Contact FCPS School Board before Feb. 2nd about reopening in 2021

[Anonymous]

Like many of you, I am concerned that public schools won't reopen in Fall 2021 despite teacher vaccinations. Feb. 2nd is the next meeting when the FCPS School Board will discuss the Return To School plan. Many parents have contacted Board members about reopening (thank you!), but we need to keep it up and get more parents to speak out. If you've already contacted the Board in the past, great - let's do it again before Feb. 2nd. If you haven't, now is a good time. We will only have an impact if enough parents speak up - so please encourage other concerned parents to do the same, and please post other organized efforts to contact the Board in the thread.

The FCPS School Board meets next on Tuesday, February 2nd, so messages should be sent before then. During the last meeting on January 5th, Superintendent Brabrand presented the Return To School plan to the Board, using recent research and health metrics to point out that schools can reopen safely. The School Board dismissed the plan and even said that students may need to be vaccinated before schools can reopen, which won’t happen for years!

To make it as easy as possible, below is a sample letter to School Board members. All you have to do is copy/paste the letter and email it to the members, as well as Superintendent Brabrand. Here is where you can contact each FCPS School Board Member (you can submit a question, or click on the member’s page to see their email address). Here is how to contact Brabrand. You can also sign up to speak or submit a video for the Board meeting, just like the teachers' union does, but spots fill up fast. And, even though we are all frustrated, please be respectful.

Here is the sample letter. Share it or send your own - but speak up before Feb. 2nd!


Dear FCPS School Board:

I write to strongly urge you to do everything possible to reopen schools with in-person teaching no later than Fall 2021, once teachers have been vaccinated. Although teachers have made an admirable effort with distance learning, our children are emotionally and mentally stressed, deprived of social contact, and not learning as well as they did during in-person school. This burden falls most heavily on children of color and children that are not from privileged backgrounds.

Pediatricians resoundingly agree that it’s important for student emotional and intellectual development that schools reopen as soon as possible:
- https://www.healthline.com/health-news/what-pediatricians-say-schools-need-to-do-to-open-safely-under-covid-19

Keeping schools closed fails our most at-need students, and fails our community equity and academic goals. There is a great deal of evidence that distance learning is widening the achievement gap along racial and economic lines:
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/us/coronavirus-education-lost-learning.html
- https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-student-learning-in-the-united-states-the-hurt-could-last-a-lifetime

Our own FCPS data show that students are failing at a much greater rate as a direct result of distance learning, especially among economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities:
- https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/BVJV847F7247/$file/Q1%20Marks%20Rpt%20-%20v6%20lzh.pdf

At the same time, recent research shows that in-person schooling is safe, children are not a driver of coronavirus transmission, and schools are not a significant vector of community spread:
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/health/coronavirus-schools-children.html
- https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/925794511/were-the-risks-of-reopening-schools-exaggerated
- https://epicedpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/COVID-and-Schools-Dec2020.pdf
- https://www.radio.com/1063word/news/local/musc-study-suggests-children-safer-from-covid-19-in-school
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7268273/

While teacher vaccination is crucial, we strongly urge the School Board to reject other unrealistic and arbitrary reopening metrics that would harm student learning and emotional health by unnecessarily delaying in-person school. This includes requirements for “no community spread for 14 days” or vaccination for all students, which are impossible to meet even for seasonal flu. Instead, we support reopening FCPS based on the recent guidelines from the Virginia Dept. of Education, focusing on in-school metrics and mitigation strategies:
- https://www.doe.virginia.gov/support/health_medical/office/phase-guidance.shtml

We respectfully request that the School Board ensure all FCPS students have the option to attend in-person school with an in-person teacher for the 2021-2022 school year, because that is the environment that will best enable all children in our communities to thrive.

Thank you.

[Anonymous]

I see a link got abbreviated. It should say:

The School Board dismissed the plan and even said students must be vaccinated before schools can reopen, which won't happen for years!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Like many of you, I am concerned that public schools won't reopen in Fall 2021 despite teacher vaccinations. Feb. 2nd is the next meeting when the FCPS School Board will discuss the Return To School plan. Many parents have contacted Board members about reopening (thank you!), but we need to keep it up and get more parents to speak out. If you've already contacted the Board in the past, great - let's do it again before Feb. 2nd. If you haven't, now is a good time. We will only have an impact if enough parents speak up - so please encourage other concerned parents to do the same, and please post other organized efforts to contact the Board in the thread.

