DeKalb Schools (DCSD) sought updated stakeholder input on preferences for returning to school in a traditional or hybrid setting or remaining in distance/remote learning. DCSD also requested feedback relative to precautionary measures, transportation, and fall sports/activities.
Respondent data was aggregated to provide summaries. The survey window was open from September 8-18, 2020.
Points of Interest
In accordance with the Formula To Calculate Moving To Hybrid, the Cases Per 100K (Last 2 Weeks) has been trending back up as reported by the Georgia Department of Public Health Daily Status Report. Over the last few months, there have been a handful of days below 100 Cases Per 100K. I don’t see how the students in DeKalb Schools ever see the inside of a classroom again until the formula changes or a vaccine for COVID-19 comes out.
DCSD wanted to get newer stakeholder input to update it’s previous survey from June School Re-Opening Survey Results .
Key Findings (According To DeKalb Schools)
The following results indicate the current level of stakeholder comfort for returning to school.
Traditional Learning Model
Distance/Remote Learning Model
Hybrid Learning Model
“Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.”
And today Dekalb is up to 292 cases/100K (last two weeks.)
super is super | November 13, 2020 at 6:47 AM |
Thankfully, the Superintendent didn’t listen to those face-to-face fanatics and used logic and caution….Looks like 300 before 100
293 as of Saturday. Bet today’s reading is past 300
Is there a single example nationwide of a child under the age of 10 that caught Covid and died while in school?
Is there a single example nationwide of a teacher that caught Covid and died from a student under 10?
It is sad that unlike Europe, we are prioritizing keeping restaurants, bars and stores open over schools.
^
Kindergartner reportedly dies of Covid-19 in Texas – “This doctor told us that our child would be fine, and our child didn’t even make it twenty-four hours,” the child’s father said:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/kindergartner-reportedly-dies-covid-19-texas-n1246803
^^^ Unfortunately you turned out to be correct.
Ttoday Dekalb is up to 301 cases/100K (last two weeks.)
AND….. Gwinnett gives their teachers a one time “bonus” of $700.00 for their hard work during the pandemic and Dekalb STILL HAS NOT paid us for the Professional learning Institute Days at the beginning of August.
https://www.ajc.com/news/gwinnett-teachers-get-bonus-in-time-for-the-holidays/X6THHUZOHFB6DDVUEORMQREIW4/
I know they won’t be shocked when I don’t sign my contract for next year since they don’t have a current pay scale available and NO information on the Step increase slated for January.
My gut tells me this STEP increase will be “delayed” but thanks for your hard work, they’ll say with a smile:(
@ Teach1
The salary schedule for teachers has been on DeKalb’s web page for months: https://www.dekalbschoolsga.org/hr/files/2020/08/Teacher-Salary-Schedule-FY21.pdf
However, teachers have been given no information about a step increase occurring in the January 15 pay check (if that is what is happening).
I was paid my stipend. I teach 4th in Dekalb. My principal did the paperwork correctly. Maybe that’s the difference?
Today Dekalb is up to 305 cases/100K (last two weeks.)
@DSW2 –
Your daily update is hilarious. It just goes to show how STUPID dekalb was to put a number out there. All the other intelligent schools in the state managing this, but we’re tied to a number that came out of the administration’s …
But you keep posting that useless information if it makes you feel good…
“Patrick Key, an art teacher at Hendricks Elementary School in Powder Springs, is on a ventilator in the ICU at a local hospital, according to a GoFundMe page created Saturday by long-time friend and fellow Cobb teacher Merry Mullins to help Key and his wife, Priscella, with medical bills.”
https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-news/cobb-county-teacher-battling-covid-19-in-icu/AUR4SO6YCRBSNCA4Z6CTHMAJ44/
DSW2Contributor
I saw this too and thought about the face to face fanatics on this page like bozo on post right before yours. Keep on posting daily cases to remind those cowardly hiding behind computers face to face fanatics of the risks teachers are taking, while those cowardly face to face stay safely at home. I bet we see 350 cases per 100,000 in a week.
Stan, is it logical or reasonable for the Superintendent to go ahead and declare that this entire school year will remain Virtual? Some parents think that “after the holidays”, somehow in-person school will start back up. I just don’t see that happening.
