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

[atomheartbevo 89846]

9 hours ago, mdmost said:

considering the massive size and amount of students attending DISD schools.

Are you saying the students in Dallas are larger than the ones in San Antonio?

And it’s 2021, can’t you say “big-boned” instead of “massive”?

[Guest Lobo]

And Plano's getting........Larger! /johnnyjacobs

[Samson's Wig 3195]

On 9/25/2021 at 6:18 AM, Cody2422 said:

So is it just as interesting that in a school district without a mask mandate, rates of covid are nearly zero?  Think there is something in our water too?  

Probably.  Or maybe lack of reporting.  Maybe natural immunity is built up in your community.  Maybe the tooth fairy is real.  Who knows?

[Wulaw Horn 19153]

8 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

Probably.  Or maybe lack of reporting.  Maybe natural immunity is built up in your community.  Maybe the tooth fairy is real.  Who knows?

When you see the wave but different places at the same time with radically different ways of dealing with it then end, then move on, I don’t know what to say but it’s pretty weird. 

[MonkeyDoughnut 10362]

On 9/25/2021 at 7:44 AM, Baboontyme said:

The CDC has obviously had some issues but this is interesting.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7039e1.htm?s_cid=mm7039e1_w

lol... reading their "crude analysis" and breakdown of school sizes and types it is as if they scoured the country to find a county that could show what they were looking for.

[Baboontyme 2828]

I am not sure where you are getting that from? Can you please elaborate? It seems pretty straightforward and absent of gotchas to me, even in re-reading it. Two biggest counties in the State that hold 75% of the State's population. Tiny percentage did not have data available and another tiny percentage had immediate outbreaks that likely did not originate in school so they weren't included. 

[smoky 840]

That study should be easy to repeat and should be repeated now that cases are going down.

If that 3.5x is true, we should see it again assuming no major policy changes.

Because the definition of "school outbreak" is shaky, the question should be "is a kid safer at school (mask or no mask) than out in public?" You'd really need to be diligent about contact tracing though and compare against community case rates.

We don't do that.

[Samson's Wig 3195]

1 hour ago, Baboontyme said:

I am not sure where you are getting that from?

Hi ass.  It's where antimask folks find their nuggets of wisdom, or what they refer to as "science".

[smoky 840]

Eh, an alternative headline from that AZ dataset could be "Over 75% of schools without a mask requirement did not record a single covid outbreak over a six week period, even as cases rose in the community"

It's all lies, damned lies and statistics.

[Baboontyme 2828]

I have no idea how it works in Arizona, or TX. But it's very frustrating that the data has so many faults. Case in point, Michigan updates their school outbreak database every Monday at 3 PM. I was waiting to scope it. Lo and behold my wife's school is somehow not listed on this week's report. To recap, unmasked district, unmasked symptomatic Kindergartner came to school 2 weeks ago Wednesday, infected half the class and my (double vaxxed, double masked) wife, who then went on to infect both of the other Kindergarten teachers, one of whom also had her class shut down due to positive cases among the kids, and at least two other staff members. Oh and also obviously my kids, and my in laws who happened to stop by for a 5 minute visit the day she came home with the sniffles. Wife says they cook the books to make it look like the outbreak did not occur in school. I have no idea how they do that, I suppose the County does not follow up and contact trace the way they do in the County in which I reside. Or maybe they leave it up to the parents to contact the school and half of them don't do so. But yes it's somewhat maddening. 

[smoky 840]

Yeah, and I think using Arizona's definition, that would count as only one "outbreak" despite the fact that it took out half a grade.

It's all fun with numbers.

[atomheartbevo 89846]

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/09/17/texas-schools-covid-19-cases/

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Less than two months into this school year, the number of reported coronavirus cases among students has surpassed the total from the entire 2020-21 school year. But state data on school cases is incomplete and likely an undercount.

On 9/27/2021 at 3:42 PM, smoky said:

It's all fun with numbers.

A lot of fun, so much fun we don't even know how much fun we are having (seriously, numbers people must be having a field day during the pandemic, with all of the requests for their expertise):

Quote

State data on school cases is incomplete and likely an undercount. TEA suppresses some districts’ case counts to protect student privacy, and not all districts report student and staff cases to the state, despite agency guidance requiring otherwise. The agency also retroactively updates its data from previous weeks as more districts report cases.

