Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The amount of changes they would have to make to redo the entire plan are not workable this late in the year. I understand January doesn’t feel late but in school time, it is. They don’t have time to get more buses and drivers and monitors and mics and swivel cams to use for a couple months. Hybrid will probably happen but it’s a short term plan and districts are moving forward with SY2022 planning now too.

From what I can tell from my elementary principal, APS still has no plan. They only decided to make grades 3-5 concurrent last week. My kid's school still hasn't decided whether 2nd grade will also be concurrent. There are no teacher assignments. No plan for a hybrid schedule or how they will offer specials. No fixed start or end times for the school day. No bus routes. No plan for temperature screening. No plan for lunch. And on and on. There is literally no plan to be changed because there is still NO PLAN.

At least your principal is communicating. Ours schedule a town hall for Feb 9th!!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The amount of changes they would have to make to redo the entire plan are not workable this late in the year. I understand January doesn’t feel late but in school time, it is. They don’t have time to get more buses and drivers and monitors and mics and swivel cams to use for a couple months. Hybrid will probably happen but it’s a short term plan and districts are moving forward with SY2022 planning now too.

Ha. APS will start planning for SY2022 the third week in August and not a moment sooner.

Agree -- this type of thinking is why we had no virtual school spring 2020 while the great planning for the 2020-2021 occurred... oh wait.

I think this is key, and part of why so many parents are angry, frustrated, disappointed at this point. The lack of educating kids for the entire last quarter of the 19-20 school year, combined with asynchronous Mondays, several days off for "planning".. all amount to less instruction, and at least from what I've seen, the DL is so poorly executed and ineffective for the younger grades. All of this is why parents are furious and want schools to open. APS has botched this majorly and we are all fed up.

Can we just note that they are ending elememtary school early on Feb 5 for extra teacher training when they already don't teach on Mondays to make room for professional development?

Anonymous wrote:The amount of changes they would have to make to redo the entire plan are not workable this late in the year. I understand January doesn’t feel late but in school time, it is. They don’t have time to get more buses and drivers and monitors and mics and swivel cams to use for a couple months. Hybrid will probably happen but it’s a short term plan and districts are moving forward with SY2022 planning now too.

From what I can tell from my elementary principal, APS still has no plan. They only decided to make grades 3-5 concurrent last week. My kid's school still hasn't decided whether 2nd grade will also be concurrent. There are no teacher assignments. No plan for a hybrid schedule or how they will offer specials. No fixed start or end times for the school day. No bus routes. No plan for temperature screening. No plan for lunch. And on and on. There is literally no plan to be changed because there is still NO PLAN.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The amount of changes they would have to make to redo the entire plan are not workable this late in the year. I understand January doesn’t feel late but in school time, it is. They don’t have time to get more buses and drivers and monitors and mics and swivel cams to use for a couple months. Hybrid will probably happen but it’s a short term plan and districts are moving forward with SY2022 planning now too.

Ha. APS will start planning for SY2022 the third week in August and not a moment sooner.

Agree -- this type of thinking is why we had no virtual school spring 2020 while the great planning for the 2020-2021 occurred... oh wait.

I think this is key, and part of why so many parents are angry, frustrated, disappointed at this point. The lack of educating kids for the entire last quarter of the 19-20 school year, combined with asynchronous Mondays, several days off for "planning".. all amount to less instruction, and at least from what I've seen, the DL is so poorly executed and ineffective for the younger grades. All of this is why parents are furious and want schools to open. APS has botched this majorly and we are all fed up.

Anonymous wrote:The amount of changes they would have to make to redo the entire plan are not workable this late in the year. I understand January doesn’t feel late but in school time, it is. They don’t have time to get more buses and drivers and monitors and mics and swivel cams to use for a couple months. Hybrid will probably happen but it’s a short term plan and districts are moving forward with SY2022 planning now too.

They just announced a complete change to 3-5 with no real explanation for how it is going to work. As far as I can tell, APS doesn't reallly have a logistical plan for reopening- and just sort of defaults to 'its to hard' and 'let delay'

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The amount of changes they would have to make to redo the entire plan are not workable this late in the year. I understand January doesn’t feel late but in school time, it is. They don’t have time to get more buses and drivers and monitors and mics and swivel cams to use for a couple months. Hybrid will probably happen but it’s a short term plan and districts are moving forward with SY2022 planning now too.

Ha. APS will start planning for SY2022 the third week in August and not a moment sooner.

Agree -- this type of thinking is why we had no virtual school spring 2020 while the great planning for the 2020-2021 occurred... oh wait.

Anonymous wrote:The amount of changes they would have to make to redo the entire plan are not workable this late in the year. I understand January doesn’t feel late but in school time, it is. They don’t have time to get more buses and drivers and monitors and mics and swivel cams to use for a couple months. Hybrid will probably happen but it’s a short term plan and districts are moving forward with SY2022 planning now too.

Ha. APS will start planning for SY2022 the third week in August and not a moment sooner.

The amount of changes they would have to make to redo the entire plan are not workable this late in the year. I understand January doesn’t feel late but in school time, it is. They don’t have time to get more buses and drivers and monitors and mics and swivel cams to use for a couple months. Hybrid will probably happen but it’s a short term plan and districts are moving forward with SY2022 planning now too.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going half the day either AM or PM with neither group eating AT school would be good except for the childcare issue it creates which is why it won’t happen.

What difference is this to back in the day when there was half day Kindergarten. You either went in the morning or afternoon. Folks made it work. I was in this group in 1985 and this was an era where women worked so not too many stay at home moms. Lower income families tend to have multiple generations living in one home so childcare is less problematic for them. This can be a business venture for someone just as the pod finding agencies that started up. They can offer afterschool care or before at some fee, and people will pay it, or who ever is watching their kid during DL now will continue.

