The school year starts in 49 days. Board members urge staff to prepare for ‘robust’ distance learning.

We know that its mainly the elderly that are at risk, and folks in prisons and nursing homes. With what we know now (vs. what we thought we knew in March/April), it is irresponsible to shut schools for such low numbers of folks getting sick (outside of the inmates and the elderly). Of about 360,000 covid-19 deaths worldwide, only about two dozen children are known to have died. For all the recent reports of serious complications among young people, these are statistically rare and, if detected early, most afflicted youths recover within weeks. The low numbers of children affected by covid-19 and the new syndrome should be considered in additional context: More than 200 U.S. children were killed last year by flu; some 10,000 others died from various childhood diseases. The findings from contact tracing and the significant biological differences between covid-19 and more common respiratory ailments suggest that children are not major sources of infection… so its not like kids will go to school and make all adults sick. A rare condition that is not commonly fatal does not justify keeping 55 million American students home into the next academic year. If you are concerned, keep your kids at home and homeschool them. As for the rest of us, let us have our kids go to school as normal. Nothing justifies shutting schools down anymore.

To Mom of 3:

While children have a very low rate of illness due to COVID-19, they can still carry and spread the disease just as early as adults. Children have no special immunity to the infection.

Putting children and teaches in classrooms will increase the rate of infection in the community.

PAUSD should prepare for online learning. We have no intention to send our kids back to school until there is enough data to show it is safe.

What’s funny/sad/interesting is that the schools are allowing athletes back to workout (under CIF provided guidelines). However, there’ve been no discussions by the school board as to the health and safety of the athletes, as far as I know. They pretty much left it up to the AD’s and coaches to figure out how to carry out the guidelines.

Given that approximately 50% of the students at Paly are athletes, shouldn’t the district show a little more interest in this experiment?

Many colleges and professional sports have recently returned to activities and the virus cases have spiked for many of them. Seems as though the district is turning a blind eye to a very big potential issue.

First, shout out to David Z for making sense. I see I am going to be busy in here today. Sorry “Mom of 3” and “Please” and all of the “Kathleen Tarlow”(from the article) type of parents that will comment in here later today. You can cite all of the statistics and data you want…200 kids this…low number of children affected that…blah blah blah! No PAUSD staff member should have to go into work every day feeling like they are at risk of getting COVID. If you actually think you are in some sort of special “COVID bubble” in Palo Alto you are NOT. Do you actually really think you will get through 186 days of in person learning without infections? Do you actually really think kids won’t get Covid when they are vectors for every disease! Either you live in a fantasy world or you don’t care about the health of students and staff. As soon as those school doors open and children start mixing with other children(like kids will keep their masks on and social distance-yeah right)and start mixing with people in the community, COVID will spread and the schools will have to “shut down for a deep cleaning.” Oh wow. Deep cleaning. Great. In the meantime staff members and other children will have been exposed. Stop citing media nonsense that it’s mostly old people at risk. They are reporting in Texas that 20-30 year olds are filling up hospitals there. Also, stop with the “kids don’t get Covid” nonsense. Sorry…they breath air and are human so they can get it. It’s likely they were probably shielded from Covid a bit by the initial school closures. Google Day Care Centers Covid and see how many day care centers have had to shut down this summer and how many kids got infected in day care centers. To all of the Kathleen Tarlow types…yes, you don’t have your free day care center for the day. You chose to have kids, so now you have to deal with this imposition somehow, figure it out, and deal with the strain. The school’s main job is to educate not babysit and so I do agree that distance learning needs to be improved for the Fall. Also, like David Z mentioned, the numbers with the grand Phase 3 “reopening” are likely to cause case numbers to go way up in the community so very likely by the fall(which was already noted to potentially be the 2nd Wave) the problem might be too out of control to open doors safely anyway. That would actually give Board members an “out” since they are so afraid to deal with the ridiculous potential parent outcry if they decide to start with distance learning. Sorry Kathleen Tarlow, you take the risk in the classroom with your “no 0 risk” nonsense, and also learn to be a little more resilient with your children and family under these dire circumstances. Also, future commenters, please don’t start with “they opened in other countries” nonsense. Schools in Australia and South Africa opened, had a Covid out break within a couple of days, and had to re-close. It happened these last 4 days or so. For all of you who “want things your way”, from the last info I read, this is a Novel Virus with no known medical treatments, is 2-3x more transmissible than the flu, and is anywhere from 6-15x more deadly than the flu. Take the pandemic more seriously please. Finally, to the school board, there is always a kind of statement that’s says something like “we take the health of our students and staff seriously.” Usually you just have to pay lip service to that. Now is the time to actually LIVE UP TO THAT STATEMENT and do not listen to or bend for these demanding and often weird parents, and keep those school doors shut this fall and this winter.

Compliments to Jennifer DiBrienza for keeping her eye on the social-emotional ball, and feeling empathy for what our teenagers will be feeling if confined at home.
Kudos to all the teachers for turning on a dime to adopt new ways of teaching. It’s especially hard to spend so much time at home online.

If the students are in high risk or have contacts with high risk, you can choose to stay home. But it shouldn’t stop other students to go back to schools. The confirmed cases and death rate are still low in Bay Area. We just need to be SMART-stay home when you are sick, wear face coverings, wash you hands frequently…..

The kids have already been miserable staying home for over 3 months. The social-emotional factor is more important than academic right now.

Do we think all the essential workers in PA, including teachers, live in PA? That is why regional data is important, not just county but regional.

@MessiFan-Lol @ thinking PA is in some sort of a special Covid Bubble. Watch those county numbers rise these next two to three weeks including PA.
@Palymom-Great arguments. If your kid has the sniffles stay home! The kids are a little sad so let’s spread Covid! You have solved the pandemic. What about asymptomatic carriers. What about the health of the staff?
@Covid19Ready-Dauber likely was referencing that Distance Learning or a Hybrid Model can’t possibly replace a regular school day. He’s probably preemptively trying to lower parent expectations for the year because he knows “how you all are.” Stop “demanding” and “expecting.” You aren’t a customer. It’s a free public school education. Your tone is part of the problem in PA.

@John Hicks spot on.
I keep hearing this mantra from the board that we must get back to the ‘old normal’. Don Austin stated, ‘Any time we do something that isn’t getting us closer to the old normal, we have to rethink what we are doing.’ Last night a board member said, ‘If remote learning was so great, we would have implemented it years ago.’ We all miss the ‘old normal’. We had a great educational system during the ‘old normal’.
But the ‘old normal’ puts students, teachers, staff and families at risk. We have to find a ‘new normal’ and what that ‘new normal’ looks like will define how well we keep everyone safe.

It’s PAUSD’s job to deliver one year of curriculum via instruction.

Many in this community experienced how public universities, private colleges and our local community college flowed seamlessly last spring and this summer.

That’s the bar. Deliver instruction, on a schedule, with clear expectations and interaction. It’s totally doable for a public school. For you and Ken Dauber to think of lowering that bar is outlandish.

This is BS.
Why are middle and high school students to
be 100% remote and elementary 100% on campus ?
All students should get to be on campus.
Remote does not work.