I don’t think it’s wise to change learning models during the holidays or finals. I’ve asked the Superintendent and board a couple of times over the last few months if we can go ahead and declare that we stay where we are for the remaining weeks of the semester. Nobody wants to make that declaration but me. Given the holidays and where the numbers are, I don’t see that going down anytime soon. Frankly, I don’t see how the district ever goes back to school until the formula changes or one of those vaccines is administered across the country.
Stan,
Given that, are we not wasting money by going through the motions pretending that school could open 4 weeks from now? Wasn’t there an authorization for school bus purchases at a recent Board meeting? Wouldn’t it be financially prudent to put in “mothballs” everything not related to virtual eduction until the start of the 2021-2022 school year?
Has the Board received any assessment of how much money is being spent unnecessarily. What outside contractors no longer have work to do? What employees no longer have a job to do? Where is DCSD purchasing goods that will not be used for months?
^^ Stan, I hate to say it, but I don’t think it is possible to give the vaccine to everyone in Dekalb.
Dr. Toomey said today that the state cannot make the vaccines mandatory because the vaccines are being given *experimental* authorizations by the FDA. Georgia cannot/will not force people to take experimental drugs.
Also, my understanding is that the FDA is only approving the vaccines for use on *adults* — doctors will not be allowed to vaccinate children until the vaccines go thru a separate approval process for children.
For those of you waiting with bated breath for DSW to update the Dekalb numbers, she only updates them when they go up. They went down by 1 so she’s not going to bother.
She’s now trying to thread the needle on “no school” since it can’t be compulsory to have people get vaccinated. Maybe Stan meant that when vaccinations occur, the community spread and those arbitrary numbers will go down, but she hasn’t made that correlation yet.
Too busy trying to figure out how to not have F2F school forever.
“In May, research published by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University predicted that springtime school shutdowns would result in children returning for the fall semester with 63% to 68% of the typical gains in reading and 37% to 50% in math.”
How much more have our DeKalb County student lost, while other counties and kids across the state catch up??
Dekalb’s infection rate was 304 or 305 cases/100K (last two weeks) from Monday, November 23 thru Friday, November 27.
Dekalb’s rate then went down to 296 cases/100K (last two weeks) yesterday (Saturday, November 28.) I assume this drop was a result of most testing locations closing on Thanksgiving, Thursday, November 26 and staying closed for the 4-day weekend. Testing will start up again on Monday, November 30.
It appears that it takes two days for testing results to be included in the 2-week infection rate. If that is correct, then the calculated infection rate should drop again today (Sunday), tomorrow (Monday) and the day after (Tuesday.) The drop will not be because things got better; rather, the drop will have happened because fewer (zero?) tests were done in Dekalb over the 4-day weekend.
@DSW, are you insinuating that cases/100k per 14 days isn’t infallible? You basically just made the case as such by saying it’s not really a good metric for transmission as it depends on a number of factors (timing, testing, etc)
Positivity rate also it’s a silver bullet metric either, since NYC is now giving up on their 3% threshold in favor of a more wholistic decision making process. Elementary aged students are going back in NYC on December 7th.
I wonder if CWH will take a cue from her former NYC co-workers and realize using one fallible metric to determine the best learning model for 100,000 students isn’t a wise decision in either the short run or long run.
Here’s to hoping.
Yesterday, Dr. Fauci said the following to ABC news
“We get asked it all the time. You know, we say it not being facetiously as a sound bite or anything, but, you know, close the bars and keep the schools open is what we really say.
Obviously, you don’t have one size fits all. But as I said in the past and as you accurately quoted me, the default position should be to try as best as possible within reason to keep the children in school, or to get them back to school.
The best way to ensure the safety of the children in school is to get the community level of spread low. So, if you mitigate the things that you know are causing spread in a very, very profound way, in a robust way, if you bring that down, you will then indirectly and ultimately protect the children in the school because the community level is determined how things go across the board.
So, my feeling would be the same thing. If you look at the data, the spread among children and from children is not really very big at all, not like one would have suspected. So, let’s try to get the kids back, but let’s try to mitigate the things that maintain and just push the kind of community spread that we’re trying to avoid.
And those are the things that you know well — the bars, the restaurants where you have capacity seating indoors without masks, those are the things that drive the community spread, not the schools.”
