AISD's (and other districts) Plans for Schools Starting August 18

[atomheartbevo 89859]

Got this email tonight.  About what I expected.

-------

There will likely be a point in time when any one of our 127 schools may need to switch its instructional delivery model based on the health conditions at a particular school site. 

Our preparations include being able to deliver distance and face-to-face learning, as well as a hybrid approach. 

As we move toward reopening, we would like to share with you some procedures you can expect to see on campus:

• A no-touch temperature check and screening of students, by a staff member wearing personal protective equipment, will occur at designated spots before students can enter the school building. Screenings will take place in vehicles when possible.
• Each person who arrives without a mask will be provided one. However, due to a limited national supply, staff and students will be encouraged to bring their own.
• Student capacity in the classroom will be limited. Staff and student capacity will not exceed 25% of the classroom space. Depending on the specific class size and the ability to safely distance, this will average six to eight students per room.
• Meals will be offered in the classroom. This is to ensure safety for students and staff and is in line with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Texas Education Agency recommendations.
• A staff member or student will need to meet the CDC criteria for returning if they are displaying symptoms, presumed positive or have received a confirmed positive COVID-19 test.
• A staff member or student will need to quarantine for 14 days if they have had direct exposure to someone that is displaying symptoms and/or is presumed or confirmed positive for COVID-19.
• Additionally, every student and staff member that has had direct contact with the affected student/staff member in the last seven days will also need to quarantine for 14 days. This includes, but is not limited to, the students and staff in a class, on a bus route and in group extracurricular activities. 
• The need to shut down an entire campus, the school’s foodservice operations or an entire extracurricular activity for a period of time will depend on the level of contact, isolation of groups and guidance from health authorities.

Also, we understand the need for families to have options as we reopen, and are working to have at-home learning platforms available as well.

----

[TexArcher 38081]

Lunacy

[MNLonghornFUKM 8823]

Lol @6-8 kids per room.

[used2b 249]

Was this email to staff or parents?

[Radical Larry 28664]

Edit: Never mind. I didn’t get the email in the original post.

 

[Horns99 169]

Lol @6-8 kids per room.

How in the hell do they plan on having enough teachers or classrooms to accommodate 6-8 kids per class ?

[Wulaw Horn 19153]

And this is why we are homeschooling this year (not Austin but figure everyone will look more or less the same) and not starting our kids. We will check in in December to see what’s up in our district. 

With all the protests and talk of racial inequality it breaks my heart, as a former educator, to think of what will happen to disadvantaged students in this scenario. 

School and education is the best shot at equalizing outcomes for disadvantaged groups, and under these circumstances the gap will widen and not narrow. This is bad shit for our kids. 

[Larry T. Spider 1747]

1 hour ago, Horns99 said:

 

How in the hell do they plan on having enough teachers or classrooms to accommodate 6-8 kids per class ?

 

Kids will likely go to school 1-2 days a week in person, the rest will be done online. Could be exceptions for special education students. TEA has promised more guidance/expectations on Tuesday so we will see what that brings.

A few things to consider:

Many parents have reached out to me saying the want to remain 100% virtual because they do not feel safe sending their kid back yet. This will be an option and Abbott reconfirmed that today (kinda).

Districts are screwed no matter which route they go with this. Go back full time and it’s “omg they’re killing everyone in a worldwide pandemic”. Stay virtual and it’s “parents have to go to work, online sucks, etc, etc”.

Kids aren’t too impacted by covid (usually) but the adults who work with them damn sure can be. I employ at least a dozen people with risk factors that make this dangerous for them. Going to have to figure it out with each of them on an individual basis.

 

[Larry T. Spider 1747]

30 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

And this is why we are homeschooling this year (not Austin but figure everyone will look more or less the same) and not starting our kids. We will check in in December to see what’s up in our district. 

With all the protests and talk of racial inequality it breaks my heart, as a former educator, to think of what will happen to disadvantaged students in this scenario. 

School and education is the best shot at equalizing outcomes for disadvantaged groups, and under these circumstances the gap will widen and not narrow. This is bad shit for our kids. 

Damn straight. There has been a lot of talk about trying to get economically disadvantaged kids back in the building if their parents are ok with it. It’s just hard when 60% of the students in the district have that label and we are supposed to be dealing with fewer students at a time. Many schools are more than 90% economically disadvantaged. 

As with most things in life that suck...they suck way more when you are poor.

