Update In Person School

[Tacoma]

A website keeps track of all of the covid cases in schools in Alberta. We have a population of around 4.5 million with 2 large urban centers. Here are the highlights of covid in schools in Alberta. To be honest most teachers thought it was going to be worse. My main school district in Calgary offered either online or in person. Most went in person and other than wearing masks and sanitizing more there is no way social distancing works with the large classes at high school. There are still 4 classes a day where every group is totally different so students can take what they need to get into their program of choice. Numbers have really been spiking recently so many of us are expecting a shutdown of some sort. I believe they are really trying to keep schools open but we will see.

820 Total* # SCHOOLS reported cases since Aug 30 532 # SCHOOLS reported cases in past 2 weeks

SOS School Stats 122 outbreak status (2-4 cases) 68 on watch (5+ cases) 126 outbreaks ended 316 outbreaks since Aug 30 46 closures to date

AHS Stats Released AB Govt School Status List 96 outbreak status 67 on watch 1073 Total active CASES in schools 166 Reports of in-school transmission

 

[mentalbreak]

Our 9-12 private school has been flexing between 100% in person, hybrid (each day half the alphabet at home, half in school, with days alternating by alphabet), and 100% virtual.

Thankfully, the “virtual” model since this fall has involved attendance required at regular class time, with the instructor teaching live on camera (in the classroom or for some high risk teachers, they are teaching on camera from home with a substitute helping in the classroom).

Masks are required, and lunch was expanded from 3 sections to 5 (in combination with fewer kids in the building).

They just shifted to 100% virtual today for at least the next 2 weeks. I expect it to last through the end of the semester.

After very few cases initially, case counts took off at the end of October, and one teacher died from COVID-19 this month. It’s heartbreaking.

 

[jabberwocky]

A website keeps track of all of the covid cases in schools in Alberta. We have a population of around 4.5 million with 2 large urban centers. Here are the highlights of covid in schools in Alberta. To be honest most teachers thought it was going to be worse. My main school district in Calgary offered either online or in person. Most went in person and other than wearing masks and sanitizing more there is no way social distancing works with the large classes at high school. There are still 4 classes a day where every group is totally different so students can take what they need to get into their program of choice. Numbers have really been spiking recently so many of us are expecting a shutdown of some sort. I believe they are really trying to keep schools open but we will see.

I’ve actually been surprised the numbers have not been higher. It is only about 13% of schools that have had some sort of exposure. 166 cases of transmission within schools isn’t a lot when you consider the number of students involved (figure around 600k after accounting for those taking online only).

My source tells me that one measure they are considering this afternoon would see all in-person university classes and high school (grades 10-12 up here) move online until the Christmas break.

 

[Tacoma]

Jabberwocky I agree 166 cases of in school transmission is not many. The problem comes that that is likely not the real number as they been unable to really contact trace for a while now. Numbers are too high and people have had so many interactions contact tracing has basically only been targeting the highest risk groups. My husband has a friend who is contact tracing and he says people have so many contacts now (unlike in the spring) that it is impossible to keep up. When I hear of a person going for a covid test and then going to school or work I just shake my head at the stupidity. I really don't want to have to teach online. I was retired last year and really only wanted to sub (less responsibility) but could not get on the CBE sublist so I took a job at a small private school. this year. I will struggle with the technology for online schooling. The good news is I only have to reach out to 13 students as I only teach one class. And since it is a private school they only have 3 more weeks before Christmas. I am hoping they shut down businesses but keep schools open. We will see.

 

[bizaro86]

but could not get on the CBE sublist so I took a job at a small private school.

This makes me crazy. CBE is so absurd about their sub list. My wife was able to get on the list after we had kids, but they had tons of rules about minimum number of days worked (which was high) and where you had to work. She just did CSSD subbing and then got a part time deal once our kids were a bit older.

I dont understand why they can't be more flexible. Subs pay for their own benefits, so the cost of having someone on the list is very low. Considering how much less they get paid, the only logical reason anyone would do it is for a flexible schedule.

And now we are shutting down schools because there aren't enough subs. Probably those are related issues.

 

[Tacoma]

Bizaro actually the reason they won't put retired teachers on the list is we are expensive. The second day we are in for the teacher we get bumped up to grid salary. That means instead of the $230 ish for the first day I get around $475 for every day after that. If I had 6 years of schooling that would be $500. A new teacher would be around $300 a day and a 5 year teacher would be $400 a day. Because I'm a high school English teacher it is not enough of a specialty for them to want me. Occasionally when I was away they would send a teacher who didn't even really speak English. I figure if they wouldn't hire me during a pandemic I had to look elsewhere. It is a bit of a hit to the ego that after 34 years of working for them I am not wanted now. My plan in retirement was always to sub. If I could I would go in every day. I just couldn't mark all the essays any more.

 

[bbodb1]

60 Minutes had a segment tonight on how many kids are getting lost and not participating in any type of schooling. One School District in Florida started with 7,000 missing kids. Through a lot of hard work, many people, and many months they got it down to 700 missing.

