Anonymous
05/18/2021 13:45
Subject: Re:APS - Three cases yesterday
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:0 new cases reported in Arlington today....
Yes - lots of yellows and blues on the dashboard. Even a green!
https://www.apsva.us/school-year-2020-21/aps-covid-19-dashboard/
And that dashboard was from last Friday before the 0 cases. So this Friday's dashboard will look even better.
The cases are dramatically down across the different DMV counties. The vaccines and associated rollout have been unbelievably effective.
And many of our school neighbors were able to plan accordingly and act aggressively to prioritize the return of kids to the classroom for as much of the remaining year as they could, so, wait, what? why didn't or couldn't APS do the same????
Anonymous
05/18/2021 13:30
Subject: Re:APS - Three cases yesterday
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:0 new cases reported in Arlington today....
Yes - lots of yellows and blues on the dashboard. Even a green!
https://www.apsva.us/school-year-2020-21/aps-covid-19-dashboard/
And that dashboard was from last Friday before the 0 cases. So this Friday's dashboard will look even better.
The cases are dramatically down across the different DMV counties. The vaccines and associated rollout have been unbelievably effective.
Anonymous
05/18/2021 12:26
Subject: Re:APS - Three cases yesterday
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:0 new cases reported in Arlington today....
Yes - lots of yellows and blues on the dashboard. Even a green!
https://www.apsva.us/school-year-2020-21/aps-covid-19-dashboard/
And that dashboard was from last Friday before the 0 cases. So this Friday's dashboard will look even better.
Anonymous
05/18/2021 12:02
Subject: Re:APS - Three cases yesterday
Anonymous wrote:0 new cases reported in Arlington today....
Yes - lots of yellows and blues on the dashboard. Even a green!
https://www.apsva.us/school-year-2020-21/aps-covid-19-dashboard/
And my kids have already started SOLs so this is great news......FOR THE FALL.
Anonymous
05/18/2021 11:45
Subject: Re:APS - Three cases yesterday
0 new cases reported in Arlington today....
Anonymous
05/17/2021 22:20
Subject: APS - Three cases yesterday
Look, if APS did a poll today about whether I’d want my kid to go back 4 days a week for the rest of the year, and they went with majority rules, then yes, I would be all for that (and we are pretty cautious, anxious people). But am I going to sign up to speak at the school board and go to rallies and align myself with the crazy APE parents? No thanks.
Anonymous
05/17/2021 18:06
Subject: APS - Three cases yesterday
Anonymous wrote:APE-types: Where is all the evidence that opening schools caused higher Covid numbers? You guys can't show any proof!
non-APE types: Here is a study showing increased Covid numbers in Texas where schools opened early...
APE-types: NOT THAT EVIDENCE!
It’s been cute how they pick and choose “data” and “science”.
Anonymous
05/17/2021 17:22
Subject: APS - Three cases yesterday
I really hope this thread keeps going past mid-June when schools actually close for the summer. Ghost posts from angry parents arguing that schools still have time to change up their schedules and open up. Time passes and it's 2028 and parents are still posting here about what APS should have done differently during covid. Occasionally people who would have died come in and post that they're still not dead. Good times.
Anonymous
05/17/2021 17:16
Subject: APS - Three cases yesterday
APE-types: Where is all the evidence that opening schools caused higher Covid numbers? You guys can't show any proof!
non-APE types: Here is a study showing increased Covid numbers in Texas where schools opened early...
APE-types: NOT THAT EVIDENCE!
non-APE types: Here is a study showing increased Covid numbers in Texas where schools opened early...
APE-types: NOT THAT EVIDENCE!
Anonymous
05/17/2021 17:07
Subject: APS - Three cases yesterday
Anonymous wrote:I guess that's interesting, but in the end does it really matter how much of the increased numbers came directly from the school vs. from increased parental exposure? Those 800 people (some of whom included teachers, which presumably were actual school contact fwiw) still died, numbers are numbers. Folks here have been saying for a while that opening up schools has had no negative effects on covid spread. That's actually quite wrong according to this study.
It does matter because the adults in Texas are different from here and probably took risks that the population of Arlington Va would not. Look how many people are still wearing masks outside today.
Anonymous
05/17/2021 17:06
Subject: Re:APS - Three cases yesterday
Our APS elementary school has already outlawed snacks. No snack. Done.Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:I've seen the statement 'APS can't open b/c our schools are overcrowded' repeated numerous times on this thread.
I was trying to square this with the drop in enrollment of over 2000 students at the elementary level.
Using April enrollment figure and the Facilities accommodation plan- the following schools currently exceed their capacity;
ASFS by 76
ATS by 108
Claremont by 80
several schools are under capacity by more than 100 students. APS is simply lying about not being able to accommodate all students 5 days a week- they just didn't want to bother.
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/U-MEM_281-Membership_Summary_All.pdf[i]
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Update-to-Fall-2019-Capacity-Utilization-Tables-v2.pdf
Dude! Just because you can fit everyone in the school that you're supposed to under NORMAL conditions does NOT mean that you can fit everyone in with appropriate spacing, particularly for lunch and elementary school snacktime. The fact that even with folks dropping out of APS there are STILL 3 elementary schools that are over maximum capacity (UNDER NORMAL CONDITIONS) is amazing.
Under normal conditions, without extra spacing, McKinley would normally run three or four lunch starting as early at 10:30 in the morning because its lunchroom was too small for the capacity of kids in the school. You may need to start even earlier than that and run super late with additional spacing requirements. The fact that you're not actually over capacity doesn't really solve all your covid spacing problems.
Similarly, if you're going to let elementary school kids eat a snack in their classrooms and unmask, I think you now run into another spacing problem.
