Washington City Paper report on Inspired Teaching

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m an ITDS parent. I expect ITDS to engage staff with the same care I am required to engage with mine. If I were aware of a COVID outbreak among my staff and I told them about it at an in-person all-staff meeting, it would (appropriately) be a major issue with my staff union. If I justified my decision-making based on a legal judgment that was deeply flawed, and if after just 6 weeks on the job, I had a whistleblower complaint from my staff and a scathing report in the local paper, it would be an issue with my board. I care about whether the leadership at ITDS is treating the staff well. Here it seems like they missed the mark.

This is well said. I’m hoping the new director sees this as a wake up call

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m an ITDS parent. I expect ITDS to engage staff with the same care I am required to engage with mine. If I were aware of a COVID outbreak among my staff and I told them about it at an in-person all-staff meeting, it would (appropriately) be a major issue with my staff union. If I justified my decision-making based on a legal judgment that was deeply flawed, and if after just 6 weeks on the job, I had a whistleblower complaint from my staff and a scathing report in the local paper, it would be an issue with my board. I care about whether the leadership at ITDS is treating the staff well. Here it seems like they missed the mark.

This is well said. I’m hoping the new director sees this as a wake up call

This. If the allegations in the article are true, they exposed their staff in a stunningly irresponsible manner. And if not all staff tested and we're negative, they are now about to expose the children.

[Anonymous]

Is this all it takes to make some of you freak out? Three teachers that haven’t been around students and one room’s HVAC being repaired. Nothing has actually affected you yet. The rest of this year is gonna be a wild ride for you. Strap in and get some Xanax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m an ITDS parent. I expect ITDS to engage staff with the same care I am required to engage with mine. If I were aware of a COVID outbreak among my staff and I told them about it at an in-person all-staff meeting, it would (appropriately) be a major issue with my staff union. If I justified my decision-making based on a legal judgment that was deeply flawed, and if after just 6 weeks on the job, I had a whistleblower complaint from my staff and a scathing report in the local paper, it would be an issue with my board. I care about whether the leadership at ITDS is treating the staff well. Here it seems like they missed the mark.

This is well said. I’m hoping the new director sees this as a wake up call

I generally agree with this, and am a person who thinks the school handled things fine with regard to not informing parents.

It sounds like the school could have been more proactive with regard to informing staff and not gathering in a large group (maybe at all, maybe once any positive case happened). However, the way DC health guidance is written, vaccinated “close contacts” (within 6 feet for 15 minutes or more) of a COVID positive case “should” (not must) test 3-5 days after exposure and are not required to quarantine. There are no requirements for testing or quarantine for vaccinated people who shared a large room, if they don’t meet the close contact definition.

My hope is that this is a tough “case study” in how following the guidance might not be good (conservative) enough. But man, it’s difficult to know the right thing to do in the moment when trying to apply the guidance and juggle a million other things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:On previous threads about ITS, I've seen some posters say that how the school handled the pandemic should not play into ones decision about whether to go to this school this year, since the pandemic was a one-off. Obviously with Delta, that logic doesn't hold out as well, but put that aside for now. I think this shows the problem with charters that this past year has exposed--a lack of accountability and transparency.

I was saying that 6 months ago and I agree with you now. We’re going to be dealing with this for a long time and I have a lot less faith in charters than I did a year ago. DCPS isn’t great, but at least it has layers of oversight and accountability

Bitter LOL. If we've learned anything lately is that what DCPS has is layers of CYA and influence to keep something like this quiet, and do it on a greater scale with impunity.

Except for the little bit that can be done by the DC Auditor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is this all it takes to make some of you freak out? Three teachers that haven’t been around students and one room’s HVAC being repaired. Nothing has actually affected you yet. The rest of this year is gonna be a wild ride for you. Strap in and get some Xanax.

