APS - Elementary school -who is opting for virtual in 2021/22

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have had virtual since DD is asthmatc, but are opting for in-person next year, since she is constantly facing frustration with poor virtual teaching. However, our concerns are:

1) With some teachers opting for the virtual academy, there will be fewer teachers in-person, so in-person class size will be bigger. That means more crowded, with 3ft distancing vs 6ft. If schools have a problem opening windows, isn't there a higher risk of outbreak with poor ventilation, should someone be infected in class?

2) Flu season in the fall/winter months - without 6-ft distancing, and again, closed windows - would that be a double-whammy?

3) This would be the first time that APS is allowing 5-day in-person learning when the pandemic is still raging on, and children's vaccines are far from being available. While masks may lower the risk of infection, how many kids really abide mask-wearing throughout the day? I assume APS is reverting to the pre-pandemic class schedule.

Re: flu season - when one virus tends to dominate, for reasons scientifically poorly understood, other viruses tend to fade into the background. It's called something about disappearing viruses and there's scientific info here (https://mbio.asm.org/content/2/5/e00150-11). During this year, COVID was still rampant despite all the non-pharmaseutical interventions (masks, distancing, quarantines), but flu and all the cold viruses barely existed. Masks don't stop flu - they've done studies. It's just that one virus suppresses others.

So there might be a bad virus season of some sort in winter - I expect it likely. However it will be of one dominant thing - a bad influenza A or SARS-COV-2 - not both.

[Anonymous]

Some more details here
https://www.apsva.us/school-year-2021-22/instructional-models-2021-22/#distance

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have had virtual since DD is asthmatc, but are opting for in-person next year, since she is constantly facing frustration with poor virtual teaching. However, our concerns are:

1) With some teachers opting for the virtual academy, there will be fewer teachers in-person, so in-person class size will be bigger. That means more crowded, with 3ft distancing vs 6ft. If schools have a problem opening windows, isn't there a higher risk of outbreak with poor ventilation, should someone be infected in class?

2) Flu season in the fall/winter months - without 6-ft distancing, and again, closed windows - would that be a double-whammy?

3) This would be the first time that APS is allowing 5-day in-person learning when the pandemic is still raging on, and children's vaccines are far from being available. While masks may lower the risk of infection, how many kids really abide mask-wearing throughout the day? I assume APS is reverting to the pre-pandemic class schedule.

How do you normally manage flu season with your daughter?

By the fall community spread of covid will be low enough to drop the distancing. They may still mask and use air filtration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If there's a separate admin and virtual teaching staff no longer linked to respective schools, so I gather gifted services will not be offered to virtual students? How about students from option schools like ATS or language immersion schools? Will everyone be mixed together?

We are at an immersion school and i heard yesterday they would not be offering immersion virtually.

We are immersion as well and I fully support giving up your choice school "method" if you want to stay virtual. It's WAY too much work to have the principals at these schools manage the virtual component. If you have to keep your child virtual, they need to streamline at a county level.

Immersion virtually has not been ideal for a lot of students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wishing there was a box to check for “yes, my student will attend once vaccinated.” DC will be 14 with respiratory issues.

Do you keep your child out of school during flu season? Both my pediatrician and my pulmonologist strongly encouraged us to send our severely asthmatic child to in person school. Children’s did a study showing that asthmatic children with covid did fine, no difference based on asthma

not the PP, but there's a vaccine for the flu plus doctors know how to treat it. Totally different scenario.

for kids- its really not. The flu vaccine is typically 40-60% effective (contrast to the well over 90% effective COVID vaccines). The flu sets off kids with asthma, covid doesn't it. I'm not sure what the 'doctor's know how to treat it' means. I mean the flu is a virus, there are things they can do (like they do with COVID) but it basically has to run its course. My asthmatic flu vaccinated kids had the flu a few years ago- and it was a miserable time for us, in and out of hospital etc. I am vastly vastly less concerned about COVID. This wasn't true at the beginning of the pandemic, but we have learned so much.

Here is my 'unpopular opinion.' We need to stop deferring to parents judgement- so many people who claim to have 'high risk' kids- the condition the kids have is extreme parental anxiety. ALL kids need to be back in school. Special tailored accomodations need to be provided for those children who have a doctors note saying they should not attend in person school- and individual appropriate plans worked out for them. But this 'opting for virtual' is garbage.

A vaccine is considered highly effective if it's over 50% effective. The point is rarely to eradicate something, but to limit it's spread. They should start requiring the flu vaccine for all students and staff and that would help immensely. Send all the anti-vax crazies to private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some more details here
https://www.apsva.us/school-year-2021-22/instructional-models-2021-22/#distance

The FAQs are really helpful too:
https://www.apsva.us/school-year-2021-22/faq/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If there's a separate admin and virtual teaching staff no longer linked to respective schools, so I gather gifted services will not be offered to virtual students? How about students from option schools like ATS or language immersion schools? Will everyone be mixed together?

