APS VPL is a dumpster fire

[Anonymous]

Anonymous

Ms. Loft and her decisions are horrible. She is a former HS principal. How does this qualify her to oversee curriculum for pr-k (VPI) through 12?

She is also the former principal of Swanson MS. She is certainly qualified--and probably much more qualified than you.

[Anonymous]

After tomorrow, they'll have 5 days to get their house in order for the return from the break on Wednesday, September 8th. How they're going to get the staffing during that holiday weekend would be like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. The next School Board meeting will then be Thursday, September 9th.

I would just say I'll sit back and enjoy the show until then, but there are actual kids suffering. You don't promise something if you can't deliver and, when you start to realize you're going to have problems, you be as transparent as possible with them so people can make alternative plans. This is like Communications/Common Sense 101.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After tomorrow, they'll have 5 days to get their house in order for the return from the break on Wednesday, September 8th. How they're going to get the staffing during that holiday weekend would be like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. The next School Board meeting will then be Thursday, September 9th.

I would just say I'll sit back and enjoy the show until then, but there are actual kids suffering. You don't promise something if you can't deliver and, when you start to realize you're going to have problems, you be as transparent as possible with them so people can make alternative plans. This is like Communications/Common Sense 101.

Good luck with that. Duran said it was "monumental logistical challenges" to bring kids back to school more than 2 days per week because he said it'd take 3 weeks to replan the buses. At the time, there was entire week of spring break remaining plus 8+ weeks of school left - their vacation time takes precedence over kids' education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:After tomorrow, they'll have 5 days to get their house in order for the return from the break on Wednesday, September 8th. How they're going to get the staffing during that holiday weekend would be like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. The next School Board meeting will then be Thursday, September 9th.

I would just say I'll sit back and enjoy the show until then, but there are actual kids suffering. You don't promise something if you can't deliver and, when you start to realize you're going to have problems, you be as transparent as possible with them so people can make alternative plans. This is like Communications/Common Sense 101.

Good luck with that. Duran said it was "monumental logistical challenges" to bring kids back to school more than 2 days per week because he said it'd take 3 weeks to replan the buses. At the time, there was entire week of spring break remaining plus 8+ weeks of school left - their vacation time takes precedence over kids' education.

Just terrible. Duran is lazy.. so is Loft. They are not putting kids' education first. Not to mention failing to accept and acknowledge any of their failures so they can work to improve and move forward. awful. just awful.

[Anonymous]

There are several problems with VPL. One obvious problem I see, in looking at the teacher recruitment, is that it specifically says you can be reassigned to teach in a school building at any time. So that means that you are signing on to teach wherever APS needs you, whether that be virtual or in-person. Teaching virtually appears to be a very different skill set than teaching in person. There might be appropriate candidates outside the geographic area who have the skill set to teach virtually- but APS is restricting the candidate pool to those who are able to teach virtually or in-person.

Another failure I see is that APS is pretending that virtual is 'equivalent' to in person. It's not and never can be. The 'equivalent' to in-person would be home bound instruction. This has existed for a long time for children who, for a variety of reasons, can't attend school in person. Those children who have a medical necessity to not come to school would be vastly better served by home bound instruction, rather than by being thrown into a 'virtual' class with a substitute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anonymous

Ms. Loft and her decisions are horrible. She is a former HS principal. How does this qualify her to oversee curriculum for pr-k (VPI) through 12?

She is also the former principal of Swanson MS. She is certainly qualified--and probably much more qualified than you.

Well I see her team has made an appearance here.

She was a train wreck at Swanson-two kids there while she was principal. I'm convinced she has some dirt on someone high up. There's no other explanation for her still being in her position despite the massive carnage she's left in her wake. I hope she's happy with the job she's done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anonymous

Ms. Loft and her decisions are horrible. She is a former HS principal. How does this qualify her to oversee curriculum for pr-k (VPI) through 12?

She is also the former principal of Swanson MS. She is certainly qualified--and probably much more qualified than you.

Well I see her team has made an appearance here.

She was a train wreck at Swanson-two kids there while she was principal. I'm convinced she has some dirt on someone high up. There's no other explanation for her still being in her position despite the massive carnage she's left in her wake. I hope she's happy with the job she's done.

As a teacher, I just wished she'd assign all the K-12 specialists who work in Syphax to create materials that classroom teachers can use county wide during the pandemic.

It was painful recreating the wheel every. single. night. last year. This year, it's the third day of school and TODAY she sends an email to have asynchronous materials ready, per subject, per power standard. Why am I finding out about this NOW as I'm in person teaching beginning of the year standards, routines and learning about my students? Why the hell weren't specialists doing that stuff this summer? Why are you adding just one more thing to my already overworked plate?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This wouldn’t have happened if APS stuck with concurrent and kept the virtual kids in their schools like last
year but the Open Up Now parents lobbied against that. They really screwed over the virtual kids. Selfish.

We’ll if their parents weren’t lunatics they would be altering an education. In person. Selfish parents. Not talking about the medically necessary.

I am not sure what you are trying to say. Are you really saying that the parents who chose virtual for their families are lunatics? So much for APE saying they just wanted choice. Now APE attacks anyone who doesn't choose the same thing they want.

