Why doesn't MCPS seem to have a covid plan for the fall?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the pertinent question is when they will send a whole class of kids home to quarantine.

If one kid in class is positive, is my kid out for 2 weeks?

Or perhaps I won't even be notified??

I could frankly imagine either extreme, and I'd like to know which to expect.

+1 People are going to be mad no matter what they decide to do. Their radio silence is causing many families to get spun up and hypothesize. I’d much prefer the ability to plan based on the current thinking, even knowing everyone might need to adjust or pivot if health metrics change considerably. Its almost like they either don’t want feedback, which is kind of antithetical in a public school environment, or they think they’ll confuse us with too much info, which is insulting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the pertinent question is when they will send a whole class of kids home to quarantine.

If one kid in class is positive, is my kid out for 2 weeks?

Or perhaps I won't even be notified??

I could frankly imagine either extreme, and I'd like to know which to expect.

I emailed my ES principal last week to ask her what the protocol is. She said there is no official plan yet, but that they likely will follow protocol from Summer School, which is: the school will do contact tracing and if it's just one kid who is positive, that kid is out for 10 days at home and will have to get work to do at home from their teacher. If the covid positive kid is considered in close contact with the whole class, then the whole class quarantines for 10 days and the teacher goes to virtual learning.

I do not know what they're doing for lunch. I hope it's outside, but I doubt it.

My kid did go to a one-week camp this summer where all the kids ate lunch in a cafeteria together, indoors. I didn't love the idea but it ended up being fine.

That was when the positivity rate was lower and delta was not as much in this area. The situation really changed almost over night. I had my child in summer school for MCPS too with indoor lunch. I was fine with it earlier in the summer. I wouldn't do it now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the pertinent question is when they will send a whole class of kids home to quarantine.

If one kid in class is positive, is my kid out for 2 weeks?

Or perhaps I won't even be notified??

I could frankly imagine either extreme, and I'd like to know which to expect.

I emailed my ES principal last week to ask her what the protocol is. She said there is no official plan yet, but that they likely will follow protocol from Summer School, which is: the school will do contact tracing and if it's just one kid who is positive, that kid is out for 10 days at home and will have to get work to do at home from their teacher. If the covid positive kid is considered in close contact with the whole class, then the whole class quarantines for 10 days and the teacher goes to virtual learning.

I do not know what they're doing for lunch. I hope it's outside, but I doubt it.

My kid did go to a one-week camp this summer where all the kids ate lunch in a cafeteria together, indoors. I didn't love the idea but it ended up being fine.

That was when the positivity rate was lower and delta was not as much in this area. The situation really changed almost over night. I had my child in summer school for MCPS too with indoor lunch. I was fine with it earlier in the summer. I wouldn't do it now.

Most people just can’t think ahead. They still think things will remain the same as pre-delta and moco only had 10 case a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the pertinent question is when they will send a whole class of kids home to quarantine.

If one kid in class is positive, is my kid out for 2 weeks?

Or perhaps I won't even be notified??

I could frankly imagine either extreme, and I'd like to know which to expect.

I emailed my ES principal last week to ask her what the protocol is. She said there is no official plan yet, but that they likely will follow protocol from Summer School, which is: the school will do contact tracing and if it's just one kid who is positive, that kid is out for 10 days at home and will have to get work to do at home from their teacher. If the covid positive kid is considered in close contact with the whole class, then the whole class quarantines for 10 days and the teacher goes to virtual learning.

I do not know what they're doing for lunch. I hope it's outside, but I doubt it.

My kid did go to a one-week camp this summer where all the kids ate lunch in a cafeteria together, indoors. I didn't love the idea but it ended up being fine.

That was when the positivity rate was lower and delta was not as much in this area. The situation really changed almost over night. I had my child in summer school for MCPS too with indoor lunch. I was fine with it earlier in the summer. I wouldn't do it now.

Most people just can’t think ahead. They still think things will remain the same as pre-delta and moco only had 10 case a day.

Saying my kids went to a camp and it was fine means nothing as a MCPS ES has around 400-600 kids, some more and an typical MS has around 1000 kids. In MCPS, its common that 100-250 kids are eating lunch at the same time. Do you really think that is fine?

Familes are traveling. Kids under 12 are not vaccinated. We've had outbreaks at camps, churches and other places. Let the great social experiment begin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Saying my kids went to a camp and it was fine means nothing as a MCPS ES has around 400-600 kids, some more and an typical MS has around 1000 kids. In MCPS, its common that 100-250 kids are eating lunch at the same time. Do you really think that is fine?

