Anonymous
Post 03/18/2021 15:56     Subject: Re:Predictions for full time in person in the Fall please
Check out this recent document about outdoor learning. They say that the model can be used in the coming school year 2021-2022 to complement other in person efforts. All of the city's communications are in the direction of hybrid so far. Chancellor will not even mention five days a week out loud and instead talks about "all students returning" (e.g. maybe as hybrid). Even more telling is what is not being planned. Private schools are using simulcast for DL where DL students participate by camera in the In-person class. DCPS has not mainstreamed that and instead seems to be planning for schools to dedicate entire classrooms to DL. This may create even more challenges for in person learning five days a week, since there may be crowding in the In-person classrooms.

https://dcpsreopenstrong.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Outdoor-Instructional-Programming-Guidance_public_v1.pdf
Anonymous
Post 03/18/2021 11:35     Subject: Re:Predictions for full time in person in the Fall please
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I would imagine they'll wait until early August to poll people about wanting to come back to IPL. That kind of makes sense given changes in rates and vaccines, but doesn't allow for planning. Once they hear back, DCPS will start making plans. Obviously the plans won't be finalized by the start of school (since DCPS), and then they'll need to get WTU buy-in, and so on.


Why do people think they aren't making any plans ahead of time?


Because they haven't announced them.

And because their MO seems to be punting to individual schools, which are left to scramble to implement things.

Maybe individual schools are planning. Certainly that doesn't seem to be universal.


That they haven't announced plans is a sign that the plans aren't FINISHED. It's not a sign that the plans aren't being worked on.


That would be great. I have only seen vague suggestions that planning is happening at all (e.g., things like "we are looking into all possibilities"). I don't expect it, but it would helpful to have DCPS announce, "we will release our plans for Fall 2021 on XXXX".
Anonymous
Post 03/18/2021 11:32     Subject: Re:Predictions for full time in person in the Fall please
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I would imagine they'll wait until early August to poll people about wanting to come back to IPL. That kind of makes sense given changes in rates and vaccines, but doesn't allow for planning. Once they hear back, DCPS will start making plans. Obviously the plans won't be finalized by the start of school (since DCPS), and then they'll need to get WTU buy-in, and so on.


Why do people think they aren't making any plans ahead of time?


Because they haven't announced them.

And because their MO seems to be punting to individual schools, which are left to scramble to implement things.

Maybe individual schools are planning. Certainly that doesn't seem to be universal.


That they haven't announced plans is a sign that the plans aren't FINISHED. It's not a sign that the plans aren't being worked on.
Anonymous
Post 03/18/2021 10:54     Subject: Predictions for full time in person in the Fall please
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Pfizer and Moderna (and AstraZeneca though that’s not here anyway) are already believed not to be particularly effective against the South African strain. Something like over ten times less of an immune response than for the main strains it was created for.


What you are trying to imply here with your vague allusion to facts you are not sure of - that the vaccines will not offer protection against the variants - is simply not true. The practical implications of the findings you are pointing to (without providing a source) are not nearly as alarming as you would like to pretend:

https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6534/1116.1

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2777785



Seriously, ::checks calendar::, did we time travel back to late January?
Anonymous
Post 03/18/2021 10:43     Subject: Re:Predictions for full time in person in the Fall please
Anonymous wrote:Because Ward 7 and 8 parents won't want to go back to full time.



Ugh. EOTR parents are not the reason school is not opening. But is it a useful "equity" bargaining chip for WTU/DCPS. It's infuriating that after neglecting EOTR schools' issues forever (and this side of the city, in general) they would try to act like they all of a sudden care about children/parents' welfare. What a joke.
Anonymous
Post 03/18/2021 10:25     Subject: Re:Predictions for full time in person in the Fall please
In the past year, nothing related to DC schools has gone in a way that one could easily predict or has followed a rational course of action. Pretty sure this is common for DC even prior to the pandemic. Why would we believe they would start now?
Anonymous
Post 03/18/2021 10:19     Subject: Re:Predictions for full time in person in the Fall please
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I would imagine they'll wait until early August to poll people about wanting to come back to IPL. That kind of makes sense given changes in rates and vaccines, but doesn't allow for planning. Once they hear back, DCPS will start making plans. Obviously the plans won't be finalized by the start of school (since DCPS), and then they'll need to get WTU buy-in, and so on.


