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

[washparkhorn 9939]

Denver Public Schools start next week. I have two seniors and a freshman. I hope hoping Denver is a bit better prepared - but I have my doubts.

Into the Looking Glass we go again.  Hang in there parents. 

[South Austin 52630]

1 hour ago, CooterBrown said:

McCallum HS just had 3 positives.

I got that email. Seems like it could be worse, no?

[CooterBrown 18032]

I got that email. Seems like it could be worse, no?

I was pleasantly surprised. My daughter said it’s basically 100% compliance with masks but you expect to have some positives regardless.

[dcbc 14531]

About to start the second week in Tyler ISD.  Guessing about 90% unmasked in a county with a a 41% vaccination rate (12+).  My kids and we seemed to have survived the first week asymptomatic at the worst (they are vaccinated and among the mask wearers).  Wife and I both boostered last week since we were mid January second shots and she is immune comp.  Doing all we can.

[1978horn 896]

Just got 2 emails for my 6th grader in DSISD that she was in a classroom with someone who is now positive. Looks like 2 separate teachers are the reason and one is confirmed to have not been wearing a mask. She is 12 and gets her 2nd shot this week. Hoping that the first shot was enough.

[atomheartbevo 89831]

[Post Oak 20279]

Niece is 3 and caught it from her daycare.

[JesusSweatDuck 17813]

9 hours ago, 1978horn said:

Just got 2 emails for my 6th grader in DSISD that she was in a classroom with someone who is now positive. Looks like 2 separate teachers are the reason and one is confirmed to have not been wearing a mask. She is 12 and gets her 2nd shot this week. Hoping that the first shot was enough.

I'm guessing the unmasked was probably also unvaccinated

[1978horn 896]

I'm guessing the unmasked was probably also unvaccinated

No idea. They have a canned response for all teachers when asked by a parent. Something like “that is a personal conversation and not appropriate for this setting”.

The wording is probably not 100 percent accurate, but close enough.

[Guest Lobo]

33 minutes ago, 1978horn said:

No idea. They have a canned response for all teachers when asked by a parent. Something like “that is a personal conversation and not appropriate for this setting”.

The wording is probably not 100 percent accurate, but close enough.

Yeah, we've been getting those emails that basically say, "For all parents who inquire as the status of the child's family vaccination status, blah blah blah."  

It reminds me of Ted Stryker in "Airplane!" when he tells Elaine every aspect of their mission and she innocently asks when he'll be back, and he replies, "I can't tell you that, it's classified."  

18 months ago, if a kid had lice...they'd tell you the kid's name, where he'd been in the school (specials/electives/after-school activities), his parents contact info, and send your kid home with a bottle of anti-lice shampoo.  For lice.  Now, for a disease that can send your kid to the ICU, "We can't tell you that, it's a HIPAA violation."  

We had an outbreak of meningitis in my high school in the early 90's.  Holy shit.  Everybody exposed to the two kids (it started at a weekend party) had to bring in their medical records, you had to update the school with your medical treatment, blood results, etc.  For like a week.  Nobody batted an eye.  Every asshole parent complied with a smile because of what meningitis can do through communal spread.  Meningitis kills 500 people per year.  

You can legally request from the school (It's a pain in the ass, but it's been done) to see if there are children in your child's class that have not been immunized from Chicken Pox, Hepititis, DTaP, et. al.  They won't give up their names, but you can finally get a "There are 2 students in your child's home room and 19 on our campus."  I've never asked because I just assume South Austin has a few folks like at every school.  But suddenly you can't inquire about Covid-19 because of Muh Freedumz!  For what's maybe the most communicable disease since Freddie Mercury's Berlin Sabbatical.  

Edited August 23, 2021 by Lobo

[GreenspointTexas 9684]

When i dropped the kids off for first day of kinder, about 20-25% of the parents or kids in line were coughing

[Guest Lobo]

to be fair, a lot of them hotbox on the way to campus. 

[CleverNickname 1321]

So I called the school registrar, per the close contact email, to tell them we would quarantine.  She passed me off to the nurse, who basically said its not really mandatory and that if the child is feeling fine, then we could bring them in. WTF. So confused.

