waverly I do think it’s interesting that California is in the same conversation as Florida and Texas. While our cases are rising, our per capita numbers are still low, especially for deaths. There are 20-some states with higher deaths per capita than California. Not to say we’re in good shape, but I do feel pretty safe here. And California is so enormous, virus impact is very regional.
If you read any of the New York Times articles on cases rising in California, there are a lot of comments that have an anti-California feel. Like ‘haha, you guys thought you were so smart with your early shut down, and now you’re getting it!’
We chatted with the office at pickup today. We can take the private school spot. The registration fee is nonefundable, but the tuition is.. so if we decide to take the distance learning support instead, we could apply the tuition and only be out $300. Done. BBC
sdlaura it’s crazy to me that all of CA is pumped into one group. NorCal is SO different from SoCal. Before CV, and especially with it.
It would take me 7.5 hours to drive to San Francisco, and I’m not as far south as you can go. Also I’m always shocked that the Bay Area is even really considered Northern California. You can drive for over 6 hours north of San Francisco and still be in California!
I’m originally from the DC area, where it’s totally normal to drive between 3 states in the course of a normal day.
Post by librarychica on Jul 14, 2020 21:51:09 GMT -5
Our county, the second biggest in the state, tabled the decision after a 9+ hour meeting. All the surrounding counties have plans. They were there to vote on the part of their plan that would institute an option that would allow kids to distance learn or possibly hybrid learn at their home schools instead of the county/state option. Whether to have a fully open option has been decided by the state already. So they spent 90% of the time debating and taking public comment on whether they should open at all.
We know you’re going to open. I can see both sides personally but, regardless, you’re not going to buck the state DoE. So just make a plan! JFC. School starts in 4 weeks or maybe 5 or maybe 6 depending on the non-plan. I have pretty much decided to keep mine virtual for the first block of time (also TBD!) we have to commit to but I would like to know what the 1, 2 or possibly 3 virtual and or hybrid and or whatever else they come up with are.
Post by librarychica on Jul 14, 2020 21:54:45 GMT -5
sdlaura and k3am, the first time I went to California H and I spent at least ; 4 hours driving through fields of cows to get somewhere. I’m from a long state myself but even I was like “I had no idea how many fields of cows were in California. This place is huge.”
FL and TX are reaching hospital capacity while CA is doing pretty well in that, I think. I hate to say this because peaking means more cases and deaths, but in a way it’s a good thing because you can then come down on the other side. I was excited about that here and things opening, but now we are just hanging out with covid (but things mostly or partially open), so it’s not as exciting as I had hoped. I had hoped for more vanquishing of the disease than we achieved. This whole thing sucks so much.
waverly, but Texas is even larger and more diverse than California. So yes, urban areas like Houston and Dallas are nearing hospital capacity. But a lot of areas aren’t. Like we have 80 counties that have fewer than 20 active cases. In a way I get that we need flexible solutions, but at the same time, it’s not like people in the rural areas don’t come to the urban areas.
And we have a frigging NASCAR race this weekend that’s expected to draw 20,000 people. This is as much murder as if someone dropped a bomb on the stadium. Lots of idiot rednecks from rural areas will come in for that.
waverly, but Texas is even larger and more diverse than California. So yes, urban areas like Houston and Dallas are nearing hospital capacity. But a lot of areas aren’t. Like we have 80 counties that have fewer than 20 active cases. In a way I get that we need flexible solutions, but at the same time, it’s not like people in the rural areas don’t come to the urban areas.
And we have a frigging NASCAR race this weekend that’s expected to draw 20,000 people. This is as much murder as if someone dropped a bomb on the stadium. Lots of idiot rednecks from rural areas will come in for that.
What?! That’s crazy - the NASCAR race. We have banned all gatherings over 50 people.
We for sure have had the city/ rural divide. It started to wane in the city and pick up in rural areas but it’s probably never going to be as bad as it was in Chicago.
Our official plan: Fully reopen with an option to choose fully remote learning if you feel it's better for your family. No jumping back and forth. Plastic shields around every desk. Masks worn when not seated at your desk behind your shield. If someone refuses a mask, they are not allowed in the building and must choose a remote learning option. Super limited access to the schools from volunteers, outside orgs, etc using the school spaces like auditoriums. No temperature checks because of the volume and logistics to get everyone through and the fall out of temp checks turning kids away but we have a specific protocol to attest to every morning. Plastic shields in the lunchroom too so they can take their masks off to eat, elementary classes must sit together at lunch, which they typically do anyway at our school. Prepackaged food for all meals. Masks on buses too, but encouraging more parents to drop off/pick up instead.