Why do people think they aren't making any plans ahead of time?


Because they haven't announced them.

And because their MO seems to be punting to individual schools, which are left to scramble to implement things.

Maybe individual schools are planning. Certainly that doesn't seem to be universal.


Well, in there defense, it's only friggin March.


*THEIR, sorry
Anonymous
Post 03/18/2021 10:18     Subject: Re:Predictions for full time in person in the Fall please
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I would imagine they'll wait until early August to poll people about wanting to come back to IPL. That kind of makes sense given changes in rates and vaccines, but doesn't allow for planning. Once they hear back, DCPS will start making plans. Obviously the plans won't be finalized by the start of school (since DCPS), and then they'll need to get WTU buy-in, and so on.


Why do people think they aren't making any plans ahead of time?


Because they haven't announced them.

And because their MO seems to be punting to individual schools, which are left to scramble to implement things.

Maybe individual schools are planning. Certainly that doesn't seem to be universal.


Well, in there defense, it's only friggin March.
Anonymous
Post 03/18/2021 10:18     Subject: Re:Predictions for full time in person in the Fall please
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I would imagine they'll wait until early August to poll people about wanting to come back to IPL. That kind of makes sense given changes in rates and vaccines, but doesn't allow for planning. Once they hear back, DCPS will start making plans. Obviously the plans won't be finalized by the start of school (since DCPS), and then they'll need to get WTU buy-in, and so on.


Why do people think they aren't making any plans ahead of time?


They certainly didn’t last year.


Well DCPS did. They had that whole hybrid schedule, and that got the kibosh from WTU.

So I'd imagine that even IF DCPS had a plan for Fall, they are going to need to negotiate it with WTU. That takes a while. Are they presently negotiating? It seems like we would hear about it, as usually we hear about the problems that WTU has with the DCPS plan.

(Sidenote: I'm not shitting on DCPS or WTU here, I'm just saying that that was the process last year. We have no indication it is different this year.)
Anonymous
Post 03/18/2021 10:13     Subject: Re:Predictions for full time in person in the Fall please
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I would imagine they'll wait until early August to poll people about wanting to come back to IPL. That kind of makes sense given changes in rates and vaccines, but doesn't allow for planning. Once they hear back, DCPS will start making plans. Obviously the plans won't be finalized by the start of school (since DCPS), and then they'll need to get WTU buy-in, and so on.


Why do people think they aren't making any plans ahead of time?


They certainly didn’t last year.
Anonymous
Post 03/18/2021 10:12     Subject: Re:Predictions for full time in person in the Fall please
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I would imagine they'll wait until early August to poll people about wanting to come back to IPL. That kind of makes sense given changes in rates and vaccines, but doesn't allow for planning. Once they hear back, DCPS will start making plans. Obviously the plans won't be finalized by the start of school (since DCPS), and then they'll need to get WTU buy-in, and so on.


Why do people think they aren't making any plans ahead of time?


Because they haven't announced them.

And because their MO seems to be punting to individual schools, which are left to scramble to implement things.

Maybe individual schools are planning. Certainly that doesn't seem to be universal.
Anonymous
Post 03/18/2021 10:09     Subject: Re:Predictions for full time in person in the Fall please
Anonymous wrote:I would imagine they'll wait until early August to poll people about wanting to come back to IPL. That kind of makes sense given changes in rates and vaccines, but doesn't allow for planning. Once they hear back, DCPS will start making plans. Obviously the plans won't be finalized by the start of school (since DCPS), and then they'll need to get WTU buy-in, and so on.