[Anastasis 23473]

1 hour ago, Horns99 said:

How in the hell do they plan on having enough teachers or classrooms to accommodate 6-8 kids per class ?

 

And if they have figured this out, why did it take a pandemic to force a shift in the student:teacher ratio?

[atomheartbevo 89859]

4 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

And if they have figured this out, why did it take a pandemic to force a shift in the student:teacher ratio?

They didn't figure it out.  Most likely, you'll have quite a few kids who will stay at home due to parental choice, depending on what part of town the school is in (i.e. the parts that can afford it), while the parents who are tired of being stuck with their kids or who have no options will send them to school.  In theory, enough parents will keep their kids home to make this a lot easier for the kids who need in-person instruction.

[Anastasis 23473]

LT survey results. https://www.ltisdschools.org/Page/3988

Basically preference appears to be alternating days, rather than AM/PM or 9 week cycles. 

Pretty broad agreement that there was too little teacher interaction during the spring semester.

Parental involvement as a necessity pretty much what you would expect across grade levels. 

[Anastasis 23473]

1 minute ago, atomheartbevo said:

They didn't figure it out.  Most likely, you'll have quite a few kids who will stay at home due to parental choice, depending on what part of town the school is in (i.e. the parts that can afford it), while the parents who are tired of being stuck with their kids or who have no options will send them to school.  In theory, enough parents will keep their kids home to make this a lot easier for the kids who need in-person instruction.

MAkes sense. At least based on the LT survey results, looks like ~70% attendance.  Although I think all the attitudes about these things very dependent on what happens over the next couiple months. 

[atomheartbevo 89859]

1 hour ago, Horns99 said:

How in the hell do they plan on having enough teachers or classrooms to accommodate 6-8 kids per class ?

 

If you have say normally 4 teachers/4 classrooms for a grade in an elementary school  teaching say 70 kids between them, 3 of the teachers could be teaching in-person as usual, and the school could pick up a long-term sub for the 4th classroom - that could give them 32 kids every day with in-person instruction.  The 4th regular teacher will be at home drinking heavily and losing their shit trying to check in on the other 38 kids.

[atomheartbevo 89859]

1 minute ago, Anastasis said:

MAkes sense. At least based on the LT survey results, looks like ~70% attendance.  Although I think all the attitudes about these things very dependent on what happens over the next couiple months. 

I don't have enough anecdotal evidence to make an uneducated guess, but I know a decent amount of parents in our neighborhood who'd prefer to keep their kids home in the fall, either because they have somebody high-risk in the home or that they see often (grandparents), or the kid is high-risk, or they somehow handled this spring okay and think they can do it in the fall.

[atomheartbevo 89859]

This is really going to suck for the pre-kers and kindergartners who haven't had a structured daycare/whatever before now - just as they are starting their school journey, they are going to be learning a shitload of social skills involving "DON'T TOUCH ANY OTHER FUCKING KIDS AND WEAR YOUR MASK AND YOU WILL EAT ALL OF YOUR MEALS IN YOUR CLASSROOM WITH ONLY 7 OTHER KIDS, WHEN YOU WALK THROUGH THE HALL DO NOT TOUCH ANYTHING AND DO NOT HUG YOUR TEACHER."

 

[atomheartbevo 89859]

1 hour ago, Radical Larry said:

Edit: Never mind. I didn’t get the email in the original post.

AISD has sent out multiple emails to parents this evening.

I will say that the teachers we interacted with came on strong after a rough start the first few weeks after spring break.  Our first-grader easily had a good 5+ hours of actual schoolwork a day being given out by the teacher. 

Our only problem was that the kids should have been on Zoom more often with each other and the teacher.  Towards the end, they were all eating lunch together on Zoom, which was cool.  But fucked up when you think about it.

[Anastasis 23473]

2 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I don't have enough anecdotal evidence to make an uneducated guess, but I know a decent amount of parents in our neighborhood who'd prefer to keep their kids home in the fall, either because they have somebody high-risk in the home or that they see often (grandparents), or the kid is high-risk, or they somehow handled this spring okay and think they can do it in the fall.

Agree. We will make a game time decision, but we have flexibility enough at the moment that if we feel it is the right thing to do, keeping the kids home won't throw too much of a wrinkle in our shit.  But man, 3 or so years ago and we wouldn't have had the option without some major work disruptions. 