Dekalb’s infection rate so far this week —
Mon, Nov 30: 289 cases/100K (last two weeks)
Tues, Dec 01: 276 cases/100K (last two weeks)
Wed, Dec 02: 285 cases/100K (last two weeks)
Where is covid Transmission happening? Not in schools. So why are our schools closed?
https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/almost-covid-transmission-happening-5-214735157.html
More details that schools should be open, and not just one day a week but for 5 day a week face to face instruction.
https://www.tennessean.com/story/opinion/2020/12/04/metro-nashville-public-schools-defies-science-school-closures/3787696001/
DCSD administration is relying on bad “science” to keep schools closed, and the children that are suffering most are the poorest, most disadvantage students in our community. Will they ever be able to recover?
I am trying to post the text of a Press Release announcing the “National Rally to Open Schools Weekend – Metro Atlanta Rally This Sunday” in Piedmont Park on Sunday, but it was rejected as spam.
Here’s the source of the press release:
https://twitter.com/CommAPSProgress/status/1334936246989295616
Dekalb’s infection rate:
Thurs, Dec 03: 298 cases/100K (last two weeks)
Fri, Dec 04: 323 cases/100K (last two weeks)
The state as a whole is doing worse than our county — these are the statewide infection rates:
Thurs, Dec 03: 344 cases/100K (last two weeks)
Fri, Dec 04: 364 cases/100K (last two weeks)
New York City threw out their ridiculous number and have ordered schools open.
“Similarly in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio set one of the strictest metrics in the country — schools would close citywide if the city reached a 3% positivity rate. But, as businesses in the city reopened, parents argued that the metric should be revisited and that students should begin returning to the classroom.
On Sunday, de Blasio abandoned the 3% threshold, announcing that students Pre-K through elementary school, who have opted for in-person learning, will return to school buildings on Dec. 7.”
DeKalb??
If the Superintendent and Board are unwilling to change the reopening criteria they need to stop the charade that there will be face to face instruction before August. Put schools and busses in mothballs and furlough everyone not engaged in virtual instruction. Maybe DCSD can run a budget surplus for the rest of the school year.
Dekalb’s infection rate:
Sat, Dec 05: 332 cases/100K (last two weeks)
Sun, Dec 06: 332 cases/100K (last two weeks)
Mon, Dec 07: 345 cases/100K (last two weeks)
The state as a whole is doing worse than our county — these are the statewide infection rates:
Sat, Dec 05: 370 cases/100K (last two weeks)
Sun, Dec 06: 368 cases/100K (last two weeks)
Mon, Dec 07: 396 cases/100K (last two weeks)
“The DeKalb County School District announced Monday afternoon that, with COVID-19 cases on the rise, it does not appear that students will be back in classrooms soon.”
https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-news/dekalb-schools-likely-wont-return-to-in-person-learning-in-early-2021/MZSV3JF2LJEHFNTWF626Y7SOL4/
DCSD is a sick, corrupt, incompetent joke. The best conclusion to this sorry chapter in “public education” will be the dismantling of DCSD in favor of smaller, more responsive school systems. Dunwoody should pursue its own school system that, if we’re lucky, will have a benign dictator capable of managing administrators, teachers, parents, and students and will be focused on reading, writing, arithmetic, and civics to the detriment of the “woke curriculum” crowd. Or if we’re lucky, the Georgia Legislature will opt for sending funding to the parents of school children and allowing those parents to use the funds to pay for tuition at the school of their choice. Managing trade-offs is obviously not DCSD’s strong suit—not even close. To describe many school board members, officials, and administrators during this virtual learning embarrassment, we can borrow a quote from “As Good As It Gets”: “I think of a competent individual and then I take away reason and accountability.”
Dekalb’s infection rate:
Tue, Dec 08: 365 cases/100K (last two weeks)
Wed, Dec 09: 378 cases/100K (last two weeks)
Thu, Dec 10: 400 cases/100K (last two weeks)
The state as a whole continues to do worse than our county — these are the statewide infection rates:
Tue, Dec 08: 408 cases/100K (last two weeks)
Wed, Dec 09: 421 cases/100K (last two weeks)
Thu, Dec 10: 450 cases/100K (last two weeks)
Latest data from the American Academy of Pediatrics: https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infections/children-and-covid-19-state-level-data-report/
Hannah Natanson, education reporter, for The Washington Post: “A report on student grades from one of the nation’s largest school districts offers some of the first concrete evidence that online learning is forcing a striking drop in students’ academic performance, and that the most vulnerable students — children with disabilities and English-language learners — are suffering the most.
