Plans to expand beyond 11 kids per room?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm missing something here. If kids are in two cohorts, they still have 1 teacher. If kid in cohort 1 gets covid, teacher and cohort 1 quarantine. Then doesn't cohort 2 have to quarantine as well since the teacher saw cohort 2 recently? What's the point, just have everyone together! Or all virtual. And the pp commenting about alternate childcare is also accurate. Many kids will wind up with other family members or childcare situations on days they aren't in school.

You’re missing nothing, which is why hybrid is a joke. It does not reduce the exposure of the teacher or the children and in fact, likely increases exposure due to the need of many parents to find alternate childcare arrangements on the days their children are not scheduled to be in school. It’s just more COVID theater, as is the asynchronous Wednesday “deep clean” day.

Vaccinate the teachers and staff, mask up everyone, and let’s get back to school in the fall. I’m (pun intended) washing my hands of this disaster of a school year; it’s clear the focus needs to be on fall if we want any hope of a more regular school year.

[Anonymous]

I agree. Although some are closed now due to lockdowns, Europe's schools have been open without hybrid throughout the pandemic and aggregate data shows a lower incidence inside schools than outside of schools implying that children are safer in schools (rather than home three extra days per week). Unfortunately, CDCs studies seem to relate to safety in hybrid settings, which makes me worried about the fall. I am not worried for my family - our school has a half day hybrid which is plenty for us, but this would be a disaster for many families. If the variants get out of control you can always scale back to hybrid. The key is very measurable: the transmission within schools. If a child is bringing covid in but rarely spreading it to anyone else than schools should be open.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I teach in a DCPS trailer and you would not want more than 11 students in them. Impossible to distance enough with more kids. We’re probably close to 3 feet apart currently.

Upside of trailer.... windows can open? Can you open windows? Door opens into fresh air instead of into a hallway? Can you open the doors? Or am I mis-imagining what the trailers look like?

You are misunderstanding what miss WTU wants. She wants her Wednesday vacay forever. Doesn’t care so much about educating your kid.

What is your obsession with insisting Wednesday is a vacation?

Because it is!

But it is not. Here is my schedule tomorrow.

8:00-10:30 LEAP
10:30-12:30 Small groups
12:30-1:00 Lunch
1:00-2:30 Small groups
2:30-3:30 Staff meeting

What kind of vacations do you take? Because mine don’t look anything like this.

NP here, but most teachers provide little to no instruction on Wednesdays. Even with your schedule, you're only providing 4.5 hours of instruction.

That is about all that is provided when your kids are in school. I understand that is hard to believe. But take a look at your normal in person schedule. Teachers only teach about 4.5 hours a day.

Fair enough, but lots of teachers provide no instruction or just morning meeting on Wednesdays.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:I teach in a DCPS trailer and you would not want more than 11 students in them. Impossible to distance enough with more kids. We’re probably close to 3 feet apart currently.

Upside of trailer.... windows can open? Can you open windows? Door opens into fresh air instead of into a hallway? Can you open the doors? Or am I mis-imagining what the trailers look like?

You are misunderstanding what miss WTU wants. She wants her Wednesday vacay forever. Doesn’t care so much about educating your kid.

What is your obsession with insisting Wednesday is a vacation?

Because it is!

But it is not. Here is my schedule tomorrow.

8:00-10:30 LEAP
10:30-12:30 Small groups
12:30-1:00 Lunch
1:00-2:30 Small groups
2:30-3:30 Staff meeting

What kind of vacations do you take? Because mine don’t look anything like this.

NP here, but most teachers provide little to no instruction on Wednesdays. Even with your schedule, you're only providing 4.5 hours of instruction.

That is about all that is provided when your kids are in school. I understand that is hard to believe. But take a look at your normal in person schedule. Teachers only teach about 4.5 hours a day.

Fair enough, but lots of teachers provide no instruction or just morning meeting on Wednesdays.

That’s a school leadership problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will schools be open 5 days per week this fall? I would love to be able to plan.

I am very concerned about this. DME Paul Kihn is already hedging on the topic, apparently making full-time school contingent on a pediatric vaccine. Somebody needs to stop this crazy train from gaining steam. Kids do NOT need to be vaccinated for schools to reopen fully, especially if the vaccines prevent severe illness rather than stop all transmission anyway. We need to come to our senses and live with this virus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will schools be open 5 days per week this fall? I would love to be able to plan.

I am very concerned about this. DME Paul Kihn is already hedging on the topic, apparently making full-time school contingent on a pediatric vaccine. Somebody needs to stop this crazy train from gaining steam. Kids do NOT need to be vaccinated for schools to reopen fully, especially if the vaccines prevent severe illness rather than stop all transmission anyway. We need to come to our senses and live with this virus.

Source please. Where did he say that? People are just posting wild crazy assertions on here and other people are believing it hook, line and sinker. Where did he say that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will schools be open 5 days per week this fall? I would love to be able to plan.

I am very concerned about this. DME Paul Kihn is already hedging on the topic, apparently making full-time school contingent on a pediatric vaccine. Somebody needs to stop this crazy train from gaining steam. Kids do NOT need to be vaccinated for schools to reopen fully, especially if the vaccines prevent severe illness rather than stop all transmission anyway. We need to come to our senses and live with this virus.

Source please. Where did he say that? People are just posting wild crazy assertions on here and other people are believing it hook, line and sinker. Where did he say that?

