Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why everyone thinks this is so simple. “Ugh, why is this so hard!” “Duh, they just have to go back to school!”

I am a parent and a teacher and I am here to tell you that this is complicated. It’s not simple. Putting 500-3000 wiggly, non-rule following humans in a tight space every day in the middle of a pandemic is a challenge. Even if they tend to be asymptomatic. Even if you have to go to work. If we are going to have a real conversation about what needs to happen to open, people on both sides need to agree on the basics.

But we won't be "in the middle of a pandemic". The numbers are declining everywhere despite things opening up.

We just don't know this yet. Things have only been opening for a couple weeks. I am hesitantly optimistic since we are now 2 weeks out from Memorial Day and the numbers are still trending steadily down but the lag between actions and changes to the data in this disease seems to be closer to 1 month than to 2 weeks. We will not know until end of June/early July. If numbers are still going down then, that's a lot different than if they stagnate or go back up. We just don't know and that is frustrating and makes it very hard to plan for the fall. And I do expect a second wave with flu season. I don't see how it is at all avoidable. Also, even if we don't get COVID, if I have to keep my ES kid home every time she has a cough or runny nose, she's going to miss half the winter anyway.

One would hope that this could be avoided by readily available testing.

Even at its best testing currently requires: an appointment with a health care provider/pediatrician to get swabbed (1 day out of school) and at least 3 days for them to send the test out to the lab, receive the result back, and contact you. That is 4 days out of school for 1 test, and then really, if you have continuing symptoms, how do you know when to get re-tested? If you have a cough that is NOT COVID, how do you know if you pick up a new cough that IS COVID? Especially if the symptoms in kids are very mild. And if you don't immediately quarantine at the slightest appearance of symptoms, how many people do the ones who have COVID infect before it gets "bad enough" to get tested? It's a mess, and that is why the schools decision is so difficult. Our elementary schools bring ~700 kids together every day. Our middle schools more like 1000-1200; high schools up to 3000. If there's any significant degree of COVID circulating when cold/flu season comes, there's going to be a LOT of missed school even if schools are open for "normal" in person instruction. Because you don't know for at least 3-4 days if that cough is COVID or not. And every time you develop a new/different symptom you should probably be re-testing and quarantined until you get the results. Little kids get sick a lot. They will miss a lot of school.

Smith just said "no decision has been made for the Fall". He also said "the rumors that the Fall will distance learning is 100% not true".

Anonymous wrote:They predict 100,000 more Covid deaths in 3 months...who knows what will happen

I don’t think anyone doubts more deaths are coming. The question is whether there is sufficient evidence that the extreme disruption of closing schools will meaningfully impact the number.

They predict 100,000 more Covid deaths in 3 months...who knows what will happen

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the chances that we follow Northern Virginia's decision to open in the fall?

NoVa only said they will open for low-income and ELL students. Not for everyone else. MCPS might choose to do the same.

Really? That's not what I understood but then again I just skimmed through the thread in the VA forums very very briefly. I thought they are doing a staggered approach- half of the kids go M/T and the other half go W/R.

Low income and ELL students are for Phase 2. In Phase 3, all students will be in school. If you go to NoVa's own website, it says that they expect to enter Phase 3 in a couple of weeks. So NoVa's plan is to bring in all students.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why everyone thinks this is so simple. “Ugh, why is this so hard!” “Duh, they just have to go back to school!”

I am a parent and a teacher and I am here to tell you that this is complicated. It’s not simple. Putting 500-3000 wiggly, non-rule following humans in a tight space every day in the middle of a pandemic is a challenge. Even if they tend to be asymptomatic. Even if you have to go to work. If we are going to have a real conversation about what needs to happen to open, people on both sides need to agree on the basics.

But we won't be "in the middle of a pandemic". The numbers are declining everywhere despite things opening up.

We just don't know this yet. Things have only been opening for a couple weeks. I am hesitantly optimistic since we are now 2 weeks out from Memorial Day and the numbers are still trending steadily down but the lag between actions and changes to the data in this disease seems to be closer to 1 month than to 2 weeks. We will not know until end of June/early July. If numbers are still going down then, that's a lot different than if they stagnate or go back up. We just don't know and that is frustrating and makes it very hard to plan for the fall. And I do expect a second wave with flu season. I don't see how it is at all avoidable. Also, even if we don't get COVID, if I have to keep my ES kid home every time she has a cough or runny nose, she's going to miss half the winter anyway.

This is the fundamental issue here: in the absence of super strong data, do we close schools or leave them open? I think we need evidence to close them - they are usually open, critical to current and long term well being on an individual and societal level, some weak evidence schools/daycares don’t drive infection, etc. Others can think that we need evidence to open them because this is a new dangerous virus.

It is just hard when the science isn’t moving fast enough. Especially since you usually need a few studies reaching the same conclusion to be sure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are the chances that we follow Northern Virginia's decision to open in the fall?

NoVa only said they will open for low-income and ELL students. Not for everyone else. MCPS might choose to do the same.

Really? That's not what I understood but then again I just skimmed through the thread in the VA forums very very briefly. I thought they are doing a staggered approach- half of the kids go M/T and the other half go W/R.

Anonymous wrote:What are the chances that we follow Northern Virginia's decision to open in the fall?

