How would you rate how Mayor Bowser has handled DCPS reopening?

[Anonymous]

What grade would you give Mayor Bowser on her handling of DCPS’s reopening plans?

What grade would you give Chancellor Ferebee?

Please feel free to explain if you’d like.

Enjoy your day.

[Anonymous]

I think she's doing the best she can do based off the guidance our president has given for the nation (rolls eyes). We have NEVER been in this situation before so there's nothing to compare it to. It's like damned if you do, damned i you don't. Some want schools open, some don't. some want to keep their kids home, some don't. You can't please everyone and I think they're trying their best. Most countries have a nationwide plan! 1) they still haven't made DC the 51st state. 2) Our president is too busy banning Tik Tok to focus on this....How about we rate him and his crappy administration?!

[Anonymous]

Ferebee- D.

In his presentation he referenced things (on the slides) that were not actually on the slides.

They should have had a fleshed out hybrid and virtual plan more than a month ago. It didn't take knowing which one we were selecting to build out plans for both.

[Anonymous]

Bowser started off well when closing down in the Spring, but reopening has become increasingly illogical.

[Anonymous]

In the context of other reopening activities, not well (C-). If schools can't open, the administration needs to demonstrate they are serious about getting us to the point where schools can open (e.g., stop all indoor dining).

Outdoor pools are closed but you can go to church with 70 friends and grab a bite to eat being served by a waiter that's been in close contact with fellow waitstaff all day.

Things need to make more sense and priorities need to be clearer.

[Anonymous]

Also, if they allow aftercare programs to basically step in to play the role of school, in school buildings, my grade will go to F.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the context of other reopening activities, not well (C-). If schools can't open, the administration needs to demonstrate they are serious about getting us to the point where schools can open (e.g., stop all indoor dining).

Outdoor pools are closed but you can go to church with 70 friends and grab a bite to eat being served by a waiter that's been in close contact with fellow waitstaff all day.

Things need to make more sense and priorities need to be clearer.

+1

the hybrid plan is an absolute mess. yeah, it follows some of the health guidance, but realistically, how does keeping kids in school 2 days/week then with a different group of children 3 days/week reduce spread? and how about keeping kindergartners at their desks _all day_ without being within 6 feet of each other or their teacher?

virtual learning at least has the advantage of reducing covid spread. but the sample virtual learning schedule where a 3rd grader is going to be at the computer from 9am - 3pm? How is anyone -- working from home, working outside the home, full time parent -- supposed to make that work without hiring full time help?

meanwhile our community spread is on the rise and they're "watching numbers closely" but haven't changed much other than the mask mandate (for which i am grateful). she's done nothing to help families who don't have a means to earn money other than leaving their homes for work, so we're not going to see community spread going down anytime soon. she's done nothing to help struggling childcare providers who are almost certainly going to shut down because who can survive on 0-50% of pay for months on end? which is going to screw us all in the long run, of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bowser started off well when closing down in the Spring, but reopening has become increasingly illogical.

Agree. Frankly as soon as she skipped ahead to phase 2 a lot of what she has done hasn't made sense. Since about July 1, it hasn't made sense for the kids to go back to school. I'm also disappointed that the tech issue hasn't been solved. Frankly schools have been begging for computers for the past 2 or 3 years so this shouldn't be a shock. I"m also not a fan of unions but her union bashing has been over the top. Look at some of the school systems that have already gone back, there have been break outs. So the teachers' concerns have made sense and have for a while. Especially when all of the other systems around us closed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think she's doing the best she can do based off the guidance our president has given for the nation (rolls eyes). We have NEVER been in this situation before so there's nothing to compare it to. It's like damned if you do, damned i you don't. Some want schools open, some don't. some want to keep their kids home, some don't. You can't please everyone and I think they're trying their best. Most countries have a nationwide plan! 1) they still haven't made DC the 51st state. 2) Our president is too busy banning Tik Tok to focus on this....How about we rate him and his crappy administration?!

You're going to see the same thing no matter what the question is, but hopefully it at least eases your mind to fire this out.

Bowser has done better on schools than she has in general on the virus. In general she's reversed some things, like keeping indoor dining but adding masks for dog walking. With the schools there are still some questions to wonder about but at least the decisions seem to be falling in a mostly rational order. I would have liked to have seen more discussion about ventilation and PPE happening along the way towards the decision to go fully virtual.

Not sure what TikTok has to do with anything. The US isn't the only country looking at TikTok. I can't imagine you really believe the President spends enough time thinking through decisions like that to affect any other decision making. (And do you really want him having more time for other decisions anyway?)

[Anonymous]

I give her and Ferebee a D. Maybe C+ if I’m feeling generous

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the context of other reopening activities, not well (C-). If schools can't open, the administration needs to demonstrate they are serious about getting us to the point where schools can open (e.g., stop all indoor dining).

Outdoor pools are closed but you can go to church with 70 friends and grab a bite to eat being served by a waiter that's been in close contact with fellow waitstaff all day.

Things need to make more sense and priorities need to be clearer.

I agree. The priorities are not clear. I think they should have prioritized a return to school, even hybrid, which would mean shutting down indoor dining, bars, gyms, and larger gatherings to reduce community spread. It also would have meant stockpiling PPE, tests, and other necessary supplies for schools, and creating a real plan for how school would work and how schools would deal with COVID cases among students and staff.

Everyone is winging it, I get that, and I think that DC government has done a decent job of listening to scientists and public health experts, but the decisions being made now don't make a lot of sense to me.

[Anonymous]

Here is what I would have wanted:
A statement that given # of new cases is X, this is what we are doing. That as long as __(insert metric here)__ is above /below INSERT TARGET HERE, this is what we are doing.

That once schools open, it will be school based metrics so that communities can respond to their needs. If there is a positive case at a school, this is the protocols .........

I need a rules based statement from our leaders - and have not seen anything

[Anonymous]

I agree that she was doing well early on, but blew it with re-opening things that were NOT school. And now that we know schools will remain close, she STILL hasn't rolled back indoor dining, etc. It's extremely frustrating.

[Anonymous]

F and F, schools are still closed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In the context of other reopening activities, not well (C-). If schools can't open, the administration needs to demonstrate they are serious about getting us to the point where schools can open (e.g., stop all indoor dining).

Outdoor pools are closed but you can go to church with 70 friends and grab a bite to eat being served by a waiter that's been in close contact with fellow waitstaff all day.

Things need to make more sense and priorities need to be clearer.

I agree. The priorities are not clear. I think they should have prioritized a return to school, even hybrid, which would mean shutting down indoor dining, bars, gyms, and larger gatherings to reduce community spread. It also would have meant stockpiling PPE, tests, and other necessary supplies for schools, and creating a real plan for how school would work and how schools would deal with COVID cases among students and staff.

Everyone is winging it, I get that, and I think that DC government has done a decent job of listening to scientists and public health experts, but the decisions being made now don't make a lot of sense to me.

Yeah, prioritizing returning to this sounds like a major win