I am a teacher in Southern California, but not a public school teacher. I, too, am awaiting a decision by our administrators and the board, who are waiting on LA Unified School District (the 2nd largest school district in the country) along with state and local health officials, to provide guidelines.
As a person with multiple health issues, including heart disease, immunosuppression, and balky kidneys, I cannot re-enter the classroom until a vaccine has proven its worth. I do not envy Fairfax and Loudoun County teachers and staff workers who may be told to return, and who fall under the same restrictions I have. Bad enough that anyone might be pressuredâor forcedâinto a decision that might very well be life threatening. Too, those officials working for those districts are also under considerable pressure from all sides to make snap decisions that are going to work.
I do hope that those not in the education business understand the connection between re-engaging in in-person schooling is vitally linked to the economy because schools fundamentally operate as de facto day care structures so parents can feel confident enough to go to work.
Addressing the fallout of the pandemic without addressing how the economy has made all of us vulnerable is a mistake we cannot afford to make. The climate emergency is already upon us, and that impact dwarfs anything we are looking at now. We need to study closely how the structures of our economy intertwine with our ability to respond to these emergencies.
I donât think she should be anywhere near a classroom.
âOf course those meetings are being conducted under the strict guidelines provided to us by the Santa Clara County Public Health Department,â Kemp said, according to the Chronicle.
Results would suggest not.
and @bwillator illator Final topic change: my wife also teaches middle school and I have a son in high school. We got a similar survey with zippo for methods. Her school district also added a clause to her contract stipulating that she could be furloughed at their whim. And theyâve already cut faculty and support positions, so sheâd be teaching five classes of different ages and curricula with no planning period and no time for remediation. Sheâll have to develop plans to teach students everything they missed in the last quarter, plus keep up with the statewide goals specified by the Republican legislature. Plus sheâs going to have to learn an entirely new, and this is the 4th since March, software system that still doesnât allow single grade entry or parent communication. So she also has to enter grades and assignments not just once, but 3 times to keep up with all the different tracking requirements.
Anyone who talks about teachers only working from 8 to 3 and getting 3 months of vacation every year is going to be introduced to my steel-toed boot.
Oh, and the top-heavy administration who havenât set foot in a classroom in 15+ years get paid between $100K and $250K to come up with unified plans to plan for these kinds of things. Sure, COVID wasnât on anyoneâs radar screens, but their reaction has been more like cockroaches when the lights come on than trained professionals who can call on all kinds of resources, not to mention getting feedback from their frontline staff before taking indecisive action.
(folding soapbox, onto the next street corner)
ETA: I was under the impression that parts of northern California were joining the âsecede from the stateâ movement. Anyone know if Santa Clara is part of that?
That problem originates right at the top. The primary reason that we are in this mess is the complete, utter lack of competent national leadership. What is more, it is mind-boggling that this fool persists in this behavior, despite ample evidence to the contrary. Even more mind-boggling is that certain states (for this, read âred statesâ) persist in this behavior, despite ample evidence to the contrary.
Not well. And, given, the circumstances, that was entirely predictable.
Bottom line, we should not be going to school in face-to-face settings this fall here in the US.
As I said above, my wife is a teacher. In her follow-ups with parents the most frequent question is, âHow do you put up with 120 of these every day?â
Oh, lovely, now the CDC is recommending against testing college students, faculty, and staff returning to school unless theyâre showing symptoms or have knowingly interacted with an infected person. What, have we gone back in time to early March??
My state is planning on a full re-opening of all schools in August to start the new school year. It will be a shitshow. Sorry for the permanent lung damage, Brayden.
By the state of common understanding, this is irrefutably true. As a teacher in a problematic demographic, itâs a message that I support as an explanation and as a basis for protective measures.
By the same token, however, possible outcomes for infected children are not necessarily that well understood. At least one possibility, the development of Kawasaki Syndrome, is very concerning.
Covid-19 is still a new disease and its possible manifestations and courses are not well understood. Using classrooms as incubators for exploring those outcomes seems, at best, irresponsible to me.
There is a more troubling conclusion to take: that the guidelines they followed were woefully inadequate to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Though we know more than we did three months ago, we are still very much in the learning phase of this virus. âCan we safely hold an indoor activity with multiple people?â is still an open question.
