39 minutes ago, Mike030270 said:

Just because you haven't personally experienced it doesn't mean it hasn't happened...

Do you have kids? Anybody with kids would never say "I hope schools are closed". 

4 minutes ago, Paul852 said:

Do you have kids? Anybody with kids would never say "I hope schools are closed". 

Do you not get Just because you haven't personally experienced it doesn't mean it hasn't happened...

6 minutes ago, Paul852 said:

Do you have kids? Anybody with kids would never say "I hope schools are closed". 

This we can agree on across the political spectrum.

lol

I’m sitting here with my daughter, a teacher.  In Pa this week these districts throughout the state put out their 1st draft of a reopening plan.  She is a reading a 56 pg document.  Her Union rep was not allowed to speak publicly at the board meeting.  Apparently this is not considered a negotiation. Ha.  I asked how she felt and she does not feel safe. 
 

In her district the survey response was 30%.  What that tells me is these folks just don’t get it.  If my 2 children were of school age today, I would definitely keep them in a home school setting until we can get a vaccine.  It’s 1 year.  It’s not the rest of their school lives.  I fear there won’t be enough teachers that will choose to teach in these settings even with these so called plans.  It’s not going to work for larger schools.  At least not without countless interruptions.  It’s a novel virus.  We did 4 months what’s another 10?

Stay home.  Get to know your kids. Your teachers can support you on line. 
 

I mean really, how the f do you conduct a fire drill 6 ft apart?  Remember the PPE shortage?  Think of how much more is needed to re open.  Face shields are needed for the kids. Not masks.  They adapt to these better (like a super hero) and it keeps them from constantly touching and adjusting a mask. Gloves.  Disinfecting shared workspaces constantly.  It’s crazy-unless 1 teacher to no more than 25 kids in one room for the entire day.  That’s blasphemy! 

A school district In Missouri sent home a "death waiver” where they are requiring parents to Sign and hold the school harmless should their child(ren) die.

 

 

19 minutes ago, DBW said:

A school district In Missouri sent home a "death waiver” where they are requiring parents to Sign and hold the school harmless should their child(ren) die.

 

 

A little bit misleading.  It’s a waiver for parents to sign to allow their child to be in an activity/sport.  Here’s the waiver that I was able to find online:

 

3 minutes ago, RPeeteRules said:

A little bit misleading.  It’s a waiver for parents to sign to allow their child to be in an activity/sport.  Here’s the waiver that I was able to find online:

 

Ok thanks for clarifying - when I saw the story earlier it was as if it was to return to school.  This is still bad though. 

10 minutes ago, DBW said:

Ok thanks for clarifying - when I saw the story earlier it was as if it was to return to school.  This is still bad though. 

I agree, but I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as people are making it out to be.  I think they’re adding the COVID thing to the waiver just to cover themselves.  I wonder if a normal waiver notes the part about death or not.  I’d imagine it notes injuries at least.  It’s been a while since I’ve been in school and have a few more years until my kids can potentially play sports for school.

2 minutes ago, RPeeteRules said:

I agree, but I don’t think it’s nearly as bad as people are making it out to be.  I think they’re adding the COVID thing to the waiver just to cover themselves.  I wonder if a normal waiver notes the part about death or not.  I’d imagine it notes injuries at least.  It’s been a while since I’ve been in school and have a few more years until my kids can potentially play sports for school.

I guess getting sick is no longer an assumed risk of being around other people so yeah it’s a CYA move.   

7 hours ago, Dave Moss said:

 

You seem in denial.  
 

In denial of what?

14 hours ago, The_Omega said:

Never mind the large number of experts who think that it's important that we do so.  

More important than the lives of the children?

11 hours ago, Dave Moss said:

 

Yes, we certainly do not want the Centers For Disease Control to be a resource to control a disease. 
 