I think we'll send them back and roll with it, knowing that at some point we will probably end up shut down again anyway. Might as well let them kick off the school year in a classroom and see how long it goes. I think I will try to continue to work at home so that we can avoid before/after care issues as long as possible, since I have no idea what our options will be for that realistically and then we can avoid any bus issues.
Post by mustardseed2007 on Jul 15, 2020 8:12:58 GMT -5
k3am , it sounds like that new option the private school came up with is made for you guys and for all the families in your same boat. I would do it and I would tell all my neighbors about it too so hopefully you can get a little class going of people you guys know.
mommyatty , I am interested in hearing another Texan's perspective on whether the governor will shut things down. Obviously in my industry/work place we have talked a lot about it since we're very impacted by shut downs. When the governor criticized local governments for not following through with his mask order (pot meet kettle), I thought he might actually do it. It's hard to see trends without having a good amount of time behind you, so the fact that his mask order didn't go into effect until July 3rd (so late to the party!) means we don't even have two weeks behind us right now to see if it helps and how much it helps.
ETA: I had written more stuff about how in Texas it does make sense to have a state wide mask order but I'm not going to spew all that on here. I'm not so sure the Texas small town/county experience has much to do with the California experience anyway, and it won't make anyone feel different about their schools not opening. No matter what, that's hard and covid sucks.
I swear I said covid sucks 12 times yesterday to managers who were complaining about how hard it is to operate right now because I don't have magic wand solutions for them. Keeping people safe is hard. And living life right now is hard. And it sucks.
mustardseed2007, I don’t think he will, but I think he should, especially in counties with hospitals nearing capacity. An interesting thing I read yesterday was one of the reasons that helps is car accidents. When no one is driving much, you have fewer ER trips from car accidents, which apparently helps a whole lot in terms of ER and surgical capacity.
And I agree we should have a statewide mask order. I just can see the other side of that argument. If you’re in a super rural county with more cotton fields than people, and fewer than 20 cases, I can see where masks would seem really odd and alien and unnecessary. But here, near Fort Worth (where the NASCAR race is taking place), we need a full on shutdown. And after this stupid race, when our cases explode, we just might get one.
twinmomma that plan sounds very reasonable to me. I wish there were more middle grounds like the one you described, in between automatic online only and the states that want to send everyone back with no safety measures - that’s got to be a recipe for disaster, especially for adults and older kids. I personally believe that elementary schools can reopen relatively safely in many places, assuming that strict safety protocols are in place.
sdlaura, I think part of why this plan seems reasonable is that somehow our district had the money to buy all these shields. I have no clue where that budget came from. I'm in a small state, so we're a small district in regards to a lot of the country. But we are a very large district compared to others in our state so it's shocking that we were able to purchase enough shields for everyone. I still have a lot of lingering guilt around all the exposure the teachers will have, especially at the high school level. I'm trying to come to terms with that, when so many of my close relatives and friends are in education and I know their districts don't have the same resources we have. We're also lucky that our state numbers are low, even with the total lack of leadership and mandates from our leaders in regards to masking and reopening everything back up. I live on the border though and have many people in town that commute to Boston and other hot spots for work on a daily basis, so that level of exposure from all these families around town stresses me out too.
twinmomma I agree that I’m worried for teachers who teach older kids. I think the countries/states/districts that send younger kids back but keep older kids doing distance learning are on to something. I know online learning isn’t ideal for most high school kids either, but there seem to be definite differences in how much older kids suffer from the virus and likely transmit it more too. Then again, hopefully older kids have more of an ability to be really careful if you can get them to follow strict safety protocols.
We are in a FB group for parents from our district. Mostly it's parents and teachers talking about how dangerous it would be to send teachers into a classroom full of kids.
Another parent posted about the program that our daycare is putting on, and everyone thinks it's a great idea.