Some large districts, such as Houston and Dallas, have not consistently reported cases to the state since TEA started tracking COVID-19 data on Aug. 2 for this school year. Many districts publish a COVID-19 dashboard that shows cases, and TEA recommends families check for the latest data there.

Quote

Entire districts, including Angleton and Lumberton, have closed temporarilywithout reporting cases to the state. These districts don’t necessarily report their closures, either, since they are not required to do so. TEA informally tracks closures based on media and district reports, said Frank Ward, an agency spokesperson.

 

 

[atomheartbevo 89846]

https://www.kxan.com/news/local/williamson-county/round-rock-isd-leander-isd-parents-meet-to-pursue-legal-action-against-school-district-board-members/

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Parents from the Round Rock and Leander Independent School Districts met at Williamson County Justice Center Tuesday morning to discuss possible legal actions against their school districts’ Board of Trustees and their decisions to approve school mask requirements.

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RRISD parent Michelle Evans said they wanted to meet with County Attorney Dee Hobbs to pursue criminal charges against board members and discuss the rights of parents during school board public meetings. They instead spoke to an assistant at the Williamson County Attorney’s Office. 

“What’s important is that we continue to push for representation,” Evans said. “To push that [school board trustees] are held accountable for that they had been elected to do and to represent parents.”

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The assistant at the Williamson County Attorney’s Office said these challenges will have to go through the legal system, factoring Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates in public schools, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s opinion and the school boards’ decisions into account.

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During the meeting, the parents also demanded the charges filed against Dustin Clark and Jeremy Storybe dismissed. Clark and Story were arrested Sept. 18 in connection to the RRISD board meeting that was cut short due to several disruptions. They were both charged with hindering proceedings by disorderly conduct, according to court records.

 

[smoky 840]

Have any of the school districts with mask mandates said what the offramps are for eliminating their mask mandates? 

"We'll eliminate the mandate when we reach 75% vax rate in the school district or two weeks without a positive case in a school's zip code"

Wouldn't that avoid the circus of doofuses (doofii?)

We're arguing about stupid shit when we could tie actual metrics to things that people want.

"If you eat five more green beans you can have dessert" works pretty well with my kids.

 

[Gardner Barnes 1562]

Somehow Jennifer Horn Stevens managed to equate eanes mask safety and school shootings while at the same time managing to be a little bit racist.

All In a day’s work.

[Samson's Wig 3195]

WTF?   I don't live in the Eanes district, and I know I shouldn't be surprised by how completely stupid people can be, but holy shit.  This is the woman who almost made the school board, right?

Good luck to all you rich assholes in Westlake. 

[Ghost of LL 15545]

20 minutes ago, Gardner Barnes said:

Somehow Jennifer Horn Stevens managed to equate eanes mask safety and school shootings while at the same time managing to be a little bit racist.

All In a day’s work.

Holy fucking racist shitpost, Batman!

[mdmost 43059]

Man, it's a real good thing white kids never shoot up schools. 

[Guest Lobo]

Holy shit.  That’s way more toxic than I thought she capable of.  And her timing is just an absolute delight.  Lots to unpack here but fuck it for now.  It’s OKL/ACL weekend, her hate will be there when I get home.  
 

but seriously, even for her—this is fucked up

[midtown 3348]

So covid is tanking.  Some schools mandated most didn't.  Some districts got sued.  Kids were quarantined. Crazy school board meetings and hang wringing by parents.   Does anyone have any final stats on all this?  Did we end up protecting kids at all, did this circus actually do anything?  Did any kids die?

I see NISD in SA has dropped their mandate.  NEISD quietly never had one.   I told my double vax kids I'm no longer suggesting or even asking they wear masks.   

Edited October 7, 2021 by midtown

[yoladu 4110]

1 hour ago, Gardner Barnes said:

Somehow Jennifer Horn Stevens managed to equate eanes mask safety and school shootings while at the same time managing to be a little bit racist.