[atomheartbevo 89859]

Now would be a glorious time to be a Chromebook salesman.

Should have gotten some people together, dropped $50,000 or so on Chromebook on Amazon, and then resold them.

[mchookem 16415]

i don't even have kids, we've just got one college freshmen (niece) we're fretting over, however that's going to work...

but this just breaks my heart, this is going to be SO hard for everyone involved.

i'm sorry for all you guys that do have school age kids that will have to figure this out...but in all honesty, you all will mostly be able to figure it out. poor, disadvantaged, ESL students...this is going to continue to be so difficult. it's just terrible  

[Chet Steadman 940]

Temperature checks at the door for 1300 middle schoolers sure sounds fun.

That should extend opening bell until about 11am or so.  

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

Two things I wish the state would take the reigns on:

Create a Texas wide online school.  If parents want their kids to stay home, they enroll in that.  Take the burden of orchestrating in person education and online education away from the districts.  Sure the big ones could handle it, but bumfuck ISD might not.

2.  Make parents make their choice and stick to it. There's gonna be a ton of parents yanking their kids, putting them back in, yanking again, etc.  

 

It's gonna be a clusterfuck no matter what.  So many scenarios and they are mostly shitty.

[ZB'Tejas 593]

Was just wondering if a thread like this was started yet. Watching closely for sure as our PreSchool was cancelled once this hit and we have not gone back. However in August both kids would be in the program however if they stay home that going to be a big inconvenience for sure as we are both still working from home. I think both our offices are saying we don't go back in until at least 2021 but kids at home is not good on productivity as many of you know. And I don't even want to get started on the tuition I'm paying for BS "online learning"

[Johnny Sack 8397]

This is madness.  

[Larry T. Spider 1747]

9 minutes ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

Two things I wish the state would take the reigns on:

Create a Texas wide online school.  If parents want their kids to stay home, they enroll in that.  Take the burden of orchestrating in person education and online education away from the districts.  Sure the big ones could handle it, but bumfuck ISD might not.

2.  Make parents make their choice and stick to it. There's gonna be a ton of parents yanking their kids, putting them back in, yanking again, etc.  

 

It's gonna be a clusterfuck no matter what.  So many scenarios and they are mostly shitty.

Point 2 is a big concern for us. We are looking at creating groups of 6-8 kids that come to school two days a week. These groups will take weeks to create because every service imaginable has to take place in the classroom now. 

For example, kids that need reading intervention would usually go to the specialist at a specific time with kids from other classes that are on the same level. We can’t mix them up now. Kids have to be grouped so that reading intervention can be provided by a teacher who travels from class to class. Now do that x5 other things and it quickly becomes a Rubik’s cube.

We will likely ask parents to commit to a program for the first semester before switching. Legally they can probably switch but it will definitely mess things up.
 

 

[MNLonghornFUKM 8823]

Temperature checks at the door for 1300 middle schoolers sure sounds fun.
That should extend opening bell until about 11am or so.  

Lmao right.

[Homercles 10206]

 

9 minutes ago, Johnny Sack said:

This is madness.  

What do you think should happen?

[Johnny Sack 8397]

Just now, Homercles said:

 

What do you think should happen?

Kids should be in school as normal.

Olds and high risks should social distance until there is herd immunity or an effective vaccine.

Everyone else should move the fuck on with life.

[Larry T. Spider 1747]

Let’s say a middle school has 1200 students and 800 of them are going to school in person. That would mean 400 on A days and 400 on B days.

If you have 10 people with temp scanners, they would do 40 each. Could easily be done in a typical 20 minute arrival period.

[Larry T. Spider 1747]

Just now, Johnny Sack said:

Kids should be in school as normal.

Olds and high risks should social distance until there is herd immunity or an effective vaccine.

Everyone else should move the fuck on with life.

We have a ton of kids that live with grandparents or other high risk people. I don’t have stats, but the number would shock most people. Especially true in the Hispanic and Asian communities, which make up over 60% of our district.

[Homercles 10206]

1 minute ago, Johnny Sack said:

Kids should be in school as normal.

Olds and high risks should social distance until there is herd immunity or an effective vaccine.

Everyone else should move the fuck on with life.

Practically I agree with you.  Having my 6yo home trying to complete his distance learning work, whole my wife and I worked full time, absolutely sucked...and she’s also an educator where her district is hinting at making staff work both remote and onsite in a logistical clusterfuck.  
 

