PGCPS virtual until 1/14/21

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is horrible. I am a teacher of PGCPS and a parent of PGCPS. My children must stay home and do virtual. I must report to my school and teach virtual. I am a single mother. I was told this on Friday, and unable to contact daycares for their care on Monday. Most aren’t even taking current drop ins. I have contacted everyone I know to see if they could watch them tomorrow. They are too young to stay home.

Also live in pgcps and I'll let you know that local daycares are shutting down for at least the week between Xmas and nye. Our letter mentioned that they understand we would need to likely find alternative arrangements during that time... And I couldn't help but laugh and be like what alternative arrangements there are hardly any childcare centers with open spots and most of them don't do drop in care so I'm supposed to find alternative arrangements for 4 days?

I swear to God we should all just go on strike

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The state of Maryland is not going to except school days or make any move to close schools on a state level. They’ve made it pretty clear they believe that mitigation methods are priority over virtual.

PP, I *thought* that but apparently not.

"A spokesperson for the Maryland State Department of Education said while the state prioritizes in-person learning, school systems have full flexibility to shift to virtual learning if they feel it is in the best interest of their community."

https://wtop.com/prince-georges-county/2021/12/prince-georges-county-public-schools-shifts-to-virtual-learning-due-to-uptick-in-covid-cases

That's interesting. They're changing their tune.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry. This has nothing to do with omicron so everyone smugly claiming it does can shut it.

Closing schools while the restaurants, bars and casinos are running at full capacity has NO BASIS in public health.

Sending kids home from a masked, distanced and largely vaccinated environment to mix at home with extended family and caretakers over the holidays has NO BASIS in public health.

Depriving kids of an essential service and basic human right — a right to an education — for an illness for which a vaccine is available — has no basis in public health.

The CDC says kids can safely be in school and should be. This is not 2020 when we didn’t have time to prepare and didn’t have vaccines.

My working assumption has been that this has more to do with the availability of subs, since that has been an issue all year, but I have no insider info on that.

The county failed to plan for rapid tests, staffing and substitute pay, and as usual our kids are the ones who suffer (not the casinos!). Reveals a lot about their true priorities.

I’m not sure I can in good conscience vote for Alsobrooks or my BOE member in 2022.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is horrible. I am a teacher of PGCPS and a parent of PGCPS. My children must stay home and do virtual. I must report to my school and teach virtual. I am a single mother. I was told this on Friday, and unable to contact daycares for their care on Monday. Most aren’t even taking current drop ins. I have contacted everyone I know to see if they could watch them tomorrow. They are too young to stay home.

I sympathize with you. I really do. But this was basically the same scenario we all faced in Sept 2020, when it appeared as if school systems would open and then mid-summer, announced virtual.

It left almost all parents in the exact same situation you are now in.

which is why so many people in neighboring systems are freaking out about the PGPS decision

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is horrible. I am a teacher of PGCPS and a parent of PGCPS. My children must stay home and do virtual. I must report to my school and teach virtual. I am a single mother. I was told this on Friday, and unable to contact daycares for their care on Monday. Most aren’t even taking current drop ins. I have contacted everyone I know to see if they could watch them tomorrow. They are too young to stay home.

I sympathize with you. I really do. But this was basically the same scenario we all faced in Sept 2020, when it appeared as if school systems would open and then mid-summer, announced virtual.

It left almost all parents in the exact same situation you are now in.

which is why so many people in neighboring systems are freaking out about the PGPS decision

And why parents have little to no empathy left. We were all faced with this crisis and have to figure it out. It seems like it will not be the last time that parents face this scenario.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is horrible. I am a teacher of PGCPS and a parent of PGCPS. My children must stay home and do virtual. I must report to my school and teach virtual. I am a single mother. I was told this on Friday, and unable to contact daycares for their care on Monday. Most aren’t even taking current drop ins. I have contacted everyone I know to see if they could watch them tomorrow. They are too young to stay home.

I sympathize with you. I really do. But this was basically the same scenario we all faced in Sept 2020, when it appeared as if school systems would open and then mid-summer, announced virtual.

