Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Washington County, for example:

https://www.niche.com/k12/d/washington-county-public-schools-md/

They have 24K Students vs 166K students at MCPS.

You cannot even compare the sale of what the two school systems are facing.

Yes you can. Spending per student is lower in Washington County. MCPS has more money, more staff, and more resources.

And more expenses! Payroll is the largest operating expense, and the cost of living in MoCo is more than just a bit higher.

Average Washington Co homes cost 220K; MoCo homes are almost 500K. It's no wonder many MCPS teachers live in Frederick Co!

We haven't seen MCPS say at board meetings that: "We can make this work if we just have $X million more for teacher salaries". Maybe that's all it takes, but they haven't stated that is the hold-up for reopening.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Which is why the PP from many pages back who suggested a full F2F option and a full DL option was right.

You may feel comfortable with DL until the 22-23 school year. Many others do not. And your preference should not be given more weight than mine.

Really, the BOE needs to do another survey. But not a "how do you think its going" survey.

A very specific one. What school do you attend? Will you return? Can you provide your own transportation? Can you provide your own masks? Have your children agreed to comply with the safety measures? Do you acknowledge that violation of the safety measures may mean you are switched to DL? Etc, etc.

That's not a survey. MCPS would need to try to do a census to count each student in MCPS.

Also, MCPS/BoE does not make decisions by majority vote of the parents, nor should they.

(I'm going to conclude that anybody who thinks "parents should just drive their kids!" is a viable alternative, has never been anywhere near a school during drop-off or pick-up. It's hazardous chaos even during normal times when most kids who arrive by motor vehicle arrive by school bus. If you want more kids to walk, then you can't have more parents driving. If you want more parents driving, then it's just not going to happen for more kids to walk.)

Sure. You raise valid criticisms.

But the time of "this is too difficult to solve. lets give up" has passed.

We are doing more damage to our kids by keeping them home. So instead of saying "this is too complicated" we need to have ideas.

Fabulous. SUGGEST THEM. ADVOCATE FOR THEM IN REAL LIFE. Instead of just indulging in this forum's favorite hobby of complaining about MCPS for anything and everything.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Which is why the PP from many pages back who suggested a full F2F option and a full DL option was right.

You may feel comfortable with DL until the 22-23 school year. Many others do not. And your preference should not be given more weight than mine.

Really, the BOE needs to do another survey. But not a "how do you think its going" survey.

A very specific one. What school do you attend? Will you return? Can you provide your own transportation? Can you provide your own masks? Have your children agreed to comply with the safety measures? Do you acknowledge that violation of the safety measures may mean you are switched to DL? Etc, etc.

That's not a survey. MCPS would need to try to do a census to count each student in MCPS.

Also, MCPS/BoE does not make decisions by majority vote of the parents, nor should they.

(I'm going to conclude that anybody who thinks "parents should just drive their kids!" is a viable alternative, has never been anywhere near a school during drop-off or pick-up. It's hazardous chaos even during normal times when most kids who arrive by motor vehicle arrive by school bus. If you want more kids to walk, then you can't have more parents driving. If you want more parents driving, then it's just not going to happen for more kids to walk.)

Sure. You raise valid criticisms.

But the time of "this is too difficult to solve. lets give up" has passed.

We are doing more damage to our kids by keeping them home. So instead of saying "this is too complicated" we need to have ideas.

Anonymous wrote:

Which is why the PP from many pages back who suggested a full F2F option and a full DL option was right.

You may feel comfortable with DL until the 22-23 school year. Many others do not. And your preference should not be given more weight than mine.

Really, the BOE needs to do another survey. But not a "how do you think its going" survey.

A very specific one. What school do you attend? Will you return? Can you provide your own transportation? Can you provide your own masks? Have your children agreed to comply with the safety measures? Do you acknowledge that violation of the safety measures may mean you are switched to DL? Etc, etc.

That's not a survey. MCPS would need to try to do a census to count each student in MCPS.

Also, MCPS/BoE does not make decisions by majority vote of the parents, nor should they.

(I'm going to conclude that anybody who thinks "parents should just drive their kids!" is a viable alternative, has never been anywhere near a school during drop-off or pick-up. It's hazardous chaos even during normal times when most kids who arrive by motor vehicle arrive by school bus. If you want more kids to walk, then you can't have more parents driving. If you want more parents driving, then it's just not going to happen for more kids to walk.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want MCPS to open, sign and share this. http://chng.it/h7tVHKGzjV

Signed. And shared on social media.

