Schools reopening

I am glad she is getting better but yeah it is always an anxious time having a sick child and must doubly be so with this virus!

My daughter had a cough and temperature Monday night so Tuesday we had to go and be tested because I work with very vulnerable children. I had to drive a 2 & 14 hour round trip to get a test because literally none were available in my city. It was ridiculous to have to do that with a sick child and one of the other options was even further away! You would have thought they may have predicted the need for more tests with schools re-opening!
Luckily this morning we got the results, which were negative, so she must just have a horrible cough virus. But next week if another one of us catches this bug which presents as temp and a cough we could be back in the same boat.
The man on the testing booking line said they are absolutely overrun.
I'm not sure what is going to happen.

Dee, that's such an inconvenience. I'm so glad it came back negative! It feels like testing got to a good place, and they didn't really anticipate what was going to happen once things started re-opening especially the schools. I think someone said that already.

Baby agreed you did the right thing. I'm glad people have started to chill out.

For my school district, and I assume many others dealing with the same medical confidentiality laws, if the parent doesn't report it then that's pretty much the end of it. I know numbers get reported, but unless they can do a contact trace they won't send out that info. But you have to give authorization for your records to be released, and it's not like you fill out a questionnaire that asks you where you are enrolled in school when you get tested. I literally just emailed my doctor, she ordered the test, I scheduled it, and then showed up and verified my identity and took the test and left. Got my results via email. So you just hope people tell you. I think now we can legally send someone home if they are presume positive. They don’t have to get tested but they aren’t allowed back without permission but it’s a slippppppery kind/slope because there are educational rights about equal access to education.

They're talking about re-opening a couple nearby counties since they have gone from widespread (purple) to substantial spread (red). My county is still purple though, but my mom may have to go back to work in 14 days. She already told her union if that happens, she's taking a leave of absence for the rest of the year because she and my stepdad high risk and she doesn't actually need to work. Rumor is a middle school's entire math department plans to walk if they go back before a vaccine is out. Just when I thought things couldn't get more chaotic.

And then 2020 in general just keeps on giving with the bad news. Yikes.

Ooooh that’s good. I am all for medical privacy, but I feel it’d be so easy for a hospital to say “we had a confirmed case of a student”. That’s be problematic here because they don’t want to shut down the whole school. Only people who have that exposure standard of less than six feet for 15 or more minutes get notified. My son’s daycare told me individually that a teacher tested positive as a courtesy. But it wasn’t an email blast, it was just to me. And only because A is high risk/I don’t talk to people/I’m not going to flip out on anybody. So I’m operating under the assumption that the standard reaction is gratitude for transparency and well wishes to the affected people.

Ty! We’ll see. She talks a big game, but I don’t see her walking out. She’s having team drama, too. She hates DL and loves being the classroom. My stepdad goes to work, but he’s a semi retired attorney so he only handles a small number of clients and they can mask and social distance. It’s a hard balance because you want to protect yourself but then you think of how s**tty it is for the kids to have subs. And now subs are struggling because DL means less people calling out sick. Lots of new moms cancelled their long term maternity leave subs.

seriously. And losing RBG on the back of Chadwick on the back of the fires. I’m so over 2020

Hey year 5 teacher chiming in here. Our schools here have reopened. Teachers are wearing masks all day now and the primary students are only wearing them in the hallways, lunch room, or when going to the toilets. The way it works for us is that if a student or teacher tests positive their entire class is quarantined. So far we’ve only had 1 case on our school and that class was quarantined. It seems like it didn’t spread at all. The schools haven’t released the names of infected students though.

My husband and I started ttc 16 months ago. In July I had a surgery to remove endometriosis and a uterine septum. Now we are finally allowed to ttc again and I’m scared to get pregnant as the cases here continue to rise. I’m also scared to wait because who knows how long it will take us to conceive in the end. He’s a teacher as well and we live and work in the largest city in our country, which makes me feel that we are both higher risk for catching it.

Ttc and infertility is hard enough without needing to factor in a worldwide pandemic!

Hope you all and your families stay healthy!

Tea, that's such a hard choice full of so many what if's. There aren't any perfect answers these days, you just have to do what you are most comfortable with. I have a friend who has been swimming in a community pool her entire pregnancy who is asthmatic, and she/baby have been completely healthy. There are no guarantees in life, but I think there are ways to be safe. Especially when they are saying that surface transmission is so low. I don't know what grade you teach, but hopefully an age that would respect and understand the need for extra personal space and some added hand washing. It sounds like things have been really stable at work so far. Whenever you do decide to resume ttc, I hope that your sticky bean finds you soon after.

Thanks Dobby! My kiddos are 9/10 years old and are a really sweet group this year. I could definitely count on them for extra hand washing. We decided to take the plunge and just go for it with ttc. Just had some o cramping start this afternoon so we’ll see how this first cycle back goes!

That’s exciting! Keep us updated!

That’s good that you have the upper elementary. They really are so considerate at the age. Hopefully things at your site continue to be contained!

our red districts are now stalling the re-open as tensions come to a roaring boil between parents wanting in person and 90% of teachers feeling uncomfortable about returning to the classroom. One board meeting went six hours and at midnight they finally said to table the vote. Everyone is eyeballing Palo Alto and pretty much doing what PA does. Because if PA can get away staying distance, everyone else can. If PA goes back, the other districts will follow. Our union president warned us that if we go to red, the board will vote us back so start planning accordingly.

