Smart Restart - Arlington Public Schools Needs to Require Masks through At Least this School Year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Calm down.

Get ready for the masks to stay on, parents, if you want teachers teaching. I'm not saying this as a threat but as an indicator of how we feel at my school: none of the teachers I've spoken to at my school are willing to work with unmasked students until they are all vaccinated. We don't think that will begin to be a reality until July/August.

I have promised my husband that I will quit if masks come off of kids and staff before we are at 90-95% FULL vaccination and it has been verified. We don't need my salary and even if we did I am being hounded by online groups who want me to teach for them. Some of them are fly-by-nights but some of them are extremely reputable organizations. I could easily do that for a few years to keep my hand in and then go back to full time in-school teaching after we have a better handle on Covid, vaccinations, and preventing adult illness and transmission.

My advice is to stop your spiraling. Your agitation about this matter only makes you more anxious and unstable. Take a deep breath, go see your therapist, and work on managing your anxiety.

The kids are doing fine with masks. We have near about 100% compliance every day at my school and the 1-2% are frequent fliers with known issues that are being addressed separately. Kids in schools have adapted well to masks and are doing so well that most of them don't even care anymore about "mask breaks" and the like.

Whether the kids are not complaining isn't the issue. With teacher vaccinations, chances of serious adult illness are negligible. Keep your mask on if you prefer, but I teach and students learn more effectively when the students and I can see one another's faces. My colleagues and I taught in person last year with virtually no issues, so student vaccinations aren't the critical issue for us.

-- Also an ES teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We just had an election where we decided that kids matter more than employees. We'll pay the employees more, but schools exist to educate children, not for paychecks. And if you don't want a higher paycheck but want to inhibit children's development so you can "feel" safe (no matter what the science says), go get another job. The voters have spoken.

DP. What do you think Youngkin is going to do about this? You really think he’s going to impose a Florida-style ban on mask requirements for schools? I’m no Youngkin support but I know he’s smart enough to realize Virginia isn’t Floria and he’s going to fall out of favor fast if he tries to pull that kind of extremist nonsense and we get covid spikes that force schools to close. He’s going to straddle the line and say that while he doesn’t feel mask mandates are necessary, localities need flexibility to respond to the needs in the communities. The red parts of Virginia will continue to allow mask-free schools while the blue parts of Virginia will continue to require masks.

I agree with you. I also think for his constituency he is going to go more in the CRT line than masks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Calm down.

Get ready for the masks to stay on, parents, if you want teachers teaching. I'm not saying this as a threat but as an indicator of how we feel at my school: none of the teachers I've spoken to at my school are willing to work with unmasked students until they are all vaccinated. We don't think that will begin to be a reality until July/August.

I have promised my husband that I will quit if masks come off of kids and staff before we are at 90-95% FULL vaccination and it has been verified. We don't need my salary and even if we did I am being hounded by online groups who want me to teach for them. Some of them are fly-by-nights but some of them are extremely reputable organizations. I could easily do that for a few years to keep my hand in and then go back to full time in-school teaching after we have a better handle on Covid, vaccinations, and preventing adult illness and transmission.

My advice is to stop your spiraling. Your agitation about this matter only makes you more anxious and unstable. Take a deep breath, go see your therapist, and work on managing your anxiety.

The kids are doing fine with masks. We have near about 100% compliance every day at my school and the 1-2% are frequent fliers with known issues that are being addressed separately. Kids in schools have adapted well to masks and are doing so well that most of them don't even care anymore about "mask breaks" and the like.

Whether the kids are not complaining isn't the issue. With teacher vaccinations, chances of serious adult illness are negligible. Keep your mask on if you prefer, but I teach and students learn more effectively when the students and I can see one another's faces. My colleagues and I taught in person last year with virtually no issues, so student vaccinations aren't the critical issue for us.

-- Also an ES teacher

DP. Our school has had a ton of issues and students out on quarantine. There is no way that there will be support for unmasking by staff or parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We just had an election where we decided that kids matter more than employees. We'll pay the employees more, but schools exist to educate children, not for paychecks. And if you don't want a higher paycheck but want to inhibit children's development so you can "feel" safe (no matter what the science says), go get another job. The voters have spoken.

