Why is GDS unable to lead on Covid??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just received an email that HS will be 4-days/week after spring break.

In person, that is. Seniors will start 4-days/ week right after the break. Then the rest starting in May.

Why not 5? If there is now space for everyone to be on campus at the same time, why must Wednesdays still be a day off? That's what makes me nervous about next year.

Wednesdays are non-academic days. Kids would just be milling about much of the day.

Everyone will not be there at once. Up to about 325 in April and about 375 in May.

I don’t see why you are drawing conclusions from this for the fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just received an email that HS will be 4-days/week after spring break.

In person, that is. Seniors will start 4-days/ week right after the break. Then the rest starting in May.

Why not 5? If there is now space for everyone to be on campus at the same time, why must Wednesdays still be a day off? That's what makes me nervous about next year.

Wednesdays are non-academic days. Kids would just be milling about much of the day.

Everyone will not be there at once. Up to about 325 in April and about 375 in May.

I don’t see why you are drawing conclusions from this for the fall.

So make Wednesdays academic days. 5 days of school is what is normal in this country and there is no covid related reason why there should only be 4 days of school this year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just received an email that HS will be 4-days/week after spring break.

In person, that is. Seniors will start 4-days/ week right after the break. Then the rest starting in May.

Why not 5? If there is now space for everyone to be on campus at the same time, why must Wednesdays still be a day off? That's what makes me nervous about next year.

Wednesdays are non-academic days. Kids would just be milling about much of the day.

Everyone will not be there at once. Up to about 325 in April and about 375 in May.

I don’t see why you are drawing conclusions from this for the fall.

So make Wednesdays academic days. 5 days of school is what is normal in this country and there is no covid related reason why there should only be 4 days of school this year.

The HS schedule would have to be entirely reshuffled. It’s probably not impossible, but it’s not insignificant once kids are already in classs and you need to avoid conflicts. We are only talking about a month of 4-day in-person instruction for each grade, so there would be a lot of disruption for 4-5 Wednesdays. People may already have other commitments scheduled based on the current plan. (We do.) Parents are fighting over this issue on the Sidwell thread; it’s not just a GDS problem.

[Anonymous]

Given the number of applicants they had, and the length of rumored waitlists, there are dozens of families ready to take your spot if you think you are better off elsewhere. It’s crazy to spend that much money if you are that unhappy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Russell told me that he's been hearing that people like the asychronous Wednesdays as a "mental health break" for their kids. With that attitude, will there be school 5 days a week next year? They are terrible for my child's mental health and for his education.

Hearing that "people" like the Wednesdays? WTH does that mean? What "people?" How many "people" - 2 or 3? Is that the way this HOS makes decisions - based on rumors of what he's been hearing that nebulous "people" like?

It sounds to me like GDS has problems that go deeper than the reopening issue.

There have been frequent parent surveys. If you care, you should fill them out so the school has as much data as possible.

[Anonymous]

Reading this thread, I am so happy we turned down GDS for STA.it was a tough choice at the time, but DH and I were turned off by the militant tone of the wokeness.

We are not trumpets; we’re moderates.. DSes have had a hard enough time with being in school 3 and 2 days s a week. 5 days in person Th-Wed, 5 days virtual. Can’t imagine how horrible their mental health would be if they weren’t having in-person interactions to the degree they are.

sad for our friends at GDS. push your leadership to do better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am so tired of my kid’s school. We are always the LAST one to do anything differently. Russell did not go to a hybrid model until every other school did the same. He seems paralyzed. And now again. All the other schools are opening 5 days in the next couple weeks. But Russell can’t do it. Again. I know I should not bother with DCuM. But no one gives a crap what I want ... and many many of us have tried. I need to vent. And I least that a GDS admin person reads DCUM and HEARS the frustration! Why can’t we just open properly already??

Why?

They want to live their ideology. If some kids have no school then so should GDS kids. It’s the equity thing to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think they are leading, by being the safest. Other schools are competing to be the riskiest. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Hahahahaha!!!! The schools that are open have figured it out! Our school has been hybrid all year and going back full time after spring break (US) and yes there’s been COVID but zero spread from COVID cases ID’d in school. I’d be irate as a paying parent that GDS has not figured it out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think they are leading, by being the safest. Other schools are competing to be the riskiest. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Hahahahaha!!!! The schools that are open have figured it out! Our school has been hybrid all year and going back full time after spring break (US) and yes there’s been COVID but zero spread from COVID cases ID’d in school. I’d be irate as a paying parent that GDS has not figured it out

Irate? Because in a global pandemic that has killed 500k Americans in a year your school has 4 days in person? You have lost all perspective. I bet you’re always mad — no, wait, irate!! — about something. Please, do yourself a favor a get a mother-loving grip.

[Anonymous]

Why have these schools been ending with short days? Is lower school out by 12:30 every day? How about upper grades?

[Anonymous]

HS is roughly 9-3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Reading this thread, I am so happy we turned down GDS for STA.it was a tough choice at the time, but DH and I were turned off by the militant tone of the wokeness.

We are not trumpets; we’re moderates.. DSes have had a hard enough time with being in school 3 and 2 days s a week. 5 days in person Th-Wed, 5 days virtual. Can’t imagine how horrible their mental health would be if they weren’t having in-person interactions to the degree they are.

sad for our friends at GDS. push your leadership to do better.

😆

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why have these schools been ending with short days? Is lower school out by 12:30 every day? How about upper grades?

Seems like many of the posters pushing GDS and other private schools to open faster aren't really parents at those schools, and are instead outside agitators. Gosh, why would they possibly be doing that? /s

[Anonymous]

This is really lame. Even the smaller schools are opening. I would be one pissed off parent - and the Wed situation is the absolute worst. You've been had unless they are refunding you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think they are leading, by being the safest. Other schools are competing to be the riskiest. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

Nah. My kids are at a top DMV private. They’ve been back full-time since the end of September with zero evidence of community spread and very few positive numbers or problems. You can kid yourself that it’s not safe to be back FT but that’s not what the science shows. With reasonable safety measures in place, there is zero reason GDS should still be operating this way.