Would it be ideal? No. Nothing is right now. It would be a heck of a lot better than what we’ve got. And I’ve read that it’s being used in other states.

We don't have enough bus drivers as it is. Not trying to be a naysayer, but this goes back to the logistics. They can't figure out which kids would go in the am and which in the pm. If you got by last name so that siblings are together, you have to reshuffle teachers and classes. Literally the logistics involved in anything less than full open 5 days per week for all kids and teachers are what is making this impossible for APS. Yes, all of the vocal parents screaming and shouting aren't helping either.

APS could completely due this if they started from a position of 'what changes do we need to make to make this work' instead of starting from 'why is this not feasible.'
FCCPS sends its elementary kids 1/2 days 4 days a week. The first 1/2 of the alphabet is in school from 9-11:50. During the inschool time they get math, language arts, science and social studies. Then they go home and have virtual specials and independent work. The teachers have an 1 break for lunch, and the second half of the alphabet comes in. The teachers teach twice. In terms of buses, FCCPS allows one child per seat, none of this only 11 kids on a bus garbage. APS knee capped itself with the 11 person rule. There was a SB meeting in the fall where Duran said that APS was the only system who was limiting itself to 11 kids per bus- he viewed this as a good thing 'look how much better we are.' I view it as a complete misunderstanding of risk.
FCCPS is a small school system- but the elementary schools themselves are similar sizes to most APS schools, if not a little larger. Especially if you remove the option schools from the discussion- there is no reason in the world why the 1/2 day isn't a completely feasible plan for APS elementary.

In terms of what it does to childcare- having your children in school for 1/2 a day 4 days a week isn't any worse than having your kid home all the time, or having them gone 2 full days.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going half the day either AM or PM with neither group eating AT school would be good except for the childcare issue it creates which is why it won’t happen.

What difference is this to back in the day when there was half day Kindergarten. You either went in the morning or afternoon. Folks made it work. I was in this group in 1985 and this was an era where women worked so not too many stay at home moms. Lower income families tend to have multiple generations living in one home so childcare is less problematic for them. This can be a business venture for someone just as the pod finding agencies that started up. They can offer afterschool care or before at some fee, and people will pay it, or who ever is watching their kid during DL now will continue.

Would it be ideal? No. Nothing is right now. It would be a heck of a lot better than what we’ve got. And I’ve read that it’s being used in other states.

We don't have enough bus drivers as it is. Not trying to be a naysayer, but this goes back to the logistics. They can't figure out which kids would go in the am and which in the pm. If you got by last name so that siblings are together, you have to reshuffle teachers and classes. Literally the logistics involved in anything less than full open 5 days per week for all kids and teachers are what is making this impossible for APS. Yes, all of the vocal parents screaming and shouting aren't helping either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS should just shoot for Monday April 5th, the first day after Spring Break. Teachers and staff should have shots and be mostly at least a few weeks after 2nd dose by then and average outdoor temperature high is 65F so windows can be open in wherever kids eat lunch.

Great call - when does everyone think APS will *FINALLY* announce return to school dates for students?

Board presentation posted for tonight- CTE will return Feb 2nd; no dates for elementary, middle, other high school.

https://go.boarddocs.com/vsba/arlington/Board.nsf/files/BXGLR656E799/$file/D-1%20School%20Year%202020-21%20Update%20012121.pdf

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going half the day either AM or PM with neither group eating AT school would be good except for the childcare issue it creates which is why it won’t happen.

What difference is this to back in the day when there was half day Kindergarten. You either went in the morning or afternoon. Folks made it work. I was in this group in 1985 and this was an era where women worked so not too many stay at home moms. Lower income families tend to have multiple generations living in one home so childcare is less problematic for them. This can be a business venture for someone just as the pod finding agencies that started up. They can offer afterschool care or before at some fee, and people will pay it, or who ever is watching their kid during DL now will continue.

Would it be ideal? No. Nothing is right now. It would be a heck of a lot better than what we’ve got. And I’ve read that it’s being used in other states.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Going half the day either AM or PM with neither group eating AT school would be good except for the childcare issue it creates which is why it won’t happen.

What difference is this to back in the day when there was half day Kindergarten. You either went in the morning or afternoon. Folks made it work. I was in this group in 1985 and this was an era where women worked so not too many stay at home moms. Lower income families tend to have multiple generations living in one home so childcare is less problematic for them. This can be a business venture for someone just as the pod finding agencies that started up. They can offer afterschool care or before at some fee, and people will pay it, or who ever is watching their kid during DL now will continue.

Because they can only put 11 kids on a bus to maintain distancing and there aren't enough buses to run this with the overlapping transit times.

Anonymous wrote:APS should just shoot for Monday April 5th, the first day after Spring Break. Teachers and staff should have shots and be mostly at least a few weeks after 2nd dose by then and average outdoor temperature high is 65F so windows can be open in wherever kids eat lunch.

Great call - when does everyone think APS will *FINALLY* announce return to school dates for students?

Anonymous wrote:Going half the day either AM or PM with neither group eating AT school would be good except for the childcare issue it creates which is why it won’t happen.

What difference is this to back in the day when there was half day Kindergarten. You either went in the morning or afternoon. Folks made it work. I was in this group in 1985 and this was an era where women worked so not too many stay at home moms. Lower income families tend to have multiple generations living in one home so childcare is less problematic for them. This can be a business venture for someone just as the pod finding agencies that started up. They can offer afterschool care or before at some fee, and people will pay it, or who ever is watching their kid during DL now will continue.