How bad is your APS back to school experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At Wakefield, the Principal said he was able to honor all requests from teachers who wanted to stay home. DC has 2/7 classes virtual. I know another friend whose DC has 3/7 classes virtual. This is just the first week, so I am ready to give it time, and grateful for the 5 teachers who came back. But DC said sitting in the cold, stinky, crowded gym yesterday to listen to a teacher on a computer screen was not that fun, and I think that's a fair reaction. Wakefield also only had 40% of kids come back, so some classes have 2 kids in them.

How is this even possible? Did Wakefield not follow ADA guidelines?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's quite clear that OP is the same dad who is ranting about this on AEM, joined in by his APE friends.

APE will keep complaining until they get complete normal which you just can't have in a pandemic.

I think it's disgusting to complain about teachers who need to teach from home due to a private medical reason.

Absolutely THIS!

Do you know that the teachers have an ADA claim? Our principal has made a school decision that many teachers don't have to teach in person unless they want to do so. There is no ADA issue. It's solely teacher preference.

Which school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's quite clear that OP is the same dad who is ranting about this on AEM, joined in by his APE friends.

APE will keep complaining until they get complete normal which you just can't have in a pandemic.

I think it's disgusting to complain about teachers who need to teach from home due to a private medical reason.

Absolutely THIS!

Do you know that the teachers have an ADA claim? Our principal has made a school decision that many teachers don't have to teach in person unless they want to do so. There is no ADA issue. It's solely teacher preference.

At WMS (where the AEM rant dad is from), our principal said teachers who are virtual are only temporary until a permanent sub can be found; they're required to take a leave of absence but agreed to work virtually until sub is found. NO one was approved to work from home. However given the sub shortage, its very likely the teachers will remain in place at home. (last sentence is my opinion, not what WMS has said).

This makes sense. Of course Rant Dad will have an even bigger tantrum when his kids are taught by a sub.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's quite clear that OP is the same dad who is ranting about this on AEM, joined in by his APE friends.

APE will keep complaining until they get complete normal which you just can't have in a pandemic.

I think it's disgusting to complain about teachers who need to teach from home due to a private medical reason.

Absolutely THIS!

Do you know that the teachers have an ADA claim? Our principal has made a school decision that many teachers don't have to teach in person unless they want to do so. There is no ADA issue. It's solely teacher preference.

At WMS (where the AEM rant dad is from), our principal said teachers who are virtual are only temporary until a permanent sub can be found; they're required to take a leave of absence but agreed to work virtually until sub is found. NO one was approved to work from home. However given the sub shortage, its very likely the teachers will remain in place at home. (last sentence is my opinion, not what WMS has said).

This makes sense. Of course Rant Dad will have an even bigger tantrum when his kids are taught by a sub.

It makes sense, but it's not great.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's quite clear that OP is the same dad who is ranting about this on AEM, joined in by his APE friends.

APE will keep complaining until they get complete normal which you just can't have in a pandemic.

I think it's disgusting to complain about teachers who need to teach from home due to a private medical reason.

Absolutely THIS!

Do you know that the teachers have an ADA claim? Our principal has made a school decision that many teachers don't have to teach in person unless they want to do so. There is no ADA issue. It's solely teacher preference.

At WMS (where the AEM rant dad is from), our principal said teachers who are virtual are only temporary until a permanent sub can be found; they're required to take a leave of absence but agreed to work virtually until sub is found. NO one was approved to work from home. However given the sub shortage, its very likely the teachers will remain in place at home. (last sentence is my opinion, not what WMS has said).

This makes sense. Of course Rant Dad will have an even bigger tantrum when his kids are taught by a sub.

It makes sense, but it's not great.

It's rants like this that are forcing teachers to leave. APE complained so loudly about teachers teaching virtually to their in person snowflakes, so now these experienced teachers will have to quite or take LOAs. So that's bad for them and bad for the students. I'd much rather have my in person kid be taught by their great teacher virtually instead of a long term sub or brand new teacher.

[Anonymous]

2nd grade hybrid going well. Teacher is amazing and safety protocols seems solid. Kid seems happy to be back with classmates. I’m sorry to hear about the OP’s experience. That stinks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's quite clear that OP is the same dad who is ranting about this on AEM, joined in by his APE friends.

