Reply to The prospect of kids not going back to school until 2021

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]
I like all of your ideas and have thought about similar things. One point in the CDC guidance is to minimize the number of people any one person is exposed to, so the idea plan would be grouping all kids who have similar classes together and leaving them in one classroom. Lunches would need o be eaten in the classroom as well. Masks would be mandatory in the hallways, although I still have concerns about that.

To minimize risk to teachers, maybe they would move after students are already in the classrooms?

I get bogged down when I think things though, because if you bother to keep kids in small groups to minimize risk, is it all defeated by riding with different kids on the bus?  And if you jump through all of these hoops, should there be sports or after school activities? Because that could defeat the purpose of the small groups too.  Smaller groups with more limited exposure make it easier to isolate and contact trace if it necessary, thereby limiting the spread.

If public health experts deem it safe for in person school under normal conditions I will be thrilled. On the other hand, if returning safely involves many restrictions, the point I was trying to make in my sarcastic post above is that some of the non-COVID harms being complained about won't fully disappear in a restricted school environment. There probably won't be field trips or other fun large gatherings like dances. I guess after school activities will be easier to social distance, so those might happen. Still, the full social benefits of school might not be there.

I also like the idea of partitions and staggered start times, but how do you do that with transportation? I am in Howard County, where the buses already make three trips each day and school start times are as early as 7:20 and as late as 9:25 (For elementary). Could extra trips be worked in? There is barely enough parking in the high school lot and the carpool line takes forever as it is. And partitions cost money The districts are already cash strapped as it is, and already invested in Chromebook for DL. Every county and the State are going to be cash strapped for many years to come.

What happens if kids start testing positive? Do you close the school or just certain areas of the school?

It sucks all the way around. People seem to think there are easy answers, but short of returning  to normal, are there?

One of the reasons I am resigned to DL for my older kids is because I question whether you can come up with well thought out plans for various options. If the plan is to return to school with DL as a backup, will DL be as effective as it would have been if we just committed to DL for older kids earlier? Do we need three plans, or one well thought out one that will work no matter what?  And if we try to return to school, doesn't DL have to be offered for kids who are medically vulnerable or have family members in that situation? They are still required to receive a public education.

My kids have said that as much as they hated DL, they would be ok with it if it consisted of more instruction time rather than just check ins. They have also said they are fine with allowing certain populations, such as younger kids, kids with special needs or other disadvantaged populations return for in person learning because they need it the most. For better or worse, from listening to school board meetings, my kids understand the emphasis placed on equity and helping bring the disadvantaged up. They know that when resources are limited, their needs matter less. 
[/quote]

You raise really good questions. We're not public health experts, nor are we public eduactino experts. Yet we seem to be coming up with the right questions, and coming up with some creative solutions.

If we can do it, then surely MCPS _can_ do it better. They've had months to think about this. The question is, are they, and can they? I have my doubts...[/quote]

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