With 56 days left before the start of school in September, there’s a lot left to decide. I’m sure the NPS administration, the NTA, and the School Committee are churning through lots of options, and I don’t envy them their jobs. That being said, the rest of the world isn’t waiting to see what they will do.
A letter circulating recently was emblematic of how some parents are making alternative plans. An excerpt:
We are seeking a retired teacher, or a teacher who is concerned about the health risks of returning to the classroom this Fall, to help with homeschooling our two kids. We are also discussing this option with a few other families we know that are hesitant to send their kids back to school in the Fall, so it could be working with four to six Pre-K to First Graders.
We would like to mimic real school structure, environment, and learning methods as much as possible, so experience with young children and their associated curriculum is a must. Probably something like three-five hours/day, five days/week role, working with the kids on age-appropriate materials, crafts, games, to keep them engaged and learning?
This is obviously a paid, part-time position!
Meanwhile, the NPS are conducting a survey in which they ask parents to indicate their children’s likelihood of attending in the fall under three scenarios–“normal” school, hybrid on-site and remote learning, and exclusively remote learning. People are also asked whether they prefer alternating days of instruction or weeks of instruction under the second scenario.
Are these efforts two ships passing in the night, oblivious to the other’s plans? Or are they headed to the same island, to find an optimum plan for all? And by the way, who’s making sure to consult with the teachers as to their concerns about the safety of the work environment? It would be indeed ironic if the NPS and the parents settled on a plan most liked but too few teachers were comfortable showing up to make it work.
Meanwhile, do we have any concerns that it would be the wealthier families who could afford to bypass the public schools? We don’t mind if parents send their kids to private school. And home schooling has always been allowed in Massachusetts. But this feels different: Should we mind if a nonrepresentative subset of families arrange at-home instruction for pods of like-minded and like-resourced families? I worry that if lots of families do that, we will substantially erode political support for the schools and for future revenue that we know will be necessary to maintain their excellence.
[Some asides (but not my main points): Parents and teachers choosing this path will need consider whether such teachers should be treated at 1099 workers or W-2 workers. Also, it would be worth reviewing whether an NTA member who chooses not to work in the schools but offers educational services like this should still be covered by the NPS contract.]
Three -five hours of direct instruction, five days a week isn’t a part-time position given the age range of the children (three separate grades within a school setting) if there’s a small pod of kids. Such a position would require hours of planning beyond the time with the kids. In addition to paying a teacher a substantial salary, the parents will need to purchase all the materials and potentially provide health benefits. They may have some takers, but I doubt the applicant pool will be deep if this takes place in person. Obviously this is not an option for retired teachers who are high risk due to their age. All this being said, I too wonder how many families will opt in/out of the in-school model.
I assume NPS is gathering information about who is available to teach in a school building and who will teach remotely. The system will need people in both categories. It’a very complicated problem and I hope that teachers are in the planning loop. I’ve heard people express a lot of concerns about safety, and at the same time identify some good ideas about how to make individual situations as safe as possible.
+1 on Jane’s comment.
I think this:
…is a symptom of the widespread suburban belief that couples earning decidedly middle-class salaries of $100k-$150k each are somehow entitled to a pampered upper-class existence predicated on the exploitation of cheap contractual (preferably foreign) labor, who are able to drive you around in their Ubers, instantly fulfill your Amazon orders of Chinese and Bangladeshi sweatshop goods, do your grocery shopping, prepare your tacos, polish your fingernails, mow your lawns, babysit your kids, and now, apparently, provide them with a curriculum-based education.
Michael,
Isn’t there a discussion on Needham school openings that you could pontificate on and tell the people in the town you live in how entitled and pampered they are?
Jane,
I agree, the main consideration in returning to school in the fall is a complete assessment of risk. As I mentioned in another post, my preference is to get kids back into schools as much as possible. My son is a junior next year, and I have no concerns sending him back as long as there are appropriate protocols in place based on the data at that point in time. I do feel and hope that the administration is actively dealing with how they are going to address high risk teachers. There needs to be a plan to identify teachers who will have to teach remotely and develop plans for how that will happen, my preference being kids in the classroom and the teacher remote. I did just fill out the survey that was sent out, but my fear is that the planning will be delayed until it is too late to effectively implement a plan that will work. I hope I’m wrong, but if there is a distance learning part to the next school year it has to be significantly better than what we experienced at the end of last year.
Patrick Foster, I already addressed your repetitive concern-trolling when it was presented earlier today by your junior-varsity teammate Lisap. If you’re going to debase the discussion with personal attacks, then at least try to show a little bit of originality instead of repeating the same old simpleton stuff.
