Absurdly, our high school school district on Long Island is planning on opening like regular in Sept and are awaiting the state and local government to tell them what to do. I wish the district started making alternate plans and not scramble in August.
When i speak up i am made to feel like i am the chicken ? in “the sky is falling” story. Am I? My town for reasons beyond me believes school and business should restart with little intervention.
Can someone reality check me please?
Your school district IS making plans. They just don’t feel obligated to share them yet.
I was on a zoom call with our school principal and he says the possibilities change by the day, if not multiple times a day. Two weeks ago he said if he was a betting man, he’d bet on staggering days and no extra curricular activities. Today, on a call with my daughter’s guidance counselor, he suggested daily in-person classes and selective ECs. And that could change tomorrow.
Obviously communicating all these variations would only sow confusion and indicate that it’s open for debate when it’s not going to be.
It is tough living with the uncertainty. You’ll manage.
Our school has also said to stay tuned to see what fall will be like. They haven’t said this directly to parents - or at least I don’t think they did. I sometimes skip reading letters sent out to parents. It’s definitely been communicated many times to those of us working there.
They haven’t made decisions yet because no one knows what all of this reopening will bring to society. There are many things being considered. This isn’t just at our school. Our leaders are in contact with other local schools and our state.
Meanwhile, the last day of this year is Friday. It was last Friday for seniors. We’re having a drive up graduation like many other districts.
The community college where I teach Adult Ed, has announced three levels to be moved through in stages as conditions permit: online only, limited on-site for lab courses, increased on-site with sanitation & social distancing. All options (even a potential return to on-site for all classes) include online components to accommodate high-risk students and instructors who can’t safely be on campus. The summer will be entirely online, and we are to plan for an online only start up in the fall. I expect most K-12 schools have similar multiple levels of contingency plans as well. I also expect that many places will be using the summer to ramp up their online tools and instructor training so that the worst-case scenario can be accommodated quickly if necessary.
I really want our schools to open up and I was hopeful until I am experiencing a very slow reopening of my NYS region (not a hot spot). I realize now we’ve gone from “slow the spread” to “nobody must get sick.”
I just don’t see how it could possibly work as students and staff start to get sick once the next season comes. When we add Covid19 with Influenza, common cold, Strep, Mono, and everything else we get all winter I don’t see how this could work. The minute someone is sick, they will need to stay home until we know it isn’t CV. There won’t even be enough staff. My state doesn’t seem willing to live with the virus but rather wants us to shelter from it so I see school as a no-go.
Everything has been cancelled for summer. My teenager’s planned job is gone. I really feel for the younger folks who are giving up so much.
I want it to open and for us to go on. I would prefer to see the vulnerable shelter going forward.
I don’t know if my school is typical, but just with this policy there’d be a lot of teachers and staff who would need to be replaced. School bus drivers, kitchen staff, janitors, guidance, teachers, aides, etc. Not everyone teaching or working in school is under age 50ish and healthy. We have those close to retirement, cancer survivors, and folks with other health issues like diabetes, etc.
It’s only the kids who are uniformly young - and some of those have health issues too.
If you want your school to open, perhaps you could offer to take the place of someone who shouldn’t be working to help out.
Looks like West Bloomfield K-12 district in Michigan has made their decision for fall…only 2 days per week live classes, the rest remote.
So much for those who have been certain that K-12 schools will open so parents can go to work. Many sides to the issue that’s for sure.
I do think it’s curious that they have already made the decision for fall, I doubt they have any more information/data than any of us on CC. But, I guess it gives parents time to plan and find childcare arrangements. West Bloomfield does say they will offer childcare if they get federal grants to do so…it’s unlikely there is enough federal money to go around for every school district to offer that though.
At least one college (ND maybe) has stated they are going to start the semester 2 weeks early and then transition to remote learning around November 1st and complete the semester prior to Thanksgiving. I have a feeling we will see a lot of K-12 schools do something similar.
At the college level this will give the students essentially 2 months off (December and January) during peak flu season. If they delay the second semester by a week or two, extending the semester later in May, and then do remote learning for a few weeks they will keep campus closed for the bulk of the flu season.
It would be a bigger challenge for K-12 but even having the whole moth of December off and then maybe remote learning in January would help if there is a second wave.
I like that west bloomfield has a plan. I’m the sort to plan and work out the kinks so when it is time to roll it out everyone has a solid, expected plan. That seems sensible to me. Our district has said they are not planning for alternatives any sooner than July or august. As for now, they are focusing on June graduation and prom, and building schedules for 20-21 with 9 periods of back to back classes as usual.
I know some of you have replied that my district must be working out plans but not ready to get feedback. I am an officer of the Parent teacher council, and can tell you they are not making plans other than we will revisit in August.
I guess i am not feeling confident in our district considering how lousy the current learning is going. There is no online live class… Between both my kids there are 2 taped lectures a week (one from ss, and one from math) and an assignment or two a week (english and math). Lousy is an understatement.
I don’t know how your district works, but I don’t think the PT Council (or PTA, or Boosters, etc.) is high enough up the chain to be a party to the fall plans/accomodations. In our district, this is being hashed between the school board and the superintendant based on whatever tidbits/data/suggestions the state’s DOE is throwing their way. I am sure the principals of our six high schools get to voice their opinion, but - even if they know more than they’re saying - the fact (as it applies to our area anyway) is that they aren’t primary actors in the debate either.
