APS Town Hall: some answers, much still unknown

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems unrealistic that kids, especially high schoolers, won’t fall behind if they’re asynchronous due to quarantine.

Of course they will but this is the end result of the opposition to concurrent.

I wanted concurrent to stay for this exact reason but others did not so here we are.

Concurrent was awful for the teachers and staff. It's never happening again.

Concurrent is only hard if the teachers and staff want to do a good job. It's not hard if you don't care if anyone learns anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have an idea how the quarantine would work for siblings? Imagine this scenario:

My middle schooler is exposed and told to quarantine on day one. She takes a test on day five, and is positive. She can go back on day 10, right? Her two siblings are then out for at least 10 days right? If I test them at the same time as my eldest, can they go back earlier?

Are they vaccinated also?

Everyone is under 12 so no one is vaccinated. Trying to do the cost benefit analysis of my middle schooler being out two weeks versus having to take 3 weeks off from work to quarantine her younger siblings too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:athletes were supposed to be testing to get out of wearing masks. Except that they are not. I have two HS kids - both in fall sports. Both testing daily and both still having to wear masks for their indoor practices.

Indoor? Should be masked.

yes, indoor. Vaccinated and testing negative on a daily basis. They should be able to take off the mask when the negative result is returned. That was the express point of the daily testing program for sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:athletes were supposed to be testing to get out of wearing masks. Except that they are not. I have two HS kids - both in fall sports. Both testing daily and both still having to wear masks for their indoor practices.

Indoor? Should be masked.

yes, indoor. Vaccinated and testing negative on a daily basis. They should be able to take off the mask when the negative result is returned. That was the express point of the daily testing program for sports.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:athletes were supposed to be testing to get out of wearing masks. Except that they are not. I have two HS kids - both in fall sports. Both testing daily and both still having to wear masks for their indoor practices.

Indoor? Should be masked.

yes, indoor. Vaccinated and testing negative on a daily basis. They should be able to take off the mask when the negative result is returned. That was the express point of the daily testing program for sports.

Things change. We now have a new variant that is highly contagious and also can be transmitted by vaccinated people. Masks on indoors help slow down spread. My kid cares more about playing than wearing a mask.

And it appears that the testing is optional. It’s too tough for coaches to track which (potentially unvaccinated) kids were tested or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems unrealistic that kids, especially high schoolers, won’t fall behind if they’re asynchronous due to quarantine.

Of course they will but this is the end result of the opposition to concurrent.

I wanted concurrent to stay for this exact reason but others did not so here we are.

Concurrent was awful for the teachers and staff. It's never happening again.

Concurrent is only hard if the teachers and staff want to do a good job. It's not hard if you don't care if anyone learns anything.

Why don't you get hired as a teacher and show them all then?

There's plenty of vacancies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have an idea how the quarantine would work for siblings? Imagine this scenario:

My middle schooler is exposed and told to quarantine on day one. She takes a test on day five, and is positive. She can go back on day 10, right? Her two siblings are then out for at least 10 days right? If I test them at the same time as my eldest, can they go back earlier?

Are they vaccinated also?

Just to be clear for parents because APS is not making this clear. There is not going to be much quarantining unless kids actually test positive for COVID.

1. You are VERY unlikely to get notice of exposure to COVID. If both kids are wearing masks and are 3 feet distanced, they will NOT be considered close contacts and you will not be notified. So quarantining is really only going to be for kids who actually test positive, not because your kid sat next to someone who tested positive.

2. Vaccinated kids (middle and high) will not be required to quarantine in the unusual case that they are identified as close contacts.

[Anonymous]

This just in from APS School Talk!

"Arlington County Government and Arlington Public Schools (APS) will implement a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for employees. This joint action, effective August 30, is a necessary step to help keep the community safe and is consistent with COVID-19 public health guidance. This policy will also apply to interns, volunteers, substitutes, and contractors. "


Love it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Won’t there be a lot of false positives? The cdc doesn’t recommend random testing like this.

No. False positives are rare. Not unheard of, but rare.

It's the false/premature negatives that are the problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems unrealistic that kids, especially high schoolers, won’t fall behind if they’re asynchronous due to quarantine.

Of course they will but this is the end result of the opposition to concurrent.

I wanted concurrent to stay for this exact reason but others did not so here we are.

Agreed. Teachers haven't learned how to teach a synchronous "hybrid" class. This policy precludes the need for them to learn; but it would be a huge advantage for any future pandemics and individual situations of long-term injury or illness etc, and to the quality of future education in general because distance learning is going to be with us forever now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Does anyone have an idea how the quarantine would work for siblings? Imagine this scenario:

My middle schooler is exposed and told to quarantine on day one. She takes a test on day five, and is positive. She can go back on day 10, right? Her two siblings are then out for at least 10 days right? If I test them at the same time as my eldest, can they go back earlier?


Are they vaccinated also?



Just to be clear for parents because APS is not making this clear. There is not going to be much quarantining unless kids actually test positive for COVID.

1. You are VERY unlikely to get notice of exposure to COVID. If both kids are wearing masks and are 3 feet distanced, they will NOT be considered close contacts and you will not be notified. So quarantining is really only going to be for kids who actually test positive, not because your kid sat next to someone who tested positive.

2. Vaccinated kids (middle and high) will not be required to quarantine in the unusual case that they are identified as close contacts.

This is not happening. There will be no enforced distancing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This just in from APS School Talk!

"Arlington County Government and Arlington Public Schools (APS) will implement a COVID-19 vaccination mandate for employees. This joint action, effective August 30, is a necessary step to help keep the community safe and is consistent with COVID-19 public health guidance. This policy will also apply to interns, volunteers, substitutes, and contractors. "


Love it!

So amazing!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Does anyone have an idea how the quarantine would work for siblings? Imagine this scenario:

My middle schooler is exposed and told to quarantine on day one. She takes a test on day five, and is positive. She can go back on day 10, right? Her two siblings are then out for at least 10 days right? If I test them at the same time as my eldest, can they go back earlier?


Are they vaccinated also?



Just to be clear for parents because APS is not making this clear. There is not going to be much quarantining unless kids actually test positive for COVID.

1. You are VERY unlikely to get notice of exposure to COVID. If both kids are wearing masks and are 3 feet distanced, they will NOT be considered close contacts and you will not be notified. So quarantining is really only going to be for kids who actually test positive, not because your kid sat next to someone who tested positive.

2. Vaccinated kids (middle and high) will not be required to quarantine in the unusual case that they are identified as close contacts.

This is not happening. There will be no enforced distancing.

Don’t disagree. But do you think they are going to contact trace or just “assume” kids were 3 feet distances and masked in class. Clearly the latter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My question is why can't kids go to that $11 million fancy virtual school if they test positive? Even having another teacher for 8 days is better than giving them a whole bunch of busy work and leaving them to figure it out themselves...

The teachers may be in a different spot in the curriculum. It wouldn't make sense. I work in APS, what are you talking about with "fancy"? There is no money for the program. My school donated left over supplies from hybrid to the school, they are desperate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My question is why can't kids go to that $11 million fancy virtual school if they test positive? Even having another teacher for 8 days is better than giving them a whole bunch of busy work and leaving them to figure it out themselves...

The teachers may be in a different spot in the curriculum. It wouldn't make sense. I work in APS, what are you talking about with "fancy"? There is no money for the program. My school donated left over supplies from hybrid to the school, they are desperate.

What supplies did you donate at a virtual school? The $11M just budgeted for them didn’t cut it??