It's not the cases. It's that they did not test every adult who was exposed, and haven't told the parents if they had any more positive tests, and we're now 36 hours away from dropping off our kids. Is the school even opening and who will be teaching my kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m an ITDS parent. I expect ITDS to engage staff with the same care I am required to engage with mine. If I were aware of a COVID outbreak among my staff and I told them about it at an in-person all-staff meeting, it would (appropriately) be a major issue with my staff union. If I justified my decision-making based on a legal judgment that was deeply flawed, and if after just 6 weeks on the job, I had a whistleblower complaint from my staff and a scathing report in the local paper, it would be an issue with my board. I care about whether the leadership at ITDS is treating the staff well. Here it seems like they missed the mark.

This is well said. I’m hoping the new director sees this as a wake up call

I generally agree with this, and am a person who thinks the school handled things fine with regard to not informing parents.

It sounds like the school could have been more proactive with regard to informing staff and not gathering in a large group (maybe at all, maybe once any positive case happened). However, the way DC health guidance is written, vaccinated “close contacts” (within 6 feet for 15 minutes or more) of a COVID positive case “should” (not must) test 3-5 days after exposure and are not required to quarantine. There are no requirements for testing or quarantine for vaccinated people who shared a large room, if they don’t meet the close contact definition.

My hope is that this is a tough “case study” in how following the guidance might not be good (conservative) enough. But man, it’s difficult to know the right thing to do in the moment when trying to apply the guidance and juggle a million other things.

Sorry but doing the legal bare minimum just isn't good enough when it comes to not giving my kid Covid. Is a few more PCR tests really asking so much?

Makes you wonder where else they are doing the bare minimum.

[Anonymous]

there is nothing in that article that tells us how long staff were together the morning they were told about the positive cases the night before. And, most of us have been in that all purpose room. It is large and entirely possible for 80 people to be in there with distancing, masks, and 90%+ vaccination rate and be safe. Do I think the talking points were unnecessarily vague/obtuse? yes. do I think they were the equivalent of asking teachers to lie? absolutely not. I think it's likely the result of the staff processing the talking points to death and coming up with a bad document which doesn't mean bad intent. I also think it's a huge leap to treat this as an initial indictment of the new head of school. To act as such is unfair. A wide variety of stakeholders involved in the interview process found her to be an amazing candidate and I am looking forward to seeing what she can do to improve the learning experience for all. (and, before anyone accuses me of this, I'm not a staff member) I can understand anyone who is scared right now, I really can. But nothing in that article makes me think the school is engaging in truly unsafe practices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m an ITDS parent. I expect ITDS to engage staff with the same care I am required to engage with mine. If I were aware of a COVID outbreak among my staff and I told them about it at an in-person all-staff meeting, it would (appropriately) be a major issue with my staff union. If I justified my decision-making based on a legal judgment that was deeply flawed, and if after just 6 weeks on the job, I had a whistleblower complaint from my staff and a scathing report in the local paper, it would be an issue with my board. I care about whether the leadership at ITDS is treating the staff well. Here it seems like they missed the mark.

This is well said. I’m hoping the new director sees this as a wake up call

This. If the allegations in the article are true, they exposed their staff in a stunningly irresponsible manner. And if not all staff tested and we're negative, they are now about to expose the children.

Every school in town is currently exposing their staff in a stunningly irresponsible manner.
It's nuts. They're doing a ton of indoor trainings, indoor unmasked lunches, indoor unmasked concerts.
It's a trainwreck.
They're all operating on what worked out with last year's covid as if 'delta is more contagious' is just fear-mongering. They're all operating as if the risk of breakthrough infections is just fear-mongering.
They're all wearing shitty inadequate masks, and showing them because today's Spirit Week mask day.

They'll all be good and ready and contagious Nirvana style in time for the 30th this is not great.

