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They're really excited, and I feel it's going to be safe there with the precautions the school will be making"?

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I'm not sure how many people are in this category mainly because I don't think many folks are clear what these precautions are going to be... I'm not even sure the ISDs are clear yet.

I know when we had our meeting last week all I could think was "this sounds like a mess".

...and I REALLY want my kids going back to school.

Vernada said:

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it seems like students and the parents are carrying the intellectual and emotional burden, mostly to benefit the physical safety of the staff and teachers.

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I think as it gets closer, teachers are realizing that a lot of folks seem to be willing to sacrifice the teachers' health and safety and, believe it or not, a lot are NOT ok with that.

While a bit of a separate issue, I think what we are starting to see is that your 'personal responsibility' decisions do in fact have community impacts... and right now, normal resumption of school might be one of the casualties.

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Bingo. People believe they don't need the inconvenience of a mask while expecting their kids to go back to school without regard for the effect their careless actions will have on others. Everyone has to be willing to chip in even if they doubt the effectiveness simply because they want to do anything possible to return to normal life, (besides complain).

mm98 said:

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jopatura said:

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I'm so pissed. They should have opened schools for the kids who needed it. My daughter isn't neurotypical. We have gone through absolute pains to get her ready for Kindergarten. She regressed horribly with virtual learning in the Spring. Could not handle sitting in front of a computer for lessons. Screamed, cried during lessons, and broke several things trying to get away from her teachers on Zoom calls. These are teachers she knew. I don't know what I'm going to do. All I can feel right now is that her future is absolutely ruined, especially since we all know that this opens the door to completely wipe out the 2020-2021 school year.

****, give me my property taxes back and let me put that into an option that will actually let me serve my daughter properly.

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I feel you man. My son is autistic and is BEGGING to go back to school.

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Mine is too. He's regressed socially so much that it breaks my heart. If we don't have in-person school this year he may never regain what he's lost in his ability to interact with peers.

bay fan said:

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Vernada said:

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it seems like students and the parents are carrying the intellectual and emotional burden, mostly to benefit the physical safety of the staff and teachers.

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I think as it gets closer, teachers are realizing that a lot of folks seem to be willing to sacrifice the teachers' health and safety and, believe it or not, a lot are NOT ok with that.

While a bit of a separate issue, I think what we are starting to see is that your 'personal responsibility' decisions do in fact have community impacts... and right now, normal resumption of school might be one of the casualties.

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Bingo. People believe they don't need the inconvenience of a mask while expecting their kids to go back to school without regard for the effect their careless actions will have on others. Everyone has to be willing to chip in even if they doubt the effectiveness simply because they want to do anything possible to return to normal life, (besides complain).

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No, rational people are looking at the merits of the statistics and drawing logical conclusions. The risk are extremely low. Just because people are ignoring this fact doesn't mean people are sacrificing teachers.

DeangeloVickers said:

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Texas teachers protest reopening schools at Capitol

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/austin-coronavirus-teacher-protest-capitol/269-44ae6b6f-b6d9-48e3-bc71-a6027cbb511c

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That's ridiculous. Find another career where you can sit on your couch if you are too afraid to go out.

Jbob04 said:

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DeangeloVickers said:

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Texas teachers protest reopening schools at Capitol

https://www.kvue.com/article/news/local/austin-coronavirus-teacher-protest-capitol/269-44ae6b6f-b6d9-48e3-bc71-a6027cbb511c

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That's ridiculous. Find another career where you can sit on your couch if you are too afraid to go out.

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I'm sure TEA is hiring

Also sure the local ISD will have ample openings for substitute teachers at $75/day.

Like to see the "But y'all should just quit" crowd go ahead and step up to be subs when teachers are quarantined.
The fact that many can't see the difference between their likely pretty safe jobs and a job around a bunch of snotty nosed kids or teenagers is pretty crazy.

Yeah, totally the same to go work in a cubicle as it is to go deal with all your neighborhood kids all day long.

Beat40 said:

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Player To Be Named Later said:

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planoaggie123 said:

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Many people have continued working and adapted on the fly to COVID. I work for a large company and we have grown / adapted our responses as necessary. There is inherent risk every day I am in the office.

If you don't like the risk quit or find other ways to work that meet your risk tolerance. Millions of Americans have had to make that decision.

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On top of just coming off as a complete *** you overlook the complete mess that is the teacher shortage in the State. People aren't just signing up in record numbers to put up with today's crops of children for the pay they receive.

So you draw some hard ass line in the sand, lots of the older, senior teachers take you up on that, now how are you going to have your schools open completely?

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Like someone had the idea though, adapt to the situation. Maybe lax the rules for the year and hire some people, particularly younger, you would normally higher to get through this nightmare.

Yeah, I disagree with the bolded part the dude said.

Where is the flexibility, creativity, or adaptation from districts/TEA in their handling of this. They knew it was a possibility from the time school ended last year, as well as the warning of a second wave in the late fall and winter, and what they've put out so far is the best they can come up with?

I think this is where people's frustrations are at the moment. There are several places of businesses with similar risk factors as public schools and they've stayed open since the beginning of the pandemic. We can figure this out - there is a solution out there.

