If APS could send some schools back 4 days and not others, should it do it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

lpstout wrote:Valuable WaPo article today on what Fairfax is doing this spring to be ready for school in August--note especially the intensive outreach to families and purchases they’re making now to ensure they’ll have the physical capacity they’ll need. Arlington needs to do the same, and before the School Board approves a budget on May 6. https://wapo.st/3sJXM9g

Any time you see a news article about FCPS, assume it's wildly overstated. They love getting good press and hate doing hard work. They also made it sound like they were bringing back most in-person kids 4 days a week and then parents had to flood admin with emails to get them to actually do it, and even then some schools that could chose not to.

FCPS empowered the principals to make it happen instead of taking a monolithic approach that would prevent anything from happening. My two ES kids were both immediately invited back to 4-days per week. The teachers teach from the smart boards so they don't open their laptops for instruction, they use worksheets, they play at recess, they do activities during PE, they say school is so much better now getting to directly interact with the teacher all day, etc. For at least one quarter, school is essentially back to normal.

Second PP here - at our school parents had to make many calls to higher admin and school board members to get the principal to invite all in-person kids. At the end of the day it was clear that it could have been done all along, but the virtual parents were complaining and so it wasn't initially offered.

Yes, now that it has happened it is great, but whether it happened was highly dependent on a TON of variables.