Familes are traveling. Kids under 12 are not vaccinated. We've had outbreaks at camps, churches and other places. Let the great social experiment begin.

The "great social experiment", as you call it, began in March 2020.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

spudmqueen wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree OP, school starts in 3 weeks. They need to share the plan.

I agree. How is MCPS not even providing updates. At the least they could announce they are working on alternatives. Very disappointing.

They have said their plan. Return to normal, just like pre-covid days with the only exception being masking. A decent teacher will keep the desks separated in ES and keep kids as best distanced as they can but the pictures MCPS has posted from summer school show no distancing of teachers or kids.

There’s not even room in the classrooms to do this properly w 25+ kids. They need to come up with a better plan ASAP.

It's masks with quarantines where necessary. Are you guys really just looking for some kind of language that shuts the whole thing down again? They used up all their capital on that last year. They need kids back in the classroom this year.

You want kids back in the classroom. They don't need to do anything. It would be nice if they had a plan to keep our kids safe. Thats what I want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Saying my kids went to a camp and it was fine means nothing as a MCPS ES has around 400-600 kids, some more and an typical MS has around 1000 kids. In MCPS, its common that 100-250 kids are eating lunch at the same time. Do you really think that is fine?

Familes are traveling. Kids under 12 are not vaccinated. We've had outbreaks at camps, churches and other places. Let the great social experiment begin.

The "great social experiment", as you call it, began in March 2020.

It did and for most of us, we made the best of it and figured it out. I didn't wait out covid this long to put my kids in a large group setting to get covid.

[Anonymous]

spudmqueen wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A year and a half in, has MCPS made any investments in building ventilation?

Yes they have

Portable air filters are not investments in building ventilation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the pertinent question is when they will send a whole class of kids home to quarantine.

If one kid in class is positive, is my kid out for 2 weeks?

Or perhaps I won't even be notified??

I could frankly imagine either extreme, and I'd like to know which to expect.

+1 People are going to be mad no matter what they decide to do. Their radio silence is causing many families to get spun up and hypothesize. I’d much prefer the ability to plan based on the current thinking, even knowing everyone might need to adjust or pivot if health metrics change considerably. Its almost like they either don’t want feedback, which is kind of antithetical in a public school environment, or they think they’ll confuse us with too much info, which is insulting.

This is my issue. School starts in a few weeks. There is no publicly-posted plan.

At my workplace, which is much, much smaller than MCPS in terms of employees, and if we're going back to in-office in September, we'd have a plan in place by July. Planning in large organizations is key. Why is MCPS failing on this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

spudmqueen wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree OP, school starts in 3 weeks. They need to share the plan.

I agree. How is MCPS not even providing updates. At the least they could announce they are working on alternatives. Very disappointing.

They have said their plan. Return to normal, just like pre-covid days with the only exception being masking. A decent teacher will keep the desks separated in ES and keep kids as best distanced as they can but the pictures MCPS has posted from summer school show no distancing of teachers or kids.

There’s not even room in the classrooms to do this properly w 25+ kids. They need to come up with a better plan ASAP.

It's masks with quarantines where necessary. Are you guys really just looking for some kind of language that shuts the whole thing down again? They used up all their capital on that last year. They need kids back in the classroom this year.

+1
So much fear mongering going on. Find an alternative for your child if you are not comfortable sending your kid in person. No need to ruin the school year for the rest of us. Kids might get covid but they are mostly fine. Look at the numbers from across the world. In UK 47 kids between 0-17 died since the start of the pandemic. Even with delta kids seemed to be doing better than adults. So stop this nonsense.

I read the news. The news says things very differently and UK is not the US. If you look fat numbers of child deaths world wide its very different than what you are saying. You may be ok with risking your kids health, but others of us are not ok with you risking our kids health.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

spudmqueen wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree OP, school starts in 3 weeks. They need to share the plan.

I agree. How is MCPS not even providing updates. At the least they could announce they are working on alternatives. Very disappointing.

They have said their plan. Return to normal, just like pre-covid days with the only exception being masking. A decent teacher will keep the desks separated in ES and keep kids as best distanced as they can but the pictures MCPS has posted from summer school show no distancing of teachers or kids.

There’s not even room in the classrooms to do this properly w 25+ kids. They need to come up with a better plan ASAP.

