The 2021 School Year and Coronavirus

[aerinha]

I work in a school office. Right now, because things Change fast these days, the plan is we are opening (no idea how that will look other than desks will be placed 3ft apart) and parents will have to pick to send their child or do a district cyber academy. Those who choose cyber cannot switch back to in person for a certain amount of time, don’t know if it will be for the whole year, first semester or First marking period. Also not sure is those who pick in person can later switch to cyber.

My co-worker who is notorious for spouting one plan and then suddenly doing something else has sworn up and down she was working through June 2021 (I will note she is not concerned about covid) and today said that as she doesn’t want to have to put up with all the coming hoops and doesn’t feel like scraping her car this winter she is retiring ahead of time, but hasn’t said when. So on top of my own stress about what is going to be expected of me in September, I now have to worry about all the uncertainty a new co-worker, whom I sit with 8.5 hours a day, will bring in terms of reliability, work ethic And views on virus management (current person and I agree so it makes things easier). Plus I have to decide if I want to apply for the slightly higher position she is vacating which means new things to do while training someone to do my old job. In the space of a day my stress level tripled.

 

[HauteMama]

Well, people want their rights to be ignorant about what's going on and how they're contributing to the pandemic, and teachers are expected to sacrifice their lives in the names of capitalism and free babysitting.

And I don't want to get political, but I live in a state that sued for the right to be stupid, so it is unlikely we will have any state guidance about reopening schools, and even if we did, it would be taken to court. There is no guidance coming from any level of government, and so in many communities it will come down to whichever way the political wind blows as to whether any precautions will be taken or not. It makes me sad and furious at the same time.

People want their kids back in school. I get that, and I see the need. But I'm not willing to sacrifice my life or the life of my 81 year old mum for that to happen.

 

[pixiejenna]

I don’t have kids but for reasons beyond me the high school in my town apparently opened up the summer athletic programs and announced yesterday they had to close because in 3 of the programs students were testing positive for Covid.

 

[Miss Curly]

I also work in a school office in a state that is doing horribly in terms of COVID. My district is offering parents three choices once students are able to attend school in person. As of now, we are all starting online Aug.5th. But, parents can then choose if they want their students to attend in person as normal, a flex schedule where they attend in person and do online, or a completely online choice.

I completely sympathize with aerinha with the office situation. Been there, done that. I am suffering from a lot of anxiety with the uncertainty of what my day to day will look like now. I have all these new processes to learn and at the beginning of the year it is crazy trying to get everything in place even without all this new stuff. We get unreasonable expectations placed on us every year, but this year is going to be on another level. All I know is that I will be gloving and masking up and I bought an air purifier today to keep on my desk once I return. I will try to remain positive and do what I can to protect myself and the people around me. What else can I do?

 

[limom]

My son is a sophomore in college in CT. His university is starting late August and closing At Thanksgiving.
It appears that a lot of classes will be online.
The athletics are closed and so are the artistic performances, his two favorite Subjects.
I anticipate the school closing earlier in case of Covid spread. What can you do?
We are all in the same boat, so patience and kindness is all we have.

 

[Kitty157]

I feel for all the parents who have elementary age kids. I left the position a long time ago and my children are all grown thankfully- but if I were still teaching I would retire this school year. Not only would I be worrying about myself and my elderly parents but I would be soooo worried about my students, especially the ones with preexisting condition that have NO choice but to attend because work will be expecting parents to get back to work in office etc... now that the kids at home reason is gone. I think about the kids who may have unknown issues that covid will bring to the surface if they contract it. The exposure and risk is too much and we’re asking a lot of these little kids. There is just too much moving parts for things to go horribly wrong- and there’s no guarantee everyone will be responsible- just look at the whole mask debate. I feel this whole opening of school “NOW” is for political reasons (kids in school=parents can get back to work=boost in economy=great political talking points for election) AND our kids are the scapegoats. Prisoners are getting/got early release due to covid but they think it’s safe to put our kids back in school? Someone above said professional sports with their huge finacial means can’t find a way to get back on track yet- but with limited funds etc our schools and kids are expected to get back on track? If one person brings COVID unknowingly the reach is tremendous. The whole class would have been quarantined, not to mention the families of all these kids and teachers and others they came into contact with and this most likely won’t be an isolated issue.
God I can just see the lawsuits...
I am not sure what the solution is but what I am sure of is that this has the potential to be very disastrous for faculty, staff and our kids with this rush to open “NOW”.