DP. What do you think Youngkin is going to do about this? You really think he’s going to impose a Florida-style ban on mask requirements for schools? I’m no Youngkin support but I know he’s smart enough to realize Virginia isn’t Floria and he’s going to fall out of favor fast if he tries to pull that kind of extremist nonsense and we get covid spikes that force schools to close. He’s going to straddle the line and say that while he doesn’t feel mask mandates are necessary, localities need flexibility to respond to the needs in the communities. The red parts of Virginia will continue to allow mask-free schools while the blue parts of Virginia will continue to require masks.

I agree with you. I also think for his constituency he is going to go more in the CRT line than masks.

Yes, he will make a big fuss about issuing guidance to VDOE to look at whether schools are teaching CRT, and then precisely nothing will change. 😂

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Calm down.

Get ready for the masks to stay on, parents, if you want teachers teaching. I'm not saying this as a threat but as an indicator of how we feel at my school: none of the teachers I've spoken to at my school are willing to work with unmasked students until they are all vaccinated. We don't think that will begin to be a reality until July/August.

I have promised my husband that I will quit if masks come off of kids and staff before we are at 90-95% FULL vaccination and it has been verified. We don't need my salary and even if we did I am being hounded by online groups who want me to teach for them. Some of them are fly-by-nights but some of them are extremely reputable organizations. I could easily do that for a few years to keep my hand in and then go back to full time in-school teaching after we have a better handle on Covid, vaccinations, and preventing adult illness and transmission.

My advice is to stop your spiraling. Your agitation about this matter only makes you more anxious and unstable. Take a deep breath, go see your therapist, and work on managing your anxiety.

The kids are doing fine with masks. We have near about 100% compliance every day at my school and the 1-2% are frequent fliers with known issues that are being addressed separately. Kids in schools have adapted well to masks and are doing so well that most of them don't even care anymore about "mask breaks" and the like.

Another ES teacher here (two ES teacher household). I posted at 14:15. I’m hearing more talk from colleagues about hopefully being able to remove masks in the spring. I haven’t heard anybody hope for immediately after winter break, but I’d consider it. I’d also say we have ~100% mask compliance. We don’t do mask breaks and they don’t ask. Over the first 10 weeks I think we’ve had 13 reported student cases between our two FCPS schools (~1600 students). Yes, they’ve been masked but they are also unvaccinated, unmasked at lunch and during recess. 10-11 weeks of unvaccinated and maskless during lunch is a pretty good sample. The kids are doing ok physically wearing masks, but it makes instruction and dealing with behaviors more difficult.

I don’t know that we’ll get to 90-95% vaccinated and maybe those who don’t who’ll have to mask for a while, but barring a big jump in positivity rate, cases per 100k, hospitalizations, etc. (which I’m guessing we won’t see) I really don’t see any reason to continue with masks for those who are vaccinated once all have had a sufficient opportunity to do so. Of course anyone could still choose to mask.

Funny because our school is completely opposite. If anything people are entrenching re masks. I think we could go from almost fully staffed to almost completely unstaffed in the blink of an eye if masks came off before students are vaccinated. There are a lot of very strong feelings about it obviously. (We also have ~100% compliance FWIW and we never really had any mask breaks.)

You work with a building full of people who don’t need their jobs at all or their benefits and have no interest in their pension. Everyone is just going to go out and find a new job straight away.

Does that sound like reality to you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
We just had an election where we decided that kids matter more than employees. We'll pay the employees more, but schools exist to educate children, not for paychecks. And if you don't want a higher paycheck but want to inhibit children's development so you can "feel" safe (no matter what the science says), go get another job. The voters have spoken.

