Anonymous wrote:Today’s Post story about schools that have opened in the south is not promising. There are already outbreaks and temporary return to virtual instruction.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/schools-start-in-person-pandemic-masks/2021/08/09/29e7fb6c-f8b4-11eb-9c0e-97e29906a970_story.html

I don’t have a paid subscription, but let me guess. Florida? LA? Texas? Oooh, oooh, Arkansas?

School is starting in a week and a half. I for one am thankful there isnt more time for people to mess that up.

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Anonymous wrote:What is the point of masks for most of the day when all the kids are in one big lunchroom with their masks off eating for 20 minutes? Everyone eating in one room makes the school a single cohort, not a classroom.

+100

In the spring, the kids ate in their classrooms. Why can't they do that again?

+1. I grew up in elementary schools with no cafeteria. We always ate in the classroom.
If teachers want to avoid virtual or concurrent learning, they may have to compromise and have lunch in the classroom.

This is something the schools can definitely arrange, they just need to hire monitors for the classroom. Teachers are contractually allowed a lunch and it is federal law, so don't expect the teachers to eat with the kids. I'm not trying to be a pain, but the county can't use teachers as lunch monitors as a solution.

I’m a teacher. There is no federal law that says your lunch has to be duty free. Now, by FCPS policy we are supposed to have a duty free lunch, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be in the classroom while the students have lunch. The school might be able to arrange a different time for you to eat. I don’t know if that helps with coverages. Last spring half our team stayed in the room during the students’ lunch while the other half of the teachers ate.

Monitoring the children is a duty. Just because it's not bus duty or recess duty does not mean it is not a duty.

Yes, but didn’t understand what I wrote. YOUR lunch is supposed to be duty free. It doesn’t mean you can’t monitor the students during their lunch. They just need to provide a different duty free time for you to eat.

Well yeah except when we aren’t eating lunch we’re teaching. I’m never just chillin in the building with nothing going on lol

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Anonymous wrote:What is the point of masks for most of the day when all the kids are in one big lunchroom with their masks off eating for 20 minutes? Everyone eating in one room makes the school a single cohort, not a classroom.

+100

In the spring, the kids ate in their classrooms. Why can't they do that again?

+1. I grew up in elementary schools with no cafeteria. We always ate in the classroom.
If teachers want to avoid virtual or concurrent learning, they may have to compromise and have lunch in the classroom.

This is something the schools can definitely arrange, they just need to hire monitors for the classroom. Teachers are contractually allowed a lunch and it is federal law, so don't expect the teachers to eat with the kids. I'm not trying to be a pain, but the county can't use teachers as lunch monitors as a solution.

I’m a teacher. There is no federal law that says your lunch has to be duty free. Now, by FCPS policy we are supposed to have a duty free lunch, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be in the classroom while the students have lunch. The school might be able to arrange a different time for you to eat. I don’t know if that helps with coverages. Last spring half our team stayed in the room during the students’ lunch while the other half of the teachers ate.

Monitoring the children is a duty. Just because it's not bus duty or recess duty does not mean it is not a duty.

Yes, but didn’t understand what I wrote. YOUR lunch is supposed to be duty free. It doesn’t mean you can’t monitor the students during their lunch. They just need to provide a different duty free time for you to eat.

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Anonymous wrote:We can’t loose another year. My kids didn’t learn anything last year as shown in their Iready scores.

Did you not bother to teach them anything yourself? It's not just the school's responsibility.

Then why do we even have school?

So you can go out to work and pay the government their taxes and so your children can be conditioned to get up mon-fri 9-5 and therefore go out to work as adults and pay the government their taxes.

100% LOL

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We can’t loose another year. My kids didn’t learn anything last year as shown in their Iready scores.

Did you not bother to teach them anything yourself? It's not just the school's responsibility.

Then why do we even have school?

So you can go out to work and pay the government their taxes and so your children can be conditioned to get up mon-fri 9-5 and therefore go out to work as adults and pay the government their taxes.

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Anonymous wrote:I was looking forward to sending my kid in -person. Now, I am hoping they will delay or give virtual option for ES unvaccinated kids.

Agree. Lunch in the cafeteria with 200+ unvaccinated little kids is NOT safe, and it's unbelievable that schools haven't come up with alternative plans: lunch outside? lunch in the classroom with a volunteer monitor? I didn't trust the school to keep the kids safe before (700 kids + a highly contagious virus), and now I *really* don't.

I would LOVE it if they would delay opening (August 23 is absurdly early anyway) until delta has subsided ("two more weeks"? ) or offer virtual temporarily.

+1

+2 for ES delay.
MS and HS with vaccinated kids should open on time.

