Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Let's just a take a moment of silence to reflect on just how bad Duran's decision was not to send kids back for more in person days this year.

- COVID rates are continuing to drop precipitously. Only three cases in Arlington, yesterday, with a very strong downward trend.

- All teachers had the chance to be vaccinated months ago. High risk persons had the opportunity to get vaccinated in March.

- More than half of Arlington adults are vaccinated

- Arlington is hosting walk up vaccine clinics so anyone who wants a vaccine has no excuse. It's also widely available at pharmacies and grocery stores.

- Kids ages 12-15 can now get vaccinated and doses are available. By next week there will be lots of options to get your older kid vaccinated.

- The weather is great for outdoor lunch. And schools haven't been found to be a significant source of transmission. (If anything open schools and close down sports teams.)

Yet APS has decided to keep the same model that was judged appropriate in January. APS isn't offering summer school even to kids with serious need, let alone kids with some learning loss over the past year. Yet APS has decided to squander the last 6-8 weeks of the school year. Those weeks are far more than what is being offered over the summer. They could make a real difference. Shame on you, APS.

I am pleased to meet you OP -- apparently you are able to see into the future, and expect other people like Duran to be able to do the same. Now that I have met someone who was able to successfully predict the status of FDA approval, the levels of acceptance by a particular population of a new vaccine, and the number of cases months in advance, I would love it if you were able to use your superpowers to be able to predict more things so that our community can make perfect decisions about future plans despite lacking information currently. Please tell us the exact enrollment numbers at all grade levels for each school this fall (that seems comparable to being able to foresee some of these other stats you list above). Please also predict for us what major federal initiative will be proposed this fall that will impact next year's proposed budget the most. I'm so grateful that you have elected to share your superior prognostication powers with our community to enable us to plan optimal courses of action from now on.

Meanwhile, the rest of us without the ability to predict the course of this pandemic have instead adjusted our expectations away from what isn't attainable and towards what has been attainable for our kids under rather high levels of uncertainty. BTW it was only LAST WEEK that the WHO and the CDC stated that the major form of transmission for the virus was aerosolized particles. So the entire global scientific community was wrong about the major method of transmission as of two weeks ago. But Duran should have been 'right' several months ago about....everything.

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it's because I have a little kid, by my kid has been so bored all year and learning very little. She isn't burned out and ready to watch videos. She'd love 5 weeks of in person learning--the more the better. Her best two days of the week are her in person days, and her classroom just sits empty those other three days. It's such a waste.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unbelievable. But honestly OP where is the outrage? Why are people just accepting this, with an occasional “can you believe it” and shake of the head?

Where is the national media? Where are the parents rallying and make the lives of school board members hell? Where are the pro-kid candidates stepping up to replace them?

NP. It’s Arlington. Arlington is a place where people like to follow rules and take a very cautious approach. There are very few risk takers. Very few people want to stick their necks outs. Those who do will be laughed at by others. It’s also a place filled with type a nerds. Type a nerds are not going to criticize something they are part of.

Anonymous wrote:Unbelievable. But honestly OP where is the outrage? Why are people just accepting this, with an occasional “can you believe it” and shake of the head?

Where is the national media? Where are the parents rallying and make the lives of school board members hell? Where are the pro-kid candidates stepping up to replace them?

Anonymous wrote:Let's just a take a moment of silence to reflect on just how bad Duran's decision was not to send kids back for more in person days this year.

- COVID rates are continuing to drop precipitously. Only three cases in Arlington, yesterday, with a very strong downward trend.

- All teachers had the chance to be vaccinated months ago. High risk persons had the opportunity to get vaccinated in March.

- More than half of Arlington adults are vaccinated

- Arlington is hosting walk up vaccine clinics so anyone who wants a vaccine has no excuse. It's also widely available at pharmacies and grocery stores.

- Kids ages 12-15 can now get vaccinated and doses are available. By next week there will be lots of options to get your older kid vaccinated.

- The weather is great for outdoor lunch. And schools haven't been found to be a significant source of transmission. (If anything open schools and close down sports teams.)

Yet APS has decided to keep the same model that was judged appropriate in January. APS isn't offering summer school even to kids with serious need, let alone kids with some learning loss over the past year. Yet APS has decided to squander the last 6-8 weeks of the school year. Those weeks are far more than what is being offered over the summer. They could make a real difference. Shame on you, APS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t we only have 5 weeks left? I’m already eyeing our local pool. I believe they acted in good faith and felt that switching models again wasn’t worth the disruption.

At this point, might as well continue with hybrid. The school system has assured people its working well and that kids are learning appropriately.

Anonymous wrote:I said this in another thread - if the SOL scores drop for white kids in APS - then the latent outrage will occur.

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is back to 4 day learning with 3 ft desperation, but only half their kids are in-person. Do we know how many would opt in for in person if APS went 4 days?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's a radical idea: Why not make the last few weeks of school not a gigantic waste of time?


But to answer OP's question, like many others, I've tried. And I'm tired. Did you know at the HS level they actually took away in-person days because they need the adults to proctor tests? I'm so over APS. But my kid is older. If I had a younger kid in APS, I might still have it in my to fight. This is so ridiculous.

Yeah that would be amazing. My kid is in high school so there is still some learning going on but I can't even imagine what elementary kids are doing now at home for virtual learning. I am assuming it's close to nothing and will dwindle to the point of the teacher connecting to zoom and ... just being there all day and showing some videos

I'm no fan of how APS has handled things, but I would drop this one as an argument. Elementary kids are still doing full on virtual school and not watching movies. (Why would you think that?) It's not perfect, but they are teaching them new content.

There are so many issues with this still. It is not an acceptable trade off or equivalent.

My first grader figured out ages ago how to minimize his Teams window, and open up whatever else he felt like looking at. Unless someone is sitting right on top of him monitoring everything he does, he can do whatever he wants. We have two full time workers in our home, so that is not possible.

Two, the issue of screen and screen time and addiction to it. We were a no-tablet family before COVID. It is not a daily battle to get our first grader off of and away from the screens. They are addicted to it, and it sickens me that school is further perpetuating that and we cannot do anything about the hours they spend on both in person and at home days on the screen.

Anonymous wrote:please send your kids to stay with your cousin for a while.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don’t we only have 5 weeks left? I’m already eyeing our local pool. I believe they acted in good faith and felt that switching models again wasn’t worth the disruption.

5 weeks is longer than the 4 weeks of summer school that they planned and then failed to deliver. Showing that APS can do 4/5 days now would help those kids that were depending on summer school and would show parents that they can make it work in the fall. That summer school email should have come with an announcement that Elementary (esp k-2) will be 5 days beginning on Monday.