Has Duran gone mad? (APS)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree. But my middle school PTA parents will flip out. They seem utterly incapable of taking a systemic view. But, Duran should be able to do that. I really don’t know
Why that isn’t the approach.

Duran just needs to have an objective approach - follow science, data, and facts to figure this mess of conflict out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know if there have been any outbreaks among the level 1 students and staff who were back in school?

Pretty sure we would have been made aware if this happened one way or another by now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know if there have been any outbreaks among the level 1 students and staff who were back in school?

Pretty sure we would have been made aware if this happened one way or another by now.

no- there have not been ANY k-12 outbreaks in Arlington. Not in public not in private. There is a current very significant outbreak in an Arlington daycare.
https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/covid-19-data-insights/covid-19-outbreaks-by-selected-exposure-settings/

[Anonymous]

Wow. 19 cases in a preschool. That IS significant. How can that be if they are staying 6 feet and wearing masks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. 19 cases in a preschool. That IS significant. How can that be if they are staying 6 feet and wearing masks?

THEY ARENT, welcome to what teachers have been saying for months. Mitigation does not work once you have too many kids to meaningfully monitor it constantly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow. 19 cases in a preschool. That IS significant. How can that be if they are staying 6 feet and wearing masks?

I find the size of that outbreak really concerning-
This is sort of interesting in the daycare inspection database.
This inspection was conducted by licensing staff using an alternate remote protocol, necessary due to a state of emergency health pandemic declared by the Governor of Virginia.

An allegation was received concerning COVID guidance, care of children and supervision. Technical assistance was given on Phase III guidance that staff and parents should be wearing masks, staff and children staying with one group to minimize exposure and not changing classes. The guidance is not Center Day Standards (CDC) standards and can only be recommended. Programming and ratios were verified by records and staff statement. The information gathered during the inspection determined no violations with applicable standards or law. No violations were issued

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Safety measures will take place with masks, hand-washing and social distancing.. certainly enough to implement hybrid for the elementary students.

Elementary really isn’t the issue. They’re small and truly cohorted. The issue nobody seems willing to accept the simplest and safest option is send k-5 and self contained sped students (with PPE and a stipend , and tell 6-12 the data doesn’t support their return. It just doesn’t. Maybe the bottom 2-5% of 6-12, those who won’t pass or graduate, could come in 2x a week for remediation with teachers who are okay going in. A full k-12 return is a stupid idea and won’t work but nobody seems willing to say 6-12 can’t make it work and let elementary go forward.

+1000 elementary is also suffering the most right now. Please please let the younger students return!!

Crab mentality, also known as crab theory, crabs in a bucket (also barrel, basket, or pot) mentality, or the crab-bucket effect, is a way of thinking best described by the phrase "if I can't have it, neither can you".[7] The metaphor is derived from a pattern of behavior noted in crabs when they are trapped in a bucket. While any one crab could easily escape,[8] its efforts will be undermined by others, ensuring the group's collective demise

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. 19 cases in a preschool. That IS significant. How can that be if they are staying 6 feet and wearing masks?

THEY ARENT, welcome to what teachers have been saying for months. Mitigation does not work once you have too many kids to meaningfully monitor it constantly.

pretty sure our elementary teachers aren't changing diapers and putting our kids down for naps, etc...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. 19 cases in a preschool. That IS significant. How can that be if they are staying 6 feet and wearing masks?

THEY ARENT, welcome to what teachers have been saying for months. Mitigation does not work once you have too many kids to meaningfully monitor it constantly.

pretty sure our elementary teachers aren't changing diapers and putting our kids down for naps, etc...

Nope, we will be in close proximity to help with a math problem, help with the proper way to hold a pencil or scissors, or view an unknown word from a book, just to name a few.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. 19 cases in a preschool. That IS significant. How can that be if they are staying 6 feet and wearing masks?

THEY ARENT, welcome to what teachers have been saying for months. Mitigation does not work once you have too many kids to meaningfully monitor it constantly.

pretty sure our elementary teachers aren't changing diapers and putting our kids down for naps, etc...

When there were no outbreaks in preschools/daycares, they were totally different and not relevant to public schools. Now that there’s an outbreak, they’re totally the same thing...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. 19 cases in a preschool. That IS significant. How can that be if they are staying 6 feet and wearing masks?

THEY ARENT, welcome to what teachers have been saying for months. Mitigation does not work once you have too many kids to meaningfully monitor it constantly.

pretty sure our elementary teachers aren't changing diapers and putting our kids down for naps, etc...

Nope, we will be in close proximity to help with a math problem, help with the proper way to hold a pencil or scissors, or view an unknown word from a book, just to name a few.

DP. But you’ve already told us you won’t be, that hybrid will be a terrible environment specifically because you won’t be allowed to do those things. Which is it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You can also see APE’s advocacy page, where they specifically advocate for adequate PPE (for which they’ve apparently been fundraising), and for infrastructure improvements to ensure schools are safe environments. I hadn’t paid much attention to APE before this, but I’m actually really impressed by their approach to this.

http://arlingtonparentsforeducation.org/arlington-parents-for-education/our-advocacy/

Get back to me when they advocate for HEPA filters, outdoor lunch and asymptomatic testing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AEA’s ultimate position is that there should be no in-person learning until the pandemic is declared fully over, even if that’s through next school year and beyond. They dress it up with a bunch of conditions that would need to be met, but every time APS approaches those goals, they just shift their position. This isn’t surprising, because AEA isn’t an education association, it’s an unofficial teachers union, so students and education aren’t their priority, the teachers are. This is also why AEA (like APE) doesn’t get to set the agenda, because they’re only looking out for one set of stakeholders and disregard the rest. Duran’s job is to balance the needs of all of the stakeholders, which means we’re going to end up with a compromise position that isn’t what anyone wants. The compromise is gong to happen regardless of how loud people scream, so the various groups can either accept that and take a seat at the table to help guide what it will look like, or they can be left out of the discussion.