So everyone who disagrees with the virtual program is now APE? APS is the only district that opened virtual up to students w/o any medical reason and it's failing miserably at provided such services, which means those who truly NEED to be virtual are suffering the consequences.

so now you're blaming the families who chose virtual for APS's failure. Classy.

I’m a new poster. There is plenty of blame to go around:
1. Duran and Loft for thinking that they could get a whole new program up and running and then failing miserably. It would have made much much more sense to have virtual classes at the neighborhood schools when they realized they didn’t have the staffing to an independent program off. They are not agile, not creative thinking, and too stubborn for the situations rising from covid.
2. Aps planning for pushing for a virtual program for so long to avoid building a new highschool. Loft and Duran went with an independent program because they wanted it to succeed so they didn’t have to build a new school.
3. The school board for not holding Duran and loft accountable and allowing them to spend god knows how much on a program very few people want, and is not actually serving the kids in it at all. I really hope they don’t count waiting room time as teaching hours.
4. The parents who chose virtual even though they had no medical need. Would I have liked to keep my kids home and avoid the worry and potential wack-a-mole of quarantines and covid exposures? Yes. But my kids have no need to be virtual, and the virtual program should have been kept for kids with a documented medical need. Not just because you’re scared of covid. You made it so the kids who really need the program don’t have teachers, and they can’t do things like combine grades because it’s too big.
5. The smart restart people for fear mongering. I hear well educated, smart vaccinated people say that they are afraid for their vaccinated children to ride the school bus and eat indoors. The risk is small if you are vaccinated!! Why would we contact trace a 5 minute bus ride! You guys are acting crazy!
6. The ape people for yelling and teachers last year and making it so many left the profession.
7. The idiots who are anti mask and antivax. I don’t think I need to say why.

I agree with the poster on AEM that said that every person in Syphax with a teaching certification needs to step up and staff the program until they can hire more. The entire fault of VLP failing right now is on Duran and his administration. They had 17.5 months to figure out virtual education, yet they fell on their collective a$$es again.

And where are all of the teachers that were scared of entering schools last March. Were they given an option to teach virtually? Genuine question, if anyone on the teacher/staff side can answer.

Breakthrough COVID is real. We including 3 of our 4 children were positive over the summer, and while we were in no danger of dying, I in particular was miserable and still can't taste anything weeks later. It's becoming a quality of life issue now. One of my children is now chronically tired (not eligible to be vaccinated yet). If I had the opportunity, I would have put my children in the virtual program right then, but based on it's implementation, I'm glad I didn't. I feel so terrible though for many going through the third day of no education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anonymous

Ms. Loft and her decisions are horrible. She is a former HS principal. How does this qualify her to oversee curriculum for pr-k (VPI) through 12?

She is also the former principal of Swanson MS. She is certainly qualified--and probably much more qualified than you.

Well I see her team has made an appearance here.

She was a train wreck at Swanson-two kids there while she was principal. I'm convinced she has some dirt on someone high up. There's no other explanation for her still being in her position despite the massive carnage she's left in her wake. I hope she's happy with the job she's done.

As a teacher, I just wished she'd assign all the K-12 specialists who work in Syphax to create materials that classroom teachers can use county wide during the pandemic.

It was painful recreating the wheel every. single. night. last year. This year, it's the third day of school and TODAY she sends an email to have asynchronous materials ready, per subject, per power standard. Why am I finding out about this NOW as I'm in person teaching beginning of the year standards, routines and learning about my students? Why the hell weren't specialists doing that stuff this summer? Why are you adding just one more thing to my already overworked plate?

+1,000
It’s terrible the lack of support coming out of syphax. All they do is create documents with links and busy work for teachers to complete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anonymous

Ms. Loft and her decisions are horrible. She is a former HS principal. How does this qualify her to oversee curriculum for pr-k (VPI) through 12?

She is also the former principal of Swanson MS. She is certainly qualified--and probably much more qualified than you.

Well I see her team has made an appearance here.

She was a train wreck at Swanson-two kids there while she was principal. I'm convinced she has some dirt on someone high up. There's no other explanation for her still being in her position despite the massive carnage she's left in her wake. I hope she's happy with the job she's done.

As a teacher, I just wished she'd assign all the K-12 specialists who work in Syphax to create materials that classroom teachers can use county wide during the pandemic.

It was painful recreating the wheel every. single. night. last year. This year, it's the third day of school and TODAY she sends an email to have asynchronous materials ready, per subject, per power standard. Why am I finding out about this NOW as I'm in person teaching beginning of the year standards, routines and learning about my students? Why the hell weren't specialists doing that stuff this summer? Why are you adding just one more thing to my already overworked plate?

+1,000
It’s terrible the lack of support coming out of syphax. All they do is create documents with links and busy work for teachers to complete.

teachers - I'm sorry

[Anonymous]

While I don’t support this program at all, since they are bent on doing it, maybe they need to start upping the salary until they get more takers? Also a lot of money went to this program and clearly it didn’t get spent on this program so where did it go?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While I don’t support this program at all, since they are bent on doing it, maybe they need to start upping the salary until they get more takers? Also a lot of money went to this program and clearly it didn’t get spent on this program so where did it go?

