How Will At/Over Capacity Schools Open in the Fall?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids receiving services should/will go back first.

Regular kids? Who the hell knows?

This type of reasoning bothers me. To put it in a stark way, the kids who are non verbal and unlikely to be largely productive members of society as adults will be able to attend school, but the future doctors/ nurses/ teachers/ etc will be made to sit out. How can a society function if this is our priority?

I know this sounds cold hearted. I’m thinking big picture on purpose with my musings. But what if hospitals functioned the same way- in Italy for example if 2 people needed a hospital bed and one was 85 and had heart disease and one was 30 and healthy, the 30 year old got it. It seems like with schools this plan would only offer in person education to the most frail.

Coldhearted, sure, but mostly ignorant. You literally have no idea what special education is.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids receiving services should/will go back first.

Regular kids? Who the hell knows?

This type of reasoning bothers me. To put it in a stark way, the kids who are non verbal and unlikely to be largely productive members of society as adults will be able to attend school, but the future doctors/ nurses/ teachers/ etc will be made to sit out. How can a society function if this is our priority?

I know this sounds cold hearted. I’m thinking big picture on purpose with my musings. But what if hospitals functioned the same way- in Italy for example if 2 people needed a hospital bed and one was 85 and had heart disease and one was 30 and healthy, the 30 year old got it. It seems like with schools this plan would only offer in person education to the most frail.

Coldhearted, sure, but mostly ignorant. You literally have no idea what special education is.

Special education is for kids a few generations ago would mostly be institutionalized on one side of the spectrum or dropouts on the other. It is more humane but those kids still will always be on the periphery of society. They are there because they can’t keep up, that doesn’t ever change. Their parents want them to be happy but that is emotional not practical.

[Anonymous]

Inboundary no question. I'm not proving to be either an effective home school teacher or employee working from home while home schooling two ES age kids.

[Anonymous]

I think DCPS needs to seriously consider that fact that many teachers will not return regardless of what type of “shift” or alternate class styling my occur.

A/B days sound great... but one sick kid attending on an A day still infects other students and the teacher who will interact with the B day kids..and other staff.

Old buildings are also an issue. There are schools with already less than ideal ventilation issues resulting in agitation of pre-existing conditions. Renovated schools probably don’t have this issue but my classroom has been the same since the building was built. New windows at best.

Recently on the news (last night) there was an entire focus on the newly discovered affects of COVID that are now killing young children. People need to keep in mind that we have no treatment for this and no wide scale implementing on safeguards. ONE SICK KID can start things back up all over again. And we all know we can teach our kids to wash their hands day and day out but some habits are so ingrained. Like wiping their mouths with the back of their hand. Those tiny open mouthed unexpected coughs and sneezes..when it comes to children many things are out of our control.

I also question how many teachers who are also parents are willing to risk exposing themselves to the RISK of getting COVID and then bringing it home to their own family.

As a teacher, I LOVE my students. I care deeply about them, but I’m not putting my love for my job/students over the health and safety of my family. I can promise you that within my own school many teachers are already planning their exit strategy and looking at our contracts to see how we can exit before DCPS puts our lives and families at risk for the sake of the almighty Economy. Do not be surprised if teachers at your school are already calculating how to take advantage of unused sick leave and other resources to create a safety net for when they jump ship.

If this was just a bad case of the flu or some sort of sickness we could ride out..things would be different. There’s no playbook for this. There’s no model for us to follow. Our leaders dropped the ball on handling this efficiently and we all need to realize that our ideal scenarios may not be the most practical ones given the circumstances.

Parents, I wish you all well. I know this is taxing and we are all looking forward to some sort of answer/solution that will be appeasing and meet our own individual needs ..but we are where we are. And the best we can do at this point is adjust accordingly and not expect much from DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids receiving services should/will go back first.

Regular kids? Who the hell knows?

This type of reasoning bothers me. To put it in a stark way, the kids who are non verbal and unlikely to be largely productive members of society as adults will be able to attend school, but the future doctors/ nurses/ teachers/ etc will be made to sit out. How can a society function if this is our priority?

I know this sounds cold hearted. I’m thinking big picture on purpose with my musings. But what if hospitals functioned the same way- in Italy for example if 2 people needed a hospital bed and one was 85 and had heart disease and one was 30 and healthy, the 30 year old got it. It seems like with schools this plan would only offer in person education to the most frail.

Coldhearted, sure, but mostly ignorant. You literally have no idea what special education is.

