BOE Fall Plan Meeting

[Anonymous]

dcmom wrote:Wow, Smondroski has her own super detailed plan.

Haven't they already considered the possibility of every single thing she is mentioning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

dcmom wrote:Wow, Smondroski has her own super detailed plan.

Haven't they already considered the possibility of every single thing she is mentioning.

This is nothing new.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayle just said children can catch it and have complications.

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/

0 deaths in MoCo in 0-17 age group.

447 cases out of 100,000 population

If you don’t trust him, how can we reopen schools?

Kids will probably be okay if they get it, but their teachers, parents, and grandparents not so much.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Did they just make mention of no fall high school sports? Is there more clarity on that?

Smondrowski said that there wouldn't be any fall sports but also that parents are waiting to get definitive answers on questions like this. She's proposed assembling an "official" FAQ to help address the volume of emails she's getting from parents with questions like this. She's saying she will email a proposal for this FAQ to other board members.

It would be helpful to have a FAQ, but the Qs on the FAQ should be the Qs that people actually have, and there should be answers to them in plain language that people can understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Excellent first question from new SMOB. (What happens if a student tests positive?)

MCPS and Health department will coordinate. They will do full contact tracing in the building and will identify close contacts to quarantine and spaces that need cleaning. Might be just a classroom, might be the whole school.

My guess is that few people here have been through contact tracing. I have. It is very comprehensive. If I am in the copier room trying to make materials for all of my preps, I will be in there for more than 15 min. Anyone else trying to work in that room, to use the laminator or other equipment would have had sufficient exposure to be told to quarantine for 14 days. As a precaution, we would need to limit work room occupancy to one person at a time. However, our workroom also has all of things a teacher needs to create instructional materials, including printers.

Moreover, all of our teachers except art room share. This means that teachers spend their planning periods camped out in other spaces around the school. I prefer to work in my department office, but two other people are in there at the same time. If I went to the media center or lounge, I would be around even more people for more than 15 min. How can I social distance for my protection and that of others when there’s no available space in the school? Would you recommend that I sit outside of the building and try to plan or create materials sitting on the black top? For 85 min? In all weather?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayle just said children can catch it and have complications.

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/

0 deaths in MoCo in 0-17 age group.

447 cases out of 100,000 population

If you don’t trust him, how can we reopen schools?

I think ALL the evidence is pointing to schools not being vectors and he should address that instead of consistently pandering to whatever he perceives the current party line to be.

It's just the opposite. All the evidence shows that schools are vectors as is any place where there are crowds packed in with poor ventilation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HS courses with only 1 or 2 teachers (some electives) - student may be in-person at school, but for that class they would be learning online with the teacher if the teacher is unavailable to come in to school.

So my kid is supposed to go to school for "in-person" instruction via Chromebook? Seriously?

Or take a different elective? Spanish 1 rather than Chinese 1.

Is it possible that having both hybrid and DL will require MCPS to cut some specialized classes because the teachers can't teach both online and in person at the same time? I hope not...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayle just said children can catch it and have complications.

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/

0 deaths in MoCo in 0-17 age group.

447 cases out of 100,000 population

If you don’t trust him, how can we reopen schools?

Kids will probably be okay if they get it, but their teachers, parents, and grandparents not so much.

Think about the many low income students at my school who live in crowded multigenerational households. That’s a lot of potential trauma. And there are usually 3 or 4 a year who are in family foster care with a grandparent raising them. If that grandparent dies, they will be placed with strangers or even in a group home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayle just said children can catch it and have complications.

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/

0 deaths in MoCo in 0-17 age group.

447 cases out of 100,000 population

If you don’t trust him, how can we reopen schools?

Kids will probably be okay if they get it, but their teachers, parents, and grandparents not so much.

Actually their teachers, parents, and grandparents will probably be ok too. Most people who get it, in all age groups, are ok.

[Anonymous]

dcmom wrote:Wow, Smondroski has her own super detailed plan.

It's not her own. That has been an option discussed internally at high levels since at least late April.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:HS courses with only 1 or 2 teachers (some electives) - student may be in-person at school, but for that class they would be learning online with the teacher if the teacher is unavailable to come in to school.

So my kid is supposed to go to school for "in-person" instruction via Chromebook? Seriously?

Or take a different elective? Spanish 1 rather than Chinese 1.

Is it possible that having both hybrid and DL will require MCPS to cut some specialized classes because the teachers can't teach both online and in person at the same time? I hope not...

I’m still trying to figure out how my MS kid is going to take a sculpture elective online.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

dcmom wrote:Wow, Smondroski has her own super detailed plan.

Haven't they already considered the possibility of every single thing she is mentioning.

This is nothing new.

She’s going to send it to MCPS and BoE will decide whether they want them to work up the plan. I’m glad someone on the BoE is pushing back with her own ideas.

I mean, Jeanette Dixon is talking about her response is prayer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayle just said children can catch it and have complications.

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/

0 deaths in MoCo in 0-17 age group.

447 cases out of 100,000 population

If you don’t trust him, how can we reopen schools?

I think ALL the evidence is pointing to schools not being vectors and he should address that instead of consistently pandering to whatever he perceives the current party line to be.

It's just the opposite. All the evidence shows that schools are vectors as is any place where there are crowds packed in with poor ventilation.

Source?

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/07/13/world/europe/13reuters-health-coronavirus-germany-schools.html
BERLIN — Very few of 2,000 school children and teachers tested in the German state of Saxony showed antibodies to COVID-19, a study found on Monday, suggesting schools may not play as big a role in spreading the virus as some had feared.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Gayle just said children can catch it and have complications.

https://montgomerycountymd.gov/covid19/data/

0 deaths in MoCo in 0-17 age group.

447 cases out of 100,000 population

If you don’t trust him, how can we reopen schools?

Kids will probably be okay if they get it, but their teachers, parents, and grandparents not so much.

Think about the many low income students at my school who live in crowded multigenerational households. That’s a lot of potential trauma. And there are usually 3 or 4 a year who are in family foster care with a grandparent raising them. If that grandparent dies, they will be placed with strangers or even in a group home.

Except the kid isn't getting it at school and giving it to the grandparent. That's not how this works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Excellent first question from new SMOB. (What happens if a student tests positive?)

MCPS and Health department will coordinate. They will do full contact tracing in the building and will identify close contacts to quarantine and spaces that need cleaning. Might be just a classroom, might be the whole school.

My guess is that few people here have been through contact tracing. I have. It is very comprehensive. If I am in the copier room trying to make materials for all of my preps, I will be in there for more than 15 min. Anyone else trying to work in that room, to use the laminator or other equipment would have had sufficient exposure to be told to quarantine for 14 days. As a precaution, we would need to limit work room occupancy to one person at a time. However, our workroom also has all of things a teacher needs to create instructional materials, including printers.

Moreover, all of our teachers except art room share. This means that teachers spend their planning periods camped out in other spaces around the school. I prefer to work in my department office, but two other people are in there at the same time. If I went to the media center or lounge, I would be around even more people for more than 15 min. How can I social distance for my protection and that of others when there’s no available space in the school? Would you recommend that I sit outside of the building and try to plan or create materials sitting on the black top? For 85 min? In all weather?

PP, with all due respect, these are difficulties that you can figure out answers to.