The FCPS School Board meets next on Tuesday, February 2nd, so messages should be sent before then. During the last meeting on January 5th, Superintendent Brabrand presented the Return To School plan to the Board, using recent research and health metrics to point out that schools can reopen safely. The School Board dismissed the plan and even said that students may need to be vaccinated before schools can reopen, which won’t happen for years!

To make it as easy as possible, below is a sample letter to School Board members. All you have to do is copy/paste the letter and email it to the members, as well as Superintendent Brabrand. Here is where you can contact each FCPS School Board Member (you can submit a question, or click on the member’s page to see their email address). Here is how to contact Brabrand. You can also sign up to speak or submit a video for the Board meeting, just like the teachers' union does, but spots fill up fast. And, even though we are all frustrated, please be respectful.

Here is the sample letter. Share it or send your own - but speak up before Feb. 2nd!


Dear FCPS School Board:

I write to strongly urge you to do everything possible to reopen schools with in-person teaching no later than Fall 2021, once teachers have been vaccinated. Although teachers have made an admirable effort with distance learning, our children are emotionally and mentally stressed, deprived of social contact, and not learning as well as they did during in-person school. This burden falls most heavily on children of color and children that are not from privileged backgrounds.

Pediatricians resoundingly agree that it’s important for student emotional and intellectual development that schools reopen as soon as possible:
- https://www.healthline.com/health-news/what-pediatricians-say-schools-need-to-do-to-open-safely-under-covid-19

Keeping schools closed fails our most at-need students, and fails our community equity and academic goals. There is a great deal of evidence that distance learning is widening the achievement gap along racial and economic lines:
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/us/coronavirus-education-lost-learning.html
- https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-student-learning-in-the-united-states-the-hurt-could-last-a-lifetime

Our own FCPS data show that students are failing at a much greater rate as a direct result of distance learning, especially among economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities:
- https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/BVJV847F7247/$file/Q1%20Marks%20Rpt%20-%20v6%20lzh.pdf

At the same time, recent research shows that in-person schooling is safe, children are not a driver of coronavirus transmission, and schools are not a significant vector of community spread:
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/health/coronavirus-schools-children.html
- https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/925794511/were-the-risks-of-reopening-schools-exaggerated
- https://epicedpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/COVID-and-Schools-Dec2020.pdf
- https://www.radio.com/1063word/news/local/musc-study-suggests-children-safer-from-covid-19-in-school
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7268273/

While teacher vaccination is crucial, we strongly urge the School Board to reject other unrealistic and arbitrary reopening metrics that would harm student learning and emotional health by unnecessarily delaying in-person school. This includes requirements for “no community spread for 14 days” or vaccination for all students, which are impossible to meet even for seasonal flu. Instead, we support reopening FCPS based on the recent guidelines from the Virginia Dept. of Education, focusing on in-school metrics and mitigation strategies:
- https://www.doe.virginia.gov/support/health_medical/office/phase-guidance.shtml

We respectfully request that the School Board ensure all FCPS students have the option to attend in-person school with an in-person teacher for the 2021-2022 school year, because that is the environment that will best enable all children in our communities to thrive.

Thank you.

If covid is not under control, schools should NOT open. It's not hard to understand.

[Anonymous]

Can the PP who thinks schools shouldnt open until there is no community spread crawl back into her cave?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can the PP who thinks schools shouldnt open until there is no community spread crawl back into her cave?

If you want schools open, I hope you email the school board and superintendent before Feb. 2nd, and encourage your friends to do the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like many of you, I am concerned that public schools won't reopen in Fall 2021 despite teacher vaccinations. Feb. 2nd is the next meeting when the FCPS School Board will discuss the Return To School plan. Many parents have contacted Board members about reopening (thank you!), but we need to keep it up and get more parents to speak out. If you've already contacted the Board in the past, great - let's do it again before Feb. 2nd. If you haven't, now is a good time. We will only have an impact if enough parents speak up - so please encourage other concerned parents to do the same, and please post other organized efforts to contact the Board in the thread.

The FCPS School Board meets next on Tuesday, February 2nd, so messages should be sent before then. During the last meeting on January 5th, Superintendent Brabrand presented the Return To School plan to the Board, using recent research and health metrics to point out that schools can reopen safely. The School Board dismissed the plan and even said that students may need to be vaccinated before schools can reopen, which won’t happen for years!

