Since mid-May, I’ve been fortunate enough to have a few autocrosses and a number of socially distanced track days. In car instruction (I’m an instructor with all the groups I run with) has been all but abolished and even classroom instruction has been highly curtailed. Most events had strict caps on the number of entrants and spectators have been banned. The requirements and rules changed almost weekly, but we managed to have a number of safe, successful events. Everyone worked together to make things work and when we had to cancel or reschedule things we did so based on the information we had from the local authorities and health professionals with the goals to be #1 safe and #2 have as many events with as many participants as possible. All our board and planning meetings were done over zoom and our drivers’ meetings were done outdoors with masks and as spread out as possible.
The summer was different, but I felt that everyone coped well and did their best.
Now, I’m a public High School Physics teacher in the DFW Metroplex in North Texas. Throughout the summer, the plan was for us to start school with remote learning since the county said it wasn’t safe to reopen schools. The Governor declared that counties couldn’t just tell the school districts what to do and the districts could make their own decisions about how and when to reopen.
My district caved to the demands of an organized and vocal group of parents who wanted the schools to reopen for in person instruction; however, since the district didn’t want to alienate or deal with the consequences of their decision they decided on a “hybrid” model where each student could decide to opt for in person or virtual learning. The teachers were not consulted and not given an option to stay home. All the school board meetings have been virtual even while teachers are doing in person training.
The district is requiring masks at all campuses, and about half the student opted for virtual learning. That’s the good news, and that’s all of the good news. The restaurants in town are delivery and drive-thru only and we have both teachers and students with lab confirmed cases being reported almost daily already (the summer athletic camps all had cases, multiple coaches had cases, and teachers have already reported cases and we don’t get students for another week).
None of the ideas (they aren’t plans) have been vetted or tested by teachers and none of the realities were expressed to the parents when they voted on what they wanted. The district bungled the remote learning in the Spring and there was no accountability or consequences for the students, so the vast majority just didn’t bother. The district didn’t have a plan for what to do and seemed to just hope that things would go back to normal quickly or at least eventually (they seemed to treat it like a snow day type deal where if they just waited a week or two we could just go back). Parents noticed that their kids didn’t do anything, not that they intervened or took any ownership of the issues.
I had parents complain that I gave too much and too little work at the same time and had students claim ignorance of systems we used throughout the year (our homework was already online). The district also started by telling all the students that the last semester would be Pass/Fail and that we’d give them tons of leeway (our school also proudly touts its 100% pass rate for the last couple of years), so the students knew from the start that the spring online semester was optional. The district has committed to having one plan for all the schools since there is no difference from 1st to 12th grade.
There was only a single 20min session about safety that told us we should have the students sit in every other seat, wear masks, and we have washable rags and disinfectant to spray between classes (the rags will be collected and washed each day). I think the kids are going to eat in classrooms instead of the cafeteria, but I’m not sure about that. Bus capacity has been cut and I’m not sure they’ve made sure that they can do one kid per seat like they want with the number of kids who want to come to school with the available buses. There are 20 subs who can do the online stuff (every class is both in person and online) and we’ve got 11 schools serving more than 8,500 students and 1,100 employees (my campus, the Senior High, has over 70 teachers alone and only serves 11-12th grades). There are no plans what to do when 10% or more of the teachers have to self-isolate or are absent at the same time (the official plan is that we’ll have to use ‘normal subs’ and have teachers cover each other’s class).
Our official plan is that we’ll “have to figure it out”. There is no concern for the health of the teachers, once the parents decided that the kids won’t get too sick they decided school would be safe for their kids without any concern for the staff or realization that their asymptomatic kid can infect them at home.
I’m hoping that the admin realizes how terrible things are going to be before students actually come to school on the 24th, because as it stands now, this isn’t going to work. Best case scenario we have a week or two of chaos before we get shutdown and go online (probably until Winter break). Worst case scenario, teachers get seriously sick and one or more of us dies and we still get shutdown, it’d be unlikely that we’d come back during the 2020-2021 school year if teachers died.
If you’re a parent, plan for your kids being home until Christmas and be prepared for more people getting sick from their and your kids.