We are now getting approximately one email per day (at the beginning it was more like one per week) telling us of new cases of Covid-19 in our school system, and also explaining to us that they will do a deep clean (as if that fixes anything) but not close the building. They have also explained to us that someone is a “close contact” of an infected person ONLY if they were within 6 feet of them for more than 10 minutes, which means that by their definition, the teacher and other kids in the infected person’s classroom don’t count as close contacts and don’t have to be informed and don’t have to quarantine. Surely this is unrelated to the way the cases are happening faster and faster now.
And the library where I worked, which had been doing only curbside pick-up, opened to the public by appointment only, and now they have had to close completely (including closing curbside) because a staff member got a positive Covid-19 test.
And several of the U.S. vice president’s close aides have been diagnosed with Covid-19, but he is going to keep working anyway, because he is an “essential worker.” CAMPAIGNING IS NOT ESSENTIAL WORK. And also EVEN ESSENTIAL WORKERS SHOULD NOT WORK AFTER BEING EXPOSED. (Though I think the more likely theory is that the VP was positive back when the president had it, and that he then gave it to his aides.)
So in short, I’m feeling pretty happy with my decision to buy the This Is Going Well mug.
It’s absolutely enraging. And good choice on the mug.
I’ve been doing a quarantine newsletter for family/friends. today I wrote: (younger child’s school) was closed for cleaning on Friday because a staff member (all staff — teachers, administrators, some cafeteria, janitors — are working from the building) tested positive for Covid. Has there been official word about this from the School Department? There has not. Was there an email this week about “returning to hybrid school” in the midst of a closed school AND fifty plus cases of Covid* in town? There was. Did Alyson write an email to the superintendent that her timing was unfortunate** and, perhaps, the town should get ahead of the rumor mill regarding a staff member testing positive? She did. Did she get a thoroughly condescending reply? Also yes.
Did I just get an email from the schools saying there are now TWO cases from the same building? Yep. Am I feeling smug? yep again.
but like, desperate smug. I would happily not have to deal with any of this. I feel you. FEEL. Sigh.
* for reference, up to now, I think 20 cases in a week was our record. this week it was closer to 60
**a case in school, town out of control, hybrid school ain’t happening in the next month, at least. you don’t need to write to me about that as if it is happening and ignore this as if it is not.
Luckily, our schools in this county are keeping most of the children home for now. Pre-K and kindergarten (I think) have gone back to half days on a voluntary basis. As cases continue to surge here, it wouldn’t surprise me if the kids continue to learn from home for the rest of the school year.
Our library is closed except for curbside because of a flood— my director says this constantly. However, I am furloughed because I have a masters in library science and that is the category of people who were deemed not necessary in running our “book wearhouse “ as the director put it. Am I salty that our director makes such simple errors in email? Yes I am.
ANYWAY, one of the non furloughed staff let us know that one of the shelvers tested positive. No one was notified and the library did not cease operations even for a day. Also the heat is not working (because flood) so how much ventilation is there?
Our school is pushing people who chose virtual or hybrid to go back to f2f in January but are not allowing f2f or hybrid to choose more virtual. Meanwhile Thursday-Sat all had record numbers of cases for our county and those THREE days day almost as many cases as ALL of August.
I constantly feel like I’m the crazy one. Constantly..
We have been so very lucky with school so far, but I am just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Especially as cases in our country rage out of control.
Excellent mug choice.
My school system voted 4-1 to start hybrid schooling — in person school 4 days a week, Wed virtual with PreK-2 starting Nov 30, 3-5 starting Dec 7, and middle & high schools starting early Feb. Taking into account flu season starting and COVID cases rising (county has a 7-day positivity percentage of 4.9% which was 3.5% less than 2 weeks ago) . It makes absolutely no sense especially when 55% of teachers & staff said they’d retire/quit/etc. How in the world do they think they’ll hire enough people to cover that, even if it ends up being 25% of teachers/staff.
The state requires a virtual offering so we’re sticking with virtual. I don’t have the patience to deal with their openings/closing.
Our county is going through that right now. They were able to start hybrid for elementary and middle school but didn’t have enough high school teachers to move forward with hybrid plans. Clearly it makes sense to forge ahead!? They hope to have high schools open within a few weeks. Wonder where they’ll find The necessary teachers at this point.
“And also EVEN ESSENTIAL WORKERS ARE SUPPOSED TO STOP WORKING AFTER BEING EXPOSED.”
This is, unfortunately, not true in the large healthcare system where I work. I want to state that I DO NOT AGREE WITH IT, but if I’m exposed to covid and waiting for a test, I’m still expected to come to work, masked, of course. If I’m symptomatic enough, I can call in sick the normal way, but my exposure or the fact that I’m waiting for a test is not a free pass to not work. The idea is that if we’re all masked, the chances of spreading it are slim, but once again I DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS. I just wanted to offer my experience.
That is so many levels of wrong. I understand why but so wrong.
I can confirm that this is also the case at the pharmacy where my sister works. She worked a shift all day with a coworker, the coworker called in sick the next day, then tested positive a day or two later. Nobody in the pharmacy was told about it by corporate; they were all expected to work as usual, and I guess they were just on their own for getting themselves tested.