It's time that MCPS starts listening to families on this topic

I'm just going to point out that there is no unanimity of opinion among families in MCPS.

There's unanimity in the parents that want to go back, while those that want to stay home can continue doing so.

In other words, there's unanimity among parents who share the same opinion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

THEN. DON'T. GO.

Honestly why is this so hard to understand? The proposal by a previous poster had a full DL option.

But you do realize how wrong and selfish it is to say "my family does not want to return. thus, no families can return.'

Spoiler alert: you are not the queen of england, and you shall not be treated as such

I'm the PP with the proposal, and actually my point was that the full DL option is also fully imaginary at this point. It's up to the state and Hogan, and I haven't noticed them proposing anything of the sort. Have you? Hogan is happy to use every opportunity to take swipes at Elrich, but he's not doing the things that would actually help kids get back to school.

To do DL and in person we'd need twice as many teachers/staff as we have now.

That's not true at all. We'd need twice as many teachers/staff if in every school, half of the students did DL, half of the students went to school, and otherwise everything else remained the same. But we don't know how many students would do DL vs go back to school, and things do not have to remain the same. For example, in an elementary school with 4 kindergarten classes, what if 75% of students went to school and 25% did DL? Then you could have 3 classes of K in school, and 1 class of K in DL, with the 4 K teachers.

And, how would you deal with the capacity issue at school at 75%. Your numbers wouldn't work as kids need to be at least 6 feet away, preferably 10. Not including all the repairs needed to many of the buildings. Most classrooms don't have the space for social distancing.

Why 10? Who has ever discussed 10?

Its been discussed on several news sites. 6 feet is the minimum but it can travel further so best practice is 10.

But 10 has never been part of any policy-based decisioning. So it's irrelevant to capacity discussions.

It is relevant to health and safety. However at best we could do 1-2 feet, not 6. So, how do you propose we do it between 4-6 feet in some of the smaller classrooms?

It's a waste of time to even consider this nonsense. A vaccine will be out in January. They can begin phasing in vaccinated students in the following months.

The dirty little secret is that there is not a having in development for children. No students will be vaccinated. The one available in the first quarter of 2021 will be adults only.

The other secret is that it won't be effective for obese people. Which will be a problem here in the states

Which is why we absolutely need to continue DL until a vaccine is available for everyone- if that takes an extra year, it’s worth it IMO.

Which is why the PP from many pages back who suggested a full F2F option and a full DL option was right.

You may feel comfortable with DL until the 22-23 school year. Many others do not. And your preference should not be given more weight than mine.

Really, the BOE needs to do another survey. But not a "how do you think its going" survey.

A very specific one. What school do you attend? Will you return? Can you provide your own transportation? Can you provide your own masks? Have your children agreed to comply with the safety measures? Do you acknowledge that violation of the safety measures may mean you are switched to DL? Etc, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Ok I caved, here's one to get you started.

https://www.ocps.net/students_and_parents/school_reopening_plan

OK, so that's a school district in Florida that had to open because the governor made them, and their distance learning options are

(a) a statewide virtual charter school
(b) the "innovative model" OCPS LaunchED@Home, which seems to be its own school for all of the kids in the district in that option.

Maryland doesn't have a statewide virtual charter school, and Hogan and the state board of education have expressed no interest in starting one, as far as I know.

MCPS could hypothetically have its own distance-learning schools for all of the kids in MCPS in that option, assuming that

1. MCPS parents went for it, instead of wanting their children (virtually) at their own schools with their own classmates/teachers
2. the staffing worked out. Staffing would obviously be easier for general-education classes and potentially very difficult for specialty classes (magnet, some of the language classes, some of the AP classes, etc.), to say nothing of special ed.

It sure would be helpful to know how that "innovative model" is actually going, right now, for the actual students actually in it. Is it a brilliant success, a disaster, or something in between?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

THEN. DON'T. GO.

Honestly why is this so hard to understand? The proposal by a previous poster had a full DL option.

But you do realize how wrong and selfish it is to say "my family does not want to return. thus, no families can return.'

Spoiler alert: you are not the queen of england, and you shall not be treated as such

I'm the PP with the proposal, and actually my point was that the full DL option is also fully imaginary at this point. It's up to the state and Hogan, and I haven't noticed them proposing anything of the sort. Have you? Hogan is happy to use every opportunity to take swipes at Elrich, but he's not doing the things that would actually help kids get back to school.

To do DL and in person we'd need twice as many teachers/staff as we have now.

Somehow other districts are doing this without twice the number of teachers. Amazing, right?

