In-person school plans

[Anonymous]

I also don’t get why we need to pretend to social distance in the fall if teachers and staff are vaccinated and kids are in mask. Whether 3 or 6 feet apart parents are sending their kids to breadth the same air as other kids for 6 hours. Either you are ok with that or you aren’t. I’m fine with it but mark my words this summer you are going to be seeing a bizarre world where the adults are back playing but moco moms are bubble wrapping their kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also don’t get why we need to pretend to social distance in the fall if teachers and staff are vaccinated and kids are in mask. Whether 3 or 6 feet apart parents are sending their kids to breadth the same air as other kids for 6 hours. Either you are ok with that or you aren’t. I’m fine with it but mark my words this summer you are going to be seeing a bizarre world where the adults are back playing but moco moms are bubble wrapping their kids.

No, just a world where kids bring it home and parents get sick, missing two or more weeks of work and maybe some parents are left permanently disabled or die. But hey, all that matters is that kids got to sit in a school building.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also don’t get why we need to pretend to social distance in the fall if teachers and staff are vaccinated and kids are in mask. Whether 3 or 6 feet apart parents are sending their kids to breadth the same air as other kids for 6 hours. Either you are ok with that or you aren’t. I’m fine with it but mark my words this summer you are going to be seeing a bizarre world where the adults are back playing but moco moms are bubble wrapping their kids.

If I decide to send my kid in person, I already have the mindset willing to take certain risk. I don’t care much 3 feet or 6 feet social distancing because I expect young elementary kids would not follow that closely. And, I know that many kids do not wear their masks right. I expect all adults (teachers and staff) to wear masks even after vaccinated. I just wants 5 days in person full time back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also don’t get why we need to pretend to social distance in the fall if teachers and staff are vaccinated and kids are in mask. Whether 3 or 6 feet apart parents are sending their kids to breadth the same air as other kids for 6 hours. Either you are ok with that or you aren’t. I’m fine with it but mark my words this summer you are going to be seeing a bizarre world where the adults are back playing but moco moms are bubble wrapping their kids.

No, just a world where kids bring it home and parents get sick, missing two or more weeks of work and maybe some parents are left permanently disabled or die. But hey, all that matters is that kids got to sit in a school building.

DP. If parents don’t want to send their kids, there will definitely be an online option next year. But the choice should be binding—either you are placed in an online class for the semester or an in-person class. Kids in person will be masked but not social distanced. Teachers are assigned to either teach in person or online, not both. All classes remain the same size as they would have outside the pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also don’t get why we need to pretend to social distance in the fall if teachers and staff are vaccinated and kids are in mask. Whether 3 or 6 feet apart parents are sending their kids to breadth the same air as other kids for 6 hours. Either you are ok with that or you aren’t. I’m fine with it but mark my words this summer you are going to be seeing a bizarre world where the adults are back playing but moco moms are bubble wrapping their kids.

you are entitled to your opinion/feelings and instincts.

I think the real x Factor is likely going to be community spread. If we have a really high case rate in our area then we will still need to have physical distancing and masks. if the numbers go down and stay down consistently then I think we can probably relax on some of these mitigation methods.

the thing about mitigation risk is that you can't just do necessarily One thing by itself and assume it's going to be effective usually you have to do multiple things together to really be safe. I have used the analogy before if you're outside at the beach and you don't want to get a sunburn you can't just put on sunscreen one time and assume it's going to keep you protected for eight hours you would probably need to wear sunscreen AND a hat and stay in the shade when possible. If you only put on sunscreen once a day and get a sunburn you can't just say that it was because sunscreen doesn't work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also don’t get why we need to pretend to social distance in the fall if teachers and staff are vaccinated and kids are in mask. Whether 3 or 6 feet apart parents are sending their kids to breadth the same air as other kids for 6 hours. Either you are ok with that or you aren’t. I’m fine with it but mark my words this summer you are going to be seeing a bizarre world where the adults are back playing but moco moms are bubble wrapping their kids.

No, just a world where kids bring it home and parents get sick, missing two or more weeks of work and maybe some parents are left permanently disabled or die. But hey, all that matters is that kids got to sit in a school building.

DP. If parents don’t want to send their kids, there will definitely be an online option next year. But the choice should be binding—either you are placed in an online class for the semester or an in-person class. Kids in person will be masked but not social distanced. Teachers are assigned to either teach in person or online, not both. All classes remain the same size as they would have outside the pandemic.

That is not what some principals are telling teachers.

[Anonymous]

Nothing has been mentioned for next year as far as I know. Many comments are about his parents can “choose” DL next year, but does anyone know of that will even be an option?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also don’t get why we need to pretend to social distance in the fall if teachers and staff are vaccinated and kids are in mask. Whether 3 or 6 feet apart parents are sending their kids to breadth the same air as other kids for 6 hours. Either you are ok with that or you aren’t. I’m fine with it but mark my words this summer you are going to be seeing a bizarre world where the adults are back playing but moco moms are bubble wrapping their kids.

No, just a world where kids bring it home and parents get sick, missing two or more weeks of work and maybe some parents are left permanently disabled or die. But hey, all that matters is that kids got to sit in a school building.

DP. If parents don’t want to send their kids, there will definitely be an online option next year. But the choice should be binding—either you are placed in an online class for the semester or an in-person class. Kids in person will be masked but not social distanced. Teachers are assigned to either teach in person or online, not both. All classes remain the same size as they would have outside the pandemic.

That is not what some principals are telling teachers.

This is about next year, not this year.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:PP mentions this. As I understand it, hybrid (doing virtual 2 days and in person 2 days) is off the table.

Is that true?

