Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And 40% of teachers don’t want to go back. The questionnaire was flawed. If you didn’t have any reason preventing you from returning (health issue yourself, in your family, or child care concern) then the only option was “I want to go back”. There was no “I don’t feel safe but I am not at risk or have childcare concerns”.

I think this goes back to the essential workers debate. Teachers *should* be essential workers, and therefore this questionnaire makes complete sense. And if childcare concerns is a reason, that's pretty impressive. Most essential workers with students learning from home for the past several months probably didn't have that same option.

I’m asking you seriously then: why did nobody EVER declare us essential workers before this. Ever. Anywhere in the country.

Because we are not! Essential employees are there to maintain life. Health, food, water, safety, etc. Contrary to what some people say here, school doesn't keep you alive on a daily basis - you can live without it. Children who have survived floods, hurricanes, and war didn't die after missing 4 day, weeks or months of school. If it were truly essential to life, we would be in school over the summer and on the weekend.

How can anyone say education is not essential to maintain life?

Because it’s not. You die without water. You don’t die learning online for a little while .

Nah, it's because way back when, the parents did the teaching of the younger children before apprentices and other various forms of learning under the professionals... Primary education wasn't compulsory until the 18th century and school as we know it, where it wasn't ONE teacher juggling 7 grades in a single room didn't start until 1920... So it's a newer essential profession so to speak that people haven't quite figured out is essential.

However, if you're not "essential" then why are we even bothering with distance learning, why not just take the year off and let the duel working house holds breath a bit - you teachers would get a rest too.

Don’t believe it.

Don’t worry. AEM has it! Durán is announcing on Thursday that there will be no return to school for anyone other than current Level 1 students this school year.

Yes. No one EVER thinks what’s happening elsewhere will happen here. Last month they swore it wouldn’t surge in VA because we wear masks. Now they’ll say we won’t be like CA or England. The new variant won’t come here! I’m with you. My only concern is that our home grown Arlington COVID deniers might convince APS to force the teachers back in the midst of this.

This is the northern region only- cases:

Anonymous wrote:Surge? What surge?

That graph is for the whole state. The northern region graph looks very different.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, it’d be dumb to open in a surge. Wait a month or two and open safely this semester. Take this time to get the air filters and contract with a local lab. I would have sent my kids in the fall if they had implemented sufficient safety measures then as other schools have done.

Oh please - that's what people say every single week! There has been a surge like every other day according to them '
summer vacation surge!
labor day surge!
halloween surge!
Thanksgiving surge!
variant surge!

Next week it will be cold weather surge!

No, it’s called a Christmas holiday surge and that is why our community is in a high risk category for returning to school. COVID numbers are growing exponentially. I can see why you are desperate to get your kids back to school - because it’s too hard for you to teach them things like math, science and critical reasoning.

https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/key-measures/pandemic-metrics/school-metrics/

DP. If we wait a couple of months as suggested above, that would be the whining of March, which would be just a few weeks before spring break. At that point you’d be saying we shouldn’t reopen because there will be a surge after spring break and it’s not worth it. And then once we get through that, it will be too close to the end of the school year to be worth it. All you’re trying to do here is kick the can down the road instead of being honest that you think schools shouldn’t reopen for the rest of the year.

Surge? What surge?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, it’d be dumb to open in a surge. Wait a month or two and open safely this semester. Take this time to get the air filters and contract with a local lab. I would have sent my kids in the fall if they had implemented sufficient safety measures then as other schools have done.

Oh please - that's what people say every single week! There has been a surge like every other day according to them '
summer vacation surge!
labor day surge!
halloween surge!
Thanksgiving surge!
variant surge!

Next week it will be cold weather surge!

No, it’s called a Christmas holiday surge and that is why our community is in a high risk category for returning to school. COVID numbers are growing exponentially. I can see why you are desperate to get your kids back to school - because it’s too hard for you to teach them things like math, science and critical reasoning.

https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/key-measures/pandemic-metrics/school-metrics/

Thank you! you just made my point! Now its the "Christmas surge!" and next week the "New Years surge!" and the week after that the "MLK day surge!" and so, and so on, and so on,

Will we have the highest travel day of the year for MLK day?
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/today-is-americas-busiest-travel-day-of-the-year/2262217/

No, stop being so freaking obtuse.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, it’d be dumb to open in a surge. Wait a month or two and open safely this semester. Take this time to get the air filters and contract with a local lab. I would have sent my kids in the fall if they had implemented sufficient safety measures then as other schools have done.