Paul Kihn, deputy mayor for education, at the Feb. 3 SBOE working session:

“We also believe and, I know I personally think this, the virus is insidious and we have no idea what the world will look like in September. We do know that there will be no child vaccine, probably, by then and so we need to prepare for a September that is not necessarily going to be normal. So we should be preparing for a September that could have some version of hybrid or virtual ongoing. So we also think it's important that we continue to support our teachers who are at the center of this endeavor as they continue strengthening their virtual education skills.”

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRjt5FDgYuE&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=DCSBOE at 8:00)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Will schools be open 5 days per week this fall? I would love to be able to plan.

I am very concerned about this. DME Paul Kihn is already hedging on the topic, apparently making full-time school contingent on a pediatric vaccine. Somebody needs to stop this crazy train from gaining steam. Kids do NOT need to be vaccinated for schools to reopen fully, especially if the vaccines prevent severe illness rather than stop all transmission anyway. We need to come to our senses and live with this virus.

Source please. Where did he say that? People are just posting wild crazy assertions on here and other people are believing it hook, line and sinker. Where did he say that?

Paul Kihn, deputy mayor for education, at the Feb. 3 SBOE working session:

“We also believe and, I know I personally think this, the virus is insidious and we have no idea what the world will look like in September. We do know that there will be no child vaccine, probably, by then and so we need to prepare for a September that is not necessarily going to be normal. So we should be preparing for a September that could have some version of hybrid or virtual ongoing. So we also think it's important that we continue to support our teachers who are at the center of this endeavor as they continue strengthening their virtual education skills.”

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRjt5FDgYuE&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=DCSBOE at 8:00)

Happy now? I don’t post stuff just from hearsay.

[Anonymous]

UGH. It does not sound good for full schedule in fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:Well, once the teachers gain full immunity from their in March or so, the main risk will be for students....

And parents

And everyone the children and parents come into contact with. The numbers are dropping. Can't people be a little patient?

No, they can't, because they're loudly and hysterically sick of parenting.

This. This is an anti-feminist statement and we need to start calling it out EVERY TIME WE SEE IT. Women are leaving the workforce in droves. Studies show it. And yet they get accused of “not wanting to parent” because, I don’t know, they had expected to send their kid to school so that they could build a career and earn an income. We women played along and played our part. There is a vaccine now and teachers can currently get it. Back to work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm missing something here. If kids are in two cohorts, they still have 1 teacher. If kid in cohort 1 gets covid, teacher and cohort 1 quarantine. Then doesn't cohort 2 have to quarantine as well since the teacher saw cohort 2 recently? What's the point, just have everyone together! Or all virtual. And the pp commenting about alternate childcare is also accurate. Many kids will wind up with other family members or childcare situations on days they aren't in school.

You’re missing nothing, which is why hybrid is a joke. It does not reduce the exposure of the teacher or the children and in fact, likely increases exposure due to the need of many parents to find alternate childcare arrangements on the days their children are not scheduled to be in school. It’s just more COVID theater, as is the asynchronous Wednesday “deep clean” day.

Vaccinate the teachers and staff, mask up everyone, and let’s get back to school in the fall. I’m (pun intended) washing my hands of this disaster of a school year; it’s clear the focus needs to be on fall if we want any hope of a more regular school year.

This. Hybrid is merely theater. Nothing to do with health or safety.

[Anonymous]

AGREE!!!!

Anonymous wrote:I think the 11 kids per room is not exactly "science" either. If the issue is how many viral particles are in the air, then room size and ventilation type should also be taken into consideration for each classroom, not a district-wide mandate. Also there are studies that suggest that masked students can sit 3 ft apart without direct spread, which changes the calculation quite considerably. And yes we should watch the mutations, but my goodness people cling to the unknown of those mutations as if they WANT them to cause another full shutdown. It could just as easily be that the mutations do not change any of the masking and distancing science we have right now.

[Anonymous]

THANK YOU FOR SAYING THIS!!! We are either teacher-killers or hate being parents.
The other classic retort is that we "want free babysitting". WTF? In our capitalist system, love it or hate it, school and work are scheduled to overlap for 7 hours so that adults can work. So, yes, in some ways teachers do function as babysitters in that they make sure the kid doesn't DIE while mom works...But that doesn't mean we don't appreciate the specialist skills of teachers.


No, they can't, because they're loudly and hysterically sick of parenting.

This. This is an anti-feminist statement and we need to start calling it out EVERY TIME WE SEE IT. Women are leaving the workforce in droves. Studies show it. And yet they get accused of “not wanting to parent” because, I don’t know, they had expected to send their kid to school so that they could build a career and earn an income. We women played along and played our part. There is a vaccine now and teachers can currently get it. Back to work.

[Anonymous]

I doubt class sizes will expand, not only because of the safety argument but also because we can’t expect teachers to continue to effectively acclimate a new class. They just did this when they implemented inperson. Classes got broken up, kids got assigned to new teachers mid year. Not fair to anyone to keep doing that. Completely disruptive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I doubt class sizes will expand, not only because of the safety argument but also because we can’t expect teachers to continue to effectively acclimate a new class. They just did this when they implemented inperson. Classes got broken up, kids got assigned to new teachers mid year. Not fair to anyone to keep doing that. Completely disruptive.

Less unfair than only offering IPL to a fraction of the families who want it.