It left almost all parents in the exact same situation you are now in.

which is why so many people in neighboring systems are freaking out about the PGPS decision

And why parents have little to no empathy left. We were all faced with this crisis and have to figure it out. It seems like it will not be the last time that parents face this scenario.

Yes, exactly right. It's hard to muster up much sympathy when this exact thing happened to us and was met with a collective shrug and a 'figure it out' by the community

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do they expect parents to do? This isn’t 2020 where everyone is virtual. Peoples jobs expect them to be in. What the hell do they do with their kids for 3 weeks? This is BS.

-teacher

Yea...I don't know what I'd do. For instance I live in loudoun, my kids go to school in loudoun and I teach in Fairfax. My DH works for the government and works in a scif and has been called back quite a while ago. We are both out of the house 10hrs a day. No idea how in the world my kids would cope if LCPS went virtual. I'd literally have kids home alone for 10hrs a day. It worked (well not really it was a disaster still last year) but at least last year 1. LCPS went back before FCPS 2. Even though I was trying to teach from home at least my kids weren't alone..

I can't go back to virtual teaching. I'll quit. My students are such an academic disaster this year, they just can't afford anymore learning loss. This entire year so far has been remediation.

You hire help or take a leave of absence or if your husband can, he flexes.

So people just take unpaid leave or come up with money for help if you can even find it? This is the UMC Zoom mentality.

Yup, snap your fingers or wiggle your noise and voila!

Here’s a problem with taking leave - teachers are already in short supply, and the ones working are stretched thin. But we should encourage more to leave? Healthcare workers are in short supply and already stretched thin. Should they be encouraged to take leaves of absence so they can be home with their kids all day?

Sometimes we need to make hard choices. Why not enlist a vaccinated family member to help?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is horrible. I am a teacher of PGCPS and a parent of PGCPS. My children must stay home and do virtual. I must report to my school and teach virtual. I am a single mother. I was told this on Friday, and unable to contact daycares for their care on Monday. Most aren’t even taking current drop ins. I have contacted everyone I know to see if they could watch them tomorrow. They are too young to stay home.

I’m very sorry, PP…
But what exactly were people expecting?
That covid was going away, perhaps?

I was one of the numerous doctors/scientists who wrote on these boards months ago that we would get new variants, some of them dangerous, because we were not vaccinating enough people around the world.

This is one of those variants. We need to close for a bit to avoid hospital saturation, redesign new vaccines and get them to where they’re needed most in the world.

Can you get a virtual job? There are plenty of tutors raking in the money.

You think closing schools is going to move the needle on hospital saturation when everything else is open? You don’t sound like a very educated scientist, or maybe you’re just clueless about what happens when alternative care is suddenly needed for over a hundred thousand students. News flash: they won’t be “sheltering” at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do they expect parents to do? This isn’t 2020 where everyone is virtual. Peoples jobs expect them to be in. What the hell do they do with their kids for 3 weeks? This is BS.

-teacher

Yea...I don't know what I'd do. For instance I live in loudoun, my kids go to school in loudoun and I teach in Fairfax. My DH works for the government and works in a scif and has been called back quite a while ago. We are both out of the house 10hrs a day. No idea how in the world my kids would cope if LCPS went virtual. I'd literally have kids home alone for 10hrs a day. It worked (well not really it was a disaster still last year) but at least last year 1. LCPS went back before FCPS 2. Even though I was trying to teach from home at least my kids weren't alone..

I can't go back to virtual teaching. I'll quit. My students are such an academic disaster this year, they just can't afford anymore learning loss. This entire year so far has been remediation.

You hire help or take a leave of absence or if your husband can, he flexes.

So people just take unpaid leave or come up with money for help if you can even find it? This is the UMC Zoom mentality.

Yup, snap your fingers or wiggle your noise and voila!

Here’s a problem with taking leave - teachers are already in short supply, and the ones working are stretched thin. But we should encourage more to leave? Healthcare workers are in short supply and already stretched thin. Should they be encouraged to take leaves of absence so they can be home with their kids all day?