Don't know if it's off the table everywhere, but my kids' elementary school principal told us that the plans they were working on were 4 days a week in-person (with direct instruction for younger grades and "supervised virtual learning" for the older grades - I'm the OP of this thread). Wednesdays would be distant for everyone.

We are hearing two days in person with two groups.

So...what would happen the other 2 days? Forgive me if I'm being dense, but would it look like this, hypothetically?

Monday: DL at home, Group A at home, Group B in school

Tuesday: DL at home, Group A at school, Group B at home

Wednesday: Everyone at home

etc

Would the full-time DL kids remain in the same class as the kids coming in part-time?

Would the Groups still get 5 days/week of instruction (knowing that Wednesdays are weird)?

And that's the tricky bit. It will look different for each school depending on how many students selected in-person return. This is why the concurrent model is being suggested, otherwise the number of staff needed would be insane.

Except that one thing I was hearing was that if you do the concurrent model you have to use two staff members in each classroom because you have one teacher dedicated primarily to the online students and one teacher primarily dedicated to the in person students so that you don't have a situation where one group is being ignored.

You think mcps will hire twice as many teachers....

The other person wouldn't necessarily be a licensed teacher. Use paras, reassign specials teachers, and fill in gaps with long-term subs.

yup no one gets art for the rest of year! Music is cancelled!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing has been mentioned for next year as far as I know. Many comments are about his parents can “choose” DL next year, but does anyone know of that will even be an option?

It's purely speculation at this point based on Jack saying that MCPS would continue offering DL in the future. ANd now he's gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP mentions this. As I understand it, hybrid (doing virtual 2 days and in person 2 days) is off the table.

Is that true?

Don't know if it's off the table everywhere, but my kids' elementary school principal told us that the plans they were working on were 4 days a week in-person (with direct instruction for younger grades and "supervised virtual learning" for the older grades - I'm the OP of this thread). Wednesdays would be distant for everyone.

We are hearing two days in person with two groups.

So...what would happen the other 2 days? Forgive me if I'm being dense, but would it look like this, hypothetically?

Monday: DL at home, Group A at home, Group B in school

Tuesday: DL at home, Group A at school, Group B at home

Wednesday: Everyone at home

etc

Would the full-time DL kids remain in the same class as the kids coming in part-time?

Would the Groups still get 5 days/week of instruction (knowing that Wednesdays are weird)?

And that's the tricky bit. It will look different for each school depending on how many students selected in-person return. This is why the concurrent model is being suggested, otherwise the number of staff needed would be insane.

Except that one thing I was hearing was that if you do the concurrent model you have to use two staff members in each classroom because you have one teacher dedicated primarily to the online students and one teacher primarily dedicated to the in person students so that you don't have a situation where one group is being ignored.

You think mcps will hire twice as many teachers....

The other person wouldn't necessarily be a licensed teacher. Use paras, reassign specials teachers, and fill in gaps with long-term subs.

yup no one gets art for the rest of year! Music is cancelled!

That might work for ES but some paras are assigned to specific kids so there are not as many as you think. And for ms and he, those specials are not specials are real classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing has been mentioned for next year as far as I know. Many comments are about his parents can “choose” DL next year, but does anyone know of that will even be an option?

We have no idea for next year. The survey was for this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:ES would be 4 days.

Secondary would be 2.

Ok, so for ES, 4 days in person ( either concurrent or direct teaching) is not too bad for hybrid.What do they do for Wednesday, a day off for kids? I was worried about 2 days in person and 2 days virtual for incoming kindergartener.

Do you know if direct teaching is still on the table or off the table for hybrid model?

If kids are allowed to go in full time, I assume it will be direct teaching, right?

I wouldn't plan on this happening as it is? If Wednesday is a day off, you need to figure out child care which will be an issue if they remove child care from the schools.

The childcare places could still operate on Wednesdays and before/after care. Even with classrooms being used for teaching there will be some classrooms still empty

Then many kids from different classroom/grades are mixed up together under childcare (Wednesday & before /after care) at school facility. If one child using childcare is positive, thus many classrooms need to be tested or closed down.

Not to worry. Mcps nor child care centers will do weekly testing so no one will know.

Vaccines foe teachers and child care providers is part of the next wave of vaccinations. With that, adults should be vaccinated ....
The risks go down significantly. Testing becomes less of a crucial protocol although, geez, doesn’t seem hard to institute but far be it for MCPS to follow what’s working well in other states that have in person school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I also don’t get why we need to pretend to social distance in the fall if teachers and staff are vaccinated and kids are in mask. Whether 3 or 6 feet apart parents are sending their kids to breadth the same air as other kids for 6 hours. Either you are ok with that or you aren’t. I’m fine with it but mark my words this summer you are going to be seeing a bizarre world where the adults are back playing but moco moms are bubble wrapping their kids.

If I decide to send my kid in person, I already have the mindset willing to take certain risk. I don’t care much 3 feet or 6 feet social distancing because I expect young elementary kids would not follow that closely. And, I know that many kids do not wear their masks right. I expect all adults (teachers and staff) to wear masks even after vaccinated. I just wants 5 days in person full time back.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Per the county website,
“ We expect to reach Phase 1B in February 2021.”

That means they plan to start vaccination 1b next month. They could give 1 shot on 2/28 and they will have met that goal.

If vaccination will be the key to in-person school resuming, it won’t happen in February ‘21. Maybe in mid to late March. I think April is more likely.

As for those upset about “Zoom in the classroom”, remember that the school buildings are magical places where children learn easily and never experience mental illness.

If you have an issue keep your kid home. Some of ours love seeing others and being in the building that means so much to them.

No, thank you. We will work to keep them safely closed until metrics greatly improve. Nobody cares that a building "means so much" to your kids

Then keep your kids home. The rest of us who follow the data, protocols, and science would like to see schools reopen. Thank you.