Which other districts, specifically, and how, specifically, are they doing it?

Plenty of districts who have opened up have published their reopening plans online. Google is your friend! If you don't know how to use a search engine I can't help you, sorry.

Ok I caved, here's one to get you started.

https://www.ocps.net/students_and_parents/school_reopening_plan

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

THEN. DON'T. GO.

Honestly why is this so hard to understand? The proposal by a previous poster had a full DL option.

But you do realize how wrong and selfish it is to say "my family does not want to return. thus, no families can return.'

Spoiler alert: you are not the queen of england, and you shall not be treated as such

I'm the PP with the proposal, and actually my point was that the full DL option is also fully imaginary at this point. It's up to the state and Hogan, and I haven't noticed them proposing anything of the sort. Have you? Hogan is happy to use every opportunity to take swipes at Elrich, but he's not doing the things that would actually help kids get back to school.

To do DL and in person we'd need twice as many teachers/staff as we have now.

Somehow other districts are doing this without twice the number of teachers. Amazing, right?

Which other districts, specifically, and how, specifically, are they doing it?

Plenty of districts who have opened up have published their reopening plans online. Google is your friend! If you don't know how to use a search engine I can't help you, sorry.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

THEN. DON'T. GO.

Honestly why is this so hard to understand? The proposal by a previous poster had a full DL option.

But you do realize how wrong and selfish it is to say "my family does not want to return. thus, no families can return.'

Spoiler alert: you are not the queen of england, and you shall not be treated as such

I'm the PP with the proposal, and actually my point was that the full DL option is also fully imaginary at this point. It's up to the state and Hogan, and I haven't noticed them proposing anything of the sort. Have you? Hogan is happy to use every opportunity to take swipes at Elrich, but he's not doing the things that would actually help kids get back to school.

To do DL and in person we'd need twice as many teachers/staff as we have now.

Somehow other districts are doing this without twice the number of teachers. Amazing, right?

Which other districts, specifically, and how, specifically, are they doing it?

Why don’t you share the districts that have hired twice the number of teachers? How did they do it? I know several teachers and families that have kids back at school in other states. My friend in upstate NY, for example, is leading a remote cohort. I know a couple reading/math specialists who typically do pullouts who are now leading a normal classroom or leading a remote cohort. But that’s different than hiring 100% more teachers. My friend, for example, is leading an all-remote cohort. She’s not a fan of DL, but not enough “vulnerable” teachers requested remote teaching I guess so that’s what she was asked to do.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want MCPS to open, sign and share this. http://chng.it/h7tVHKGzjV

Signed. And shared on social media.

It's time that MCPS starts listening to families on this topic

I'm just going to point out that there is no unanimity of opinion among families in MCPS.

There's unanimity in the parents that want to go back, while those that want to stay home can continue doing so.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Well, this has been one of the fundamental problems from the beginning. Kids are being punished because the adults won't put their forks down.

There's very little that's more absurd than characterizing obesity as a problem of "adults not putting their forks down."

Not at all. Calories in > calories out = children stay home while adults continue going out to restaurants to eat.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want MCPS to open, sign and share this. http://chng.it/h7tVHKGzjV

Signed. And shared on social media.

It's time that MCPS starts listening to families on this topic

I'm just going to point out that there is no unanimity of opinion among families in MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Well, this has been one of the fundamental problems from the beginning. Kids are being punished because the adults won't put their forks down.

There's very little that's more absurd than characterizing obesity as a problem of "adults not putting their forks down."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

THEN. DON'T. GO.

Honestly why is this so hard to understand? The proposal by a previous poster had a full DL option.

But you do realize how wrong and selfish it is to say "my family does not want to return. thus, no families can return.'

Spoiler alert: you are not the queen of england, and you shall not be treated as such

I'm the PP with the proposal, and actually my point was that the full DL option is also fully imaginary at this point. It's up to the state and Hogan, and I haven't noticed them proposing anything of the sort. Have you? Hogan is happy to use every opportunity to take swipes at Elrich, but he's not doing the things that would actually help kids get back to school.

To do DL and in person we'd need twice as many teachers/staff as we have now.

Somehow other districts are doing this without twice the number of teachers. Amazing, right?

Well, pick your reason why they won't. They're too big to even begin trying to formulate a plan, they're too poor despite the county's wealth, [insert other irrelevant whining]. Their plan clearly is to sit on their hands and wait for a miracle. I'm sure that Elrich will end up "surprised" how long it took that miracle to manifest.