Special education is for kids a few generations ago would mostly be institutionalized on one side of the spectrum or dropouts on the other. It is more humane but those kids still will always be on the periphery of society. They are there because they can’t keep up, that doesn’t ever change. Their parents want them to be happy but that is emotional not practical.

I don't know who you think you are. You don't get to define what a meaningful life looks like for people with disabilities. You should take a hard long hard look in the mirror. I think the world would be better off without so many arrogant, ableist people without any regard for others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think DCPS needs to seriously consider that fact that many teachers will not return regardless of what type of “shift” or alternate class styling my occur.

A/B days sound great... but one sick kid attending on an A day still infects other students and the teacher who will interact with the B day kids..and other staff.

Old buildings are also an issue. There are schools with already less than ideal ventilation issues resulting in agitation of pre-existing conditions. Renovated schools probably don’t have this issue but my classroom has been the same since the building was built. New windows at best.

Recently on the news (last night) there was an entire focus on the newly discovered affects of COVID that are now killing young children. People need to keep in mind that we have no treatment for this and no wide scale implementing on safeguards. ONE SICK KID can start things back up all over again. And we all know we can teach our kids to wash their hands day and day out but some habits are so ingrained. Like wiping their mouths with the back of their hand. Those tiny open mouthed unexpected coughs and sneezes..when it comes to children many things are out of our control.

I also question how many teachers who are also parents are willing to risk exposing themselves to the RISK of getting COVID and then bringing it home to their own family.

As a teacher, I LOVE my students. I care deeply about them, but I’m not putting my love for my job/students over the health and safety of my family. I can promise you that within my own school many teachers are already planning their exit strategy and looking at our contracts to see how we can exit before DCPS puts our lives and families at risk for the sake of the almighty Economy. Do not be surprised if teachers at your school are already calculating how to take advantage of unused sick leave and other resources to create a safety net for when they jump ship.

If this was just a bad case of the flu or some sort of sickness we could ride out..things would be different. There’s no playbook for this. There’s no model for us to follow. Our leaders dropped the ball on handling this efficiently and we all need to realize that our ideal scenarios may not be the most practical ones given the circumstances.

Parents, I wish you all well. I know this is taxing and we are all looking forward to some sort of answer/solution that will be appeasing and meet our own individual needs ..but we are where we are. And the best we can do at this point is adjust accordingly and not expect much from DCPS.

You are welcome to quit or not get paid until you are willing to come back. Why should public employees not suffer some of the economic impact?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think DCPS needs to seriously consider that fact that many teachers will not return regardless of what type of “shift” or alternate class styling my occur.

A/B days sound great... but one sick kid attending on an A day still infects other students and the teacher who will interact with the B day kids..and other staff.

Old buildings are also an issue. There are schools with already less than ideal ventilation issues resulting in agitation of pre-existing conditions. Renovated schools probably don’t have this issue but my classroom has been the same since the building was built. New windows at best.

Recently on the news (last night) there was an entire focus on the newly discovered affects of COVID that are now killing young children. People need to keep in mind that we have no treatment for this and no wide scale implementing on safeguards. ONE SICK KID can start things back up all over again. And we all know we can teach our kids to wash their hands day and day out but some habits are so ingrained. Like wiping their mouths with the back of their hand. Those tiny open mouthed unexpected coughs and sneezes..when it comes to children many things are out of our control.

I also question how many teachers who are also parents are willing to risk exposing themselves to the RISK of getting COVID and then bringing it home to their own family.

As a teacher, I LOVE my students. I care deeply about them, but I’m not putting my love for my job/students over the health and safety of my family. I can promise you that within my own school many teachers are already planning their exit strategy and looking at our contracts to see how we can exit before DCPS puts our lives and families at risk for the sake of the almighty Economy. Do not be surprised if teachers at your school are already calculating how to take advantage of unused sick leave and other resources to create a safety net for when they jump ship.

If this was just a bad case of the flu or some sort of sickness we could ride out..things would be different. There’s no playbook for this. There’s no model for us to follow. Our leaders dropped the ball on handling this efficiently and we all need to realize that our ideal scenarios may not be the most practical ones given the circumstances.

Parents, I wish you all well. I know this is taxing and we are all looking forward to some sort of answer/solution that will be appeasing and meet our own individual needs ..but we are where we are. And the best we can do at this point is adjust accordingly and not expect much from DCPS.

You are welcome to quit or not get paid until you are willing to come back. Why should public employees not suffer some of the economic impact?

This teacher is literally talking about exhausting her accrued leave and then leaving her job. We have earned that time and will get paid for it. You're free to do the same thing with your own job, FYI, if you find it to be too much for you.