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Reformatted: Advocate for five days a week by fall
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Anonymous
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I am sorry that the format of my other post was hard to read. I am reposting here.
The city is starting to get the message, we still have a ways to go if all children are to be back in the classroom by the fall, and rather than committing to opening five days per week in the fall, like other districts, DCPS has said that it is preparing several plans depending on health metrics (without disclosing what they are). Please write to the mayor, DC Council and DC Health to make your voices heard - I have included emails below for reference. Please post your ideas here for talking points. I have also included my own, and you are welcome to borrow! - Update the DC Health distancing requirements from six feet to three feet and remove "cohorting" restrictions on the number of students a teacher can interact with (instead vaccinate the teacher). DC Health has relaxed this requirement somewhat, but as I understand they are still "strongly recommending" the strict cohorting that is keeping middle and high schoolers home and all children's specials classes online. - DCPS has cut the asymptomatic testing that it is doing in schools by thousands of tests per week, e.g. instead of testing nearly every child each week, it now tests only 1/10 of children each week. DC Health should instead remove restrictive measures, such as 6 feet distancing, that are making it difficult to open schools. - Other DC area counties, such as Montgomery county, are providing every student with an in-person learning option this academic year. This includes hybrid attendance for Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers. DC should do the same. - DC should state an option for in-person instruction five full days per week for every student as its goal for the upcoming school year. Other school districts in the area, such as Montgomery county have already stated a full return to school in the fall as their goal. - DC should restore Wednesday as a full instructional day at least by the fall. It should release specials teachers from cohorting obligations and allow them to teach in-person so that teachers can have planning time during the schoolday instead of on Wednesdays. - Vaccinate teachers to help schools reopen in Term 4! il.us,rwhite@dccouncil.us,chenderson@dccouncil.us,bnadeau@dccouncil.us,bpinto@dccouncil.us,en lewis.ferebee@dc.gov, laquandra.nesbitt@dc.gov, ankoor.shah@dc.gov, pmendelson@dccouncil.us, kmcduffie@dccouncil.us, abonds@dccouncil.us, esilverman@dccouncil.us, dgrosso@dccouncil.us, mcheh@dccouncil.us, jlewisgeorge@dccouncil.us, vgray@dccouncil.us, twhite@dccouncil.us, callen@dccouncil.us, eom@dc.gov, dme@dc.gov, doh@dc.gov, sboe@dc.gov, Shana.Young@dc.gov |
Anonymous
Anonymous
| I am confident kids are back full time in the Fall. Fairfax just announced. Every other school system in the area will follow suit. Relax OP. |
Anonymous
| I have no faith that DC schools will be open full time in the fall. I would be much happier if, like every surrounding county, Bowser would announce that they are planning to have full time IPL with teacher and students face to face in the fall. |
Anonymous
DP here, but I'm not confident that kids will be back full time in the Fall. My MS student hasn't been in the school building in over a year. WTU doesn't want to send teachers back and they're still keeping up the narrative that it's not safe, equitable, etc. DCPS still has no plan to provide full-time in-person school in the Fall for those who want it. DC isn't Fairfax, and we have one of the worst public school systems in the area with a lot of very poor people who are terrified of the virus and vaccines. If you're actually a parent (and not a WTU troll trying to silence parents), then you're a fool if you don't start advocating now for full-time school in the Fall. |
Anonymous
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I hope you are right, but if the distancing guidelines are not relaxed, they will not offer five days in person. They may also need to offer full-time to at risk, iep and ell students and probably a full classroom per grade level of distance learning. For distance learning there is no district wide academy being planned as of now and no plan for mainstreaming simulcast. If too few elect for the all-DL classrooms that will throw off the spacing in the in-person classrooms, which will become crowded. They may also try to keep Wednesdays a non instructional day or halfday. Even if they do relax the distancing guidelines some classrooms (eg trailers) may not offer three feet of distance per child.
Here is a recent quote from the DME. Compared to other districts DCPS is much more non committal about the fall. "We also believe and, I know I personally think this, the virus is insidious and we have no idea what the world will look like in September. We do know that there will be no child vaccine, probably, by then and so we need to prepare for a September that is not necessarily going to be normal. So we should be preparing for a September that could have some version of hybrid or virtual ongoing. So we also think it's important that we continue to support our teachers who are at the center of this endeavor as they continue strengthening their virtual education skills.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRjt5FDgYuE&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=DCSBOE at 8:00) |
Anonymous
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How can WTU argue against IPL after getting vaccine priority? I don't understand. Are we just going to forget that happened? Every other work-based priority group was already in-person when they were vaccinated (medical personnel, first responders, essential government, daycare workers -- all have been IPL either this whole time or since at least last summer/fall).