All In a day’s work.

more than a "little bit racist".

[atomheartbevo 89846]

5 hours ago, yoladu said:

more than a "little bit racist".

[Baboontyme 2828]

Backs up my anecdotal evidence of my kids being the ONLY kids out in their entire respective masked schools b/c of Covid (as of 2 weeks ago), and my wife's school having ~ 30ish kids and teachers out 4.5 miles away in an unmasked district. 

https://www.freep.com/story/news/health/2021/10/15/michigan-data-show-mask-mandates-slow-covid-spread-in-schools/8422532002/

[atomheartbevo 89846]

4 hours ago, Baboontyme said:

Backs up my anecdotal evidence of my kids being the ONLY kids out in their entire respective masked schools b/c of Covid (as of 2 weeks ago), and my wife's school having ~ 30ish kids and teachers out 4.5 miles away in an unmasked district. 

https://www.freep.com/story/news/health/2021/10/15/michigan-data-show-mask-mandates-slow-covid-spread-in-schools/8422532002/

It's still weird as fuck that in the past 16 months, I've only had one cold and no flu, when normally my kids are bringing home stuff all the time.

[South Austin 52635]

2 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

It's still weird as fuck that in the past 16 months, I've only had one cold and no flu, when normally my kids are bringing home stuff all the time.

It is weird.  It's like there's some magical device shielding my son and his classmates from the aerosol droplets that normally transmit the viruses.

[Guest Lobo]

Yarmulkes?  Didn't realize you were one of the tribe, L'Chaim!  

[Satoshi 129]

This puts a nail in the coffin of school/Covid hysteria. Major policy blunders were executed. Hopefully the ramifications aren’t too large. 
 

 

[Snake Diggity 4628]

19 hours ago, Satoshi said:

This puts a nail in the coffin of school/Covid hysteria. Major policy blunders were executed. Hopefully the ramifications aren’t too large. 
 

 

Does it “put the nail in the coffin”, Satoshi?  Does it, really?

[atomheartbevo 89846]

AISD parents who want their kids vaccinated, AISD is having a massive vaccine clinic this weekend.  Free, etc., check your text messages/emails.

[Eskimohorn 5644]

How many coffins?

[Guest Lobo]

No coffins, just the government inoculating our children against their will!  

What's next, mandatory curricula using Radical Islamic Numbers and the Scientific Method which rejects the Christ?  

[atomheartbevo 89846]

3 minutes ago, Lobo said:

No coffins, just the government inoculating our children against their will!  

Only if you sign up in advance - slots were limited.

[Cap33 393]

5 minutes ago, Lobo said:

What's next, mandatory curricula using Radical Islamic Numbers and the Scientific Method which rejects the Christ?  

Just hold your horses. We've gotta burn a bunch of porn books first!

[Guest Lobo]

Oh yeah, totally forgot about all that hardback smut we accidentally filled school shelves with back in the 80's.  

I think some people Texas still think there's independent video rental stores with that "back room" behind a creepy brown curtain.  And those people got put in charge of our libraries or something.  Every time I wonder "How is a state as hard-working and wealthy as Texas still 45th in the nation in K-12 education scores?"..................I just listen to some other Texans for a moment or two and remember, "Oh right, right.  I 'member."  

[Anastasis 23489]

It was pretty obvious early on that in-school transmission was just a correlate of community-based transmission in setting where basic NPI was implemented. 

[Hefeweizen 5340]

How many of the advocates for in person schooling overlap the anti mask anti vaccine crowd?  Because my kids would be fine with in person if chuckle heads would mask or vax.  But usually it’s neither.  So they’re not very happy about in person learning- and they are both straight  A students.  That’s just a regular brag.

[utee94 15869]

5 hours ago, Hefeweizen said:

How many of the advocates for in person schooling overlap the anti mask anti vaccine crowd?  Because my kids would be fine with in person if chuckle heads would mask or vax.  But usually it’s neither.  So they’re not very happy about in person learning- and they are both straight  A students.  That’s just a regular brag.

 

I have no idea, but I'm an advocate for in person schooling because it's vastly more effective than online.  