The saving grace is that everybody was masked, and my sister consistently tested negative. I haven’t heard of any other coworkers getting sick, and it’s been close to a month. The sick coworker has now recovered and is back at the pharmacy. This is a large national chain that rhymes with small greens. It is absolutely enraging.
My daughter is in a hybrid system, going in person every other day with half her class (max 15 students). When there’s a positive case at the school first all the close contacts are contacted by Public Health and told to isolate/get tested, then the school sends an email to all parents advising of a case at school. Close contacts can be all kids and teachers in the same classroom and on the same bus if applicable. A school or parts of the school are closed if there’s an outbreak, which is defined as two or more cases are found at the school and it’s determined it’s likely that the transmission was at school or on a school bus. So far there have been very few outbreaks, though a lot of schools have had one or two isolated cases.
My state supreme court knocked down our Governor’s executive orders. The Path to Reopen Schools was bipartisan. It has guidelines on when a school can reopen fully and when it must be all virtual, etc. But the guidelines were predicated on the Governor’s levels of community infection. There has been a bit of chatter on our school’s parent Facebook page as to what that means since Covid cases are rising rapidly both in the county and in the state and we have now had our 3rd positive test within the school. The school has a virtual and full time f2f option. They do trimesters and we have to declare which path our student would be on for trimester 2 by 10/30.
As for the Veep. How has he NOT tested positive? Is he just not getting tested so he can SAY he hasn’t tested positive? If he really, truly has not tested positive, does he wear a mask all the time in his office? That would certainly support the masks reduce the spread of Covid argument. And I would not be surprised at all to find out that Mr. Good Christian Man just out right lied to his constituents because he was asked to by the venal man in the oval office.
We must live in the same state (MI). There is a vocal group in my town who regularly come on EVERYTHING mask or covid related with diatribes about freedom, the inefficiency of masks, and nonsense about more tests=more virus.
I hate this.
Yep. I live on the west side of MI. Fortunately the parents at my daughter’s school seem to be pretty rational people. It really was an honest question of what happens now? Who decides? I know the parents of f2f students are worried that at some point the school will be forced to go all virtual. From the virtual parents, it sounds like the virtual side of things are ok-ish. So much of how a parent feels about virtual school really seems to depend on what age the student is.
I live in a college town and the college’s response to Covid is to have the students wear masks when they are in class and other on campus gathering spots (dining halls, etc.) but other than that? Well they leave it up to the discretion of the students. Which means the college leadership just shrugged it’s collective shoulders when the county health department brought to their attention several incidences of off campus students throwing large parties. And like in your area, the students were cheered on by some in the community who think masks are useless and just a way to infringe on their freedoms. (insert eye roll emoji)
I am so angry about all of this.
We are currently looking at colleges and let me tell you— how they are dealing with this is a MAJOR factor. So not even applying to U of M
I’ve wondered about colleges considering this factor. We’re looking at colleges, too, and two years ago I would have let my son go anywhere he wanted. Now, I have to really consider how long it would take to get there if things went very badly, and how likely things are to go very badly (aside from the old standbys of homesickness, etc.) because of how the school is managing their student body AND where they are in terms of how the community around the school is behaving.
Same here. Oldest is not interested in going to (nor are we interested in paying for him to go to) schools that have taking this kind of irresponsible
approach to dealing with COVID or colleges in states where the government has indicated they think mask requirements are infringing on people’s freedom (or similar insane theory). PLUS we also worry about choosing a college only to have it go under in the next year or two due to financial issues brought to a head by all of this. The way things are going it’s starting to feel uncomfortably like college choices are getting pretty thin on the ground. I really wish he’d consider applying to colleges abroad but so far he’s not interested. Damn.
NYU is doing pretty well, all things considered.
My kids have been in in-person school since late August with minimal problems. However recently, another teacher had a wedding (seriously, a wedding??) and my child’s teacher was IN the wedding and bam they both got COVID. WHY are people still having weddings. And I realize teachers deserve to have lives too, but maybe be more careful if you’re teaching in person? Now FOUR grades are in two week quarantine. And their virtual platform is basically nonexistent – watch a video on Google classroom and do a worksheet which consists of editing a pdf and is INFINITELY ENRAGING.
My daughter had told me the other teacher was getting married because it was on my daughter’s birthday, but it never in one million years occurred to me that I should worry about this.
I keep thinking about masks, and how people say masks curtail their freedoms. Do you think the greatest generation would have balked at wearing masks? What about after 9/11? I just don’t understand how our society has devolved to the point where protecting others, sacrificing for the good of the country has become anti-American in some quarters? I thought one of the things that made American such a great country was our ability to pull together in a time of crisis.
Sigh.
Yes. This. When you care about someone, you curtail your freedom, voluntarily and automatically. You don’t eat all the potato chips, even though you’re free to, because you think someone else might like some. You don’t play your music at top volume in the car when other people are there, even though it’s a free country. You drive slower through residential neighborhoods. Call it social norms or the law or call it altruism, care for others curtails your freedom in a million ways. Masking is one more, a tiny thing that could show you cared or show you are just going to spit in the coffee pot because you’re free to. Freedom is important, but it’s not the only thing.
