are at a HUGE disadvantage.

Such a sad, horrible situation the SB has put the APS families in. This isn't right. I just wish I knew more of what I can actually do about it, other than uprooting my family and moving.

Yes, there are no viable options for families.

And enough for the people for whom virtual learning is working. Great. We're glad it's working for you. NO ONE IS SAYING YOU HAVE TO PICK IN PERSON LEARNING! So, stop trying to force those of us for whom virtual learning is not working to feel bad or be shamed simply because it does not work for our children or our families.

We need an "opt-out" of virtual learning option. Something just seems off that we are forced to put our kids in front of screens for months on end and call it an education. This is not an education and can potentially have negative long-term effects on our kids brains and vision.

That’s called “homeschooling”.

We stretched ourselves to buy a house in Arlington, anticipating a high quality, public education. This requires both parents to work FT - homeschooling is not an option. But wow, thanks for the wise and insensitive suggestion.

You asked to opt out. What were you planning to do with your kids while working your full time jobs?

Demand an actual public education, with teachers, in-person.

So not an “opt out” but an ultimatum?

Whatever you want to call it, we should not be forced to have our kids sit in front of ipads for months on end and call it an education. There should be options.

[Anonymous]

So, the slides are now up for today’s APS Board meeting. No mention of testing at all. Am I crazy? Didn’t the last couple of reports involve info about contracting for in school testing? What happened to that? Anyone know?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just feel like there are parents who will never been satisfied. fully 40% of schools are still virtual. Many private schools are hybrid or in person. Great. Go enroll in one. Duran is announcing return dates for March and he has said he is committed to having teachers/staff vaccinated as much as possible before the return. That's not a bad thing. The return is in sight.

As for summer school, good luck getting teachers to teach. There is no money in the budget to pay for increased salaries that would be necessary (and may not even be successful) in staffing summer school. Teachers work on contracts and summer school isn't included in the contract, it's in addition to the regular school-year contract. APS can't make something out of nothing.

Do I want my kids to return-yes. I want COVID to be over. I want everyone (including my kids) to be vaccinated so I feel they are safe in the return as well. I am okay with sending them back because I feel that research shows that it can be done safely but I'm not blind to the risks there are for adults and so I want them vaccinated. But overall my kids are doing okay and learning and progressing.

If only it were that easy. EVERY private school in the area is full. Not everyone who wants to leave can. There is no where to go. That's why parents are so frustrated. They have no options.

Great your kids are doing ok. A LOT are not. There are a lot of kids just turning the ipad on and tuning out. It's going to take years to dig out of this disaster the SB created. Public school kids in this area are at a HUGE disadvantage.

Such a sad, horrible situation the SB has put the APS families in. This isn't right. I just wish I knew more of what I can actually do about it, other than uprooting my family and moving.

Yes, there are no viable options for families.

And enough for the people for whom virtual learning is working. Great. We're glad it's working for you. NO ONE IS SAYING YOU HAVE TO PICK IN PERSON LEARNING! So, stop trying to force those of us for whom virtual learning is not working to feel bad or be shamed simply because it does not work for our children or our families.

We need an "opt-out" of virtual learning option. Something just seems off that we are forced to put our kids in front of screens for months on end and call it an education. This is not an education and can potentially have negative long-term effects on our kids brains and vision.

That’s called “homeschooling”.

We stretched ourselves to buy a house in Arlington, anticipating a high quality, public education. This requires both parents to work FT - homeschooling is not an option. But wow, thanks for the wise and insensitive suggestion.

You asked to opt out. What were you planning to do with your kids while working your full time jobs?

Demand an actual public education, with teachers, in-person.

So not an “opt out” but an ultimatum?

Whatever you want to call it, we should not be forced to have our kids sit in front of ipads for months on end and call it an education. There should be options.

You have options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, the slides are now up for today’s APS Board meeting. No mention of testing at all. Am I crazy? Didn’t the last couple of reports involve info about contracting for in school testing? What happened to that? Anyone know?

That’s disappointing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, the slides are now up for today’s APS Board meeting. No mention of testing at all. Am I crazy? Didn’t the last couple of reports involve info about contracting for in school testing? What happened to that? Anyone know?

That’s disappointing.