I am in total sympathy on the e-learning. Ours was awful, even though our teachers are amazing and stayed engaged the whole time (and DD did have some live classes). I realize spontaneous/emergency e-learning isn’t ever going to be as strong as planned-out/tried-and-true e-curricula, but the latter was not an option to DD in mid-March.
@silverpurple I am with you. I don’t believe our district is making plans. They waited until the students were home 4 weeks before sending a survey in mid-April to find out which students had reliable internet! I can’t understand that delay. The e-learning for my S22 has ranged from one almost good (English - once/week zoom, multiple reading and writing assignments - but no feedback on work, and small student inquiry groups doing assignments), to absence of instruction (Spanish - three packets have been posted, no feedback on work, no correct answers posted, no zoom, no recorded lectures, nothing). I am gearing up to email the School Board, Superintendent, and Principal. The other classes have been closer to Spanish than English. The high school just has to do better in Fall - my son has several AP classes planned, and isn’t a great independent learner.
Our school district displays similar acumen. Their belated survey was sent via email. The purpose of the survey was to have people who didn’t have access to the internet or email let them know so they could figure out if loaners were needed. For those that didn’t have email, the other way they could let the district know they didn’t have access to the internet was to go to the district website and complete an online survey.
I am not making this up.
The online instruction was widely varied because the district didn’t come up with any plan or platform, just let each individual teacher decide how/when/if instruction and testing would happen.
The latest was the follow up survey they sent to see how online instruction was going. Don’t worry - you could still click a link to let them know you don’t have online capability. In the introduction to the survey, in big, bold letters they asked for your honesty and were clear that the survey was anonymous, no personal information would be asked and nothing would be linked to your student or used against them. When you clicked on the survey, it asked for your full name, student’s name, address, email and phone number. Now I have to wonder what they consider “personal information”…
CDC released guidelines for schools yesterday. I haven’t looked them over yet. I have been doing a little bit of substitute teaching the past 2 years, mostly at the high school. I really miss it, but I will have to weigh carefully the risks before I go back.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/schools.html
Some decent advice in the cdc guidelines.
In terms of scheduling, I’d like to see our high school embrace the cohorting ie that student and staff groupings are as static as possible by having the same group of children stay with the same staff (all day for young children, and as much as possible for older children). And limit mixing between groups if possible.
And,
Staggered Scheduling
Stagger arrival and drop-off times or locations by cohort or put in place other protocols to limit contact between cohorts and direct contact with parents as much as possible.
Thank you for sharing the CDC guidance for schools. When I read that I think there is no way in person school is happening. It is just too difficult. Maybe smaller schools could do a hybrid online/in-person model but I don’t see a chance for larger schools.
This will be my son’s senior year. It is just so sad. He has spent 14 years playing a sport that obviously won’t happen. He would have been captain next year. I imagine he will be selecting a college sight unseen.
Has anyone heard what their district is planning for PE, chorus or band?
so many of those hands-on courses will be hard to teach online. I can’t imagine where to start. I hope schools share resources or ideas of how they are making plans. @Empireapple - I am sorry about your son’s sport. It’s really hard on these kid HS kids. Hoping you have lots of pictures and videos up to this point to enjoy and look back on.
DS teaches high school in a remote town unaffected by the virus. Summer school will still be remotely taught. No solid plans for fall have been formulated. The one being talked about most is a block schedule with longer classes, held every other day.
But even with that it seems futile. Kids will be kids. They will be gathering at their lockers, in the restrooms, at lunch and so on. And they are at extremely low risk. It seems that teachers and staff, those that are older or who have diabetes, cardiovascular disease, etc. are the ones at risk. A plan to encourage those at risk to take early retirement or be moved to jobs with little student contact would be more feasible.
That is a good idea a out a block schedule with longer classes. My district is thinking of a shortened class (40 minutes) and increase the time for the hallway passing switching classes. Yours makes a whole lot more sense.
I posted this link in the “big” thread, then thought it could also be useful here for anyone not interested in the bulk of the other stuff there:
It’s the first poll I’ve seen about schools. It doesn’t even touch staff returning, just teachers and students. There are also other questions they asked if anyone wants to see the whole article.
“If schools reopen this fall, nearly 1 in 5 teachers surveyed said they weren’t likely to return to teaching. Among teachers 55 and older, those with the most experience, one in four said they probably wouldn’t return.”
“There are qualms among parents as well. If classrooms reopen this fall, parents by 59%-36% say they would be likely to pursue at-home options, such as an online classes or home schooling. By double digits, men were more likely than women to consider pursuing those alternatives. Those with lower household incomes were more interested than those with higher incomes, and racial minorities were more interested than whites.”
Homeschooling doesn’t pull from our budget - it saves a district money TBH, but students who go to the online schools get their portion of the school’s money sent to the online company here in PA if I’m recalling correctly - someone can fix it if I’m wrong. It’s been awhile since that topic came up in a conversation I’ve been involved in. Having a high percentage of kids doing that will really put a wrench in the school budget - on top of trying to replace teachers and staff. Though… I guess if so many students don’t return we won’t need as many teachers?
So many variables for schools to be pondering and no clear answer. We won’t even know what reopening did for/to the country until July to have an idea if the fear will still be there in the fall.