Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers can only choose because they, our children and the rest of us stood up to the questionable values and methods during the first U-turn forced by a group of parents. Since then, there’s not been one occasion where someone doesn’t bring up how many of their DC teachers are teaching remotely. What’s laughably crazy is middle aged people coming up with anonymous petitions anonymously signed by anonymous people and trying over and over again to ignore the reality of the pandemic.

One reality of the pandemic is that the virus is not spreading in schools that have more basic mitigations strategies in place than Sidwell does. Have you read the data? There is a lot out there. It is in the WaPo today. Sidwell has had success itself being open. So yes, the reality of December was being ignored in the petition, but not the reality of how schools are faring. What is your own agenda?

+1. Fauci says schools should be open. Sidwell’s own medical advisory team said the school should be open. I’m filling out the survey tonight with complete confidence that will be the case come January. Yes, they should be open now but if January 19 is the best we can do, I’ll take it.

Same here. Data is good. Newspapers are doing a number on people by including most of it.
Hospital use is up! Yeah, from the 9 month backlog of surgeries, due to leaving whole floors empty for COVID anticipation.

Could not disagree more — the school administration is doing an excellent job, and the attempts to litigate the most minor of issues on dcum over and over again don’t serve anyone other than the school’s detractors. Our reality is that of the top school doing a terrific job of the DL and HL, adapting relatively quickly to the circumstances as could best be expected.

Caution is warranted as long as our community positivity rate is 3%+, resident test positivity rate around 5%, and our R well over 1 (so expect to see rapid week on week worsening in December, just like was said on the previous of these boards when posters claimed that DC would not see a rise in cases). In that context, schools are not islands unto themselves particularly because (unlike in Europe) DC.gov is not limiting indoor dining, bars, concerts, events, like it had done earlier in the year with similar metrics.

Insufficiently reactive decisive community leadership means our school administration needs to lead while balancing the risk. They are in fact doing that and I don’t see how detracting from that effort through partial information sharing on this forum is helpful in any way. Unless the goal is to open at any cost and/or create a perception of reputational risk where none exists?

Before anyone tries to politicize my opinion, I’m an open-minded long-standing parent looking at this as objectively and scientifically as possible.

Anonymous wrote:Between too much and too little communication, I’ll take too much any day. Im glad they communicated.

Sure, but will it be consistent from here on out? It is a real problem when there is no consistency, and no clear communications plan that tells the entire community what to expect. Too often this school flails about and shows how clueless its admin team is.

Between too much and too little communication, I’ll take too much any day. Im glad they communicated.

And now they sent out an email to the entire school because a Lower School employee tested positive. They really have no idea what their comms plan is, do they?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers can only choose because they, our children and the rest of us stood up to the questionable values and methods during the first U-turn forced by a group of parents. Since then, there’s not been one occasion where someone doesn’t bring up how many of their DC teachers are teaching remotely. What’s laughably crazy is middle aged people coming up with anonymous petitions anonymously signed by anonymous people and trying over and over again to ignore the reality of the pandemic.

One reality of the pandemic is that the virus is not spreading in schools that have more basic mitigations strategies in place than Sidwell does. Have you read the data? There is a lot out there. It is in the WaPo today. Sidwell has had success itself being open. So yes, the reality of December was being ignored in the petition, but not the reality of how schools are faring. What is your own agenda?

+1. Fauci says schools should be open. Sidwell’s own medical advisory team said the school should be open. I’m filling out the survey tonight with complete confidence that will be the case come January. Yes, they should be open now but if January 19 is the best we can do, I’ll take it.

Funny, our DC school back in August overrode its health/medical advisory team recommendation to open the younger grades and parts of hybrid. Instead it went all virtual.
It's been all downhill from there.

Genuine question. Why? I’ve really not felt that and I’m not new by any means. Anything we can/shd do?

Anonymous wrote:What concerns me, even though I disagree with the letter, is that anyone would feel, let alone have a cause to feel, no matter their stance, any concern about speaking up. What can we do to fix that, if that’s the case?

You must be new at the school. That is a very common feeling.

What concerns me, even though I disagree with the letter, is that anyone would feel, let alone have a cause to feel, no matter their stance, any concern about speaking up. What can we do to fix that, if that’s the case?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My only agenda is to be respectful of every single member of our community. Also, I’d like to meet my goals of not being stupid and being on the right side of history when the time comes. At the current R and lack of any action in DC, school outbreaks are a real possibility in December. So the way I figure my agenda and goals would be best served is by not trying to find out the hard way and by not screaming to reopen the school when we all agreed differently.

Who is the “we” who agreed differently? The MAT supports the continued opening. I trust them over a group of hysterical parents any day.

In December? No one I know has heard that, please point me to that communication.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course, I too look to the others to tell me what to do, even though I’m an adult.

For stats, look here: twitter.com/susanorlean/status/1306418913064804353?s=20
and not here: coronavirus.dc.gov/page/reopening-metrics

I like Fauci but he said not to wear masks and worked for Trump including the bleach conference, bless his heart.

Got it. So you’re selective in the information you retain to suit your agenda

Do you mean critical thinking? It’s a good skill. Try it.

Anonymous wrote:My only agenda is to be respectful of every single member of our community. Also, I’d like to meet my goals of not being stupid and being on the right side of history when the time comes. At the current R and lack of any action in DC, school outbreaks are a real possibility in December. So the way I figure my agenda and goals would be best served is by not trying to find out the hard way and by not screaming to reopen the school when we all agreed differently.

Who is the “we” who agreed differently? The MAT supports the continued opening. I trust them over a group of hysterical parents any day.

Anonymous wrote:Of course, I too look to the others to tell me what to do, even though I’m an adult.

For stats, look here: twitter.com/susanorlean/status/1306418913064804353?s=20
and not here: coronavirus.dc.gov/page/reopening-metrics

I like Fauci but he said not to wear masks and worked for Trump including the bleach conference, bless his heart.

Got it. So you’re selective in the information you retain to suit your agenda

Of course, I too look to the others to tell me what to do, even though I’m an adult.

For stats, look here: twitter.com/susanorlean/status/1306418913064804353?s=20
and not here: coronavirus.dc.gov/page/reopening-metrics

I like Fauci but he said not to wear masks and worked for Trump including the bleach conference, bless his heart.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers can only choose because they, our children and the rest of us stood up to the questionable values and methods during the first U-turn forced by a group of parents. Since then, there’s not been one occasion where someone doesn’t bring up how many of their DC teachers are teaching remotely. What’s laughably crazy is middle aged people coming up with anonymous petitions anonymously signed by anonymous people and trying over and over again to ignore the reality of the pandemic.

One reality of the pandemic is that the virus is not spreading in schools that have more basic mitigations strategies in place than Sidwell does. Have you read the data? There is a lot out there. It is in the WaPo today. Sidwell has had success itself being open. So yes, the reality of December was being ignored in the petition, but not the reality of how schools are faring. What is your own agenda?

+1. Fauci says schools should be open. Sidwell’s own medical advisory team said the school should be open. I’m filling out the survey tonight with complete confidence that will be the case come January. Yes, they should be open now but if January 19 is the best we can do, I’ll take it.