@Covid19ready-Please take a step back and read your own comments. Do you see/hear what you sound like? THIS is who you wanted to be as an adult when you were a child? You sound so demanding. I wish I had that much power to be able to lower the bar for instruction but I am not involved. What I was saying was Dauber was likely trying to temper expectations because he knows how critical this parent group is. You, for example, had to throw in a colleges and universities comparison. I think most rational people know that Distance Learning can’t replace face to face instruction, but he is probably just explaining that to you all AGAIN. Parents in this forum went nuts about how bad distance learning was so I am sure he was sick of emails/phone calls full of complaints. He is likely trying to just preemptively temper expectations because of people like YOU. Calm down, you will get your DEMANDED ONE YEAR OF INSTRUCTION DELIVERED…and for FREE.
@ Maestro-You are welcome. That’s what I am here for.
@Elementary Parent-You too! I think we agree on many points. I don’t know too much about Don Austin, but likely based on your “old normal” and “new normal” comment, I would guess either he is a good guy and his heart in is the right place and he really wants the kids back at school and wishes things were normal again, he doesn’t fathom the severity of the situation, or he is trying to be “a hero” to these demanding parents by trying to find a way to get the doors open in the fall. “They said it couldn’t be done…but I, Don Austin found the way!” Really, these people in leadership positions need to take a step back and work to find more creative solutions or just be a leader and say “this isn’t safe and I am keeping the school doors closed in the fall.” I don’t necessarily blame anyone for not being able to solve this situation because this is unprecedented. But again, based on your comment of wanting to always revert back to the old normal, we often find out so called leaders with big paychecks usually don’t have the answers. It’s of course the easier route to try to have things go back to the way they were which of course right now isn’t possible. Again, I am not pointing a finger or blaming Don Austin specifically (he might be a good person), but I am just referring to so called leaders in more of a general sense.

Ugggh I thought I was done tonite-@ Dan & Not Happy-Your comments put you on the side of the upcoming deadly second wave coming in the fall. Congratulations. I think it’s pretty obvious Covid will spread once those school doors open just like it has in all other congregate settings. This isn’t a “little risk.” This is potentially children and staff becoming ill and or dying of a Novel Virus. How old do you think the teachers and administrators are? Most of them are likely in their 50s. They may open the doors anyway, so it’s not out of the question that you will get “your way.” A bit of conjecture here by me, I say they open the doors and have to close back down within a week due to COVID and then go back to distance learning. My prediction is in writing here for the fall.

@JohnHicks
I know I speak for many for thanking you for persevering. Where else would we find such wisdom? As to children dying NONE in the state of California have died yet. No one in Santa Clara County under the age of 30. Plus you have seen into the future both of Palo Alto both over the over the next few weeks and the second wave and the opening and closing of schools. Got anything on the stock market?

@JohnHicks
I am not sure what you are talking about. I just want my kids to go to school. I think teachers should have lots of space in front of the room and hopefully some kind of barriers. I am not sure why you would compare that to a crowded bar.

Many people (including myself) have had to continue to work as essential worker (over 50) during this pandemic. If we can take steps to keep medical staff, food workers, first responders safe, I think we can keep teachers safe with appropriate PPE. For those at especially high risk, another job (content development, online teaching) would be appropriate. There is a significant educational and mental health toll that this is having on kids. We may have intermittent shut downs and online learning but I think we need to take some steps forward to get kids back at least part of the time to in person school.

@JohnHicks
Coughing or sneezing kids would be sent home immediately. I don’t think talking would be as much of a problem, but that could be solved, I hope, by some combination of space, barriers, and PPE worn by teachers. I think it is worth trying.

@Messifan-I know you are thinking from the perspective of “I would like my kid back in school.” That’s fine. You are trying to be a good parent and obviously you want your child educated and what’s best for your child. But take a quick step back and look at the big picture. California started the fastest shelter in place to “flatten the curve” and tried a phased re-opening plan. Now, for various reasons as movement has increased and things have opened up the numbers are spiking again at an exponential growth rate. Like you mentioned it probably doesn’t seem “as bad” in Palo Alto. But the virus is in the community and it’s insidious. Once students start moving around and returning to the community, outbreaks in schools are bound to happen. It may not be your child’s school but it’s almost like a bad lottery or a bad gamble. Google the day care Covid stuff. A lot of those day care centers put in safety protocols the schools are going to try to use in the Fall. Basically almost any interactions right now with members of the public is an exposure risk. You also probably need to ask yourself, “Am I ok with my children potentially being exposed to COVID if I send them to school?”

Messifan, we really don’t know that children are unlikely to have serious ill effects from NOVEL coronavirus.

Recent studies are revealing that antibodies don’t typically last beyond 2 months, and we do know the impact to organs is not confined to the lungs.

In addition to the very serious inflammatory reaction we don’t yet have a handle on in kids; we have yet to discover the impact of repeat infections, or co-infection with the flu as winter sets in.

As someone who has both experienced Palo Alto schools and homeschool in Palo Alto, with other families whose children really needed something innovative (often gifted children with learning differences or asynchronous development), it’s very hard to see people be so inflexible about what is possible.

When you have the freedom to craft your own education – and by “you“ I mean students – it’s easier to see how to get more and better with less time, in order to carve out time for big projects, following a passion, and spending time with friends and family.

We found really stellar online educational resources for high school AP and college courses. One vender in particular, had no mandatory homework, but they had work available for students on the platform and taught in a way that made the students want to do the work.They were not an AP official course provider, but students typically got fours and fives on exams with no prep. Classes were live online and interactive with students very engaged with each other and with the instructor, but typically only once a week. This left students with more time to do their work or to take more courses. It helped that the platform they used was so well developed.

My child who struggled to write in Palo Alto classes (in part because they barely taught said child with an unsupported LD to print with great effort, not to keyboard or use cursive at all), produced thoroughly researched essays with original theses of higher quality than I’ve seen in some masters theses.The point is not that everyone should use that platform, it’s that homeschoolers were able to choose what worked for them in the context of what each child needed for their educations.

Some of the most fulfilling efforts my child was able to undertake in high school homeschool, spanned months or even years.That’s because the independent education allowed looking at the big picture of what my child wanted out of high school education, first.

I’m not suggesting that people go completely online. Typically homeschoolers have a variety of activities and classes in the real world, too, and because they have to put work into creating them themselves, the quality of interpersonal time is often higher, and it can be harder on them than even kids in school not to have those in person gatherings and classes. What I observe from this: it’s possible for students to get as good or better an education as they would in school, but with way less time, so that the rest of life can be more fulfilling, including projects and interpersonal time.

From my perspective, the district should be thinking about how to provide the education online, differently, focused on the educational content, in a way that takes up way less time. This is the best kept secret of homeschooling.

Then the focus of school itself becomes very different. Teachers can be education managers and mentors, who help parents help their kids, or who help older kids craft the educations and lives that they want. Or who help struggling students find their own paths. All of that can be done remotely.

But students do need interaction. They need physical activity, and they need human contact. But the question is, will they be OK, if we find ways for them to get human contact remotely until the pandemic is over and to get physical activity around their homes? I just took part in a music camp online, that found a way to make the experience joyful and community building. No it wasn’t the same as the in person camp. But there were some things that were better, some things that were not so much, all in all something new and different was created, and students still learned a lot, and still built relationships. So that’s one possibility.

Let’s not forget, too, that many homeschoolers find that their interpersonal relationships at home are far better when they don’t have the stresses of traditional school weighing on the whole family. What seems like a loss of interaction, could foster a healing time for many families, which could ultimately be the best social-emotional support ever, and schools could play a role in that. That is if the schools don’t try to recreate those stresses from school unnecessarily since they really aren’t necessary for good learning.

