Schools reopening or not

[Ken555]

What's interesting about their response is the spike in cases that caused them to delay the reopening of the schools was only 79 cases for the entire country. They took this thing seriously from the beginning.

Imagine that...letting science dictate reopening and not politicians. If only we were so lucky.


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[bbodb1]

There are a lot of school administrators who make > $100K per year - and that is where cuts need to start.

 

[Ken555]

Coronavirus Live Updates: Los Angeles and San Diego Schools Will Go Online-Only in the Fall

A Record 5.4 Million Americans Have Lost Health Insurance, Study Finds (Published 2020)

California’s governor announced a sweeping rollback of the state’s reopening and Los Angeles and San Diego school districts will be online-only in the fall. Dr. Anthony Fauci returned to the White House.

www.nytimes.com

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[Cornell]

Despite the fact that I have been shouting "schools need to reopen this fall", I am 95% sure that my daughter will be doing the online-only option this fall.

This decision has zero to do with Covid concerns, rather, we (me & my daughter) are not happy with the protocols put in place for in-school learning and the type of social environment it's going to create.

We will hear all the specific details about our district's plans on Wednesday & we will make our final decision at that point, but I doubt it will change our minds.

 

[bbodb1]

Picking up on @Ken555 post above, here is the message from the superintendent:

 

[Glynda]

I spoke to my professor. The situation is still fluid but the plan for now is that she will be in class five days a week plus her office hours. No more than 10 students will be allowed in her classroom. Everyone must wear masks, including the instructor and social distance. Since she only has 9 students her first class of the morning, they will meet the regular three days a week. Her larger classes of 22 students will be divided in three groups. Each group will alternate days in class and days at home where it is mandatory that they watch her teaching the class on Zoom/live streaming. Hopefully, I am going to be allowed to just do Zoom. The situation could change and go to all online by the end August.

 

[Monykalyn]

To be honest, I don't think there is a good answer. No matter what, there will be big negatives.

This kinda sums up the whole debate...

I've been out in it every day because of Target, so it's not a big deal for me, as long as common sense prevails

THIS right here-far far far far too many started out and remained in a fear "bubble" and the longer you stay in your bubble the harder it is to break out. Opposite can be said as well-too many never felt that fear bubble and now refuse to acknowledge the risk at all. And so there can't be a consensus on what is reasonable to do.

Anyone who works with the public now or who is an essential worker is in the unfortunate position of being more at risk of catching covid but their salaries are not based on Covid. This is hopefully a once in a lifetime situation and we will return to working in safer conditions soon.

Good point. Why were restaurant workers considered essential???? and for minimum wage. Nursing home workers didn't sign up to be essential-yet they go to work every day in a high risk environment. Did anyone give up animal products to protect our meat packing plants? No?

Thank you. It’s amazing how you can be fine for a few days then spend a whole night huffing and puffing.

Ugh that sucks, Hope you have more and more good days. I can empathize with the breathing - nasty virus (very covid like but wasn't) in December and the only times I felt like breathing was normal was when I was on steroids. My PCP finally got me on a regular inhaled steroid beginning a couple weeks ago and it's definitely helping-so 6 month recovery time from that illness.

What is troubling to me, the teachers' unions do not seem to be interested in the actual science, they are asking questions that are seeking to manipulate into irrational fear rather than looking for answers that are known already in many cases. The unions have had almost 4 months to look at the science and they did nothing. They've even had more than enough time to order and coordinate their own studies if they did not trust the scientific research that is already there

No one did anything other than wring their hands...and the data is that younger kids transmit and get infected at far far far (there will always be outliers before people start spewing the articles on the outliers) due to their physiology. Why is this a "novel" coronavirus that doesn't act like previous viruses and then make the comparison that young kids are "germ factories" and now want to point to CV behaving like the usual? Legitimate concern on making sure schools do have adequate funding to clean, teachers have N95/face shields as needed etc..

It makes no sense for the districts with little to no C19 exposure to remain closed, and it makes no sense for a district with uncontrolled outbreaks to reopen. It should be based on local conditions, not mandated from a state or national level.

You...mean...use logic, data and common sense?????????? nope not gonna happen.

Spike in Coronavirus Cases Causes Hundreds of Schools in South Korea to Close After Reopening

South Korea began relaxing social distancing guidelines in May

people.com

None of that had to do with schools spreading virus. and if Korea and Hong Kong insist on no cases ever again before things can stay open then they will never get to normal. Even a hypothetical vaccine will not be a magical solution.

Yes there is a risk reopening schools. I am not sure why people think life didn't have risk before and therefore we should expect zero risk at all ever again. something will always bring a risk. Mitigate best you can, evaluate what works, adapt. And give the schools the MONEY to do so-this country really doesn't need another 25 billion dollar fighter jet!

