Reply to In-person school plans

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This was sent from the principal of Poolesville High School.  Sounds like supervised virtual.  
 
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[i] While much is still left to be decided, it is important to understand that the students’ experiences in the building will not look the same as it did before the pandemic.  We are so excited at the prospect of welcoming our students back, but that excitement comes with setting realistic expectations and understanding our limitations.  Most students who return partially to the building are coming in for support as a compliment to the virtual experience, and they will have adults available to supervise and support their virtual learning.  I will be transparent in our planning, and I will keep you updated with any logistics, schedule changes, and expectations.  I appreciate your patience and support as we design the virtual and in-person experiences for our students. [/i]

[/quote]

Supervised virtual (aka DL with babysitting according to my principal) is planned for my MS. Definitely not what we had in March. [/quote]
Meaning, there will be no live instruction in the classroom? Teachers will still be teaching from home and kids in the classroom will see them on screens?
That's not what I thought 'hybrid' entailed. In MS kids don't need babysitting, if that's what the plan is, everyone might as well continue DL from home.[/quote]

Each school has some flexibility to adopt a model that works for them, based on the needs of their staff and students.  This is definitely one of the ones that came up during our staff meeting as being one of the possible choices.  Teachers wouldn't be teaching from home (unless they had an ADA accommodation) but they might be teaching via Zoom to students in the same classroom that they are in (while simultaneously teaching to students who are learning from home).  This seems like the worst option, as it has all of the negatives of DL without any of the benefits (such as being able to get up and stretch, going to grab a snack, not having to wear as mask etc.).

The reason for this has to do with the lack of funds (and people) to hire more staff.  Assuming that a school had exactly 50 % pick DL and and 50 % pick in-person, the DL half would still need instruction while the IP half were in the school.  This would mean hiring twice as many teachers which isn't feasible.  Ergo the concurrent/simultaneous model[/quote]

If only 50% of the kids chose in-person, they should be able to go to school 5 days a week where the 50% teachers teach them in person. The rest can stay virtual 5 days a week and the other half of the teachers can teach them virtually. No need to hire anyone. Problem solved.[/quote]

Let's look at a sample elementary grade, say fifth grade.  In the whole grade level there are 100 students.  Right now they are split between four teachers (25 per class).  Now that a return to in-person instruction is being considered, 50 of them want to return for in-person and 50 want to remain DL.  The 50 students who want to continue DL are split into two groups of 25 and two of the teachers instruct them.  That leaves the 50 students for in-person instruction to be taught by the other two teachers. Typically you could have two classes of 25, but the classes sizes have to be significantly reduced (no more than 13 students per room) in order to maintain social distancing.  That means that both classes of 25 would actually need to be split in half, which would result in the school needing a total of four teachers for in-person instruction.  This results in a shortfall of two teachers since the school needs a total of six in order to teacher in-person and DL and they only have four.  Problem, most certainly, not solved.  Not unless the county can find the funds and the teachers.

Here it is, broken down another way:
Teacher 1: Teaches 25 students via Zoom five days a week
Teacher 2: Teaches 25 students via Zoom five days a week
Teacher 3: Teachers 12-13 students in-person five days a week
Teacher 4: Teachers 12-13 students in-person five days a week
25 students, whose parent's signed them up for in-person instruction, are not receiving any instruction

Therefore they need to hire two new teachers to offset the reduced class sizes:
Teacher 1: Teaches 25 students via Zoom five days a week
Teacher 2: Teaches 25 students via Zoom five days a week
Teacher 3: Teaches 12-13 students in-person five days a week
Teacher 4: Teaches 12-13 students in-person five days a week
Teacher 5 (New hire): Teaches 12-13 students in-person five days a week
Teacher 6 (New hire): Teaches 12-13 students in-person five days a week[/quote]

NP - if teachers are vaccinated they don’t need to maintain social distance, just masks for all. They can keep all 4 classes at 25 students. Also they can teach 5 days a week, rather than 4+homeroom only on Wed, which is a joke. Parents who don’t want their kids in person can simply keep them in DL.[/quote]

DP. The CDC is not recommending an end to social distancing for people who have been vaccinated. [/quote]

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