DP. What do you think Youngkin is going to do about this? You really think he’s going to impose a Florida-style ban on mask requirements for schools? I’m no Youngkin support but I know he’s smart enough to realize Virginia isn’t Floria and he’s going to fall out of favor fast if he tries to pull that kind of extremist nonsense and we get covid spikes that force schools to close. He’s going to straddle the line and say that while he doesn’t feel mask mandates are necessary, localities need flexibility to respond to the needs in the communities. The red parts of Virginia will continue to allow mask-free schools while the blue parts of Virginia will continue to require masks.

I agree with you. I also think for his constituency he is going to go more in the CRT line than masks.

Yes, he will make a big fuss about issuing guidance to VDOE to look at whether schools are teaching CRT, and then precisely nothing will change. 😂

No one switched their vote because of CRT and he knows it (those were already Republican voters). He know masks will never come off in NoVA if he defers to the school boards and he won because of vote switchers in NoVA.

Northam has already set the precedent in the conservative parts of the states, mandating masks this fall. Youngkin will do the opposite.

Florida style? Florida has the lowest case rate in the US now.

[Anonymous]

“If you don’t test it will go away”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Calm down.

Get ready for the masks to stay on, parents, if you want teachers teaching. I'm not saying this as a threat but as an indicator of how we feel at my school: none of the teachers I've spoken to at my school are willing to work with unmasked students until they are all vaccinated. We don't think that will begin to be a reality until July/August.

I have promised my husband that I will quit if masks come off of kids and staff before we are at 90-95% FULL vaccination and it has been verified. We don't need my salary and even if we did I am being hounded by online groups who want me to teach for them. Some of them are fly-by-nights but some of them are extremely reputable organizations. I could easily do that for a few years to keep my hand in and then go back to full time in-school teaching after we have a better handle on Covid, vaccinations, and preventing adult illness and transmission.

My advice is to stop your spiraling. Your agitation about this matter only makes you more anxious and unstable. Take a deep breath, go see your therapist, and work on managing your anxiety.

The kids are doing fine with masks. We have near about 100% compliance every day at my school and the 1-2% are frequent fliers with known issues that are being addressed separately. Kids in schools have adapted well to masks and are doing so well that most of them don't even care anymore about "mask breaks" and the like.

Another ES teacher here (two ES teacher household). I posted at 14:15. I’m hearing more talk from colleagues about hopefully being able to remove masks in the spring. I haven’t heard anybody hope for immediately after winter break, but I’d consider it. I’d also say we have ~100% mask compliance. We don’t do mask breaks and they don’t ask. Over the first 10 weeks I think we’ve had 13 reported student cases between our two FCPS schools (~1600 students). Yes, they’ve been masked but they are also unvaccinated, unmasked at lunch and during recess. 10-11 weeks of unvaccinated and maskless during lunch is a pretty good sample. The kids are doing ok physically wearing masks, but it makes instruction and dealing with behaviors more difficult.

I don’t know that we’ll get to 90-95% vaccinated and maybe those who don’t who’ll have to mask for a while, but barring a big jump in positivity rate, cases per 100k, hospitalizations, etc. (which I’m guessing we won’t see) I really don’t see any reason to continue with masks for those who are vaccinated once all have had a sufficient opportunity to do so. Of course anyone could still choose to mask.

Funny because our school is completely opposite. If anything people are entrenching re masks. I think we could go from almost fully staffed to almost completely unstaffed in the blink of an eye if masks came off before students are vaccinated. There are a lot of very strong feelings about it obviously. (We also have ~100% compliance FWIW and we never really had any mask breaks.)

You work with a building full of people who don’t need their jobs at all or their benefits and have no interest in their pension. Everyone is just going to go out and find a new job straight away.

Does that sound like reality to you?

I don't think you understand the situation. I, like all of my colleagues I have spoken to, am being hounded by places that need virtual teachers. Or we could go to private schools that have better practices. No one will be without a job if they want one. You're crazy if you think teachers don't have a lot of options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“If you don’t test it will go away”

+1 That apparently is the believe of one repeat poster here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Calm down.

Get ready for the masks to stay on, parents, if you want teachers teaching. I'm not saying this as a threat but as an indicator of how we feel at my school: none of the teachers I've spoken to at my school are willing to work with unmasked students until they are all vaccinated. We don't think that will begin to be a reality until July/August.

