I'm visiting my parents in PA. Schools are open. The middle school that my mom's neighbor goes to had one case, they didn't close the whole school, just sent the class home. Today, the neighbor's kid who is in a different grade than the original case woke up with a 103 degree fever, chills, and sore throat. They were just here on the porch saying hi for 5 minutes (masks, 12 feet apart) and now we are all worried about my 91 year old mom. Schools are just disease spreaders.

Wait people think schools in the metro region can accommodate in person teaching and social distancing without more staff?! This area doesn’t even have the substitute teaching resources during a regular school year but magically extra teaching staff will be available? This isn’t a teachers’ union problem. It is a problem with the fundamentals.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Friends in Arkansas and Alabama in school full time. Also friends in catholic schools in various cities full time.

Ummmmm. I don’t think that’s a good comparison. I’m not sure anyone on this board wants to follow Arkansas and Alabama for much of anything.

Stop your prejudice.

NP. It isn't "prejudice" to rely on data. Such as...

47 and 46 for least educated states
49 and 40 for pre-k to 12
49 and 45 for income per capita
Alabama receives 3X more from federal government than they pay into it (5th highest)

The two states you cited have a bunch of characteristics that most people who choose to live in DC would not consider indicators that we would want to follow their lead. Now, if you told me you were striving to create a new DC that was uneducated, unhealthy, sucked off the teet of the federal government, had super low income levels, were incredibly hospitable to hate groups (SPLC) and lacked ay significant diversity, these might be good choices.

It is funny how people like you have o problem taking shots at things about DC you don't like (even if they are made up by Fox News), but anyone who dislikes what you like is embracing cancel culture or being prejudiced.

No go watch your DVR'd Hannity/Ingrahm power hours.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m fairly certain their will be a surge after Labor Day. There were a ton of people traveling and the beaches were packed.

Not convinced. Covid doesn't seem to spread on beaches. Overwhelmingly, it spreads indoors.

It’s the packed indoor bars and restaurants that are the problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m fairly certain their will be a surge after Labor Day. There were a ton of people traveling and the beaches were packed.

Not convinced. Covid doesn't seem to spread on beaches. Overwhelmingly, it spreads indoors.

And that's why Worcester County (i.e. Ocean City) has the highest test positive rate in MD...

Yes because of the restaurants and stores the tourists visited, not the beach.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m fairly certain their will be a surge after Labor Day. There were a ton of people traveling and the beaches were packed.

Not convinced. Covid doesn't seem to spread on beaches. Overwhelmingly, it spreads indoors.

And that's why Worcester County (i.e. Ocean City) has the highest test positive rate in MD...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Friends in Arkansas and Alabama in school full time. Also friends in catholic schools in various cities full time.

Ummmmm. I don’t think that’s a good comparison. I’m not sure anyone on this board wants to follow Arkansas and Alabama for much of anything.

Stop your prejudice.

I don’t think that word means what you think it does.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Friends in Arkansas and Alabama in school full time. Also friends in catholic schools in various cities full time.

Ummmmm. I don’t think that’s a good comparison. I’m not sure anyone on this board wants to follow Arkansas and Alabama for much of anything.

Stop your prejudice.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So do people think that DCPS is waiting to see how the local private schools do?

No, they are waiting for numbers to continue their downward trend and they are likely putting together a plan that MIGHT satisfy the teachers union. The union is the reason public schools are closed. Privates are not unionized and don't have the same issue.

Privates also have smaller class sizes, giving them more ability to have more manageable numbers in the classrooms, and charge significant amounts of tuition, which puts more pressure on them to deliver something different from what the public schools are doing. (Yes, I know, we all pay taxes for the public schools, too, but that's not the same thing, since we pay taxes whether we have kids in public schools or not.) The unions are not the only factor here.

Depends on the private. Take the small Catholic ES here on Capitol Hill, St. Peter. Their classes sizes are larger than most public school classes in the neighborhood, yet they're going with a hybrid model this fall. This resource-challenged parochial school can't afford a new ventilation system or fancy protection (e.g. plexi glass screen around every kid's desk). The 5th grade class at St. Peter has two dozen students. The 5th grade classes at Brent around the corner have 16-17.

WTU resistance is the main factor here.

Anonymous wrote:I’m fairly certain their will be a surge after Labor Day. There were a ton of people traveling and the beaches were packed.

Not convinced. Covid doesn't seem to spread on beaches. Overwhelmingly, it spreads indoors.

It should open in two weeks time. Everywhere else except DMV SnowflakeVille is open.

Snowballs chance

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So do people think that DCPS is waiting to see how the local private schools do?

No, they are waiting for numbers to continue their downward trend and they are likely putting together a plan that MIGHT satisfy the teachers union. The union is the reason public schools are closed. Privates are not unionized and don't have the same issue.

Privates also have smaller class sizes, giving them more ability to have more manageable numbers in the classrooms, and charge significant amounts of tuition, which puts more pressure on them to deliver something different from what the public schools are doing. (Yes, I know, we all pay taxes for the public schools, too, but that's not the same thing, since we pay taxes whether we have kids in public schools or not.) The unions are not the only factor here.

The union is not even an issue, hmmmm aren’t there public schools open in other states, with a you guessed it! A union!

I agree with above ^
Probably shouldn’t pushed for faster remodeling, we even allowed some remodels to be cancelled...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So do people think that DCPS is waiting to see how the local private schools do?

No, they are waiting for numbers to continue their downward trend and they are likely putting together a plan that MIGHT satisfy the teachers union. The union is the reason public schools are closed. Privates are not unionized and don't have the same issue.

Privates also have smaller class sizes, giving them more ability to have more manageable numbers in the classrooms, and charge significant amounts of tuition, which puts more pressure on them to deliver something different from what the public schools are doing. (Yes, I know, we all pay taxes for the public schools, too, but that's not the same thing, since we pay taxes whether we have kids in public schools or not.) The unions are not the only factor here.

i agree that the decision to keep DCPS all virtual looks more arbitrary/political/vague and less and less data-based. So how will we ever know when it is "OK" to open if decisions are being made this way?

I'm assuming the whole year is virtual. and now i'm getting worried about next year, too. Even if there is a vaccine before Sep 2021, based on how i see decisions being made now, seems like teachers union could still say that vaccine is not effective ENOUGH or not distributed widely enough, etc etc. so how will we ever meet the goal posts and reopen?