Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like how many of you are saying “they should just buy xyz stuff” to make the classrooms safe. Have you tried to go out and buy things like air filtration systems in bulk? Plexiglass? Good PPE? It’s 2020, not 2018.

Our Arlington Catholic school managed to buy all that over the summer. Each classroom has 2 air filtration systems. School did not raise tuition but just held a successful fundraiser to better equip school and build outdoor classrooms in parking lot. Oh, and no covid cases/no school transmission (yet).

Our school barely has a parking lot. It fits maybe 20 cars, not sure we could build outdoor classrooms for 800 students there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like how many of you are saying “they should just buy xyz stuff” to make the classrooms safe. Have you tried to go out and buy things like air filtration systems in bulk? Plexiglass? Good PPE? It’s 2020, not 2018.

Our Arlington Catholic school managed to buy all that over the summer. Each classroom has 2 air filtration systems. School did not raise tuition but just held a successful fundraiser to better equip school and build outdoor classrooms in parking lot. Oh, and no covid cases/no school transmission (yet).

Omfg. Of course your *one private school* could do that. Public school districts have to do this for thousands of classrooms !!

Has anyone considered that in part why private schools are doing OK it’s because not all the children are in school? And we’re not all going to our offices either....

Public schools don’t hold fundraisers.

Anonymous wrote:I like how many of you are saying “they should just buy xyz stuff” to make the classrooms safe. Have you tried to go out and buy things like air filtration systems in bulk? Plexiglass? Good PPE? It’s 2020, not 2018.

Our Arlington Catholic school managed to buy all that over the summer. Each classroom has 2 air filtration systems. School did not raise tuition but just held a successful fundraiser to better equip school and build outdoor classrooms in parking lot. Oh, and no covid cases/no school transmission (yet).

I like how many of you are saying “they should just buy xyz stuff” to make the classrooms safe. Have you tried to go out and buy things like air filtration systems in bulk? Plexiglass? Good PPE? It’s 2020, not 2018.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For 2 months, Arlington Catholic schools have been operating 5-days-per-week in-person for all students, plus extended day. At one school, only one case first week of school, attributed to family vacation week prior. Entire class quarantined for 2 weeks but no other cases/no spread.

Our APS elementary classrooms have enough space for social distancing. Arlington county should be able to cut back some of its wasteful spending to procure individual air filtration systems for each classroom.

APS deliberately set wishy-washy guidelines to return to classroom and subjective metrics. Appease the teachers, kick the can down the road, and have faith that APS' many loyal parent advocates (here's looking at you AEM) will drink the Koolaid of our "blue ribbon" school system and the "stay home forever" crowd. Pathetic!!

+1000!

+2000! We are over it. Moving back home and sending DC to Catholic school there for a pittance. APS will just keep delaying and “kicking the can” until 2022. That is 2 years that kids will go without a formal education. Totally unacceptable.

Yep. We're out of here too. When APS pulls their head out of their ass they'll realize how far behind the kids of APS really are and how well their distance "learning" was. Good luck remediating that. It will take years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Totally agree. All the Reopen Now People have been living their lives like it's 2019 and then have a tantrum because number go up and we can't reopen schools.

Self awareness is a little lacking in this group.

NP. We are careful, we distance, wear masks, don’t eat out, etc. But it’s just not true that schools “can’t” open. All over the country, schools are open. We have relatives in multiple other states where kids go to school (public school). They wear masks and take some other precautions, but they are in school. These are not states with lower/better metrics than Arlington. Yet schools are not driving big outbreaks. So yes, it could be done, no Arlington doesn’t want to do it.

+1. Relatives have had their kids back in hybrid since Sept. (upstate NY). Coworkers have had their kids back 5 days a week since Sept (PA). Bigger and smaller school systems are doing it. I’ve written off this year for my 2nd grader, at his point I’m more worried about my rising kindergartener and if I will have to move over the summer to a school district committed to educating little kids in person.

Many districts are forced to go back because they don’t have the resources we do. They will suffer serious staffing issues going back but have no alternative as they didn’t have an existing robust tech program for their students. Many had no tech programs at all for elementary to middle schoolers and have high numbers of kids not accessing online courses - think over 30% daily. This is not APS. Sure it would be great if we could be in school but there is a public health emergency and we don’t have to because of our 1:1 policy, our students grades 3-12 left school in March familiar with the platforms needed to access online learning. This is true no where else!!!! My kids have cousins that have a flip book of endless online instructions to log on to 80 programs and changes daily and few school provided devices. That district went to 2 half days a week in person and the online days are garbage because the district doesn’t have a devices for the kids. I think comparing APS to those districts is ridiculous.