[Guest Lobo]

Yeah, that is a mixed message.  Out of curiosity, for those they recommend do quanrintine because of close contact AND symptoms---does your district allow for the student to dial in remotely during those 10 days?

[You don't know me 1161]

I'm in Missouri.  My kids start school tomorrow.  The latest district procedure is that if a kid is fully vaccinated (and proof is on file with the school nurse), then they will only be required to quarantine if they show one or more symptoms. 

I have 2 kids in the high school and they are fully vaccinated.  I have one going into the middle school and he has had the first dose with the second in about a week.

I have another in the elementary school.  As soon as it's available to him, he'll get vaccinated.  We have talked about wearing a mask even if no one else is.  He's cool with it.

[1978horn 896]

15 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Yeah, that is a mixed message.  Out of curiosity, for those they recommend do quanrintine because of close contact AND symptoms---does your district allow for the student to dial in remotely during those 10 days?

Not in DSISD.  There is no remote learning for students who choose to quarantine.  They essentially have to teach themselves and do the work on their own until they return to school.

[Guest Lobo]

13 minutes ago, You don't know me said:

I'm in Missouri.  My kids start school tomorrow.  The latest district procedure is that if a kid is fully vaccinated (and proof is on file with the school nurse), then they will only be required to quarantine if they show one or more symptoms. 

I have 2 kids in the high school and they are fully vaccinated.  I have one going into the middle school and he has had the first dose with the second in about a week.

I have another in the elementary school.  As soon as it's available to him, he'll get vaccinated.  We have talked about wearing a mask even if no one else is.  He's cool with it.

Your children sound way too intelligent to be from Missouri 

[You don't know me 1161]

9 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Your children sound way too intelligent to be from Missouri 

It's just the one.  he's still young enough to think that I actually know a thing or two.  We are from a pretty rural area in Missouri, so the anti-vaxers are a big crowd.

But yeah, my kids are smart.  They take after their mom.

Edited to add:  While we live in Missouri, they were all born in Texas, so there's that.

Edited August 23, 2021 by You don't know me

[JesusSweatDuck 17813]

27 minutes ago, 1978horn said:

Not in DSISD.  There is no remote learning for students who choose to quarantine.  They essentially have to teach themselves and do the work on their own until they return to school.

LISD is the same.

 

We're already up to 39 positives this AM.  Will be interesting to see the WoW increase if any as this is the second full week.  Last Monday ended with 52 positives reported

[CooterBrown 18032]

One of the positives at McCallum was a football player. Don't know which team.  

 

 

[SquishMitten 10444]

Got a close-contact-on-the-bus email on Friday. Told us we didn't need to do anything, and we're expected to send our kids back today unless they have symptoms. So I guess contact tracing and quarantining isn't a thing anymore. Cool.

[Pescado_Rojo 19431]

54 minutes ago, JesusSweatDuck said:

LISD is the same.

 

We're already up to 39 positives this AM.  Will be interesting to see the WoW increase if any as this is the second full week.  Last Monday ended with 52 positives reported

My kids are freshmen at Rouse. 10 positives as of last Friday. 3 in the freshman class. They send out a text with a link to the positive student's schedule and so far so good. They got their first shots last week, so I'm counting down the days until we can get them #2. 

[Born to Run 6569]

Yeah, that is a mixed message.  Out of curiosity, for those they recommend do quanrintine because of close contact AND symptoms---does your district allow for the student to dial in remotely during those 10 days?

Aisd has no provisions for online learning. Worse unless you get a positive covid test it goes towards 18 day max for absences. Exceed that and you do not get credit for the year.

[SquishMitten 10444]

That can't be right, can it? If you were sick with something else, you could still get a doctor's note, right? Or is 18 the max whether excused or not?

[hookemATL 11917]

Held out my 1st grader today as she has been snotty and cruddy since Friday. Tested at home and was negative but she is still headed to doctor today to get checked up. 
 

no virtual learning option is really shitty, considering how many kids are likely to miss time this year. This all fucking sucks. 