We are at an immersion school and i heard yesterday they would not be offering immersion virtually.

We are immersion as well and I fully support giving up your choice school "method" if you want to stay virtual. It's WAY too much work to have the principals at these schools manage the virtual component. If you have to keep your child virtual, they need to streamline at a county level.

Immersion virtually has not been ideal for a lot of students.

NP but also at an immersion school. Virtual is not ideal. A pandemic is not ideal either. Health conditions are not ideal. Nobody asked for these circumstances. Kids with health conditions that put them at risk for severe COVID complications didn't ask for that circumstance. I would hope that APS could find a way to allow kids with health conditions to continue with immersion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If there's a separate admin and virtual teaching staff no longer linked to respective schools, so I gather gifted services will not be offered to virtual students? How about students from option schools like ATS or language immersion schools? Will everyone be mixed together?

We are at an immersion school and i heard yesterday they would not be offering immersion virtually.

We are immersion as well and I fully support giving up your choice school "method" if you want to stay virtual. It's WAY too much work to have the principals at these schools manage the virtual component. If you have to keep your child virtual, they need to streamline at a county level.

Immersion virtually has not been ideal for a lot of students.

NP but also at an immersion school. Virtual is not ideal. A pandemic is not ideal either. Health conditions are not ideal. Nobody asked for these circumstances. Kids with health conditions that put them at risk for severe COVID complications didn't ask for that circumstance. I would hope that APS could find a way to allow kids with health conditions to continue with immersion.

They have a plan. Check the FAQs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have had virtual since DD is asthmatc, but are opting for in-person next year, since she is constantly facing frustration with poor virtual teaching. However, our concerns are:

1) With some teachers opting for the virtual academy, there will be fewer teachers in-person, so in-person class size will be bigger. That means more crowded, with 3ft distancing vs 6ft. If schools have a problem opening windows, isn't there a higher risk of outbreak with poor ventilation, should someone be infected in class?

2) Flu season in the fall/winter months - without 6-ft distancing, and again, closed windows - would that be a double-whammy?

3) This would be the first time that APS is allowing 5-day in-person learning when the pandemic is still raging on, and children's vaccines are far from being available. While masks may lower the risk of infection, how many kids really abide mask-wearing throughout the day? I assume APS is reverting to the pre-pandemic class schedule.

1) the virtual academy will be staffed by application and interview like any school in APS determined by the school enrollment. Class size across APS will. Ot change but will adapt to the enrollment numbers.
2) I believe that until a children’s vaccine is available masking will still be required and APS is planning a model with 3ft and 0ft distancing dependent on recommendations in the fall.
3) Teachers and admin are definitely requiring and enforcing mask use. I’m an APS teacher in elementary and also a parent and I have not had any issues with my students wearing their masks nor have my own children who attend elementary, middle, and high schools reported any masking non-compliance.

I live very near W&L and have dozens of kids on the track team running by my house every day during practice. Every single one of them wears their mask, even when they are running without supervision off campus. It's being enforced and the kids are complying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If there's a separate admin and virtual teaching staff no longer linked to respective schools, so I gather gifted services will not be offered to virtual students? How about students from option schools like ATS or language immersion schools? Will everyone be mixed together?

We are at an immersion school and i heard yesterday they would not be offering immersion virtually.

We are not at an immersion school, but based on what I’ve heard from friends who are, that doesn’t surprise me. My friends have kids who are not native Spanish speakers in early to mid elementary, and they said this year has basically been lost because their kids weren’t effectively learning Spanish virtually, and therefore weren’t learning the content taught in Spanish.

I am the PP who said immersion would not be offered. It looks like they will offer a spanish language arts class, but core subjects will be taught in english.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If there's a separate admin and virtual teaching staff no longer linked to respective schools, so I gather gifted services will not be offered to virtual students? How about students from option schools like ATS or language immersion schools? Will everyone be mixed together?

We are at an immersion school and i heard yesterday they would not be offering immersion virtually.

We are immersion as well and I fully support giving up your choice school "method" if you want to stay virtual. It's WAY too much work to have the principals at these schools manage the virtual component. If you have to keep your child virtual, they need to streamline at a county level.

Immersion virtually has not been ideal for a lot of students.

NP but also at an immersion school. Virtual is not ideal. A pandemic is not ideal either. Health conditions are not ideal. Nobody asked for these circumstances. Kids with health conditions that put them at risk for severe COVID complications didn't ask for that circumstance. I would hope that APS could find a way to allow kids with health conditions to continue with immersion.

They have a plan. Check the FAQs.

Yes they are allowing children to stay at their choice school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wishing there was a box to check for “yes, my student will attend once vaccinated.” DC will be 14 with respiratory issues.