Why do people think they aren't making any plans ahead of time?
Anonymous
Post 03/18/2021 09:59     Subject: Re:Predictions for full time in person in the Fall please
And all of that is why you should write to the following people and just ASK what the PLANS are for Fall. You don't even need to make demands.

lewis.ferebee@dc.gov,
laquandra.nesbitt@dc.gov,
ankoor.shah@dc.gov,
pmendelson@dccouncil.us,
kmcduffie@dccouncil.us,
abonds@dccouncil.us,
esilverman@dccouncil.us,
rwhite@dccouncil.us,
chenderson@dccouncil.us,
bnadeau@dccouncil.us,
bpinto@dccouncil.us,
dgrosso@dccouncil.us,
mcheh@dccouncil.us,
jlewisgeorge@dccouncil.us,
vgray@dccouncil.us,
twhite@dccouncil.us,
callen@dccouncil.us,
eom@dc.gov,
dme@dc.gov,
doh@dc.gov,
sboe@dc.gov,
Shana.Young@dc.gov
Anonymous
Post 03/18/2021 09:57     Subject: Re:Predictions for full time in person in the Fall please
I would imagine they'll wait until early August to poll people about wanting to come back to IPL. That kind of makes sense given changes in rates and vaccines, but doesn't allow for planning. Once they hear back, DCPS will start making plans. Obviously the plans won't be finalized by the start of school (since DCPS), and then they'll need to get WTU buy-in, and so on.
Anonymous
Post 03/18/2021 09:53     Subject: Re:Predictions for full time in person in the Fall please
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I’m interested in understanding the thought process behind those that think that DC will fully open in the fall. I would love to be on that train.


I don't understand why people are so concerned that it WON'T open.

Here are a few of the reasons I'm pretty sanguine about this.
1) The default position for school is in-person; this year and last year were exceptional circumstances. That is still the case, so there's no reason to just assume that they'll be closed unless we hear otherwise.
2) The chancellor specifically issued a correction to that tweet that said they were planning for hybrid learning, even though the tweet was pretty obviously being misread as if he meant they were ONLY planning for hybrid learning; if they weren't planning to be open in person, why would they have bothered cleaning that up?
3) They're already bringing some kids in person now, and many schools seem to have more spots for Q4 this year than they did for Q3. Case counts will be lower in August than they are now, so if you can bring in more kids today, you can certainly bring them in then.
4) It sure seems likely that the CDC will change its guidance on how much distance schools should try to maintain between students, which, in turn, makes it seem likely that D.C.'s health department will change its guidance for OSSE.
5) All the teachers and most parents/grandparents/caregivers will at least have the opportunity to be vaccinated by fall, which should significantly ease some of the concerns parents might have about sending their kids in person.
6) D.C. has already loosened some of the restrictions on mixing cohorts, etc., now, which seems likely to continue.
7) Despite all the fury a lot of my neighbors seem to have about DCPS, it did still start doing in-person school earlier than most suburban jurisdictions -- friends in MCPS just sent their kids back this week, friends in Arlington just earlier this month. So the fact that DCPS has been slower to announce its fall plans doesn't make me panic, especially given that every other school district in the area is aiming for five days a week in person.

Could all that be wrong? Sure. Could the whole situation change completely by August? Of course, that's five months from now. Has the city's communication about a lot of this been lousy? Yes, duh. But I don't see any real reason to look at things today and be angry already that DCPS isn't going to have in-person options for everyone who wants it by the fall, unless you just like wallowing in outrage.


Because even with 3 feet distance we can't fit all kids into classrooms in many places. So they need to remove it entirely, and they have been SO slow on this.

Even now, DC DOH removed cohort limits, but OSSE hasn't issued new guidance on that so schools cannot actually remove cohort limits.

Essentially, stupid bureaucracy can foil anything.


Also, remember that teachers don't work in the summer (that's not a judgment, that's just a fact). So you think we are 5 months away, but in fact we are 2 months away from having a plan for Fall. That is, if teacher input is expected. If teacher input is not sought, I'm sure that any plan that DCPS will come up with and be contested by the WTU, right at the start of the 2021/22 school year.