“Fairfax’s data shows that children who are engaged and care deeply about school — children in stable home situations, whose parents have sufficient resources — will stay engaged in an online environment, while children whose temperament, socioeconomic status or home situation have historically barred them from academic achievement will slip further and further behind.”
Chrissy Clark in the Washington Free Beacon: “A study of 4.4 million students found that test scores of black, Hispanic, and poor children took the biggest hit from school closures. Math scores of vulnerable students dropped up to 10 percentage points from last year. Minority parents in California are suing the state over its mandatory school lockdowns, which the plaintiffs claim have left their children behind. Furthermore, a large study in October found that schools aren’t driving infections.
“Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has come out in favor of reopening schools. During an ABC interview, he said that the default position should be to ‘keep the children in school or to get them back to school. If you look at the data, the spread among children and from children is not really big at all.”
WaPo reports that in Montgomery County, Maryland, “More than 36 percent of ninth-graders from low-income families failed the first marking period in English. That compares with fewer than 6 percent last year, when the same students took English in eighth grade.”
Will DCSD look at the failures of virtual schooling and reconsider? Or will they continue to support a policy of failure that disproportionately affects BIPoC communities? Will DCSD continue to ignore the intellectual and psychological well-being of students? How far behind will DCSD allow children to fall before bringing them back to the classroom? And what percentage of students will remain in the school system? Will a majority depart for private schools or other learning arrangements?
More science: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/2020/12/we-now-know-how-much-children-spread-coronavirus/
The question is what DCSD, parents, teachers, and students will accept to keep children in school. Obviously, our society accepts higher speed limits even though those higher speed limits contribute to traffic accidents and thousands of deaths every year when a universal 5 mph speed limit would virtually eliminate traffic deaths. Our society finds a universal 5 mph speed limit to be an unacceptable trade-off for reducing traffic deaths to near zero.
What trade-offs are you willing to live with?
Research has shown that pre-pubescent kids have a significantly lower likelihood of getting sick, so DCSD should make a distinction between elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools and adjust their nonsensical policies based on politics and not on science.
and 12 thousand Georgian manuscripts
I thought I would change the dialogue, and share an experience I had at a store a few days ago. As some may remember from other posts, I am a middle grades Substitute Teacher, unemployed since “Virtual School” began 8/17. The County decided that Subs wouldn’t be helpful, so many have moved on to other non-school jobs. I miss my kids, and it is such a joy to be recognized by one of them. I am a Rockin’ Good Sub, and we have fun while learning! Anyway, the formatting of this story might not copy/paste quite right, but here goes:
I just saw one of my Tucker Middle kids last week. I needed his (masked) hug! Twelve years old, and he looked “rough”.
Me: How is on-line school
going?
Him: (audible sigh) Not so
good.
Me: Please tell me why?
Him: My mom doesn’t
understand the
computer stuff. The
video meetings don’t
work sometimes.
I click “the hand” to
ask a question, but
the teacher doesn’t
look at it and you.
can’t talk.
Me: So what do you do
if you can’t find the
answer?
Him: It doesn’t matter.
There’s no grade.
Me: Do you talk with your
school friends?
Him: I don’t really have any.
Me: (audible sound of my
heart breaking) Do
you have a cell
phone?
Him: (he reached into his
pocket)
Me: This is very important,
ok? I am your friend,
so you can call me
anytime! Put my
number in your
phone. He did.
Confirmed. I
reminded him that I
was kind of silly, and
could make him
smile if he called,
which he did right
then! I ended with
my regular Sub
phrase: “All you can
do is your BEST;
Nobody wakes up
and says, ‘I’m going
to do my worst
today!'” He
remembered and
chuckled. One more
masked hug.
Very Awesome.
https://patch.com/georgia/alpharetta/substitute-pay-incentive-approved-fulton-schools