Are they joking? No schedules until 8/24?

[Anonymous]

Sigh



They just gave the requirements to admin.

THEY need time to make a schedule and get it approved by DCPS. It’s a lot of w

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TO be fair to Central, a lot of the disorganization is coming from the top. The Mayor. She didn't want distance learning, she didn't want city money spent on technology, she wanted to find private funding for technology, she wanted to ignore COVID and get people back to work, she wanted to ignore the requests of the teachers union, etc. The Chancellor, doing what the Mayor told him to do, tells the Board of Education/City Council that DCPS doesn't need money, that the situation is under control, etc. All roads lead to the Mayor. The Chancellor, if he wants to keep his job, does whatever she tells him to do. Even if it isn't in the best interest of the schools/children. He is completely worthless- the Mayor's mouthpiece.

Central Office staffers are just as confused as the teachers/schools. They are being told different things on a daily basis. Their managers do not know any more information. Everything is changing constantly. The technology team is worthless... in a time when they are most needed to shine. The good ones are working insane hours, are stressed out of their minds, and doing their best to help the situation- to the detriment of their own physical and mental well being. Burn-out is rampant. It is a mess...all the way up the organization and to the top.

So yes, Central Office is problematic. But let us lay the blame squarely where it belongs. The Mayor.

Accurate. Also, can you give schools a break on not having schedules done yet? You may remember the mayor just announced the remote plan 8 days ago which require schools to build entirely new schedule types they have never done before in just a few weeks when they normally have months. Everyone complaining about why they should have schedules already has NO idea how complicated it is. No idea.

What I don't understand is why schools, Central office and the Mayor or whomever didn't spend less time fighting over in-person vrs DL. And just build plans for each concurrently.
It isn't hard make 2 teams- 1) plans DL only outline - then meets with school administrators to figure out how to practically apply that plan. Has a outline of rules, how much how long etc.
AT THE SAME TIME
Team 2 works on the hybrid plan and again meets with schools to figure out how to best apply this
MAYBE 3 that figures out the transition between the two.

ALL of this should have been well under way and ground work figured out in the spring. The summer should have mailed down the details. Not that freaking hard... Just takes actual planning. I mean we live in a city with TONS of government and military... Having a fully vested plan A, B,C shouldn't be a new concept.

I agree. There should have been an A team and a B team planning separately.

Seriously, how dare everyone not be prepared with multiple workable plans for innumerable possible options with many unknown variables for situations that are literally unprecedented. Oh, also these are all humans dealing with a pandemic the same as everyone else and trying to do this amidst people getting sick and dying, fear, managing children at home while trying to work, family members and friends losing jobs, racist police killings of black people, and social unrest. So yeah, basically everyone is slacking off to make your life harder.

Look their job is to prepare for the school year. They should have made two plans: hybrid ( which is much more complicated) and DL. I am a teacher and have several friends who are principals all over the country. They ALL made plans for both situations, and said they would just have to wait on their specific states to approve them. But the plans were made. And they are all dealing with your long list above. But they know their job is to prepare for the year.

[Anonymous]

Come on, NYC City schools haven't given up on in-person learning yet and the challenges their school leadership faces are much greater than ours. What bothers me about the DC response is the lack of resolve. No will, no way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Come on, NYC City schools haven't given up on in-person learning yet and the challenges their school leadership faces are much greater than ours. What bothers me about the DC response is the lack of resolve. No will, no way.

NYC schools will shut down if TWO students in the school test positive. They will be open one week MAX.

[Anonymous]

“Look their job is to prepare for the school year. They should have made two plans: hybrid ( which is much more complicated) and DL. I am a teacher and have several friends who are principals all over the country. They ALL made plans for both situations, and said they would just have to wait on their specific states to approve them. But the plans were made. And they are all dealing with your long list above. But they know their job is to prepare for the year.”

Right, and that’s why there is a plan, but that doesn’t mean every detail can be finalized instantly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Come on, NYC City schools haven't given up on in-person learning yet and the challenges their school leadership faces are much greater than ours. What bothers me about the DC response is the lack of resolve. No will, no way.

+1.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:“Look their job is to prepare for the school year. They should have made two plans: hybrid ( which is much more complicated) and DL. I am a teacher and have several friends who are principals all over the country. They ALL made plans for both situations, and said they would just have to wait on their specific states to approve them. But the plans were made. And they are all dealing with your long list above. But they know their job is to prepare for the year.”

Right, and that’s why there is a plan, but that doesn’t mean every detail can be finalized instantly.

DCPS has shared very little information about the actual concrete plan and schools have shared even less. Parents should know the general schedule of class time by now, what resources they need, etc. And no, general class time does not mean school is from 8-3. Because it clearly won't be for most students. And is there school Wednesdays? Or is that a teacher planning day or whatever? There is no real plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Look their job is to prepare for the school year. They should have made two plans: hybrid ( which is much more complicated) and DL. I am a teacher and have several friends who are principals all over the country. They ALL made plans for both situations, and said they would just have to wait on their specific states to approve them. But the plans were made. And they are all dealing with your long list above. But they know their job is to prepare for the year.”

Right, and that’s why there is a plan, but that doesn’t mean every detail can be finalized instantly.