Lastly, if the educational content is delivered in a less time consuming way (again as homeschoolers learn, typical education content can be delivered in a fraction of the time in school), by taking advantage of the flexibility, then the schools are able to look at the in person time as purely about what is essential. The in-person time can be focused on building relationships, not on delivering the curriculum.

There is an independence and maturity possible from this kind of approach that is simply not possible in traditional schooling. There is a level of achievement possible from that kind of flexibility and time that is not possible in traditional schooling for most students. We can waste our children’s time now, or we can see this as an opportunity to find a new way for a better education when things do go back to normal.

The state has already given schools permission to do this, through independent study rules. But I think not every family is going to want to roll up their sleeves and be pioneers. I think it’s mostly those for whom the old model wasn’t working as well as it might have. My child’s test scores shot through the roof upon leaving school, school was actually suppressing my child’s development in many ways. That is, school in the way that it worked pre-pandemic. We always felt that some kind of hybrid between home school and school would’ve been perfect, better than school and better than homeschool. In our case it wasn’t really possible, ironically, one administrator told us that they couldn’t do that because then everyone would want to.

Now is a really good time to see if that’s true. I really think the district should create a standalone program that embraces the possibility of optimizing the education remotely and creating purposeful in-person interactions for the sake of interpersonal relationships only. Let the kids have fun in a way that is higher quality than school usually allows, and easier to do safely.

Anyone who wants a traditional education online can have that, too. The district already does a home hospital education something like that which I’ve heard people aren’t that happy about, but it’s there for people who are stuck thinking they have to reproduce school.I really think it’s time for the district to create a program for people who want to try something new and innovative. It would solve so many problems for them and for the community, and it could even lead to really innovative educational approach in the future.

Mom2 said, “Many people (including myself) have had to continue to work as essential worker (over 50) during this pandemic. If we can take steps to keep medical staff, food workers, first responders safe, I think we can keep teachers safe with appropriate PPE.”

You raise a good question about the level of PPE which would be provided to teachers and students.

Schools are not healthcare settings and do not have the training, staff, or procedures to disinfect classrooms, bathrooms, or to properly use PPE. Nor is the school district proposing gloves, masks, face shields, and gowns for teachers and staff.

I have seen no plan by the district for regular testing of staff and students so that outbreaks can be monitored or controlled or any plan for quarantine of people who have been exposed to confirmed cases. In a school setting, one confirmed case could easily expose 100 others. 10 or 15 confirmed cases in a high school could easily result in practically everyone in the school being exposed.

One thing which was very clear in the school board meeting is that the district does not have the healthcare expertise to make these kinds of policy and procedural decisions. They need to seek the advice of medical professionals who are experts in this area.

I think the level of protective measures, both PPE and cleaning procedures, one would expect in a healthcare setting is a minimum for our classrooms to even consider talking about re-opening the schools.

We are in a sub-optimal situation and will have sub-optimal education for our kids. There is no way around that. Given that, I think we need to pick a direction relatively soon so that the district can plan. Without enough planning we are sure to get the short end of the stick as we saw Mar-May.

I think, unfortunately, the only direction we can pick with certainty is offline. There are too many unknowns for online learning to take place. We know that there will be infections, whether school-related or not. So we know that classes will close down and teachers will leave. That is going to ensure far too much variability and poor education if we don’t have a strong offline curriculum.

So as much as I hated (really, hated) the end of last year, I think we don’t have a choice but to plan and commit to 100% offline until a vaccine is around. Yes, it stinks. But hope is not a strategy.

I don’t know what that means for Drama, Orchestra, Industrial Tech, all the classes that just don’t work without hands-on and/or group activities. I think they should all just get cancelled. That stinks. But this is a pandemic. It is no picnic. Maybe the district can think up some fun online-only alternatives in the 6 weeks they have left.

That is my cold, hard truth right now.

It is the height of selfishness and generational theft to deprive kids of education in order to reduce sickness in adults. Kids aren’t seriously effected by this virus. Let them go to school, think about the future generation, not just yourself.

Hey @Independent, how’s that Dublin school re-opening plan going?

Apparently the same day they approved the world’s most complex teaching plan (online, hybrid, new cameras everywhere, new learning systems, etc.), Dublin also rejected their teacher contract and their Superintendent resigned, saying he didn’t trust the board anymore and they apparently didn’t trust him. Read about it here: https://www.independentnews.com/news/dublin-unified-school-district-superintendent-resigns/article_2563600e-b5cb-11ea-8d9e-6bdc015626d2.html

Who figured that things might go wrong? Whatever PAUSD does, please keep it simple.

@Independent-I haven’t posted any disrespectful comments. What are you even talking about? My comments are more on point than your obsession posting about how “HS online instruction didn’t work” over and over again in every forum. Who are you to judge what is disrespectful? I have as much right to post here as you do. So what if you don’t agree with me? It doesn’t mean I am being disrespectful. It also looks like “Parent” had a little message for you about Dublin Schools. It sounds like your arguments or whatever you posted was wrong again.
@JR-Please go into the classroom and sacrifice yourself first. Lol @ your comment. Absolutely 0 thought or nuanced discussion. “Teachers and Staff… it is now time to sacrifice your health and your lives and also risk the health of your family members because I, JR, parent of Palo Alto, command this of you.” Your comment was actually the height of selfishness. Oh the Irony.

@John Hicks – it’s too bad you and your colleagues don’t seem to be willing to actually deliver education/instruction to students, particularly when they’re mandated to stay at home. So much for claims to care about equity.

@Independent-Lashing out and blaming PARENT and me in this forum is actually the epitome of disrespect. I am not as sensitive as you so I won’t attempt to flag your posts. I hope you work on the tone of your posts in the future as this is a respectful forum where we are allowed to discuss in a calm and rational way the issues facing us today in our community. Congratulations though on finding TWO ways to post your SAME and ONLY completely repetitive post about not receiving instruction during distance learning AGAIN under the guise of getting out your frustrations toward Parent and myself.

@John Hicks: You are funny! You are telling @Covid19-Ready to “stop demanding and expecting because it is a free public school education and people who receive it aren’t customers.” No public service is free – we pay taxes every year to support our schools. Our taxes are supposed to go towards high quality, consistent education for our kids – we have a right to protest when that doesn’t happen. We pay taxes, parcel taxes, PiE dollars, PTSA dollars. Attitudes like yours make it impossible for parents to stand up for their children’s right to good education. If we pay the taxes for the service, we are not only allowed, but OBLIGATED to protest when those services are not delivered. Dauber is lowering the expectations to where they are met by doing nothing – this is incorrect and should be called out.
You are correct – schools should be entirely online. You, however, have no right to denigrate mom2 for not having a choice but to go out and work – all essential workers (let us forget doctors and the medical setting), such as store workers, janitors, construction workers and security guards, don’t get a choice. They are not able to collect a paycheck if they don’t come in to work. Why do teachers think they have a choice? They do have the right to stay home for their safety, but then they also seem to think that they have a choice of not providing streaming instruction. Talk about having your cake and eating it too.
You are being rude to @Covid19-Ready and @Independent. Their concerns are valid – they are taxpayers demanding accountability from tax funded services.

