Ann Arbor Public Schools - fully remote to start school year
https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2020/07/ann-arbor-public-schools-plans-fully-virtual-start-to-new-school-year.html
Can't say I'm too surprised. While I have mixed feelings on this, I feel it's the best call. As soon as one teacher or student tested positive, it's hard too imagine the school staying open, so closures were inevitable. I assume many other districts around the area will soon follow suit. Best of luck to the students and parents navigating this new terrain.
Best of luck to the students and parents navigating this new terrain. (Forgot to add teachers here, too!)
Sorry, saw this just this morning:
"Just how small is the risk for teachers returning to school classrooms this fall? The Times of London reports:
There has been no recorded case of a teacher catching the coronavirus from a pupil anywhere in the world, according to one of the government’s leading scientific advisers.
Mark Woolhouse, a leading epidemiologist and member of the government’s Sage committee, told The Times that it may have been a mistake to close schools in March given the limited role children play in spreading the virus."
This is America. We can do things no one else can.
That would be great & I hope that's true. I think we'll learn a lot more from schools down south starting in a few weeks.
Nebraska also is back to regular, full-time in-person instruction August 12th.
I've heard children of the corn are immune.
1) More than half of people with COVID don't know where they got it from
2) Kids are overwhelmingly mild and asymptomatic, so their cases would largely go undiagnosed
3) Most of the available school data is from countries who opened school AFTER getting the virus under control
This theory that child humans are incapable of spreading a virus to adult humans is quite a straw to grasp at
There's also this story from last week: https://www.jweekly.com/2020/07/19/israeli-teacher-dies-of-covid-after-begging-parents-to-keep-infected-kids-home/
That's not true, the poster above you said that a London professor said that there are NO documented child to teacher cases in the whole world
That guy is full of shit - there are multiple confirmed cases of daycare teachers getting infected from small children in multiple countries. USA has had this in a bunch of states, especially the south
France and Israel had outbreaks in high schools especially
Taken with the available evidence from the several other studies showing transmission by older children is still pretty high and in the case of high school age, nearly that of adults, it's pretty fucking ridiculous to be saying that there's no reason to fear teachers contracting from students and saying sweeping statements like "not a single case in the entire world"
At the very least such statements should be accompanied with the caveat that the data documentation is pretty piss poor in places where outbreaks are happening, because the very places that have big outbreaks have poor contact tracing and testing. And because school in the US hasn't opened up yet.
Shit is going to get real in places with high positive testing rates forge ahead with school openings
Exactly. I highly doubt any 1st world nation would have reopened their schools, or anything else for that matter, with the virus as out of control as it is here.
And anyone that believes children don't spread diseases like little plague rats doesn't have kids.
I wish that schools could be opened, but starting online only is the right move until we get this thing under control.
“Anyone that believes children don't spread diseases like little plague rats don't have kids.”
Or doesn’t teach haha!
I am biased here since I am a teacher, but with cases out of control, living in a county that’s at a level 3 about to hit 4 (Franklin County Ohio) it makes zero sense to put kids back in a classroom. I honestly believe if it hadn’t been politicized by a certain group it wouldn’t even be an issue. Just would have been “we’re keeping things remote till it’s under control because it’s the right thing to do”.
Even the lowest estimates for deaths amongst kids is around 14,000, and a ton of people are like “that’s fine, just jam them back because we need our free daycare. Won’t be my kid that dies”. Also totally forgetting that schools are filled with adults!
And people claiming that if restaurants and grocery stores are essential then schools should be done, remember restaurants changed to carry out. Schools have other options like remote learning, to prevent the need for schools to reopen.
When first hit with the shutdown schools were not prepared so it was off the cuff, but with summer happening schools have been prepping to make sure things will run better. It doesn’t make sense to risk people’s lives when other options exist.
For sure! I cannot count the number of stomach flu exchanges in my house of three kids over the years. They pass things, and it's ugly.
No positivity, that pisses too many people off.
LOL!!! School has been closed everywhere since this thing started! What a dumb story...
“There has been no recorded cases...”
