Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did any of you Hearst complainers actually attend the grade-level meetings that solicited feedback from parents about reopening? Most parents said they did not want class size to dramatically increase or to change teachers or to get rid of departmentalization at the upper grades -- all of which would be necessary to open in-person classes in all grades. K is different because there are 3 teachers, so the other two classes can absorb the extra kids without making class sizes huge. Until all teachers and all kids are required to go back, I think this is where we're stuck because we have only 2 teachers per grade in most grade levels. The only other option is hybrid, where teachers teach live and online at the same time, and most parents said they thought that would not work well for anyone. Hearst has no good options, and this plan seems like it was the least disruptive to most people, while still allowing the neediest kids to get some in-person instruction in ELL and SPED. Most people I know are fairly happy with the virtual learning at Hearst because the cohorts are small and our teachers have been awesome. Obviously some kids are not doing well, but the school has to do what works for the majority of kids, and making virtual classes huge does not work for the majority of kids.

This. I recognized that something has to give -- either my kid loses her teacher, or her virtual class is huge, or she loses specialized ELA/math instruction, or they continue all-virtual. You can't have everything, because space and staffing are limited. And a lot of parents want everything. You have to decide what the priority is. For us, it was keeping our kid's homeroom teacher, which we acknowledge might mean that she doesn't get an in-person slot. Someone else might decide on a different tradeoff. But demanding no tradeoffs is unreasonable. And if that's the feedback that Hearst got from parents, then their decision is actually pretty reasonable.

Anonymous wrote:Did any of you Hearst complainers actually attend the grade-level meetings that solicited feedback from parents about reopening? Most parents said they did not want class size to dramatically increase or to change teachers or to get rid of departmentalization at the upper grades -- all of which would be necessary to open in-person classes in all grades. K is different because there are 3 teachers, so the other two classes can absorb the extra kids without making class sizes huge. Until all teachers and all kids are required to go back, I think this is where we're stuck because we have only 2 teachers per grade in most grade levels. The only other option is hybrid, where teachers teach live and online at the same time, and most parents said they thought that would not work well for anyone. Hearst has no good options, and this plan seems like it was the least disruptive to most people, while still allowing the neediest kids to get some in-person instruction in ELL and SPED. Most people I know are fairly happy with the virtual learning at Hearst because the cohorts are small and our teachers have been awesome. Obviously some kids are not doing well, but the school has to do what works for the majority of kids, and making virtual classes huge does not work for the majority of kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Try to find replacements??? THERE ARE NO REPLACEMENTS. That’s why Hearst is stuck. Do you want the school to have 4 teachers available total? For the entire school?? That’s the solution?

DCPS actively campaigned for weeks maybe even months to get new hires and subs for CARES or live instruction. They got none. That’s why they went to plan B of pulling staff from

Curious how many complainers in this thread actually gave a kid who is top 10 neediest of their grade level. Even if Hearst adopted the god almighty Lafayette plan... I bet most of y’all’s kids wouldn’t even be in a spot. In fact they’d be worse off because they’d be shuffled into a room with 35-40 kids not even the whole class visible on the screen at once and barely getting noticed. Potentially with a teacher who has never taught that subject or grade level before. The high level of quality you expect at Hearst comes from many years of experience. You won’t be getting individual attention and neither will your kid and the teacher will be literally building the plane as they fly it with the content.

If you’re ok with having an unskilled sub or a teacher in a brand new subject area... well then, you’re looking for childcare, my friends. And I’m sure curious if most of y’all complaining on this thread already have childcare or could afford it.

Vaccines are weeks away for educators. I’ve heard NOTHING about Hearst teachers or any DCPS teachers refusing to vaccinate. You’ve waited 10 months. Let’s see what happens in 1 more.


I wish the moderator would close this thread because this level of tacky for Hearst is embarrassing.