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

[washparkhorn 9939]

It is going to be a bear - everywhere. But some of my best classes were those where the teacher/prof took the class outside and under a tree.

In the short term, shade tree learning and field trips to closed cultural venues are options. Hell - requisition the damn golf courses for classes on the fairways. There is plenty of green and unused space in Austin right now with so many working from home. A small class could use some of those unused indoor spaces sporadically - since they are empty.

Learning opportunities abound outside the classroom. Schools have an excellent opportunity to innovate in this setting. Provide guardrails from above and then let the school community - including parents who want to help - make it a reality.  Differential learning has taught us there thousands of avenues to impart knowledge. Adaptability and Perseverance are valuable skills to pass on to learners. Time to adapt and persevere. 

[CooterBrown 18006]

21 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

How do we do arrival procedures that allows teachers to be in their room to welcome students but enough staff to socially distance and temp check 500+ kids?

How do teachers get a duty free lunch and conference period with everything being done in the classroom?

 

From an AISD teacher we know...

The specials teachers (Art, Music, etc) will be responsible for checking kids as they are funneled through a couple of checkpoints into the school.

The specials teachers will not be allowed to teach in their own classrooms. They will have all their stuff on a cart and move classroom to classroom.

At least the specials teachers will have no breaks for anything. Due to the staggered lunches, they're are always kids in class so they'll be teaching from opening bell to closing bell.  They also have to be there early to check kids coming in.

I imagine several specials teachers will get C-19 on the first day and spread it through the school.

[Guest Lobo]

So 2 questions for you lawyer types and I'm gonna use some wrong terminology here, but...

The AG, and a statewide regulatory agency (in this case, TEA...but say for some reason GLO or Ag weighed in on it), say that local health agencies can't tell school districts when/how to reopen.  Makes sense.  I don't agree, but I get the legal basis for it.  What about school districts that fall under multiple public health agencies?  My school district encompasses 3 different cities.  The school district adjacent to ours straddles two different counties.  There are several others like this throughout Central Texas.  How do they account for that?  

My deeper question is how will this effect voting in November?  Schools can reopen for 8 hours/day for the whole semester, but if it's not safe to vote for ten minutes one day in November, we have to move Election Day?  Can the AG and the Secretary of State (and related regulatory agencies), again override local officials (in this case the county staff who run polling places and count ballots) and say, "No, we can tell you to open up schools despite what your County Health officials are telling you and we can tell you to not open up polling places despite your County Health officials saying it's safe to run into Randall's and vote at lunch."     Does the mandate from OAG and related agencies to counties/schools set a strange precedent for counties/polling places a few months later?  Obviously one is more heavily tied to funding than the other, and money usually wins out.  But I'm curious about this strange juxtaposition.  

[Larry T. Spider 1746]

8 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

From an AISD teacher we know...

The specials teachers (Art, Music, etc) will be responsible for checking kids as they are funneled through a couple of checkpoints into the school.

The specials teachers will not be allowed to teach in their own classrooms. They will have all their stuff on a cart and move classroom to classroom.

At least the specials teachers will have no breaks for anything. Due to the staggered lunches, they're are always kids in class so they'll be teaching from opening bell to closing bell.  They also have to be there early to check kids coming in.

I imagine several specials teachers will get C-19 on the first day and spread it through the school.

The problem is that we typically combine some classes when they go to special areas to make the numbers work. This is no longer allowable, which makes it a cluster. Especially true for pe as there are state requirements for minutes. 

The most immediate issue that we are working through is that the state is saying that we have to open our doors to students without technology starting on day 1 if we want funding. Many principals feel that they will be dealing will so many students that it makes social distancing difficult. The other question is who is going to teach them? All the other teachers will be teaching the kids learning virtually. What staff is willing to come to school right now? It quickly starts to look like warehousing kids in places where they can do the same online work the other kids are doing at home. Seems miserable for the kids and the schools.

I’ll just say that we are looking at all options and many are drastic changes from what we were planning three days ago. I felt like we actually had a decent plan until tea dropped this on us.
 