Sometimes we need to make hard choices. Why not enlist a vaccinated family member to help?

Yeah, why not? So easy for people who have no local family. Or family who have to work themselves.

Honestly these “let them eat cake” replies…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is horrible. I am a teacher of PGCPS and a parent of PGCPS. My children must stay home and do virtual. I must report to my school and teach virtual. I am a single mother. I was told this on Friday, and unable to contact daycares for their care on Monday. Most aren’t even taking current drop ins. I have contacted everyone I know to see if they could watch them tomorrow. They are too young to stay home.

I’m very sorry, PP…
But what exactly were people expecting?
That covid was going away, perhaps?

I was one of the numerous doctors/scientists who wrote on these boards months ago that we would get new variants, some of them dangerous, because we were not vaccinating enough people around the world.

This is one of those variants. We need to close for a bit to avoid hospital saturation, redesign new vaccines and get them to where they’re needed most in the world.

Can you get a virtual job? There are plenty of tutors raking in the money.

You think closing schools is going to move the needle on hospital saturation when everything else is open? You don’t sound like a very educated scientist, or maybe you’re just clueless about what happens when alternative care is suddenly needed for over a hundred thousand students. News flash: they won’t be “sheltering” at home.

Not to mention this scientist who warned of variants, as if this hasn’t been repeated to us in the news constantly. I’m not a scientist and could have said this too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is horrible. I am a teacher of PGCPS and a parent of PGCPS. My children must stay home and do virtual. I must report to my school and teach virtual. I am a single mother. I was told this on Friday, and unable to contact daycares for their care on Monday. Most aren’t even taking current drop ins. I have contacted everyone I know to see if they could watch them tomorrow. They are too young to stay home.

I’m very sorry, PP…
But what exactly were people expecting?
That covid was going away, perhaps?

I was one of the numerous doctors/scientists who wrote on these boards months ago that we would get new variants, some of them dangerous, because we were not vaccinating enough people around the world.

This is one of those variants. We need to close for a bit to avoid hospital saturation, redesign new vaccines and get them to where they’re needed most in the world.

Can you get a virtual job? There are plenty of tutors raking in the money.

You think closing schools is going to move the needle on hospital saturation when everything else is open? You don’t sound like a very educated scientist, or maybe you’re just clueless about what happens when alternative care is suddenly needed for over a hundred thousand students. News flash: they won’t be “sheltering” at home.

PP is a scientist in clownology. PGCPS is not closing to help with hospital saturation. I mean to even suggest this was the reason is so beyond disingenuous.

[Anonymous]

Scientist in clownology is right. I am also a scientist and personally I listen to the advice from the CDC, and the vast majority of scientists and epidemiologists, who all agree schools should remain open and be the last to close, which aligns with the experience of nearly every other country in Europe, Canada etc who all managed to safely keep schools running even before vaccines were available.

PGCPS should be ashamed at this failure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do they expect parents to do? This isn’t 2020 where everyone is virtual. Peoples jobs expect them to be in. What the hell do they do with their kids for 3 weeks? This is BS.

-teacher

Yea...I don't know what I'd do. For instance I live in loudoun, my kids go to school in loudoun and I teach in Fairfax. My DH works for the government and works in a scif and has been called back quite a while ago. We are both out of the house 10hrs a day. No idea how in the world my kids would cope if LCPS went virtual. I'd literally have kids home alone for 10hrs a day. It worked (well not really it was a disaster still last year) but at least last year 1. LCPS went back before FCPS 2. Even though I was trying to teach from home at least my kids weren't alone..

I can't go back to virtual teaching. I'll quit. My students are such an academic disaster this year, they just can't afford anymore learning loss. This entire year so far has been remediation.

You hire help or take a leave of absence or if your husband can, he flexes.

So people just take unpaid leave or come up with money for help if you can even find it? This is the UMC Zoom mentality.

Yup, snap your fingers or wiggle your noise and voila!

Here’s a problem with taking leave - teachers are already in short supply, and the ones working are stretched thin. But we should encourage more to leave? Healthcare workers are in short supply and already stretched thin. Should they be encouraged to take leaves of absence so they can be home with their kids all day?