On the other hand her school has a pretty poor demographic, many of which live with their aging grandparents or have no access to health care.  Since the matter of children as carriers/spreaders isn’t fully settled yet, I can understand district’s wanting to take precautions.  I also want to avoid/prolong my wife and I getting sick with this thing as long as possible...the thought of both of us going down at the same time with a 3 and 6yo running around is incredibly unappealing.  
 

So ‘moving on with life’ could be an unmitigated disaster for lots of folks, my family included.  We may not be high risk of death but I’m not going to dismiss the districts efforts at a compromise.  

[Johnny Sack 8397]

1 minute ago, Larry T. Spider said:

We have a ton of kids that live with grandparents or other high risk people. I don’t have stats, but the number would shock most people. Especially true in the Hispanic and Asian communities, which make up over 60% of our district.

Then they can decide whether to stay home.  Most Americans don't live with olds.  And shit, I don't know about Asians, but I have lived with and around Hispanics my entire life.  Including several years in the valley.  There are a whole lot of young Hispanic grandparents since so many have kids young.  

Kids need to be in school.  This is not healthy for them and will have severe ramifications down the road.  The data I have seen shows that for school aged kids, COVID is less deadly than the flu.

 

[Johnny Sack 8397]

Just now, Homercles said:

Practically I agree with you.  Having my 6yo home trying to complete his distance learning work, whole my wife and I worked full time, absolutely sucked...and she’s also an educator where her district is hinting at making staff work both remote and onsite in a logistical clusterfuck.  
 

On the other hand her school has a pretty poor demographic, many of which live with their aging grandparents or have no access to health care.  Since the matter of children as carriers/spreaders isn’t fully settled yet, I can understand district’s wanting to take precautions.  I also want to avoid/prolong my wife and I getting sick with this thing as long as possible...the thought of both of us going down at the same time with a 3 and 6yo running around is incredibly unappealing.  
 

So ‘moving on with life’ could be an unmitigated disaster for lots of folks, my family included.  We may not be high risk of death but I’m not going to dismiss the districts efforts at a compromise.  

Then you could choose to stay home and do distance learning.  Got zero issue with that being an option and support it being funded.

[Wulaw Horn 19153]

10 minutes ago, Johnny Sack said:

Kids should be in school as normal.

Olds and high risks should social distance until there is herd immunity or an effective vaccine.

Everyone else should move the fuck on with life.

Look, nobody is as pro- ignoring this thing and developing herd immunity with healthy people getting infected and a couple here and there dying because it beats the alternative than I am, but I get what’s going on with the school from having been a teacher. The thing about the school is that it’s universal and they HAVE to educate everyone and accommodate everyone (laws and judicial rulings) so that gets really hard. 

What I wish they would do is give parents a choice- business as usual on some campuses and this weird hybrid mixture that others are trying to do. 

[Johnny Sack 8397]

3 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

Look, nobody is as pro- ignoring this thing and developing herd immunity with healthy people getting infected and a couple here and there dying because it beats the alternative than I am, but I get what’s going on with the school from having been a teacher. The thing about the school is that it’s universal and they HAVE to educate everyone and accommodate everyone (laws and judicial rulings) so that gets really hard. 

What I wish they would do is give parents a choice- business as usual on some campuses and this weird hybrid mixture that others are trying to do. 

Should be business as usual.  And parents who so choose can do online.

[BrazilHorn 6637]

I hope they have the material ready. They were absolutely caught flat footed in the spring and it was a total joke in terms of the work they had to do. Was absolute makework, literally zero meaningful instruction.

They have now had a number of months to get ready and I hope they spent them wisely otherwise you are going to see a burgeoning business of at home only private schools emerge.

[formermav43 4606]

26 minutes ago, Johnny Sack said:

Kids should be in school as normal.

Olds and high risks should social distance until there is herd immunity or an effective vaccine.

Everyone else should move the fuck on with life.

And what about the teachers, paraprofessionals, and administrators who are old or high risk?

[The University 851]

i worry about kids with one parent, or even worse, only a parent by name. school may be the only vestige of structure in their life.

[Larry T. Spider 1747]

10 minutes ago, BrazilHorn said:

I hope they have the material ready. They were absolutely caught flat footed in the spring and it was a total joke in terms of the work they had to do. Was absolute makework, literally zero meaningful instruction.