NoVa only said they will open for low-income and ELL students. Not for everyone else. MCPS might choose to do the same.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS needs to have real instruction in the fall: either a meaningful distance learning curriculum that consists of actual instruction, just like the kids in private school are getting as well as many other public school systems (including NYC, which has an infinitely larger, more unequal, and more complicated set of dynamics to take into account.) Or they can get kids back in school FT w/masks and a swimming pool full of hand sanitizer.

I can live with either option, but continuing the charade of the past 3 months is not acceptable.

A "meaningful distance learning curriculum" doesn't solve the fundamental problem with distance learning, namely that it is distance learning.

Also known as “not free daycare” so not valuable to you.

PP you're responding to. My kids are in high school, so they don't need child care. But plenty of other people do have kids in elementary school and do need their kids in school so that they can maintain their paid employment, and there is nothing wrong with that.

+1 that person who keeps saying "not free childcare" is also a complete idiot. What do you think pays for public school education? Taxes. And how much tax money goes to educate each child in Moco? $20,000 per student, thats how much. That is not free.

This doesn't mean much, but I know that central office is already working on modules for 1st quarter. They are moving reorganizing the curricula a bit so that less "heavy" topics are in the 1st quarter. MD state high graduation exams are also being reorganized. The big science test that was supposed to cover bio, chem, and physics is being simplified to that only bio is required. Pre-covid schools across the state were already struggling to get students to successfully complete these courses prior senior year.

This doesn't mean that we won't go back in the fall, but the state BoE and local school systems are clearly planning for some level of distance learning.

What are the chances that we follow Northern Virginia's decision to open in the fall?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why everyone thinks this is so simple. “Ugh, why is this so hard!” “Duh, they just have to go back to school!”

I am a parent and a teacher and I am here to tell you that this is complicated. It’s not simple. Putting 500-3000 wiggly, non-rule following humans in a tight space every day in the middle of a pandemic is a challenge. Even if they tend to be asymptomatic. Even if you have to go to work. If we are going to have a real conversation about what needs to happen to open, people on both sides need to agree on the basics.

But we won't be "in the middle of a pandemic". The numbers are declining everywhere despite things opening up.

We just don't know this yet. Things have only been opening for a couple weeks. I am hesitantly optimistic since we are now 2 weeks out from Memorial Day and the numbers are still trending steadily down but the lag between actions and changes to the data in this disease seems to be closer to 1 month than to 2 weeks. We will not know until end of June/early July. If numbers are still going down then, that's a lot different than if they stagnate or go back up. We just don't know and that is frustrating and makes it very hard to plan for the fall. And I do expect a second wave with flu season. I don't see how it is at all avoidable. Also, even if we don't get COVID, if I have to keep my ES kid home every time she has a cough or runny nose, she's going to miss half the winter anyway.

One would hope that this could be avoided by readily available testing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why everyone thinks this is so simple. “Ugh, why is this so hard!” “Duh, they just have to go back to school!”

I am a parent and a teacher and I am here to tell you that this is complicated. It’s not simple. Putting 500-3000 wiggly, non-rule following humans in a tight space every day in the middle of a pandemic is a challenge. Even if they tend to be asymptomatic. Even if you have to go to work. If we are going to have a real conversation about what needs to happen to open, people on both sides need to agree on the basics.

But we won't be "in the middle of a pandemic". The numbers are declining everywhere despite things opening up.

We just don't know this yet. Things have only been opening for a couple weeks. I am hesitantly optimistic since we are now 2 weeks out from Memorial Day and the numbers are still trending steadily down but the lag between actions and changes to the data in this disease seems to be closer to 1 month than to 2 weeks. We will not know until end of June/early July. If numbers are still going down then, that's a lot different than if they stagnate or go back up. We just don't know and that is frustrating and makes it very hard to plan for the fall. And I do expect a second wave with flu season. I don't see how it is at all avoidable. Also, even if we don't get COVID, if I have to keep my ES kid home every time she has a cough or runny nose, she's going to miss half the winter anyway.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS needs to have real instruction in the fall: either a meaningful distance learning curriculum that consists of actual instruction, just like the kids in private school are getting as well as many other public school systems (including NYC, which has an infinitely larger, more unequal, and more complicated set of dynamics to take into account.) Or they can get kids back in school FT w/masks and a swimming pool full of hand sanitizer.

I can live with either option, but continuing the charade of the past 3 months is not acceptable.

A "meaningful distance learning curriculum" doesn't solve the fundamental problem with distance learning, namely that it is distance learning.

Also known as “not free daycare” so not valuable to you.

DP, and what is with this "school is not daycare" obsession? Is it so teachers can feel superior to actual daycare staff? Any elementary teacher who doesn't grasp that much of their job is, in fact, caring for children, has no business teaching young kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:MCPS needs to have real instruction in the fall: either a meaningful distance learning curriculum that consists of actual instruction, just like the kids in private school are getting as well as many other public school systems (including NYC, which has an infinitely larger, more unequal, and more complicated set of dynamics to take into account.) Or they can get kids back in school FT w/masks and a swimming pool full of hand sanitizer.

I can live with either option, but continuing the charade of the past 3 months is not acceptable.

A "meaningful distance learning curriculum" doesn't solve the fundamental problem with distance learning, namely that it is distance learning.

Also known as “not free daycare” so not valuable to you.

PP you're responding to. My kids are in high school, so they don't need child care. But plenty of other people do have kids in elementary school and do need their kids in school so that they can maintain their paid employment, and there is nothing wrong with that.