APE will keep complaining until they get complete normal which you just can't have in a pandemic.

I think it's disgusting to complain about teachers who need to teach from home due to a private medical reason.

Absolutely THIS!

Do you know that the teachers have an ADA claim? Our principal has made a school decision that many teachers don't have to teach in person unless they want to do so. There is no ADA issue. It's solely teacher preference.

I’m surprised to hear that principals are allowed that leeway. I would imagine that decision will face opposition now that kids are back.

Welcome to why some parents are unhappy. The APS model is wildly divergent. We're not just whiners and we're not making it up. It's like we're in an entirely different school system that is making entirely different decisions.

As far as I can tell, APS principals have zero oversight from APS. They can do whatever they please.

Ding ding ding. This is why parents complain. It may be working great for your kids but other schools are doing something completely different. There is no oversight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:JFC. What a bunch of whiners most of you are. One of my kids has been back since last week and has a couple of virtual teachers. He's fine with all of it. My other kid is still all virtual and he's fine with that too. We are still in a pandemic, you know, and we are still early in the return to in-person learning stage. How about giving them a chance to get their sea legs before jumping on them? Is this the grace, compassion and resiliency you are teaching your children?

Every school is doing its own things and some have made decisions that are not taking student learning into account. It's not about giving teachers grace for tech hiccups. It's parents realizing that APS administration has decided that it will not be offering some students in person education in certain core subjects at all this year, when many kids are struggling mightily with virtual learning.

Some kids got lucky in the APS model. Others are SOL for no safety reason.

So much for equity right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Middle school. We have several of my child's teachers teaching from home. WTF. They have to type their questions into their laptop even with the in person teachers. Again. WTF.

It is almost like they set it all up out of spite. The kids are still looking at the screens. But, they are enjoying being around other kids.

Sadly I agree with the spite intent. I think APS is trying very hard to get more kids to commit to virtual. It would solve a lot of their problems and alleviate them from actually making the effort to do their job the right way. ridiculous

GMAFB. If they didn’t do concurrent they’d have to change the teacher assignments - again. Or have three asynchronous days for the hybrid kids.

It’s not a great solution but the best one we have given the circumstances. And it’s disgusting that some parents are trying to vilify teachers/APS for doing their best during a deadly pandemic. Truly disgusting.

PP here - I wasn't vilifying teachers, my response was directed at APS. I personally love most of my children's teachers and know they are doing the best with the hand they are dealt. APS is to blame for the horrific rollout.

Like I said, it’s disgusting that some parents are trying to vilify APS for doing their best during a deadly pandemic. Truly disgusting.

What do you want - you want them to swap around the teachers again?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's quite clear that OP is the same dad who is ranting about this on AEM, joined in by his APE friends.

APE will keep complaining until they get complete normal which you just can't have in a pandemic.

I think it's disgusting to complain about teachers who need to teach from home due to a private medical reason.

Absolutely THIS!

x1 million

The WHINERS are relentless. They can't even STFU for a day while APS works out the kinks to implement something that they desperately wanted - in-person school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's quite clear that OP is the same dad who is ranting about this on AEM, joined in by his APE friends.

APE will keep complaining until they get complete normal which you just can't have in a pandemic.

I think it's disgusting to complain about teachers who need to teach from home due to a private medical reason.

Absolutely THIS!

Do you know that the teachers have an ADA claim? Our principal has made a school decision that many teachers don't have to teach in person unless they want to do so. There is no ADA issue. It's solely teacher preference.

At WMS (where the AEM rant dad is from), our principal said teachers who are virtual are only temporary until a permanent sub can be found; they're required to take a leave of absence but agreed to work virtually until sub is found. NO one was approved to work from home. However given the sub shortage, its very likely the teachers will remain in place at home. (last sentence is my opinion, not what WMS has said).

This makes sense. Of course Rant Dad will have an even bigger tantrum when his kids are taught by a sub.

It makes sense, but it's not great.