 

[mdmost 43001]

Our school's (DISD) specials teachers consists of three ladies who all just had newborns towards the end of the previous school year. None of them are going to want to sign up to put their babies at risk unless they can do their jobs remotely. So I guess the kids will get PE at least...or not. So if DISD adopts that plan, that's 3 teachers who are out. 

Edited July 30, 2020 by mdmost

[atomheartbevo 89648]

40 minutes ago, Larry T. Spider said:

The most immediate issue that we are working through is that the state is saying that we have to open our doors to students without technology starting on day 1 if we want funding. Many principals feel that they will be dealing will so many students that it makes social distancing difficult. The other question is who is going to teach them? All the other teachers will be teaching the kids learning virtually. What staff is willing to come to school right now? It quickly starts to look like warehousing kids in places where they can do the same online work the other kids are doing at home. Seems miserable for the kids and the schools.

People are waking up to the fact that TEA, etc.  are run by either complete fucking idiots, or people with an agenda that does not align with quality, at least under the circumstances, education.

whynotboth.gif

[Guest Lobo]

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/texas-coronavirus-update-austin-schools-young-population/269-7005c068-7377-4c8f-a65a-0d256acbfea4

Christ, does it hurt some of y'all to be among the dumbest fucking people to ever walk the Earth?  

[CleverNickname 1308]

13 hours ago, Lobo said:

My deeper question is how will this effect voting in November?  Schools can reopen for 8 hours/day for the whole semester, but if it's not safe to vote for ten minutes one day in November, we have to move Election Day?  Can the AG and the Secretary of State (and related regulatory agencies), again override local officials (in this case the county staff who run polling places and count ballots) and say, "No, we can tell you to open up schools despite what your County Health officials are telling you and we can tell you to not open up polling places despite your County Health officials saying it's safe to run into Randall's and vote at lunch."     Does the mandate from OAG and related agencies to counties/schools set a strange precedent for counties/polling places a few months later?  Obviously one is more heavily tied to funding than the other, and money usually wins out.  But I'm curious about this strange juxtaposition.  

For the most part I bet the figure out alternative polling locations. Lot of empty office buildings sitting around, hopefully they'll let precincts vote there. 

[Anastasis 23469]

4 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

The most immediate issue that we are working through is that the state is saying that we have to open our doors to students without technology starting on day 1 if we want funding.

TEA can eat a dick.

IT.IS.OUR.FUCKING.MONEY.YOU.FUCKING.ASSHOLES.

Our districts are being money whipped by the fucking government to get our own money back from them to educate our children. 

Texas government does not believe in limited government.  They believe in whipping your children into a social epidemiological experiment forced upon them. Fuck them. And fuck you if you don't feel me. 

[Larry T. Spider 1746]

It’s not just that they have terrible ideas and are holding money hostage. It’s that they keep changing the rules weekly. We are smart enough to find a way to make it work if you give us one set of plans. 52 hours after their last blackmail “guidance”, they still haven’t explained to district leaders what all of their conflicting statements actually mean.

[JohnLocke 115]

11 minutes ago, Larry T. Spider said:

It’s not just that they have terrible ideas and are holding money hostage. It’s that they keep changing the rules weekly. We are smart enough to find a way to make it work if you give us one set of plans. 52 hours after their last blackmail “guidance”, they still haven’t explained to district leaders what all of their conflicting statements actually mean.

Exactly.  This is way past the last minute.  Explain how social distancing works without limiting the numbers on campus.  What a CF. 

[bad_teammate 13194]

10 minutes ago, JohnLocke said:

Explain how social distancing works without limiting the numbers on campus,

Ah well, you see, it's very simple, first you...

[atomheartbevo 89648]

Quote

 More than half of the Burnet County Independent School District student body has not registered for the upcoming school year, sparking immediate concern from district officials as they try to make plans for the fall semester.

According to a Facebook post published by BCISD on Thursday, 56% of students enrolled in the 2019-20 academic year have not completed their returning-student registration process. 69% of families have not indicated which learning method, either virtual or in-person, they intend to choose.