That is on the parents ... if they are still in their kids' lives that is...

 

[bbodb1]

It is worth noting that a change in the U.S. tax code (essentially) forced schools to stop hiring their own substitute teachers and have to turn to services to provide their subs. When it was implemented, it was said then this change would make subs harder to find - and this was before COVID.

 

[jabberwocky]

Jabberwocky I agree 166 cases of in school transmission is not many. The problem comes that that is likely not the real number as they been unable to really contact trace for a while now. Numbers are too high and people have had so many interactions contact tracing has basically only been targeting the highest risk groups. My husband has a friend who is contact tracing and he says people have so many contacts now (unlike in the spring) that it is impossible to keep up. When I hear of a person going for a covid test and then going to school or work I just shake my head at the stupidity. I really don't want to have to teach online. I was retired last year and really only wanted to sub (less responsibility) but could not get on the CBE sublist so I took a job at a small private school. this year. I will struggle with the technology for online schooling. The good news is I only have to reach out to 13 students as I only teach one class. And since it is a private school they only have 3 more weeks before Christmas. I am hoping they shut down businesses but keep schools open. We will see.

@Tacoma that number might not be too far off - even if it is off by a factor of 10 (1660 cases) it is around 1/4 of 1% of the student population - well below community incidence levels. I'm not sure about the private schools, but the larger school systems have their own contact tracing systems set up, and the reporting at the school level has been pretty good. If there is any place where contact tracing is very easy it is the classroom setting. At the U of A, we have a team of 13 individuals responsible for doing contact tracing and triaging cases. They are essentially acting as an adjunct to AHS and feed data to AHS and will reach out to all affected students, staff, and faculty when a case is reported. So far we haven't had any cases of within-class transmission for those classes that are in-person.

 

[Chrispee]

I'm interested to hear that Alberta schools are doing their own contact tracing. Here in BC the Health Authority is handling all school contact tracing (both public and private), and we are very limited in what information we can divulge to the school community.

 

[jabberwocky]

I'm interested to hear that Alberta schools are doing their own contact tracing. Here in BC the Health Authority is handling all school contact tracing (both public and private), and we are very limited in what information we can divulge to the school community.

I'll admit our personal sample size is small (only one incident at our public school), but the information provided has been very good. The case we had was only an exposure (the student themselves tested negative but had a positive parent); however, the whole school community was notified on the same day. The parents of children in the affected class were given more specific information and required to isolate immediately. There are privacy concerns of course, but the priority here seems to be in limiting spread.

Note that this isn't what we think of as traditional contact tracing in that they don't go beyond the school - that responsibility still lies with the provincial authority - who still receives a report and will do follow-up in the school and community as necessary. Schools basically assume that everyone in the class was a close contact and handle cases accordingly.

 

[PigsDad]

That is on the parents ... if they are still in their kids' lives that is...

That's a little one sided, I think. I'm sure many of those parents don't have the luxury of staying home with their kids to monitor and guide them in their remote learning -- they have to go to work, many working multiple jobs to make ends meet. When they can send their kids to school, at least the kids are supervised during the school day; not so at home. Remote learning hurts those who are the poorest much more than the privileged.

Kurt

 

[TravelTime]

Losing a year or more of learning at a young age is huge. Many kids will not catch up. Many high school students are also suffering because they can’t get as many extracurricular activities to have the best application possible for college. This pandemic is definitely hurting the poor and people with fewer resources much more than others but even the kids of middle class folks are going to fall behind.

 

[Cornell]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/fairfax-schools-more-failing-grades/2020/11/24/1ac2412e-2e34-11eb-96c2-aac3f162215d_story.html

Online learning is causing a serious drop in academic achievement in Virginia’s largest school system, according to a Fairfax County Public Schools study, and the most vulnerable students — those with disabilities and English-language learners — are struggling the most.

 

[bbodb1]

That's a little one sided, I think. I'm sure many of those parents don't have the luxury of staying home with their kids to monitor and guide them in their remote learning -- they have to go to work, many working multiple jobs to make ends meet. When they can send their kids to school, at least the kids are supervised during the school day; not so at home. Remote learning hurts those who are the poorest much more than the privileged.

Kurt

Let me expand on my previous point Kurt. In my experience, far too many parents / guardians are quick and willing to blame teachers and schools for the problems the parents / guardians cause. Not getting kids to school at all - i.e. these lost kids - is exclusively on the parents / guardians because how hard is it to put kids on a bus or (in the event of virtual education) take 5 minutes to see if Junior has done his homework? I've dealt with a fair number of parents / guardians who claim not to be able to figure out how to monitor their kids educational efforts because technology confuses them, yet (in many case) these are the same parents who (when called by their kids teacher(s)) fail to answer the phone or return voice mails that tell them their kid(s) are missing work. Also, in many cases, these same parents will turn to social media and rake the district over the coals for not fulfilling their student's needs while the parent / guardian's own efforts are absent - often using the same technology they claim not to understand.

