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Old 09-12-2020, 11:52 AM
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I have no children in school but I have been following what my small town's school district is doing. I live in a small, rural county in west central Ohio.

The district chose to go 5 days a week in person. A virtual option is available for those that weren't comfortable going back. Decision had to be made beginning of August.

School started Aug. 25th. The high school had its first positive case Aug. 26th. A student was randomly tested by employer and it came back positive. As of Aug. 28th there were 4 positive cases in the district (none in elementary). On Aug. 28th I found out from my neighbor that his SIL that is a teacher at the middle school is on quarantine for 14 days because her son was sent home from college and tested positive (he got tested after a friend received a positive test). The son is living with her.

School did not shut down for any of the positive cases. For 1st case, 22 students were put on quarantine. When the next 3 showed up, a total of 150 students were in quarantine. As of Sept 2nd, 6 positive cases in the system but no shut down.

My county is on the top 10 list of counties when ranked by highest occurrence. We've been there for about a month. In August the number of cases in the county doubled from what we had the end of July. We don't meet the criteria to move to Level 3 but we've been in Level 2 for awhile and a neighboring county is Level 3 and will stay there until the number of cases goes below the CDC threshold.

The last couple of weeks my area of the state has been the hot spot. COVID is moving into the rural areas.

As for football, our league is playing 6 games. Only home team band can perform so the band only gets to perform for 3 games. Only family members of team and band can attend. We've got a brand new $1M plus stadium not being utilized to its full potential because of it. Stadium was just completed in beginning of August.

Several schools in the Dayton area have had to postpone football games because of positive cases on 2 different teams. The 2 teams didn't play each other either!
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  #52  
Old 09-12-2020, 03:59 PM
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We're now through the first week of virtual school. My kids say it's boring compared to regular school, but we expected that. The kids and teachers are all doing the best they can with it. Unfortunately, I don't think we're ever going to go to hybrid--the district seems to be leaning toward keeping most of the district virtual and concentrating on bringing in certain populations that need it most and are easier to bring in. So until there's widespread vaccination I expect us to stay 100% virtual.

There are only a few things I find problematic for now. First, back in the spring there were so many lag issues that many teachers required cameras to be off. So now that's the culture, and although students are encouraged to turn cameras on none of the kids do. I can't imagine spending the entire year teaching to just a blank screen, and I think it makes the kids feel isolated not to see their classmates, too.

My son is in special ed classes where there are a lot of kids with ADHD (in addition to other learning disabilities). Yet the teachers are PLAYING MUSIC when they send the kids off to do work within the class period. Kids can't mute the music because then they won't know when their teacher calls them back. My son always struggles to complete work, but with that distraction he's getting even less done. So now I get to email all the teachers and ask them to rethink this. Four days in and I'm already on my second email--I'm going to be the problem parent this year! (First was about some modifications my son needs that they'd realize for themselves if he were in person but won't while he's virtual.)

And last, they told us that there would be times within classes that kids were doing things offline. So far that hasn't happened; it's way more screen time than they led us to believe. I'm hoping that changes as we get further into the year.
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Old 09-12-2020, 05:14 PM
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We are remote learning until mid-October. They are discussing going to hybrid. I find myself in the minority that I would rather we remain remote learning. The Navajo Nation was devastated by the virus - even healthy people I knew were infected and died from it. I am not in a rush to get my kids back to in-person school. I am in AZ but recently moved to a different county. The Navajo Nation has all of their schools on remote learning through first semester. They also cancelled fall sports and in discussion with the state sports association on an alternate schedule for fall, winter and spring sports starting in Jan 2021. They now only have 20 or less cases per day and doing very well but they did the more extreme measures compared to the rest of the country so their efforts paid off. They are not about to rush to go back to normal. I don't live on the Navajo Nation but close by. Our school district has 25-40% students from the Navajo Nation. I will be watching closely to see what they do. I finally am able to see my family more often, including my mom who is in the high risk category. If remote learning is offered, I will take that option. Yes, remote learning is hard. But we explained to our kids that we have to adjust, make the best of the situation and work through it. Both are doing well with their classes. My son does miss going in-person but the thought of wearing a mask all the time at school and physical distancing doesn't sound appealing. His former school district is doing hybrid and he has heard from his friends complaining about school not being the same with the restrictions in place. I am working full-time at home and my hours are flexible. I can work on Saturday to make up work. That allows me to be available to help both of them out throughout the day.
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Old 09-12-2020, 09:54 PM
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The saga continues...

The district is going back to their original plan from July with 5-day in-person and alternative virtual instruction and will start September 21st. I would say at least 85% of the student population will be in-person.

My 6yo has already been told that he will have a new teacher, and it looks like he will be part of a K/1 class since there are not enough other first-graders at his school that are signed up for virtual learning to make a complete class. There was some talk about having the same grade level from multiple schools taught by one teacher but I don't know if that is still the case. There's literally nothing that I can do but it just makes me sick to think about how badly my son's school experience has been thus far: a series of subs his first 6 weeks of kindergarten last year, then a terrible regular teacher, then the pandemic from March-June... and now the pandemic again + working on his second teacher with only a month of first grade under his belt. I don't feel in-person is safe at his age but virtual is not a good fit for him (lots of down time) and I'm worried that it will be made even worse if he's in a class with kindergarteners. I'm not even sure how that would work since most of the kindergarteners wouldn't know how to read yet. There is a self-paced option which I think would be best for him but I don't know what I'd do with him during school hours if he were to do that as I work from home & am starting a new job next week. It's a lose-lose-lose situation, and I hate that for him.

My 11yo is supposed to have the same teacher & classmates from last year and currently does. She's doing really well with virtual learning and is not particularly interested in going back to school with all the COVID regulations in place. Her teacher has not yet said whether she will be in-person or virtual but statistically speaking, chances are slim. I'm not sure how she will manage to have the type of work she's supposed to have if they don't put her with that teacher, however.

I know everyone's children are being shortchanged just like mine but it doesn't make it any easier to accept.
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  #55  
Old 09-12-2020, 10:41 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LeeAndra View Post
There's literally nothing that I can do but it just makes me sick to think about how badly my son's school experience has been thus far: a series of subs his first 6 weeks of kindergarten last year, then a terrible regular teacher, then the pandemic from March-June... and now the pandemic again + working on his second teacher with only a month of first grade under his belt. I don't feel in-person is safe at his age but virtual is not a good fit for him (lots of down time) and I'm worried that it will be made even worse if he's in a class with kindergarteners. I'm not even sure how that would work since most of the kindergarteners wouldn't know how to read yet. There is a self-paced option which I think would be best for him but I don't know what I'd do with him during school hours if he were to do that as I work from home & am starting a new job next week. It's a lose-lose-lose situation, and I hate that for him.
What a rough first few years of school! Do you know any other first graders who chose virtual? If so, is there any chance that you could pair up with one family so that you and the other parents could trade off days and the kids could maybe have each other to play with during the down time?

I can't say this for sure, but if he ends up in a K/1 class my guess is that they'll be together for things like morning circle, specials, listening to stories, and community building. Then when it's time for their lessons the teacher is likely to work with just the K's while the first graders go do an assignment (or take a break) and vice versa. I don't know what the situation is like there, but in the small sample of kindergarteners I know (the 2020 graduates of the preschool I teach at) many kindergarteners have opted out of the public schools for this year. The youngest kids with the option to delay a year did that, and some others are either homeschooling or in a pandemic pod. If your area is similar, there may end up being more first graders than kinders in his class.
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