It's masks with quarantines where necessary. Are you guys really just looking for some kind of language that shuts the whole thing down again? They used up all their capital on that last year. They need kids back in the classroom this year.

You want kids back in the classroom. They don't need to do anything. It would be nice if they had a plan to keep our kids safe. Thats what I want.

They do. It's called masks and quarantines. Call your school about lunch. There you go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think MCPS needs to consider doing cohorts as described in the other thread, alternating A/B/C/etc. weeks for hybrid.
We could get lucky and delta could disappear before Sept. 1 but right now they are predicting it won't reach its peak before sometime in October.

We paid a lot for the technology to be able to go hybrid and virtual. I think we need to give people the option to do that this fall.

I would still choose in person for my kids but I think MCPS needs to come out with a better plan. Their current non plan plan was written before delta.

People have the option to do that this fall: https://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/virtualacademy/

Its only an option if they'd respond to emails, phone calls and accept our kids. At this point, some of us are without a plan for our kids as they aren't in virtual and we aren't comfortable sending them back.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Today it's Delta.. in 4 tears it could be an different pandemic altogether. The fact is thatbwr have allowed moco leaders to over develop this area without building enough schools.
Even before the pandemic having 30 children in a classroom is insane. No child is.gettinf the help they need. Classes are run like college lectures vs an age appropriate learning environment. The spread of germs is horrendous. It's an unhealthy environment we are allowing by continuing to vote for the same numbskulls at the local level.

This is why we made the tough decision to move our early ES kids to private permanently starting this fall, and we're in a W school district where the schools and teachers have been great. We think there is going to be some other "big thing" in the next 10 years, and MCPS will again be called to lead and will again fail. No need to put our kids through that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many threads do we need on this topic? MCPS has a plan. It’s to return in person, full time, 100% masked, following CDC guidelines. This year is not last year. The guidelines are different. In case of positive cases, they will follow the health department guidance, as they are already doing. They already said that they would share contingency plans in case of wider spread of cases n a school at September board meeting.

I beg to differ. These are the latest cdc guidelines for schools:

In addition to universal indoor masking, CDC recommends schools maintain at least 3 feet of physical distance between students within classrooms to reduce transmission risk. When it is not possible to maintain a physical distance of at least 3 feet, such as when schools cannot fully re-open while maintaining these distances, it is especially important to layer multiple other prevention strategies, such as screening testing.

Screening testing, ventilation, handwashing and respiratory etiquette, staying home when sick and getting tested, contact tracing in combination with quarantine and isolation, and cleaning and disinfection are also important layers of prevention to keep schools safe.

By my tally, they aren’t maintaining 3ft of distance (all distancing markers removed). They are not layering in screening testing. It is questionable whether they will do any contact tracing. They are eliminating attestation and are not screening for illness before letting kids in the door (requiring students to stay home when sick). They’re not requiring sick students to get tested before returning to school, nor are they planning to offer Covid testing when a student is sent to the nurse. The whole quarantine and isolation plan is a big question mark, but I think the plan is to skip that strategy as well. We all know they are not cleaning or disinfecting in a meaningful way. So no, I wouldn’t say they’re following cdc guidelines. They’re relying entirely on masks, except, you know, when they all take them off to eat in the cafeteria.

MCPS doesn't do contact tracing. The state does that: https://covidlink.maryland.gov/content/answer-the-call/

The attestations last spring were complete nonsense, and cleaning/disinfecting are covid theater.

I agree with these points but I’m not the one who wrote the cdc guidelines, which include these layers!

The point is that contact tracing is happening.

The CDC guidelines do not call for attestations.

How will that happen with a MS or HS with 7-8 classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Saying my kids went to a camp and it was fine means nothing as a MCPS ES has around 400-600 kids, some more and an typical MS has around 1000 kids. In MCPS, its common that 100-250 kids are eating lunch at the same time. Do you really think that is fine?

Familes are traveling. Kids under 12 are not vaccinated. We've had outbreaks at camps, churches and other places. Let the great social experiment begin.

The "great social experiment", as you call it, began in March 2020.

It did and for most of us, we made the best of it and figured it out. I didn't wait out covid this long to put my kids in a large group setting to get covid.

Ok, wonderful. So go get some screen cleaner and microfiber cloths to polish up your monitors for VA. Keep waiting. Nobody cares. Just like nobody cares about your boring "great social experiment" comment you post multiple times per day.