I have promised my husband that I will quit if masks come off of kids and staff before we are at 90-95% FULL vaccination and it has been verified. We don't need my salary and even if we did I am being hounded by online groups who want me to teach for them. Some of them are fly-by-nights but some of them are extremely reputable organizations. I could easily do that for a few years to keep my hand in and then go back to full time in-school teaching after we have a better handle on Covid, vaccinations, and preventing adult illness and transmission.

My advice is to stop your spiraling. Your agitation about this matter only makes you more anxious and unstable. Take a deep breath, go see your therapist, and work on managing your anxiety.

The kids are doing fine with masks. We have near about 100% compliance every day at my school and the 1-2% are frequent fliers with known issues that are being addressed separately. Kids in schools have adapted well to masks and are doing so well that most of them don't even care anymore about "mask breaks" and the like.

Another ES teacher here (two ES teacher household). I posted at 14:15. I’m hearing more talk from colleagues about hopefully being able to remove masks in the spring. I haven’t heard anybody hope for immediately after winter break, but I’d consider it. I’d also say we have ~100% mask compliance. We don’t do mask breaks and they don’t ask. Over the first 10 weeks I think we’ve had 13 reported student cases between our two FCPS schools (~1600 students). Yes, they’ve been masked but they are also unvaccinated, unmasked at lunch and during recess. 10-11 weeks of unvaccinated and maskless during lunch is a pretty good sample. The kids are doing ok physically wearing masks, but it makes instruction and dealing with behaviors more difficult.

I don’t know that we’ll get to 90-95% vaccinated and maybe those who don’t who’ll have to mask for a while, but barring a big jump in positivity rate, cases per 100k, hospitalizations, etc. (which I’m guessing we won’t see) I really don’t see any reason to continue with masks for those who are vaccinated once all have had a sufficient opportunity to do so. Of course anyone could still choose to mask.

Funny because our school is completely opposite. If anything people are entrenching re masks. I think we could go from almost fully staffed to almost completely unstaffed in the blink of an eye if masks came off before students are vaccinated. There are a lot of very strong feelings about it obviously. (We also have ~100% compliance FWIW and we never really had any mask breaks.)

You work with a building full of people who don’t need their jobs at all or their benefits and have no interest in their pension. Everyone is just going to go out and find a new job straight away.

Does that sound like reality to you?

I don't think you understand the situation. I, like all of my colleagues I have spoken to, am being hounded by places that need virtual teachers. Or we could go to private schools that have better practices. No one will be without a job if they want one. You're crazy if you think teachers don't have a lot of options.

So mid year your going to get hired by private schools? All of you. The whole staff.

And great go be a virtual teacher. Meanwhile they couldn’t find anyone to do that job it’s so terrible. That’s why you can go do it “anytime”.

I think people say lots of things and then when the rubber hits the road, things are different. Look at all these employers that required vaccines and in the end nearly everyone got them after threatening to quit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Calm down.

Get ready for the masks to stay on, parents, if you want teachers teaching. I'm not saying this as a threat but as an indicator of how we feel at my school: none of the teachers I've spoken to at my school are willing to work with unmasked students until they are all vaccinated. We don't think that will begin to be a reality until July/August.

I have promised my husband that I will quit if masks come off of kids and staff before we are at 90-95% FULL vaccination and it has been verified. We don't need my salary and even if we did I am being hounded by online groups who want me to teach for them. Some of them are fly-by-nights but some of them are extremely reputable organizations. I could easily do that for a few years to keep my hand in and then go back to full time in-school teaching after we have a better handle on Covid, vaccinations, and preventing adult illness and transmission.

My advice is to stop your spiraling. Your agitation about this matter only makes you more anxious and unstable. Take a deep breath, go see your therapist, and work on managing your anxiety.

