Going Remote

[tvguy]

Every child in the district I live in has to get a covid test tomorrow (yes, Sunday) at one of several designated sites or they can't return to school Monday.
Not a school, but my son's employer has been remote since the pandemic started and they were suppose to reconsider this month if they should return to the office but even TALKING about ending remote work has been pushed back until July 1, 2022 now.

 

[tvguy]

I know my high schooler has a Chromebook for school. I told him to check one out even though we have a desktop at home in case there was any software on that we don't have. The private school my middle schooler goes to issues laptops to middle schoolers. The big issue for the high school is hot spots. I'm not too worried though because my older son's district and my younger son's private school were some of the first schools in my area to pivot successfully.

Yeah, they have the chromebooks they just need to distribute them here. The City School District during the past pandemic chartered City Buses, and put mobile hot spot transmitters in them, and parked them in neighborhoods with a high concentrations of students with no internet access at home so that equipment is still available.
I know in the private sector, when companies went remote, a lot, like my former employer, were caught off guard at how many employees did not have internet access at home or computers at home. A lot of employees only internet access was at work. And a lot of employees with company cell phones had no phone of any kind of their own. I was assigned to update phone lists and the boss couldn't believe how many workers had no phone of their own.

 

[DLgal]

Our district in southern CA hasn't yet received test kits to hand out yet, but they do offer testing to all students daily at all school locations. In addition, our city offers free test kits that you can request via email. We got an email Thursday that school was going on in person as planned on Monday, along with a note about how the county board of education was working on updating its quarantine guidelines to mirror the newest CDC changes, but that as of now, we are still using the previous guidelines. It was encouraged for students to get tested if they had traveled over break or had large family gatherings, but it's not required. Also, we got a breakdown of the vaccination rates in our district and city and assurances that the high vaccination rates have helped keep our local numbers down, despite the spike in the county as a whole.

 

[amylevan]

Our district is returning as planned on Monday. Encouraging testing, but email from superintendent emphasized how important in person schooling is, and I agree. Particularly since at this point, omicron is showing to be less severe.

That said, our district has had chrome books in use at the MS and HS since pre-pandemic times, and our elementary students have all been issued one as well and students are required to take them home every night. We have an allowance of 5 flexible instruction days (ie virtual learning) for snow and I suppose it’s possible they could choose to invoke them for COVID if our in school positives or quarantined get high.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

No changes have been announced in the K-8 district where I work. All students were issued Chromebooks for home use at the beginning of the year. We could, potentially, pivot to distance learning but I assume staff would have been notified by now if it was happening. I will not be surprised if they start prohibiting us from eating lunch in the staff room. Last year when we were in a hybrid model, you could make coffee or heat up your food in the staff room but had to eat elsewhere. Even if they still allow us to eat in there, I might choose to stay in my classroom or even eat in my car for a few weeks. It gets pretty crowded since all the teachers have the same break time.

 

[mrs. magoo]

Our district in Western NY is returning in person on Monday. The kids are supposed to use the tests that were sent home with them to test tomorrow but many kids were absent from school and did not get the kits and teachers were not allowed to get them. So the district sent an email about getting tested but all the testing sites are not available until Wednesday. I have a 2 pack of the rapid tests that I will use but many of my colleagues have nothing since they have been testing during the break.

 

[jrmasm]

Nope but I'm guessing the mask requirement will be reinstated.

Our district thinks now is a good time to drop their mask requirement.

 

[aprilchem]

Particularly since at this point, omicron is showing to be less severe.

I don't think this is true. We don't know anything at this point about the long-haul effects of omicron. They could be as devastating as the other variants.

 

[amylevan]

I don't think this is true. We don't know anything at this point about the long-haul effects of omicron. They could be as devastating as the other variants.

I said, and I stand by it, that at this point in time, it is showing to be less severe. Things can and do change but the early research and data points to a more contagious variant that may not be as deadly.

Studies (several) are showing that it doesn’t attack the lungs as severely as other variants.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/12/31/health/covid-omicron-lung-cells.amp.html
Vaccinated people may have more break through infections, but seem to be handling it well.