@John Hicks: Okay, so I will compare teachers to medical workers. Do medical workers have a choice in not showing up to work? And by denigrating the other professions, you show your true colors. By denigrating people who ask for quality service for paying taxes, instead of answering the question, you show your true colors. Are you saying it is a teacher’s right to have her job and be paid for doing nothing? By not answering why teachers want to both, provide little in person instruction, and no online instruction, you show your true colors. I agreed with you, by the way, that all instruction should be online this coming year.

@Thankyou. Count yourself as a lucky public school parent. At my younger daughter’s school (4th grader), we found the instruction uneven among grade levels. Her teachers were among the better ones in that they had a daily lesson plan and did about 3 hours of Zoom meetings a week, but the work was rarely checked and took 1-2 hours in the day total. Then I compare this with my older daughter (7th grader) in private school who had a regular schedule, homework, testing, and grades (but no finals). Night and day. Based on my conversations with friends and acquaintances throughout the Peninsula, this was not unique to Palo Alto. While distance learning can’t completely replicate the in person classroom, private schools handled it much better than public schools.

Based on my reading, this is not unique to this area. Schools all over the country are struggling with this. So, what does that mean for the fall?

The best option is to have as much in person learning as possible within the health and safety constraints. The school board is absolutely right to ask the district to have reasonable contingencies assuming that physical presence at the school may not be possible at some point.

For more on this, please read this article I found yesterday and also the recently published guidelines from AASA, The School Superintendents Association that is referenced in the article. Links below.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/person-classes-online-learning-or-mix-reopening-schools-will-bring-n1231891
http://aasacentral.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AASA-COVID-19-Recovery-Task-Force-Guiding-Principals-and-Action-Steps-for-Reopening-Schools.pdf

@Thank You – you were lucky. My 5th grader had one 1/2 hour zoom per week (non instructional, just like a class meeting) and a once-a-week list of assignments (the majority of which were “do khan academy for 60 minutes” and read something for xx minutes over the week). No feedback was given on the few assignments that were supposed to be turned in.

Dismal, and understandable why some of us are not excited about more distance learning. I hope if they go back to distance learning they impose some standards for required teacher instructional time.

@Dewey-You better be careful with your comments. I posted similar statements about this parent group and I was edited and deleted all along this comment section. Somehow disagreeing with this parent group is now “objectionable content.” Its ok for Independent to post the same comment over and over and for JR to tell teachers to go “sacrifice themselves” in so many words though. That’s not objectionable content? Those weren’t deleted or edited. I guess that’s in line with the parent group so it’s ok? I am not sure why other than I disagreed with some comments. I’ve read over the “rules.” I answered back so I was deleted. I guess they can dish it out but report people when they don’t like something?

100% online would be fine, if done properly. As many secondary students and parents have stated, their online experience in the spring was, I’ll use the term “mixed” so as not to overly offend anyone. Our child’s teachers were, for the most part, AWOL.

But, let’s say it goes 100% online. What does the district do about things such as sports? Athletes are now being allowed to practice. Are we going to say no to in-person school, but yes to in-person athletics? That makes no sense. Do we care about teachers’ health, but not coaches, trainers and refs? Students, but not student-athletes? As many have already brought up, some classes can’t be done online, such as ceramics, dance, auto, etc… So, 100% online is not feasible unless you eliminate some classes and extracurriculars.

What scares me more is that the Superintendent has “paused” planning because official guidelines haven’t been given. So, instead of planning for most-likely scenarios, the plan seems to be to sit on their hands and wait for someone else to tell him what to do. That doesn’t feel like leadership to me. As was mentioned earlier, Don Austin seemed to be eager to space kids out at 4ft instead of the recommended 6ft in order to save a few bucks. If you look at his twitter feed, you’ll see how he often complains about how the health officials are handling the shutdown. He complains about lines at In-N-Out, people in the park, Ikea opening and questions why schools can’t do the same. He has also complained that the governor wasn’t canceling state testing quickly enough. He told the governor to leave the education decisions to the educators. Yet, now he seems to think he’s an infectious disease expert and is wondering why we can eat on Cal Ave, but not let students go to school.

The lack of responsibility and accountability continues to exist from the top of PAUSD.

There is a big difference imo between outdoor athletics and indoor classes. The athletics will be with the same set of kids, can be very spaced out, and are outdoors, which is a game-changer as far as infectious rates are concerned.

In my opinion indoor sports should be cancelled. Outdoor sports should be allowed with appropriate precautions (spacing, coach wears mask). Contact sports need to be modified so they are adequately spaced. It may be more training than sport and there may well be no official competitions (meets, games, tournaments). But it will be something and many kids need this outlet.

At the end of the day, we need to be creative and we (all) need to be flexible. I hope the administration will stop dithering, as appealing as that may be. Take a deep breath, make a decision, keep it simple, and give teachers and parents a chance to start thinking and planning.

Well, the devil is in the details. Several tennis players at a recent tournament -including Novak Djokovic- got covid. Does that mean tennis is unsafe?

Take a look at this article about the football team: https://www.kansascity.com/sports/college/big-12/kansas-state/article243739462.html

“K-State players followed strict safeguards while they worked out at the team complex and were instructed to quarantine as much as possible and to wear masks whenever they left their homes. But some of them didn’t follow those instructions. Taylor said one group of players got together and played video games with friends who weren’t on the team. He said another went to a lake party where masks were few and far between.”

We cannot be surprised by that. It is 100% certain that some kids and some teachers will get sick. We need to plan for that. There is also 100% certainty that some kids and some teachers will be found to have been in contact with someone who was sick, and will be forced to quarantine. And possibly the entire class too.

In my opinion, that doesn’t mean that you proactively cancel any appropriately spaced, outdoor activity. Coronavirus has been shown to be very unlikely to spread in those situations. Instead, you make sure it is easy to educate effectively when kids and/or teachers are forced to stay home at unexpected times for multiple weeks, and you adjust school activities to minimize further spread of the disease.

It doesn’t matter if you believe that covid is a serious illness. We need to be able to educate with both students and teachers moving unexpectedly into and out of quarantine.

That is why I strongly prefer 100% online for the first five months at least. It is going to be the least disrupted by all of the quarantines, it is going to be the most fair (with all kids getting about the same education, regardless of who in their sphere gets sick), and it allows teachers to focus on a single style of learning and presumably get better at it. Whether appropriately spaced outdoor activities are allowed is imo a completely different issue.

I apologize if this seems to be nit-picky.

There is a difference between a college cancelling a season (“”Our Maroon Tiger teams travel to other NCAA institutions and cannot compete without breaking from social distancing guidelines still maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” Thomas’s statement continued. “Sporting events also invite individuals to our campus who will not be subject to the testing and monitoring that we plan to implement for our students, faculty, and staff.””) and Paly or Gunn hosting summer practice.

FWIW, I cannot imagine that any kids will be playing contact sports this fall. I expect football to be a series of practices/drills. No games. No league competition (unless it’s a really weird/modified game). I haven’t seen the football practices but if they are not adequately spaced, they should be.

So I can understand the district allowing outdoor sports practice to happen. The district has pretty clear guidelines for summer camps and all they need to do is follow them. It is also easy for people to opt out.

Education is a completely different thing. It is sustained time indoors with many different kids and teachers. There are no clear guidelines and no model examples to follow. And there is no possibility for parents to just opt out — the district is required to educate all children. On top of this, there is a wide divergence of opinion about what is best.

That is my guess as to why the sports practices are happening — clear county guidelines the district can just follow — and why the district is agonizing about how school should operate in the fall.