And there could be other spacing issues -- like, if you can't fit all the required kids in a room with 3 foot spacing, do you need to get another room and then another proctor for the kids? Not sure about that one. Point is there seem to be lots of considerations you are leaving out of your 5 day a week RIGHT NOW calculation. This won't be an issue for me by next fall because my kid will be vaccinated, numbers will be down even further, etc.
Lunch should be outdoors at all schools. On rainy days our school is still outside under an overhang. With severe weather they'd spread out in hallways, the lobby and classrooms, but that hasn't happened. I think most parents would be happy to go 4 (or 5) days a week knowing that schools could switch to DL on days where severe weather is forecast. For schools without an overhang, APS should have sourced tents. And if APS hasn't already, they need to for the fall since elementary students won't be fully vaxxed until mid-fall.
Anonymous
05/17/2021 16:23
Subject: APS - Three cases yesterday
I guess that's interesting, but in the end does it really matter how much of the increased numbers came directly from the school vs. from increased parental exposure? Those 800 people (some of whom included teachers, which presumably were actual school contact fwiw) still died, numbers are numbers. Folks here have been saying for a while that opening up schools has had no negative effects on covid spread. That's actually quite wrong according to this study.
Anonymous
05/17/2021 15:23
Subject: APS - Three cases yesterday
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:
No - I'm not aware because that isn't accurate.
Just last week a long range study of the impact of full reopening of in person instruction in Texas found that the reopening “gradually but substantially accelerated” the spread of coronavirus leading to at least 43,000 additional cases and 800 additional deaths statewide. The study was done by University of Kentucky researchers for the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and tracked weekly average COVID-19 cases in the eight weeks before and eight weeks after the state’s school districts sent students back to school in the fall.
Thankful that APS and Duran kept our community safe.
Huh, interesting. Here is a Texas newspaper article summarizing this study: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/10/texas-schools-coronavirus-increase-study/ The study says opening schools early in Texas led to 40,000 more cases that the state otherwise wouldn't have had and about 800 deaths.
That ain't nothin, guys. The article notes the competing values in play here: surely some of the students who returned experienced positive mental health and academic benefits. On the other hand, of course, people died. And when some of the people who die are teachers that students have relationships with, that can cause additional trauma for students as well. (Not to mention for the teacher's families, etc., of course.)
This study was conducted by a non-partisan group so it's not like they were looking for a specific outcome (and the University of Kentucky isn't exactly a hotbed of liberalism so ...).
If you read the study summary, they point out that a lot of the increased cases were attributable to adult behavior as a result of reopening.
"Using similar event-study models and SafeGraph data (which tracks the movement of individuals aged 16 and older by using cell phone data), we show that time spent outside the home by adults rose sharply in communities with the largest numbers of children after school reopenings. Some evidence also suggests increased mobility in communities with large numbers of seniors, consistent with signaling effects on those not directly affected by the reopenings."
With the kids out of the house, more parents were able to go back to work in person and/or do leisure activities during the day and spread covid that way.
Anonymous
05/17/2021 14:50
Subject: Re:APS - Three cases yesterday
Anonymous wrote:I've seen the statement 'APS can't open b/c our schools are overcrowded' repeated numerous times on this thread.
I was trying to square this with the drop in enrollment of over 2000 students at the elementary level.
Using April enrollment figure and the Facilities accommodation plan- the following schools currently exceed their capacity;
ASFS by 76
ATS by 108
Claremont by 80
several schools are under capacity by more than 100 students. APS is simply lying about not being able to accommodate all students 5 days a week- they just didn't want to bother.
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/U-MEM_281-Membership_Summary_All.pdf[i]
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Update-to-Fall-2019-Capacity-Utilization-Tables-v2.pdf
Dude! Just because you can fit everyone in the school that you're supposed to under NORMAL conditions does NOT mean that you can fit everyone in with appropriate spacing, particularly for lunch and elementary school snacktime. The fact that even with folks dropping out of APS there are STILL 3 elementary schools that are over maximum capacity (UNDER NORMAL CONDITIONS) is amazing.
Under normal conditions, without extra spacing, McKinley would normally run three or four lunch starting as early at 10:30 in the morning because its lunchroom was too small for the capacity of kids in the school. You may need to start even earlier than that and run super late with additional spacing requirements. The fact that you're not actually over capacity doesn't really solve all your covid spacing problems.
Similarly, if you're going to let elementary school kids eat a snack in their classrooms and unmask, I think you now run into another spacing problem.
And there could be other spacing issues -- like, if you can't fit all the required kids in a room with 3 foot spacing, do you need to get another room and then another proctor for the kids? Not sure about that one. Point is there seem to be lots of considerations you are leaving out of your 5 day a week RIGHT NOW calculation. This won't be an issue for me by next fall because my kid will be vaccinated, numbers will be down even further, etc.
Anonymous
05/17/2021 14:39
Subject: Re:APS - Three cases yesterday
Anonymous wrote:I've seen the statement 'APS can't open b/c our schools are overcrowded' repeated numerous times on this thread.
I was trying to square this with the drop in enrollment of over 2000 students at the elementary level.
Using April enrollment figure and the Facilities accommodation plan- the following schools currently exceed their capacity;
ASFS by 76
ATS by 108
Claremont by 80
several schools are under capacity by more than 100 students. APS is simply lying about not being able to accommodate all students 5 days a week- they just didn't want to bother.
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/U-MEM_281-Membership_Summary_All.pdf[i]
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Update-to-Fall-2019-Capacity-Utilization-Tables-v2.pdf
How many kids do you need to reassign to new schools to get everyone to a 3' distance? Or 6' back in March?