I’m seeing posts on social media from a lot of teachers who are worried about going back to classrooms in the fall, especially from those who are older or have other health issues that put them at high risk. My teacher friends feel like no one is concerned about their safety. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a teacher shortage in the fall.
Michael,
I stopped having discussions with you when you referred to me as a child abuser and that I had no sense because I allow my kid to play football (no personal attack there?). I would prefer to have civilized discussions with people who do not use personal attacks. This is the last response you will get from me.
@Patrick Foster, in that case you must have been “Independent Man” in this discussion from last September. I commented that:
You (Independent Man) then asked if you were abusing your child by allowing him to play tackle football, and I said yes, if you allow your son to play tackle football then you are abusing your child.
You are right, that was an awful thing to say and I sincerely apologize.
Patrick,
I took a look at the survey and was left wondering whether the results will be representative of what choices parents will ultimately make. It was remarkably simple in construction, with virtually no information presented to help parents give reasoned answers. There’s a reason for that lack of information: The decisions haven’t been made yet.
Maybe the survey offers the NPS administration a rough cut of how many parents will decide to enroll or not enroll their children under the three scenarios set forth; but it’s hard to be believe that the self-selected sample of those who chose to reply–especially at this stage–will be statistically significant.
I’d be curious to get your thoughts and those of others about the survey design.
For some reason, people have a difficult time focusing on issues related to opening schools safely. My sense is that the timeframe for coming up with safe solutions is so short and the problem so complex that people find it easier to avoid the subject.
Agree, for some people. Others apparently have decided that they need to make their own plans–for reasons of perceived safety, for educational reasons, or because they want to be sure they can go back to work on a consistent basis.
Paul,
Excellent point on the survey. When I was filling it out I kept struggling with many of the questions in the survey. It asked “yes”, “no”, or “I’m not sure” for whether I would send my child to school for each of the three models they propose (all in-person/hybrid distance and in class/all distance). Other than the first option, to which I said yes, I gave the “I’m not sure” response for the other two because there was no indication of what the distance learning would be if they went that route. I responded that I would need to understand what the distance learning plan would be before I could give my opinion. If it was what they did at the end of last year, then I don’t think it’s going to be adequate. My son is going to be a junior, and with college admissions coming up, I am struggling to see how the distance learning will be adequate unless there are significant changes to distance learning over last school year.
The survey was concerning to me as a parent. One question seemed to ask if I was planning to unenroll my child from NPS. I thought the survey assumed I was wealthy enough to pull my kid in July and find a private school because I was scared and wealthy.
The other question was would I allow my kid to take the bus. My kids have ALWAYS taken the bus since k. BUT, there are TOOOOOO many questions:
How many kids will be allowed on the bus?
Who will monitor social distancing on the bus?
How often will the bus be cleaned? Each bus typically makes three runs in the morning and three runs in the afternoon.
I can’t answer the bus question.
How many people are infected in Newton at any one time? Right now, the number is low, so sending my kids to school seems like a safe idea, if social distance is maintained, wearing masks and airflow in the schools.
Society builds brand new office buildings (Class A office space) with great HVAC systems. The old Angier system didn’t have HVAC. It had a boiler, and it was ON or OFF. Many of the buildings have terrible airflow. One of my kids had a windowless classroom at Brown (I don’t believe that is a classroom. It is a glorified storage space). Someone needs to evaluate each classroom and school for HVAC and airflow issues and come up with a plan. Spend the money (I have no idea where the money tree is) and get the buildings evaluated so teachers and parents and administrators know what needs to be addressed now. Hire someone to tell us how often school bathrooms, school busses, hallways, stair railings, desks need to be cleaned. And do it.
We can’t count on Trump, but I am hoping that the Commonwealth creates grants so public schools can hire HVAC experts, cleaning experts and consult infectious disease doctors to give us the advice that NPS needs.
One other thing is that NPS takes all students. Some students have been at home. Some students have been podding with other students. Some families traveled to NH and the Cape. But at NPS, all these kids will meet up for the first time in six months and germs will be there. We have to be prepared for the number of cases to go up, and when that happens the distance learning has to be more robust than it was. High school classes can not meet once a week for 20-30 minutes. Kids need to have contact with every teacher every day (or at least three days a week), so meaningful learning can happen at all grade levels.
And we need the school nurses IF the kids go back to school. School nurses MUST be compensated.
Didn’t Zilles blast Fleishman in a staff email recently? Believe he said Fleishman is making broken promises again. Who has the email?