I don’t get to see my fam anymore so I care but I don’t care. I’m living my best life rn though so I’m good the way it is. I had in n out for lunch. It was great.

DobbyForever said:

That’s exciting! Keep us updated!

That’s good that you have the upper elementary. They really are so considerate at the age. Hopefully things at your site continue to be contained!

our red districts are now stalling the re-open as tensions come to a roaring boil between parents wanting in person and 90% of teachers feeling uncomfortable about returning to the classroom. One board meeting went six hours and at midnight they finally said to table the vote. Everyone is eyeballing Palo Alto and pretty much doing what PA does. Because if PA can get away staying distance, everyone else can. If PA goes back, the other districts will follow. Our union president warned us that if we go to red, the board will vote us back so start planning accordingly.

I don’t get to see my fam anymore so I care but I don’t care. I’m living my best life rn though so I’m good the way it is. I had in n out for lunch. It was great.

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I actually have family in PA and I heard that they are considering reopening schools some time November depending on the situation.

We were assured that they won’t be closing schools here as the country can’t afford to have everything shut down like it did in March. I just hope we don’t end up like Italy though. Our hospitals are already beginning to fill up and it’s only September.

Yeah, November is the buzz word month. My district is saying November, too, even though we're still in purple lol.

That's a scary feeling when the hospitals are seeing more and more cases/ hospitalization. I really do feel for the families who are affected by having to close down their businesses. I know a lot of the restaurants I used to order from have had to increase their prices, but now I can't afford them so they've lost my business. I'd love to keep supporting them, but I can't spend $50-70 on dinner for one person. No matter how much I save as leftovers. Hoping they get that safe vaccine sooner rather than later so we can start to see things return to normal.

My mom's district had a teacher's only town hall with their super. She wouldn't tell me what he said because she knows I have a big mouth The only thing I have heard is some talk of hybrid classes where the teacher livestreams with half the class there and half at home. And then the groups take turns coming to school. I'm not even going down my rabbit hole of feelings about that hahaha. I just never got a break, so this setup is the closest to relaxed I've been since winter break of last school year because I get two hours a day to myself. I moved all my prep to at night or during my office hours, so now I have about 12-2:30 as me time to run errands or clean house or just relax. I'm not ready to give that up. Maybe after winter break when I get a few whole days to myself.

I have a friend that owns a restaurant and I know they had to go through all their savings during the months they were closed just to pay staff and the basic overhead costs of the building. During the quarantine we ordered takeout once a week from local restaurants to try to help out, but I know it’s just not the same for them.

Your schedule sounds so crazy! You must be exhausted. I hope however it turns out is manageable for you.

I found the online teaching to be so difficult in the beginning last year, but once I got into the groove of it it wasn’t too bad. We had a morning class meeting online to start the day and go over assignments. Then all their assignments had video lessons I made attached. During the rest of the day I spent my time answering video calls from the kids that had questions. It worked well for us, but the kids will never be able to learn as much online as they do in class no matter how smoothly is goes.

I'm glad they had the savings to do that, but gosh that's so hard. That was really nice of them to keep paying staff though. Hoping things start looking better for them as restrictions ease up/ people start yearning for normal again.

I'm glad you found a groove! That's so true. Online teaching is like having a sub. Like you said, the day can go swimmingly but it's not the same as being in the class with your teacher.

This is more of me just ranting because I'm tired today lol. Do not feel obligated to read this.

My schedule isn't too bad. We have to do about half our day online and half independent work for the kids. So I'm on 8:20-11:55 then a quick end of day check in from 2:50-3. It's just hard because I have so many projects I was saving for spring/summer break that I never got to. And I had a room change and the teacher before me was diagnosed with cancer right before the shut down, so the room is filled with decades of junk. So I'm closing out the room and then basically moving my stuff in without any help. And then I'm a single mom at home and my son has special needs. I usually get a break on the weekends because we go to my mom's, he has a gym class, they have so many safe playgrounds... but they're high risk so we're banned and playgrounds are closed. I'm just physically exhausted. And now his school is closed on Columbus Day but we're open, and this happens every year so my mom takes him because she's off. But now she can't. The librarian offered to take my kids for 45 minutes and then the rest I can move to during his nap, but I feel like that's not fair to ask. So I'm trying to decide what I want to do about that.

But like today it was drop him off, get gas, go to the car wash, teach for three hours, go to the mall in Milpitas to get him shoes, go to the mall in Union City to get a new tv because he broke the tv over the weekend during a meltdown, then home to install said tv, then afternoon meeting with the kids, then to the grocery store, then to pick him up, and now he's being babysat by the phone so I can make his dinner. Mentally, I love it. I live to be productive. But it's exhausting haha. I'm just glad that all these places are open now.

God I can’t even imagine the stress! You are juggling a lot of balls right now. I say let the librarian take them for 45 minutes. I never offer to take another teacher’s class over unless I really feel up to it and I can see they have loads to do. It’s just 45 minutes... I’m sure they’ll be fine!

It is but then I just remind myself of how much less stressful it is than still being with my ex. Always makes me feel better

We’re in the red now but super said no changes are happening because we’re not equipped to move to in person. Probably doesn’t help yet another staffer tested positive. Not at my site though. We got our flu shots today! Perks that my nearest kaiser is a huge hospital, so drive up ftw.

tea she honestly already came up with a lesson plan haha so now I’ll feel bad if I don’t take her up on it