Studies about viral loads and hopefully more details on risk of infection rates will be coming soon. That may also help. There is all this concern about "asymptomatic" transmission, but severity of cases correlated with high viral loads in the susceptible person, so if a viral load is so low that no symptoms show-just how much virus particles are being put out there? The other key point is one needs to be susceptible to the virus in first place. Starting to see some studies modeling that less than 40% of population is even susceptible although that is very very preliminary and I am always leary of statisticians trying to model a disease

 

[DannyTS]

The Dangers of Keeping the Schools Closed

The Dangers of Keeping the Schools Closed

"Medical experts who support school closures more generally clarify that they are a tool to be considered at the beginning of a pandemic, not seven months in. COVID-19 poses a far lesser risk to children for both death and infection. Closing schools will probably spare some schoolchildren from...

www.aier.org

 

[Luanne]

The Dangers of Keeping the Schools Closed

The Dangers of Keeping the Schools Closed

"Medical experts who support school closures more generally clarify that they are a tool to be considered at the beginning of a pandemic, not seven months in. COVID-19 poses a far lesser risk to children for both death and infection. Closing schools will probably spare some schoolchildren from...

www.aier.org

The school districts are going to do what the school districts are going to do. It doesn't matter what we post here.

 

[DannyTS]

The school districts are going to do what the school districts are going to do. It doesn't matter what we post here.

???

 

[mdurette]

My 14YO DD will be entering 8th grade in September. At this point, they are opening...they have been doing zoom meetings with parents throughout the summer updating the ever changing plan. They are building 3 large outdoor pavilions for classroom use and lunch when the kids can't wear masks. They are trying hard. Things are different for us, she goes to a small private school that can get a handle on things better. I could not even imagine the nightmare for administrators of trying to work around all of this with 1000s of kiddos or the worry a parent that has a kid with a compromised immune system has. I feel fortunate.

I'm concerned that she will have more exposure. Her distant learning structure was more than what I expected and gave her great structure to her day...but I know she needs the social aspect of being in school. I have faith that administrators will do the absolute best they can to minimize risk.

The only thing so far that they have said that I am not a fan of is they have no plan to take temps daily. As a parent I have heard from good friends in the past "Johnny had a fever this morning, but I had a work conference, so I pumped him full of tylenol, what was a supposed to do?" "Susie was vomiting last night, hope she makes it through the day" Ugh, some parents don't have the common sense to keep their kids home and at least the fever check "MAY" weed out something.

This schools plans is to keep kids in pods. If one test positive in the pod, the entire pod will go to distance learning for 2 weeks. The school is also small enough to know that positive child may ride to school with a kid in another pod or have a sibling in another. Then all the pods will go to distance learning.

For teachers that have to teach to multiple pods....they will do so via video. Kids in class...teacher on a large large video monitor in front of the class.

 

[Cornell]

@mdurette Thanks for this info. I love hearing about how different schools are handling things. Your situation sounds about as ideal as I've heard.

 

[DannyTS]

My 14YO DD will be entering 8th grade in September. At this point, they are opening...they have been doing zoom meetings with parents throughout the summer updating the ever changing plan. They are building 3 large outdoor pavilions for classroom use and lunch when the kids can't wear masks. They are trying hard. Things are different for us, she goes to a small private school that can get a handle on things better. I could not even imagine the nightmare for administrators of trying to work around all of this with 1000s of kiddos or the worry a parent that has a kid with a compromised immune system has. I feel fortunate.

I'm concerned that she will have more exposure. Her distant learning structure was more than what I expected and gave her great structure to her day...but I know she needs the social aspect of being in school. I have faith that administrators will do the absolute best they can to minimize risk.

The only thing so far that they have said is they have no plan to take temps daily. As a parent I have heard from good friends in the past "Johnny had a fever this morning, but I had a work conference, so I pumped him full of tylenol, what was a supposed to do?" "Susie was vomiting last night, hope she makes it through the day" Ugh, some parents don't have the common sense to keep their kids home and at least the fever check "MAY" weed out something.

This schools plans is to keep kids in pods. If one test positive in the pod, the entire pod will go to distance learning for 2 weeks. The school is also small enough to know that positive child may ride to school with a kid in another pod or have a sibling in another. Then all the pods will go to distance learning.

For teachers that have to teach to multiple pods....they will do so via video. Kids in class...teacher on a large large video monitor in front of the class.

I have one of those infrared thermometers, I bought it to check the isolation of our home a couple of years ago.

The problem is that they are very inaccurate, at least the one I have. You can point it to the same spot and get a different read every time. I looked it up, this company for example (not my brand) says that the accuracy is ± 3.5° F , certainly not good enough.
I do not know if other models are better but if not, they are probably useless.

 

[DannyTS]

Imagine that...letting science dictate reopening and not politicians. If only we were so lucky.