 

[ditzydi]

Our state's education agency has mandated that schools must offer 100% in-person instruction to students who want it. Our school district will comply with that order but is also offering 100% online instruction. We are opting for the 100% online instruction. The cases in our area are increasing and there is speculation that the city will order another shut down to reduce the cases before school starts on Aug. 18th.

My husband works from home and I am currently not working after graduating with my BA last December. Since I am not working, I will stay put and help our 5th grader navigate the online learning process. We figure he would be one less student in the school that could otherwise be filled by somebody who needs to be there.

I had contemplated pulling him out of the district all together and utilizing an independent online school because their curriculum was already established prior to COVID. I was worried that teaching would still be following the crisis model that was used in the spring but after hearing the district's plan, I feel more comfortable leaving him where he is. Plus, this way he can maybe still interact with familiar faces, even if it is only online.

 

[Megs]

So interesting to hear from all of you. And so many have no idea what will be happening, which is overwhelming of course.

I truly can't imagine schools by us opening up and having that be safe for students, teachers, faculty, or the families of anyone. Miami Dade county just recorded a 33% positivity rate on the other day of COVID testing, which is astronomically high for how accessible the tests are and the rate most are looking/hoping for is 10%.

I am glad I can keep Millie and Vaughn home next year. If it continues, I'll probably look into some sort of homeschooling option for her. While I do think she will be fine, and even Vlad and I will be fine if we get this, I worry about my parents (and of course anyone else we come in contact with).

One thing is right, we are all in this together. We must practice patience, kindness, and please wear masks!

 

[KittyKat65]

I work for a school district, but not as a teacher. My job on campus can be done at home. The superintendent sent an email yesterday giving all staff the choice to show up on August 10th or resign. My son is a rising junior at the school where I work, but he will be learning at home and I have to decide whether or not to risk the lives of my family members, but I think I will be forced to resign...and lose my health insurance. This state is one of the worst right now and the decision to open schools is political and not one motivated by a concern for safety.

 

[Dextersmom]

I work for a school district, but not as a teacher. My job on campus can be done at home. The superintendent sent an email yesterday giving all staff the choice to show up on August 10th or resign. My son is a rising junior at the school where I work, but he will be learning at home and I have to decide whether or not to risk the lives of my family members, but I think I will be forced to resign...and lose my health insurance. This state is one of the worst right now and the decision to open schools is political and not one motivated by a concern for safety.

What a horrible choice and I hope that your union will intervene soon with more alternatives than either "show up at this day/time or resign".
I also work for a school district (in Southern California), as a therapist and travel to several school sites to provide individual and group counseling to at risk students with mental health needs. I have been working from home since the middle of March, conducting all of my sessions either via Zoom or on the phone. My district is supposed to start back on August 13th, but this is up in the air at this time. Our superintendent is talking about 3 different models that can possibly be in place at the same time, depending on parent and staff buy in; 100% on campus learning, a hybrid of part in person and distance learning, and a 100% distance learning model. Our union is also involved and is advocating for increased safety measures, and possibly pushing back our start date by two weeks, etc.
I personally am very concerned about returning to on site learning, as many of the students and families I work with are not practicing social distancing and/or wearing masks. This will be my 19th year with the district, so it is too soon for me to retire. As well, my husband is older than me, so I worry about bringing the virus home and infecting him.
I am hoping that it is decided that we start the year off with a robust distance learning model and proceed with caution before sending students and staff back to school sites. I realize that this would place a hardship on many families and that ideally, students need to be back at school learning and socializing with their peers. However, at the same time I feel strongly that our collective health and safety must be put before everything else. It would be detrimental, imo, to start back too soon and then have to shut down again due to illnesses, etc.

 

[Junkenpo]

I'm currently tearing my hair out and losing sleep over this issue.

I teach at the high school, but I have an elementary-aged child. We were shut down for the entirety of Q4 last school year and were told to only offer "enrichment" and allow students who wanted to, to raise their grade. Students' grades could only be raised. That went about as well as expected.

