Our old district in OH did the same thing in terms of requiring families to commit now to all online or the hybrid. It seems like it backfired on them because families who opted for all online headed to well established online schools and are leaving the district entirely, taking their state funding with them. IMO, this is a disaster for public education on so many level.
Meanwhile our new district’s board is getting harassed for announcing that they will prioritize getting marginalized students back in the classroom first. IMO, that’s the right thing to do but they’re getting lambasted, mostly from people outside the community
@momofsenior1 why would people outside the community care?
This is something I wish our district would do - as much as my high schooler doesn’t want to be home and he did struggle in the spring, he has the resources and support necessary. So many do not and they should be the focus IMO.
Interesting with all the talk about leadership and how critical it is and how much we need it (at various levels including colleges and K-12). But as soon as leadership is exercised, all kinds of people complain and object. I think what too many people really want is just leadership that makes decisions with which they agree and makes everyone who disagrees shut up or go away.
@leigh22 - FoxNews ran a story about our district and made it sound like we were only bringing back URMs to school. It was totally ridiculous. The criteria were students on free lunch, students without wifi, students with no parent at home during the day, students with IEPs, ESL students, etc… While that is unfortunately more persons of color in our community, in no way shape or form was it a race based decision. There was an article in our local paper yesterday saying that board members were getting racist letters in the mail, on social media, etc… Pretty horrible. I’d link the article for you but for some reason CC flags posts from our local paper. If you are interested in reading the school board response, you can google “Evanston Round Table school board defends priorities for in person learning.”
The governor said that schools who want to go remote only must present the reasons why, and a plan to move forward and get their shools ready for in-person instruction. This is partly because the city of Elizabeth had 375 teachers who could not return to school because of health reasons, which left the district without enough teachers to open. I don’t believe that this will affect the smaller districts. There are 584 districts in NJ’s 21 counties, so this is very different from a state like Maryland, with the countywide school districts. For example, my k-12 district has under 1000 students, no busing, and can work very nimbly to react to rising numbers.
@jagrren yes. I know. This dad I spoke with does not get it. You can’t have in-person school (which he vehemently wants) and parties outside of school (which he thinks are all good). He actually said, “kids will be kids” and shrugged like he had no control over his high school kids and agreed that they should do whatever they want outside of school. This is a popular opinion here. That’s why I’m saying we will not be in school very long.
Districts by me are either having morning and afternoon sessions or are having a single session with a 1:00 dismissal to avoid lunchtime. One district near me originally planned for a full day because they thought parents would demand it, and the parents objected so strongly to the idea of lunch in school that they quickly went to a 1:00 dismissal.
I support the no lunch idea, but a split day must be so much harder for parents in terms of transportation and childcare. And…after 1:00 is a long time to go without having lunch, especially for the relatively high proportion of kids who don’t eat breakfast.
The smaller, richer district are ready to go. The city districts, which were already struggling with overcrowding, failing ventilation, and crumbling facilities, can’t really plan because there is no funding to fix all of the existing problems. They would also need to lease space in community buildings, bring them to code, and furnish them to accommodate the high number of students. It’s not a lack of desire to serve, it’s more an acknowledgment of insurmountable problems.
@Mwfan1921@jagrren D21 already worried about not eating until after 1:00. She does eat breakfast but it’s at 6:30 in the morning. I told her that it’s only two days a week. One good thing is that all testing will be on the remote days so kids who need to eat to feel well before exams don’t have to worry about that at least.
As for block. I think if we switch to all remote, we switch to a kind of block schedule with four classes a day instead of all of them but the kids still have seven academic classes this semester.
In my kids’ school, it was a student council member who hosted the party that lead to the Covid outbreak. I don’t think the students will be looking to her and her friends for leadership in the pandemic.
Another thing we learned in the returning to Amherst webinar: significantly more students opted for remote learning than expected. They expected about 1200-1250 students to be returning to campus; the actual number of students returning is less than 1,000 (approximately 975).
@saillakeerie Re ND testing – we are in Indiana and know many people affiliated with ND. Everyone – students, faculty, staff – has to do a daily online health check, which asks whether a person has been exposed to anyone with covid or has any number of possible symptoms, such as sore throat, fever, cough etc. A person either gets a “green pass” to come on campus or a “red pass” which requires follow up with covid unit. It’s not clear if everyone with a “red pass” is rtested – perhaps testing is mandated when there is more than one symptom checked. Hard to imagine that everyone with a headache or nausea has to get covid tested since but who knows. So, the “Here” dashboard shows the number of new, post move in tests, and positive test results.
@Midwestmomofboys I have a couple friends with multiple kids at ND. I understand there is a parents call/conference today that will provide status updates. If the testing procedures are as you describe (and it makes sense to me its how they would proceed), they are conducting symptomatic testing only. No tests unless symptoms. They presumably had the ability to test more than 67 people since August 3rd. They could use that capacity to test people on campus without symptoms with that capacity.
Some districts have the resources, many others don’t. Some NJ districts do not have PPE for their staff, cleaning supplies etc…requiring teachers to fund raise or buy it themselves. That is unacceptable.
Teachers have not been trained to do temperature checks, lunch duty, etc. Again…not acceptable.
Districts have been planning all summer and handed their plans in to the state. Planning…brings to light all of the impossibilities.
Some districts have a great opening plan, but not all.
