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School Re-Opening

What method do you support?

  • Full re-open

    Votes: 78 37.9%
  • Parents choice with in-class or virtual learning

    Votes: 103 50.0%
  • Hybrid learning for all

    Votes: 7 3.4%
  • Full Virtual

    Votes: 18 8.7%

  • Total voters
    206
Bump..we need big numbers tomorrow at the rally. First protest/rally I ever attended was the last one this group did. It felt good fighting for my kids. Even if you don’t have kids, join us if you believe in our fight for choice to attend schools. Please attend if you can make it.
5:30 pm
701 East Main Street
Fayette County School Board
 
It's surreal how different it is in other parts of the Country. Where I live in Georgia we have been back to in person school for quite a while. There is a virtual option, but the in person option has always been there. And this is Georgia, Corona central, and my County has the highest number of cases. And you know what? School has been going fine. HS football game have been going on for a month at full force. We are still alive down here.

What part of Georgia are you in ?
 
France has had the equivalent of 225,000 US cases the last few days - schools remain open last ive seen
 
At this point they only have maybe 4 weeks of instruction left before Christmas break so yes on the surface it would be “ok” if they didn’t start in person until Jan 1 I suppose. But the fear for me and I think for many pushing back is the school administration/school board members have been horrific so far at their handling of the situation. From lies to no planning, we have zero faith they will actually do what they say and offer in person in January. So we have to keep pushing now to hopefully get them in sooner. If we would not have pushed like we have so far, we would not be at the point where they are claiming they will offer in person in January.
 
it won't happen. they're waiting until the last minute for case counts, to which Andy is supplying them with, that will be their excuse after Christmas too.
 
It's wishful thinking to stay closed with an opening in January. If you've been following you can see what's going to happen. That's going to be prime season. If they don't break the ice soon we'll have kids in our 2 largest cities missing 1.5 years of school. That's bonkers.

The situation seems to be, more families want in person learning than they have the capability of accommodating. Be it buses, teachers, etc.
 
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If they keep the same metrics and excuses, I cannot see the situation changing enough to "justify" opening it up in January...only excuses I could see is if Congress passes another bill (we now have the resources to open!) or if Vaccine comes about (it will - but will not be ready for children or all teachers)...

Now if they can admit that school is safe, its worked in other countries, its worked in our country...then maybe.
 
Wish I could figure out how to post picture, but Fayette county website says “Students families can choose 5 days in person learning or virtual learning starting in January provided conditions are safe”.
I emailed board member asking what metrics they will use to determine how it’s “safe”.
His response was “we haven’t established any specific guidelines, at least I haven’t been given any-beyond the incidence rate guidance we received for the DPH.”
So they say we will go back when safe but don’t have anything to determine when it’s safe. That’s how this whole process has been and reason number 3,856 we don’t feel confident we will be back in person in January.
 
This is interesting, because the Israel experience appeared to be 180 degrees from that of other countries.

 
I emailed board member asking what metrics they will use to determine how it’s “safe”.
His response was “we haven’t established any specific guidelines, at least I haven’t been given any-beyond the incidence rate guidance we received for the DPH.”
So they say we will go back when safe but don’t have anything to determine when it’s safe. That’s how this whole process has been and reason number 3,856 we don’t feel confident we will be back in person in January.

They only "follow the science" when it fits their narrative...same as Andy and Stack. The bar will move, same as it has w/ our cases, positivity rates, the curve, orange/red threshold, etc.

These same people have no issues w/ front line workers at groceries, doctor office admins, restaurant staff, etc, and in the same breath they refuse to label teachers essential.

Caulk and others should be out of a job yesterday.
 
Our kids won’t be back to in person school until the 2021-22 school year. And even then it will be a hybrid model heavy on masking and social distancing.
 
They only "follow the science" when it fits their narrative...same as Andy and Stack. The bar will move, same as it has w/ our cases, positivity rates, the curve, orange/red threshold, etc.

These same people have no issues w/ front line workers at groceries, doctor office admins, restaurant staff, etc, and in the same breath they refuse to label teachers essential.

Caulk and others should be out of a job yesterday.
Exactly and they also have no issue sending their own kids to school. Dr Stack kid apparently is at a private school in Lexington where they have been in person this entire time. But he will get up there and back Andy saying no it’s not safe for your kid to be in school.
 
Our kids won’t be back to in person school until the 2021-22 school year. And even then it will be a hybrid model heavy on masking and social distancing.
Dude you stole this from me. You stole it. It’s mine. I’ve posted this 1000 times on here.

I’ll let you use it, Wildcat Friend 73, but a h/t when it comes to fruition is appreciated....