Drives me nuts when they raise something in a presentation and then it just disappears in the next one. Did they decide not to do testing? Is there nothing to report? Do they plan to talk about it next time? Dr. Duran seems like a straight shooter but many of us have past experience with APS obfuscation and this fits that pattern. So strange.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So, the slides are now up for today’s APS Board meeting. No mention of testing at all. Am I crazy? Didn’t the last couple of reports involve info about contracting for in school testing? What happened to that? Anyone know?

Also the COVID data reported in the deck is out of date. WTF. If I used outdated data in a presentation to stakeholders for my job, I would face consequences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious about the situations of the people on here who are adamant that teachers and kids of middle and high schoolers should immediately or near-immediately return to school? Are the people who are having a really rough time with this here:

* work from home parents who have high powered jobs and are having trouble either balancing everything or hiring additional people to come in and managing that exposure (or maybe pay their nannies more);
* same, except essential workers who have to report to work;
* parents who have lost their jobs and need everything to get back to normal so they can find work;
* stay at home parents who are good people but are just out of their depth assisting with virtual school;
* parents who are working relatively low wage jobs and cannot afford to go on like this much longer;
* parents who have seen their kids academic performance severely deteriorate and just really need help from teachers to get things back on track.
* parents of three or more kids who could manage this for a while but all the demands, all the meals at home, all the homework help, all the tech help, multiplied by however many kids there is just too much at this point.

I'm not demanding anything, and truth be told, I'm pretty resigned that my MS kid won't be back in school til fall at the earliest. But yes, I am an "essential" worker, and yes, my kids are doing poorly. My MS kid went from nearly straight As (MP1) to failing 2 classes, and barely getting Cs in the rest. He barely gets out of bed or eats most days and weighs less than 70lbs. For all of the claims that APS teachers are doing such an amazing job, I never heard a peep (nor did my kid) about numerous missing assignments. Even on the 2/19 asynchronous day in which we were assured kids would get "outreach" if they had Ds-Es, there was nothing apart from "office hours" (which often happen simultaneously). I arranged a meeting with his guidance counselor who chuckled when I asked if there was any consideration of relaxing some of the standards for kids who are having a time this year due to mental health issues and/or minimal parent availability/support. My ES kid has been shamed, called out, emailed directly by teachers saying "you didn't turn in XYZ worksheet," etc etc--to the point that I emailed to ask them to stop. There are days when she and I were doing school work until 8-9pm and I can't do that anymore. Many of the teachers in her grade do not appear to know the kids' names, halfway through. I do believe that kids could have been in school with the mitigations APS has outlined, in detail, since the fall. But at this point, I have had to just try to figure out how to get through the day/week/month until...I don't know, maybe the fall? Not even confident they will pull off 5 days a week by August so, I have to start considering other options. But it has been truly awful for some of us and I hope those whose kids are doing well or at least okay can know that some of us aren't mean or entitled, just struggling, every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, the slides are now up for today’s APS Board meeting. No mention of testing at all. Am I crazy? Didn’t the last couple of reports involve info about contracting for in school testing? What happened to that? Anyone know?

That’s disappointing.

Drives me nuts when they raise something in a presentation and then it just disappears in the next one. Did they decide not to do testing? Is there nothing to report? Do they plan to talk about it next time? Dr. Duran seems like a straight shooter but many of us have past experience with APS obfuscation and this fits that pattern. So strange.

Are they waiting to hear what happens with Biden's bill - I believe that included testing for schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious about the situations of the people on here who are adamant that teachers and kids of middle and high schoolers should immediately or near-immediately return to school? Are the people who are having a really rough time with this here:

* work from home parents who have high powered jobs and are having trouble either balancing everything or hiring additional people to come in and managing that exposure (or maybe pay their nannies more);
* same, except essential workers who have to report to work;
* parents who have lost their jobs and need everything to get back to normal so they can find work;
* stay at home parents who are good people but are just out of their depth assisting with virtual school;
* parents who are working relatively low wage jobs and cannot afford to go on like this much longer;
* parents who have seen their kids academic performance severely deteriorate and just really need help from teachers to get things back on track.
* parents of three or more kids who could manage this for a while but all the demands, all the meals at home, all the homework help, all the tech help, multiplied by however many kids there is just too much at this point.

