Wasn’t the suggestion just to fire all the teachers that didn’t want to come back and hire all the jobless people who want to work? Now suddenly ya’ll are worried they can’t hire people fast enough or that they will be unqualified?

I think the logistics of the in person classroom are going to be hard. Where does the teacher for that class come from? If a school has 3 K classrooms w/ 20 kids in each and, let's say for the sake of argument, that 2 kids from each classroom are randomly pulled into K learning (was it 6 for K?)... That leaves 3 classes of 18 students. If one of those teachers becomes the in person teacher, what happens to their extra 18 students? Do they make both of the other classrooms 27 kids? That could maybe work, but what about at a school where classes already have 27 kids?

What about a school w/ only one classroom per grade (Ross) or any grade w/ only one class (Brent, Maury, SWS)? Who teaches the half of the class who doesn't get to go to school? And is it really going to be that 11 kids out of 25 Brent 5th graders get randomly selected for real school (where maybe 2-3 of them are prioritized and the other 8-9 are literally just UMC lottery winners) w/ their real teacher and the other 14 get left behind and have no teacher? It all just sounds insane.

I'm not personally going to send my children back to school in November, but that's because we won't qualify for the actual classroom with a teacher and we're not desperate for childcare. But I think it seems like a good plan to bring back the children farthest from opportunity ASAP and to provide childcare for other children who need that. That said, I agree with the PPs who think the CARES classroom are likely to be very chaotic. But if parents are desperate, they will hopefully be better than nothing.

Anonymous wrote:having 75% of kids in a school building is a terrible idea right now, whether they're in traditional school or in the CARES classes.

i do not expect the WTU to let this plan go forward with any teachers in the building until their (very reasonable) demands are met. and given that the mayor and chancellor didn't talk about those _at all_ during their conference, i don't see this happening with any teachers.

that said, i think they probably could get a few CARES classrooms going.

75% of kids won't ever be in the building at the same time.

having 75% of kids in a school building is a terrible idea right now, whether they're in traditional school or in the CARES classes.

i do not expect the WTU to let this plan go forward with any teachers in the building until their (very reasonable) demands are met. and given that the mayor and chancellor didn't talk about those _at all_ during their conference, i don't see this happening with any teachers.

that said, i think they probably could get a few CARES classrooms going.

Anonymous wrote:If they are going to use aides as CARE staff, that would actually make me feel better about the plan all around. I love my kids' aide and she's more than qualified to manage a PK classroom. Plus, she's been severely underutilized during DL -- there just really isn't much for her to do because the teacher "has the comm" on these sessions and the stuff she'd normally do (set up the next activity, check in on kids struggling or not paying attention, etc.) doesn't apply or isn't possible.

I know! My poor aide is bored to tears sometimes because she's just not as involved, unless a child is having difficulty I have her call them in our breakout room to help them calm down.

Though I do know she'd be upset to be moved, she has been my assistant teacher for 5 years now.

Anonymous wrote:If they are going to use aides as CARE staff, that would actually make me feel better about the plan all around. I love my kids' aide and she's more than qualified to manage a PK classroom. Plus, she's been severely underutilized during DL -- there just really isn't much for her to do because the teacher "has the comm" on these sessions and the stuff she'd normally do (set up the next activity, check in on kids struggling or not paying attention, etc.) doesn't apply or isn't possible.

Yeah, I think this is part of the plan. There are definitely staff that are not being used FT. Aides, some of the admin I'd guess, plus DPR and others.

If they are going to use aides as CARE staff, that would actually make me feel better about the plan all around. I love my kids' aide and she's more than qualified to manage a PK classroom. Plus, she's been severely underutilized during DL -- there just really isn't much for her to do because the teacher "has the comm" on these sessions and the stuff she'd normally do (set up the next activity, check in on kids struggling or not paying attention, etc.) doesn't apply or isn't possible.

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, under staffing it says:
DC instructional and support staff + Partner staff. I don't think they are hiring new people beyond the budget.

That makes me feel a little better, I guess. Is partner staff dpr staff. They are "OK" I still don't think they'll have anywhere near enough for 75% of elementary students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The requirements are what I wrote above: high school diploma and 24 hours of college credit that can pass some sort of background check. They do not have to have experience working with children. If aides and other staff apply, they would hopefully get the job. The problem is that if they need the numbers, then meth heads that can pass a background check will get a position also.

Where are you seeing this job posting? I did not hear anything about anyone hiring anyone.

The qualifications are on the "What is a Atudent CARE Classroom" slide at https://www.popville.com/2020/10/dcps-in-person-learning/#more-241004

I see. I didn't take that to mean they are hiring hordes of teachers, I understood it to mean here are the minimum requirements of the aids and staffers we already have who will be doing this.

If they could actually just invest that $ in technology, then the teachers could actually teach hybrid!!!!

Aides are paid peanuts, this is actually cheaper for DCPS.

Yeah, under staffing it says:
DC instructional and support staff + Partner staff. I don't think they are hiring new people beyond the budget.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The requirements are what I wrote above: high school diploma and 24 hours of college credit that can pass some sort of background check. They do not have to have experience working with children. If aides and other staff apply, they would hopefully get the job. The problem is that if they need the numbers, then meth heads that can pass a background check will get a position also.

Where are you seeing this job posting? I did not hear anything about anyone hiring anyone.

The qualifications are on the "What is a Atudent CARE Classroom" slide at https://www.popville.com/2020/10/dcps-in-person-learning/#more-241004

I see. I didn't take that to mean they are hiring hordes of teachers, I understood it to mean here are the minimum requirements of the aids and staffers we already have who will be doing this.

If they could actually just invest that $ in technology, then the teachers could actually teach hybrid!!!!

Last year it took DCPS 3 months to get our math teacher through the background check. I assume they already have a bunch of these individuals lined up if they are going to start this in a month.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The requirements are what I wrote above: high school diploma and 24 hours of college credit that can pass some sort of background check. They do not have to have experience working with children. If aides and other staff apply, they would hopefully get the job. The problem is that if they need the numbers, then meth heads that can pass a background check will get a position also.

Where are you seeing this job posting? I did not hear anything about anyone hiring anyone.

The qualifications are on the "What is a Atudent CARE Classroom" slide at https://www.popville.com/2020/10/dcps-in-person-learning/#more-241004

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not actually see any issues with implementing the CARE plan. Logistically it means hiring a few hundred individuals with a high school diploma and 24 hours of college credit that can pass some sort of background check. They do not have to have experience working with children. I cannot imagine it is going to be too hard to staff up CARE programs.

I am not sure if they will hit their goals and get enough teachers to handle the in person learning and they did not leave themselves much wiggle room.

There will be some push back for kids that get new teachers and the change in classrooms, but DCPS is pretty good at ignoring pushback.

If you want distance learning, apart from the juggling of the classes and teachers, nothing is really changing and there is no reason that distance learning really needs to stick with traditional classroom and teacher ideas.

If you want childcare, you might be able to get a spot. That is great for the parents that need it.

I thought they’d use teacher’s aides. Is the plan to really just hire a bunch of random jobseekers?

I have childcare, so I’m only interested in CARES for socialization.

This is my assumption as well. Aides and other staff.

The requirements are what I wrote above: high school diploma and 24 hours of college credit that can pass some sort of background check. They do not have to have experience working with children. If aides and other staff apply, they would hopefully get the job. The problem is that if they need the numbers, then meth heads that can pass a background check will get a position also.

Where are you seeing this job posting? I did not hear anything about anyone hiring anyone.