In DC it's especially troubling because many of those vaccinated were MD and VA residents who work in DC. Well I'm a huge proponent of vaccinating essential workers who work in the District regardless of where they live. But why should other high needs groups (grocery store and food service workers and residents of our hardest hit neighborhoods) have to wait so that MD/VA-based teachers who are not and have no plans to teach in person get vaccinated? Anyway, I agree with OP and have absolutely let Bowser, Ferebee, and my Council reps know. But I think it's important to knit all these Covid-related policies together. School opening, vaccines, and city policies with regards to permissible business activity and masking are all related. Right now, this combination of policies is telling me that the city only cares about you if you belong to a group with a strong lobbying presence (restaurant owners, WTU). I'm ready to vote most of these people out of office if they don't start serving ALL the people of the city. Of course, I've been saying that since the Council and the mayor decided to overrule Prop 77 at the behest of the business lobby even thought the majority of voters wanted it. These folks have NEVER cared what the people actually want. |
Anonymous
CDC is on the verge of moving to a 3' distancing recommendation for all schools with a masking requirement, which is in keeping with the latest data about Covid risk in schools. Also, more people should be talking about how common sense this is. For people who are in a room together for hours, social distancing is one of the weakest tools against the virus. Too much time in the same place breathing the same air -- if you don't have other procedures in place, social distancing won't do much tho prevent viral spread in that setting. But other tools -- masks, testing, vaccines, improved filtration and open windows, more frequent outdoor recesses are all much more effective. And the good news is, if you do that stuff, you can bring all the kids in at once and not deal with the organizational nightmare of hybrid. It's a win on multiple levels. It's frustrating to see DCPS and other districts expend so much money and effort on stuff that doesn't work -- DL, hybrid, insane plexiglass dividers in every corner of the school, etc. Schools around the world have been dealing well with the virus using relatively low tech efforts -- masks, open windows, sending kids outside frequently. We are making this harder for ourselves than it needs to me, and it's extremely unclear to me why. |
Anonymous
I feel better knowing other nearby areas are announcing but its hard to be confident given what the last 12 months have been like for DC schools and the city in general. We are not leading the way here. Currently 4 out of 5 students in the US has some in person instruction (or the option for it). So, we've been really hugging that bottom of the barrel and its not clear any city leaders feel the need to do better. |
Anonymous
I’d probably guess that 4 out of 5 students in DCPS has some option for IP instruction too. I understand demand is high in some parts of the city, but that doesn’t reflect the preferences of all parents. |
Anonymous
DC has IPL now too - but people say its only 20% or 30% or 17%. So when you say schools are back IPL all over does that mean 20% too? None of my NC friends have their kids back until recently (i.e. last few weeks). None of my CA friends are in person except one in the last two weeks (and I think only one day a week). |
Anonymous
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The data to answer the question the last two posters asked are not readily available. However, about half of DC students are in charters and many are still stubbornly offering at most a cares model for a tiny fraction of students.
Also, to counter the anecdotal data above ... friends in RI have been in school 5 days a week since Sept, friends in CT have been hybrid since Sept and moving full time this week, friends in MA have been part day 5 days a week since Sept and are moving to full day this week. Friends in NYC have had hybrid options most of the year. |
Anonymous
I feel the same way. It's also important to acknowledge the role that WTU is playing with obstructing reopening, council members' role in their quid pro quo with WTU endorsing them and the members helping to keep schools closed, and Bowser's weakness in kowtowing to the union and WTU-endorsed council members. Meanwhile, students have no representation. As much as I appreciate the Open DC Schools organizers trying to advocate, they created this organization designed for failure by insisting that the group has to include WTU members and keep a pro-WTU member stance. We're not allowed to discuss the elephant in the room much less plan how to resolve it. It's like trying to figure out how to resolve a string of house fires while insisting that we can't do anything about the arsonists. |
Anonymous
| You better get low SES parents on board before the Fall or you literally have ZERO chance. Just a friendly FYI. |
Anonymous
Yes, to add to this -- family in CO have been hybrid (2-3 days every week) since September, friends in Texas have been FT in-person since September. And friends in DC privates have been in hybrid since October. It is very, very unusual in the US to have had no offer of any IPL at all since last March. And that's just the truth for most DC families, even now. Also, fwiw, we are at a Title 1 DCPS in NE and have never been offered an in-person slot. Our school is about 95% FARMS. And there is an in-person cohort for every grade. So just to counter the idea that the hardest hit communities in DC don't "want" IPL -- it is popular enough at our school, which mostly serves the hardest hit communities, that every spot is filled by one of the high priority kids (housing insecure, IPE, otherwise at risk). Not a complaint -- those are the kids I know need those spots the most. But I keep seeing people saying that low-income and black and Latino families don't want in-person, and that has not been the experience at my school. Anecdotal, yes, but I think it's worth saying. |