That quote reminds me of someone else much more famous saying the exact same thing 4,103,674 cases ago.
No point in trying to convince the doubters, even with news sources.
I wonder if they considered different options at elementary / middle / high school levels. Seems a one-size-fits-all may not be best...
Pre-K and Kindergarten kids are in trouble right now. If all primary schools close, districts should be allowed to offer expanded preschool that would also incorporate Young 5s and Kindergarten. The development of that specific age group is a serious concern right now. They are in a specific kind of developmental purgatory that is painful to observe.
Our son was in kindergarten last year. We are lucky to be able to afford a private tutor to keep him on track. Other's in his school district are not so lucky and I have the same growing concerns for these young kids getting behind.
My son was going into Kindergarten this year. He had been in full time preschool through the district since he was 3 years old. The kid literally loved going to preschool, did not understand why he had to stop, and does not understand what is happening. He was happy, full of ideas and potential, and eager to take on anything that came his way. Now nothing comes his way and I don't know how to help him with that. There are no organized sports for that age, no clubs that have really formed that are being allowed. He can't get close to his grandparents. It is just a void.
Kids that age desperately need school to resume.
I’m sure it’s difficult for your child and many others. Not trying to downplay that. But they will be just fine. We’re talking about 4-6 months here, not years and years of isolation.
I think it’s a bit of an overreaction to say kids at that age are in serious trouble. Going back in history lots of children that age were home schooled or simply not in school yet. They adapt much better than adults, and again, this is only temporary.
The best thing we can do as parents is lead by example. Try to carry on in a productive way. Be flexible and adjust to our situation. Recognize that this is only temporary and make the most of it. Do that, and our kids will do the same.
With a son going into young 5's, I share your sentiment. My daughter did Y-5's and it was great but as you allude, there really isn't any "virtual" substitute here for this. It's interaction with other students, teachers and "special" classes such as art, music (and recess) are hugely important. My only hope is that trials on the vaccine continue to go well and we see a return to physical school in Jan/Feb '21.
There's no perfect solution, but I think having in person for K-6 and virtual for 7-12 is the best compromise to accommodate in-person guidelines and existing classroom capacity.
I would probably start the first several weeks with k-2, then expand upwards to provide at least a bit of data, but agree with your general principles.
1. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing
2. start with the youngest kids first.
Even better would be to do a 2 week trial period (k-2 or k-5), then go online for 2 weeks to evaluate what needs weren't anticipated. You'd get a great chance to see how spread looks and make plans from there. Schools just aren't equipped to plan out a year with no information.
Yes, the data do show that kids under 10 don't get this as much and don't spread it as much as tweens and teens (who are essentially like adults when it comes to spreading). Middle schoolers and high schoolers are much better equipped to handle online learning, although my MS and HS students do miss their friends and band.
Good observation IMO. It seems that the transmission risk is inversely correlated with (increasing) age.
The best research I can see is that young-child-to-adult transmission is very rare, but that middle school and high school kids spread COVID just as well as adults. Younger children obviously need more learning supports as well and cannot stay home without parents.
One teacher's district is doing virtual for high school and middle school, and opening up the buildings to provide more spacing for elementary school kids. That's one of the best approaches I've seen so far.
Yes it was considered and sounds like it will be evident when the slow phase in begins.
what are M testing numbers as a %age of tests given?
NYS said schools will close region by region if they exceed 9% infection rate. Allowed to open if less than 3% IIRC.
We have been bumping along at 3 to 4% for the last two weeks. About a month ago, we were around 2%, but after an increase following July 4, we seem to have leveled off in the last week.
That's statewide. Different regions (e.g., west side of the state) are doing a bit worse.
This is a useful site, https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-coronavirus-dashboard-cases-deaths-and-maps
FWIW, my strong guess, based on listening to their superintendent, is Detroit Public Schools will at least do a hybrid, unless cases track up significantly.