DCPS has shared very little information about the actual concrete plan and schools have shared even less. Parents should know the general schedule of class time by now, what resources they need, etc. And no, general class time does not mean school is from 8-3. Because it clearly won't be for most students. And is there school Wednesdays? Or is that a teacher planning day or whatever? There is no real plan.

+100. Teacher/parent here and this is beyond frustrating. I need to know what is going on and no one will give out any information. It’s so aggravating.

[Anonymous]

The lack of flexibility and adaptability during a pandemic by some posters on this thread is killing me with laughter. Your stress levels must be through the roof because you don't have a set schedule ready for you a month in advance. Take a chill pill and relax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The lack of flexibility and adaptability during a pandemic by some posters on this thread is killing me with laughter. Your stress levels must be through the roof because you don't have a set schedule ready for you a month in advance. Take a chill pill and relax.

Do you work? Do you need childcare? Do you have a child with SN?

I am usually as chill as I can be and even I am losing patience with our MS. We have had one email from the actual school (not DCPS) in the last six weeks. These are unusual circumstances and the schools need to realize that parents need more lead time than usual to set up their households for DL and WFH or childcare for those who don’t WFH. We are putting plans and systems and processes in place as much as we can so the start up is as smooth as possible for all of us - esp our kid with SN and the other who is starting at a new school. The lack of support from our MS is disappointing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Look their job is to prepare for the school year. They should have made two plans: hybrid ( which is much more complicated) and DL. I am a teacher and have several friends who are principals all over the country. They ALL made plans for both situations, and said they would just have to wait on their specific states to approve them. But the plans were made. And they are all dealing with your long list above. But they know their job is to prepare for the year.”

Right, and that’s why there is a plan, but that doesn’t mean every detail can be finalized instantly.

DCPS has shared very little information about the actual concrete plan and schools have shared even less. Parents should know the general schedule of class time by now, what resources they need, etc. And no, general class time does not mean school is from 8-3. Because it clearly won't be for most students. And is there school Wednesdays? Or is that a teacher planning day or whatever? There is no real plan.

+1
The problem is not that DCPS doesn't have every detail worked out. The problem is that they are not communicating with families AT ALL. In some cases, schools aren't even communicating with their teachers, based on anecdotal comments on DCUM. I am more than ready to be understanding about the massive difficulty of educating kids during a pandemic. What is hard for me to understand is why the last conversation I had with my kid's school was months ago. And we are new to the school! I used to work in leadership and management training and there is no excuse for the lack of communication from both DCPS and the individual schools. You tell people what you know and lay out a plan for how you will continue to communicate in the future. It's ok not to know everything, and it's okay to change the plan as the situation develops. But it is not okay to just leave people hanging for months, to dole out tiny bits of information and to never make yourselves available for feedback or questions. It is a complete failure of leadership.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The lack of flexibility and adaptability during a pandemic by some posters on this thread is killing me with laughter. Your stress levels must be through the roof because you don't have a set schedule ready for you a month in advance. Take a chill pill and relax.

I’m not stressed out. But I don’t want to hear complaints from parents that DL sucks because teachers weren’t given basic information like what classes/grade they are teaching and what the general day will look like.

And teachers go back in two weeks. That’s not that far in advance to have some basic information. I assume you are independently wealthy or have older very motivated kids to be able to just chill and relax during all of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:“Look their job is to prepare for the school year. They should have made two plans: hybrid ( which is much more complicated) and DL. I am a teacher and have several friends who are principals all over the country. They ALL made plans for both situations, and said they would just have to wait on their specific states to approve them. But the plans were made. And they are all dealing with your long list above. But they know their job is to prepare for the year.”

Right, and that’s why there is a plan, but that doesn’t mean every detail can be finalized instantly.

DCPS has shared very little information about the actual concrete plan and schools have shared even less. Parents should know the general schedule of class time by now, what resources they need, etc. And no, general class time does not mean school is from 8-3. Because it clearly won't be for most students. And is there school Wednesdays? Or is that a teacher planning day or whatever? There is no real plan.

+1
The problem is not that DCPS doesn't have every detail worked out. The problem is that they are not communicating with families AT ALL. In some cases, schools aren't even communicating with their teachers, based on anecdotal comments on DCUM. I am more than ready to be understanding about the massive difficulty of educating kids during a pandemic. What is hard for me to understand is why the last conversation I had with my kid's school was months ago. And we are new to the school! I used to work in leadership and management training and there is no excuse for the lack of communication from both DCPS and the individual schools. You tell people what you know and lay out a plan for how you will continue to communicate in the future. It's ok not to know everything, and it's okay to change the plan as the situation develops. But it is not okay to just leave people hanging for months, to dole out tiny bits of information and to never make yourselves available for feedback or questions. It is a complete failure of leadership.

+1.

[Anonymous]

What plans are you looking for?

Each DCPS school will be different, except the minimum live requirements all schools will adhere to.

My school has let teacher create the schedule.

So what requirements do parents need other than the time they have to have their kid sit down on the computer?

The first week of 2 will not have lessons anyway but testing individual students for things such as DIBELS.


You’ll get your info at the end of August. Teachers you can blame your personal school’s admin for not giving you information.

[Anonymous]

Don’t complain. We r in CA now. Schools starts Tuesday. Got my elementary one a couple days ago. Middle school schedule may not be out till Monday, the day before school.