Oh please - that's what people say every single week! There has been a surge like every other day according to them '
summer vacation surge!
labor day surge!
halloween surge!
Thanksgiving surge!
variant surge!

Next week it will be cold weather surge!

No, it’s called a Christmas holiday surge and that is why our community is in a high risk category for returning to school. COVID numbers are growing exponentially. I can see why you are desperate to get your kids back to school - because it’s too hard for you to teach them things like math, science and critical reasoning.

https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/key-measures/pandemic-metrics/school-metrics/

Thank you! you just made my point! Now its the "Christmas surge!" and next week the "New Years surge!" and the week after that the "MLK day surge!" and so, and so on, and so on,

Only a person who never checks metrics talks like this. You ignoring them doesn’t make numbers go away. We have been in a surge since thanksgiving. It’s fact. Since Christmas we’ve had multiple days over 5k new cases in VA, Loudoun is at 16.6 positivity for 7 day PCR. It’s definitively a surge even if you pretend it doesn’t exist or affect you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, it’d be dumb to open in a surge. Wait a month or two and open safely this semester. Take this time to get the air filters and contract with a local lab. I would have sent my kids in the fall if they had implemented sufficient safety measures then as other schools have done.

Oh please - that's what people say every single week! There has been a surge like every other day according to them '
summer vacation surge!
labor day surge!
halloween surge!
Thanksgiving surge!
variant surge!

Next week it will be cold weather surge!

No, it’s called a Christmas holiday surge and that is why our community is in a high risk category for returning to school. COVID numbers are growing exponentially. I can see why you are desperate to get your kids back to school - because it’s too hard for you to teach them things like math, science and critical reasoning.

https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/key-measures/pandemic-metrics/school-metrics/

Thank you! you just made my point! Now its the "Christmas surge!" and next week the "New Years surge!" and the week after that the "MLK day surge!" and so, and so on, and so on,

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, it’d be dumb to open in a surge. Wait a month or two and open safely this semester. Take this time to get the air filters and contract with a local lab. I would have sent my kids in the fall if they had implemented sufficient safety measures then as other schools have done.

Oh please - that's what people say every single week! There has been a surge like every other day according to them '
summer vacation surge!
labor day surge!
halloween surge!
Thanksgiving surge!
variant surge!

Next week it will be cold weather surge!

Nope.

And I even followed up with "If they do entrance testing they could potentially even open during the surge."

Schools could be open now if they had taken action to put these things in place in the summer/fall.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, it’d be dumb to open in a surge. Wait a month or two and open safely this semester. Take this time to get the air filters and contract with a local lab. I would have sent my kids in the fall if they had implemented sufficient safety measures then as other schools have done.

Oh please - that's what people say every single week! There has been a surge like every other day according to them '
summer vacation surge!
labor day surge!
halloween surge!
Thanksgiving surge!
variant surge!

Next week it will be cold weather surge!

The surges are visible on the city's case graph.

https://www.alexandriava.gov/performance/info/dashboard.aspx?id=114883

This is for Alexandria, this is a post about Arlington.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Yes, it’d be dumb to open in a surge. Wait a month or two and open safely this semester. Take this time to get the air filters and contract with a local lab. I would have sent my kids in the fall if they had implemented sufficient safety measures then as other schools have done.

Oh please - that's what people say every single week! There has been a surge like every other day according to them '
summer vacation surge!
labor day surge!
halloween surge!
Thanksgiving surge!
variant surge!

Next week it will be cold weather surge!

No, it’s called a Christmas holiday surge and that is why our community is in a high risk category for returning to school. COVID numbers are growing exponentially. I can see why you are desperate to get your kids back to school - because it’s too hard for you to teach them things like math, science and critical reasoning.

https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/coronavirus/key-measures/pandemic-metrics/school-metrics/

I may be blind - but where is Arlington on the map of school indicator graph..