The kids are doing fine with masks. We have near about 100% compliance every day at my school and the 1-2% are frequent fliers with known issues that are being addressed separately. Kids in schools have adapted well to masks and are doing so well that most of them don't even care anymore about "mask breaks" and the like.

Another ES teacher here (two ES teacher household). I posted at 14:15. I’m hearing more talk from colleagues about hopefully being able to remove masks in the spring. I haven’t heard anybody hope for immediately after winter break, but I’d consider it. I’d also say we have ~100% mask compliance. We don’t do mask breaks and they don’t ask. Over the first 10 weeks I think we’ve had 13 reported student cases between our two FCPS schools (~1600 students). Yes, they’ve been masked but they are also unvaccinated, unmasked at lunch and during recess. 10-11 weeks of unvaccinated and maskless during lunch is a pretty good sample. The kids are doing ok physically wearing masks, but it makes instruction and dealing with behaviors more difficult.

I don’t know that we’ll get to 90-95% vaccinated and maybe those who don’t who’ll have to mask for a while, but barring a big jump in positivity rate, cases per 100k, hospitalizations, etc. (which I’m guessing we won’t see) I really don’t see any reason to continue with masks for those who are vaccinated once all have had a sufficient opportunity to do so. Of course anyone could still choose to mask.

Funny because our school is completely opposite. If anything people are entrenching re masks. I think we could go from almost fully staffed to almost completely unstaffed in the blink of an eye if masks came off before students are vaccinated. There are a lot of very strong feelings about it obviously. (We also have ~100% compliance FWIW and we never really had any mask breaks.)

You work with a building full of people who don’t need their jobs at all or their benefits and have no interest in their pension. Everyone is just going to go out and find a new job straight away.

Does that sound like reality to you?

I don't think you understand the situation. I, like all of my colleagues I have spoken to, am being hounded by places that need virtual teachers. Or we could go to private schools that have better practices. No one will be without a job if they want one. You're crazy if you think teachers don't have a lot of options.

Please quit now. It will look great on your resume to future employers that you left your school mid year and I’m sure your references will be spotless too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Calm down.

Get ready for the masks to stay on, parents, if you want teachers teaching. I'm not saying this as a threat but as an indicator of how we feel at my school: none of the teachers I've spoken to at my school are willing to work with unmasked students until they are all vaccinated. We don't think that will begin to be a reality until July/August.

I have promised my husband that I will quit if masks come off of kids and staff before we are at 90-95% FULL vaccination and it has been verified. We don't need my salary and even if we did I am being hounded by online groups who want me to teach for them. Some of them are fly-by-nights but some of them are extremely reputable organizations. I could easily do that for a few years to keep my hand in and then go back to full time in-school teaching after we have a better handle on Covid, vaccinations, and preventing adult illness and transmission.

My advice is to stop your spiraling. Your agitation about this matter only makes you more anxious and unstable. Take a deep breath, go see your therapist, and work on managing your anxiety.

The kids are doing fine with masks. We have near about 100% compliance every day at my school and the 1-2% are frequent fliers with known issues that are being addressed separately. Kids in schools have adapted well to masks and are doing so well that most of them don't even care anymore about "mask breaks" and the like.

Whether the kids are not complaining isn't the issue. With teacher vaccinations, chances of serious adult illness are negligible. Keep your mask on if you prefer, but I teach and students learn more effectively when the students and I can see one another's faces. My colleagues and I taught in person last year with virtually no issues, so student vaccinations aren't the critical issue for us.

-- Also an ES teacher

+1

Grade 3 Teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Calm down.

Get ready for the masks to stay on, parents, if you want teachers teaching. I'm not saying this as a threat but as an indicator of how we feel at my school: none of the teachers I've spoken to at my school are willing to work with unmasked students until they are all vaccinated. We don't think that will begin to be a reality until July/August.

I have promised my husband that I will quit if masks come off of kids and staff before we are at 90-95% FULL vaccination and it has been verified. We don't need my salary and even if we did I am being hounded by online groups who want me to teach for them. Some of them are fly-by-nights but some of them are extremely reputable organizations. I could easily do that for a few years to keep my hand in and then go back to full time in-school teaching after we have a better handle on Covid, vaccinations, and preventing adult illness and transmission.