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Imagine letting the science and not the unions dictate reopening the schools...
Top Pediatricians Tell NBC They Back Reopening Schools: “Yes,” “Absolutely,” “Without A Hesitation”

 

[WVBaker]

Michigan girl sent to juvenile detention for not doing online schoolwork

Judge Mary Ellen Brennan, the presiding judge of the Oakland County Family Court Division, ruled that Grace was “guilty on failure to submit to any schoolwork and getting up for school.” She also called Grace a “threat to (the) community," the report said.

Michigan girl sent to juvenile detention for not doing online schoolwork: report

A Michigan girl was incarcerated in May after she allegedly failed to finish her online schoolwork, according to a report.

www.foxnews.com

 

[Brett]

Arlington Public Schools in Northern Virginia switches to remote learning for fall, reversing course

"citing a recent increase in coronavirus cases nationwide Arlington Public Schools is scrapping a plan to offer in-person and virtual learning this fall and will instead require its 28,000 students to start the school year 100 percent online."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/arlington-public-schools-switches-to-remote-learning-for-fall-reversing-course/2020/07/14/aabe4d3c-c605-11ea-a99f-3bbdffb1af38_story.html

 

[amycurl]

My daughter is headed to boarding school in the fall in PA. They are using a pod model as well for dorms (so that the kids can have as "normal" on-dorm/living situation as possible,) with mask use and limited class contacts. The boarding school is very old, so this is not their first pandemic, LOL!

Initially, my daughter's first choice was a public, performing arts magnet less than a mile from our house. They will be all remote for at least the first five weeks of the year, with a re-evaluation every five weeks (!). I think we're both kind of glad that, while she got in via audition, that she didn't get in via the lottery that was required when budget cuts over the summer demanded that they offer slots to a fewer number of students than expected.

 

[Cornell]

My daughter is headed to boarding school in the fall in PA. They are using a pod model as well for dorms (so that the kids can have as "normal" on-dorm/living situation as possible,) with mask use and limited class contacts. The boarding school is very old, so this is not their first pandemic, LOL!

Initially, my daughter's first choice was a public, performing arts magnet less than a mile from our house. They will be all remote for at least the first five weeks of the year, with a re-evaluation every five weeks (!). I think we're both kind of glad that, while she got in via audition, that she didn't get in via the lottery that was required when budget cuts over the summer demanded that they offer slots to a fewer number of students than expected.

Good plan with your daughter.

 

[DannyTS]

Bars are reopening before schools. That doesn’t make sense

Globe editorial: Bars are reopening before schools. That doesn’t make sense

There are enormous costs to keeping kids out of the classroom, and the risk of community transmission in elementary schools appears to be lower

www.theglobeandmail.com

 

[Cornell]

Bars are reopening before schools. That doesn’t make sense

Globe editorial: Bars are reopening before schools. That doesn’t make sense

There are enormous costs to keeping kids out of the classroom, and the risk of community transmission in elementary schools appears to be lower

www.theglobeandmail.com

The biggest "this makes no sense" for me was back in March when the SIP/SAH was in full force, recreational marijuana dispensaries were allowed to stay open in IL ...deemed "essential", yet they were ILLEGAL just 3 months prior. That immediately (and still) set the tone with my thinking of "what is really going on here?".

 

[Brett]

North Carolina schools to have mix of online, in-person classes

The guidelines from the Department of Health and Human Services allows in-person instruction if students, teachers and staff members wear face coverings and people remain 6 feet (2 meters) apart at school. The plan also lets families decide whether to opt-in for remote learning.

“We know schools will look a lot different this year,” Cooper said in an afternoon news conference. “They have to to be safe and effective.”

https://www.dailypress.com/news/education/vp-nw-north-carolina-schools-reopening-20200714-wroez4eh5zgb5kjlnmbeetwbc4-story.html

 

[Cornell]

@Brett Thanks for sharing. Reading up on all the back to school plans has become my newest hobby.

 

[DannyTS]

It will be very hard for teachers that have kids in school. My son's teacher has three girls, one of them in elementary school, a classmate and good friend with my daughter. I understand from different common friends that she was really struggling to juggle her own kids and to teach the online classes.

 

[geekette]

The biggest "this makes no sense" for me was back in March when the SIP/SAH was in full force, recreational marijuana dispensaries were allowed to stay open in IL ...deemed "essential", yet they were ILLEGAL just 3 months prior. That immediately (and still) set the tone with my thinking of "what is really going on here?".

Please give a thought to the medicinal uses. A war vet with PTSD could be as in-need as an alcoholic. Sounds like hippie recreation to some, but pain reliever/sanity saver for others.

 

[Cornell]

Please give a thought to the medicinal uses. A war vet with PTSD could be as in-need as an alcoholic. Sounds like hippie recreation to some, but pain reliever/sanity saver for others.

I'm specifically referring to recreational. Illegal 12/31/19. Essential in 2020.