What I’m trying to say here is that the district’s choice is more evident than it appears. Because of the constant but unpredictable comings and goings of both students and staff, the only way to prepare and get a semblance of a quality education is to plan for 100% online.

Lots of people saying they are willing to take a risk to open the schools.

Face coverings and social distancing keep the infection rate in the community low. If large numbers of people in the community become infected, we will see many more people who develop serious illness and we will see more deaths. Healthcare workers, the heroes of this pandemic, will be at much greater risk, and if the peak of infections overwhelms the healthcare system there will be many more people who will not be able to receive treatment for other serious health conditions.

While the risk to oneself or one’s family may be relatively low by opening the schools, not practicing social distancing, or not wearing a mask, we all have a personal responsibility to keep the infection rate in the community low.

For those of you who say you are willing to take a risk to open the schools, I would like to know if you saying yo are willing to risk your own health or if you are saying you are willing to risk the safety and security of our community and why you think you do not have a responsibility to help protect the community.

I know that if a teacher at paly does not want to follow superintendent rules or ed code they will not. If you ask them to they will be mean to your kid. If you ask admin for help, they will tell you it did not happen and they will not investigate and then your kid will be treated badly and be hurt more knowing adults will do nothing. This will also make the teacher mad and they will be meaner

They need to tape online lectures and tighten privacy controls.

Also using private internet and personal phones is a big privacy issue for teachers.

They should use the canvas platform that foothill uses and only that . Schoology does not have what is needed canvas has everything .

Kids should have one textbook and one platform. No b other links that are non accredited. Just the textbook.

Textbooks are extremely well done and not covered in normal times . If you take a paly class you could not pass the textbook general tests that are the standards. Unless you have tutors you can not take a general class and be prepared for sat subject area tests because whole chapters were never done. Rubrics in detail and extraneous Links were sent with quizlets but actual content was not delivered and reading was not assigned because it never matches the rubric .

For math their rubrics and testing was written years or decades ago from old textbooks not in use and do not match. This is an equity problem that could be fixed with simplification canvas and the textbook. Taoed synchronous scheduled lectures and teachers checking for understandin is a must and so are fair classes. This is a chance for district to clean up the mess of letting teachers in math and science make up arbitrary weird rubrics that do not cover what is needed.

So.. deliver content from the text have open ended projects related to text and check for understanding. The math and scu teachers curriculum is much much weaker and bogged down with picky rubrics and horrid time wasting power points kids need to read textbooks and have fair testing. Perhaps they should consider proctoring services or online tests at school or no tests because every kid cheats on tests.

Projects used as assessment.

Every teacher except English will need to rewrite their class. Many will still try to fit the one the did ONE time years ago or just collect random links.

I would leave and just have my kid go through textbooks if a freshman. Do other online school for sophomores and juniors I would take minimum at paly and some gen Ed at foothill to give you wiggle room or the extra study you will need because you were not taught.

@ Roy M. thank you! You are a godsend for sharing this American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation. Grateful.

For those who may not have seen his link or read it the AAP recommendations, here is a section of it. But I recommend reading the whole thing. The AAP is a consortion of doctors, highly respected, , independent ,and dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults. The AAP strongly recommends kids get back to school IN PERSON!

Segment:
“With the above principles in mind, the AAP strongly advocates that all policy considerations for the coming school year should start with a goal of having students physically present in school. The importance of inperson learning is well-documented, and there is already evidence of the negative impacts on children because of school closures in the spring of 2020. Lengthy time away from school and associated interruption of supportive services often results in social isolation, making it difficult for schools to identify and address important learning deficits as well as child and adolescent physical or sexual abuse, substance use, depression, and suicidal ideation. This, in turn, places children and adolescents at considerable risk of morbidity and, in some cases, mortality. Beyond the educational impact and social impact of school closures, there has been substantial impact on food security and physical activity for children and families.

Policy makers must also consider the mounting evidence regarding COVID-19 in children and adolescents, including the role they may play in transmission of the infection. SARS-CoV-2 appears to behave differently in children and adolescents than other common respiratory viruses, such as influenza, on which much of the current guidance regarding school closures is based. Although children and adolescents play a major role in amplifying influenza outbreaks, to date, this does not appear to be the case with SARS-CoV-2. Although many questions remain, the preponderance of evidence indicates that children and adolescents are less likely to be symptomatic and less likely to have severe disease resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, children may be less likely to become infected and to spread infection. Policies to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 within schools must be balanced with the known harms to children, adolescents, families, and the community by keeping children at home.

Finally, policy makers should acknowledge that COVID-19 policies are intended to mitigate, not eliminate, risk. No single action or set of actions will completely eliminate the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, but implementation of several coordinated interventions can greatly reduce that risk. For example, where physical distance cannot be maintained, students (over the age of 2 years) and staff can wear face coverings (when feasible). In the following sections, we review some general principles that policy makers should consider as they plan for the coming school year. For all of these, education for the entire school community regarding these measures should begin early, ideally at least several weeks before the start of the school year.

Full policy recommnendation:
https://services.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infections/clinical-guidance/covid-19-planning-considerations-return-to-in-person-education-in-schools/

Online instruction can work beautifully. It is a question of the implementation and the degree of commitment of all concerned.

Online (both Zoom-style, educational software, and hybrid) is in use all over the world for education and training at all levels. Online received the same interest this year that telehealth and telecommuting and had many successes.

Two of my grandchildren live here but go to private schools. I always was critical of the decision to send them to privates until I saw how seamlessly their coursework continued this last spring. Beginning on March 15, both schools were up and running, and both kids were happy and working. They miss their friends of course, but the schooling seems to have gone well.

I can see that our district administration, teachers, and many parents just don’t like online instruction. Like all educational activities, you get out of it what you put into it. Obviously, a teacher saying something like “use Kahn academy for a couple of hours” is not giving much thought to how to make available tools work.

I look at detailed Covid data every day (I’m a data guy) and I am not happy with what I see. Sending our students back to school this fall endangers them as well as the rest of the community. So many people have bought into the “just go back to normal and everything will be ok” and I fear that it is not true.

Be safe everyone.

As someone pointed out: “If the meeting to re-open schools takes place via Zoom for the safety of the participants, maybe you shouldn’t be discussing re-opening the schools. Just sayin’.”

@Concerned Citizen,
Exactly! I wouldn’t be surprised to see the board vote to have students return to school, even if it’s part-time, and still hold board meetings virtually or without the public.

While I do not agree with the recommendation in the guidelines for return to school published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, it is clearly an important document in this debate and should be read by anyone who cares about this issue and should be required reading for the school board.

Let’s be clear though- this is a guideline- a set of recommendations. This document is not itself science or data. This is not a scientific study and no actual data to back some of the claims used to justify the bold statements about low levels of risk are provided. Nor are there any references to any studies provided.

The document begins with key principles upon which the guidelines are based. For example, one of the principles:

“It is critically important to develop strategies that can be revised and adapted depending on the level of viral transmission in the school and throughout the community”

But later in the document, when addressing testing students for COVID-19, there is no actual recommendation to test students or not to test students. Basically, all the document says, with regard to testing, is if a student tests negative, it doesn’t mean the student can’t get sick later. This is a major flaw in the guidelines and compromises one of the fundamental principles upon which the recommendations are made since we cannot know if our strategy is working if we do not monitor the level of infection among the student body.