Are you kidding? If the pattern looks like last year, now is the time that this area has relatively lower cases and we need to take advantage of it. What if we delay now only to find much higher case numbers in late fall and winter?

There is not going to be a delay. There is literally a state mandate to open 5 days a week.

-teacher

It doesn’t say when those 5 days a week have to occur, but I agree. There won’t be a delay, nor should there be.

Another Teacher

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Anonymous wrote:I hope VA makes a decision soon about how they plan to mitigate risks for unvaccinated kids since all the major school districts are unusually silent about the panic rising among parents with unvaccinated kids. Not every family can homeschool.

The decisions at the state level have been made. Nothing else is going to change within the next two weeks.

Correct. There is a state bill mandating we open 5 days a week. Masks and air filters are about all we can do. There’s no other mitigation that works with 5 day a week everyone in. They definitely have to have plans regarding who has to quarantine, whether instruction is provided if so, and how lunch happens but otherwise, it’s just school. That is the plan.

-teacher

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Anonymous wrote:What is the point of masks for most of the day when all the kids are in one big lunchroom with their masks off eating for 20 minutes? Everyone eating in one room makes the school a single cohort, not a classroom.

+100

In the spring, the kids ate in their classrooms. Why can't they do that again?

+1. I grew up in elementary schools with no cafeteria. We always ate in the classroom.
If teachers want to avoid virtual or concurrent learning, they may have to compromise and have lunch in the classroom.

This is something the schools can definitely arrange, they just need to hire monitors for the classroom. Teachers are contractually allowed a lunch and it is federal law, so don't expect the teachers to eat with the kids. I'm not trying to be a pain, but the county can't use teachers as lunch monitors as a solution.

I’m a teacher. There is no federal law that says your lunch has to be duty free. Now, by FCPS policy we are supposed to have a duty free lunch, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be in the classroom while the students have lunch. The school might be able to arrange a different time for you to eat. I don’t know if that helps with coverages. Last spring half our team stayed in the room during the students’ lunch while the other half of the teachers ate.

Monitoring the children is a duty. Just because it's not bus duty or recess duty does not mean it is not a duty.

Anonymous wrote:I hope VA makes a decision soon about how they plan to mitigate risks for unvaccinated kids since all the major school districts are unusually silent about the panic rising among parents with unvaccinated kids. Not every family can homeschool.

What is it you think they can or will do? They're silent because all the decisions have been made. School is starting.

Anonymous wrote:I hope VA makes a decision soon about how they plan to mitigate risks for unvaccinated kids since all the major school districts are unusually silent about the panic rising among parents with unvaccinated kids. Not every family can homeschool.

You need to cool your anxiety. This area's vaccination rates are healthy, kids will be masked indoors. Yes, kids will get covid, but nearly all will be fine.

Anonymous wrote:I hope VA makes a decision soon about how they plan to mitigate risks for unvaccinated kids since all the major school districts are unusually silent about the panic rising among parents with unvaccinated kids. Not every family can homeschool.

The decisions at the state level have been made. Nothing else is going to change within the next two weeks.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the point of masks for most of the day when all the kids are in one big lunchroom with their masks off eating for 20 minutes? Everyone eating in one room makes the school a single cohort, not a classroom.

+100

In the spring, the kids ate in their classrooms. Why can't they do that again?

+1. I grew up in elementary schools with no cafeteria. We always ate in the classroom.
If teachers want to avoid virtual or concurrent learning, they may have to compromise and have lunch in the classroom.

This is something the schools can definitely arrange, they just need to hire monitors for the classroom. Teachers are contractually allowed a lunch and it is federal law, so don't expect the teachers to eat with the kids. I'm not trying to be a pain, but the county can't use teachers as lunch monitors as a solution.

I’m a teacher. There is no federal law that says your lunch has to be duty free. Now, by FCPS policy we are supposed to have a duty free lunch, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be in the classroom while the students have lunch. The school might be able to arrange a different time for you to eat. I don’t know if that helps with coverages. Last spring half our team stayed in the room during the students’ lunch while the other half of the teachers ate.

I hope VA makes a decision soon about how they plan to mitigate risks for unvaccinated kids since all the major school districts are unusually silent about the panic rising among parents with unvaccinated kids. Not every family can homeschool.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Last year, the hybrid reopening families were to to suck it up. This year, they are catering to open. So seriously— suck it up, don’t send your kid, homeschool. State law says we opening. We’re opening.

There's no way to do full mitigation strategies (especially distancing in the cafeteria) and 5 days a week. It is literally one or the other.

Yes this is true. The plan is mask the kids and hope for the best. Run the portable air filter. There’s not much else to do. They cannot distance and open 5 days a week and the state bill says it’s 5 days a week.