Reply to We are NEVER going back until covid is 100% gone

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
Well it has.  Schools back, restaurants and store open. Casinos, movie theaters, escape rooms, mini golf, etc... all open.  Office buildings open.  Colleges open.  Just do it safely.  [/quote]

Yup.  I don't think the "quarantine until the vaccine" group realizes how much life has resumed without them.

And here in our county, its encouraging to see so many people comply with the safety rules.

For example, on Saturday my kids has 3 games: soccer, softball, and baseball.  Each parent stayed socially distant on the sidelines and wore masks.  The kids wore masks in the dugout & on the bench.  Then, we went out to dinner.  All staff wore masks, and the patrons wore their masks entering and exiting the establishment.

90% of life has resumed.

And if we, as a community, are prepared to allow Escape Rooms to resume (rooms where people are locked in together with no windows into a small room and you literally have to touch everything to get out), then we need to prioritize school re-opening.

For Elementary, we need to keep it simply.  One full F2F option 4-5 days a week, and one full DL.  F2F must wear masks or be sent home.  F2F must consent to a daily temp check.  F2F must use hand sanitizer upon entering the room.

Keep it simple, Stupid.

This isn't as hard as we are making it out to be [/quote]

+1.  The over complicated hybrid plans are destined to fail anyway.[/quote]

Agree[/quote]

::I posted this over in a different thread (apologies to the folks that have now seen it twice).  But this was what I sent to the board as a constituent advocating for a simplified approach for ES.  If you guys agree, please take time to email the board with your thoughts or even better, submit testimony at the next BOE meeting (can be done in advance; you do not need to be in person)::

My thoughts are limited to elementary, but I think we need to keep it as simple as possible. We are over complicating the return.

Offer families two options: a full return to school option, and an entirely distance learning option. No hybrid option should be offered.

These options offer benefits over the hybrid approach for a variety of reasons:

- Families with students that require more social interaction or face to face instruction can maximize their student’s time at school
- Families that rely on school for child care during core business hours will have a return to normal schedules
- Families that have at-risk children, or at-risk family members at home, can continue with distance learning
- Teachers that are at-risk can continue with distance instruction

This is also the safer model, compared to hybrid. In a hybrid situation, we are increasing some student’s exposure to other people, by having them to go school 1 to 2 days a week, and a childcare center the other days. The aforementioned options will limit their exposure, and arguably reduce community spread, when compared to a hybrid model.

This approach can also be tweaked to meet teacher and staff needs. Perhaps instead of 5 days a week in the building, it is 4 days a week (with one day of asynchronous learning) to allow for deep cleaning of schools, lesson planning, or relief for overworked teachers.

From a safety perspective, a return does not contribute to community spread anymore than the re-opening of any other activity. If our community has deemed nightclubs, or concerts, or even now they are considering Escape Rooms, reasonable activities to resume in-person, then its only reasonable that face to face in person instruction should fall into the same category; I would argue that its more important than the things have already been granted permission to reopen.

This approach would also assume that mask compliance is fully required, temperature checks are done at the door, and PPE equipment provided to teachers.

There are some drawbacks. Students will likely need to be reassigned to a new teacher. And those that select DL may need to go into a county wide pool and temporarily not be associated with a specific elementary school. But those are a small price to pay for the VERY large benefit of a return to school.

This plan could be done in a matter of weeks; the biggest logistical obstacle would be soliciting student and teacher preference, and then mapping DL students to DL teachers.

I'm sure this isn't a perfect approach, and people will pr[/quote]

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