How would you rate how Mayor Bowser has handled DCPS reopening?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the context of other reopening activities, not well (C-). If schools can't open, the administration needs to demonstrate they are serious about getting us to the point where schools can open (e.g., stop all indoor dining).

Outdoor pools are closed but you can go to church with 70 friends and grab a bite to eat being served by a waiter that's been in close contact with fellow waitstaff all day.

Things need to make more sense and priorities need to be clearer.

I agree. The priorities are not clear. I think they should have prioritized a return to school, even hybrid, which would mean shutting down indoor dining, bars, gyms, and larger gatherings to reduce community spread. It also would have meant stockpiling PPE, tests, and other necessary supplies for schools, and creating a real plan for how school would work and how schools would deal with COVID cases among students and staff.

Everyone is winging it, I get that, and I think that DC government has done a decent job of listening to scientists and public health experts, but the decisions being made now don't make a lot of sense to me.

A thousand times this

Why should they have prioritized schools? There are over 700k people living in this city and only a quarter of them have children let alone children in DCPS.
I think the mayor no matter how much she wanted to make schools a number one priority she couldn’t because they aren’t. Schools are certainly in the top 5 but they’re not #1. A simple look at the past of public education could tell you that.
I’m honestly not sure why people are surprised.

I’d rate her a B- and the chancellor a C+

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She's no worse than any other local politician. In fact she's fine. Trying to manage what she has to deal with. What's the problem? She also has the misfortune of not being in a state.

I actually think that's D.C. superpower. Same federal resources as a state without having to go to a governor begging for intervention or resources. All of the city's resources go to the city instead of say...half of NYC's taxes used to keep backwater NY State from sinking on its own. Same with San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and L.A. providing the entire state of California with 90% of its budget and the country with 20% of its GDP.

‘Backwater’ New York State funded NYC for decades when it was horribly managed and insoluble. That’s probably why it’s still a ‘backwater.’ Being a big city does not = great stewardship of resources or good management.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the context of other reopening activities, not well (C-). If schools can't open, the administration needs to demonstrate they are serious about getting us to the point where schools can open (e.g., stop all indoor dining).

Outdoor pools are closed but you can go to church with 70 friends and grab a bite to eat being served by a waiter that's been in close contact with fellow waitstaff all day.

Things need to make more sense and priorities need to be clearer.

I agree. The priorities are not clear. I think they should have prioritized a return to school, even hybrid, which would mean shutting down indoor dining, bars, gyms, and larger gatherings to reduce community spread. It also would have meant stockpiling PPE, tests, and other necessary supplies for schools, and creating a real plan for how school would work and how schools would deal with COVID cases among students and staff.

Everyone is winging it, I get that, and I think that DC government has done a decent job of listening to scientists and public health experts, but the decisions being made now don't make a lot of sense to me.

A thousand times this

Why should they have prioritized schools? There are over 700k people living in this city and only a quarter of them have children let alone children in DCPS.
I think the mayor no matter how much she wanted to make schools a number one priority she couldn’t because they aren’t. Schools are certainly in the top 5 but they’re not #1. A simple look at the past of public education could tell you that.
I’m honestly not sure why people are surprised.

I’d rate her a B- and the chancellor a C+

Because education is fundamental to a functioning society.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the context of other reopening activities, not well (C-). If schools can't open, the administration needs to demonstrate they are serious about getting us to the point where schools can open (e.g., stop all indoor dining).

Outdoor pools are closed but you can go to church with 70 friends and grab a bite to eat being served by a waiter that's been in close contact with fellow waitstaff all day.

Things need to make more sense and priorities need to be clearer.

I agree. The priorities are not clear. I think they should have prioritized a return to school, even hybrid, which would mean shutting down indoor dining, bars, gyms, and larger gatherings to reduce community spread. It also would have meant stockpiling PPE, tests, and other necessary supplies for schools, and creating a real plan for how school would work and how schools would deal with COVID cases among students and staff.

Everyone is winging it, I get that, and I think that DC government has done a decent job of listening to scientists and public health experts, but the decisions being made now don't make a lot of sense to me.

A thousand times this

Why should they have prioritized schools? There are over 700k people living in this city and only a quarter of them have children let alone children in DCPS.
I think the mayor no matter how much she wanted to make schools a number one priority she couldn’t because they aren’t. Schools are certainly in the top 5 but they’re not #1. A simple look at the past of public education could tell you that.
I’m honestly not sure why people are surprised.

I’d rate her a B- and the chancellor a C+

Because education is fundamental to a functioning society.

All people are parents on here. The vast majority of people in DC don’t care about schools because it does not effect them. I think that’s hard for this board to realize because we all have kids. People really don’t care about this stuff if you don’t. You want the restaurant and gyms open because it’s something to do. Remember back before you had kids, did you really care about the local public schools? Be honest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the context of other reopening activities, not well (C-). If schools can't open, the administration needs to demonstrate they are serious about getting us to the point where schools can open (e.g., stop all indoor dining).

Outdoor pools are closed but you can go to church with 70 friends and grab a bite to eat being served by a waiter that's been in close contact with fellow waitstaff all day.

Things need to make more sense and priorities need to be clearer.