My advice is to stop your spiraling. Your agitation about this matter only makes you more anxious and unstable. Take a deep breath, go see your therapist, and work on managing your anxiety.

The kids are doing fine with masks. We have near about 100% compliance every day at my school and the 1-2% are frequent fliers with known issues that are being addressed separately. Kids in schools have adapted well to masks and are doing so well that most of them don't even care anymore about "mask breaks" and the like.

You are condescendingly telling parents to calm down and see a therapist for their anxiety while telling us you won’t teach children not wearing masks when you can be fully vaccinated and boosted and wear a mask yourself?

And it’s notable that you make zero mention of what would be best for actually educating kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Calm down.

Get ready for the masks to stay on, parents, if you want teachers teaching. I'm not saying this as a threat but as an indicator of how we feel at my school: none of the teachers I've spoken to at my school are willing to work with unmasked students until they are all vaccinated. We don't think that will begin to be a reality until July/August.

I have promised my husband that I will quit if masks come off of kids and staff before we are at 90-95% FULL vaccination and it has been verified. We don't need my salary and even if we did I am being hounded by online groups who want me to teach for them. Some of them are fly-by-nights but some of them are extremely reputable organizations. I could easily do that for a few years to keep my hand in and then go back to full time in-school teaching after we have a better handle on Covid, vaccinations, and preventing adult illness and transmission.

My advice is to stop your spiraling. Your agitation about this matter only makes you more anxious and unstable. Take a deep breath, go see your therapist, and work on managing your anxiety.

The kids are doing fine with masks. We have near about 100% compliance every day at my school and the 1-2% are frequent fliers with known issues that are being addressed separately. Kids in schools have adapted well to masks and are doing so well that most of them don't even care anymore about "mask breaks" and the like.

Whether the kids are not complaining isn't the issue. With teacher vaccinations, chances of serious adult illness are negligible. Keep your mask on if you prefer, but I teach and students learn more effectively when the students and I can see one another's faces. My colleagues and I taught in person last year with virtually no issues, so student vaccinations aren't the critical issue for us.

-- Also an ES teacher

+1

Grade 3 Teacher

There’s a current outbreak at an APS elementary where a teacher and at least 5 kids are positive. I can’t imagine how much worse if there was no masking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Calm down.

Get ready for the masks to stay on, parents, if you want teachers teaching. I'm not saying this as a threat but as an indicator of how we feel at my school: none of the teachers I've spoken to at my school are willing to work with unmasked students until they are all vaccinated. We don't think that will begin to be a reality until July/August.

I have promised my husband that I will quit if masks come off of kids and staff before we are at 90-95% FULL vaccination and it has been verified. We don't need my salary and even if we did I am being hounded by online groups who want me to teach for them. Some of them are fly-by-nights but some of them are extremely reputable organizations. I could easily do that for a few years to keep my hand in and then go back to full time in-school teaching after we have a better handle on Covid, vaccinations, and preventing adult illness and transmission.

My advice is to stop your spiraling. Your agitation about this matter only makes you more anxious and unstable. Take a deep breath, go see your therapist, and work on managing your anxiety.

The kids are doing fine with masks. We have near about 100% compliance every day at my school and the 1-2% are frequent fliers with known issues that are being addressed separately. Kids in schools have adapted well to masks and are doing so well that most of them don't even care anymore about "mask breaks" and the like.

Whether the kids are not complaining isn't the issue. With teacher vaccinations, chances of serious adult illness are negligible. Keep your mask on if you prefer, but I teach and students learn more effectively when the students and I can see one another's faces. My colleagues and I taught in person last year with virtually no issues, so student vaccinations aren't the critical issue for us.

-- Also an ES teacher

+1

Grade 3 Teacher

There’s a current outbreak at an APS elementary where a teacher and at least 5 kids are positive. I can’t imagine how much worse if there was no masking.

Which elementary is that? Not doubting you (and I support masking), just curious.