Reply to Howard County remote until April 2021.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As another Howard County resident and parent to two students in HCPSS, I am also proud of the board and their handling of the situation.  As we have seen over the last 10 months, the situation changes every month.  In addition to the changing infection, hospitalization and death rates, there is also a change in what the science is telling us about the efficacy of masks, how the virus is transmitted, what sanitation is required, what surfaces are likely transmissions.

I like how HCPSS closed for the first two quarters and then said that discussion about 3rd quarter would begin on a certain date (I believe it was 10/22).  The discussion then began with the knowledge of what the current state of the pandemic was and the current thoughts on what was safe.  If they had used metrics, when there was a lull in the summer, they would have spent a lot of BoE time discussing metrics and preventative measures which would have been outdated and not necessarily comprehensive by October, let alone January and they would have to go back and revise the recommendations for January anyways.  What's the point?

The schools and teachers did a lot or work to redesign the teaching curriculum for distance learning.  I heard from friends who have children in other states who were in hybrid mode, then had to convert to full DL when there was an infection and several classrooms of teachers and students who were in the contact tracing circle had to quarantine, but then the teachers were not prepared for converting to completely DL (they barely had time to prepare lessons and assignments for hybrid without preparing for both hybrid and full DL) and the classes were off-track and makeshift as the teachers redesigned the lesson plans for fully on-line.

Making the decision per quarter was significantly smarter.  It allows the teachers to commit to a mode of teaching and to design the curriculum, assignments and lesson plans around the teaching model in use for the entire quarter.  And at the start of each quarter, the BoE can start to decide based on the current status and situation what mode of teaching the following quarter will be.  So, at the start of the 2nd quarter, the discussion began and ended with remaining closed for 3rd quarter.  In January, the BoE can discuss based on the state of pandemic, whether it is safe to consider going into an in-person or hybrid model for the 4th quarter.

I think this is the best way to compromise between analyzing the safety and giving teachers the time to design the lesson plans and assignments to the teaching model in use.[/quote]
+1000[/quote]

I won't argue with anything you have written, except to say that the decisions were not framed as you suggest. There was never a plan to make these decisions quarter by quarter. If the expectation had been set that in November the board would make a decision about a mode of teaching for the third quarter, there would not be the level of anger seen now. That does not reflect on the decision itself, but the process through with it was reached. People did not anticipate that a work session on a hybrid plan would lead to a decision to remain closed through mid-April, because that possibility had not been established. Without knowledge of the potential decisions on the table, there was no opportunity for public input, and it felt like the only stakeholder being heard was the HCEA representative. I'm not saying that was the case, but that is how it looked. [/quote]

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