A(nother) Thread on Schools Re-Opening . . .

Today, we released our plan. It is a hybrid option with a parent/student opt-out option.

It is a terribly flawed plan, but it is the best plan we could construct within our construct and within the guidelines presented

(1/)

Anyone that constructs a hybrid plan WILL be wrong. In my estimation we will be clearly wrong by October first (which is approximately six weeks from the first day of school)

(2/)

At that time, we will MOST LIKELY know whether we were too aggressive (should have opened remotely) or too conservative (should have ignored social distancing, etc. and opened full throttle F2F)

(3/)

No matter what, what we spent over 1,000 hours constructing and hundreds of thousands of dollars in implementing will be wrong. So, why go this route?

(4/)

Easy . . . we are serving competing priorities. We want to best serve our students academically and to serve our community by allowing parents to go back to work and get back to normal. Additionally, being in school is best for our students SEL (at least on the surface)

(5/)

The hard part, is the whole Health and Wellness things pulls in the other direction. I have studied more public health data in the past three months than I ever thought I would. You know that makes me? NOT a health professional.

So, what should we do?

(6/)

We should defer to the guidance of health professionals and follow it to the best of our ability. In doing so, the hybrid model appears. Thus, you get a middling option that attempts to serve two competing priorities and makes VERY FEW people happy.

(7/)

Is this me saying it is the best choice? No. Was it the best choice for my district? Yes.

Is this horribly hard for parents to be on a 1/2 day schedule or in our case an AACBB schedule? Absolutely.

Do I feel like I burdened my community? Yes.

(8/)

All of that criticism I can handle. This is the one that I cannot accept -- "Our kids are going to fall behind!!"

Fall behind who? By what metric? Since when do you care?Our kids will not fall behind because if we were too conservative and should be back F2F we will adjust

(9/)

The hybrid model is an attempt to get kids in school as much as possible while following health guidelines and logistical quagmires - it is the meh option.

Know that you will be wrong - but if you thoughtfully end up there, know that you were wrong for the right reasons
(10/10)