Safety of teachers and school staff when returning to a school setting in August

[Anonymous]

NP. More complaints about being unappreciated, and yet no teacher actually is offering any solutions. You may be putting in tons of time, but it doesn't change the fact that the amount of education delivered is much less than a full day of in-class instruction. Across DCPS the students are mostly in varying degrees of falling behind where they would be expect to be at the end of this year and we have no real data on how much they are suffering in other ways. So teachers just want to continue next year exactly as we are now? That's your proposal?

[Anonymous]

There won’t be in person school in 2020, OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. I imagine no one in their right mind will work as a sub. With no subs available, will a teacher who is sick feel the pressure to go into work so as not to let their colleagues down? Less teachers means more students in a class. Or more importantly, will teachers show up to school further risking the spread of the virus?

No one is talking about this. People are imagining that teachers won't get sick, subs will be plentiful.

I worked as a sub for younger kids at one school. I enjoy working with the kids, I like my colleagues a lot, and subbing works perfectly with my schedule. But I would not sub right now if schools opened up. The risks are not worth it to me. And especially not for the pay in this environment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. I imagine no one in their right mind will work as a sub. With no subs available, will a teacher who is sick feel the pressure to go into work so as not to let their colleagues down? Less teachers means more students in a class. Or more importantly, will teachers show up to school further risking the spread of the virus?

No one is talking about this. People are imagining that teachers won't get sick, subs will be plentiful.

I worked as a sub for younger kids at one school. I enjoy working with the kids, I like my colleagues a lot, and subbing works perfectly with my schedule. But I would not sub right now if schools opened up. The risks are not worth it to me. And especially not for the pay in this environment.

I imagine you are not alone in feeling this way. The school where I teach is lucky to have a committed group of amazing subs, but most of them are on the older side and I have a hard time imagining any of them being willing to come in when things are like this.

[Anonymous]

I really hope it’s just one person jumping on every thread to claim teachers are getting paid to work one hour per day currently. You just sound uninformed and repetitive. As well as the person who keeps comparing teachers to grocery workers and mail carriers. You want to believe teaching can only be done in person because you want the childcare (heck, I do too), but the reality is teaching can be done virtually. Thank you teachers for all that you have done and continue to do. I see you and hear you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NYC schools lost close to 80 people (staff and teachers) from Covid-related deaths. They did not heed warnings and kept schools open until March 22nd, way past the time other districts closed.

DCPS only closed 1 week earlier.

[Anonymous]

At my school, there is no plan for if a teacher gets sick. A sub cannot do online teaching, because she doesn't have access to our students online. She won't have access to our SeeSaw accounts, she won't have emails, phone numbers etc. My principal said if someone gets sick, she has everyone's email and will just direct them to work on one reading website and one math website. That's it. And never mind that more than 70% of my students' parents do not read emails. Ever. Considering that a teacher could be too sick to teach for 2-8 weeks, that's a huge problem.

[Anonymous]

DC might have closed a week earlier than NYC but the number of Covid cases in NYC far exceeded the number of cases in the District at that time.

On March 20th there were 43 Coronavirus Deaths and Over 5,600 Cases in N.Y.C.

On the same date DC had 77 individual cases.

[Anonymous]

More families will choose to continue homeschooling.

[Anonymous]

Someone up thread tried to compare grocery store workers continuing to work & teachers continuing to work.
That comparison is faulty.
If I could stand behind a shield, not physically touch your child, have them stand on 6 foot spaced out marks, and spend 3-4 minutes in 6 feet distance of each child- then sign me up!
It’s the proximity & duration of time we are around your kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. More complaints about being unappreciated, and yet no teacher actually is offering any solutions. You may be putting in tons of time, but it doesn't change the fact that the amount of education delivered is much less than a full day of in-class instruction. Across DCPS the students are mostly in varying degrees of falling behind where they would be expect to be at the end of this year and we have no real data on how much they are suffering in other ways. So teachers just want to continue next year exactly as we are now? That's your proposal?

This is a ridiculous argument. There is a pandemic going on. No one WANTS to continue this but teachers should not have to put their health or lives on the line.

[Anonymous]

August is a long ways off. Who knows what the world will look like then? Stop panicking about things that, at this point in time, no one can possibly know.

Also, schools are reopening in Germany and elsewhere. This is how they're doing it:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/10/world/europe/reopen-schools-germany.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teacher here. I imagine no one in their right mind will work as a sub. With no subs available, will a teacher who is sick feel the pressure to go into work so as not to let their colleagues down? Less teachers means more students in a class. Or more importantly, will teachers show up to school further risking the spread of the virus?

No one is talking about this. People are imagining that teachers won't get sick, subs will be plentiful.

I worked as a sub for younger kids at one school. I enjoy working with the kids, I like my colleagues a lot, and subbing works perfectly with my schedule. But I would not sub right now if schools opened up. The risks are not worth it to me. And especially not for the pay in this environment.

In Loudoun the pay is ridiculously low.

[Anonymous]

I love how parents are challenging teachers to come up with a solution as if the district has EVER factored our voices into any the decisions they’ve made thus far. Our own union rep had to fight to be on a reopening committee in which sat NO teachers or school professionals.
We are human capital to the district.
Even if we had a plan it wouldnt be the one the district would choose because then they’d have to admit we actually have brains and can think for ourselves as a collective teacher unit. So why bother wasting the energy hypothesizing some utopian outcome where everybody’s needs are equitably met? Won’t happen. Somebody’s getting screwed. Lube up in preparation for the May 22nd announcement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I love how parents are challenging teachers to come up with a solution as if the district has EVER factored our voices into any the decisions they’ve made thus far. Our own union rep had to fight to be on a reopening committee in which sat NO teachers or school professionals.
We are human capital to the district.
Even if we had a plan it wouldnt be the one the district would choose because then they’d have to admit we actually have brains and can think for ourselves as a collective teacher unit. So why bother wasting the energy hypothesizing some utopian outcome where everybody’s needs are equitably met? Won’t happen. Somebody’s getting screwed. Lube up in preparation for the May 22nd announcement.

*Union PRESIDENT*