Back to the actual topic though. I don’t really have an issue with sending kids back, including my kids, because of the low risk to them and because it would be helpful to get me back to work. But if that were the end of the analysis, we would all be extremely selfish. We have to think of the teachers, staff and multi generational families that would be at a greater risk as well as the risk for worsening the spread. 
 

Israel thought they had it under control and started reopening including schools, without appropriate protections and now everything is back into shutdown chaos. 
"On Tuesday, in testimony to the Israeli parliament, Udi Kliner, Sadetzki’s deputy, reported that schools—not restaurants or gyms—turned out to be the country’s worst mega-infectors.”  

The Second Wave’ of COVID Hits Israel Like a Tsunami  https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-second-wave-of-covid-hits-israel-like-a-tsunami

Parts of our country have this well controlled and PA is one of them.  Wolf and Levine did a great job controlling the spread but they still must answer for the horrible miscalculation on the nursing homes as do other states. 
Other parts have no control and that’s where reopening schools gets very scary and precarious.  
I don’t have the answer but I believe we should attempt to open on a phased scale based upon the numbers in that location: 1. All online; 2. Partially online and partially in school; and finally, 3. Fully open but with masks and social distance  

 

 

13 hours ago, Dave Moss said:

 

sounds like shmegma's posts from yesterday.  

 

57 minutes ago, mr_hunt said:

sounds like beta's posts from yesterday.  

 

what happened to the Schmega name?  i liked that one the best

33 minutes ago, DrPhilly said:

what happened to the Schmega name?  i liked that one the best

oh yeah...i forgot about that one.

 

 

fixed!!!  

9 hours ago, DiPros said:

I’m sitting here with my daughter, a teacher.  In Pa this week these districts throughout the state put out their 1st draft of a reopening plan.  She is a reading a 56 pg document.  Her Union rep was not allowed to speak publicly at the board meeting.  Apparently this is not considered a negotiation. Ha.  I asked how she felt and she does not feel safe. 
 

In her district the survey response was 30%.  What that tells me is these folks just don’t get it.  If my 2 children were of school age today, I would definitely keep them in a home school setting until we can get a vaccine.  It’s 1 year.  It’s not the rest of their school lives.  I fear there won’t be enough teachers that will choose to teach in these settings even with these so called plans.  It’s not going to work for larger schools.  At least not without countless interruptions.  It’s a novel virus.  We did 4 months what’s another 10?

Stay home.  Get to know your kids. Your teachers can support you on line. 
 

I mean really, how the f do you conduct a fire drill 6 ft apart?  Remember the PPE shortage?  Think of how much more is needed to re open.  Face shields are needed for the kids. Not masks.  They adapt to these better (like a super hero) and it keeps them from constantly touching and adjusting a mask. Gloves.  Disinfecting shared workspaces constantly.  It’s crazy-unless 1 teacher to no more than 25 kids in one room for the entire day.  That’s blasphemy! 

very good post & i agree with most of it.  but the big issue for a lot of families will be the part in bold. i have a job. i can't stay home. 

9 hours ago, DiPros said:

In her district the survey response was 30%.  What that tells me is these folks just don’t get it.  If my 2 children were of school age today, I would definitely keep them in a home school setting until we can get a vaccine.  It’s 1 year.  It’s not the rest of their school lives.  I fear there won’t be enough teachers that will choose to teach in these settings even with these so called plans.  It’s not going to work for larger schools.  At least not without countless interruptions.  It’s a novel virus.  We did 4 months what’s another 10?

 

There won't be. They need more teachers than they already have if they plan on successfully following social distancing guidelines in schools. Most city schools are struggling to have enough decent teachers and subs during normal times. I think a lot of teachers will "find something new" when they try to force schools to reopen. Also I would expect a large drop in first year teachers this year. If I was going into my first year teaching I'd probably take the year off and do something else until this settles.

Six hour school board meeting from my old high school this past Monday with 80% on the topic of what to do this fall. 