Do you keep your child out of school during flu season? Both my pediatrician and my pulmonologist strongly encouraged us to send our severely asthmatic child to in person school. Children’s did a study showing that asthmatic children with covid did fine, no difference based on asthma

not the PP, but there's a vaccine for the flu plus doctors know how to treat it. Totally different scenario.

for kids- its really not. The flu vaccine is typically 40-60% effective (contrast to the well over 90% effective COVID vaccines). The flu sets off kids with asthma, covid doesn't it. I'm not sure what the 'doctor's know how to treat it' means. I mean the flu is a virus, there are things they can do (like they do with COVID) but it basically has to run its course. My asthmatic flu vaccinated kids had the flu a few years ago- and it was a miserable time for us, in and out of hospital etc. I am vastly vastly less concerned about COVID. This wasn't true at the beginning of the pandemic, but we have learned so much.

Here is my 'unpopular opinion.' We need to stop deferring to parents judgement- so many people who claim to have 'high risk' kids- the condition the kids have is extreme parental anxiety. ALL kids need to be back in school. Special tailored accomodations need to be provided for those children who have a doctors note saying they should not attend in person school- and individual appropriate plans worked out for them. But this 'opting for virtual' is garbage.

This is insane. The issue is not parental anxiety. There is literally a list of high risk conditions from the CDC. People just don't "claim" to be high risk. You may not like it but it IS a real thing. The Covid denial is out of control.

This.

You do realize covid will never completely disappear, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wishing there was a box to check for “yes, my student will attend once vaccinated.” DC will be 14 with respiratory issues.

Do you keep your child out of school during flu season? Both my pediatrician and my pulmonologist strongly encouraged us to send our severely asthmatic child to in person school. Children’s did a study showing that asthmatic children with covid did fine, no difference based on asthma

not the PP, but there's a vaccine for the flu plus doctors know how to treat it. Totally different scenario.

for kids- its really not. The flu vaccine is typically 40-60% effective (contrast to the well over 90% effective COVID vaccines). The flu sets off kids with asthma, covid doesn't it. I'm not sure what the 'doctor's know how to treat it' means. I mean the flu is a virus, there are things they can do (like they do with COVID) but it basically has to run its course. My asthmatic flu vaccinated kids had the flu a few years ago- and it was a miserable time for us, in and out of hospital etc. I am vastly vastly less concerned about COVID. This wasn't true at the beginning of the pandemic, but we have learned so much.

Here is my 'unpopular opinion.' We need to stop deferring to parents judgement- so many people who claim to have 'high risk' kids- the condition the kids have is extreme parental anxiety. ALL kids need to be back in school. Special tailored accomodations need to be provided for those children who have a doctors note saying they should not attend in person school- and individual appropriate plans worked out for them. But this 'opting for virtual' is garbage.

This is insane. The issue is not parental anxiety. There is literally a list of high risk conditions from the CDC. People just don't "claim" to be high risk. You may not like it but it IS a real thing. The Covid denial is out of control.

This.

You do realize covid will never completely disappear, right?

Of course. You do realize there will be a vaccine, right? So it will be like the flu. You get a vaccine, have a good amount of protection, and move on with life vs. the current situation for at risk kids who have 0 protection. Do what you want for your family, but please don't confuse science with parental anxiety.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have had virtual since DD is asthmatc, but are opting for in-person next year, since she is constantly facing frustration with poor virtual teaching. However, our concerns are:

1) With some teachers opting for the virtual academy, there will be fewer teachers in-person, so in-person class size will be bigger. That means more crowded, with 3ft distancing vs 6ft. If schools have a problem opening windows, isn't there a higher risk of outbreak with poor ventilation, should someone be infected in class?

2) Flu season in the fall/winter months - without 6-ft distancing, and again, closed windows - would that be a double-whammy?

3) This would be the first time that APS is allowing 5-day in-person learning when the pandemic is still raging on, and children's vaccines are far from being available. While masks may lower the risk of infection, how many kids really abide mask-wearing throughout the day? I assume APS is reverting to the pre-pandemic class schedule.

The pandemic is not still going to be "raging on" in September...get a grip

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have had virtual since DD is asthmatc, but are opting for in-person next year, since she is constantly facing frustration with poor virtual teaching. However, our concerns are:

1) With some teachers opting for the virtual academy, there will be fewer teachers in-person, so in-person class size will be bigger. That means more crowded, with 3ft distancing vs 6ft. If schools have a problem opening windows, isn't there a higher risk of outbreak with poor ventilation, should someone be infected in class?

2) Flu season in the fall/winter months - without 6-ft distancing, and again, closed windows - would that be a double-whammy?

3) This would be the first time that APS is allowing 5-day in-person learning when the pandemic is still raging on, and children's vaccines are far from being available. While masks may lower the risk of infection, how many kids really abide mask-wearing throughout the day? I assume APS is reverting to the pre-pandemic class schedule.

The pandemic is not still going to be "raging on" in September...get a grip

Let's not nitpick over semantics - you know what PP means. As long as the vaccine is not given to kids, there's still a risk. I bet you won 't be saying this if your child got infected and hospitalized.