It's rants like this that are forcing teachers to leave. APE complained so loudly about teachers teaching virtually to their in person snowflakes, so now these experienced teachers will have to quite or take LOAs. So that's bad for them and bad for the students. I'd much rather have my in person kid be taught by their great teacher virtually instead of a long term sub or brand new teacher.

Agree completely. We would much rather stick with excellent teachers virtually than switch to someone else in-person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Middle school. We have several of my child's teachers teaching from home. WTF. They have to type their questions into their laptop even with the in person teachers. Again. WTF.

It is almost like they set it all up out of spite. The kids are still looking at the screens. But, they are enjoying being around other kids.

Sadly I agree with the spite intent. I think APS is trying very hard to get more kids to commit to virtual. It would solve a lot of their problems and alleviate them from actually making the effort to do their job the right way. ridiculous

GMAFB. If they didn’t do concurrent they’d have to change the teacher assignments - again. Or have three asynchronous days for the hybrid kids.

It’s not a great solution but the best one we have given the circumstances. And it’s disgusting that some parents are trying to vilify teachers/APS for doing their best during a deadly pandemic. Truly disgusting.

PP here - I wasn't vilifying teachers, my response was directed at APS. I personally love most of my children's teachers and know they are doing the best with the hand they are dealt. APS is to blame for the horrific rollout.

Like I said, it’s disgusting that some parents are trying to vilify APS for doing their best during a deadly pandemic. Truly disgusting.

What do you want - you want them to swap around the teachers again?

I’m not pp, but if it is true that principals are allowed to let their teachers continue teaching from home just because they want to, that is a massive failure that needs to be corrected quickly. That’s not APS “doing their best.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's better than I was expecting. This will be our first week of having both kids attend and we opted for different days so only 1 kid is at home at a time Tues-Fri.

I am not wild about the teachers using Teams/virtually teaching from inside the building (I have a kid at Glebe) but my kid wasn't really bothered by it. I think it's a violation of the APS policy but it does not appear that there's any room for discussion on the point, so, I'm letting it go.

So far none of my MS kid's teachers are remote so I think it's interesting that this is so disproportional (i.e. sounds like a lot at WMS and very few everywhere else).

Do I wish this was all going differently? Absolutely, yes! Has the last year sucked and drained any faith I had in APS as a system? Pretty much! But is this a crucial stepping stone after a full year-plus to get kids back into schools? It is! I am counting my blessing and focusing on the may ways this is even a slight improvement over full-time virtual.

Yes, it seems this way to me, too. My younger son is at DHMS, and none of his teachers are virtual except his TA. My son at H-B has only one teacher who is virtual. Strange.

I think the OP is an anomaly. We are at WMS and only have one teacher remote.

OP must have personally driven his kid's teachers away with nonstop whining.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:2nd grade hybrid going well. Teacher is amazing and safety protocols seems solid. Kid seems happy to be back with classmates. I’m sorry to hear about the OP’s experience. That stinks.

This is our 2nd grader’s experience too. She’s being taught by a teacher or monitor. The teacher’s been fantastic. She’s getting papers (!) to do work again, and takes them home so they can do them on the virtual days. Some things are still on the IPad in-person, but they seem to be prioritizing getting kids off the IPads while they are at school as much as possible.

Talking to other parents at different ESs, it is not the experience across APS, though. And these are parents who are not prone to complaining. Sadly, at least for ES, it really depends which school you’re at. I feel very lucky to be where we are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2nd grade hybrid going well. Teacher is amazing and safety protocols seems solid. Kid seems happy to be back with classmates. I’m sorry to hear about the OP’s experience. That stinks.

This is our 2nd grader’s experience too. She’s being taught by a teacher or monitor. The teacher’s been fantastic. She’s getting papers (!) to do work again, and takes them home so they can do them on the virtual days. Some things are still on the IPad in-person, but they seem to be prioritizing getting kids off the IPads while they are at school as much as possible.

Talking to other parents at different ESs, it is not the experience across APS, though. And these are parents who are not prone to complaining. Sadly, at least for ES, it really depends which school you’re at. I feel very lucky to be where we are.

I wish parents would support each other. For those having a good experience, they should be supporting parents whose kids aren't getting the same opportunity. Return to school plainly can we done better than is being done at some schools. This isn't a safety issue, it's a principal issue.