Schools

[WVAPPeer]

I posed this question on another thread that has since been blocked so I will ask again ---

What needs to be done to make schools safe for reopening for our children/grandchildren?
I know several on here are or have been educators/coaches. etc., as both my wife and myself spent many years in education, she from elementary all the way to university level and many are parents of school age children or grand children as we are. We have discussed ways to safely open schools (at all levels) by the current scheduled starts dates.

Wondering what some of you guys thoughts are as to make this happen and/or if you have been involved in planning or heard some ideas?

[/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09]

I'm setting the O/U at 3 pages worth of posts before this is removed.

[appdaze]

Certain parts of our nation can be debated as to the degree that they should have been closed/limited. Schools were the most important thing that was closed. Schools are a petri dish, as is proven every normal flu season. Packing in 25+ kids within 2-3 feet of each other and then moving in to packed hallways and lunchrooms is just a disaster for slowing any kind of sickness.

I am anticipating some kind of plan where schools start online or on an A/B schedule of some type where half students come one day and half come the other. Its the toughest call out of everything on how to reopen. There is no good solution.

All online is terrible. Not all counties are 1-1 with chromebooks. Not all families have internet and not all areas are offered the free wifi hotspots. Not all of those hotspots are working. Human interaction is incredibly important for quality education.

A/B day would be a zoo for bus routes and other transportation. Absenteeism would be a big problem. The teaching quality would be higher than all online but a lot would have to change in class scheduling/coursework/classroom set up/school lunch/ etc....its a long list.

Fully opening is a huge risk and could bring the massive spike that the experts are predicting. There is no perfectly safe way to fully open. People aren't going to wear masks all day. There is not enough time to wipe down a whole classroom between classes. Cleaning resources would be stretched to absurd limits. Lots of rules about no human contact and distancing would be implemented and seated classrooms would have to be spread out as much as possible. Gym classes would be drastically different.

One of the biggest impacts this is having is on k-3. The most important formative years of our social skills and basic life skills. If its all online the generation thats in those grades is going to be terribly behind academically. Higher aged students have a better chance as their minds have matured to better understand whats going on and how to cope. They also have those basic skills already built. The younger kids are going to have a lot of issues.

A few questions that are hard to answer.

What happens if a kid gets covid? Does the single school shut down or the whole county? Or nothing at all?

What if a kid catches covid at school and brings it home to their parents who are catch it and one of the parents dies? What sort of impact mentally and psychically is that going to have on that kid?

What kind of lawsuits are going to come of this? Could lawsuits break the bank for education?


One of the biggest problems with americas is our attitude towards any topic that is bad. There is a culture that if something isn't directly affecting us or our immediate family that its not that big of a deal. Its just something out there thats happening (or to some a hoax). Its a very self centered view, but its been growing for decades. This could be attributed to a lot of things around us but its setting us up for a truly bad situation when, not if, something worse than covid comes around. Its scary how much death and terrible things we can stomach/ignore when its not near us.

[appdaze]

I'm setting the O/U at 3 pages worth of posts before this is removed.

As long as people don't bring up politics or the media and stick to the actual topic it should be fine.........Ill take 4 pages.

[WVAPPeer]

Thanks for your response - these are some of the same questions/problems we have discussed - classrooms, hallways, bathrooms, buses --- I am sure there are a lot of smart people currently working on these questions but man, I don't see many answers yet. Just glad I don't have to make the decision when to start --- Man, we have to protect the children!!!

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

I'm setting the O/U at 3 pages worth of posts before this is removed.

We could go the "Name That Tune" route and bid on how many posts until the thread blows up.

"I can post 3 times before the heavy hand of censorship comes in to play"

"I can post 2 times"

"I can post one time."

"Make that post."

[AppSt94]

So it’s a good question that has at least 50 different answers. I phrase it that way as a way of saying that each state or region is going to have different needs. What works in a state like Georgia won’t necessarily work in a state like NY. Having said that, even NY can’t implement a statewide process as their state demographics are strongly skewed to the majority of the populous concentrated on an island.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

So it’s a good question that has at least 50 different answers. I phrase it that way as a way of saying that each state or region is going to have different needs. What works in a state like Georgia won’t necessarily work in a state like NY. Having said that, even NY can’t implement a statewide process as their state demographics are strongly skewed to the majority of the populous concentrated on an island.

And even in NC which no city has the pop density of a NYC or Chicago, there will be differences between the needs of Meck, Wake, Guilford and Forsyth compared to a Lincoln county or Rockingham county near the larger cities and then even a very rural county on the coast or in the mountains.

If the state of NC makes a plan from Raleigh it would be nice to see at least two options if not three and let LEAs decide between the three choices. My wife is in Forsyth and I am in Guilord and we share a lot of the same characteristics and still there are a lot of differences between the two systems-and that is not bad. Having some consistency across the state is not a bad thing but having some room to have some local tweaking is also not a bad thing.

[McLeansvilleAppFan]

I have at least one student that will be home bound I am sure next year if school is open. Acquiring Covid would be a death sentence for her I can just about guarantee. Her doctor wanted her out of school even before schools closed in March.