[ZB'Tejas 593]

One new case at Casis Elementary today. Not in our class but 2 in the last week could be worse?!?!

To the above comment, if kids need to quarantine are you saying there is no online option for them at this point. Is the online that was offered only for those that chose that prior to the start of the year?

[Captainant 27828]

48 minutes ago, hookemATL said:

Held out my 1st grader today as she has been snotty and cruddy since Friday. Tested at home and was negative but she is still headed to doctor today to get checked up. 
 

no virtual learning option is really shitty, considering how many kids are likely to miss time this year. This all fucking sucks. 

There's also the aspect of if your kid has a flu or cold or RSV - you should probably keep them home for the day anyways. Covid or not.

It's frustrating that our state isn't empowering educators to flesh out virtual options because it'll help in general whenever there are kids who are contagious but still able to learn

[Guest Lobo]

It's infuriating to talk to administrators and TEA officials about this.  All they hear is "We'd like a remote learning option."  NO!  That's not what I'm fucking saying!  I'm saying, that if we start to get a bunch of kids who have to quarantine at home (and it's heading that way)...help us and help the teachers set up a remote learning platform so my kid can dial in from home and keep current on the work, see classmates, answer/ask questions, etc.  Holy fucking shit, have a kid stuck at home for ten days is not the same as selecting a remote learning option for the semester you fucking cunts.  Allowing the teacher to teach a handful of kids remotely alongside the in-person kids is not the same as remote learning options for the semester.  This has nothing to do with district funding!  Goddamit, what the fuck.  

It hasn't happened yet, thank God!, but let's be proactive for once in the goddamn history of State Government.  When multiple kids are out for overlapping 10-15 day periods this semester, that's gonna be a fucking disaster for the teacher.  "I've got 14 kids on track in person, 1 kid who just got sick, 3 kids are 10 days behind, 3 kids are 5 days behind, and 1 kid 15 days behind."  There's no fucking system in the world for that. The infrastructure is all there from last year, all you gotta do is turn the shit back on.  But even mentioning the possibility is a apparently a gross affront to Freedom!  

It's NOT the same as remote learning option, because it my kid has to quarantine at home...then it's NOT A FUCKING OPTION COCKSUCKERS!  Missing any and all classroom/teacher/friends interaction, even via remote, for 15 fucking days the start of the semester is fucking devastating for a gradeschooler.  THis is everything the EKF bitched about last year wrapped up with a bow.  

Edited August 23, 2021 by Lobo

[JesusSweatDuck 17813]

Leander ISD up to 107 today. I'm guessing we come in around 130 by EOD. To note, last year 130 cases was the max, but we're doing that on a Monday now. Granted Monday includes Sat and Sun as well.

 

 

Last Monday we clocked in at 52. Can anyone say exponential growth?

Edited August 23, 2021 by JesusSweatDuck
More data

[Captainant 27828]

3 minutes ago, JesusSweatDuck said:

Leander ISD up to 107 today. I'm guessing we come in around 130 by EOD. To note, last year 130 cases was the max, but we're doing that on a Monday now. Granted Monday includes Sat and Sun as well.

 

 

Last Monday we clocked in at 52. Can anyone say exponential growth?

"ViRuS gOnNa ViRuS"

[hookemATL 11917]

23 minutes ago, Captainant said:

There's also the aspect of if your kid has a flu or cold or RSV - you should probably keep them home for the day anyways. Covid or not.

It's frustrating that our state isn't empowering educators to flesh out virtual options because it'll help in general whenever there are kids who are contagious but still able to learn

Agreed completely. Probably keeping her home tomorrow as well, per pediatrician instructions. Today has been a clusterfuck with both her and the 6 month old home on a busy work Monday, but should just have the one tomorrow. Lord beer me strength. 

[South Austin 52630]

4 hours ago, CooterBrown said:

One of the positives at McCallum was a football player. Don't know which team. 

Just in time for the Taco Shack Bowl!

