Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are so happy to see this update! Upgrade your masks everyone and go to school!

Only complete idiots think this is good news. Enjoy your kid’s subpar education for the remainder of the year, stuffed into auditoriums with no teachers. But they are socializing! (If you actually talked to your kid, you’d know the kids are absolutely miserable in the buildings right now)

They're not going to be stuffed in auditoriums without teachers for the remainder of the year. But if they pivoted to virtual, we know they would be stuck in that special slice of hell for the remainder of (or near to) the year. At least as of today, this is a big victory for many across teachers, students, and parents.

Lol.

"We got caught in one of our lies, trying to pass the buck and responsibility onto the State. But the State called out our BS and now we have to do revert back to no plan in order to try to save face."

Honestly, they screw up everything.

And what cracks me up the most, is that they are equal opportunity offenders.

All last year, the re-openers would complain that they kept moving the goalposts and dragging their feet on re-opening. And they were right.

Now, all over twitter, the parents that want virtual are complaining of MCPS 'moving the goalposts' on a switch to virtual. Which to be fair, is also correct.

It's honestly laughable.

Anonymous wrote:So what are the considerations exactly for a school to go virtual? If 5% is no longer important... how are parents supposed to stay informed? Is the dashboard going to have updated info? How often?

They will go virtual if they don't have the staff to be able to operate a particular school. Effectively, it sounds like that's it.

It's insane that once half of county schools went in the red zone MCPS stopped using that metric. Talk about rigging things to get the result you want! Now what am I supposed to do? By their own admission 60+ schools are unsafe. But I can't keep my kid out forever and can't afford private school (and don't want my kid to go to one even if I could). Why can't they go virtual TEMPORARILY, just until the Omicron wave passes. What are other concerned parents doing?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are so happy to see this update! Upgrade your masks everyone and go to school!

Only complete idiots think this is good news. Enjoy your kid’s subpar education for the remainder of the year, stuffed into auditoriums with no teachers. But they are socializing! (If you actually talked to your kid, you’d know the kids are absolutely miserable in the buildings right now)

Actually, no. My HS student was thrilled to be in school this week and is ecstatic about the change. All of his teachers were there. Ans almost everyone was wearing kn95 masks in addition to being vaccinated and boosted, so don’t start in with it’s not safe

I have to say I'm glad I don't have their job right now. They proposed what I'm sure they thought was a reasonable metric of 5%...just in time for cases to EXPLODE. They know they can't take everyone virtual because the state won't allow it, and they can't close 90% of schools and still claim it's not a district wide closure. Mostly it was bad luck combined with a failure to think through this very scenario (I guess they thought it was too unlikely), but they can't admit to any mistake without being torn apart, so they have to resort to this mealy mouthed stuff. They must be thanking their lucky stars for all this snow.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are so happy to see this update! Upgrade your masks everyone and go to school!

Only complete idiots think this is good news. Enjoy your kid’s subpar education for the remainder of the year, stuffed into auditoriums with no teachers. But they are socializing! (If you actually talked to your kid, you’d know the kids are absolutely miserable in the buildings right now)

Everyone learned in 2020 that once you send the teachers home, it is nearly impossible to get them back.

This is a good move. MCPS will have to fight through the next few weeks, but then the Omicron surge will pass and the rest of the year should be fairly smooth.

So what are the considerations exactly for a school to go virtual? If 5% is no longer important... how are parents supposed to stay informed? Is the dashboard going to have updated info? How often?

Anonymous wrote:I hope teachers and staff know that kids will report to school with COVID. They may have minor symptoms but teachers/staff may not.

We've masked for all this time, gotten vaxxed. I will not keep my kid home when schools are open. Especially given that no real plan is in place to educate kids who have minor/asymptomatic cases. Are they to stay home for days on end to protect a school that MCPS won't protect?!?

We know that. It’s been one of our biggest worries since the pandemic started. Parents have always sent kids to school sick-no teacher thought it would stop now. But thanks for announcing how much you don’t care about the health and mental health of teachers, who did not create this mess but somehow have become the target of everyone’s frustration and anger.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like the update! I prefer case-by-case basis. I applaud how MCPS is handling this, although I think this announcement should have gone out Wednesday night with the updated covid count.

+1. Keep schools open.

+2

+the majority of sensible people who opposed closing schools while everything else remains open

And so glad they're bringing back the 11 schools. My kids used to be at NCC and it was crazy to close the entire school for 15 cases. There are probably more kids out for non-Covid reasons on any given day.

Yayyyy!!! School closures should be a last resort. Thank you MCPS for finally coming to your senses.

Agree! Kids need to be in school. Many of these cases are likely from winter break vacations and family gatherings. Those kids/staff should stay home but the rest should be allowed to continue in person.

+ a million

YES

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Imagine this corporate communications disaster coming out of your workplace and the people responsible still having jobs

Happens everyday is corporations large and small. Communications come out and folks get on IM or go to the office one over asking if anyone heard about this or really know what it means.

Lol no. Heads would roll.

😂 They absolutely would not. Maybe if they screwed up a national launch event or created an unmitigated PR disaster. But something like this, in an environment where its known that every decision is going to anger one side or another, and data is constantly changing, the strategy would be to clarify as they go and correct as needed. SOME organizations have communications folks skilled enough at language and ambiguity to provide enough info without saying too much that could be misconstrued, others not so much. And don’t even get me started on internal org communications.

Like I said, happens everyday. The marketing group faces more pressure related to communications.

Anonymous wrote:We are so happy to see this update! Upgrade your masks everyone and go to school!

Only complete idiots think this is good news. Enjoy your kid’s subpar education for the remainder of the year, stuffed into auditoriums with no teachers. But they are socializing! (If you actually talked to your kid, you’d know the kids are absolutely miserable in the buildings right now)

Wankers

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like the update! I prefer case-by-case basis. I applaud how MCPS is handling this, although I think this announcement should have gone out Wednesday night with the updated covid count.

+1. Keep schools open.

+2

+the majority of sensible people who opposed closing schools while everything else remains open

And so glad they're bringing back the 11 schools. My kids used to be at NCC and it was crazy to close the entire school for 15 cases. There are probably more kids out for non-Covid reasons on any given day.

Yayyyy!!! School closures should be a last resort. Thank you MCPS for finally coming to your senses.

Agree! Kids need to be in school. Many of these cases are likely from winter break vacations and family gatherings. Those kids/staff should stay home but the rest should be allowed to continue in person.

So they totally botched this rollout. Par for the course. But kudos for MCPS actually working to keep kids in school. Distance learning is not the answer.