Anonymous wrote:Another example of school is not childcare so you can work.

Anonymous wrote:There aren't going to be any winners here with any of these options. Teachers will be risking their health, and many will have child care issues of their own. Parents will have to scramble to figure out child care while also continuing to act as substitute teachers at home. Kids -- especially high-poverty kids -- will continue to learn less than they do by actually going to school buildings full-time.

My big worry is employers forcing parents to return to the office, which I'm going to guess will happen before kids go back to school full-time. If DCPS goes forward with any of these plans, DC needs to pass a temporary law banning termination because of inability to physically be at an office. Otherwise a whole lot of people will be losing their jobs because there will be no one to care for their kids on days when they won't be at school.

Anonymous wrote:There aren't going to be any winners here with any of these options. Teachers will be risking their health, and many will have child care issues of their own. Parents will have to scramble to figure out child care while also continuing to act as substitute teachers at home. Kids -- especially high-poverty kids -- will continue to learn less than they do by actually going to school buildings full-time.

My big worry is employers forcing parents to return to the office, which I'm going to guess will happen before kids go back to school full-time. If DCPS goes forward with any of these plans, DC needs to pass a temporary law banning termination because of inability to physically be at an office. Otherwise a whole lot of people will be losing their jobs because there will be no one to care for their kids on days when they won't be at school.

Anonymous wrote:What 1:12 said. When figuring out a solution you have to start with the corner case, make sure it is at least plausibly workable for them. That means the kids with little to no internet, one parent or caregiver who may not speak English or be able to support otherwise.

In DC most kids are not in 2-parent homes where each has flexible jobs. Parents like you can probably make any of these scenarios work if you must even though you won’t like it.

Anonymous wrote:All options are inconvenient. 2 days a week seems most workable. Teachers need relationships with students in order to get them to learn. Seeing adults in smaller class settings consistently will facilitate relationships and teachers knowing students. I pray that discipline problems don’t interfere.

My husband and I both have some flexibility about work hours Work wise 2 days of school also seems the most workable.

2 school days as full 8 hour days at work for both parents - one partner go in early or stay late vice versa.

1 day with a sitter or another family while both parents work a full 8 hour work day.

I work 1 day for 12 hours with the kids with my partner.

My partner works a long day while I am with the kids.

We both put in a few hours over the weekend.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Proposal for elementary school: Eliminate PreK3 and PreK4 until Jan except for children who qualify for FARM or an IEP/504. Use the opened up classroom space, classrooms and teachers to reduce K class size. Give all K students the option of "redshirting". If a parent selects this option, the student will be eligible to start in the PreK4 class in January.

Grades 1 - 5. All students have the option of 100% distance learning for Aug - Dec (and possibly for the entire school year depending on how things unfold). For families that select this option, there will be a dedicated cohort of teachers who will focus on being experts on delivering distance learning to this targeted age group. There will be a "parent / school" commitment to learning which outlines expectations for online learning engagement.
[Level of home learning technology available, home learning environment and learning support]

For the remaining 1-5 students, create a programing alternating weeks of instruction. Week 1 - in school instruction. Week 2 - distance specials + using learning technology apps to reinforce learning. This is a short term design and not intended to be a "redesigned learning". It is purely a proposal to situation we are all currently facing.

This actually sounds like a plan. Nothing leaking out of this administration comes close. It really seems like they're just trying to phone it in between the committee members and hand-waving ideas that obviously won't work.

Evidence of Ward 3 bubble again. The vast majority of PK kids are FARMS. How do you suggest spacing those schools out?

Most schools are under enrolled or have capacity. In cases where you do not have enough pre-K classrooms, repurpose a specials classroom temporarily

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Proposal for elementary school: Eliminate PreK3 and PreK4 until Jan except for children who qualify for FARM or an IEP/504. Use the opened up classroom space, classrooms and teachers to reduce K class size. Give all K students the option of "redshirting". If a parent selects this option, the student will be eligible to start in the PreK4 class in January.

Grades 1 - 5. All students have the option of 100% distance learning for Aug - Dec (and possibly for the entire school year depending on how things unfold). For families that select this option, there will be a dedicated cohort of teachers who will focus on being experts on delivering distance learning to this targeted age group. There will be a "parent / school" commitment to learning which outlines expectations for online learning engagement.
[Level of home learning technology available, home learning environment and learning support]

For the remaining 1-5 students, create a programing alternating weeks of instruction. Week 1 - in school instruction. Week 2 - distance specials + using learning technology apps to reinforce learning. This is a short term design and not intended to be a "redesigned learning". It is purely a proposal to situation we are all currently facing.

This actually sounds like a plan. Nothing leaking out of this administration comes close. It really seems like they're just trying to phone it in between the committee members and hand-waving ideas that obviously won't work.

Evidence of Ward 3 bubble again. The vast majority of PK kids are FARMS. How do you suggest spacing those schools out?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get no one likes these plans, but what is your solution? They are trying to get kids back in school the best way they can. They can’t just open up schools with 500 kids and act like nothing happened. I don’t know what the right answer is but most people here won’t be happy with any solution

It's really not that hard to come up with ideas. If you're trying to minimize the number of kids present in school, we should be investing heavily in some full year virtual education options--like guided home schooling. In the other thread, I suggested reallocating principals and teachers with health concerns to a new 'virtual school'. Maybe stand up and Elementary, Middle, and High. If 10-20% of families opt into this, it opens up more possibilities for bringing kids back closer to full time at in-person schools.

Additionally, I'd like to see the city planning in lockdown periods to coincide for both school and elsewhere. We know the virus is likely to come back strong in the fall. Why not plan for a citywide cycle of something like 6 weeks on and 3 weeks off to contain the spread before it gets out of control. Right now, we're assuming there will be some unspecified trigger condition. But that's still going to come up on us more quickly than we would like. If we're proactive and go ahead and have occasional strict social distancing periods, we can keep everything from getting bad and hopefully better deal with the lockdown periods.

I like this. The problem is it can't just be the schools - everything woudl have to shut down for 3 weeks. What gets me is that it is JUST our children that are paying the price. THEY will be DL or in a school 2 days a week but the bars and coffee shops and resturants and spas and dog groomers and acupuncturists and churches will be oopen 7 days a week.