NCAA D-III championships in fall sports are canceled. With the health and safety of the student-athletes, coaches, athletics administrators and communities as its priority, the Division III Presidents Council made the decision to cancel the championships due to the COVID-19.
from our high school principal
Overall, our goal is to continue to give students the rich academic experience they have come to expect from X while keeping everyone as safe as we can. To do this, the face-to-face experience that a student will have if they come to campus for the fall semester will change drastically from what it was in the past. We are setting up instruction so that there will be no academic advantage to being on campus. Regardless of where the student is, all instruction will take place virtually.
If I send my student to school, what will their time on campus look like? If a student arrives to campus, they will complete a basic health screening before entering. This can either be through the district app or with a staff member at the door. The student then will go to their assigned classroom. In the classroom, there will be a handful of student desks far apart from each other facing the wall. Students will go in, put in their earbuds, open their laptop and start their first class. They will remain in that classroom doing their lessons on-line the same as they would do if they were at home. Breakfast, lunch and snacks will be eaten in the classroom. We are trying to work out ways for students to have breaks to stretch their legs and maybe go outside. The plan is for these to happen at regular intervals, but there will not be any passing periods and students will not be moving classrooms at any point.
Why are you structuring on campus instruction like this? Do you really think this is the best way to teach students? Absolutely not, there is no way that virtual instruction (as hard as we have been working on it) will ever replace the quality of pedagogy we get when there are students and teachers all together in a classroom or the wonderful academic culture created when the students are all together packing the halls and courtyard. If I could wave a magic wand and take us all back to the pre-Covid world, I would. But, I don’t have that wand, so instead we need to do what is best for staff and students with the world as it is today.
I don’t get it, children are not at a high risk for Covid, why not just let them come back? It’s true that as age groups go, high school age individuals are at a lower risk if they contract Covid-19. It’s also true that school is so much more than just a place to get academic information. The greater worry that many parents, myself included, have isn’t instructional, it’s social. More time on screens without the opportunity to interact spontaneously with their friends, classmates and teachers cannot be emotionally healthy for anyone, much less adolescents. Trust me, I’ve debated this for weeks, if not months. The major issues that forced the plan that I’ve laid out are two-fold. The first is the safety of staff. Although teenagers as a general age group are not as at risk, my staff are not teenagers. I’ve already had some of the best teachers I have seen in my life leave teaching or retire because they feel they cannot risk being infected. Staff still have to go home to their partners, their own children and many are the caregivers of their elderly parents. In bringing all students back in the fashion of past years, I would be ignoring the health and safety of the people who work on campus and their families. This is particularly true for the staff whose job responsibilities require them to be on campus. ISD has had two COVID related deaths, a cafeteria worker and a custodial worker. These individuals work incredibly hard for some of the lowest salaries. They cannot work from home. They tend to be African-American or Latino, middle-age or older. The more students we have on campus, the more at risk I am putting these staff.
The second issue is logistical. Implementing Covid safety protocols is a logistical nightmare. This summer we happened to have seven people in the building one day when that evening I received a call where one person let me know that her relative, for whom she helps care, tested positive. The person did the right thing and contacted me. I then spent two hours, contact tracing everyone with whom that person interacted. I had to determine who would be quarantined based on those interactions and who could return to campus. I had to determine which areas of the building needed to be closed for three days and where to move the activities that were planned to happen in those spaces. Two hours later, it was all worked out…but there were only seven people in the building. I truly cannot imagine what my days will look like if there are hundreds if not over a thousand people in the building. I will be calling you early in the morning or late at night telling you your child was exposed and has to stay home for two weeks. We will be quarantining one set of classrooms one day and another set of classrooms the next. If my admin team and I are spending all of our time contact tracing and working on Covid related logistics there won’t be time left for actually working with students and staff on anything else.
So, do you expect no one to send their student to school “face-to-face”? There are some very good reasons to send your student to school and if you fit into one of the reasons below, then absolutely please send your kiddo.
Spotty internet
Broken device
Breakfast & Lunch
At home safety
What if my student doesn’t fit into one of those categories, but I want to send them? As of right now, once our initial three-week 100% on-line transition period is done, X is requiring schools to allow anyone who wishes to come to campus that option. There will be no academic advantage to coming to campus and if a large majority of students do come to campus we will not have the staff or physical space to implement CDC guidelines. This could have a domino effect as staff will be less willing to be on campus if we are unable to implement these guidelines.