[utee94 15868]

L-C-A

All The Way

 

[Born to Run 6569]

That can't be right, can it? If you were sick with something else, you could still get a doctor's note, right? Or is 18 the max whether excused or not?

Doctors note or a positive test do not count towards the 90%. But if your kid is sick as shit and you can't get an appt -tough shit. If you quarantine and get a negative test -tough shit.

Also 18 is the max, but that is assuming a full year of classes everyday. In High school you may only have a class once or twice a week, and maybe only for one semester bringing that number lower, as low as 4. Add in a shorten year due to weather etc and it's lower still.

[Your Mom 4853]

1 hour ago, Lobo said:

Holy fucking shit, have a kid stuck at home for ten days is not the same as selecting a remote learning option for the semester you fucking cunts.  Allowing the teacher to teach a handful of kids remotely alongside the in-person kids is not the same as remote learning options for the semester. 

 

1 hour ago, Lobo said:

The infrastructure is all there from last year, all you gotta do is turn the shit back on.  But even mentioning the possibility is a apparently a gross affront to Freedom!  

It has nothing to do with the "Muh Freedums!" crowd.   It's too much work for the teachers.  Every teacher I know, which is quite a few in Austin, hated the hybrid system last year.  Just in my small circle of friends I know 3 that quit and changed careers over with the hybrid system as the last straw.  It's not a matter of simply putting a camera in the back of the room to record while they taught in-person like normal.  That was deemed by the facebook mom nazis to be unfair to poor little Keegan at home as his education wasn't equal in terms of quality to little Brysen's at school.  So the teachers had to make sure they got facetime in front of the camera and basically taught everything twice, once to the kids in class and once to the kids at home all in the same amount of time.  It was twice the work in the same amount of time for the same shitty pay.  As a result, Austin is currently short by 140 teachers.  Asking them to do that again is going to result in a mutiny of educators and a mass exodus in the career.  The only option for doing virtual is to hire more teachers just to do nothing but virtual.  But how do you plan for that, not knowing how many kids will be out in a given week or what grades those kids are going to be in?  And how do you hire more teachers for that when you are already 140 short of real teachers in classrooms?  

If my kids have to quarantine this year I'm chalking it up to tough shit... it sucks but it can't suck much more than the virtual option already did last year anyway.

[Guest Lobo]

Virtual model did eventually suck last year, I agree.  

I don't want two parallel curricula taking place.  And I certainly don't want to add more work for the teacher.  I don't know that my suggestion of let kids dial in while stuck at home under quarantine is the best option for all involved.  But it's gotta beat the fuck out of 15 kids in person with 10 kids out at home all on varying numbers of days out of the classroom.  Juggling two groups sucks for the teacher, I get that.  But I want to make sure they don't have 2 kids returning every 3 days to class, both on different levels of self-schooling at home, with the next pair coming Friday, and then 3 more coming back next week, with 2 more in class kids on their way to a 15-day quarantine and needing the reacher to setup lesson plans for them to take home, and then 1 kid coming back 14 days from now, with 3 more about to get pulled out next week so how do you start accounting for that as you write up next month's lesson plans?  2 groups sucks for the teacher?  What the fuck is 9 groups gonna look like?  

[CooterBrown 18032]

41 minutes ago, South Austin said:

Just in time for the Taco Shack Bowl!

Yes, one of the most glorious football rivalries in Texas high school football lore.

 

[South Austin 52630]

Just now, CooterBrown said:

Yes, one of the most glorious football rivalries in Texas high school football lore.

AISD just changed course and won't have any reduced capacity at sporting events.  And if there's no masking requirement, I'm not sure I'm going to let my daughter go to the Taco Shack Bowl.  She was looking forward to her first football game as a McCallum student.  She's fully vaxxed, and I'm not afraid of her ending up in a hospital.  But I don't want her passing along the COVID to her fifth-grade brother and he's got a 10-day vacation from school.  I'm probably fooling myself to think my son won't be quarantined at some point.