Interesting.. not trying to be snarky, but at the end of the day, who is the taxpayer here? There is a certain responsibility to the taxpayers of the County that should take precedent. Otherwise, I see a series of lawsuits being filed.

Taxpayers are not shareholders, and you can’t think of APS the same as a private corporation. Taxpayers are not the only priority. I support rolling out hybrid, but yours is a fundamentally incorrect question.

Exactly. And what would the law suits be for? You are only obligated to an education. Not an in-person education. And that quality of education is subjective. The only lawsuits that could possibly be created are for students for special needs. And you know that county is trying to cover there a$$es there.

Where does it state that remote learning qualifies as a standard education? Sadly, I think there will be many more students with special needs and behavioral issues the longer remote learning remains.

Where does it say that in person is the standard, especially since this date does have a public online school? That is the problem when people say that there will be lawsuits.

This is just a silly argument. Nobody expected anything but an in-person learning when raising a family in Arlington.

I don’t think many people expected the U.S. would so completely botch its response to a pandemic, but here we are. APS is one of the best public school districts in the country and that is largely due to its amazing faculty. I am surprised so many members of the community would prefer to treat their best resource like cannon fodder to secure a short term interest, rather than give them the armor they need (safety measures and vaccines) to continue to serve the county’s interests.

We have great teachers. But student performance correlates closely to household education and income. Not trying to short change our teachers but their outcomes would be very different in a less affluent community. What else explains difference between S Arlington and N Arlington test scores and student achievement?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. 19 cases in a preschool. That IS significant. How can that be if they are staying 6 feet and wearing masks?

THEY ARENT, welcome to what teachers have been saying for months. Mitigation does not work once you have too many kids to meaningfully monitor it constantly.

pretty sure our elementary teachers aren't changing diapers and putting our kids down for naps, etc...

Nope, we will be in close proximity to help with a math problem, help with the proper way to hold a pencil or scissors, or view an unknown word from a book, just to name a few.

DP. But you’ve already told us you won’t be, that hybrid will be a terrible environment specifically because you won’t be allowed to do those things. Which is it?

Different teacher. I’m not elementary but I can say 100-% I’m not going to a kids desk and they’re not coming to mine in school. I’m not breaking that 6 feet because if I do and later get CoVID, they’ll claim I couldn’t have gotten it at school since the 6 foot protocol exists.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AEA’s ultimate position is that there should be no in-person learning until the pandemic is declared fully over, even if that’s through next school year and beyond. They dress it up with a bunch of conditions that would need to be met, but every time APS approaches those goals, they just shift their position. This isn’t surprising, because AEA isn’t an education association, it’s an unofficial teachers union, so students and education aren’t their priority, the teachers are. This is also why AEA (like APE) doesn’t get to set the agenda, because they’re only looking out for one set of stakeholders and disregard the rest. Duran’s job is to balance the needs of all of the stakeholders, which means we’re going to end up with a compromise position that isn’t what anyone wants. The compromise is gong to happen regardless of how loud people scream, so the various groups can either accept that and take a seat at the table to help guide what it will look like, or they can be left out of the discussion.

Interesting.. not trying to be snarky, but at the end of the day, who is the taxpayer here? There is a certain responsibility to the taxpayers of the County that should take precedent. Otherwise, I see a series of lawsuits being filed.

Taxpayers are not shareholders, and you can’t think of APS the same as a private corporation. Taxpayers are not the only priority. I support rolling out hybrid, but yours is a fundamentally incorrect question.

Exactly. And what would the law suits be for? You are only obligated to an education. Not an in-person education. And that quality of education is subjective. The only lawsuits that could possibly be created are for students for special needs. And you know that county is trying to cover there a$$es there.

this is just a PR ploy. PPE isn't the issue.


Where does it state that remote learning qualifies as a standard education? Sadly, I think there will be many more students with special needs and behavioral issues the longer remote learning remains.

Where does it say that in person is the standard, especially since this date does have a public online school? That is the problem when people say that there will be lawsuits.

This is just a silly argument. Nobody expected anything but an in-person learning when raising a family in Arlington.

I don’t think many people expected the U.S. would so completely botch its response to a pandemic, but here we are. APS is one of the best public school districts in the country and that is largely due to its amazing faculty. I am surprised so many members of the community would prefer to treat their best resource like cannon fodder to secure a short term interest, rather than give them the armor they need (safety measures and vaccines) to continue to serve the county’s interests.

Maybe there should be a gofundme to help raise funds for testing and ppe equipment.

Level 1 teachers who don’t have adequate PPE can request assistance from APE here:

http://arlingtonparentsforeducation.org/arlington-parents-for-education/our-advocacy/

That is wonderful. I think APE would be more successful in its lobbying efforts if it foregrounded its efforts to be a support system for teachers. If I were a member, I would start trying to coordinate a fast track to teacher vaccination. If anyone has the contacts to make that happen, wouldn’t it be APS parents?