I've seen the statement 'APS can't open b/c our schools are overcrowded' repeated numerous times on this thread.
I was trying to square this with the drop in enrollment of over 2000 students at the elementary level.
Using April enrollment figure and the Facilities accommodation plan- the following schools currently exceed their capacity;

ASFS by 76
ATS by 108
Claremont by 80

several schools are under capacity by more than 100 students. APS is simply lying about not being able to accommodate all students 5 days a week- they just didn't want to bother.
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/U-MEM_281-Membership_Summary_All.pdf[i]
https://www.apsva.us/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Update-to-Fall-2019-Capacity-Utilization-Tables-v2.pdf

Anonymous wrote:
No - I'm not aware because that isn't accurate.

Just last week a long range study of the impact of full reopening of in person instruction in Texas found that the reopening “gradually but substantially accelerated” the spread of coronavirus leading to at least 43,000 additional cases and 800 additional deaths statewide. The study was done by University of Kentucky researchers for the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and tracked weekly average COVID-19 cases in the eight weeks before and eight weeks after the state’s school districts sent students back to school in the fall.

Thankful that APS and Duran kept our community safe.

Huh, interesting. Here is a Texas newspaper article summarizing this study: https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/10/texas-schools-coronavirus-increase-study/ The study says opening schools early in Texas led to 40,000 more cases that the state otherwise wouldn't have had and about 800 deaths.

That ain't nothin, guys. The article notes the competing values in play here: surely some of the students who returned experienced positive mental health and academic benefits. On the other hand, of course, people died. And when some of the people who die are teachers that students have relationships with, that can cause additional trauma for students as well. (Not to mention for the teacher's families, etc., of course.)

This study was conducted by a non-partisan group so it's not like they were looking for a specific outcome (and the University of Kentucky isn't exactly a hotbed of liberalism so ...).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unbelievable. But honestly OP where is the outrage? Why are people just accepting this, with an occasional “can you believe it” and shake of the head?

Where is the national media? Where are the parents rallying and make the lives of school board members hell? Where are the pro-kid candidates stepping up to replace them?

Answer to your question: the Democratic school board caucus starts today and this is exactly why I'm voting for Miranda Turner, who is the person you are seeking above.

In effect, the Democrats' caucus is the election. Anyone who isn't a Democrat is disenfranchised here.

I consider myself an independent but I vote D in almost every primary or caucus. It's the only way to have a voice in local politics.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is doing a reasonable job trying to protect students in the way the CDC recommends given that almost all students are not fully vaccinated and both masks and distancing are still needed. I don't think they could move to 4 days a week without dumping some of the mitigation measures that the CDC still recommends in schools.

I don't agree with the crowd that has been on the open schools now bandwagon for months even before staff were vaccinated, cases were down, and kids started getting vaccinated. If Miranda Turner is on that bandwagon than I am definitely not for her.

+1000

+1

+2 Miranda is not only on that bandwagon, she has been driving it as a member of APE's steering committee. Miranda = the Open Schools Now! crowd.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is doing a reasonable job trying to protect students in the way the CDC recommends given that almost all students are not fully vaccinated and both masks and distancing are still needed. I don't think they could move to 4 days a week without dumping some of the mitigation measures that the CDC still recommends in schools.

I don't agree with the crowd that has been on the open schools now bandwagon for months even before staff were vaccinated, cases were down, and kids started getting vaccinated. If Miranda Turner is on that bandwagon than I am definitely not for her.

+1000

+1

No - I'm not aware because that isn't accurate.

Just last week a long range study of the impact of full reopening of in person instruction in Texas found that the reopening “gradually but substantially accelerated” the spread of coronavirus leading to at least 43,000 additional cases and 800 additional deaths statewide. The study was done by University of Kentucky researchers for the nonpartisan National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and tracked weekly average COVID-19 cases in the eight weeks before and eight weeks after the state’s school districts sent students back to school in the fall.

Thankful that APS and Duran kept our community safe.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APS is doing a reasonable job trying to protect students in the way the CDC recommends given that almost all students are not fully vaccinated and both masks and distancing are still needed. I don't think they could move to 4 days a week without dumping some of the mitigation measures that the CDC still recommends in schools.

I don't agree with the crowd that has been on the open schools now bandwagon for months even before staff were vaccinated, cases were down, and kids started getting vaccinated. If Miranda Turner is on that bandwagon than I am definitely not for her.

+1000

-1000

Are you aware that schools around the country that have been open have not seen an explosion of cases? Opening schools WAS the right call. APS has really missed the boat here.

Anonymous wrote:APS is doing a reasonable job trying to protect students in the way the CDC recommends given that almost all students are not fully vaccinated and both masks and distancing are still needed. I don't think they could move to 4 days a week without dumping some of the mitigation measures that the CDC still recommends in schools.

I don't agree with the crowd that has been on the open schools now bandwagon for months even before staff were vaccinated, cases were down, and kids started getting vaccinated. If Miranda Turner is on that bandwagon than I am definitely not for her.

+1000

APS is doing a reasonable job trying to protect students in the way the CDC recommends given that almost all students are not fully vaccinated and both masks and distancing are still needed. I don't think they could move to 4 days a week without dumping some of the mitigation measures that the CDC still recommends in schools.

I don't agree with the crowd that has been on the open schools now bandwagon for months even before staff were vaccinated, cases were down, and kids started getting vaccinated. If Miranda Turner is on that bandwagon than I am definitely not for her.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unbelievable. But honestly OP where is the outrage? Why are people just accepting this, with an occasional “can you believe it” and shake of the head?