I am not advocating dropping measures to keep everyone as safe as possible. Mask, vaccinate, stay home if you’re sick, test, avoid crowds….but for what the research is showing I do believe we need to keep kids in school. We’re not dealing with a more contagious variant that is also more deadly. THAT would be a worse case scenario.

 

[brockash]

They’re not AS accurate. But it’s still better than doing nothing.

Ehhh...honestly it really depends on who you talk to. My step-mom just had a false positive- her 2nd actually and when she went to her Dr. to do a "real" test her Dr. told her that those at-home tests are really jist useless and he would never recommend them. We had a few ppl. i. the medical field over and the topic came up and they all basically had the same opinion.

 

[cmarsh31]

No changes have been announced in the K-8 district where I work. All students were issued Chromebooks for home use at the beginning of the year. We could, potentially, pivot to distance learning but I assume staff would have been notified by now if it was happening. I will not be surprised if they start prohibiting us from eating lunch in the staff room. Last year when we were in a hybrid model, you could make coffee or heat up your food in the staff room but had to eat elsewhere. Even if they still allow us to eat in there, I might choose to stay in my classroom or even eat in my car for a few weeks. It gets pretty crowded since all the teachers have the same break time.

I've been eating in my room for the past 2 years. It's lonely and I miss talking to adults...and I got covid at Thanksgiving anyway.

 

[Mrs.Reese]

Teachers go back Monday. Kids are Tuesday. Last time we checked out laptops/tablets to kids a whole bunch ended up in pawn shops! In fact, so many devices were ruined that it costed around $100,000 in repairs/replacements. People just didn't take care of them. We have no mask mandate here and the parents send them in and its always "allergies." Can't wait.

 

[Disneylover99]

Can’t believe we’re not going remote here. Students start back Wednesday.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

Ehhh...honestly it really depends on who you talk to. My step-mom just had a false positive- her 2nd actually and when she went to her Dr. to do a "real" test her Dr. told her that those at-home tests are really jist useless and he would never recommend them. We had a few ppl. i. the medical field over and the topic came up and they all basically had the same opinion.

Agree to disagree. Statically that isn’t true though.

 

[nycdisneygal]

My younger DD's school (private) gave us remote option which we will do for a couple weeks. Older is in person as far as I have heard so far. Our previous private school in NYC is starting with remote this week.

 

[Kae]

Agree to disagree. Statically that isn’t true though.

And a lot of people don't read them right a line is a line -no matter how light in color-means positive.

 

[Kestryl]

Tennessee here. Unless something has changed, districts can’t go virtual without a special waiver from the state. I haven’t heard of any districts planning to ask in our area.

Our closest district does have a mask mandate, though it’s a court-ordered one. Let’s just say that it’s rarely enforced.

This is the same district that has closed down for multiple days every year due to sickness pre-covid. I do not expect that this year will be different. The only question is how many days.

 

[Makmak]

I’m in higher education and our college just said we will be remote the first week. We start 1/10.

What’s so annoying is we were pressured to “return to campus” this semester. We have designed our courses for that scenario and now must convert at least one week to alternative formats. Then…..they added they will “re-evaluate” on a weekly basis. For those of us that actually care enough to try to make lessons interesting, it’s a LOT of work to change lesson plans from “in person” to remote. And I imagine it’s more difficult when not teaching adult learners, or when worrying about keeping very young children engaged. K12 teacher burnout is at an all time high, and this switching weekly/last minute creates much more work for educators and is not going to help matters.

 

[Kae]

My kid goes to Purdue so they are back on Campus, which is a good thing. Those of you that want to stay home stay home.

 

[mjkacmom]

My kid goes to Purdue so they are back on Campus, which is a good thing. Those of you that want to stay home stay home.

At the k - 12 level it’s not about wanting to stay home. My friend teaches in a poor urban district, the week before Christmas break there were no security guards, tons of students spent days in the gym because teachers were out, cafeteria was closed. With so many out sick teaching isn’t happening. Unvaccinated staff here need to test weekly, so many who are not showing symptoms have to quarantine. Would you rather remote instruction or red rover all day.