Mark Woolhouse leading epidemiologist told the London Times on Monday there has not been one recorded case in the world of a teacher catching the Corona virus from a student.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/no-known-case-of-teacher-catching-coronavirus-from-pupils-says-scientist-3zk5g2x6z
If not for the U.S., Brazil and India the U.K. would likely be the world's worst example of how to manage this pandemic (it is certainly the worst in Europe) so I wouldn't take anything this government says too seriously.
It's not just students infecting teachers that's a concern.
Not sure whether this is the correct call, but US education will continue to slide down the world rankings like BERT at a waterpark.
My local school district (Virginia) gave us a vote on three different options- A) all remote; B) all at school; and C) hybrid of 2 days at school, three remote. For the hybrid option, we had the choice of starting remotely, and going back to school in the second semester (or vice versa). The overwhelming tally was all remote, something like 93%. So that's what we're starting off with, all remote. Near the end of the semester we'll vote again, after seeing how things are going.
So I've been setting up the boy's room with a desk. I hope this goes better than the impromptu 'go home and Zoom' deal that ended the last school year...
It will go better, perhaps a lot better.
I know a ton of teachers, and they have had much more time to prepare lessons & technology than they did in the spring. Ann Arbor teachers, for example, are currently in professional development learning Schoology, the Learning Management System they'll be using. Last spring, they were forced to basically wing it.
It still will be a big challenge, particularly for certain kids and families, but the chances for success will be much higher.
Thank you for that information. It would be nice to get that message out better. Maybe it was sent already and I missed it.
My hesitation to all of this is the disaster that was the end of last year. Many teachers were completely disinterested in the virtual teaching and they were still collecting their full check. A couple teachers were great, but that was the exception rather than the rule.
AAPS had a survey that was similar, although they haven't released the results. There was a meeting with the A2 teachers union and the school board a few weeks ago and the teachers were really expressing hesitation about return to school.
Which school district is that? In NoVA? I've paid property taxes in Fairfax, Loudoun and Fauquier so I'm curious.
Spotsylvania... We usually follow the lead of Prince William County, which follows Fairfax County's lead.
This county is in a sort-of no man's land between NoVA and not-NoVA. It doesn't consider itself NoVA, nor does NoVA consider it a part of the club. But, so far as Richmond is concerned, it's lumped right in with NoVA. As example - if you want to watch the local news for traffic updates, neither the Washington or Richmond stations come this far. The northern stations stop cold at Aquia, and the Richmond channels stop hard well south of Ashland.
The Kings Dominion theme park is only 20 minutes from my door, though, so I have that going for me...
Definitely the right call for high schools.
Personally, for K-5 (and probably 6-8), I would prefer the hybrid model as an option, due to the different transmission rates for little kids and their different learning needs / abilities.
Hopefully, West Bloomfield (and I'm sure there are others, but I'm not aware of any) are able to do the hybrid plan successfully in the Fall for K-8, and then at least for Winter semester we can start having more districts with their younger kids, physically, in school on at least a semi-regular basis while keeping teachers, staff & kids safe.
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2020/07/16/west-bloomfield-schools-shift-to-online-hybrid-learning-for-the-fall/
I'm in Royal Oak and the goal seems to be the hybrid option, but the tea leaves are saying online only to start.
How are WB schools these days? I've heard both good and not so good. We've looked at a few houses over there.
That's not my district, so I can't say from personal experience, but they've always been excellent by reputation & with parents I've talked to.
Plus, they now have one of the top football programs in the state, so that's another plus.
There are some areas of WB that feed in to Birmingham or Bloomfield Hills schools. So you get the benefit of WB housing prices and taxes and the benefits of a stronger school district.
Just close them all and go remote. Little kids do get it. Little kids will get it. Schools will have to close. Why do people fight the inevitable? Look at summer camps for how the fall will go. Many had to close due to virus outbreaks.
I agree. Schools were not designed for kids to be socially distant. It's unfortunate, it's a burden, it's a pain in the ass. But it's just too risky to send the kids back. Also, less people are thinking about it from the teacher's perspective. Many teachers are scared as hell to get back in a classroom during a pandemic.
We've dug ourselves in too deep of a hole right now.