2 days a week school in the fall?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get no one likes these plans, but what is your solution? They are trying to get kids back in school the best way they can. They can’t just open up schools with 500 kids and act like nothing happened. I don’t know what the right answer is but most people here won’t be happy with any solution

It's really not that hard to come up with ideas. If you're trying to minimize the number of kids present in school, we should be investing heavily in some full year virtual education options--like guided home schooling. In the other thread, I suggested reallocating principals and teachers with health concerns to a new 'virtual school'. Maybe stand up and Elementary, Middle, and High. If 10-20% of families opt into this, it opens up more possibilities for bringing kids back closer to full time at in-person schools.

Additionally, I'd like to see the city planning in lockdown periods to coincide for both school and elsewhere. We know the virus is likely to come back strong in the fall. Why not plan for a citywide cycle of something like 6 weeks on and 3 weeks off to contain the spread before it gets out of control. Right now, we're assuming there will be some unspecified trigger condition. But that's still going to come up on us more quickly than we would like. If we're proactive and go ahead and have occasional strict social distancing periods, we can keep everything from getting bad and hopefully better deal with the lockdown periods.

I like this. The problem is it can't just be the schools - everything woudl have to shut down for 3 weeks. What gets me is that it is JUST our children that are paying the price. THEY will be DL or in a school 2 days a week but the bars and coffee shops and resturants and spas and dog groomers and acupuncturists and churches will be oopen 7 days a week.

When’s the last time you went to a restaurant/bar/coffee shop/salon/groomer/church and a sick person sneezed on you, coughed all over your table, picked their nose and wiped it on your table, sucked their thumb and then handed you something, chewed a marker and then gave it to you...kids are gross. That’s the difference between a business and a school.

[Anonymous]

Going for one week and then home for two weeks is the least convenient for my working life, but it seems to make the most sense considering how the virus works (at least to my understanding). The two weeks at home should be enough time to find out if exposure happened during the school week.

Follow up questions would be: if/when cases show up, does everyone in the school stay home? Or just that one third of the kids? Or just the kids in classes on that floor? In that particular classroom?

The other options just seem like they add a lot of continuous risk of exposure.

[Anonymous]

How does the alternating days affect the health of the educators? Seems they will be exposed to everyone and therefore everyone will be exposed to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Proposal for elementary school: Eliminate PreK3 and PreK4 until Jan except for children who qualify for FARM or an IEP/504. Use the opened up classroom space, classrooms and teachers to reduce K class size. Give all K students the option of "redshirting". If a parent selects this option, the student will be eligible to start in the PreK4 class in January.

Grades 1 - 5. All students have the option of 100% distance learning for Aug - Dec (and possibly for the entire school year depending on how things unfold). For families that select this option, there will be a dedicated cohort of teachers who will focus on being experts on delivering distance learning to this targeted age group. There will be a "parent / school" commitment to learning which outlines expectations for online learning engagement.
[Level of home learning technology available, home learning environment and learning support]

For the remaining 1-5 students, create a programing alternating weeks of instruction. Week 1 - in school instruction. Week 2 - distance specials + using learning technology apps to reinforce learning. This is a short term design and not intended to be a "redesigned learning". It is purely a proposal to situation we are all currently facing.

This actually sounds like a plan. Nothing leaking out of this administration comes close. It really seems like they're just trying to phone it in between the committee members and hand-waving ideas that obviously won't work.

Evidence of Ward 3 bubble again. The vast majority of PK kids are FARMS. How do you suggest spacing those schools out?

Most schools are under enrolled or have capacity. In cases where you do not have enough pre-K classrooms, repurpose a specials classroom temporarily

[Anonymous]

All options are inconvenient. 2 days a week seems most workable. Teachers need relationships with students in order to get them to learn. Seeing adults in smaller class settings consistently will facilitate relationships and teachers knowing students. I pray that discipline problems don’t interfere.

My husband and I both have some flexibility about work hours Work wise 2 days of school also seems the most workable.

2 school days as full 8 hour days at work for both parents - one partner go in early or stay late vice versa.

1 day with a sitter or another family while both parents work a full 8 hour work day.

I work 1 day for 12 hours with the kids with my partner.

My partner works a long day while I am with the kids.

We both put in a few hours over the weekend.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Proposal for elementary school: Eliminate PreK3 and PreK4 until Jan except for children who qualify for FARM or an IEP/504. Use the opened up classroom space, classrooms and teachers to reduce K class size. Give all K students the option of "redshirting". If a parent selects this option, the student will be eligible to start in the PreK4 class in January.

Grades 1 - 5. All students have the option of 100% distance learning for Aug - Dec (and possibly for the entire school year depending on how things unfold). For families that select this option, there will be a dedicated cohort of teachers who will focus on being experts on delivering distance learning to this targeted age group. There will be a "parent / school" commitment to learning which outlines expectations for online learning engagement.
[Level of home learning technology available, home learning environment and learning support]

For the remaining 1-5 students, create a programing alternating weeks of instruction. Week 1 - in school instruction. Week 2 - distance specials + using learning technology apps to reinforce learning. This is a short term design and not intended to be a "redesigned learning". It is purely a proposal to situation we are all currently facing.

This actually sounds like a plan. Nothing leaking out of this administration comes close. It really seems like they're just trying to phone it in between the committee members and hand-waving ideas that obviously won't work.

