According to Hutchings and central office, they had hybrid ready to go in July/August. They said this repeatedly. If equity is their core guiding principal, why wouldn't they have worked out inequities back in the summer? When they said they were ready for hybrid? None of this adds up.

They have a staff the same size as the city's staff and yet they couldn't figure this key issue out?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We picked hybrid but are going to stick with virtual after hearing the “plans” that will have kids chained to their desks and laptops with very little opportunity for movement or fresh air. I suspect we aren’t the only ones. My child switches teachers for different subjects but they won’t allow elementary students to move around to different classrooms so she will have to stay in homeroom and log in virtually with her teachers that will be right down the hall.

The kids won’t even be able to use playground equipment on school grounds so may as well use the City playground down the street in our neighborhood. My understanding is that even if families decline the hybrid seat they have ACPS won’t make those open seats available to other families, which is such a shame. They are doing all they can to keep classrooms almost empty, but will claim they have successfully “reopened.”

Yes. At our school the principal said it was an equity issue, because everyone who might want to come back might not have transportation. Notice I said "might"--they don't actually have data on this, they just pre-emptively want to consider the potential equity issue.

Serious question, why would there be a transportation issue? Even with the CDC guidelines for buses, there are fewer kids going to school overall and then you divide that in half because of the two day in school/two day virtual. Why aren't there enough buses? I know they've had a driver shortage the past few years but calling it an equity issue because of transportation doesn't ring true. When some of the west end elementary schools were too crowded (I know, I know every school is overcrowded) they were putting kids in vans and taxis and driving them to our ES.

Have they put out any hard data on transportation? I've looked at the FAQs and it just says there aren't enough bus seats. And while that is not completely unbelievable, I just don't trust ACPS' competency.

If they have, I haven't seen it. I have the same questions as you. My cynical side says they just don't want to try to accommodate a waitlist because it's more work.

Anonymous wrote:

I get being a little annoyed by this but if you had any indication of wanting to be hybrid - you should
Have just put it - since they can’t stop you from

I put hybrid, but come on - I am sure a number of parents were overwhelmed with work and child care and other responsibilities and let it slip, and now their kids are stuck. I am also sure that some parents with multiple kids may have had trouble figuring out how to select hybrid for each kid. If that was not done properly, all but the first kid addressed defaults to virtual.

I only have one kid in an ACPS school. I didn't know there was a bug in the system. That's bad.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We picked hybrid but are going to stick with virtual after hearing the “plans” that will have kids chained to their desks and laptops with very little opportunity for movement or fresh air. I suspect we aren’t the only ones. My child switches teachers for different subjects but they won’t allow elementary students to move around to different classrooms so she will have to stay in homeroom and log in virtually with her teachers that will be right down the hall.

The kids won’t even be able to use playground equipment on school grounds so may as well use the City playground down the street in our neighborhood. My understanding is that even if families decline the hybrid seat they have ACPS won’t make those open seats available to other families, which is such a shame. They are doing all they can to keep classrooms almost empty, but will claim they have successfully “reopened.”

Yes. At our school the principal said it was an equity issue, because everyone who might want to come back might not have transportation. Notice I said "might"--they don't actually have data on this, they just pre-emptively want to consider the potential equity issue.

Serious question, why would there be a transportation issue? Even with the CDC guidelines for buses, there are fewer kids going to school overall and then you divide that in half because of the two day in school/two day virtual. Why aren't there enough buses? I know they've had a driver shortage the past few years but calling it an equity issue because of transportation doesn't ring true. When some of the west end elementary schools were too crowded (I know, I know every school is overcrowded) they were putting kids in vans and taxis and driving them to our ES.

Have they put out any hard data on transportation? I've looked at the FAQs and it just says there aren't enough bus seats. And while that is not completely unbelievable, I just don't trust ACPS' competency.

Anonymous wrote:We picked hybrid but are going to stick with virtual after hearing the “plans” that will have kids chained to their desks and laptops with very little opportunity for movement or fresh air. I suspect we aren’t the only ones. My child switches teachers for different subjects but they won’t allow elementary students to move around to different classrooms so she will have to stay in homeroom and log in virtually with her teachers that will be right down the hall.

The kids won’t even be able to use playground equipment on school grounds so may as well use the City playground down the street in our neighborhood. My understanding is that even if families decline the hybrid seat they have ACPS won’t make those open seats available to other families, which is such a shame. They are doing all they can to keep classrooms almost empty, but will claim they have successfully “reopened.”