Where is the national media? Where are the parents rallying and make the lives of school board members hell? Where are the pro-kid candidates stepping up to replace them?

Answer to your question: the Democratic school board caucus starts today and this is exactly why I'm voting for Miranda Turner, who is the person you are seeking above.

In effect, the Democrats' caucus is the election. Anyone who isn't a Democrat is disenfranchised here.

There's no meaningful policy competition in Arlington and we're living with the results of one party rule.

Anonymous wrote:Unbelievable. But honestly OP where is the outrage? Why are people just accepting this, with an occasional “can you believe it” and shake of the head?

Where is the national media? Where are the parents rallying and make the lives of school board members hell? Where are the pro-kid candidates stepping up to replace them?

Answer to your question: the Democratic school board caucus starts today and this is exactly why I'm voting for Miranda Turner, who is the person you are seeking above.

My impression was that Duran polled the elementary school principals about returning to a 4 day school week for the youngest kids and got a sort of "aw hell no" response based on lunch and other spacing issues. I think it's possible that Arlington elementaries are pretty overcrowded at this point that trying to fit 25 kids in these rooms with the spacings wasn't going to work -- like, if you could only fit 18 with the required spacing, then you would need to have some kids in one room and another half in another room, and then don't you need another teacher or aide to cover both rooms? Whereas if you continue with hybrid you keep one teacher for both sets of kids?

I understand that some parents, especially parents of young elementary school kids who truly struggle with ipad learning as well as Glebe parents generally, were really unhappy with the way things turned out, but I hope they can get beyond this (or not and go private if they can and feel they need to) and get back into things next year. APS is not your enemy. Dr. Duran is not a bad person, he is not lazy, he is a man in a trying situation who is doing his best.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly this is what happens. They beat you down for so long and so hard that you just say forget it, what's even the point. And everyone submits to a new normal. Unless there's a loud and opposing group voicing concerns months ago, this was not going to change. Remember this and remember to vote for school choice so you are not stuck with bare minimum options in the future.

GMAFB. APS handled the pandemic in a reasonable manner. Get over it.

You GMAFB, how is every other school system back 4/5 days a week? APS is not reasonable, not even close. And don't get me started about this summer school fiasco

Not true. MANY other school systems are still hybrid or only have a fraction of kids in school 4 days.

More than 29% are hybrid (doesn't include kids who select virtual hybrid over fulltime)
https://info.burbio.com/school-tracker-update-may-10/

FCPS only offered 4 days to some kids who were already hybrid. Not systemwide.

FCPS, like many schools districts, gave parents several attempts to choose hybrid or virtual. They were clear you couldn’t move between the two after you made your most recent choice. The point is that FCPS saw that there were changes coming and planned for that possibility.They could not implement a plan immediately, because they didn’t know what the change might be but they communicated right after the 6 to 3 feet announcement that FCPS was looking at how to implement that change.

It wasn’t smooth but the vast majority of the kids who were attending 2 days had the option of attending 4 days. And while no one is thrilled with concurrent, there is far less whining and complaining, at least among the ES crowd, now that the kids are back 4 days a week. I am surprised that the parents of kids in virtual are not revolting because concurrent seems to have meant far less virtual instruction.

All of the recent CDC changes were projected weeks in advance, there was no good reason for schools to prepare for what was being discussed ahead of the announcements. You didn’t need a crystal ball to see these things coming.

FCPS isn’t back 4 days. Some kids at some schools in FCPS but not FCPS.

Again, it was a reasonable response - similar to many other school systems.

And APS will be back 5 days in the fall. Get over it.

A lot of kids at a lot of schools. The ES kids that returned have had a normal quarter+.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sadly this is what happens. They beat you down for so long and so hard that you just say forget it, what's even the point. And everyone submits to a new normal. Unless there's a loud and opposing group voicing concerns months ago, this was not going to change. Remember this and remember to vote for school choice so you are not stuck with bare minimum options in the future.

GMAFB. APS handled the pandemic in a reasonable manner. Get over it.

You GMAFB, how is every other school system back 4/5 days a week? APS is not reasonable, not even close. And don't get me started about this summer school fiasco

Not true. MANY other school systems are still hybrid or only have a fraction of kids in school 4 days.

More than 29% are hybrid (doesn't include kids who select virtual hybrid over fulltime)
https://info.burbio.com/school-tracker-update-may-10/

FCPS only offered 4 days to some kids who were already hybrid. Not systemwide.

FCPS, like many schools districts, gave parents several attempts to choose hybrid or virtual. They were clear you couldn’t move between the two after you made your most recent choice. The point is that FCPS saw that there were changes coming and planned for that possibility.They could not implement a plan immediately, because they didn’t know what the change might be but they communicated right after the 6 to 3 feet announcement that FCPS was looking at how to implement that change.

It wasn’t smooth but the vast majority of the kids who were attending 2 days had the option of attending 4 days. And while no one is thrilled with concurrent, there is far less whining and complaining, at least among the ES crowd, now that the kids are back 4 days a week. I am surprised that the parents of kids in virtual are not revolting because concurrent seems to have meant far less virtual instruction.

All of the recent CDC changes were projected weeks in advance, there was no good reason for schools to prepare for what was being discussed ahead of the announcements. You didn’t need a crystal ball to see these things coming.

FCPS isn’t back 4 days. Some kids at some schools in FCPS but not FCPS.

Again, it was a reasonable response - similar to many other school systems.

And APS will be back 5 days in the fall. Get over it.