....but yeah public schools aren’t going back until next school year and even then will be hybrid/couple days a week *at best*

Btw we’ve managed to have an entire youth football season with zero deaths which has been great. Championship game this Saturday.....well, they did away with playoffs bc COVID OMG.....but it’s 1v2 in the finale, so championship.

Have lead this crew of youngsters to a 5-1 record amidst this crap fest of a year. LETSSSS GOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!
 
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I've not been onboard with shutting everything down (from the beginning), but I don't see the point, this late in the semester, to forcing in-person school before January.

I think they should offer the choice. My oldest son is a senior in HS and he wants to go back because he misses seeing his friends every day. My youngest will stay home, she is loving the at home schooling. I don't think they are going to force it on anyone.
 
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Dude you stole this from me. You stole it. It’s mine. I’ve posted this 1000 times on here.

I’ll let you use it, Wildcat Friend 73, but a h/t when it comes to fruition is appreciated....

....but yeah public schools aren’t going back until next school year and even then will be hybrid/couple days a week *at best*

Btw we’ve managed to have an entire youth football season with zero deaths which has been great. Championship game this Saturday.....well, they did away with playoffs bc COVID OMG.....but it’s 1v2 in the finale, so championship.

Have lead this crew of youngsters to a 5-1 record amidst this crap fest of a year. LETSSSS GOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

At least you get to play sports. In California, home to MILLIONS of youth athletes, youth sports are a complete NO GO. It's awful. I feel so bad for HS Seniors.
 
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We needed to be rethinking education anyway ...and I don’t mean more money schlepped into the same self serving and impotent system that we have

so the indecision and clear lack of leadership COULD end up being a good thing if more parents literally take back the responsibility and control of their kids education

I respect the bejezus out of good, committed teachers but I don’t trust or have faith in the system that’s developed over the years
 
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I think that the current Kentucky high school sports in the post season (cross country, soccer, volleyball, field hockey) will get to finish. I see no way that football finishes. I doubt winter sports start on time (basketball, wrestling, swimming). I think maybe spring sports will happen.
 
Rumor is that Manny Caulks contract was recently amended to say something to the effect of school board members are not allowed to publicly criticize the superintendent. Would be very interesting to know more about this if true. Wouldn’t be surprised as it seems that Manny runs every decision in this system.
 
Rumor is that Manny Caulks contract was recently amended to say something to the effect of school board members are not allowed to publicly criticize the superintendent. Would be very interesting to know more about this if true. Wouldn’t be surprised as it seems that Manny runs every decision in this system.

What's the real deal with that guy....

He seems "interesting".
 
Agree with a lot of that, although it seems like that was our approach, initially, and it started going downhill fast. It's a delicate balance.

I do think we would have dealt with this better in just about any other year.

The measure changed. We always knew everyone would get it, we just didn't want everyone to get it at once and overwhelm the system. Hence flatten the curve.

Since, the standard now is a positive tests (not necessarily positive patient). Tests that are proven very unreliable and potentially dangerous (as it imparts false confidence of antibodies).

So as long as the standard of concern is positive tests, we'll never see the light of day in any lockdown state and kids will never return to school.

As you stated, if this happened in any other year it has a totally different outcome
 
Please don't stop. All ears.

hey Anthony!

I’m just thinking back to some of the basic tenets and methods that I saw CDC promote in that Atlanta chapter -

they generally divide up an internal office into branches representing the epidemiologists / health communications officers and the program support teams (data masters/health promotion and cooperative agreement/grant money ppl respectively) ...an office of the director heads them up

thats a generic layout but used widely -labs are separate and located on a specific campus

Disease surveillance is their intake of bio-statistical data regarding infectious outbreaks but they also maintain massive surveillance systems fed by states which contain many kinds of lifestyle / knowledge base and behavioral types of data so they can analyze trends and score peer reviewed publications for the staff - “program evaluations “ is built on this info so CDC can assess the efficacy of their pgms and the possible causal link relationship between CDC resources and outcomes (which are United. Nations / WHO aligned for what its worth) -

the data collection follows stringent protocols and always includes a transparent and sensible methodology in order to remove the potential for bias as much as possible - they also want that data to be “weighted “ .... statistically sound/representative of the specific populations that contributed to them.....that’s followed by an endless parade of employees and contractors performing their own meta-analysis on multiple systems /data sets so they can obtain the much coveted first author publication achievement and/or promote collaboration with states : tribes and territories (plus Intl ppl)

they have staff constantly advising states and providing “technical assistance “ for data collection, analysis and content expertise - I worked in a function like that after I spent my first 3-4 years getting acclimated

so my point is everything they do that has ANY practical value to us is based on the availability and integrity of the data ....and the data —belong to the states - CDC isn’t an enforcement agency and can’t tell anyone to do anything....they’re almost like the NCAA relying on member institutions participation and support

So - the data that would REALLY help guide decision making right now would center on what they typically obtain with little to no problem....

what is the nature of the disease -
how virulent is it?
Can the labs identify specific characteristics like unique proteins in the virus shell?
Can it mutate?
Has it mutated? (If so how quickly and how many strains are active now?)
What other factors could be present that may be helping it spread or vice Versa -
What does the established body of literature say about trends and mortality/morbidly/economic impact etc ?

