14 Comments
Jul 23, 2020Liked by Amee Vanderpool

I teach in Omaha, NE where our students will be going 2-3 days a week in two groups, so we’ll only have 50% capacity at a time. However, the staff will be in the building five days a week and teaching both the in-person students and creating remote lessons for the students when they are not in the building. We will also likely be subbing for teachers who are out of the building since we have had a sub shortage for quite some time, and the virus will only exacerbate that.

In addition to my return to school, my elementary aged children will be going to their school 2-3 days a week. Since my husband works full time, that means we need to find childcare for our kids the days they aren’t in the building. All of this greatly increases the odds that someone in my family will contract the virus.

I am scared. I’m scared for me, my kids, my family, my students, my colleagues, all of their families... With the cases of Covid increasing in our community, I just don’t feel now is the time to be returning to the building. Our district purchased iPads with cellular service for all of our students this year. Our staff has had professional development on remote teaching. I feel like we have the opportunity to create a really strong remote learning option that would keep our staff, students, and families much safer.

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Jul 23, 2020Liked by Amee Vanderpool

My daughter is a senior this year. This has been one of the hardest decisions I've had to make as a parent. We have until July 28 to decide on virtual-only school or a plan to eventually get kids back in classrooms. The hybrid plan will likely start off with totally virtual learning, go to 2 days a week in-person/3 days virtual when spread eventually slows to medium-risk, and to 5 days a week in-person when the risk is low.

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Jul 23, 2020Liked by Amee Vanderpool

In a suburb of Wichita, KS, our district is planning on splitting the high school age kids in two groups with each group attending 2 days of school per week with schools shut on Wednesday to allow for cleaning. The 3 remaining days are supposed to be virtual learning days. While in school I know that they are only doing grab-n-go sack lunch for the kids and that they'll eat in smaller groups in classrooms instead of the lunchroom. They were still working on a bathroom plan. Masks will be mandatory but they are unsure how they will enforce that, other than transferring a student to completely online learning who refuses to wear them. Parents have been given the opportunity to opt for completely virtual learning for their kids but we found out the hard way when our governor, Laura Kelly, shut down schools after spring break that online learning didn't work so well for our kids. We have an incoming senior and freshman this year and especially with the challenging courses our senior is taking, we just aren't sure that virtual will work. Our kids who are normally great students both received Fs their last semester. Our senior is above the age where a parent can "sign them out of education" but there is no guarantee that if we did that, our district would allow him back for the 21-22 school year. Both of my kids have asthma, one has Ehlers-Danos, and I have a complicated health picture with several chronic conditions. On top of that, my mother who is in her late 70s also lives in our home. My youngest child and I have already had to quarantine once for 14 days due to an exposure and not being able to get testing or test results in a timely manner. The governor has delayed the start of schools until after Labor Day here in KS but I am unsure if that date will pan out. I also am dealing with the stress of having all of my son's ACT dates cancelled so far and being on a tight schedule to get those taken. The marching band directors tried to go about the normal summer schedule and we had three kids (including one of my kids) in a not so large group all have different exposures to COVID-19 and need testing. Thankfully, as far as we know, those all came back negative but it just highlights the challenge of even trying to get a small bunch of kids back together a couple days a week. Our family feels like we are in between a rock and a hard place, especially with having a senior taking AP classes this year. I am livid at the disastrous response from federal officials, starting with Pres Trump... how dare they gamble with the health and futures of my children, family, and community after pissing away all those months we were all in various stages of lockdown?? We still don't have enough PPE or ICU beds or TESTING CAPACITY after all this time but they expect me to send my children to school for the economy. For all that talk about the curve, we haven't seen anything yet... I know the spikes coming will destroy red states and rural America. I just don't know why our elected officials, with a mountain of evidence on the destruction of this illness, still can't make their constituents' very lives a priority over that of Wall Street. The school year shouldn't start in earnest until after our kids and families have received a vaccine. Someone's kid will die because of this, teachers will die because of this, and so will family members. It's just not worth the risk.