3 hours ago, Toastrel said:

More important than the lives of the children?

How many children in the us have died from the coronavirus? 20x more have died from the flu.

7 minutes ago, BirdsFanBill said:

There won't be. They need more teachers than they already have if they plan on successfully following social distancing guidelines in schools. Most city schools are struggling to have enough decent teachers and subs during normal times. I think a lot of teachers will "find something new" when they try to force schools to reopen. Also I would expect a large drop in first year teachers this year. If I was going into my first year teaching I'd probably take the year off and do something else until this settles.

Thank God you and those teachers aren’t healthcare workers.

11 minutes ago, mr_hunt said:

very good post & i agree with most of it.  but the big issue for a lot of families will be the part in bold. i have a job. i can't stay home. 

^^My wife WFH (travel industry) and I can too in short stints but she's tied to her desk in her office and can't be there to help teach and ensure the kids are doing what needs to be done.  I have a desk setup in the living room but find it very hard to work when I'm being interrupted by them constantly for help, this and that.  We're lucky that we can WFH but it's incredibly difficult to keep the kids on task.  There would need to be a major overhaul of the virtual learning in our district because what they had quite frankly sucked.  clunky to use.  No feedback.  A half hour Google meet once a week.  Basically just teacher's posting lesson plans and that was it.  We're paying them 80k a year plus benefits just to post a few lesson plans each day.  F right off with that.

3 minutes ago, rambo said:

^^My wife WFH (travel industry) and I can too in short stints but she's tied to her desk in her office and can't be there to help teach and ensure the kids are doing what needs to be done.  I have a desk setup in the living room but find it very hard to work when I'm being interrupted by them constantly for help, this and that.  We're lucky that we can WFH but it's incredibly difficult to keep the kids on task.  There would need to be a major overhaul of the virtual learning in our district because what they had quite frankly sucked.  clunky to use.  No feedback.  A half hour Google meet once a week.  Basically just teacher's posting lesson plans and that was it.  We're paying them 80k a year plus benefits just to post a few lesson plans each day.  F right off with that.

Yeah, pretty much every sector of the workforce has needed to take reduced hours/pay cuts in some capacity. Teachers should not be immune from this as well if they're going to be working reduced hours and remotely.

I was working from home 2 or 3 days a week from March until the end of June. At that point I couldn't do it any more. It's impossible to focus or get anything done. Simple mundane tasks were taking 3 or 4 times as long to complete. We ended up getting a neighborhood teenager to watch the kids on those days and it has worked out much better this month.

I feel like this return to school thing is a severely complicated issue and I find myself conflicted with it constantly.

10 minutes ago, The_Omega said:

Thank God you and those teachers aren’t healthcare workers.

This seems to be a common idea. That teachers are the same as healthcare workers. Weird since they don't get paid like healthcare workers.

Study on school reopenings

 

16 minutes ago, rambo said:

^^My wife WFH (travel industry) and I can too in short stints but she's tied to her desk in her office and can't be there to help teach and ensure the kids are doing what needs to be done.  I have a desk setup in the living room but find it very hard to work when I'm being interrupted by them constantly for help, this and that.  We're lucky that we can WFH but it's incredibly difficult to keep the kids on task.  There would need to be a major overhaul of the virtual learning in our district because what they had quite frankly sucked.  clunky to use.  No feedback.  A half hour Google meet once a week.  Basically just teacher's posting lesson plans and that was it.  We're paying them 80k a year plus benefits just to post a few lesson plans each day.  F right off with that.

same. 90% was done through email. separate emails from each teacher..some the night before...some first thing in the morning...then additional emails to correct stuff they screwed up in their earlier emails.  a couple teachers tried using zoom but it never quite worked. some were horrible with technology & couldn't even figure out email attachments.  it was garbage & my kid's grades suffered. 

i'm hoping the district is using this summer to get their sheet together & organized for at home learning...because there's no doubt in my mind that it's coming.