I agree. The priorities are not clear. I think they should have prioritized a return to school, even hybrid, which would mean shutting down indoor dining, bars, gyms, and larger gatherings to reduce community spread. It also would have meant stockpiling PPE, tests, and other necessary supplies for schools, and creating a real plan for how school would work and how schools would deal with COVID cases among students and staff.

Everyone is winging it, I get that, and I think that DC government has done a decent job of listening to scientists and public health experts, but the decisions being made now don't make a lot of sense to me.

A thousand times this

Why should they have prioritized schools? There are over 700k people living in this city and only a quarter of them have children let alone children in DCPS.
I think the mayor no matter how much she wanted to make schools a number one priority she couldn’t because they aren’t. Schools are certainly in the top 5 but they’re not #1. A simple look at the past of public education could tell you that.
I’m honestly not sure why people are surprised.

I’d rate her a B- and the chancellor a C+

Simple, if thousands and thousands of parents of 4-18 year olds in the District aren't able to do their jobs properly because they're stuck supervising homeschooling, the DC economy cannot rebound robustly. Rising crime is also a concern, when you have packs of teenagers roaming the city unsupervised. We saw a bit of that in the spring in our neighborhood, and we'll see a lot more of it in the fall. Shall we just accept a return to 18th century conditions as a society, when most kids and teens worked rather than attended some kind of school? Ludicrous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She's no worse than any other local politician. In fact she's fine. Trying to manage what she has to deal with. What's the problem? She also has the misfortune of not being in a state.

I actually think that's D.C. superpower. Same federal resources as a state without having to go to a governor begging for intervention or resources. All of the city's resources go to the city instead of say...half of NYC's taxes used to keep backwater NY State from sinking on its own. Same with San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and L.A. providing the entire state of California with 90% of its budget and the country with 20% of its GDP.

I LOVE not being a state. And we get so much free stuff from the Feds. I wish people would stop messing with a good thing.

[Anonymous]

We should be a state with representation.

[Anonymous]

Mayor gets a B+. Chancellor gets a B-. Closing down businesses was not going to make enough of a difference. There is no set of actions they could have taken to open the schools - they ran up against a wall created by the lack of federal leadership and refusal of half the population to follow the most basic rules. And despite this, they have done admirably compared to most other parts of the country in terms of minimizing health impacts. I don't understand how some of you think they could possibly have done that much better.

[Anonymous]

Mayor gets a D for her handling of the whole situation. Chancellor should be fired. These two clowns are as effective as the orange man.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:F

+100. F-

There’s no such thing as an F minus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would have liked to see both of them attempt to better create/flesh out hybrid plans and look at more creative solutions for keeping kids in some kind of school. Outdoor school, “in person” preference for certain populations, etc. I feel like someone in May said TWO DAYS A WEEK! And they all just stuck with that.

I also think it’s an absolute joke that they’re doing this technology survey a month before school starts. Ignoring the fact that NEARLY HALF of DCPS students didn’t have a device of their own last year, we all knew we’d be doing DL at some point this school year. They dropped the ball on planning for that.

+1

I don’t know why there wasn’t more of an effort to have PK through 1st grade in school. Be creative, poll teachers to see how many would do it, etc.

It is also feeling more and more like our region tried to comply with the rules of the partial shutdown, pretty high mask compliance, etc. And there have been no ‘rewards’ for doing so, at least if you have school aged children. Playgrounds just reopened, no pools, no school, etc.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone gotten any answers from the chancellor's office after his presser last week? I wrote to the email provided and was told to direct all of my questions to my school. I emailed the school and have gotten no response.

[Anonymous]

On the actual decision-making, I give them a solid B+. Choosing to start virtual is the right choice, no matter how painful for everyone. Especially given what we see in the suburbs and with the frustrating amount of community spread despite the overall numbers trending downward. I wish the decision could have been made earlier in the summer, but I also see how many factors are beyond their control.

Regarding communication and getting stakeholders on board with these decisions? D-. It's been terrible. In theory Bowser has been speaking to the public enough, but from a parent's perspective, I still have NO IDEA what is going on with my school this fall. I don't know who my kid's teacher is. I don't know when I will find out. I don't know what my kid needs for school or how to set it up at home. I don't know if we will receive a device from the school district (yes, we did the tech survey and yes, we requested one, but have heard nothing else). The number of unknowns is so high and my anxiety is through the roof in large part because I just have no idea what's going to happen. Better, more specific, more thorough communication from Bowser on down would go a long way to address that, even if it's just to say "We're working on it and will have info to everyone by [x date]" or "These are the concerns with technology distribution and here is how we are approaching." There is no transparency. It only makes everyone anxious and frustrated, and means that even if the ultimate plan is good, it will be hard to get families and teachers to comply because they were consulted in the planning process and received the whole plan last minute as an info dump.

Leadership is like 80% communication. It's been really bad.

[Anonymous]

* "they were NOT consulted..."

-15:04 above

[Anonymous]

F.

Hardly anyone in DC even has coronavirus. Why is there no in-person schooling? Daycares are open. Private schools will be opening. Why is it ok for them to be open but not public schools?

How much lower does the coronavirus caseload have to get before schools reopen? Why aren’t there any clear metrics and standards for deciding when our kids can go back to school?

She just does whatever the teachers union tells her to do.

She is afraid to do anything that’s hard.