Here is almost all of what the document says about virologic testing (nasal swab):

“Testing all students for acute SARS-CoV-2 infection prior to the start of school is not feasible in most settings at this time. Even in places where this is possible, it is not clear that such testing would reduce the likelihood of spread within schools. It is important to recognize that virologic testing only shows whether a person is infected at that specific moment in time. It is also possible that the nasal swab virologic test result can be negative during the early incubation period of the infection. So, although a negative virologic test result is reassuring, it does not mean that the student or school staff member is not going to subsequently develop COVID-19. Stated another way, a student who is negative for COVID 19 on the first day of school may not remain negative throughout the school year.”

The bedrock of these guidelines is the assumption, and I mean assumption as in “a thing that is accepted as true without proof”, that children do not spread this disease. The authors say there is “mounting evidence” regarding the role children and adolescents play in transmitting COVID-19, but they do not cite any of this evidence. They go on to say, “Although children and adolescents play a major role in amplifying influenza outbreaks, to date, this does not appear to be the case with SARS-CoV-2.” And finally they conclude with a very strong statement (sarcasm), “…children may be less likely to become infected and to spread infection.” MAYBE… but in fact we do not yet know if they can spread the disease.

One of the reasons we are not sure about this is because across the United States, we closed our schools early in the outbreak and haven’t reopened since. So we don’t know what happens with COVID-19 among youth in the schools. We do know, as the Academy states, that schools play a major role in influenza outbreaks, we just don’t know if that is true for COVID-19.

But there are some studies which have been done in other countries.

The NY Times published an article on May 5, 2020, “New Studies Add to Evidence that Children May Transmit the Coronavirus”. link: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/05/health/coronavirus-children-transmission-school.html

Two studies are referenced in the article. One of the studies done in Shanghai showed that children were 3x times less likely to become infected than adults, but that on average the children had 3x as many close contacts in a school environment, compared to an adult, which essentially averaged to the same risk of infection. And this is really the problem with the school environment. It is much more dense in terms of social contact than an office environment, grocery store, or even the beach.

The second study, from Germany, tested the viral load in children who tested positive for the virus and found that while the children were asymptomatic, they presented the same viral load as adults who tested positive.

Two weeks after schools were re-opened in Israel, many were shut down because of the spread of COVID-19 among teachers and students and a spike in new infections among the population in some schools.

From the Jerusalem Post on June 10, “Now, thousands of children are in isolation after classmates or teachers became infected with COVID-19. The Education Ministry reported on Wednesday night that there are 433 sick students and teachers, and 23,969 in isolation. Some 144 schools are closed.” link: https://www.jpost.com/health-science/coronavirus-crisis-stop-confusing-students-says-youth-council-630947

Bottom line– it is too early to draw a conclusion that children cannot spread this disease or to be able to adequately assess the risk to the community and to the adults working in the schools. It would be more prudent to wait until the data is more clear or we see what happens in areas where schools re-open before we do.

@John Hicks – go back down into your mom’s basement you troll. Would love to see you run off your mouth like that without hiding behind your keyboard.

As a family who both schooled and homeschooled (high school) in Palo Alto, I do want to reassure everyone that a semester at home is not going to hurt anyone (who isn’t otherwise compromised, such as without technology to get connected or a teacher monitoring their educations) and can even be a blessing, if it’s done right. My kid’s test scores went way, way up upon leaving the district for homeschool, and I think it was mainly sleep, independence, and having the time to read. The scores went up before most of the learning had happened.

When the lockdowns began, my homeschooled senior was taking a full load including AP’s, and the in-person classes simply went ontline without missing a beat. There’s a different attitude when everyone is self-directed, but that isn’t something in these kids’ genes, it’s what they learn to do to make the best use of an independent education. Independence is taught/learned, it’s not innate. (I”m afraid the schools were doing the opposite of that to my child, unfortunately.)

If the state would provide some leeway to districts, it might be possible to really, really think outside the box and optimize kids’ educations for those who just aren’t on board with going back. I really do think the district should create a distinct program for those able to be flexible, and who might be looking for something different. Create a fully-functioning homeschool public program like Fremont has. (If anyone has a relationship with Denise Hermann still, maybe she would help offer advice.)

The teachers shouldn’t have to be creating online content from scratch. There are organizations for online educations, and accredited online providers who do a great job. Helping students who are engaged in independent study also usually involves guidance for parents as well, so in that respect, teachers and parents both become partners in managing education rather than teaching.

In-person time at school really should be for the purpose of building interpersonal relationships in a way that cannot be done online. If the district can focus just on that, it should be more doable than trying to do all of school online.

I know we don’t like to think of doing anything differently from one student to the next, but some families will face hardships if school goes back in person and other if school stays online and even a hybrid. But in each case, any of the above could solve problems for families. I do think it’s a mistake to try to do one thing for everyone. That’s what homeschoolers discover — it’s a lot easier with better outcomes if education can be tailored to children. it’s a lot easier than you would think.

When we homeschooled, we learned a lot about what is possible that we never dreamed could be when our child was in school. This is an opportunity for both teachers and students here to benefit.

It’s probably not too late to enroll in Ocean Grove, which is a public K-12 homeschool charter. Students get to work with teachers, teachers help parents help their kids, families get some funds to pay for vetted educational partners,
and your child gets a public school transcript and official a-g credit. There is a waiting list but they do their best to enroll the waiting list who are still interested by fall. Your child gets help crafting their own education. Our child’s homestudy teacher was an experienced public school and independent study teacher, who said “I don’t know why every district doesn’t do this”

It’s not for everyone, but if those who want to try that kind of thing have a positive outlet, then those who are left will be easier to provide for what they need.

@Teacher, arrogant and selfish, not a good look. The school board, superintendent, and parents – all selfish and self-absorbed, trying to get teachers to, well, teach. Sure the state and public health department say that kids should go back to school, and almost every country in Europe and Asia are already doing it – but hey, @Teacher won’t be able to stay home.

If particularly high school teachers had delivered something decent in the spring, you’d probably get more support. But most just mailed it in, just posting assignments and letting the kids figure it out (or not).

Now I hear that teachers want to work at home for distance learning, because, hey, don’t they trust us?? Ahem, no, not really.

Sorry you chose to work in an essential industry, with responsibility for teaching the next generation. How about you check in with the other essential workers, who have been actually going to work and serving the public for MONTHS that, hey, don’t they realize they are putting themselves at risk? Grocery store guy, are you nuts? Bus driver, what are you doing? Health care orderly, didn’t you hear – you shouldn’t have to accept any risk! It’s just a JOB for heaven’s sake.

Good to know where our teachers are coming from on this. I’ve talked to a couple teachers who said they are generally ashamed of their colleagues. Now I see why.

@Fairmeadow

We absolutely are an essential industry…that can be done from home. If grocery store clerks and the other aforementioned essential businesses could provide their services from home, I’m sure they would. Furthermore, a classroom (small, lacking ventilation, etc), is an extremely different environment from the others mentioned; we are at a much higher risk for contracting the virus.

Second- this spring was emergency learning. We were given zero training, time, leadership, or direction. Many “mailed it in” because they had no other choice given the constraints. We could do a much better job if given the respect, time, resources for the fall.

I am a veteran PAUSD teacher and I treasure my students and their families. I also treasure my work teaching in a classroom setting – it is work that has brought me rewards for which I am profoundly grateful. I do *not* treasure the notion of risking my life, the lives of my loved ones (I also live in a different county), nor the lives of my students and their families, in order to undertake an extremely ill-advised course of action in resuming school, in the hopes that things can “get back to normal.”

