I agree that in person instruction is almost always better than online. Still, the schools are going to have to be replacing whatever number of teachers and staff opt to leave or take leaves of absence and figuring out how to replace those who get the virus during the school year (weeks or months might have to be taken off). It’s also possible more grief counseling than usual will likely have to be lined up.
Regardless of where the virus comes from (students or environment), those issues will have to be dealt with.
ps It can be difficult to find bus drivers and some teachers (esp high school) even in a good year. Cafeteria ladies are often older - as are aides. Aides are as difficult to find as bus drivers. Our school district is almost always looking for these. I probably could just use always. We’re pretty typical among all stats I’ve seen. Where do these people come from?
Would you recommend that K-12 students variolate themselves with SARS-CoV-2 this summer so that when they return to class in the fall, they will have herd immunity and neither get sick of COVID-19 nor pass it to teachers and other school staff? Or is the risk of something bad happening still to high to do that?
Of course, if they did that, the parents would have to take appropriate precautions, but it may be easier to do that if they knew when the kid was infected, rather than constantly worrying if the kid were asymptomatically infected at an unknown time like the way it is now.
It’s looking more and more like pre-teens and younger don’t transmit the virus very much, and maybe older children don’t either. This is great news for re-opening K-12 schools, because, seemingly, kids wouldn’t pass the virus to teachers and staff, though they might get it from teachers and staff.
emilybee I have a close contact who works in the system for a living. School lunch was just (as in late yesterday hasn’t even hit the public) extended through the summer. So far no additional funds to the schools for it, which I doubt is coming, since there is quite the deficit and districts are being cut funding for education next year.
This is all brand new - during Covid19 schools continued the lunch program not only for free and reduced but opened it up to anyone in need no questions asked. It has just been extended for summer. I’m sure NYC has their own food program but this is new to the suburban districts outside the city. There is some concern that this will remain permanent with this social program being moved into he school budgets.
No, this stat is based on raw data. Nevertheless, there is reason to be optimistic about the true risk faces by teachers in the workplace based on the NYC experience.
Median age for NYC teachers is about 40-42. Only 10% of teachers are younger than 28, and of course practically none is younger than 24 or 25 given the education requirements. About 10% are over 60.
Considering that the entire age distribution is left truncated at the group that faces approximately 0 risk (<25 years old), while approximately 20% of the general population of NYC is in this excluded age cohort, I do not think that age primarily explains the death rate disparity, but it might if it is true that COVID overwhelmingly affects only the elderly. Co-morbitidies in the NYC teacher population are likely going to be very high.
Female/male disparity might partially explain, as NYC teachers are approximately 75% female and males face higher risks of poor outcomes.
In any event, teachers face no outsize risks, and should be accorded no more concern, than any other group in the weighing of the economic and social costs versus the medical risks of continued shutdowns. Time to reopen the schools in my opinion.
I’ve still yet to hear where all the replacements for school staff come from… Even if it’s just 5% more than normal, normal is tough for our school to fill for some jobs.
FWIW, our school is still watching to see what happens contemplating multiple options. But there are already more job openings listed than seems normal.
A bunch of you need to start driving school buses or become aides for students. The cafeteria needs help too. The teacher openings can likely be filled with new college grads, but not many young folks apply for the other positions - actually - none that I know of.
Even if it’s not “dangerous” by Covid standards (meaning maybe there won’t be trauma from deaths), it still doesn’t change perception or reality that fewer staff look like they will be returning. Schools have to deal with reality. Kids need to be transported to school (in most communities). Kids need to be fed. Some kids need personal aides (one of the toughest spots to fill on a good year - along with bus drivers).
It’s not all teaching.
Where do the new people come from? For any of those jobs, one has to pass all the background checks and they generally aren’t high paying jobs, nor do they always come with health insurance or other perks. If one says pay needs to increase to tempt folks to do the jobs, are they willing for school taxes to go up to cover the extra?
I can see filling most teacher spots with grads, so there will likely be more new (aka inexperienced) teachers than usual in the first year, but we just don’t get youngsters taking those other jobs. Who does them? Or how does a public school deal with not having enough? We already run our buses on double runs, getting middle/high school first and elementary/intermediate afterward. How many kids can be crammed on a bus?
@meemoe, thanks, that was a helpful article. With any other administration we’d be hearing more about it, but maybe it is just as well the manufacturers and distributors are being allowed to keep their heads down and get to work.
I believe 40% of workers earning under 40k/year lost their jobs. The openings you describe do not require much in the way of education or certification ( other than teaching, which you note college grads can do). Most jobs require some type of background check anyway.
I find this interesting. I’m in CT. I volunteer weekly for a non-profit. I’m over 65. I have been told very explicitly that the governor here still says folks over 65 should be continuing SIP. I’ve read the guidelines myself…numerous times…and this is indeed his recommendation…over 65 and those with underlying health concerns should not be returning to the work place.
So…what about the staff at schools who fall into this category? Should they be forced to return to the classroom…or lose their jobs? Where I worked, these were the most experienced and highly regarded teachers.
We are not in a high unemployment area… We have plenty of food factories around. Guess what hasn’t been closed? Other businesses are opening up between today and the start of the school year. How many do you think will leave their regular job to become school bus drivers when they didn’t before?
Pre-covid, H’s school has lost approximately 25% of staff each year for the last several years. So far, it doesn’t look to be any more than usual. He knows of 8 leaving thus far. (They have 4-5 teachers/grade K-5 plus specials) 3 are retiring, but they had put in their papers before Xmas.
That being said, the school system has a really hard time filling positions. It’s not uncommon for kids to have long term subs for an entire semester. And FYI long term subs here don’t teach. They are babysitters. One year, all non advanced 8th grade math classes had a sub and sat the kids in front of a computer for the entire year. No surprise they had < 10% passing rate on standardized tests. Short term subs are even harder to find. Many times at H’s school they can’t find subs at all and divvy up the kids into other classrooms. That would be awesome for social distancing!
So if teachers go down for 2 weeks at a time, how in the world will they find bodies to staff the classrooms? and extending lunches? They already start lunch at 10am. Eat in the classrooms? You mean where they sit 4 to a little round table? Wear masks? These kids don’t come to school with clean clothes. You think they will come with clean masks? And the thought of them keeping them on? LOL. No way. a good day for H is one where he isn’t called to remove a child destroying the classroom - throwing computers, desks, punching kids/teachers. Usually it’s multiple kids per day. They aren’t the most compliant and reserved bunch who will diligently follow rules.
Right now, the school district is trying to prepare for multiple scenarios. H has been to meetings where he says it sounds like they will open as usual. Another meeting, it sounds like everything will be online and they are getting trained in technology to make things work better. Another meeting, they talk about hybrid scenarios - half the kids/day, etc. Nobody really knows at this point, and I don’t blame them. There’s not much more they can do.
I’m seeing some who appear to be taking leaves of absence for a year.
Jobs that are “only” for a semester or year are often more difficult to fill. Our district usually doesn’t have problems filling “real” teaching jobs because we’re one of the highest paid in the area, but even we have difficulty filling the short term jobs - and the aides + bus drivers. Elementary is the easiest to fill. High school can get far more difficult.