The Tuesday before labor day (school started after Labor Day) the teachers union sent out an open letter saying they wanted all virtual for safety. This was the day before the Wednesday night school board meeting where the final decision on hybrid vs. virtual was going to be decided. The letter backfired as it just looked like the teachers were really out of touch with what all the parents are going through that have private sector jobs and just looked like a complaint. The letter gave zero options of how to make it better or how to help the kids, etc..just complained about why they should not be made to go back. I read it and it was really unprofessional.
Anyway, the vote went unanimous hybrid model and the next day about 15 teachers put in for FMLA. Also a lot of call outs by teachers in the first month to the point where their literally is no substitutes left and when a teacher calls out, they have to double up.
Another very interesting thing happened at the elementary school level. They are also hybrid but the teachers are either virtual only or in school only. And all the virtual only teachers are the teachers that everybody knows are the best teachers. So basically what happened is the district put all the best teachers virtual as a way to make sure that if parents were listening and watching the virtual class, they saw teachers actually doing something. Thought that was pretty interesting.
And yes, so far with all the positives, nobody has even been to the hospital yet. Basically every student that has contracted it has been asymptomatic or a light flu like sympton.
I live in Harford County. Interesting of all of the concern about finding child care options for the teachers once they start having to do in person classes in November yet no concern for the families who have the same issue. For most of the teachers I do not have an ounce of sympathy for. The reason is that these same teachers complaining about their safety are also out and about in the community. Their kids are getting together with friends. These same teachers are socializing with friends, going on vacation etc.
My wife is a retail pharmacist, she has to give vaccinations, she has people touching her as a result, yet she is not complaining about safety concerns.
My daughter is a school based occupational therapist. She is currently seeing kids exclusively via tele-therapy. For the most part it does not work. The majority of the students do not logon to the therapy and the ones that do, usually struggle. Of course, the teachers are seeing the same issue, many students not logging onto the class. The person who posted above that the parents are key is correct. The parents who give a damn will make sure that their students succeed, the other parents, not so much.
My daughter who is a senior goes have days and then spends the afternoon tutoring a middle school student.
The sooner the students get back into the school the better off they will be. Less time using electronics, more time to see friends and better instruction for most of the kids just for the reason that they will be forced to attend.
We have all heard the excuse if it just saves one child to enact some knew policy, law or get more money. In that spirit, the teachers need to get back in the classroom for that reason.