And a whole lot more

my point is — they can’t move forward with any meaningful higher analysis and make many helpful recommendations if they ha e data that’s horribly inaccurate and always changing (like we have happening now)

they are including a wide swath of guess work in the prevalence counts from the states too - makes no sense.....al they’re reporting cases but also saying those numbers include suspected cases as well as assumed cases - basically two types of data that could be anything or nothing at all -
and it’s not like they’re getting bad data and then states are making minor/academic type decisions on it —

they’re going forward into full blown emergency footing at a preposterously bad time ....states as I recall - are already under the Purview of FEMA - while strict repressive measures are being considered or have scaled back versions in place now ...., hinging on a crap shoot collection. of unreliable and constantly changing prevalence counts and death la attributable (but money is flowing at the problem for sure) -

Some of the suspect mortality reports were based on someone already having sarcoidosis or pneumonia (many are “elderly “) but once they pass away they some how get counted as Cvd19 anyway —

on a lesser scale I saw them do that with obesity related indicators and flu - etc ....look for a paper called “scientists behaving badly “ - it was my primer on some of that stuff when I arrived there in 2002)

They reorganized respiratory disease after I left there — it was placed under the vaccination portion of that division for what that’s worth )

There are some altruistic “true believers “ there that are highly valued champions of specific disease - esp in the chronic disease center where I worked .......but there are A LOT MORE typical USG employees who put in a solid 4-5 hours of work each day - and whatnot
 
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Wow.

What's a ralker?

Oh lawd

That sounds like a fat-finger special
I couldn’t sleep last night and laid there tapping away at that post a little weary eyed -

will edit it heavily soon but am taking a stroll around the neighborhood first - hope you and your family are well

PS - we should be closing in our new home by 11/11 — so I’d love a recommendation on a good source to go to for future HVAC issues - is that ok ?
 
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Oh lawd

That sounds like a fat-finger special
I couldn’t sleep last night and laid there tapping away at that post a little weary eyed -

will edit it heavily soon but am taking a stroll around the neighborhood first - hope you and your family are well

PS - we should be closing in our new home by 11/11 — so I’d love a recommendation on a good source to go to for future HVAC issues - is that ok ?
Of course. Just hit me up when you get in and we'll do a good once over.
 
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North suburbs of Atlanta

gotcha -
We lived in McDonough, Stone Mountain and Newman from 2002-2011 ish



I read your post to my wife (from Dublin Georgia) and she was wondering...apparently Dublin Georgia managed to break the worldwide top 20 for sudden cases or something like that 😔

per capita of course
(Or is that - per
 
It's wishful thinking to stay closed with an opening in January. If you've been following you can see what's going to happen. That's going to be prime season. If they don't break the ice soon we'll have kids in our 2 largest cities missing 1.5 years of school. That's bonkers.

The situation seems to be, more families want in person learning than they have the capability of accommodating. Be it buses, teachers, etc.

You hit on something there. Transportation is the biggie IMO. The average age and health profile of a bus driver for FCPS is, in that order, HIGH and LOW.

The risk to those drivers is extremely high. And although, I'm not well versed in DOT regulations, I can't imagine that it is plausible, or even legal, to "cocoon" drivers and monitors. It's by FAR the biggest logistical problem and risk with going back to in-person instruction.
 
^correct. It's logistical problems not safety problems.

Buses and teachers opting out or retiring.

So give parents the option to put their kids back in class but require transportation. Then vet the high risk kids that have to rely on buses and get them on buses spread out. Drivers with higher pay and n95 masks. Stop busing kids all over the place and keep them close to their house. Expand hours until 4p to catch up and allow parents to work. These are things industries are doing all over the world but not for our schools.

I really don't give a f*ck. We spend ridiculous amounts of money on stupid shit. Burn the credit card up on getting kids in classrooms and cut this charade. Should've been the central factor in reopening and then stair step openings from there. 8 MONTHS is plenty of time to figure this shit out.
 
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What's funny (not really), we just got the property tax bill yesterday. Holy f*ck that's a lot of money going to public schools. They keep them closed much longer and people will stop paying that shit. Especially if they're tacking on another $10k to go private.
 
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