Our school system is leaning toward a schedule of in-person or remote that changes by week, not by day. One week on, two off seems most likely at this point, if they use the 6 ft guideline. I think using the 3 ft guideline would get kids physically in school every other week, but not sure about that.
A weekly system seems like a safer solution re: infection risk than every kid going 1/2 day f2f.
A one week on, one week off school system is terrible for parents who are employed. Just mornings or just afternoons is better.
“One week on, one week off” is also terrible for teachers, who get no break from in-person instruction.
The community college has already announced online. Familiarity with the local school and knowing people who go there can make it a more acceptable otion in people’s minds. Differentiating the almost free online courses from the higher cost online courses is more challenging as the price goes up.
Our HS released its preliminary plan for the Fall. Our HS is about 2,000 kids. Scheduled to start school year on 8/31. S22 would be Phase 3.
They plan to phase in the classes.
Phase 1 - 9th grade; Phase 2-10th grade; Phase 3-11th/12th grade. Each Phase would last 2-4 weeks with the goal of having everyone receiving in person instruction by Thanksgiving.
Each grade will then also be divided into 3 groups.
For example, Week 1 would be:
Group A: Monday: Period 1-4 in person, Tuesday: Periods 6-8 at home; Wednesday: Student/Teacher Work Day and Check-in Day; Thursday: Periods 1-4 at Home; Friday: Periods 6-8 in person.
Group B: Monday: Period 6-8 at home, Tuesday: Periods 1-4 in person; Wednesday: Student/Teacher Work Day and Check-in Day; Thursday: Periods 6-8 at Home; Friday: Periods 1-4 at home.
Group C: Monday: Period 1-4 at home, Tuesday: Periods 6-8 in person; Wednesday: Student/Teacher Work Day and Check-in Day; Thursday: Periods 1-4 in person; Friday: Periods 6-8 at home.
Basically, every month they will in person for 6 days.
My wife’s K12 district just announced classes alternating every other day.
The public school system here announced. Regular school, masks required for ages 10 and up. Asked families not to use bus and 85% agreed not to do so.
For the people announcing public school plans which states are you in? We are in Massachusetts and I have two high schoolers in a large public school (2000 kids). They have not announced yet the plan but talking about a week on week off plan.
We have got one week one week off here. Kids and teachers are fine with it. In fact, my kids love it! It’s really working parents for whom it is a mess, but not sure why just mornings or just afternoon would be so much better if you have a fulltime job, if there is no wrap around care. Agree it might be easier to hire a babysitter.
H and I both decided long ago to take the financial hit of working reduced hours and right now, happen to have the privilege of alternating our days at home.
With the shortened schooldays, when I am on drop off and pickup duty, going into the office makes no sense for me even when school is on.
We are in MD - just outside DC.
Some good news: quarantine has been lifted for the three student dorms in Western Germany, because apart from the three initial cases, exactly zero of the other students in residence have tested positive so far.
I expect they will still ask the close contacts to self isolate for the incubation period, but it appears dorms (admittedly with single rooms and reduced occupancy not sure about the bathroom situation, but large shared kitchens and lounges at least are very common, so assume they have those) do not necessarily have to become a hotspot.
That is nearly 10% of the class. That is a lot more than many schools are allowing. 1-2% is more common
Our public school system is not going with a hybrid schedule - every kid is either 100% remote or 100% f2f, and we need to commit to our choice for the entire semester that way (we have until this weekend to make a decision).
At first, the districts wasn’t going to require masks. But we’re in GA, and after the issue with the similar decision by the University System of GA, our district shifted to requiring masks (unless there is medical documentation against it). But in my experience at the grocery store, requiring a mask does not necessarily equate to a mask being worn properly.
Since they aren’t controlling the density of the population in the school (as is done when some students are in person every other day, or mornings/afternoons, or every other week etc.), I don’t believe they’ll de-densify enough to get close to 6 feet of distance. They have also already said there will be no effort to socially distance on buses, and their lunch plan allows for some kids to sit ~3 feet from one another without masks.
Giving a 100% in person vs 100% remote choice to all families rather than controlling the density with a hybrid schedule seems to me to be essentially the “Tragedy of the Commons.” (individuals often make a self-interested choice which results in everyone, including themselves, being worse off eventually - I think we’re going to end up, in my district, with “over consumption” of the in-school experience which, in the long term, won’t facilitate getting closer to what anyone ultimately wants in terms of school, health, the economy, etc.).
There are certainly kids in our area who need the school system for much more than academics, whereas my kids have access to technology, a safe home, food, etc. That means my kids will be doing all remote learning even though they, too, “miss the connection with teachers,” “are ready to get back to the school,” “are worried about their ability to learn the AP material remotely,” and so on…I foresee being in the minority here, but it will be interesting to see how the numbers shake out.
ETA: we are in a fairly-raging hotspot
"I honestly see a downside to spending another six months to a year as a family just doing normal family stuff… "
I generally agree with this, but I’m assuming you’re a parent, as many of the entering freshman would probably want to attend college, assuming the other classes too.
Great news for this depressing thread!!! Thanks for sharing!
@massmom2018 no Massachusetts public school has a final plan, because DESE asked districts to create in-person, hybrid, and remote options so far. The MTA is weighing in on DESE guidelines this week.
Lexington has what I think is an acceptable plan, and they overrode the request for an in-person option. We’ll see how DESE takes that. Wayland has a plan that is not quite as good or as detailed in my opinion. Both are online.
@nichols51 Does the 100% online option offer the same classes as the 100% in-person?
In our state (AZ) the 100% online class options are sad (remedial) to the point of being worthless to our D.
First off, lowering the density helps as students will be able to better social distance which is critical to lower the probabilities of spreading the virus. At S24 school, they are keeping the same pool of kids together and are not allowing them to intermingle with other groups. They will not be interacting with 1,000 kids every day.
Secondly, the transmission of the disease is primarily person to person, and there is not a lot of evidence that touching an infected surface and then your face is a major transmission of the disease. With that said, they are cleaning the rooms between the morning and afternoon groups.
Again, I think they are trying everything they can to get kids some time at school but as safely as possible. It’s all one big experiment as we as a nation have not faced something like this in a long, long time. Trial and error…until we get a vaccine…
@massmom2018 we are in Los Angeles (CA).
Yes - in fact, at our particular school, our children doing remote learning will not only take the same classes they would if they were f2f, but they’ll have the same teachers. That is, each teacher will generally be teaching a blended class - some in person and some remote students and there will be synchronous lessons (the proportion that is synchronous will depend on the class). Remote students will be checked in for attendance and expected to attend during the same hours as f2f students, and they are going to make an effort to have projects/group assignments that require collaboration between the remote and f2f students so that the remote students are still as tapped in and as connected to the community and to the experience as possible.
Also, they do plan to have clubs, and remote students are eligible to come to attend club meetings at the end of the day (logistics TBD). So in terms of the remote option, I do feel it’s better than what was offered in the Spring.
Interesting conversation this morning at work about the spread of the virus in elementary schools. Many of the conversations, here included, seem to assume that when children aren’t in the classroom that they’ll be safe at home. For many students they will be in daycare instead, being exposed to an entirely different set of students and teachers. That could potentially make community spread worse, not better.