I'm not demanding anything, and truth be told, I'm pretty resigned that my MS kid won't be back in school til fall at the earliest. But yes, I am an "essential" worker, and yes, my kids are doing poorly. My MS kid went from nearly straight As (MP1) to failing 2 classes, and barely getting Cs in the rest. He barely gets out of bed or eats most days and weighs less than 70lbs. For all of the claims that APS teachers are doing such an amazing job, I never heard a peep (nor did my kid) about numerous missing assignments. Even on the 2/19 asynchronous day in which we were assured kids would get "outreach" if they had Ds-Es, there was nothing apart from "office hours" (which often happen simultaneously). I arranged a meeting with his guidance counselor who chuckled when I asked if there was any consideration of relaxing some of the standards for kids who are having a time this year due to mental health issues and/or minimal parent availability/support. My ES kid has been shamed, called out, emailed directly by teachers saying "you didn't turn in XYZ worksheet," etc etc--to the point that I emailed to ask them to stop. There are days when she and I were doing school work until 8-9pm and I can't do that anymore. Many of the teachers in her grade do not appear to know the kids' names, halfway through. I do believe that kids could have been in school with the mitigations APS has outlined, in detail, since the fall. But at this point, I have had to just try to figure out how to get through the day/week/month until...I don't know, maybe the fall? Not even confident they will pull off 5 days a week by August so, I have to start considering other options. But it has been truly awful for some of us and I hope those whose kids are doing well or at least okay can know that some of us aren't mean or entitled, just struggling, every day.

Which schools? Maybe you could bubble up with another family with kids in the same schools to have more connections?

If I knew another family at our schools were struggling so much I'd offer to take the kids during the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious about the situations of the people on here who are adamant that teachers and kids of middle and high schoolers should immediately or near-immediately return to school? Are the people who are having a really rough time with this here:

* work from home parents who have high powered jobs and are having trouble either balancing everything or hiring additional people to come in and managing that exposure (or maybe pay their nannies more);
* same, except essential workers who have to report to work;
* parents who have lost their jobs and need everything to get back to normal so they can find work;
* stay at home parents who are good people but are just out of their depth assisting with virtual school;
* parents who are working relatively low wage jobs and cannot afford to go on like this much longer;
* parents who have seen their kids academic performance severely deteriorate and just really need help from teachers to get things back on track.
* parents of three or more kids who could manage this for a while but all the demands, all the meals at home, all the homework help, all the tech help, multiplied by however many kids there is just too much at this point.

I'm not demanding anything, and truth be told, I'm pretty resigned that my MS kid won't be back in school til fall at the earliest. But yes, I am an "essential" worker, and yes, my kids are doing poorly. My MS kid went from nearly straight As (MP1) to failing 2 classes, and barely getting Cs in the rest. He barely gets out of bed or eats most days and weighs less than 70lbs. For all of the claims that APS teachers are doing such an amazing job, I never heard a peep (nor did my kid) about numerous missing assignments. Even on the 2/19 asynchronous day in which we were assured kids would get "outreach" if they had Ds-Es, there was nothing apart from "office hours" (which often happen simultaneously). I arranged a meeting with his guidance counselor who chuckled when I asked if there was any consideration of relaxing some of the standards for kids who are having a time this year due to mental health issues and/or minimal parent availability/support. My ES kid has been shamed, called out, emailed directly by teachers saying "you didn't turn in XYZ worksheet," etc etc--to the point that I emailed to ask them to stop. There are days when she and I were doing school work until 8-9pm and I can't do that anymore. Many of the teachers in her grade do not appear to know the kids' names, halfway through. I do believe that kids could have been in school with the mitigations APS has outlined, in detail, since the fall. But at this point, I have had to just try to figure out how to get through the day/week/month until...I don't know, maybe the fall? Not even confident they will pull off 5 days a week by August so, I have to start considering other options. But it has been truly awful for some of us and I hope those whose kids are doing well or at least okay can know that some of us aren't mean or entitled, just struggling, every day.

Which schools? Maybe you could bubble up with another family with kids in the same schools to have more connections?

If I knew another family at our schools were struggling so much I'd offer to take the kids during the day.

I appreciate this. We have discussed it many times and it is not something I think we can work out. For one thing, my own kids are largely unsupervised during the day and so my partner is not comfortable with having additional kids in the mix. We are fortunate to have 1 parent able to WFH but, while not "high-pressure" in the typical DCUM sense, there is not enough flexibility to allow for much in the way of helping during the school day. (FWIW I have also shared this repeatedly with both kids' teachers and...no one cares.)