The situation is not “normal.” It will not be “normal” again for a very long time, if ever. The coronavirus pandemic is changing global history and is irrevocably changing the way we live our lives, the way we make our way through the world, and yes, the way we educate our children , all as I type these words, and the gravity of the situation is almost impossible to overstate. Here in the US we have largely failed to mitigate, contain, or effectively control the spread of this virus, and until we do, it will continue to get worse, in exactly the ways we are seeing right now. Resuming the congregate setting of the school environment at a time when the exponential spread of the virus appears to be threatening the stability of our health care systems in many states is, to put it simply, madness. We are seeing now, in states across the south and west, the drastic and disastrous consequences of “re-opening” too early and people going back to “normal.” More than 125,000 people have died and we are still at the very beginning of this pandemic. People are acting like we’re in the bottom of the 8th inning and the home team is in the lead – we are actually at the top of the 2nd inning and the game is very much up in the air.

The activities we engage in at school on a daily basis are clearly in the category of very high risk for transmission of the virus. If we can approximate (not duplicate, because nothing can duplicate the complexity and richness of the personal exchange in the classroom environment) instruction in an online setting, why would we NOT do that in order to spare everyone in our community the risks inherent in returning to the school environment in the midst of an unprecedented global pandemic that is just now in its opening phase? To insist on returning to “normalcy” at this time is profoundly dangerous thinking that will end up costing lives.

The vast majority of teachers in PAUSD are doing a great job under very trying circumstances. It is disheartening to see comments that consistently accuse us of the exact opposite. Given the proper resources and planning time, the vast majority of us will work as hard as possible to create the best online learning experience we can for our students in this difficult time. What does not help is a steady stream of commentary on forums like this one that constantly degrade us as we seek the best, *safest* possible way forward for us, our students and their families, and our families and loved one. Yes, we have families that we care about too, including children and older parents/grandparents, and we do not want to endanger any of them in an unnecessary fashion. A return to school at this point is exactly that: an unnecessary danger, to all of us, *to our entire community.*

@Teacher 2,
Are teachers now getting any training, time, leadership or direction? It’s inevitable that the fall will look an awful lot like this past spring. I believe the teacher’s union has only asked for 3 days of training which will occur immediately prior to the start of the school year.

That doesn’t seem to be nearly enough training, time leadership or direction to make marked improvements.

@John Hicks – all you do is bitch and moan and tell people they’re idiots. How about stepping out from behind the keyboard. I’m happy to meet up and discuss in person and have a real dialogue.

Teachers, please ignore the mean/unhappy posters. They also very often “like” their own posts, so ignore those numbers too.

I think the vast majority of us value your insights and appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts.

@Onrosewood, I did ask my kids and both are fine with 100% online learning for the first semester. Based on what they know, one said he would assume that is what we are doing anyway. (He was surprised we were even thinking of other options.)

@Sally, yes, this pandemic and our response to it has been a “nightmare” in more ways than one. Health, economy, education, mental health, you name it. I think we need to give our teachers and our kids and ourselves some stability next fall because “normal” is a ways off. Cycling back and forth unpredictably between online and in-class helps no one.

There have been four confirmed positives in 94306 in just the past few weeks. What will it look like in the fall and winter?

Which local high schools have already announced that they are moving online in the fall? Why so much debate in PAUSD? Take a look at Dr. Skelly’s plan for SMUHSD. Why can’t we do that? And San Mateo County has fewer cases than we do, so why would we think that we in PA are immune to the risks of reopening schools?

@The CTA is Driving,

Remote learning would be OK if the teachers were to take it seriously and actually do it. We will see if the board finds a way to hold them to do it.

@rsmithjr – I agree, although I’m beginning to believe that the blame is to be equally distributed between the teachers and the district. The MOU between the two of them calls for only TWO days of training. Those two days will include training on “Blended Learning, Flipped Classrooms, Schoology, Google Classrooms, or other content or delivery models identified as helpful to instruction that the District is able to provide.”

Teachers should already know how to do most of that given the experience in the spring. None of this seems to be helping anyone to develop better online lessons. This is all organizational stuff for the most part.

Don Austin has said the district is pausing their planning for the fall term until they hear something from the state regarding guidelines. In the meantime it appears they’ll be sitting around with their thumbs up their a$$.

Other districts are actually making plans, and backup plans.

The district and the teachers do not seem to be on the same page.

I actually like the idea of some schools open, and others only as offline teaching (not to mention resources for homeschooling). Not every household can afford a parent to stay home to supervise a child. At the same time, by allowing students to study at home, this lowers the exposure to *households* to the virus.

I don’t see how CoVid is a special case when kids are the ones in a household most likely to introduce colds, influenza, and the like, to the family. IMO, An error people make when assessing CoVid is the failure of discussion how contagious it is *within a household*. Entire families have been infected with the virus, especially since it’s asymptomatic. When one person has CoVid, the likelihood of someone in the same household contracting CoVid rises dramatically. For households with grandparents and parents with diabetes, obesity (one-third of Americans are obese), or another pre-existing condition, that is something important to consider.

If I were parent, I’d like my child’s chances to be healthy through an epidemic not to be minimal, or low. I’d like it to be none whatsoever. With the internet, kids already are offline learning and I’ve read plenty of positive articles on homeschooling. As an adult, I’ve learned and had to learn more by actively learning on my own, rather than in a classroom.

We are in this Pandemic together. The students around the world are facing similar issues. Universities, schools and colleges are finding ways to work around this, relaxing/changing requirements, criterion for admissions and changing their methods of instruction and approach.
No undue disadvantage here in particular only for our students in PA. All are in the same boat. Yes, of course all students will regress in their skills due to these changing circumstances. It is a gamble we have to take now to keep our families and communities safe and focus on what can be done effectively now given these circumstances. Kids are resilient and they will catch up with their learning gaps.

Why PAUSD failed during Online Instruction during Spring
1. No set guidelines, expectations and accountability from the team (District Higher ups)
2. Un clear guidelines and explanations when it came to SPED and how services mentioned on the IEPs where addressed. Very poor support, no feedbacks and confused parents.
3. Little or no synchronous meetings. Students craved for live face to face meetings with their teachers, instead they were dumped with cumbersome and lengthy asynchronous assignments and submissions. Huge time suck for parents who were working full time and still teaching their children from home.
4. Recorded videos of teaching subject matter were hardly provided. Students struggled to learn concepts.
5. PAUSD guaranteed that they would provide better services start of phase 3, but nothing whatsoever changed from phase 2 to 3 even after “Spring Break”
6. Schoology is a joke. Very non – user friendly, little kids needed so much time and effort to learn to maneuver the site and by that time the schools closed for the summer. Provide a better learning platform.
7. More than blaming the teachers, I would blame the administration for not guiding their teachers better in the Spring and leaving it up to the teachers’ discretion to provide how, how much, when and what they should teach.
8. No focus on Socio emotional learning, teachers could have made sure the groups of students interacted with each other on a regular basis. No social programs or support, there are many ways to do these online.
9. Teacher live meetings for all age groups should be made mandatory. Some high school teachers had this optional and none of their students participated.

Now we know what we should focus on in order to provide adequate online curriculum.

