Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If they end up doing anything less than full time in person it's pretty much guaranteed that a huge percentage of rising kindergartners wont be attending school in the fall. A bunch of parents won't have them start until the following year.

Frankly Kindergarten is the one grade that actually should be half day even when it isn’t a pandemic.

MCPS went through that discussion already in the early 2000s, and no.

Anonymous wrote:

People who are certain about what's going to happen in the fall are fooling themselves.

Or perhaps some of them have been part of the actual conversations happening, which don't include going back as normal.

Kids are going back in fall. Not sure how you define “normal,” and there will certainly be some caveats, but they’re going back.

Anonymous wrote:

People who are certain about what's going to happen in the fall are fooling themselves.

Or perhaps some of them have been part of the actual conversations happening, which don't include going back as normal.

They can be part of the actual conversations all they want. Unless the people who are having the conversations also have an accurate crystal ball, they don't know what's going to happen either.

People who are certain about what's going to happen in the fall are fooling themselves.

Or perhaps some of them have been part of the actual conversations happening, which don't include going back as normal.

I have 2 in HS and 1 in MS now, and while HS kids could do distance learning as you suggest (although I will add fine arts such as ceramics and photography, plus that required technology class where the kids use power tools to build stuff, would be impossable to do from home), it would not be good for them to be home all day doing self guided lessons as they are now, esp if all the adults in the house are back at work, because teens will be teens and that is asking for trouble!

Realize that is one long run on sentance: don't care!

This thread is predictably a mess with people having the same arguments they have in every other COVID thread.

But for those that want to discuss practical logistical possibilities, here's my question:

-- How can a model with increased social distancing work, unless they substantially increase the number of teachers? So, for instance, I've heard people propose having HS be distance learning, and then using the empty HS buildings to enable to ES kids to spread out more with fewer in each classroom. But then don't you need to double the number of ES teachers (assuming the HS teachers will be busy teaching online)?

FWIW, I'm a HS parent and I think for the most part HS students can do fine with virtual learning, if the curriculum is restructured to rely more on independent learning and less on in-class lectures. Science labs are the really hard part. Also, much of the arts instruction (band, theater) is really tough, although not impossible, remotely. Otherwise, most HS classess, like college classes, can be taught/learned remotely. I took several HS level classes remotely (independent study by mail) back in the 80's, when there was no internet at all.

Anonymous wrote:If they end up doing anything less than full time in person it's pretty much guaranteed that a huge percentage of rising kindergartners wont be attending school in the fall. A bunch of parents won't have them start until the following year.

Frankly Kindergarten is the one grade that actually should be half day even when it isn’t a pandemic.

If they end up doing anything less than full time in person it's pretty much guaranteed that a huge percentage of rising kindergartners wont be attending school in the fall. A bunch of parents won't have them start until the following year.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

All or nothing. Half days or alternating days or weeks will never happen. The logistics are impossible to implement on this short notice. Forget quality and effectiveness of DL, just attempting the jumble of logistics will collapse the capacity and budget of schools, the patience of teachers and parents and students, significant learning, parents' personal finances and careers and sanity, and on and on.

If MCPS attempts a convoluted hybrid model with not a single proof-of-concept example to show us, or other cases to highlight where hybrids worked, or even an internal study showing feasibility, and it collapses, there will be a revolt. So it's a political decision. These "leaders" better know they're playing with fire.

The logistics will be a hot mess, but we will absolutely see some type of hybrid in the fall. At least for MP 1 and I strongly suspect for all of S1 with no announcement about S2 until the last minute to see if a vaccine is both ready and accepted. Even among admin and school-based specialists, there are too many people with cancer, organ transplants, or on immunosuppressive drugs for other reasons. Replacing a few teachers isn’t difficult. Stick a long term sub in and call it day. People like PP won’t care if that sub is someone experienced or a dude who lost his job selling tires. But replacing a principal or speech pathologist is going to be harder. Plus, half the MS security in MCPS are older AA men who have great rapport with the kids, but not great personal health. A lot of diabetes.

People who are certain about what's going to happen in the fall are fooling themselves.

Anonymous wrote:

All or nothing. Half days or alternating days or weeks will never happen. The logistics are impossible to implement on this short notice. Forget quality and effectiveness of DL, just attempting the jumble of logistics will collapse the capacity and budget of schools, the patience of teachers and parents and students, significant learning, parents' personal finances and careers and sanity, and on and on.

If MCPS attempts a convoluted hybrid model with not a single proof-of-concept example to show us, or other cases to highlight where hybrids worked, or even an internal study showing feasibility, and it collapses, there will be a revolt. So it's a political decision. These "leaders" better know they're playing with fire.

The logistics will be a hot mess, but we will absolutely see some type of hybrid in the fall. At least for MP 1 and I strongly suspect for all of S1 with no announcement about S2 until the last minute to see if a vaccine is both ready and accepted. Even among admin and school-based specialists, there are too many people with cancer, organ transplants, or on immunosuppressive drugs for other reasons. Replacing a few teachers isn’t difficult. Stick a long term sub in and call it day. People like PP won’t care if that sub is someone experienced or a dude who lost his job selling tires. But replacing a principal or speech pathologist is going to be harder. Plus, half the MS security in MCPS are older AA men who have great rapport with the kids, but not great personal health. A lot of diabetes.

Anonymous wrote:
Yes it is. There are going to be infection control protocols in place. The most extreme would be to continue distance learning indefinitely. The least extreme would be “more soap” (which is a joke). The middle ground is reducing density, sanitizing, and eliminating high risk activities, such as indoor physical education/chorus/etc. We can not physically expand the schools and hire more staff-there is no time or money to double the capacity of our schools. Having kids in school half time is a reasonable and balanced solution. Your daycare needs are not paramount to public health.

Having kids in school half time is not a reasonable and balanced solution.

How did we get to the point where half of my posts on DCUM are variations on "kids need to go to school"? I never would have believed that this would be a controversial statement.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While they may not be paramount-parents will find day cares which will add a second place for exposure and other kids then send their kids to school or they will rely on their elderly family.

That is their prerogative. I don’t know of a single daycare with 1,000 kids in it. I doubt there are even ten kids being taken care of by a single grandparent. You can’t just throw caution to the wind and send kids back to overcrowded buildings. I’m sorry that they were ever allowed to operate like that in the first place. We are paying for it now.

No, it's not their prerogative. It's their NECESSITY.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While they may not be paramount-parents will find day cares which will add a second place for exposure and other kids then send their kids to school or they will rely on their elderly family.

That is their prerogative. I don’t know of a single daycare with 1,000 kids in it. I doubt there are even ten kids being taken care of by a single grandparent. You can’t just throw caution to the wind and send kids back to overcrowded buildings. I’m sorry that they were ever allowed to operate like that in the first place. We are paying for it now.

Nobody is throwing caution to the winds by deciding that kids should attend school.

Anonymous wrote:While they may not be paramount-parents will find day cares which will add a second place for exposure and other kids then send their kids to school or they will rely on their elderly family.

That is their prerogative. I don’t know of a single daycare with 1,000 kids in it. I doubt there are even ten kids being taken care of by a single grandparent. You can’t just throw caution to the wind and send kids back to overcrowded buildings. I’m sorry that they were ever allowed to operate like that in the first place. We are paying for it now.

While they may not be paramount-parents will find day cares which will add a second place for exposure and other kids then send their kids to school or they will rely on their elderly family.