Yes. At our school the principal said it was an equity issue, because everyone who might want to come back might not have transportation. Notice I said "might"--they don't actually have data on this, they just pre-emptively want to consider the potential equity issue.

We picked hybrid but are going to stick with virtual after hearing the “plans” that will have kids chained to their desks and laptops with very little opportunity for movement or fresh air. I suspect we aren’t the only ones. My child switches teachers for different subjects but they won’t allow elementary students to move around to different classrooms so she will have to stay in homeroom and log in virtually with her teachers that will be right down the hall.

The kids won’t even be able to use playground equipment on school grounds so may as well use the City playground down the street in our neighborhood. My understanding is that even if families decline the hybrid seat they have ACPS won’t make those open seats available to other families, which is such a shame. They are doing all they can to keep classrooms almost empty, but will claim they have successfully “reopened.”

I get being a little annoyed by this but if you had any indication of wanting to be hybrid - you should
Have just put it - since they can’t stop you from

I put hybrid, but come on - I am sure a number of parents were overwhelmed with work and child care and other responsibilities and let it slip, and now their kids are stuck. I am also sure that some parents with multiple kids may have had trouble figuring out how to select hybrid for each kid. If that was not done properly, all but the first kid addressed defaults to virtual.

Anonymous wrote:I get being a little annoyed by this but if you had any indication of wanting to be hybrid - you should
Have just put it - since they can’t stop you from
Changing to back to virtual. I don’t get being sooooooo mad about it now. Give them a chance to open up and see how things are and I’m sure they will bring more back. The decision for concurrent allows this very easily.

With your strong confidence in ACPS, you should check out a little group of pals called PTAC.

Anonymous wrote:I get being a little annoyed by this but if you had any indication of wanting to be hybrid - you should
Have just put it - since they can’t stop you from
Changing to back to virtual. I don’t get being sooooooo mad about it now. Give them a chance to open up and see how things are and I’m sure they will bring more back. The decision for concurrent allows this very easily.

People are upset because in December Hutchings and ACPS made statements that they understood that family circumstances may change and they were committed to working with families. Only to be told that was no longer the case because ...equity or something.

I agree that selecting the hybrid option seemed to allow for more flexibility. But every parent had, and has, a different concern and story and shouldn't be shamed for their feelings nearly three months later because they believed Hutchings and ACPS' reassurances back in December.

Anonymous wrote:I do not think that all parents are as eager to return their children to school as some believe. During school last week I had 3 different children ask me how their parents switch their decision from hybrid to virtual. I teach at a Title I school.

This doesn't surprise me at all and I can think of several reasons parents want to stay virtual. I'm guessing they are some of the same reasons why I'm switching from hybrid to virtual.

Anonymous wrote:I do not think that all parents are as eager to return their children to school as some believe. During school last week I had 3 different children ask me how their parents switch their decision from hybrid to virtual. I teach at a Title I school.

This 100%

I do not think that all parents are as eager to return their children to school as some believe. During school last week I had 3 different children ask me how their parents switch their decision from hybrid to virtual. I teach at a Title I school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get being a little annoyed by this but if you had any indication of wanting to be hybrid - you should
Have just put it - since they can’t stop you from
Changing to back to virtual. I don’t get being sooooooo mad about it now. Give them a chance to open up and see how things are and I’m sure they will bring more back. The decision for concurrent allows this very easily.

People are entitled to be mad because it was a bait and switch (even if I agree with your logic about what parents’ thought process should have been when filling out the form). ACPS could have followed their previous representations and asked now for final decisions on virtual vs. hybrid but instead decided to just to renege on their word to simply the process for the system.

Simplify

Anonymous wrote:I get being a little annoyed by this but if you had any indication of wanting to be hybrid - you should
Have just put it - since they can’t stop you from
Changing to back to virtual. I don’t get being sooooooo mad about it now. Give them a chance to open up and see how things are and I’m sure they will bring more back. The decision for concurrent allows this very easily.

People are entitled to be mad because it was a bait and switch (even if I agree with your logic about what parents’ thought process should have been when filling out the form). ACPS could have followed their previous representations and asked now for final decisions on virtual vs. hybrid but instead decided to just to renege on their word to simply the process for the system.

Anonymous wrote:I get being a little annoyed by this but if you had any indication of wanting to be hybrid - you should
Have just put it - since they can’t stop you from
Changing to back to virtual. I don’t get being sooooooo mad about it now. Give them a chance to open up and see how things are and I’m sure they will bring more back. The decision for concurrent allows this very easily.

They asked for best information we had at the time. This is not the fault of people who answered a form honestly.