Quote

For comparison, the Hays Consolidated Independent School District has nearly 73% of its students fully registered for the 2020 academic year.

https://www.kxan.com/news/education/more-than-half-of-the-burnet-cisd-student-body-has-not-registered-for-upcoming-school-year/

Way to fuck your school district.

[Larry T. Spider 1746]

For virtual, we have to see the kid in a zoom, get work turned in, or make some other contact with them for them to be counted as present. If not, no funding for that day. If even 10% of those kids stay awol, it can destroy the budget. 

We haven’t even started to talk about how the next budget cycle that will be hashed out in the legislature next spring will be brutal. Not trying to be chicken little, but the effects of this will be with us for years after day to day life gets back to normal.

[Samson's Wig 3191]

No doubt, Larry.  I think we may be watching the end of public schools in Texas unfolding.   What is left standing when the dust clears may not be a place many are willing to send their kids.  State leadership making a poor choice in a tough situation is understandable, but their inability to make a choice at all is baffling and is causing irreparable harm.  It's been so terrible that it's easy to assume this is being done purposefully in an attempt to create an environment where citizens push for vouchers, but that's giving these maroons too much credit. 

[Samson's Wig 3191]

7 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

https://www.kxan.com/news/education/more-than-half-of-the-burnet-cisd-student-body-has-not-registered-for-upcoming-school-year/

Way to fuck your school district.

Are you talking about the parents not enrolling their kids, or the state leadership creating an environment where parents are left wondering if public school is a reasonable place to send their kids?  Because hot damn the state is doing their damnedest to make reasonable people sit back and wonder if there isn't a better place for their kids to learn right now.

For Burnet, I think this is the crux of it: "CISD Superintendent Keith McBurnett said the district implemented a new student information system this year, which requires families to register even if they attended school last year...."

I thought it was interesting that AISD included three options on their recent survey this week:  1) face to face; 2) virtual; or 3) not enrolling my kid in AISD.   I've heard that there has been a large number of students disenroll at my kids' elementary school, but this must be an issue district wide if AISD is asking about it in their survey, right?

Edited July 31, 2020 by Samson's Wig

[CooterBrown 18006]

45 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

No doubt, Larry.  I think we may be watching the end of public schools in Texas unfolding.   What is left standing when the dust clears may not be a place many are willing to send their kids.  State leadership making a poor choice in a tough situation is understandable, but their inability to make a choice at all is baffling and is causing irreparable harm.  It's been so terrible that it's easy to assume this is being done purposefully in an attempt to create an environment where citizens push for vouchers, but that's giving these maroons too much credit. 

[InkaUtexas 25907]

8 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

For virtual, we have to see the kid in a zoom, get work turned in, or make some other contact with them for them to be counted as present. If not, no funding for that day. If even 10% of those kids stay awol, it can destroy the budget. 

We haven’t even started to talk about how the next budget cycle that will be hashed out in the legislature next spring will be brutal. Not trying to be chicken little, but the effects of this will be with us for years after day to day life gets back to normal.

Great point about the next few years. We are all so focused on this term. So real question, what programs get cut? Art?Advanced classes? Sports? 

[Samson's Wig 3191]

3 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

Great point about the next few years. We are all so focused on this term. So real question, what programs get cut? Art?Advanced classes? Sports? 

Lol.  In a couple of years public school in Texas may just be a sports training camp, and anyone wanting their child educated academically will be looking elsewhere.  Athletics has been the absolute top priority of public school in Texas for almost a century.  That won't change now, even though it should.  Art programs receive so little funding already that the only thing left would be to fire the teachers and repurpose the spaces. I wouldn't be shocked if that happens.   A band hall could be converted into one hell of a locker room.

Edited July 31, 2020 by Samson's Wig

[Captainant 27653]

33 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

A band hall could be converted into one hell of a locker room.

Band halls already ARE giant locker rooms lol. Just lockers full of instruments and uniforms

[InkaUtexas 25907]

1 hour ago, Samson's Wig said:

Lol.  In a couple of years public school in Texas may just be a sports training camp, and anyone wanting their child educated academically will be looking elsewhere.  Athletics has been the absolute top priority of public school in Texas for almost a century.  That won't change now, even though it should.  Art programs receive so little funding already that the only thing left would be to fire the teachers and repurpose the spaces. I wouldn't be shocked if that happens.   A band hall could be converted into one hell of a locker room.