It's like they're greasing (covid) the pans (teachers) before baking (infecting) the cinnamon rolls (kids).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:there is nothing in that article that tells us how long staff were together the morning they were told about the positive cases the night before. And, most of us have been in that all purpose room. It is large and entirely possible for 80 people to be in there with distancing, masks, and 90%+ vaccination rate and be safe. Do I think the talking points were unnecessarily vague/obtuse? yes. do I think they were the equivalent of asking teachers to lie? absolutely not. I think it's likely the result of the staff processing the talking points to death and coming up with a bad document which doesn't mean bad intent. I also think it's a huge leap to treat this as an initial indictment of the new head of school. To act as such is unfair. A wide variety of stakeholders involved in the interview process found her to be an amazing candidate and I am looking forward to seeing what she can do to improve the learning experience for all. (and, before anyone accuses me of this, I'm not a staff member) I can understand anyone who is scared right now, I really can. But nothing in that article makes me think the school is engaging in truly unsafe practices.

So you think rapid tests for some of the staff is enough? Sorry but I expect a group of supposedly inspired teachers to go the extra mile and get tested. And they should have stopped meeting like that when they realized they had a positive case. And update the parents. We have heard nothing.

If they are going to do the bare minimum I expect we'll be spending a lot of time in quarantine this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:there is nothing in that article that tells us how long staff were together the morning they were told about the positive cases the night before. And, most of us have been in that all purpose room. It is large and entirely possible for 80 people to be in there with distancing, masks, and 90%+ vaccination rate and be safe. Do I think the talking points were unnecessarily vague/obtuse? yes. do I think they were the equivalent of asking teachers to lie? absolutely not. I think it's likely the result of the staff processing the talking points to death and coming up with a bad document which doesn't mean bad intent. I also think it's a huge leap to treat this as an initial indictment of the new head of school. To act as such is unfair. A wide variety of stakeholders involved in the interview process found her to be an amazing candidate and I am looking forward to seeing what she can do to improve the learning experience for all. (and, before anyone accuses me of this, I'm not a staff member) I can understand anyone who is scared right now, I really can. But nothing in that article makes me think the school is engaging in truly unsafe practices.

Aren't you a little bit curious how many people tested positive?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:there is nothing in that article that tells us how long staff were together the morning they were told about the positive cases the night before. And, most of us have been in that all purpose room. It is large and entirely possible for 80 people to be in there with distancing, masks, and 90%+ vaccination rate and be safe. Do I think the talking points were unnecessarily vague/obtuse? yes. do I think they were the equivalent of asking teachers to lie? absolutely not. I think it's likely the result of the staff processing the talking points to death and coming up with a bad document which doesn't mean bad intent. I also think it's a huge leap to treat this as an initial indictment of the new head of school. To act as such is unfair. A wide variety of stakeholders involved in the interview process found her to be an amazing candidate and I am looking forward to seeing what she can do to improve the learning experience for all. (and, before anyone accuses me of this, I'm not a staff member) I can understand anyone who is scared right now, I really can. But nothing in that article makes me think the school is engaging in truly unsafe practices.

So you think rapid tests for some of the staff is enough? Sorry but I expect a group of supposedly inspired teachers to go the extra mile and get tested. And they should have stopped meeting like that when they realized they had a positive case. And update the parents. We have heard nothing.

If they are going to do the bare minimum I expect we'll be spending a lot of time in quarantine this year.

Rapid tests should not be done on asymptomatic people. It is not accurate. They should be getting a PCR test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m an ITDS parent. I expect ITDS to engage staff with the same care I am required to engage with mine. If I were aware of a COVID outbreak among my staff and I told them about it at an in-person all-staff meeting, it would (appropriately) be a major issue with my staff union. If I justified my decision-making based on a legal judgment that was deeply flawed, and if after just 6 weeks on the job, I had a whistleblower complaint from my staff and a scathing report in the local paper, it would be an issue with my board. I care about whether the leadership at ITDS is treating the staff well. Here it seems like they missed the mark.

This is well said. I’m hoping the new director sees this as a wake up call

This. If the allegations in the article are true, they exposed their staff in a stunningly irresponsible manner. And if not all staff tested and we're negative, they are now about to expose the children.