[CooterBrown 18032]

Just now, South Austin said:

AISD just changed course and won't have any reduced capacity at sporting events.  And if there's no masking requirement, I'm not sure I'm going to let my daughter go to the Taco Shack Bowl.  She was looking forward to her first football game as a McCallum student.  She's fully vaxxed, and I'm not afraid of her ending up in a hospital.  But I don't want her passing along the COVID to her fifth-grade brother and he's got a 10-day vacation from school.  I'm probably fooling myself to think my son won't be quarantined at some point.

Weird. Volleyball is still operating at 25% capacity in the gym. I guess because it's open air, AISD said fuck it.

[utee94 15868]

1 minute ago, South Austin said:

AISD just changed course and won't have any reduced capacity at sporting events.  And if there's no masking requirement, I'm not sure I'm going to let my daughter go to the Taco Shack Bowl.  She was looking forward to her first football game as a McCallum student.  She's fully vaxxed, and I'm not afraid of her ending up in a hospital.  But I don't want her passing along the COVID to her fifth-grade brother and he's got a 10-day vacation from school.  I'm probably fooling myself to think my son won't be quarantined at some point.

They were going to drop it to 25%, but that wouldn't really be enough to even cover the parents of all of the football team, cheerleaders, drill team, and band parents.

But honestly, it's still just an AISD football game.  Those don't get particularly crowded.  And it's outdoors.  The only vectors are going to be the friends she's hanging around directly, for extended periods of time.

[smoky 840]

I'll do what I can to track AISD daily changes. Give me a day or so to set it up.

[used2b 249]

So what I am hearing is that transmission is lower in the districts with mask requirement right now? AISD seems like it's doing ok.

[Guest Lobo]

I think it's way too soon to tell.  I think that data is anecdotal at best right now.  I would think it would help but I'm not gonna hold my breath.  We got 6 ugly weeks to go on this flare.  

What I do know is Vaccine mandates for middle schools and high schools is gonna come up at my district board meeting tomorrow night.  I am going to start drinking now in anticipation of what will likely be the dumbest debate I've seen since Joey Lawrence took on Pauly Shore in the famous 1993 oratory competition, "Flannel Shirts:  Around Your Waist or Your Head?"  

[South Austin 52630]

Well shit. A kid in my son’s fifth-grade class tested positive, and now he has a 10-day quarantine. The school (Highland Park) obviously won’t say who, but my son says one of his best friends who he hangs out with a lot went to the nurse’s office not feeling well and didn’t come back to class. We’re getting him tested on Wednesday. 

Son of bitch. Shit.

[Guest Lobo]

Son of bitch.  Shit.

[1978horn 896]

DSISD cases have doubled for students since last night 11 to 22 and employee almost tripled from 5 to 14.  This is just the beginning. 

They couldn't find a sub for one of the teachers so 2 classes went out into a pod and one teacher taught both.  Now instead of one class being exposed you would have two in the event that someone was positive.

Edited August 23, 2021 by 1978horn

[Anastasis 23492]

Is there any evidence of school based transmission tied to transportation, in school, or extracurricular, or are the in school cases correlated with the community transmission rates?

 

This is the real question and nobody is generating the data that will address it.   

Edited August 23, 2021 by Anastasis

[CooterBrown 18032]

The McCallum football player that is positive was on the freshman team. Kids had to show a vaccine card to come back today. I know 3 kids on the team. 2 are quarantined and neither was the positive case. There’s only like 25-30 kids on the team. We will see what they roll out at the Wednesday game.

[atomheartbevo 89831]

1 minute ago, Anastasis said:

Is there any evidence of school based transmission tied to transportation, in school or extracurricular, or are the in school cases correlated with the community transmission rates?

This is the real question and nobody is generating the data that will address it.   

It's complicated.   How many of these kids are masking up in schools, and then turning around and hanging out unmasked at the neighborhood park or in Sunday school at their church or having friends over unmasked or whatever?  

How do you track that data?

 

[Anastasis 23492]

6 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

It's complicated.   How many of these kids are masking up in schools, and then turning around and hanging out unmasked at the neighborhood park or in Sunday school at their church or having friends over unmasked or whatever?  

How do you track that data?

Robust contact tracing.