Yep, they just told a friend who teaches HS AP Art (Focus is Ceramics) he will have to move from class to class. How the fuck does he do that? Maybe there is a market in portable kilns. 

[dcar00 14181]

we should probably be focusing on the basics for this year. it sucks but it is what it is.

[atomheartbevo 89648]

2 hours ago, Samson's Wig said:

I thought it was interesting that AISD included three options on their recent survey this week:  1) face to face; 2) virtual; or 3) not enrolling my kid in AISD.   I've heard that there has been a large number of students disenroll at my kids' elementary school, but this must be an issue district wide if AISD is asking about it in their survey, right?

AISD (and to be fair, other districts) does not want to deal with parents who are going to try and game the system of having their kid enrolled in a public school, but also not having said kids actually attend, virtually or physically.

There are parents who think this will be a repeat of the spring, where they can occasionally check in and tell the teachers they are doing the work, without actually having the kids do the work.

[StruggleBus 3922]

On 7/30/2020 at 12:27 AM, washparkhorn said:

Hell - requisition the damn golf courses for classes on the fairways.

I'll fight you

[Wulaw Horn 19069]

11 hours ago, JohnLocke said:

Exactly.  This is way past the last minute.  Explain how social distancing works without limiting the numbers on campus.  What a CF. 

Yeah. It doesn’t and it can’t. 

[Wulaw Horn 19069]

27 minutes ago, InkaUtexas said:

Yep, they just told a friend who teaches HS AP Art (Focus is Ceramics) he will have to move from class to class. How the fuck does he do that? Maybe there is a market in portable kilns. 

AP art?  And it focused on making ceramics?  And someone is getting $60k to do a job that probably pays $1500 a semester to do working at the community college learning annex? 
And there’s AP credit for this (he says, for the second time, his mind blown)?

[atomheartbevo 89648]

2 hours ago, Samson's Wig said:

I think we may be watching the end of public schools in Texas unfolding.   What is left standing when the dust clears may not be a place many are willing to send their kids.  State leadership making a poor choice in a tough situation is understandable, but their inability to make a choice at all is baffling and is causing irreparable harm. 

While there is some incompetence at the state level, there is probably more malevolence.  Look at who heads up TEA - he wanted to get Dallas ISD into home-school and out from underneath TEA so that all kinds of shenanigans could occur.  Look at the majority who has been elected to the board and what they want taught in schools, everything from the earth is only 6,000 years old to pretending like gays and lesbians don't exist.  And I haven't even touched on the whole Civil War issue and how they want it taught.  A lot of the people who get elected to the state board have been a fucking embarrassment for years.

It's not going to be the end though.  Too many parents rely on it, and it would fuck up our economy.  And that's not touching on the fact that it would fuck up the rural areas really hard.

It's an election year.  If they fuck around too much, there will be a fallout come November.

[atomheartbevo 89648]

25 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

we should probably be focusing on the basics for this year. it sucks but it is what it is.

That's pretty much what it sounds like the districts are trying to do, it's just TEA keeps changing the rules.

[Anastasis 23469]

9 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

While there is some incompetence at the state level, there is probably more malevolence.

Why do we need the TEA exactly?  Why can't property tax collection and distribution to fund schools be handled at the county and district level?  What purpose does TEA serve?  I mean, other than as a functionary of government control and site of administrative waste. 

[JohnLocke 115]

9 hours ago, Larry T. Spider said:

For virtual, we have to see the kid in a zoom, get work turned in, or make some other contact with them for them to be counted as present. If not, no funding for that day. If even 10% of those kids stay awol, it can destroy the budget. 

We haven’t even started to talk about how the next budget cycle that will be hashed out in the legislature next spring will be brutal. Not trying to be chicken little, but the effects of this will be with us for years after day to day life gets back to normal.