They have now had a number of months to get ready and I hope they spent them wisely otherwise you are going to see a burgeoning business of at home only private schools emerge.

That depends on the campus and teacher. I had UT professors asking to use some of our material in their lessons because they liked it so much. I have other teachers that can’t figure out how to plug their computer in. 

[Wulaw Horn 19153]

9 minutes ago, BrazilHorn said:

I hope they have the material ready. They were absolutely caught flat footed in the spring and it was a total joke in terms of the work they had to do. Was absolute makework, literally zero meaningful instruction.

They have now had a number of months to get ready and I hope they spent them wisely otherwise you are going to see a burgeoning business of at home only private schools emerge.

This probably will likely happen, it

gets the school model back to tutor and pupils at home, maybe almost like the British model from a couple centuries ago, which is probably a better model to be honest. But, it’s not scalable for the entire country. Rich get richer. 

[BrazilHorn 6637]

1 minute ago, Larry T. Spider said:

That depends on the campus and teacher. I had UT professors asking to use some of our material in their lessons because they liked it so much. I have other teachers that can’t figure out how to plug their computer in. 

O'Henry & Casis. We were lucky if we had 30 minutes of material a day this past Spring. Was an absolute joke, to be fair I don't think AISD at all was ready. By no means was the traditional school day replicated via Zoom and/or amount of work to be done. Was a total and obvious check box. I give AISD a pass for the Spring as shit was crazy and it just dropped in their laps. For this fall I am hoping they have their act together.

[Js1 85636]

14 minutes ago, formermav43 said:

And what about the teachers, paraprofessionals, and administrators who are old or high risk?

you forget the absolute contempt and “DGAF” the esteemed Sack has towards minorities and the “working” class. Fuck ‘em for his 401k

”move on with life” is such a privileged thing to say 

[Larry T. Spider 1747]

In aisd, staff that can complete their job remotely must be given the option to do so if they have serious risk factors. There is a special “covid leave” for people that can’t complete their job duties remotely. Need to reread the doc but it’s 66% pay I think.

For teachers, they can be matched with students that are doing virtual learning only. About 90% of my staff wants to be back on campus.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8823]

And what about the teachers, paraprofessionals, and administrators who are old or high risk?

Go to work and move on with life?

 

If you cut the US deaths of non LTC residents, we’re around 50-60k. So If you take the 50-60k who aren’t LTC and find the unicorns who were healthy enough to be a teacher,para or school admin.... what’s the chances of dying then? .0001?

 

 

We should be looking at how places in Europe did who went back to school for 2019-2020 and see what happened there. There were a few countries that did.

[StruggleBus 3922]

4 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Go to work and move on with life?

If you cut the US deaths of non LTC residents, we’re around 50-60k. If you take the 50-60k who aren’t LTC and find the unicorns who are healthy enough to be a teacher,para or school admin.... what’s the chances of dying then? .0001?

I'm here to question your math skillz

[SwanderedTalent 5761]

11 hours ago, used2b said:

Was this email to staff or parents?

students, OP is still in the fourth grade

[MNLonghornFUKM 8823]

I'm here to question your math skillz

I was told there’d be no math

[formermav43 4606]

7 minutes ago, MNLonghornFUKM said:

Go to work and move on with life?

 

If you cut the US deaths of non LTC residents, we’re around 50-60k. So If you take the 50-60k who aren’t LTC and find the unicorns who were healthy enough to be a teacher,para or school admin.... what’s the chances of dying then? .0001?

 

 

We should be looking at how places in Europe did who went back to school for 2019-2020 and see what happened there. There were a few countries that did.

Well Johnny said they should social distance until there is herd immunity or a vaccine. So your suggestion isn’t really responsive to that.

But, aside from that, your argument hinges on 1) quarantine vs. opening up fully being irrelevant to the number of cases, 2) death being the only negative outcome, 3) and being at risk yet healthy enough to work somehow being unlikely. Those are all debatable to put it mildly.

[Johnny Sack 8397]

36 minutes ago, Js1 said:

you forget the absolute contempt and “DGAF” the esteemed Sack has towards minorities and the “working” class. Fuck ‘em for his 401k

”move on with life” is such a privileged thing to say 

Fuck off asshole.  You are such a miserable little person.

Edited June 19, 2020 by Johnny Sack

[SimonBolivar 10961]

1 hour ago, Johnny Sack said:

This is madness.