Reply to Howard County remote until April 2021.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am not a big fan of the current school board in Howard County.  However, I commend them for making this decision. [/quote]

Why?  Did you  not approve of the metrics the Board previously adopted?  Why is it so difficult to distinguish between the conditions that exist now and those that would exist if community spread is lower and meets the threshold for returning to the classroom?  I honestly don't understand. There is never going to be a time to formulate any potential plan because some adults don't seem capable of contemplating that conditions might be different at some point. [/quote]

Because teachers are not willing to be sacrificed. There isn't a metric in a pandemic that assures a safe environment for anyone in a school.   Adults need to understand how this all works and put people's health before their personal needs and inconveniences. Please remember that everyone was PRETTY SURE one semester out of school was too much, now we are higher than ever with a staggering death rate. No, we won't be going back in Jan. Or April. Get real.

However,  keep posting on your local FB pages(!)- trashing teachers, trashing the school boards, trashing local and state government because,  while it won't help open anything,  those whose lives were deemed inconsequential will remember this for a long time.[/quote]

I'm not one of those crazy Facebook parents. I would just appreciate some intellectual honesty. Therefore, I would prefer that the Board not waste time adopting health metrics if there is never going to be at return of any students to a school building with face to face learning with teachers, this year or probably next. If NO metric is safe, then the rule should be schools will reopen when the teachers union determines that it is safe enough to reopen, which is likely the fall of 2022. I would be more ok with that decision that with continually kicking the can down the road. 
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I think it is important to understand that the teacher's union is comprised of teachers. They aren't acting individually  as some bargaining body. It's not the Teamsters.  Teachers really do hate doing the virtual program, but it isn't safe to return to a building.  There's nothing about this job that somehow expected,  among so much else,  that dying from a virus was just part of the job. [/quote]

Right. You won’t return until there is zero risk. Message received. 
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1. I am not currently teaching, actually. I used to teach in a K-12 public system,  left 3 years ago. I now teach teach at the college level- virtually, as most everything is now.  But, as of this semester,  I'm not teaching at all because departments have lost tons of money and these places are trying to keep full time employees afloat. 
2. Not zero risk. Much, much less risk for all. We are not  there yet, nor will we be for quite a while.  This is not  the flu. 
3. There are work arounds for many things,  not for others.  Schools have work arounds- it's  harder, it isn't ideal, it isn't even good sometimes, but it's necessary. This is a global pandemic. That's all everyone needs to understand.  [/quote]

So I assume that you have public health expertise and training and disagree with the county health officer in your contention that it would not be safe to transition to a hybrid model if the positivity rate is between 3% and 5% and the daily case rate is between 4 and less than 10?  For any school population? And you also agree that a hybrid model transitioning to in person would not be safe enough if there was a less than 3% positivity rate and less than 4 daily cases? No one is talking about returning to the classrooms now. The only objective is to formulate a plan. And even if you believe that it is not safe to return to school any time soon (I agree also), there can be no dispute that the BOE has completely failed in that there is still no plan for ANY students to return, even special populations or a small subset of students, even though that was the charge and promise the BOE made to the community during the summer.

I doubt that the metrics will be satisfied this school year, and that is fine. But it is not acceptable to only work to formulate a return to school plan AFTER the metrics have been achieved. I believe that the community is owed some certainty as well. If they aren't working on a plan, the BOE could come out and say that schools will reopen when teachers determine it is safe and feel comfortable returning to the classroom, and until that date arrives, school will be virtual. That is the reality, so just say so.

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