Schools will be lucky to get 75% attendance.  This is going to be a huge problem for schools.

[hayden_horn 11362]

9 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Why do we need the TEA exactly?  Why can't property tax collection and distribution to fund schools be handled at the county and district level?  What purpose does TEA serve?  I mean, other than as a functionary of government control and site of administrative waste. 

i have an actual long answer for this, but it gets way too cloak room. suffice to say i used to work in educational publishing in another life. 

[InkaUtexas 25907]

48 minutes ago, Wulaw Horn said:

AP art?  And it focused on making ceramics?  And someone is getting $60k to do a job that probably pays $1500 a semester to do working at the community college learning annex? 
And there’s AP credit for this (he says, for the second time, his mind blown)?

He is the ceramics AND AP Art, so it is open portfolio. And yep, my daughter was awarded a 4 on her portfolio which translates into her Fine Art credit at her university. 

[Guest Lobo]

1 hour ago, InkaUtexas said:

Yep, they just told a friend who teaches HS AP Art (Focus is Ceramics) he will have to move from class to class. How the fuck does he do that? Maybe there is a market in portable kilns. 

I know a specter that can move pottery equipment Around from the other side.  He’s a little ‘handsy’ though, so be warned. 

[Anastasis 23469]

3 hours ago, hayden_horn said:

i have an actual long answer for this, but it gets way too cloak room. suffice to say i used to work in educational publishing in another life. 

My wife use to work for the major state contractor.  Probably same company. She has lots of thoughts about TEA. 

[atomheartbevo 89648]

3 hours ago, JohnLocke said:

Schools will be lucky to get 75% attendance.  This is going to be a huge problem for schools.

If TEA continues to fuck around, and tries to really fuck up the school districts, well this is a really fucking stupid game of chicken certain segments of our state government are playing, given that November is around the corner and 8 out of 15 Board of Education spots are up for grabs, plus all of the local and legislative spots that are up for grabs..

This is going to hurt larger districts, but this could absolutely crush smaller/rural districts.  Lose the schools in those towns, and those towns lose a lot of residents.  I really don't think the TEA has thought that through - devastate those towns and see how that works out.

[CooterBrown 18006]

[Gardner Barnes 1562]

I saw that. Dude responded like a boss.

[Deej 76759]

5 hours ago, InkaUtexas said:

He is the ceramics AND AP Art, so it is open portfolio. And yep, my daughter was awarded a 4 on her portfolio which translates into her Fine Art credit at her university. 

[Red Six 131]

6 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Why do we need the TEA exactly?  Why can't property tax collection and distribution to fund schools be handled at the county and district level?  What purpose does TEA serve?  I mean, other than as a functionary of government control and site of administrative waste. 

I was talking about this in particular the other night with a friend who purports to have knowledge of it, and, according to him, the tax collection and distribution is handled at the county and district level, i.e., the county tax assessor collects the money, then sends it to the district, who then sends their portion to the state. So, theoretically, our district (property-rich AF) could tell the TEA, "You don't want to fund us? Fine. We'll just hang on to this money you want us to send you."

I assume there are mechanisms for TEA to attach that money, but it doesn't automatically go into their hands. So that's some leverage that local districts have if TEA starts getting more unreasonable.

[smoky 840]

Okay, so what are the measures? Make that yard stick public.

"Hey Austinites, you want to open schools? We need to be in stage 2, heading towards stage 1 on a consistent 14 day decline. Hospitalizations need to be at X. Vents need to be at Y. Positivity rates need to be Z. If you want it, mask tfu, stay home whenever possible. We're in this together and we won't move the goalposts just because."

[Guest Lobo]

Do some dumbfuck Texans think that if some school districts are defunded...that they're gonna magically get a tax rebate check in the mail?

We're getting down to brass tacks here, I need to know...precisely how stupid are these people?  Like put a number on it, 'cause we need to know.  

[atomheartbevo 89648]

1 hour ago, Lobo said:

We're getting down to brass tacks here, I need to know...precisely how stupid are these people?  Like put a number on it, 'cause we need to know.  