Quote from above. "One of the biggest impacts this is having is on k-3. "

My daughter is across the upstairs hallway teaching her preK class and one doing a great job with the interactions but you are correct in that social interactions are not as much but she is having some group time over the internet, as much as that can be done.

I don't think she is getting bit and slapped nearly as much now.

Science labs are going to be a huge problem. Those are very important at the upper level colllege and I like to think I set the stage with my labs at the high school level. At the magnet school I only have access to chemistry lab space on Friday. Hopefully UNCG can afford me some space as they may need Friday's to allow for more sections so each section can have more space.

We are going to have a lot less state testing next year and that was planned even before all this went down. That will take the pressure off teachers a bit so as to not worry about a test and we can focus more on student mental health and working with the time and space we have.

GCS has done a great job of offering day care for medical workers. It was not cheap but at least it was an option to have child care so those people could go to work and take care of those in need.

[Saint3333]

Kids are suffering from lack of meals and potential home issues. That appears to be a far greater risk to that segment of the population than the virus itself based upon mortality rates by age.

The real worry with schools are the elderly and poor-health individuals children come in contact with. Solve the issue with that demographics exposure is the critical component. Way bigger than anyone's thoughts that will come from this board.

[appdaze]

Kids are suffering from lack of meals and potential home issues. That appears to be a far greater risk to that segment of the population than the virus itself based upon mortality rates by age.

The real worry with schools are the elderly and poor-health individuals children come in contact with. Solve the issue with that demographics exposure is the critical component. Way bigger than anyone's thoughts that will come from this board.

The high-risk students may have to have an action plan that they follow throughout the day and even have separate setting classes. It may be a new thing like EC/504 plans that just have to be followed and possibly create separate class schedules for those kids.

[WVAPPeer]

You are correct - our first teaching jobs were in one of the poorest counties in NC and the school breakfast and lunch were sometimes the only meals these kids had - from our days as parents of a school aged child, she would bring home every bug out there and be well in a day and her mom and dad would get hit hard

[ASU84]

More things come to mind than I can possibly put to keyboard. First of all my 9 year old is special needs. Not immuno suppressed but difficult for him to get over things by limited expelling through the nose and mouth. Also limited as to how much he gets from a video setting along with attention span. Does much better with human interaction.

This brings close contact into play and the questions remain. No matter what is done there will be casualties. I also believe to an extent in "herd" immunity. Unfortunate consequences are going to happen. What is the answer?

[TheMoody1]

I would bet they have in person classes this fall down here in Greenville, SC. They are having in-person graduation ceremonies for every High School in Greenville County at the downtown arena.

[BallantyneApp]

A lot of the research coming out suggests that most children are at very low risk for contraction and not even really vectors of the disease. Of course, we're still very new into this, so having a few extra months for data collection and analyzing will be nice for administrators and officials to make their decisions. Most northern European countries either already opened schools or have a plan to open them up.

I think the main issues to be decided would be, how do we protect teachers/other school staff from contracting from a child who is overwhelmingly likely to be asymptomatic(assuming there are some studies that show kids can transmit to adults), and what happens with at-risk children?

I do hope there is a comprehensive plan, as I think going back to schools in August is a huge step in order to get the recovery going. I hope we really look at Taiwan as a guide for how to safely run schools. To my knowledge, they never closed schools and have a very robust plan on fighting these diseases borne out of the SARS epidemic.

[Mjohn1988]

I know right now Gaston county is planing to rotate students by having a group in class and a group online. They have all ready purchased some new software. My wife is going to be working on her 34 year as a teacher. She hates the idea, wants to see her students. I just don’t see how this idea is doable for working parents with young kids.

[Saint3333]

CMS is planning on starting back two weeks early to ensure the students didn’t fall behind during these two months.

I know not all students have access to the tools needed to learn from home.

The lower classes are struggling economically, emotionally, and their children aren’t given opportunities to set themselves up for success down the line. They are impacted at a much higher rate and the hole deepens daily.

Going back a rotational basis doesn’t solve this problem.

[WVAPPeer]

I know right now Gaston county is planing to rotate students by having a group in class and a group online. They have all ready purchased some new software. My wife is going to be working on her 34 year as a teacher. She hates the idea, wants to see her students. I just don’t see how this idea is doable for working parents with young kids.

34 years - WOW - your wife is true hero as are all the other teachers out there who are doing their best to help the kids - We have a couple of young teachers in our neighborhood and they stop and talk to us occasionally - I know it has got to be really tough but I have yet to hear one teacher really complain because they understand the kids are the ones really suffering ---

[WVAPPeer]

Talked to an "old" buddy of mine up in W.VA. today - he is a retired principal who was called back into service a couple of years ago - also on the school board --- He said he was on several conference calls this past week discussing "what to do". and the general opinion was that everyone wanted to get started at scheduled time for the fall but he said he just didn't have any idea how it could be done safely - can't maintain social distancing, masks?, disinfecting - etc. This is going to be a tough one ---

[ASU84]

I know this follows a completely different tangent but at the same time it is also a challenge for the NC schools and perhaps all over the United States. Recruitment and retention is a big problem. NC has cut out insurance for retirees and I know that we are not among the top in compensation. I can only imagine that Covid-19 will impact future career decisions as well. I know other States were offering healthy bonuses for teachers to come there. NC better wake up.