What is the role of the teacher when students are on campus? There will be an adult in each room where we have students. However, this adult may or may not be child’s teacher and will be conducting their own classes virtually in the classroom. They are there to keep track if a student asks to leave the room (to go to the restroom or nurse) and so that half a dozen teenagers aren’t alone in a room all day. They will not be moving about the room checking what the students are doing on their computers. They will not be assisting academically if a student has a question. Those needs will be met by their actual teachers on-line.
Look I feel like you are actively discouraging us from sending our student to campus. Why? I am sort of. If your student really does need to come to campus for any of the reason I mentioned earlier then, by all means, I want them to feel welcomed. We will do everything we can to make them not feel weird and isolated. But the threat of illness and death is real. As important as I think school can be to a better functioning democracy, I don’t want to live with the guilt or have students live with the guilt of staff getting sick or dying and when it was preventable.
But virtual classes really did not work for my student last spring. We have come a long way in our understanding of high quality on-line lessons since spring break. None of us were prepared at that time for 100% virtual. I spent over$30,000 this summer paying teachers to rewrite their curriculum so that we can take advantage of the best on-line pedagogy. We are ready. We are committed to giving your child an in-depth, high quality educational experience in all of their classes. Yes, there might still be bumps in the road – but this on-line experience will be nothing like it was in March. Oh, and did I mention there is no P/I requirement anymore?
Smith also hadn’t released any information on move-in and is starting classes later than Amherst. Smith also hadn’t sent out any emails for over a week.
Amherst just released move-in signups three days ago and starts move-in in ten days. Also, D just got her position as a CA (Amherst equivalent of RA) confirmed yesterday with the Director of Res Life, who is probably in the loop. She is supposed to start training in a week. Really hoping they don’t change…
If they do, families from outside the Northeast will be especially pissed because they just bought their plane tickets.
@ultimom Kudos to your hs principal for what seems like a well written and straightforward letter. Thx for sharing it.
@ultimom , that’s so interesting, thank you for posting. Is this a public school? I have recently been getting pretty down about the widening education gap that will happen with K-12 online, and wondered if a solution is to just invite in the ‘at risk’ kids. Now of course I realize that has a lot of issues, but that principal’s plan does address that problem, and hopefully/maybe will reduce the density enough that the at risk kids can continue to come in and have a more structured/supervised/safe/routine learning experience, while those who had less struggles at home or with online learning can stay home and it’s hopefully a win-win. The fact that they found staff for that plan is great. Let us know how it works out!!!
Back to college: As for kids/athletes not reporting symptoms…I HOPE (this may be naive) that it will be different than what we’ve seen in the past with sports because at this point everyone should realize that if they don’t follow the rules, there is a real true risk of strong consequences…not just for yourself, but your entire team or student body…as in getting suspended, sent home, or causing an outbreak that brings your whole team down and cancels games/seasons and/or campus closures. In the past, if you didn’t report concussion symptoms for example, well, you’re just hurting yourself. But now a lack of reporting can bring down your entire team/season/presence at campus.
@RosePetal35 Smith will be going online for the fall.
The parochial school in my town is running Facebook ads for 5 days, all-day school. Since my district is on a half-day schedule and the surrounding towns are on an A/B schedule, they may pick up some new students. I wonder what will happen when parents pay tuition and they need to shut down/ cut back?
Quarantine checkpoints to get into NYC. Will we need to show our papers next ?. $10,000 fine if you don’t fill out the form and immediate quarantine (house arrest?). I’m making popcorn to watch the lawsuits.
Will any students actually be going to school in the city at this point?
@TomSrOfBoston I made some posts about that earlier in this thread.
This may cause some uproar among Amherst College faculty & staff:
They sent out an email yesterday to faculty and staff, both detailing their pre-arrival testing plan for students and indicating restrictions for faculty and staff living in college rental housing or near-campus. Here’s what the latter part says:
“
** Guidelines for Faculty and Staff in College Rental Housing **
For the purposes of “preserving the bubble,” the College has created a “core of campus” designation for the area bordered by Route 9, South Pleasant Street, the Norwottuck Rail Trail and railroad tracks, and has implemented guidelines for those living in College-owned rental housing within that core and off-campus. What follows are the rules for faculty and staff residing in those spaces; they will go into effect on August 15.
For all faculty/staff living in College rental housing within the core of campus:
- Visitors are limited to relatives, caregivers and delivery and repair personnel.
- Other than inside the home, visitors are allowed in the back or front yard and on the fastest route to exit the core of campus.
- Visitors are not permitted use of any outdoor College facilities.