They don’t seem to understand that public schools are the reason why many rural communities still exist.    Many of those schools are not swimming in funds and/or can be kept afloat by their communities.  
 

Remove the ability of those schools to be viable, parents leave for the big city, local businesses start dying off and then those communities are dead.    If killing off those small towns is the end goal, killing the public schools will do it.  

[Guest Lobo]

But doesn't that screw up voting districts if rural areas burn up and move away?  

[atomheartbevo 89648]

22 minutes ago, Lobo said:

But doesn't that screw up voting districts if rural areas burn up and move away?  

That’s for another thread and forum.    

The immediate concern for those at the TEA should be the lawsuits.    What if the local authorities tell them to “fuck off, see you in court?”   
 

Edited August 1, 2020 by atomheartbevo

[atomheartbevo 89648]

Listing of what local districts are doing.   
https://www.kvue.com/mobile/article/news/health/coronavirus/list-central-texas-school-districts-fall-semester-plans/269-25ba2b57-6ec0-4ff2-99a4-f5862b22c6bd

[Captainant 27653]

Re: "kids are a non factor for COVID"

https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2020/07/31/new-evidence-suggests-young-children-spread-covid-19-more-efficiently-than-adults/#73ff8cb219fd

"The researchers found that although young children had a somewhat lower risk of infection than adults and were less likely to become ill, children age 14 and younger transmit the virus more efficiently to other children and adults than adults themselves. Their risk of transmitting Covid-19 was 22.4 percent—more than twice that of adults aged 30 to 49, whose rate of contagiousness was about 11 percent. “Although childhood contacts were less likely to become cases,” they wrote, “children were more likely to infect household members.”

The Trento study also found that its youngest participants were the most efficient transmitters of the disease, citing respiratory syncytial virus as an example of another infectious disease for which this has been the case. The younger the child, they noted, the higher the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 in their nasal passages—an observation consistent with the Chicago study. "

[CooterBrown 18006]

Re: "kids are a non factor for COVID"

https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamhaseltine/2020/07/31/new-evidence-suggests-young-children-spread-covid-19-more-efficiently-than-adults/#73ff8cb219fd

"The researchers found that although young children had a somewhat lower risk of infection than adults and were less likely to become ill, children age 14 and younger transmit the virus more efficiently to other children and adults than adults themselves. Their risk of transmitting Covid-19 was 22.4 percent—more than twice that of adults aged 30 to 49, whose rate of contagiousness was about 11 percent. “Although childhood contacts were less likely to become cases,” they wrote, “children were more likely to infect household members.”

The Trento study also found that its youngest participants were the most efficient transmitters of the disease, citing respiratory syncytial virus as an example of another infectious disease for which this has been the case. The younger the child, they noted, the higher the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 in their nasal passages—an observation consistent with the Chicago study. "

I posted this on the medical thread a few days ago...

 

My wife’s 16 year old cousin had to go to ER last night with atrial fibrillation. He was just released and it was determine he had cardiac artery swelling due to a prior undiagnosed COVID-19 infection. Now he has to wear a heart monitor for at least the next 30 days and be a complete shut in to prevent another C19 infection. He was perfectly healthy prior to this.

 

But kids will be fine.

[Larry T. Spider 1746]

Just google all the summer camps shutting down due to kids getting covid. Why would schools be any different?

[bad_teammate 13194]

4 minutes ago, Larry T. Spider said:

Just google all the summer camps shutting down due to kids getting covid. Why would schools be any different?

Looks like SOMEONE thinks he's too good for magical thinking!

[Guest Lobo]

4 minutes ago, Larry T. Spider said:

Just google all the summer camps shutting down due to kids getting covid. Why would schools be any different?

Because some people look at those summer camps and think, "Well yeah, but it'll be better once school starts because the kids will be inside and more closely monitored."  

The shit about schools opening safely because kids can't transmit the virus is just the next step in the long line of bullshit from Hoax, to it'll disappear, to the heat will kill it, it's not that deadly/serious, to we have so many cases because we test so much, and on, and on, and on.  

We get a new one of these about every 2 weeks so hang tight for another week or so and we'll get the next one.