To make it as easy as possible, below is a sample letter to School Board members. All you have to do is copy/paste the letter and email it to the members, as well as Superintendent Brabrand. Here is where you can contact each FCPS School Board Member (you can submit a question, or click on the member’s page to see their email address). Here is how to contact Brabrand. You can also sign up to speak or submit a video for the Board meeting, just like the teachers' union does, but spots fill up fast. And, even though we are all frustrated, please be respectful.

Here is the sample letter. Share it or send your own - but speak up before Feb. 2nd!


Dear FCPS School Board:

I write to strongly urge you to do everything possible to reopen schools with in-person teaching no later than Fall 2021, once teachers have been vaccinated. Although teachers have made an admirable effort with distance learning, our children are emotionally and mentally stressed, deprived of social contact, and not learning as well as they did during in-person school. This burden falls most heavily on children of color and children that are not from privileged backgrounds.

Pediatricians resoundingly agree that it’s important for student emotional and intellectual development that schools reopen as soon as possible:
- https://www.healthline.com/health-news/what-pediatricians-say-schools-need-to-do-to-open-safely-under-covid-19

Keeping schools closed fails our most at-need students, and fails our community equity and academic goals. There is a great deal of evidence that distance learning is widening the achievement gap along racial and economic lines:
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/05/us/coronavirus-education-lost-learning.html
- https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-student-learning-in-the-united-states-the-hurt-could-last-a-lifetime

Our own FCPS data show that students are failing at a much greater rate as a direct result of distance learning, especially among economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities:
- https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/fairfax/Board.nsf/files/BVJV847F7247/$file/Q1%20Marks%20Rpt%20-%20v6%20lzh.pdf

At the same time, recent research shows that in-person schooling is safe, children are not a driver of coronavirus transmission, and schools are not a significant vector of community spread:
- https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/health/coronavirus-schools-children.html
- https://www.npr.org/2020/10/21/925794511/were-the-risks-of-reopening-schools-exaggerated
- https://epicedpolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/COVID-and-Schools-Dec2020.pdf
- https://www.radio.com/1063word/news/local/musc-study-suggests-children-safer-from-covid-19-in-school
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7268273/

While teacher vaccination is crucial, we strongly urge the School Board to reject other unrealistic and arbitrary reopening metrics that would harm student learning and emotional health by unnecessarily delaying in-person school. This includes requirements for “no community spread for 14 days” or vaccination for all students, which are impossible to meet even for seasonal flu. Instead, we support reopening FCPS based on the recent guidelines from the Virginia Dept. of Education, focusing on in-school metrics and mitigation strategies:
- https://www.doe.virginia.gov/support/health_medical/office/phase-guidance.shtml

We respectfully request that the School Board ensure all FCPS students have the option to attend in-person school with an in-person teacher for the 2021-2022 school year, because that is the environment that will best enable all children in our communities to thrive.

Thank you.

If covid is not under control, schools should NOT open. It's not hard to understand.

Go back to your cave you paranoid freak.

[Anonymous]

Thank you. At this point I’m also concerned about next year.

[Anonymous]

This is a good letter. I've been emailing since summer and will send this one, as well as encouraging friends to do the same.

[Anonymous]

Did you watch the SB meeting last night? The SB clearly loved the new plan to return in Feb. The only factor holding back a Jan return was teacher vaccinations, which will be completed by the end of Feb.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you watch the SB meeting last night? The SB clearly loved the new plan to return in Feb. The only factor holding back a Jan return was teacher vaccinations, which will be completed by the end of Feb.

Great, let's pile on and make sure they don't love the new plan to death.

[Anonymous]

I reached out to friends. I suggested to those who are unhappy with the plan yesterday as being too little, too late to just roll with ANY plan to get kids in the classroom at this point. I'm doing my part - are you?

[Anonymous]

Now do you want me to copy this onto wide-ruled or college-ruled paper, Mr. Larlo?

[Anonymous]

I've emailed my rep multiples times and have never gotten a response, but I'm happy to try again. Thanks to OP for putting this together.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you watch the SB meeting last night? The SB clearly loved the new plan to return in Feb. The only factor holding back a Jan return was teacher vaccinations, which will be completed by the end of Feb.

That's the game they previously played, pretended they loved the return to school plan, then when the actual plan comes up, they bring up all sorts of scenarios and additional questions and concerns. Never any solutions, just additional concerns and obstacles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you watch the SB meeting last night? The SB clearly loved the new plan to return in Feb. The only factor holding back a Jan return was teacher vaccinations, which will be completed by the end of Feb.

Well, that and the fact that Fairfax is at 13.2 today. It needs to be below 10% for seven days to get groups 3 and beyond back in person.