[Anonymous]

Ugh. What school? Our MS teachers have been super responsive to challenges at home. Is it your elementary that isn’t?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, the slides are now up for today’s APS Board meeting. No mention of testing at all. Am I crazy? Didn’t the last couple of reports involve info about contracting for in school testing? What happened to that? Anyone know?

That’s disappointing.

Drives me nuts when they raise something in a presentation and then it just disappears in the next one. Did they decide not to do testing? Is there nothing to report? Do they plan to talk about it next time? Dr. Duran seems like a straight shooter but many of us have past experience with APS obfuscation and this fits that pattern. So strange.

Are they waiting to hear what happens with Biden's bill - I believe that included testing for schools.

If FCPS isn't doing testing, APS won't do testing. I think Duran knows at this point, he just needs to get everyone back in class asap.

[Anonymous]

Ok then say so re: testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm curious about the situations of the people on here who are adamant that teachers and kids of middle and high schoolers should immediately or near-immediately return to school? Are the people who are having a really rough time with this here:

* work from home parents who have high powered jobs and are having trouble either balancing everything or hiring additional people to come in and managing that exposure (or maybe pay their nannies more);
* same, except essential workers who have to report to work;
* parents who have lost their jobs and need everything to get back to normal so they can find work;
* stay at home parents who are good people but are just out of their depth assisting with virtual school;
* parents who are working relatively low wage jobs and cannot afford to go on like this much longer;
* parents who have seen their kids academic performance severely deteriorate and just really need help from teachers to get things back on track.
* parents of three or more kids who could manage this for a while but all the demands, all the meals at home, all the homework help, all the tech help, multiplied by however many kids there is just too much at this point.

I'm not demanding anything, and truth be told, I'm pretty resigned that my MS kid won't be back in school til fall at the earliest. But yes, I am an "essential" worker, and yes, my kids are doing poorly. My MS kid went from nearly straight As (MP1) to failing 2 classes, and barely getting Cs in the rest. He barely gets out of bed or eats most days and weighs less than 70lbs. For all of the claims that APS teachers are doing such an amazing job, I never heard a peep (nor did my kid) about numerous missing assignments. Even on the 2/19 asynchronous day in which we were assured kids would get "outreach" if they had Ds-Es, there was nothing apart from "office hours" (which often happen simultaneously). I arranged a meeting with his guidance counselor who chuckled when I asked if there was any consideration of relaxing some of the standards for kids who are having a time this year due to mental health issues and/or minimal parent availability/support. My ES kid has been shamed, called out, emailed directly by teachers saying "you didn't turn in XYZ worksheet," etc etc--to the point that I emailed to ask them to stop. There are days when she and I were doing school work until 8-9pm and I can't do that anymore. Many of the teachers in her grade do not appear to know the kids' names, halfway through. I do believe that kids could have been in school with the mitigations APS has outlined, in detail, since the fall. But at this point, I have had to just try to figure out how to get through the day/week/month until...I don't know, maybe the fall? Not even confident they will pull off 5 days a week by August so, I have to start considering other options. But it has been truly awful for some of us and I hope those whose kids are doing well or at least okay can know that some of us aren't mean or entitled, just struggling, every day.

Which schools? Maybe you could bubble up with another family with kids in the same schools to have more connections?

If I knew another family at our schools were struggling so much I'd offer to take the kids during the day.

I appreciate this. We have discussed it many times and it is not something I think we can work out. For one thing, my own kids are largely unsupervised during the day and so my partner is not comfortable with having additional kids in the mix. We are fortunate to have 1 parent able to WFH but, while not "high-pressure" in the typical DCUM sense, there is not enough flexibility to allow for much in the way of helping during the school day. (FWIW I have also shared this repeatedly with both kids' teachers and...no one cares.)

Is your partner concerned about the virus?

Maybe reach out to the counselors at the schools?

At one of our schools (ES), one teacher started a lunch bunch as a way to connect with kids and the kids LOVED it. And in MS small groups have been a highlight for my child. Maybe the counselors would have ideas on connecting with other people in a more casual, smaller group?

[Anonymous]

PP, that is truly awful. I'm so sorry APS teachers aren't being kinder and more responsive in that situation. That is shocking to me.