Sometimes we need to make hard choices. Why not enlist a vaccinated family member to help?

Hard choices? One) you need to have a vaccinated family member to help. literally, that person needs to exist 2) you would need to enlist them,which means that even if they exist they can say no

Again the issue is why there are even restrictions on the lowest risk population ANYWAYS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do they expect parents to do? This isn’t 2020 where everyone is virtual. Peoples jobs expect them to be in. What the hell do they do with their kids for 3 weeks? This is BS.

-teacher

Yea...I don't know what I'd do. For instance I live in loudoun, my kids go to school in loudoun and I teach in Fairfax. My DH works for the government and works in a scif and has been called back quite a while ago. We are both out of the house 10hrs a day. No idea how in the world my kids would cope if LCPS went virtual. I'd literally have kids home alone for 10hrs a day. It worked (well not really it was a disaster still last year) but at least last year 1. LCPS went back before FCPS 2. Even though I was trying to teach from home at least my kids weren't alone..

I can't go back to virtual teaching. I'll quit. My students are such an academic disaster this year, they just can't afford anymore learning loss. This entire year so far has been remediation.

You hire help or take a leave of absence or if your husband can, he flexes.

So people just take unpaid leave or come up with money for help if you can even find it? This is the UMC Zoom mentality.

Yup, snap your fingers or wiggle your noise and voila!

Here’s a problem with taking leave - teachers are already in short supply, and the ones working are stretched thin. But we should encourage more to leave? Healthcare workers are in short supply and already stretched thin. Should they be encouraged to take leaves of absence so they can be home with their kids all day?

Sometimes we need to make hard choices. Why not enlist a vaccinated family member to help?

Hard choices? One) you need to have a vaccinated family member to help. literally, that person needs to exist 2) you would need to enlist them,which means that even if they exist they can say no

Again the issue is why there are even restrictions on the lowest risk population ANYWAYS

Because there literally is not enough staff to run PG right now. But unless they provide some support to teachers like the PP, the problem is only going to get worse, not better, with closures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do they expect parents to do? This isn’t 2020 where everyone is virtual. Peoples jobs expect them to be in. What the hell do they do with their kids for 3 weeks? This is BS.

-teacher

Yea...I don't know what I'd do. For instance I live in loudoun, my kids go to school in loudoun and I teach in Fairfax. My DH works for the government and works in a scif and has been called back quite a while ago. We are both out of the house 10hrs a day. No idea how in the world my kids would cope if LCPS went virtual. I'd literally have kids home alone for 10hrs a day. It worked (well not really it was a disaster still last year) but at least last year 1. LCPS went back before FCPS 2. Even though I was trying to teach from home at least my kids weren't alone..

I can't go back to virtual teaching. I'll quit. My students are such an academic disaster this year, they just can't afford anymore learning loss. This entire year so far has been remediation.

You hire help or take a leave of absence or if your husband can, he flexes.

So people just take unpaid leave or come up with money for help if you can even find it? This is the UMC Zoom mentality.

Yup, snap your fingers or wiggle your noise and voila!

Here’s a problem with taking leave - teachers are already in short supply, and the ones working are stretched thin. But we should encourage more to leave? Healthcare workers are in short supply and already stretched thin. Should they be encouraged to take leaves of absence so they can be home with their kids all day?

Sometimes we need to make hard choices. Why not enlist a vaccinated family member to help?

Hard choices? One) you need to have a vaccinated family member to help. literally, that person needs to exist 2) you would need to enlist them,which means that even if they exist they can say no

Again the issue is why there are even restrictions on the lowest risk population ANYWAYS

Because there literally is not enough staff to run PG right now. But unless they provide some support to teachers like the PP, the problem is only going to get worse, not better, with closures.

Parents know this already. We went through this in spring 2020 all the way through until September.
Lack of licensed childcare
Family who aren’t vaccinated and can’t be exposed
Offices and workplaces open but schools closed

It’s like groundhogs day.