Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agree on fulltime 2022. There will be hybrid next year. Well hopefully

I was a poster who said 2022. However, how do you think they would do hybrid, given that it is "impossible" to teach in person and virtual concurrently?

This horse has been beaten to death. There are states all over the country who are teachin both virutal and in person at the same time. I do not understand why HoCo perpetuates the myth that this is inventing a wheel or somehow impossible. One consequence of refusing to do anything is that it's pretty hard to say something is impossible to accomplish or will cause a huge covid outbreak when there are examples everywhere of schools doing those things safely.

Next....

Anonymous wrote:I agree on fulltime 2022. There will be hybrid next year. Well hopefully

I was a poster who said 2022. However, how do you think they would do hybrid, given that it is "impossible" to teach in person and virtual concurrently?

I agree on fulltime 2022. There will be hybrid next year. Well hopefully

In Howard County, as with other jurisdictions, there are extreme voices on either side. On one side, there are some outspoken advocates for reopening, who want schools reopened and have little regard for the level of community spread. Some of these extremists are COVID deniers. On the side are people like the previous posters who view any return to the buildings during the pandemic to be "unsafe" and tantamount to a death sentence for teachers. People espousing extreme anti-reopening view any attempt to discuss or formulate a plan to return students to the building and disrespectful to teachers.

When it voted to remain virtual through April, the HCPSS Board also took two other actions. First, it rejected the hybrid plan offered by the Superintendent and his staff, and it also voted down a motion that would have directed the Superintendent to work on another hybrid plan. Right now, there is no plan on the table to return any students to the buildings for in person learning.

The nature of the hybrid plan was critical in these decisions. The proposal would have had teachers teaching an in person cohort while simultaneously teaching virtual learners. The teachers' union representative said that a concurrent model is impossible - it simply can't be done. In addition, there are serious questions about whether any in person model could be staffed, given that many teachers have said that they will return or take leave if they are required to return to the buildings.

Today, several new board members will be sworn in. Whether at will change anything remains to be seen. The teachers' concerns are not going to change, and therefore, it hardly seems worth it to continue to devote time to a plan that is never going to be implemented, at least not this year.

Throughout these discussions, the Superintendent emphasized that before any transition to a hybrid model, the administration would need 7 weeks to prepare. Therefore, even if, going forward, the Board approves a new plan, that would have to be done by the beginning of February to start the preparations for an April 1 return (if the metrics allow). Developing a plan that is acceptable to the teachers seems highly unlikely.

It might be possible to develop some hybrid plan that could be implemented next year if the metrics allow. But feel like that would only work if there is a virtual only option that would make the cohorts of students attending in person smaller. I wish they would focus only on a hybrid plan for small groups of students to see if it is possible to make it work and keep everyone else in virtual learning. The only way to see how a plan works is to try. I worry that if they don't try in the spring, there is no chance of returning in the fall.




7 weeks of lead time
staggered anyway

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:2022? Wow.

That's probably an exaggeration, but I don't see them bringing all students back in the fall. Maybe certain populations?

My kids have been back in school on campus at a private school. If I was a howard county parent looking at another 18 months of remote learning, especially if I had a child who is struggling, I would be applying for every catholic/independent school out there within 40 miles. Why would anyone accept remote learning for that long when other schools are back in session successfully around the country and even private schools in Maryland.

I guess the rest of us who are being 'sacrified' by the federal government and working in DoD aren't savvy enough to form a union or something. It's either that or we realize that the importance of our work is worth the limited risk elevation to do it. It's a way to fix the overcrowding, I guess. Vote with your feet.

The funding issues are real with families leaving the public school system. There is no legislative repreive coming for the funding dates which is why even the other parts of the government won't close for staff again.

I'm sure the union will try and force that issue when it comes down to it, but when some of the counties open or the private schools are open successfully, it seems a bit shallow of an argument. All of that aside, I simply cannot imagine the learning loss. If you place one 8th grader from a rural school district in the south who may have had lower test scores a few years ago, but has been on campus for learning since September with a child up here who has been home since March 2020 against each other, I'm not sure who would win now. Give it another year and I can only imagine it will be worse. This is not a closure in isolation or agreement with every school in the country. Kids here will be at a true disadvantage in many ways again the districts which have opened.

I guess the teachers will not be 'sacrified' though. So, there's that. There have not been a disporpotionate amount of teachers dying in the school districts which have opened for students in the worse hit communities. It's so easy to see that this is a political closure rooted in dysfunction.

Anonymous wrote:2022? Wow.

That's probably an exaggeration, but I don't see them bringing all students back in the fall. Maybe certain populations?

2022? Wow.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a big fan of the current school board in Howard County. However, I commend them for making this decision.