The bottom line is this - parents / guardians are a responsible contributor (in fact, the first contributor) toward their children's education and when they fail to do their part, no other leg of the educational process can compensate. Now are some kids caught in a (much) less than desirable home situation - absolutely. But if parents / guardians cannot get their kids / students to the school houses doors (so to speak), they are exclusively responsible for their kids failures. To be clear, this is NOT an attempt to place blame then walk away from the problem. But schools have been increasingly asked to solve a rapidly growing set of social problems while being denied the authority needed to accomplish the goal. I know from previous discussions you are very aware of this, but there is a growing tendency (or so it seems) to link a lot of problems in education these days with remote learning.

Perhaps my ire is raised in this area because of the final point you made - there is nothing wrong with remote learning (at least in the short term) IF the parents / guardians invest a minimum of effort to ensure their kids / students progress and effort. I've seen poor parents who hold their kids nose to the grindstone - and by golly those kids will give you every ounce of effort and thought they have. But more often, I see parents / guardians who view school (teachers and administration) as an imposition to their lives and their kids / students enter school (whether physically or virtually) with that same attitude.

 

[rapmarks]

Three elementary grandkids in lake Delton / Wisconsin Dells schools successfully attending in person with small class sizes. The high school switched to virtual for two weeks after positive Covid but back to in person
My very bright Massachusetts third grader is so bored and frustrated. Two days in person is not much and seems to be doing worksheets all day. This is a boy that loved school. My son is math supervisor in Newton schools and is very busy with virtual/hybrid mix and very disappointed with his son’s situation

 

[bogey21]

Some School Districts are nuts. Right after I retired I tried to sign up to be a substitute teacher. Although I am a college graduate with one year of Law School (at night), I was deemed unqualified but I was allowed to teach a couple of courses at a major State University. Go figure...

George

 

[TravelTime]

Some School Districts are nuts. Right after I retired I tried to sign up to be a substitute teacher. Although I am a college graduate with one year of Law School (at night), I was deemed unqualified but I was allowed to teach a couple of courses at a major State University. Go figure...

George

It is easier to teach classes at some universities. In grad school, there are some pretty awful unqualified adjunct professors. I once taught a class at a college and I was clueless as to what I was doing. I would not want young students subjected to someone like me teaching a class.

 

[bbodb1]

Some School Districts are nuts. Right after I retired I tried to sign up to be a substitute teacher. Although I am a college graduate with one year of Law School (at night), I was deemed unqualified but I was allowed to teach a couple of courses at a major State University. Go figure...

George

Good morning George,

If I may ask, why were you determined to be unqualified? I ask this because I spent three years as a substitute teacher and in Arkansas, about the only requirement in this state is that one is able to breathe regularly in an unassisted manner...

 

[rapmarks]

In the eighties we teachers started to get the warning that we could be replaced by computers. I think we have found out that it’s not going to happen

 

[TravelTime]

Our private school sent everyone a survey and asked if we traveled out of the state or country along with a bunch of other Covid screening questions. If we answered yes to any of them, they said we had to do a 2 week quarantine. We had been thinking of going out of state for our daughter’s birthday but now this seems like a bad idea.

 

[bogey21]

If I may ask, why were you determined to be unqualified?

I don't remember precisely but it had something to do with not having completed certain Education courses in college. The only one I had taken was called Introduction to Education or something like that...

George

 

["Roger"]

Personally I am all in favor of doing everything possible to keep the schools open. The socialization is so critical. (Perhaps I will be stepping on toes here, but I have never been a fan of home schooling. Not only do the kids lose the socialization, but they don't face diversity). That having been said, things have not gone well in the two nearby school districts that I am familiar with.

A friend teaches junior high math in a town of about 15,000. They were doing the combo where the teacher would teach face to face, but at the same time the classes would be zoomed for when parents were reluctant to send their kids to school. They had to go all virtual about two weeks ago because of a shortage of teachers. The problem was not teachers refusing to teach within a physical environment, but too many of them had to go into quarantine because of exposure. The administration and secretarial staff were taking over those classes (quality?), but it got to the point that they could not cover all of the classes. My friend says that by the time they went to all virtual, she was down to just 30% of her students attending because so many her students had gotten quarantined.

I can tell you less about the larger school system near me (city of about 50,000). They were doing the half of the students came on Monday and Tuesday and the other half on Thursday and Friday with virtual education covering the days the students were home. About two weeks ago, they announced that they needed to go all virtual. As I said, I don't know what the exact issue was.

 

[bbodb1]

In the eighties we teachers started to get the warning that we could be replaced by computers. I think we have found out that it’s not going to happen

 

[rapmarks]

I don't remember precisely but it had something to do with not having completed certain Education courses in college. The only one I had taken was called Introduction to Education or something like that...

George

When I retired I put my name into sub in the local district where we had been spending summers. I had three different certificates and could teach several subjects and grades k thru 12. I was notified it would cost me $150 to get a substitute teacher certificate. I think the pay was )50 a day. Then I saw a notice in newspaper that the district would pay for certification for those that didn’t qualify but no offer to pay for me and I never got a call. Total turn off.