For the coming school year, our state DOE agreed to 6ft distancing and then tried to walk back to 3ft. They claim that masks are not necessary. They are letting each school/community choose from 3 options, and then "tweak" to fit, which means some schools are electing to go all virtual (except for vulnerable populations) and other schools are rotating attendance, and our high school is leaning toward allowing everyone back everyday, but giving the option of doing virtual.

My son and I will probably not have the same schedule. DH's elderly parents live with us and have pre-existing conditions.

And the schools will open at about the same time that the state wants to allow tourists back with an option to "test out" of quarantine.

 

[Ceme]

I'm in North Texas which is a hot spot. My kids are going into 6th and 4th grade. We will be doing remote for the first 9 weeks and see how that goes. I really want thing to go back to normal but it's too risky imo. My husband works in health care and that is the consensus among his peeps. I also worry there will be a shortage of teaches/ subs/ other staff members (cafeteria workers/ bus drivers) and their health of course.

 

[MamaBagLady]

It’s nice to hear from teachers. Any daycare teachers? I have a 3 yr old and 6 month old and work full time. To say it has been stressful would be an understatement! And even though the daycare reopened, and I know my toddler would LOVE to go back, I’ve been too nervous to send her back. And our babysitter has, understandably, decided to leave babysitting and go back to school. We are still paying to hold the spot at the daycare (ugh! So much money!) but I just can’t make up my mind about what to do. I don’t want anyone to risk getting sick! But I also know I’ve been a pretty crappy teacher, mom, employee, and wife these past months. On the up side, the stress has led to a number of handbag retail therapy purchases....

 

[HauteMama]

I'm currently tearing my hair out and losing sleep over this issue.

I teach at the high school, but I have an elementary-aged child. We were shut down for the entirety of Q4 last school year and were told to only offer "enrichment" and allow students who wanted to, to raise their grade. Students' grades could only be raised. That went about as well as expected.

For the coming school year, our state DOE agreed to 6ft distancing and then tried to walk back to 3ft. They claim that masks are not necessary. They are letting each school/community choose from 3 options, and then "tweak" to fit, which means some schools are electing to go all virtual (except for vulnerable populations) and other schools are rotating attendance, and our high school is leaning toward allowing everyone back everyday, but giving the option of doing virtual.

My son and I will probably not have the same schedule. DH's elderly parents live with us and have pre-existing conditions.

And the schools will open at about the same time that the state wants to allow tourists back with an option to "test out" of quarantine.

Our school did the same, although we did not tell either parents or students this. Indeed, when we first closed in March, we were told that we would offer enrichment until we went back "after Spring Break." When that didn't happen, we were told to reduce the number of assignments and work more at maintaining relationships than curriculum, but that we were still grading. Then we went to saying we would combine last quarter with third quarter and average the grades. Then we said if you were passing third quarter, you would pass the class and all grades would be Pass/Fail. Then we basically threw everything out the window and went with state standards for graduation (lower than district standards), with the fourth quarter counting for nothing.

We were supposed to have a drive-in graduation where everyone stayed in their cars, but when it came time, not only did our school officials not wear masks, but they allowed people to set up lawn chairs in front of the cars, not socially distanced at all. So you can probably see why I don't have a whole lot of confidence in the safety considerations of and the decision making capabilities of our board and administration. If push comes to shove and they tell us to come back as "normal" or leave, I will leave. I am finishing another degree and will focus on school and then re-enter the field when I am done and hopefully things are safer.

 

[pixiejenna]

One of my coworkers son and wife work for the same company(pharmaceuticals) and they used to send both of their kids to the company daycare/school it cost nearly 2 grand a month for it. They had a kid who ended up testing positive for Covid and they wouldn’t give them any information what so ever. I know about hipaa but they refused to tell them if the infected child was there when their kids were there, what days of the week;time of day absolutely no information. After that happened her son has worked from home and kept the kids home too. Only her DIL still physically goes into work now the rest are at home indefinitely. He was so distraught with how they handled it he refuses to go back until there’s a vaccine, and the kids will be home schooled until then.