- While outdoors, visitors and residents must wear a mask or face covering at all times unless eating.
For all faculty/staff living in College rental housing off-campus:
- Residents must follow all applicable state and local guidelines, including wearing face masks or coverings when in public spaces.
- Residents are prohibited from using any outdoor College facilities after August 15—those areas will be available only to students. This means that Pratt Field, the tennis courts and other fields are for student use only.
- Family members are prohibited from entering the core of campus.”
NC Governor just announced NC has to stay in Phase Two for five more weeks. Not sure how this will affect the colleges.
@TS0104 Yes, a public academic magnet school in a state with a high infection rate. Other schools in the district may be doing things differently but at least one other high school is doing pretty much the same thing.
The situation seems to be moving quickly on many fronts now.
But just to pick up on fall sports: I really wonder how D-1 schools can go forward.
The health issue is the same, but at some level the costs might even be higher if some D-1 athletes have the possibility of a sports career after college (I’m sure this is the case at D-III programmes as well, but I am less familiar with these). Put another way, a semi-professional athlete might not wish to risk Covid infection, as we don’t know whether there are long-term health difficulties for at least a subset of those who are sickened.
As if NYC didn’t already have a stigma associated with the virus, now this draconian policy? Why would any parent consider sending their Class of 21 student there next year?
Getting interesting at UNC-CH.
The Orange County Health Director has urged the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to move to online education as the default for the Fall semester and to restrict on-campus housing as the COVID-19 pandemic in the county worsens.
Health Director Quintana Stewart made the recommendations in a July 29 letter to UNC-Chapel Hill Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz.
As of this week, UNC-Chapel Hill is moving forward with in-person classes. Thousands of students began moving into residence halls this week in a full-capacity dorm plan that the Centers for Disease Control considers to be “highest risk.”
Santa Clara Update.
Thus, with 6 weeks to go until Santa Clara’s fall quarter begins, I am announcing today that we have made the difficult decision that courses will be primarily online for our undergraduates, with limited exceptions. In addition, we will suspend plans to bring students back to on-campus housing, again with some exceptions. (Most of our graduate programs had already envisioned offering fall 2020 classes remotely). We are joined in this decision by many other universities locally and across the region, including University of San Francisco, UC Berkeley, San Jose State, St. Mary’s College, University of the Pacific, as well as a growing list of institutions outside our region.
JUST IN: 29 members of University of Louisville soccer, field hockey and volleyball teams tested positive for COVID. Programs now suspended. Exposure traced to an off-campus party.
Response from UNC.
We believe we have made significant progress towards aligning with the OCHD’s general recommendations and considerations.
We have increased the number of courses with hybrid capacity thereby limiting on-campus in-person classroom occupancy to only 30%.
We reduced our on-campus residential capacity to 64%.
We have worked closely with UNC Health Care to increase our testing capacity. We have a robust testing program consistent with the CDC’s guidelines for colleges and universities.
The Town of Chapel Hill and our regional transit partners have increased the frequency of routes and added additional vehicles to compensate for the reduced bus capacities. In addition, we have added bus capacity through Carolina Livery to supplement Chapel Hill Transit service.
We are offering increased daily on-campus parking options. Weeknight parking now begins earlier, at 4 p.m. in designated lots, and students are eligible for weeknight parking through reduced student fees. Employee and student permits are now virtual, and reduced pricing is available for commuters and teleworkers.
Davidson just announced a change to their fall plans by delaying the arrival of upperclassmen by 1-2 weeks. First years and transfers are still scheduled to move in next Thurs/Sat. Davidson now plans to have all students back on campus by Aug 31. Classes will still start on Aug 20 with upperclassmen taking them remotely until they move in. Davidson will now test returning students WEEKLY in addition to the sputum test that all students will have to submit 7 days prior to arrival on campus. The announcement was made before the NC governor’s announcement this afternoon extending Phase 2 until Sept 8th. With other small colleges going 100% remote and the governor’s announcement, we fear the other shoe may drop. Davidson is allowing all students including first years to withdraw/take leave without penalty until the 10th day of classes.
NC Governor extended Phase 2 until Sept 8 in part due to the expected return of college students:
“With the opening of schools, people will move around more and so will the virus. Other states that lifted restrictions quickly have had to go backward as their hospital capacity ran dangerously low and their cases jumped higher. We won’t make that mistake in North Carolina.”
The cynic in me would say they haven’t competed in football for a number of falls (sorry, but we can all use a laugh).