On the ARP funds, a lot of it for the VLP was going towards FTE (many of which they have not hired). The VLP is instead using a large amount of subs and 3rd party providers now.

There's going to be ARP funds leftover because their estimate was based on 5% enrollment. That enrollment is now down to 3%. If these problems continue and kids start fleeing the program, then there will be even more leftover funds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This wouldn’t have happened if APS stuck with concurrent and kept the virtual kids in their schools like last
year but the Open Up Now parents lobbied against that. They really screwed over the virtual kids. Selfish.

We’ll if their parents weren’t lunatics they would be altering an education. In person. Selfish parents. Not talking about the medically necessary.

I am not sure what you are trying to say. Are you really saying that the parents who chose virtual for their families are lunatics? So much for APE saying they just wanted choice. Now APE attacks anyone who doesn't choose the same thing they want.

So everyone who disagrees with the virtual program is now APE? APS is the only district that opened virtual up to students w/o any medical reason and it's failing miserably at provided such services, which means those who truly NEED to be virtual are suffering the consequences.

so now you're blaming the families who chose virtual for APS's failure. Classy.

I’m a new poster. There is plenty of blame to go around:
1. Duran and Loft for thinking that they could get a whole new program up and running and then failing miserably. It would have made much much more sense to have virtual classes at the neighborhood schools when they realized they didn’t have the staffing to an independent program off. They are not agile, not creative thinking, and too stubborn for the situations rising from covid.
2. Aps planning for pushing for a virtual program for so long to avoid building a new highschool. Loft and Duran went with an independent program because they wanted it to succeed so they didn’t have to build a new school.
3. The school board for not holding Duran and loft accountable and allowing them to spend god knows how much on a program very few people want, and is not actually serving the kids in it at all. I really hope they don’t count waiting room time as teaching hours.
4. The parents who chose virtual even though they had no medical need. Would I have liked to keep my kids home and avoid the worry and potential wack-a-mole of quarantines and covid exposures? Yes. But my kids have no need to be virtual, and the virtual program should have been kept for kids with a documented medical need. Not just because you’re scared of covid. You made it so the kids who really need the program don’t have teachers, and they can’t do things like combine grades because it’s too big.
5. The smart restart people for fear mongering. I hear well educated, smart vaccinated people say that they are afraid for their vaccinated children to ride the school bus and eat indoors. The risk is small if you are vaccinated!! Why would we contact trace a 5 minute bus ride! You guys are acting crazy!
6. The ape people for yelling and teachers last year and making it so many left the profession.
7. The idiots who are anti mask and antivax. I don’t think I need to say why.

I agree with the poster on AEM that said that every person in Syphax with a teaching certification needs to step up and staff the program until they can hire more. The entire fault of VLP failing right now is on Duran and his administration. They had 17.5 months to figure out virtual education, yet they fell on their collective a$$es again.

And where are all of the teachers that were scared of entering schools last March. Were they given an option to teach virtually? Genuine question, if anyone on the teacher/staff side can answer.

Breakthrough COVID is real. We including 3 of our 4 children were positive over the summer, and while we were in no danger of dying, I in particular was miserable and still can't taste anything weeks later. It's becoming a quality of life issue now. One of my children is now chronically tired (not eligible to be vaccinated yet). If I had the opportunity, I would have put my children in the virtual program right then, but based on it's implementation, I'm glad I didn't. I feel so terrible though for many going through the third day of no education.

Also curious why they weren't able to transfer teachers who stayed virtual last year. There are more immunocompromised teachers in APS than I thought, but all of them are back in their schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes the VLP has been a dumpster fire the first three days. Many Kids don’t have teachers or schedules and are showing up to English class without any teachers. My DC has spent 2 days in a waiting room with 60 other classless kids renting from 6-12th grade. Am I happy about it? No. But I’m giving it a chance. This could have been avoided with better planning and staffing. I mean they have had since March to figure this sh!t out. But is it worth it to keep my family from dying? You bet your ass it is!

OP here. I meant to write: “ My DC has spent 2 days in a waiting room with 60 other classless kids ranging from 6-12th grade. Am I happy about it? No. But I’m giving it a chance.”

The launch has been a dumpster fire, but I’m giving them the week to work out the issues. I am still extremely grateful for this option for our family.

I’m also glad to have the option. I’ll check in Monday to see if my child has a schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:After tomorrow, they'll have 5 days to get their house in order for the return from the break on Wednesday, September 8th. How they're going to get the staffing during that holiday weekend would be like pulling a rabbit out of a hat. The next School Board meeting will then be Thursday, September 9th.

I would just say I'll sit back and enjoy the show until then, but there are actual kids suffering. You don't promise something if you can't deliver and, when you start to realize you're going to have problems, you be as transparent as possible with them so people can make alternative plans. This is like Communications/Common Sense 101.

My kid has severe medical issues and is in the VLP. APS didn’t start the pandemic. This is all uncharted water. Why are so many people so hateful? You could not have done any better.