Reply to Fccps will have all students in the buildings by the end of January. Woot woot

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Reply to "Fccps will have all students in the buildings by the end of January. Woot woot"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m a Fed.  And there is a piece of this people are missing in the discussion of the DMV’s push to reopen. My  agency is massive and employees skew female.  And we have been circling for months in an almost entirely telework posture.  We are in the same posture in the DMV that we were in March. We are a public contact heavy agency and right now, those positions are trying to work over the phone, but key pieces don’t work.  A few people have volunteered to go in and process mail, which is months behind despite us having time sensitive legal deadlines.

And right now, my agency can’t open until schools reopen.  Because the reality is they have too many women a s there are too many childcare issues for them to even try.  And they are literally saying, once schools reopen, we will start the return to work phase in.  In the meantime, we have folks working split shift of 5am to 9am and 4pm to 8pm to deal with DL and childcare.

Mind you, I’m not rooting for a fast reopening of the government, because that pushes me back into the office. But the cold, hard reality of having the federal government as the massive local employer is that the needs of the federal government are considered.  And the federal government needs DMV schools open.  And since Fauci and the CDC say schools should open, it looks bad that May agency can’t process mail from citizens in Texas and provide a response because schools in the DMV aren’t open.

Just a different perspective. It’s been ten months.  Reopening the economy and the nation has to start somewhere. And it logistically, the schools have to open so that federal agencies can reopen, and federal agencies have to reopen so that various other parts of the economy that rely on some of our services are shutdown right now can reopen.  It’s dominos. Schools aren’t open, so agencies aren’t able to do all of their tasks, so some types of Medicaid reimbursements can’t happen, so they are getting backlogged, which is stressing health care providers and hospital, who are already stressed by COVID.   Now react this across multiple sectors. Significant portions of the federal government are not fully reopened and are stalled.

And ai know you are going to say, well feds should just find other childcare. But the reality is there are too many of us.  And then we have to take the leave to which we are entitled for COVID related childcare. And you can’t replace people easily in specialized positions with background check. When background checks are... performed y people who are waiting for schools to reopen.

And, of course, our schools also serve a military heavy community.  Whose moms can’t quit or take a day off.

Understand what is happening in the DMV is much bigger than parents had a temper tantrum and won. We are in a unique position in that people in all 50 states are stuck until our schools reopen. [/quote]

Also a fed. So I get it. But why NOW. It’s not safe now. My agency isn’t mom-heavy and we also perform an in person function. But we are still telework because it’s not safe for us to be back.  Wait 2-3 months.  None of what you write above is wrong. It’s valid insight.  But it doesn’t explain why now is the right time, except that people are fed up.  Doesn’t make it safe. [/quote]

There is some try to what you say.  For us, the cold, hard reality is that we’ve been creative with tape and glue over a system not designed for full telework.  In our case, with 1980s legacy systems.  Just like teachers have getting creative to make it work. But, there are things we cannot do in this operational status, and the longer this goes on and the bigger the backlog is getting and the more we are are unable to meet legal obligations. It’s like pressure in a pipe. It’s now, because we’re going to explode. Just like we can make things okay for the public for a while during a normal funding spat shutdown, the longer it goes on, the more problems pile up.  And in this case, the pressure is so much we are going to explode.

It’s not like ***** or ***** appointees are making any of this any easier.

And no. It’s not safe now. We should have had school open from August to November so Feds could really push out the worst of the COVID backlog. Then have a second closure Thanksgiving to early spring.  This would have reduced stress on the federal government by clearing the backlog in a safer environment. But school didn’t open in August. And to be fair, since the federal government need is so great, the feds should have been pouring money and PPE and logistical support into making it as safe as possible to get as many kids back as soon as possible.   But, that would have required common sense and planning by the ***** Admin. So, here we are.

It’s a bad situation.  I get teachers are afraid of going in and getting sick.  I’m afraid of going in and getting sick.[b] But, we have people in this country literally dying because because DMV public schools are closed. [/b] And I especially see the healthcare sector, where federal response is stalled in part by telework.  To some extent that is driving the piss poor government response the in vaccinations and testing and PPE and the stress in the healthcare system.

I would imagine the answer to why NOW is that Biden is getting sworn in in 3 weeks and his COVID and transition teams see the nasty cycle of schools not opening due to the poor response to COVID and the poor response to COVID a being due to schools not opening.  I hope this means the Federal government gets serious about helping DMV publics specifically.  When  Biden says back to school in 100 days, I’m sure the DMV and schools on military bases get priority. There was at least money in the COVID bill that just passed.

And here’s the calculus that is being made.  If a dozen or 100 or 10000 DMV area teachers die and a dozen or 100 or 1000 DMV area feds die, its worth it to save 100,000 people or more by getting our COVID response act together.  It’s a cost benefit analysis. [/quote]

Wow.  We're going to need some citations for this incredible claim.  Please make sure they're specific and provide proof that they are directly resultant from school buildings being closed.

Thanks.  We're all ears.[/quote]

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