We live in Silicon Valley, the technology capital of the world. We should make use of our connections to help create a robust and fool proof online education platform for students. The whole world should turn back and look at us for following and implementing something that great! Instead we are here arguing over what is better, keeping students, teachers and their families safe while striving to provide a manageable education online or reopen in person and succumb our community to more infections. This precious time we lose now in summer is going to set us back considerably again in receiving quality online education, because from the trend we see around the world—closures will happen again. This instability will be another reason for PAUSD to delay and provide sub – par online education again to our students when we go back to online. By us going back and forth on discussing if schools should reopen in person in fall, we are giving PAUSD yet another chance to come back and provide below par services when we revert back to online (oh!! that is coming…). Other districts around the Bay Area are stepping up in training their teachers this summer to help them provide better online lessons, they are looking into buying/ making online curriculum and modifying it to accentuate distance learning in the fall. What are we doing?

@SL

Imagine coming into work one day and suddenly discovering that your job and any previous work you’ve done is now being moved to another platform/incorporating a new modus operandi. You’re given new tools to facilitate this switch, but they’re not necessarily good tools. You don’t know know what you’re doing and your boss doesn’t know that they’re doing. Yet, you’re expected to perform the same exact way as you were with your old methods, while learning on the job. Oh, and there are also bunch of critics detailing your every mistake. I’m not sure what sources you’re using to make your assertions, but as a staff member I have to speak up against speculation. Teachers were very aware of the socio-emotional impact that this pandemic has brought upon the population and provided outlets for students to express their needs and concerns. They did what they could given mediocre tools and little to no direction by the state. Whether they like it or not, parents have/will have a crucial role to play during online learning should it continue into the next school year. The responsibility cannot fully fall on the shoulders of teachers.

@VillageFool-Thanks for doing that Village Fool. That’s actually great you do that and I appreciate you. I am now The Mark Twain of this forum. Just joking of course, but that’s reinvigorated me to keep posting as I was starting to get tired of being edited/deleted. I had a great response yesterday to Parent of 2 after 3 teachers practically begged for their safety/health/life here yesterday and Parent of 2 responded, unsurprisingly with a typically nasty post. That also got removed and I wished you’d gotten that one also. Then you have “another one” this morning CTA IS DRIVING, DEMANDING the teachers take health risks. Another Mommy Epidemiologist. Of course “those posters” always post about “other countries” but conveniently leave out that other countries have had schools open and shut due to COVID, but they WANT AND DEMAND those school doors open to fit their lifestyle and their sense of normalcy. They also fail to mention how the virus is getting completely out of control in our country where as those other countries were able to at least able to get their case levels under control before they opened school doors. They also always fail to mention this is a NOVEL VIRUS with no vaccine or medical treatments available. I’m assuming they think it will just give you a case of the sniffles when 125,000 Americans have already sadly died from it? Also, when I posted last night, Samuel L got worked up into a lather threatening to have a “dialogue with me outside of the keyboard” as if I am somehow invading HIS comment section and I don’t also have an absolute right to post my thoughts whether Samuel L agrees or disagrees. He also accused me of name calling which I have never done to anyone in this forum, and he used some real salty language of his own to express himself, which I have never done here either. Even today he wrote “thumbs up their a$$.” Is that OK with the moderator? SO INAPPROPRIATE Samuel! Unlike YOU, I keep it clean. Don’t schools teach anti-bullying lessons nowadays? Aren’t children being taught and told to use appropriate language? Maybe schools wouldn’t have to waste as much time doing that sort of thing if these parents set a better example for their children. It’s pretty obvious here in this forum where they get it from. Sorry Samuel L, I know it’s extremely frustrating for you, but you and the other parents can’t bully me like you do PAUSD staff members. So just to clarify and summarize how this comment section works Village Fool as you may already know from being edited/deleted yourself, during normal times parents can be as nasty and demanding as they want in their posts, demanding pay cuts for teachers, calling to disband unions, calling for teacher firings all apparently because they PAY TAXES, and now during a GLOBAL PANDEMIC they can freely DEMAND that teachers go to work and take health risks to go in, and if the teachers say they are scared to, they can write horrible things and freely post misinformation about the epidemiology of this virus because they aren’t getting their way. It’s the height of delicious irony how during normal times they gave PAUSD staff zero support, complained about EVERYTHING, and now EXPECT the teachers to run and jump for them back into a dangerous classroom environment to also meet their new demands/needs, and are now frustrated when the teachers and the union are saying NO. But somehow MY posts get taken down or edited here when I use some sarcasm to help back up the teachers. It’s obvious, that under the guise of argumentative discourse they post all of their harsh and angry words towards everyone else to demand what they want, then they hit the blue button and email the moderator and get sensitive when they see posts of dissenting opinions that don’t fit their little agendas. Keep up the good work Village Fool and thanks for posting that web link! That post was a classic.

Dear John Hicks,

You are most welcome! I will post soon your very kind response, adding to one of your censored comments which I posted already (before being censored) on the page I dedicated on my blog to the ongoing censoring.

I copy and then post comments before and after they are censored (only a tiny sampling) here:
https://villagefoolopenboard.wordpress.com/editing-before-and-after/ (or search for: village fool palo alto before and after).

BTW, You are in good company! Here’s sampling of censored quotes. I titled this blog post:
What do Mark Twain, George Bernard Shaw, George Orwell, Miguel De Cervantes, and Shakespeare have in common? All were censored by the PA online.
Link: https://villagefoolopenboard.wordpress.com/2016/04/10/what-do-mark-twain-george-bernard-shaw-george-orwell-miguel-de-cervantes-and-shakespeare-have-in-common-all-were-censored-by-the-pa-online/ (or search for: village fool palo alto twain Shaw Orwell have in common)

I hope you will see this comment, my comments usually vanish fast.

Yours,

VililAge FoO00000l

Wishing your kids good luck in PAUSD online this Fall again!! During March-May, my kid’s 9th grade math teacher just posted homeworks but without any teaching. She just posted some videos from another math teacher randomly. And my kid’s Biology H teacher wasn’t teaching much, she skipped topics from the regular curriculum. Some teachers tried their best to connect with students. But some just took early summer off since mid-March!!

The most important thing, my kid missed the social interaction in school and friends so much. PAUSD should bring back high school students in the original plan A and B groups. Don Austin didn’t listen to the families’ requests and he just changed the plan all of a sudden without taking parents’ inputs. So disappointed under his leadership.

The only option is to plan for remote school until we have the virus controlled, understand COVID-19 better, or have a vaccine.

We can’t compare ourselves to schools in other countries. Those countries had the virus under control and have implemented some extreme measures to support the return to school. Demark is averaging around 40 new cases a day and the average still looks to be declining. Even so, some have still had to return to remote teaching.

We’re seeing how “re-opening the economy” is working out when the virus isn’t under control and the same thing will happen with schools – rapid spreading of the virus and hospitals being overloaded.

Even though children might not have complications at the same rate as adults, the larger number of children that will get COVID-19 because the virus isn’t under control and overloading the hospitals will mean more children die or suffer long term complications. We also don’t know the long-term consequences of contracting COVID-19. For example, chickenpox is mild for children but can result in regular shingles flare-ups for the rest of their lives. COVID-19 could be worse.

Then with larger numbers of children carrying the virus, more parents and teachers will be inflected. More deaths and long-term health issues.

There is no way to move forward with teaching in the classroom until the virus is under control. Attempting that will mean an outbreak in the first few weeks of opening and going into remote mode for the rest of the year. Better to just face the harsh reality and save some lives because it’s inevitable.