S24 got the booster yesterday and woke up with a bad headache. Said he could not sleep well last night and had chills on and off. The first two shots he did not have any side effects. Hoping this passes and he feel better by tomorrow.
Our school did have the highest positives we have had so far last week. Hoping for better week next week.
Iām subbing today for my sonās engineering teacher and had lunch with the math teachers again. I confirmed that almost the entire Chem dept is out with COVID. My daughterās Chem teacher seems to be the only exception. I knew the majority of Chem teachers were out, but didnāt know for sure it was COVID.
I asked the math teachers what the plan is with all these teachers out right now. Pretty much the teachers just create online content from home and subs babysit. But, as weāve discussed, subs are few and far between right now. My kids said that enough kids and teachers are out sick the school is considering shuffling and combining classes. But thereās absolutely no plan to send the kids back to online. We will stay in person probably no matter what. Omicron is going to continue to sweep through the school until the infection rate ebbs. So Omicron continues to feel inevitable.
I picked up another sub job for my kids Calc/Algebra 2 teacher on Friday. Generally Iām not trying to sub a lot, but I do feel that helping out my kidsā teachers is the right thing to do. Just wish that mask-policing wasnāt such a large part of my day when I do. Sigh. At least I can do my own homework as I sit here and babysit classes.
Yes with Omnicorn looks like we will continue to uphill for few more weeks.
Its great you are able to sub and help out the school and the community.
There is no plan to go online for us also at this point as they strongly feel especially with high school more than 85% of our school is vaccinated so they feel school should go on.
We carpool with a kid because heās in the same cohort as my daughter (I mean, same school) and parents WFH like us. We mask in the car. He didnāt feel well at school today and then test positive. Heās home but DH took the kids to school today and DH didnāt mask. The kids do and I have everyone keep their masks on in the car.
We are all getting tested later. Thank goodness for at home test supplies. DD took a test at lunch today at the school clinic to check. Will give her a test at home later.
@RadM - I wish 85% of our town were vaccinated. Iām confident weāre nowhere near that number. We have a high percentage of parents trying to get waivers.
@MommaLue - I hope everyone stays negative.
This variant is crazy. My stepfather who is a vigilant masker got infected somewhere while with 7 of our other family members. Only one other person tested positive. My mother who sleeps with him and spends 24 hours a day with him never had symptoms or tested positive. Hopefully between the kid masking and the short exposure your husband will be clear!
@MommaLue - donāt use the home test too soonā¦ we tested negative multiple times and only when actual symptom started, it showed positive.
Plan out what you will be doing if anyone in your immediate family test positive. we were caught by surprise, made some mistakes and we eventually all became infected.
S24/D26 and myself are all recovered and S24 started high school soccer practice today. He never showed symptoms but PCR test positive so he did mandatory 10 day isolation.
However, my wife is showing some long covid symptoms. It impacts everyone very differently.
I feel the same way that omicron is inevitable. Everyone should prepare for it.
I have mixed feeling about school being online. In some sense, I feel itās extremely important that kids need in person experience. Now that both of my kids had Covid, Iām more supportive for in-person school.
However, given the 10 day isolation requirement and how fast itās spreading, it probably makes sense to do temporary online schooling. I just hope this doesnāt become spring 2020 situation.
D24 wanted a test after school (negative). She said a girl showed up in Spanish with mask under her mouth and said she tested positive and some kid in the ASB room had mask off and said he was positive (D24 moved outside after that). She said she doesnāt want to touch them but wants to strangle them. So, we are starting 2022 with our most patient kid choosing violence in her head. 
I put an order in for a test at school so sheās going to test daily when she gets to school the next few days.
And everyone is masking at home because we have lost trust. S21 says heās a victim although he says we accuse him of being the weak link when with friends.
So I have been very happy with our high school policies since vaccination and masking compliance has been high. But, S24 just texted me from orchestra rehearsal for next week to tell me that they hired 15 professional ringers to fill in for brass and winds that are missing and they are all there tonight and playing unmasked, ugh!!! And of course S isnt wearing his mask since he is a flutist. Two more rehearsals and a concert in the next two weeks. wondering when our luck will run out!
Fingers crossed that all with exposure will stay healthy. D20 had very close contact before Christmas, so we isolated and tested twice. Somehow none of us got it. Hoping it will stay that way, but a little resigned to the reality that one of us will get it despite being super careful. D24 has been the most cautious and will be devastated if she gets it and passes it along.
This will sound political but not meant to be:
White House said that private insurance will cover 8 tests per person per month. More details to come but wanted to share that with parents who have been buying test kits. I am hoping FSA budget can be used to reimburse us, too.
I downloaded the CA governor budget proposal and it looks like there is a glide path plan to develop more housing for CA public school students. We saw this posted a few months ago where they want Cal, UCSD, UCLA to take in more CA kids. The plan has budget to continue to support this and also reduce cost of attendance for UCs/CSUs/CCās, as well as having more admission oppty for CA kids (I read 1 spot for every CA kids eligible to enroll as first years). It wonāt be overnight but looks to start this fiscal. A ton of support for K-12, summer programs and also career pathways within high school programs.
I was extremely curious about the additional support and my take aways that I told the kids were: major in public health, psych/clinical, Engr (infrastructure, electrical vehicles, environmental science, climate change), primary care (grad) and other relevant grad school, UCs and CSUs are going to get $$ for research, job oppty, and innovation hubā¦.here I go trying to convince S21 to consider Public Health over medical anthropology. Iām always worried about how todayās jobs will be obsolete in 10 years when our kids are done with undergrad or grad school.
Can totally relate to your D24 :). S24 was saying that the chemistry teacher is school is so strict that even to scratch there nose they have to step out of the class and I said I like her 
I get upset at kids who test positive and then come to school this is worse than not masking properly.
Hope you all continue to test negative.
It will be great if the UCās can support more CA kids. I also like the summer programs and the career pathways idea. Hope some of these get implemented. Most likely wont help the current high school kids but hopefully the others to follow.
Hope your wife gets better soon.
Agree. Iām very happy to hear about the changes. Skeptical about whether they might help my D24 though. With S21 and his peers UC admissions seemed quite arbitrary at the desirable campuses, though he did apply to a very impacted major.
Yes that has been the experience for some of my friends kids also especially if they were into impacted majors like CS or Engineering. I am not expecting much change here though as with out Test scores and more Holistic approach it is hard to tell sometimes.
Can I ask if your S21 is going to CA college or OOS.
Heās in NY. He did get into UCSD (for second choice major) and UCSC, waitlisted UCLA and Davis. Rejected Cal Poly. Many of our friendsā high gpa kids got into one campus but rejected by several others. It felt very arbitrary. All top 9% kids.
My daughterās Gpa will probably be a bit lower but she will go for a less impacted major.
Thanks. Very strange to get in UCSD and not in UC Davis. It does feel arbitrary.
Hope he is happy with the school he is in NY.