Both of my kids are straight A students, both are fully vaccinated, and both are strongly in favor of in person school.  Online school was easy for them, and nearly pointless, because it's a significantly inferior learning environment and they recognize that.

[smoky 840]

Proposed AISD calendar for 2022-2023 has 37 Early Release Wednesdays.

[Guest Lobo]

That sounds like a lot.   What’s the rationale for thst?

[Harrison Bergeron 1798]

On 11/12/2021 at 5:48 PM, Hefeweizen said:

How many of the advocates for in person schooling overlap the anti mask anti vaccine crowd?  Because my kids would be fine with in person if chuckle heads would mask or vax.  But usually it’s neither.  So they’re not very happy about in person learning- and they are both straight  A students.  That’s just a regular brag.

How many school-age kids have died from Covid-19?

[Harrison Bergeron 1798]

15 minutes ago, Lobo said:

That sounds like a lot.   What’s the rationale for thst?

My wife teaches (not AISD) and her district has more jack off days than I thought possible.

[BrazilHorn 6637]

Big topic now is talking about getting rid of block day set up. Would get rid of like 14 electives from 6th-12th grade that kids could take over the course of their middle to high school career.

I think the new Superintendent actually hates kids and is going to be proposing a "free range" system where kids just roam the halls all day undisciplined.

AISD is a mess. My wife (no pics) volunteers at both our kid's schools and basically there is zero discipline allowed of any kind. Kids just walk out of class at will, it's crazy. The new superintendent has basically come down and said discipline=hurt feelings for kids and as such it's a no-no.

 

[Cap33 393]

Is getting rid of block day and the electives simply a cost-saving measure?  If so, that's a pretty stupid and short-sighted solution when the goal is supposed to be keeping kids from leaving the district.  

The new Superintendent sucks.  If that's true about her approach to discipline, it would explain a lot about how different O. Henry is this year compared to when my older child went there with the same admin staff.  

[smoky 840]

That sounds like a lot.   What’s the rationale for thst?

yup, it's every single Wednesday.

More Teacher planning time.

I think there will still be more educational minutes in the year if they adopt this, which means either the calendar or the other four school days get extended.

[atomheartbevo 89846]

On 11/12/2021 at 11:04 PM, utee94 said:

I have no idea, but I'm an advocate for in person schooling because it's vastly more effective than online.  

We need to keep them in school. The kids who are coming back in January of next year.....well the kids in general at the start of the school year seem to be having issues adjusting to lots of other kids, but the kids who have continued to stay at home, I can't imagine what this has done to them.

[BrazilHorn 6637]

25 minutes ago, Cap33 said:

Is getting rid of block day and the electives simply a cost-saving measure?  If so, that's a pretty stupid and short-sighted solution when the goal is supposed to be keeping kids from leaving the district.  

The new Superintendent sucks.  If that's true about her approach to discipline, it would explain a lot about how different O. Henry is this year compared to when my older child went there with the same admin staff.  

I think it is her approach. I have a 6th grader at O. Henry and it is night and day different than when my now 9th grader went through there. She is trying to make every school equally shitty.

[Cap33 393]

6 minutes ago, BrazilHorn said:

I think it is her approach. I have a 6th grader at O. Henry and it is night and day different than when my now 9th grader went through there. She is trying to make every school equally shitty.

Terrific. Next she'll come for the Austin High academies.

[bschoolprof 6273]

3 hours ago, smoky said:

Proposed AISD calendar for 2022-2023 has 37 Early Release Wednesdays.

My kids’ district does this. Seems like bullshit to me, but the kids love it. School seems very watered down to me, compared to thirty years ago, but I yell at clouds a lot. 

[Hefeweizen 5340]

1 hour ago, Harrison Bergeron said:

How many school-age kids have died from Covid-19?

Shit you're right, death is the only negative outcome from Covid.  Nevermind, drop everything and let them lick doorknobs.

[CooterBrown 18034]

I think the new Superintendent actually hates kids

I blew off a teacher friend who said when she was hired that she was brought in to dismantle AISD. Maybe that wasn’t tinfoil hat thinking. She said the superintendent was a big follower of Becky Devos and would destroy public schools to push charters and private schools.