I pointed out that yes, it's a great idea. And.. it's also putting up to 24 kids (they are planning on less, but that's what they're licensed for) into a classroom with an adult supervising them in similar circumstances. They fall into the same county guidelines as the schools. Which is not okay for teachers, but somehow those same people think it is okay for daycare workers.
twinmomma, I think that the guilt is an interesting issue. I feel like I am coming at it from the opposite side, where my university has said that we will be teaching courses in person, and here is a list of PPE you can pick from, so pick some because you will need it. They have told me thus far that I will be in the classroom. Which makes me want to have my kids go in person as well. In part this is also fueled by how unimpressive our e-learning was this spring. I don't feel like my kids learned very much, and am skeptical the our school will do much better this fall. Our district was widely variable in terms of the quality on a school basis.
Now I’m in touch with an employee from our kids’ aftercare (Mr. Matt) who is open to helping us with some kid of pod. All the kids love him. He says he’s had a lot of inquiries from other families. So I’m nervous that if we decide not to go the private school route, I need to lock him in now for next year. But of course we still have no details about what the schedule for next year will look like. Our district hasn’t even announced that they’re definitely doing just distance learning, though that’s everyone’s assumption. Now the family we’re discussing the pod with is also looking at the same private schools as us, so we’ll likely make a joint decision. Which seems crazy since we don’t even know these people that well.
mustardseed2007 , I don’t think he will, but I think he should, especially in counties with hospitals nearing capacity. An interesting thing I read yesterday was one of the reasons that helps is car accidents. When no one is driving much, you have fewer ER trips from car accidents, which apparently helps a whole lot in terms of ER and surgical capacity.
And I agree we should have a statewide mask order. I just can see the other side of that argument. If you’re in a super rural county with more cotton fields than people, and fewer than 20 cases, I can see where masks would seem really odd and alien and unnecessary. But here, near Fort Worth (where the NASCAR race is taking place), we need a full on shutdown. And after this stupid race, when our cases explode, we just might get one.
My guess is whether those counties took the steps to get a waiver or not, the people within those small counties aren't wearing masks anyway. And for sure their law enforcement is not asking people to wear masks.
And by the way, DH's grandmother who is in a nursing home in rural AF Louisiana got COVID. Even though she's 95, she recovered from it! That's what Louisiana food and beer will do for your health I guess!
Now I’m in touch with an employee from our kids’ aftercare (Mr. Matt) who is open to helping us with some kid of pod. All the kids love him. He says he’s had a lot of inquiries from other families. So I’m nervous that if we decide not to go the private school route, I need to lock him in now for next year. But of course we still have no details about what the schedule for next year will look like. Our district hasn’t even announced that they’re definitely doing just distance learning, though that’s everyone’s assumption. Now the family we’re discussing the pod with is also looking at the same private schools as us, so we’ll likely make a joint decision. Which seems crazy since we don’t even know these people that well.
waverly we’ve known them for three years now.. Our kids were in aftercare together, played soccer and tball together, and this year our boys were in the same kindergarten class. Our girls are a month apart but DD is going into 3rd (August birthday) while their daughter is going into 2nd (September birthday). We live a few blocks apart and seem to run into them everywhere (the ymca, sports fields, lately the elementary school parking lot) but we’ve never done a play date or gotten together socially, or had conversations that are very deep. I saw them on July 4th and mentioned we might need to go the pod route and then the mom reached out to me this week about it by email. So now we’re emailing Multiple times a day about options.
Our school just announced that we will open on August 19. In person. No details other than kids will be in closed pods of 10-14 kids up to 6th grade. They’re figuring out what to do with older kids.
Our district is still undecided whether they will do full virtual or hybrid. Meanwhile, daycare only has 14 school aged spots. My 6th grader will stay home alone but I need care for the 4th grader and Kindergartener.
They are charging full time tuition for these spots. If we go back full virtual, I will send him so that I can work and teach the other two but if we are hybrid I’ll have to send both...and if we start virtual we will phase into hybrid.
So now I need to decide whether to pay full time tuition to keep the slot that I will eventually need or risk it, and I don’t know what to do.
A local school district announced their plans today. It's the first in our area and they tend to all follow each other. They are opening full time in person for elementary and MS/HS will be two days per week in person and the rest virtual.
I won't find out until the 27th. They are dithering and waffling. Meanwhile districts have started to announce. Most public are hybrid, Catholic is full. Chicago might be online because the mayor yelled at everyone yesterday like a mom.
We are supposed to hear at the end of the month (we don't go back until September 1st). I keep wondering if I should buy school supplies? Largely I suspect because it is something that I can control.