Why? Did you not approve of the metrics the Board previously adopted? Why is it so difficult to distinguish between the conditions that exist now and those that would exist if community spread is lower and meets the threshold for returning to the classroom? I honestly don't understand. There is never going to be a time to formulate any potential plan because some adults don't seem capable of contemplating that conditions might be different at some point.

Because teachers are not willing to be sacrificed. There isn't a metric in a pandemic that assures a safe environment for anyone in a school. Adults need to understand how this all works and put people's health before their personal needs and inconveniences. Please remember that everyone was PRETTY SURE one semester out of school was too much, now we are higher than ever with a staggering death rate. No, we won't be going back in Jan. Or April. Get real.

However, keep posting on your local FB pages(!)- trashing teachers, trashing the school boards, trashing local and state government because, while it won't help open anything, those whose lives were deemed inconsequential will remember this for a long time.

I'm not one of those crazy Facebook parents. I would just appreciate some intellectual honesty. Therefore, I would prefer that the Board not waste time adopting health metrics if there is never going to be at return of any students to a school building with face to face learning with teachers, this year or probably next. If NO metric is safe, then the rule should be schools will reopen when the teachers union determines that it is safe enough to reopen, which is likely the fall of 2022. I would be more ok with that decision that with continually kicking the can down the road.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The school board will be getting some new members in a few weeks and if teachers are among those to get the vaccine early we should be able to return to school by April maybe March.

I doubt it. Children won't be vaccinated. There aren't enough vaccines for teachers yet, either. They aren't front line workers as there is a work around, unlike those for who there is not a work around.

Consider Fall of 2021 possibly.

I'd be shocked if they go back in Fall 2021. Maybe hybrid might be an option then? Realistically, it's 2022 at this point.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a big fan of the current school board in Howard County. However, I commend them for making this decision.

I also commend them, as well as our local government. Some people have to do what is important and safe.

I agree!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a big fan of the current school board in Howard County. However, I commend them for making this decision.

Why? Did you not approve of the metrics the Board previously adopted? Why is it so difficult to distinguish between the conditions that exist now and those that would exist if community spread is lower and meets the threshold for returning to the classroom? I honestly don't understand. There is never going to be a time to formulate any potential plan because some adults don't seem capable of contemplating that conditions might be different at some point.

Because teachers are not willing to be sacrificed. There isn't a metric in a pandemic that assures a safe environment for anyone in a school. Adults need to understand how this all works and put people's health before their personal needs and inconveniences. Please remember that everyone was PRETTY SURE one semester out of school was too much, now we are higher than ever with a staggering death rate. No, we won't be going back in Jan. Or April. Get real.

However, keep posting on your local FB pages(!)- trashing teachers, trashing the school boards, trashing local and state government because, while it won't help open anything, those whose lives were deemed inconsequential will remember this for a long time.

THANK YOU

I am puzzled as to why the reopen residents in Howard County refuse to understand that we are going through a PANDEMIC!

Anonymous wrote:I am not a big fan of the current school board in Howard County. However, I commend them for making this decision.

I also commend them, as well as our local government. Some people have to do what is important and safe.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am not a big fan of the current school board in Howard County. However, I commend them for making this decision.

Why? Did you not approve of the metrics the Board previously adopted? Why is it so difficult to distinguish between the conditions that exist now and those that would exist if community spread is lower and meets the threshold for returning to the classroom? I honestly don't understand. There is never going to be a time to formulate any potential plan because some adults don't seem capable of contemplating that conditions might be different at some point.

Because teachers are not willing to be sacrificed. There isn't a metric in a pandemic that assures a safe environment for anyone in a school. Adults need to understand how this all works and put people's health before their personal needs and inconveniences. Please remember that everyone was PRETTY SURE one semester out of school was too much, now we are higher than ever with a staggering death rate. No, we won't be going back in Jan. Or April. Get real.

However, keep posting on your local FB pages(!)- trashing teachers, trashing the school boards, trashing local and state government because, while it won't help open anything, those whose lives were deemed inconsequential will remember this for a long time.

Anonymous wrote:The school board will be getting some new members in a few weeks and if teachers are among those to get the vaccine early we should be able to return to school by April maybe March.

I doubt it. Children won't be vaccinated. There aren't enough vaccines for teachers yet, either. They aren't front line workers as there is a work around, unlike those for who there is not a work around.

Consider Fall of 2021 possibly.

Anonymous wrote:I am not a big fan of the current school board in Howard County. However, I commend them for making this decision.

Why? Did you not approve of the metrics the Board previously adopted? Why is it so difficult to distinguish between the conditions that exist now and those that would exist if community spread is lower and meets the threshold for returning to the classroom? I honestly don't understand. There is never going to be a time to formulate any potential plan because some adults don't seem capable of contemplating that conditions might be different at some point.