Evidence of Ward 3 bubble again. The vast majority of PK kids are FARMS. How do you suggest spacing those schools out?

Most schools are under enrolled or have capacity. In cases where you do not have enough pre-K classrooms, repurpose a specials classroom temporarily

And who would teach in those classrooms? Also, it’s not true that most elementary schools are under enrolled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All options are inconvenient. 2 days a week seems most workable. Teachers need relationships with students in order to get them to learn. Seeing adults in smaller class settings consistently will facilitate relationships and teachers knowing students. I pray that discipline problems don’t interfere.

My husband and I both have some flexibility about work hours Work wise 2 days of school also seems the most workable.

2 school days as full 8 hour days at work for both parents - one partner go in early or stay late vice versa.

1 day with a sitter or another family while both parents work a full 8 hour work day.

I work 1 day for 12 hours with the kids with my partner.

My partner works a long day while I am with the kids.

We both put in a few hours over the weekend.

And single parents that don’t earn enough to hire a babysitter or don’t have flexible jobs?

[Anonymous]

What 1:12 said. When figuring out a solution you have to start with the corner case, make sure it is at least plausibly workable for them. That means the kids with little to no internet, one parent or caregiver who may not speak English or be able to support otherwise.

In DC most kids are not in 2-parent homes where each has flexible jobs. Parents like you can probably make any of these scenarios work if you must even though you won’t like it.

[Anonymous]

There aren't going to be any winners here with any of these options. Teachers will be risking their health, and many will have child care issues of their own. Parents will have to scramble to figure out child care while also continuing to act as substitute teachers at home. Kids -- especially high-poverty kids -- will continue to learn less than they do by actually going to school buildings full-time.

My big worry is employers forcing parents to return to the office, which I'm going to guess will happen before kids go back to school full-time. If DCPS goes forward with any of these plans, DC needs to pass a temporary law banning termination because of inability to physically be at an office. Otherwise a whole lot of people will be losing their jobs because there will be no one to care for their kids on days when they won't be at school.

[Anonymous]

Here’s the thing. If people return back to normal, this stuff isn’t gonna matter anyway because the city will be shut down in the fall. So either employers and schools are going to have to change things or we will be back in the same situation.

[Anonymous]

What does this even accomplish?? Students attending even ONE day a week will be exposed to other children, expose the teachers and then come home from school and expose others, including parents, when they go to the playground, restaurants, childcare centers, stores etc.

This is pointless. Either have kids attend all days or zero days.

A big question is what if covid isn’t a problem? What if there is a treatment or a vaccine? It’s just assumed kids will only attend a day or two a week regardless?

What is the metric for school returning to a normal schedule?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What 1:12 said. When figuring out a solution you have to start with the corner case, make sure it is at least plausibly workable for them. That means the kids with little to no internet, one parent or caregiver who may not speak English or be able to support otherwise.

In DC most kids are not in 2-parent homes where each has flexible jobs. Parents like you can probably make any of these scenarios work if you must even though you won’t like it.

There's nothing that works in that scenario and that's entirely backwards. Start with what is best for learning in general and then backfill from there. Wifi hotspots , chromebooks and translated instructions for example. Equity doesn't mean dragging everyone down to the LCD. It means lifting the LCD up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There aren't going to be any winners here with any of these options. Teachers will be risking their health, and many will have child care issues of their own. Parents will have to scramble to figure out child care while also continuing to act as substitute teachers at home. Kids -- especially high-poverty kids -- will continue to learn less than they do by actually going to school buildings full-time.

My big worry is employers forcing parents to return to the office, which I'm going to guess will happen before kids go back to school full-time. If DCPS goes forward with any of these plans, DC needs to pass a temporary law banning termination because of inability to physically be at an office. Otherwise a whole lot of people will be losing their jobs because there will be no one to care for their kids on days when they won't be at school.

DC is a city of haves and have-nots. There was a great article in the Post about how distance learning is going for the have-nots. It is not only about access to technology - it is about having supervision, motivation, support. Some students are out working as the income for their families have been significantly reduced. Some young students are being watched by older siblings as parents are working. In my opinion, the long term impact for the children in high school right now who may be on the fence about college or dropping out - this is a really challenging time. The structures provided by the physical building are accountability of a teacher establishing a relationship - these are much harder in virtual environments.

Decisions need to be made to optimize these experiences - not mine - where we are able to flex, supplement, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There aren't going to be any winners here with any of these options. Teachers will be risking their health, and many will have child care issues of their own. Parents will have to scramble to figure out child care while also continuing to act as substitute teachers at home. Kids -- especially high-poverty kids -- will continue to learn less than they do by actually going to school buildings full-time.

My big worry is employers forcing parents to return to the office, which I'm going to guess will happen before kids go back to school full-time. If DCPS goes forward with any of these plans, DC needs to pass a temporary law banning termination because of inability to physically be at an office. Otherwise a whole lot of people will be losing their jobs because there will be no one to care for their kids on days when they won't be at school.

We can’t stay locked down forever. Eventually we have to move to herd immunity. That’s the only option besides a vaccine or SIP for eternity

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another example of school is not childcare so you can work.

^^ No one could possibly be this stupid, right? Please tell me this is a troll.