Every school in town is currently exposing their staff in a stunningly irresponsible manner.
It's nuts. They're doing a ton of indoor trainings, indoor unmasked lunches, indoor unmasked concerts.
It's a trainwreck.
They're all operating on what worked out with last year's covid as if 'delta is more contagious' is just fear-mongering. They're all operating as if the risk of breakthrough infections is just fear-mongering.
They're all wearing shitty inadequate masks, and showing them because today's Spirit Week mask day.

They'll all be good and ready and contagious Nirvana style in time for the 30th this is not great.

It's like they're greasing (covid) the pans (teachers) before baking (infecting) the cinnamon rolls (kids).

What? Details on concerts and indoor unmasked events?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:there is nothing in that article that tells us how long staff were together the morning they were told about the positive cases the night before. And, most of us have been in that all purpose room. It is large and entirely possible for 80 people to be in there with distancing, masks, and 90%+ vaccination rate and be safe. Do I think the talking points were unnecessarily vague/obtuse? yes. do I think they were the equivalent of asking teachers to lie? absolutely not. I think it's likely the result of the staff processing the talking points to death and coming up with a bad document which doesn't mean bad intent. I also think it's a huge leap to treat this as an initial indictment of the new head of school. To act as such is unfair. A wide variety of stakeholders involved in the interview process found her to be an amazing candidate and I am looking forward to seeing what she can do to improve the learning experience for all. (and, before anyone accuses me of this, I'm not a staff member) I can understand anyone who is scared right now, I really can. But nothing in that article makes me think the school is engaging in truly unsafe practices.

So you think rapid tests for some of the staff is enough? Sorry but I expect a group of supposedly inspired teachers to go the extra mile and get tested. And they should have stopped meeting like that when they realized they had a positive case. And update the parents. We have heard nothing.

If they are going to do the bare minimum I expect we'll be spending a lot of time in quarantine this year.

Rapid tests should not be done on asymptomatic people. It is not accurate. They should be getting a PCR test.

The school told us they were waiting for PCR results. And all we know is that not 100% tested, not that it was only a small number. and obviously the school has been advised that is legally allowable even if the journalist got a quote disagreeing with that interpretation.

They might have dismissed everyone from that meeting after sharing info. We don’t know. Maybe they told staff in closest contact immediately and the whistleblower didn’t know. There is a lot we don’t know and I don’t think we can ignore the slant/click bait nature of the article too. I hope and expect we will hear more when they have more to tell us (for instance: if more staff were positive on PCR they might have needed today to come up with strategies to make sure all kids can still have teachers this week)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m an ITDS parent. I expect ITDS to engage staff with the same care I am required to engage with mine. If I were aware of a COVID outbreak among my staff and I told them about it at an in-person all-staff meeting, it would (appropriately) be a major issue with my staff union. If I justified my decision-making based on a legal judgment that was deeply flawed, and if after just 6 weeks on the job, I had a whistleblower complaint from my staff and a scathing report in the local paper, it would be an issue with my board. I care about whether the leadership at ITDS is treating the staff well. Here it seems like they missed the mark.

This is well said. I’m hoping the new director sees this as a wake up call

This. If the allegations in the article are true, they exposed their staff in a stunningly irresponsible manner. And if not all staff tested and we're negative, they are now about to expose the children.

Every school in town is currently exposing their staff in a stunningly irresponsible manner.
It's nuts. They're doing a ton of indoor trainings, indoor unmasked lunches, indoor unmasked concerts.
It's a trainwreck.
They're all operating on what worked out with last year's covid as if 'delta is more contagious' is just fear-mongering. They're all operating as if the risk of breakthrough infections is just fear-mongering.
They're all wearing shitty inadequate masks, and showing them because today's Spirit Week mask day.

They'll all be good and ready and contagious Nirvana style in time for the 30th this is not great.

It's like they're greasing (covid) the pans (teachers) before baking (infecting) the cinnamon rolls (kids).

What? Details on concerts and indoor unmasked events?

Unmasked concert:

Unmasked indoor lunch:

Good teachers proudly wearing bad masks: