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

[gsoda3 3262]

our baseball league ran for 5 weeks this summer before the city of austin shut everything down.  we had a few dozen cases of covid amongst coaches/kids but they were all caught from outside activities/family and we had zero cases of transmission.  

[dcbc 14484]

9 hours ago, utee94 said:

Yes my kids did strength and conditioning camps for much of the summer, as well as some soccer practices.  No issues.  The outdoors just aren't much of a risk for transmission.

 

 

My kid was doing football workouts in late June.  He wore a mask and they were trying to be careful with distancing.  When cases started spiking around that time, we kept him out the week after the 4th.  They popped two cases that week, and shut down for 3 weeks.  We let him go back this week (everyone in masks).  But after a scheduling conflict and some thought, he decided to switch to cross country.  Count me as relieved.

[bluto 4929]

Talking to a friend who teaches in a blue collar area school district in suburban Dallas, said the school isn’t providing any sanitary supplies to teachers at all besides one mask. The school will have sanitation stations, but that’s it. Friend said every class of hers will be maxed out at ~30 kids. Already lost 3 teachers to resign/retire with a few more expected this week. Essentially almost zero action plan in place.

Same school has had major sub shortages to where teachers would either have to cover classes in off periods or double up on students where a teacher took on 40-50 kids for the period.

[utee94 15823]

8 hours ago, Gardner Barnes said:

My kid caught it at a Volleyball tournament in June. Don't be so confident that sports are safe.

Indoor or or sand volleyball?

As I said, a couple months with no issues.  I hope your child is okay. 

[Samson's Wig 3192]

10 hours ago, bluto said:

Talking to a friend who teaches in a blue collar area school district in suburban Dallas, said the school isn’t providing any sanitary supplies to teachers at all besides one mask. The school will have sanitation stations, but that’s it. Friend said every class of hers will be maxed out at ~30 kids. Already lost 3 teachers to resign/retire with a few more expected this week. Essentially almost zero action plan in place.

Same school has had major sub shortages to where teachers would either have to cover classes in off periods or double up on students where a teacher took on 40-50 kids for the period.

It's going to be so easy for some of these districts to get annihilated.  It will only take one sick person showing up in that environment.  I have a family member still teaching in her 70's who works for a sizable suburb school like this.  Superintendent is politically fully aligned with Morath/Paxton/Devos/et al, and the school is opening full bore face to face next week.  No measures taken outside of shuffling some desks around to spread them out a little in the rooms.  I wish she would just quit but she won't.  Like any other sizable public school in Texas, the football stadium will be filled every Friday night (it's no surprise that sports are the number one concern for many Texas families, but it still makes me shake my head).  I'm still hanging on to a delusional hope that the virus will magically disappear before we kill off a percentage of teachers, staff, students, and everyone they come into contact with around the state.

We're still very much on the fence with AISD.  Glad to have a few extra weeks to come to a decision on whether or not to pull the kids, but it looks more and more like this entire school year is going to be a tug of war between the state and the district, with the end result being almost no actual learning going on (not that it was all that peachy prior to Covid) Leaning towards just sparing the kids the bullshit. 

[atomheartbevo 89674]

1 hour ago, Samson's Wig said:

Like any other sizable public school in Texas, the football stadium will be filled every Friday night (it's no surprise that sports are the number one concern for many Texas families, but it still makes me shake my head). 

Not surprising.  Shitload of parents are always trying to relive their glory days, as soundtracked by Bruce Springsteen.

[CleverNickname 1311]

My wife teaches AISD and kids are RRISD (online to start). We are about to see few million guinea pigs as schools around the country open. And I am glad we are not those experiments. Hoping it all turns out for the best, but kinda expecting it wont be.

[bad_teammate 13196]

Shout out to all the teachers and staff who are the guinea pigs for this grand experiment. Would be great if we could get back into schools safely.

 

[mdmost 43002]

35 minutes ago, CleverNickname said:

My wife teaches AISD and kids are RRISD (online to start). We are about to see few million guinea pigs as schools around the country open. And I am glad we are not those experiments. Hoping it all turns out for the best, but kinda expecting it wont be.

Exactly my thoughts on DISD. I'm glad they're pushing back the start to September and giving people the option of remote learning till October. If other districts don't and things turn out fine, then we're all winners. I just have no desire to make my kids and us by extension the test case for whether that's a good idea or not. 

[smoky 840]

Teaching virtually for six-plus months is another way we're making our kids guinea pigs. Just like covid, we don't know the long term effects of this teaching model.

Some will succeed educationally and remain healthy in this grand experiment. Others won't.

[bad_teammate 13196]

12 minutes ago, smoky said:

Teaching virtually for six-plus months is another way we're making our kids guinea pigs. Just like covid, we don't know the long term effects of this teaching model.

Some will succeed educationally and remain healthy in this grand experiment. Others won't.

If we want to take this seriously as a society then we need to put everything on the block from economic organization to educational methods to healthcare. It sucks that it's basically just become YET ANOTHER area in which people align with their political and ideological priors and just dig in and refuse to challenge themselves. They sift through incoming evidence and only accept interpretations that confirm their ideological bias.

There HAVE to be kids for whom this model is better. Wouldn't it be great if we could identify those factors and carry them forward? There HAVE to be lessons to learn about checking in on vulnerable kids. There HAVE to be lessons for ensuring food security. and on and on and on

But it seems like we have two camps:
Camp #1 - Live exclusively in your nuclear group until we have a cure/vaccine and then ask no further questions.
Camp #2 - Get back to "normal" as fast as possible and then ask no further questions.

[Redpuma 146]

 

[CooterBrown 18013]

 

[atomheartbevo 89674]

That high school in Georgia, of the infamous hallway photos.  They learned their lesson after 9 tested positive and a bunch of kids/staff had to go into quarantine.

They are going online.

For two days.  Although more days could be coming.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/09/us/north-paulding-high-school-covid-19-cases/index.html

Quote

"As a result of our being informed of nine cases of Covid-19 at North Paulding High School following the first week of in-person instruction, along with the possibility that number could increase if there are currently pending tests that prove positive, we have consulted with the Department of Public Health and are temporarily switching the instructional method to Digital Learning at NPHS," the letter from Paulding County Schools Superintendent Brian Otott said. 

Quote

The high school will only offer digital learning Monday and Tuesday. Tuesday evening families will be informed of whether remote instruction will continue or if students can return to school, the letter said. 

Meanwhile, "the school will be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected," Otott wrote. The school district will also work with the Georgia Department of Public Health to identify anyone else who had close contact with the confirmed patients and have yet to be identified.

 

 

[Anastasis 23469]

Shocking. 

[mdmost 43002]

Meanwhile, the girl who posted the photos, was suspended and then reinstated, yeah, she's getting threats made against her. This is what we're up against. 

Edited August 10, 2020 by mdmost

[Larry T. Spider 1746]

“WINDER, Ga. — More than 90 staff members in one Georgia school district have been quarantined due to coronavirus exposure or infection, prompting the district to plan to begin the year entirely online.”

They haven’t even started with kids yet.

[Samson's Wig 3192]

16 hours ago, bad_teammate said:

If we want to take this seriously as a society then we need to put everything on the block from economic organization to educational methods to healthcare. It sucks that it's basically just become YET ANOTHER area in which people align with their political and ideological priors and just dig in and refuse to challenge themselves. They sift through incoming evidence and only accept interpretations that confirm their ideological bias.

There HAVE to be kids for whom this model is better. Wouldn't it be great if we could identify those factors and carry them forward? There HAVE to be lessons to learn about checking in on vulnerable kids. There HAVE to be lessons for ensuring food security. and on and on and on

But it seems like we have two camps:
Camp #1 - Live exclusively in your nuclear group until we have a cure/vaccine and then ask no further questions.
Camp #2 - Get back to "normal" as fast as possible and then ask no further questions.

Both camps are operating on the same premise that the best thing is to get back to the way things were.  They're just on different timelines. 

The amazing thing to me is the notion that "normal" is anything to aspire to.  Public education has been a dumpster fire in America for a long time. "Normal" public education is an embarrassment.  I had hopes, at first, that this might serve as a wake up call and an opportunity to truly rethink the system and work towards building something that actually functions once the pandemic has been managed, but it's clear that most parents in both camps really just want a babysitter once they're comfortable with the safety issue.  There are more parents worried about whether sports will be played than there are parents worried that their children are being educated in a manner that is conducive to functionality in 21st century life.  

[JohnLocke 115]

Public education has been a dumpster fire in America for a long time. "Normal" public education is an embarrassment.

I hear this a lot but I don't see it. The formula hasn't changed in 75 years. If the parents care, the kid cares. And if the kid doesn't care, then everyone is wasting their time.  Kids get a good education if they want it.  My biggest complaint when my kids were in public high school is they had too much homework all the time.  Nothing has really changed, except schools today make a superhuman effort to get marginal kids who don't care to pass the required testing. What purpose that really serves is a bit of a mystery.

 

[bluto 4929]

Public education has been a dumpster fire in America for a long time. "Normal" public education is an embarrassment.
I hear this a lot but I don't see it. The formula hasn't changed in 75 years. If the parents care, the kid cares. And if the kid doesn't care, then everyone is wasting their time.  Kids get a good education if they want it.  My biggest complaint when my kids were in public high school is they had too much homework all the time.  Nothing has really changed, except schools today make a superhuman effort to get marginal kids who don't care to pass the required testing. What purpose that really serves is a bit of a mystery.
 

What district were your kids in? Asstalk but I bet the good schools/districts have probably gotten better and more competitive over the last 10-15 yrs while the opposite is true at the same time.

Anecdotally, Teachers I know teaching in the same district they grew up are ‘up-halled’ by the degradation.

[chikin23 384]

I've been teaching for a while and teachers don't get to teach anymore. We teach towards a test and the school is graded heavily on those tests. Elective classes have students pulled to attend remediation and extra tutorials for their core subjects. We've tried to get every kid to pass a test and into a college. Trade schools are going away.

At the school I'm at (Title I, low socio economic kids, etc) there's 30% of kids that will go to college and make it. There's 50% that might get a certificate, an associates, military, or just jump right in the work force. That 50% would perform much better if they were allowed to take classes they were interested in.

The bottom 20% don't want to be there and their parents don't care about education yet we spend most of our time dealing with them and not the other 80%.

[shadetree 66]

Has TEA refined or changed limits on class sizes? We just got notified of our kids online classes, which start on Wednesday. 35 kids for online class. Our district (Allen) can evidently afford a giant ass stadium but has to stick 35 kids in an online 2nd grade class. And their new guidelines have give up on closing the school when they get a positive case. The new guideline is “Full campus closure will be considered when lab-confirmed positive COVID-19 cases are at least 10 percentage points below the last school year’s overall average attendance. “
So, apparently they aren’t closing for any reason. What a cluster.

[HornOnTheBayou 8927]

42 minutes ago, shadetree said:

The new guideline is “Full campus closure will be considered when lab-confirmed positive COVID-19 cases are at least 10 percentage points below the last school year’s overall average attendance. “

[TKthunder2 4991]

9 hours ago, chikin23 said:

I've been teaching for a while and teachers don't get to teach anymore. We teach towards a test and the school is graded heavily on those tests. Elective classes have students pulled to attend remediation and extra tutorials for their core subjects. We've tried to get every kid to pass a test and into a college. Trade schools are going away.

At the school I'm at (Title I, low socio economic kids, etc) there's 30% of kids that will go to college and make it. There's 50% that might get a certificate, an associates, military, or just jump right in the work force. That 50% would perform much better if they were allowed to take classes they were interested in.

The bottom 20% don't want to be there and their parents don't care about education yet we spend most of our time dealing with them and not the other 80%.

My family is full of teachers.  My sister teaches ESL at a local disadvantaged school and my dad is still teaching (though he might retire if they push too much) in East Texas.  I honestly don’t think college is the best choice for even 25% of the students.  We should have a better system for funneling most kids not participating in honors/AP/preAP level courses into vocational training which still can vary dramatically between Nursing, Realtors and Stenography, to Plumbers, Electricians, HVAC, and Mechanics.  Wood Shop, Welding, and Cosmetology are a good start but our high schools and politicians should be realistic and stop trying to force square pegs into round holes and set the population up for success by recognizing that a 4 year college is a waste for the vast majority of those attending and racking up student loan debt.  But they won’t...

Edited August 11, 2020 by TKthunder2

[Wulaw Horn 19070]

2 hours ago, TKthunder2 said:

My family is full of teachers.  My sister teaches ESL at a local disadvantaged school and my dad is still teaching (though he might retire if they push too much) in East Texas.  I honestly don’t think college is the best choice for even 25% of the students.  We should have a better system for funneling most kids not participating in honors/AP/preAP level courses into vocational training which still can vary dramatically between Nursing, Realtors and Stenography, to Plumbers, Electricians, HVAC, and Mechanics.  Wood Shop, Welding, and Cosmetology are a good start but our high schools and politicians should be realistic and stop trying to force square pegs into round holes and set the population up for success by recognizing that a 4 year college is a waste for the vast majority of those attending and racking up student loan debt.  But they won’t...

Every kid that ever asked me when I taught regular sophomores if they should go to college I told no. Many were very thankful to me being the first person to tell them you don’t have to graduate high school and go directly to college. 
My advice is always the same to any kid that asks me:

don’t go to college until you know you want to go

Have a plan for why you are going and what you want to accomplish out of that plan 

make sure that college is actually necessary for what you want to accomplish with your life. 
 

 Once all 3 of those line up for the kid they are going to do really well. Before they have that clarity they will probably spin their wheels, and I’d rather see a kid spinning their wheels bar tending and making money than racking up tons of pointless and needless debt. 

[troph 24805]

Posted this in the covid thread but Just finished my kids fall schedule - all online - mostly outschool.com and we are pretty damn excited. All super small live instruction courses (under 10 students). The range of options was great. We have 5th grade, 7th and 10th and the elective options were superb, and I was able to add extra classes in history and including civil rights/African American history as well as cool classes on WWII for even my 5th grader, an amazing 7th grade literature class, sociology for my 10th grader, psychology for my 7th grader, lego challenge class for 5th, coding and hacking for 10th and some photography classes and ukulele course too. Core classes as well but those aren’t a cool - algebra I, II, chemistry, biology, world history, etc. but fun science electives for my 5th grader including the central nervous system and dinosaurs of the sea and air. A lot of the cool courses are short modules like 8 classes over 2 months. I need to fill in some spanish for two of them and I think we are good. For PE we have sailing lessons possibly as well as tennis and fall baseball. We will pick up golf too next spring. We have a bunch of saved courses for next semester too and a lot of the ones we have signed up roll right into the 2nd and 3rd part of the same course. This could be really good.

 

We’ve got a civil rights road trip planned and we may do some Texas history via audible and a road trip as well this fall.

 

The amount of time wasted in traditional school is apparent. We won’t be jerked around, we bounced out and are going our own way.

 

We are seeing the Democratization of education and private control in a way that’s pretty amazing. I think we may be nearing a private school quality education for a fraction of the cost for three kids. We did invest in well equipped dedicated work stations too but I think it’s going to be worth it. Time will tell but I’ve never been this excited about my children’s school.

 

If you have thought about pressing the eject button on public school it’s not too late. There are tons of ridiculously good options out there, even the major universities have self paced high school programs. UT costs a fraction of what traditional private school costs and if you want live instruction Outschool is rapidly expanding. Just do it.

[Wulaw Horn 19070]

13 minutes ago, troph said:

Posted this in the covid thread but Just finished my kids fall schedule - all online - mostly outschool.com and we are pretty damn excited. All super small live instruction courses (under 10 students). The range of options was great. We have 5th grade, 7th and 10th and the elective options were superb, and I was able to add extra classes in history and including civil rights/African American history as well as cool classes on WWII for even my 5th grader, an amazing 7th grade literature class, sociology for my 10th grader, psychology for my 7th grader, lego challenge class for 5th, coding and hacking for 10th and some photography classes and ukulele course too. Core classes as well but those aren’t a cool - algebra I, II, chemistry, biology, world history, etc. but fun science electives for my 5th grader including the central nervous system and dinosaurs of the sea and air. A lot of the cool courses are short modules like 8 classes over 2 months. I need to fill in some spanish for two of them and I think we are good. For PE we have sailing lessons possibly as well as tennis and fall baseball. We will pick up golf too next spring. We have a bunch of saved courses for next semester too and a lot of the ones we have signed up roll right into the 2nd and 3rd part of the same course. This could be really good.

 

We’ve got a civil rights road trip planned and we may do some Texas history via audible and a road trip as well this fall.

 

The amount of time wasted in traditional school is apparent. We won’t be jerked around, we bounced out and are going our own way.

 

We are seeing the Democratization of education and private control in a way that’s pretty amazing. I think we may be nearing a private school quality education for a fraction of the cost for three kids. We did invest in well equipped dedicated work stations too but I think it’s going to be worth it. Time will tell but I’ve never been this excited about my children’s school.

 

If you have thought about pressing the eject button on public school it’s not too late. There are tons of ridiculously good options out there, even the major universities have self paced high school programs. UT costs a fraction of what traditional private school costs and if you want live instruction Outschool is rapidly expanding. Just do it.

Good for you. Good luck! 

[dingleberryswitzer 2724]

I got mildly in trouble once for pointing out the existence of the GED to a student.  For kids that end up at community college, it won't make shit weather they have a GED or suburb HS diploma. 

[atomheartbevo 89674]

PDF of the AISD reopening plan

https://msg.schoolmessenger.com/m/?s=PgnyL4G_c4Q&mal=cdb377bb4f85aa6264bce6cec4f51bacb86f92a429e5138beace6430e5984dee

 

[atomheartbevo 89674]

Quote

Austin ISD’s new school year is set to begin Sept. 8 and learning will be held remotely for the first four weeks — then, families will have a choice: permanent in-person or remote learning for their children.

Once the all-remote first four weeks are over on Oct. 5, AISD says families will be able to choose between sending their children to campuses or to keep them home learning remotely.

Quote

Austin ISD says it will spend the weeks of Oct. 5-30 phasing-in students who will be returning for on-campus instruction. On-campus activities, according to the district, will be guided by safety measures starting on day one, including social distancing, required face coverings and having fewer students on campus each day.

Quote

For in-campus classes, Austin ISD says possible staggered start and end times could be used for arrival/dismissal — in addition to markers and one-way traffic restrictions in hallways.

Families will be able to change their choices for their students’ location for learning as the school year goes on, the district says, and future decisions will be made based on federal, state and local governments/health conditions.

Quote

The district says that during the first four weeks students, who do not have access to technology for remote learning, will be able to access it on-campus. Additionally, throughout the year, bilingual and/or English as a Second Language instruction will be offered virtually.

https://www.kxan.com/news/education/set-for-school/austin-isd-parents-can-choose-between-in-person-or-remote-learning-for-students-on-oct-5/

 

 

[MNLonghornFUKM 8817]

Just for shits I took the Minnesota department of healths guidelines and applied them to Travis county


You take the last 2 weeks of county cases/(Travis county population/10,000)=14 day level case rate


Travis county pop= 1,274,000

3233/127.4=25.3 so hybrid for elementary & secondary(MS/HS)

[RexWilson 1347]

Staff development started on Monday. Today was the first time I started to hear several co-workers say they are lacking confidence in learning the new online system and implementing it by next week first day of school. An email was sent around saying we should tell the school board to delay a little bit.

[CooterBrown 18013]

Staff development started on Monday. Today was the first time I started to hear several co-workers say they are lacking confidence in learning the new online system and implementing it by next week first day of school. An email was sent around saying we should tell the school board to delay a little bit.

Which district? I hope not AISD since you should know it’s delayed 3 weeks.

[atomheartbevo 89674]

1 hour ago, CooterBrown said:

Which district? I hope not AISD since you should know it’s delayed 3 weeks.

And my wife's friends/co-workers have been doing online training for the software (Canvas/Blend) they are going to be using for over a week.  And my son's school has been setting up their online learnings spaces or whatever.

[atomheartbevo 89674]

 

 

On 8/4/2020 at 9:33 PM, atomheartbevo said:

 

That's not working out so well for them.

https://www.ajc.com/education/update-826-students-under-quarantine-in-cherokee-after-covid-19-exposures/5HAASRHSRFBMHIQSUT5ABNEZIY/

Quote

In the six days that Cherokee County schools have been in session, the North Georgia district has had to direct 826 students to quarantine due to possible exposure to COVID-19, along with 42 teachers.

Quote

In following health guidelines, districts inform parents when a student has had close contract with — including sitting nearby — someone who tests positive for COVID-19 and advises 14-day quarantines at home. Most of the exposures to students have come from classmates, although a few cases involve teachers and staff who tested positive.

Quote

“As made clear in our reopening of school plan, we anticipated positive tests among students and staff could occur, which is why we put a system into place to quickly contact trace, mandate quarantines, notify parents and report cases and quarantines to the entire community,” said Cherokee spokeswoman Barbara Jacoby. “We are not hesitating to quarantine students and staff who have had possible exposure – even if the positive test was prompted by possible exposure rather than symptoms.”

Quote

For example, as of Monday night, Etowah High School has 12.5% or 300 of its 2,400 student students under quarantine. Etowah became a key part of the national debate on safe returns to school after seniors posed shoulder to shoulder for a class photo on the first day back to school last week. The photo went viral.

 

[rpspeed 1363]

Zoom meetings, what could go wrong?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/fla-mom-fatally-shot-during-childs-elementary-school-zoom-class-remembered-as-great-mother/ar-BB17Vg1R?ocid=msedgntp

The killing occurred on the first day of school in Florida, while one of Rosado-Morales' daughters was receiving online instruction. The 10-year-old's teacher and other students in the Zoom class heard the commotion that preceded the shooting, and helplessly watched the student react to the violence.

[utee94 15823]

Holy crap, that is awful.

 

[CooterBrown 18013]

We had a grade level zoom meeting with our principal today. She said you’ll have the option of being remote for the entire school regardless if everyone is called back for in person instruction.

When asked what the protocol will be when a staff member or on site student inevitably tests positive, she said they’ve gotten zero direction on that as of yet.

[Anastasis 23469]

 

9 hours ago, rpspeed said:

Zoom meetings, what could go wrong?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/fla-mom-fatally-shot-during-childs-elementary-school-zoom-class-remembered-as-great-mother/ar-BB17Vg1R?ocid=msedgntp

The killing occurred on the first day of school in Florida, while one of Rosado-Morales' daughters was receiving online instruction. The 10-year-old's teacher and other students in the Zoom class heard the commotion that preceded the shooting, and helplessly watched the student react to the violence.

 

Damn, killed her ass over some sexting...

"He went in and confronted her with something to do with a video," Snyder said. "He says she actually started to smile at him, and he became enraged and shot her."

[Anastasis 23469]

I've been drinking for a while now. 

 

[fattyflattie 4639]

On 8/10/2020 at 11:43 PM, troph said:

The amount of time wasted in traditional school is apparent. We won’t be jerked around, we bounced out and are going our own way.

 

We are seeing the Democratization of education and private control in a way that’s pretty amazing. I think we may be nearing a private school quality education for a fraction of the cost for three kids. We did invest in well equipped dedicated work stations too but I think it’s going to be worth it. Time will tell but I’ve never been this excited about my children’s school.

 

If you have thought about pressing the eject button on public school it’s not too late. There are tons of ridiculously good options out there, even the major universities have self paced high school programs. UT costs a fraction of what traditional private school costs and if you want live instruction Outschool is rapidly expanding. Just do it.

Pretty much exactly what we decided to do, albeit with younger children. But spot on imo.  New laptops, desks, and supplies. And a very full schedule with ALOT of planning and thought put in. We’ve been going since mid-last week, and so far, the experience has been outstanding for all 3 of mine. 

[Anastasis 23469]

The spousal figure is a big fan of outschool.  We are still in the system, planning to supplement with some podding and other materials.  Have basically turned some free space in the house into a learning facility. And yeah, younger kids. What a fucking world. 

Edited August 14, 2020 by Anastasis

[troph 24805]

Pretty much exactly what we decided to do, albeit with younger children. But spot on imo.  New laptops, desks, and supplies. And a very full schedule with ALOT of planning and thought put in. We’ve been going since mid-last week, and so far, the experience has been outstanding for all 3 of mine. 

We are two kids one class each into this and so far so good. Actually a step up in quality. Only thing we have to solve for is social but we may not go back if it stays as good as it’s trending.

[Wulaw Horn 19070]

On 8/11/2020 at 7:59 AM, dingleberryswitzer said:

I got mildly in trouble once for pointing out the existence of the GED to a student.  For kids that end up at community college, it won't make shit weather they have a GED or suburb HS diploma. 

I also did that with a couple 18 year old sophomores that had 5 credits to their name that came in and slept in my class every day. 
they were working night shifts at Walmart loading/unloading or something like that. I asked them why they were there if they were just going to sleep when they were 18 and old enough to not be there if they didn’t want to be. That’s when Ineqs like- why don’t you get a GED?  That’s better than no diploma and you aren’t getting one of those  operating like this. 

[DalTxHornFan 3101]

59 minutes ago, troph said:

We are two kids one class each into this and so far so good. Actually a step up in quality. Only thing we have to solve for is social but we may not go back if it stays as good as it’s trending.

Homeschooling veteran here.  Both kids are now college grads.  Y'all are gonna be surprised at how efficient education can be when your kids aren't having to spend time standing in line, or preparing to stand in line, or dealing with disruptive kids in the class.  2 or 3 hours of actual school work is a solid day and provides the kids with plenty of time to read on their own.  Good luck, y'all.

 

[Wulaw Horn 19070]

1 minute ago, DalTxHornFan said:

Homeschooling veteran here.  Both kids are now college grads.  Y'all are gonna be surprised at how efficient education can be when your kids aren't having to spend time standing in line, or preparing to stand in line, or dealing with disruptive kids in the class.  2 or 3 hours of actual school work is a solid day and provides the kids with plenty of time to read on their own.  Good luck, y'all.

 

Yeah- 4 days in for real on this and the first day was a 6 hour slog with the wife and 3 kids. Next day was 5 hours and much better and I think they are now settling at 3.5 or 4. And I’m pretty sure that 3.5 or 4 includes more instruction and learning than the 8 at school. Oh- and they are doing 4 days of school is all. 

[atomheartbevo 89674]

Pfluggerville even has goggles and gowns.

https://www.kxan.com/news/education/set-for-school/school-districts-in-central-texas-stocking-up-on-ppe/

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Here in Central Texas, while many school districts begin the year online, some districts are stocking up on personal protective equipment, or PPE, to get ready for when classes resume in person.

Pflugerville Independent School District started online classes Thursday, but in a few weeks, they could have some students returning to the classroom.

“We are confident that our staff and teachers are going to rise to the challenge and make sure we have a safe place for our students to learn,” said Tamra Spence, communication officer for Pflugerville ISD.

Social distancing one of the safety measures that is included in the return plan, but PPE is important as well.

“We have masks, we have goggles, gowns … we have gloves and yes, we have masks in case kids show up and don’t have one,” Spence said.

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Leander ISD has more than 43,000 students, and they currently have 380,000 masks on standby, and more could be coming in the next few weeks.

Teachers and students will be required to provide masks for themselves, but masks will be available upon request.

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Here are the latest numbers of PPE issued to schools in Texas by the state government, as of Aug. 4:

• 59,410,640 masks
• 567,948 gallons of hand sanitizer
• 24,017 thermometers
• 511,294 face shields

 

[atomheartbevo 89674]

That Georgia school district, of the infamous high school hallway photo, 

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-08-14-20-intl/h_b38c07ffe8a2c68a27304952b0532b95

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The Cherokee County School District reported 80 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 1,106 students and staff quarantined as a result of those cases, for the week. 

That number is almost triple the number of students and staff that were confirmed Covid-19 positive the prior week and double the number in quarantine. 

That was a bold strategy to open without masks and an actual social distancing plan in place.  Looks like it's not working out so well.

For as much as people shit on AISD and RR and some of the other districts for trying to delay the start and get things planned out, I'm pretty sure the Karens of Central Texas would be losing their shit if there were a proportionate number of students and staff infected and quarantined here. 

[MonkeyDoughnut 10236]

6 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

That Georgia school district, of the infamous high school hallway photo, 

https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-08-14-20-intl/h_b38c07ffe8a2c68a27304952b0532b95

That was a bold strategy to open without masks and an actual social distancing plan in place.  Looks like it's not working out so well.

For as much as people shit on AISD and RR and some of the other districts for trying to delay the start and get things planned out, I'm pretty sure the Karens of Central Texas would be losing their shit if there were a proportionate number of students and staff infected and quarantined here. 

Not defending "how" they opened (no masks - really?/) but... there was basically 108 people apparently walking around who didn't know or tried to hide they had covid and were obviously not quarantining. If nothing else now they have a reason to watch the signs and actually quarantine. (Not saying they all will, but some at least will)

To me opening schools was always going to happen like this unless we are talking about waiting until next fall at the earliest and vaccines happen to also be in supply and effective (big ifs still)

[atomheartbevo 89674]

5 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

Not defending "how" they opened (no masks - really?/) but... there was basically 108 people apparently walking around who didn't know or tried to hide they had covid and were obviously not quarantining. If nothing else now they have a reason to watch the signs and actually quarantine. (Not saying they all will, but some at least will)

To me opening schools was always going to happen like this unless we are talking about waiting until next fall at the earliest and vaccines happen to also be in supply and effective (big ifs still)

Look at the hallway photo.  They didn't even make an attempt to make those kids wear masks.