Absolutely JD, such great points! I love what you said about the Greatest Generation-when I think about the sacrifices they made, it blows my mind. To have people complain about wearing masks, is beyond me. Honor, duty, sacrifice-and this is just a small thing really, wearing a mask. Did the British complain during WW II-I don’t WANT to turn off my lights at night, why do I need blackout curtains, why do I need to ration my food? It’s called the GREATER GOOD people!
My middle-school daughters have been hybrid since August, where they attend 2 days in person and work 3 days at home. We are now in the second two-week quarantine that has been implemented; we believe a teacher tested positive, and so the whole “pod” goes virtual for two weeks, and anyone who was actually in class is quarantined. Is it annoying to have to pivot, for everybody? Yes. Has there been an outbreak in cases since the school is so serious about immediately keeping people apart? NO. It’s a PANDEMIC, nothing is ideal as long as ANYONE is ill, but I am pleased with how seriously our school is taking this and I absolutely think it’s what is keeping the numbers low.
The elementary kid just started full time in-person last week, so we’ll see how that goes.
Meanwhile, the rest of our county (it feels like) is absolutely carrying on like mask wearing is a form of torture, and I’m so tired of hearing about it. Solidarity, everyone, it WILL get better…someday.
I am responsible for a fair amount of the contact tracing when I get a positive case in my building (currently in an alternating day hybrid model). We actually have a more conservative definition of close contact (within 6 ft of a positive person for 15 min or more cumulative throughout a 24 hour period). We’ve been at this long enough to say that school has not contributed to the spread of COVID in my community, but people making awful decisions in their personal lives sure has. Everyone I’ve interviewed has been able to tie their case to a bar then went to, a vacation they took to [regional COVID hot spot city], or a positive person they visited. A staff member of another building hosted a major party a few weeks ago, which other staff people went to and 12 attendees were positive. It makes us look TERRIBLE because people (understandably) assume it’s happening at school. It’s crazy frustrating because we can’t justify shutting down. We have every reason to believe that would make our cases in the community actually increase as people have more time to fill with horrifically stupid decisions.
Appreciate you sharing this. I kind of want to send my kid back to f2f post Christmas because it does seem it’s not the elementary schools where the spread is happening. It seems like that might be the one place rules are properly enforced. F2f school combined with no activities might be a solution for my family.
For those of you with young kids in virtual, how are you doing? We are struggling now, I can admit it. Core class goes fine, but art, gym etc just aren’t working. Plus the division of labor is all effed up in this household, and I just feel at a breaking point. Considering f2f or not making her do music etc post Christmas.
I have a 10 (almost 11) year old and a 6 year old. It’s going ok? I actually love the specials (although we got a new art teacher like week 3, what???? and the jury is out there – oh, and I don’t understand computer class AT ALL – what is the point? it’s like math games…that’s not computers, that’s math on a computer, not the same thing – both of these are younger student. olders computers are likely the same but she’s self sufficient.).
So, older child is excellent. But she is. She is a rule-following, eager to please, student. There is zero socialization for her (my understanding is they are concerned with cheating and bullying – 2nd I get, 1st, I don’t care, it’s a pandemic, and if they’re cheaters, they’re cheating in their own zoom room). We’ve signed her up for flute over zoom because band bit it (teacher left, no replacement) and we have the flute – and that’s going well and she’s doing it with a friend/neighbor, each in her own house.
Other child is HARDER. But, he’s doing ok. The only thing I would do is homeschool and laziness is stopping me. But, he gets frustrated, it’s hard not being there and seeing what others are doing (especially since a lot of his things are: writing prompt for a sentence, draw a picture. In school he could look around for inspiration, at home he just freezes, so I coach him through it, which is a lot on me). He melts down pretty frequently (2/3 times per week). It is not fun. However, considering my town had a total of 400 cases to date as of last week at this time and now we have a total of 500, I am so not sending him to school. nope. Is it ideal? no. Is he learning and working and participating? yes. His teacher is great too – quite a few 10 minute breaks in the day, she just added audio to all her google slide work and that makes it more accessible for everyone. The administration, dude. they restructured the day for more asynchronous learning and for him it’s at the end of the day with no return to teacher, which I think is garbage. And 2/3 items are like google things the teacher makes OR a program (Lexia) which does not cut down on screen time, people.
One nice thing is their lunches overlap by like 15 minutes now and the older one takes the younger one for a walk around the block. And, at “snack” for the older (which is like 40 minutes before school ends) she goes out and gets neighbor flute child and they walk around the block once or twice (outside, masks) so they can socialize.
So, not ideal, but we can deal with it. If we’re still here in a year, I’ll get over my homeschool laziness and figure something out that involves cooking a lot and hiking and the stuff you missed in history class podcast.
Swistle, I am SO GLAD your family decided the kids should go virtual. The situation out there is madness. :(