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Jul 23, 2020Liked by Amee Vanderpool

As a former teacher who works as a Substitute Support Staff person in classrooms for autistic students, I am very much against the return to school while the numbers of Covid-19 cases are surging especially in my state of Nevada. My last day at a school was February 27 and the classroom I went to had a few students coughing and sneezing. I was very worried about my own heath but at that time we had a low number of cases. I made the decision not to return to a school and I am happy I listened to Dr. Fauci and Science. I am against sending students back to schools when the number of cases of Covid-19 are on the rise. Our Governor in NV has mandated wearing a mask and there are still a lot of people who refuse to wear a mask! Our state of Nevada has had an increase in the number of new cases and this worries me...it is not safe to return. Our school district has decided on distance learning and this is the best path to follow. I don't want the lives of teachers, students, and staff to be at stake! Dr. Fauci has said it is going to get worse and we must protect everyone!

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Jul 23, 2020Liked by Amee Vanderpool

I had no idea you were from Nebraska :o) Me too

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Where I live, the school district is working on a "hybrid plan", with students doing some work in school and some at home. For the work done in school, they are working on a "split school" with certain kids going in on certain days and other kids going in on other days. I'm not entirely sure how this will work, but I do know that they have already announced that no kid will be forced to go to school at all (in other words, a student and/or their parent(s) could elect to do all of the schoolwork from home).

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Jul 23, 2020Liked by Amee Vanderpool

I am that texting friend who needed a sounding board to make sure I wasn't being too drastic in not wanting my 9 year old to return to school in the Fall should that be our district's ultimate decision. I am also a teacher and the sole care provider for my father who is battling cancer and has zero immunity. My family is my Dad's lifeline and if we brought COVID to him he would most likely not survive and that is just too big a risk for us to take. Both my husband and I also have autoimmune disorders and have no idea how we would fare if we got the virus.

Our school district has yet to decide what it's opening plans will look like in the Fall but they have already given parents the option of cyber-learning for those of us who are not comfortable with in person classes.

We went back and forth as a family about what to do but in the end it wasn't that hard to decide because we were given a choice. Sadly our teachers have not been given a choice. We love and respect our child's teachers and do not feel like they should be put in a position that jeopardizes their health and the health of their loved ones. Teachers are not doctors, they are not nurses, they are not baby sitters. Teachers are scared. I am scared and that is why I resigned from my teaching position last week.

The argument that, "kids aren't as negatively effected by the virus" is ludicrous to me. My child would most certainly be effected if he lost his Grandfather or his parents! There will be a time down the road for us to socialize with friends and go to museums and theme parks. Now is the time for us to make safe choices and try to keep our family safe and healthy and more importantly, alive. Truth be told, there are no easy choices for anyone in this. We feel very fortunate that we were not only given a choice but that we are in a position make one.

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I’m a teacher at a private school. Because parents pay tuition I think there is a push for us to go back face to face to provide ‘value-added’ service. I am terrified. The ‘what ifs’ are overwhelming. There is no good answer.

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In NYC I'm comfortable with following our governor/mayor's advice given they have already demonstrated the ability to follow science and expert recommendations throughout the pandemic. At the moment that is 1-3 days/week in-person based on social distancing guidelines, school enrollments and available space. They handled the re-opening very well and I trust them to do the same thing with our schools.

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HS teacher in a very progressive district in TX ~district shared multiple options for when we'd return to in-school education. What stuck out were the varying "exposure potentials" from the plans (from bringing 25% of all students back one day of the week, changing classes vs. 25% back & all students stay in the same classroom, teachers move around,etc.) Essentially, if one person tests positive the minimum # of others exposed/needing quarantine was I think 25 ~ that was the lowest. Potential exposure, even with only 25% of students attending, went up to like 200-400 people if students are moving around for an 8 period day. Someone finally addressed the elephant in the room ~ how is that level of exposure viable, desirable, and or practical? If these exposure algorithms are scientifically valid, the decision seems obvious, albeit way above my paygrade.

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