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I can't imagine its the teacher cert and bachelor degree requirement that is keeping loads of people from teaching. Most people just don't want to do the job and certainly not for the current pay. Add to that all the blame that gets placed on teachers for a lot of things they have not control over.

We definitely have a teacher shortage in Texas. Ask around at district and you get similar answers, specifically math and science. The school I teach at was short 6 teachers at the start of this school year, We tried to use long term subs but they really weren't able to teach the material effectively. We ended up dissolving some of the teaching positions because we couldn't fill them and spread the remaining kids into other sections. That bumped some class as high as 36 students. I know of another school in the DFW area that had an algebra II class of over 50 students because they couldn't hire any teachers. The TEA officially recognized shortages in the following areas for the upcoming school year

• Bilingual/English as a Second Language Elementary and Secondary Levels
• Special Education Elementary and Secondary Levels
• Career and Technical Education Secondary Levels
• Technology Applications and Computer Science Elementary and Secondary Levels
• Mathematics Secondary Levels (link to TEA)

Then there is the problem of retention. Over 30% of new teachers in Texas quit after 5 years. So in addition to the shortage, we aren't retaining as many experienced teachers. Prior to Covid-19, 2019 we hit a 5 year high for teachers abandoning their contracts mid year. (Link)

So even if you relax the teaching cert and bachelor degree requirements, I don't know if its going to really help all that much. A lot of people just don't want to do this job.

If you want to pay teachers more money, then yeah that might improve the situation. But there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of support for that in recent years.

A lot of people have dropped the ball on this situation. I think had we come out stronger in the beginning with more people taking this seriously, wearing mask, etc. we would be having the debate about IF schools will open. I think some districts have put out some interesting plans (like Desoto ISD). One of the trickier things to do is with funding for these new programs or plans. The state of Texas decided to effectively keep the funding allotted to districts under the CARES Act. While the ISDs will technically get the 1.6 billion from the program, the state reduced the overall funding they provide to districts by 1.6 billion dollars (Link)


I want to be in class teaching. I hated the online version of the spring semester. I basically spent all my time doing all of the things i hate about my job, attending faculty meetings, grading papers, and online training. I want to be able to teach in person again but I also want to be safe. I get that the danger to kids is much less than older adults. I don't want to get sick and I don't want my friends and family to get sick either.

HowdyTexasAggies said:

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Look at the first picture, how irresponsible can someone be with their health. Ridiculous.

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That was the first thing I noticed as well. No wonder she is afraid of the Rona.

Player To Be Named Later said:

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Also sure the local ISD will have ample openings for substitute teachers at $75/day.

Like to see the "But y'all should just quit" crowd go ahead and step up to be subs when teachers are quarantined.
The fact that many can't see the difference between their likely pretty safe jobs and a job around a bunch of snotty nosed kids or teenagers is pretty crazy.

Yeah, totally the same to go work in a cubicle as it is to go deal with all your neighborhood kids all day long.

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They don't have a problem working through flu season and it is much worse than the Rona.

Jbob04 said:

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Player To Be Named Later said:

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Also sure the local ISD will have ample openings for substitute teachers at $75/day.

Like to see the "But y'all should just quit" crowd go ahead and step up to be subs when teachers are quarantined.
The fact that many can't see the difference between their likely pretty safe jobs and a job around a bunch of snotty nosed kids or teenagers is pretty crazy.

Yeah, totally the same to go work in a cubicle as it is to go deal with all your neighborhood kids all day long.

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They don't have a problem working through flu season and it is much worse than the Rona.

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Ok

Player To Be Named Later said:

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Also sure the local ISD will have ample openings for substitute teachers at $75/day.

Like to see the "But y'all should just quit" crowd go ahead and step up to be subs when teachers are quarantined.
The fact that many can't see the difference between their likely pretty safe jobs and a job around a bunch of snotty nosed kids or teenagers is pretty crazy.

Yeah, totally the same to go work in a cubicle as it is to go deal with all your neighborhood kids all day long.

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There are professions that were far more dangerous to begin with and also have to deal with potentially hundreds of contacts/exposures per day that have not shutdown. It's a good thing that medical, grocery stores, first responders, construction workers, etc have managed to make things work.

This idea that schools/teachers are somehow in an unusual situation is not accurate. They should absolutely be expected to figure out how to function as closely to normal as possible while adhering to realistic safety protocols. Based on the link nai posted, TEA is giving out almost 52 millions masks, 25 million gloves, thousands of thermometers, & 600 thousand gallons of hand sanitizer to school districts. If people cannot figure out how to make something work, it is evidence of their own shortcomings not some unusual risk level.

Player To Be Named Later said:

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What percentage of substitute teachers would you estimate are older retired teachers or retired folks in general?

I can't imagine a large number of subs are going to be younger, lower risk folks itching to go get into that environment.

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Are risks higher in a school setting? Why or why not?

You're using past experience as you're metric for future labor pool. Lots of unemployed workers out there. Plenty of people willing to work in a gig-economy framework. Let the people make their own choices based on their own needs and preferences and risk factors.

And if there's not enough labor willing and able to 'teach', online school == in class school, right? So make all the kids watch videos from their desk all day with a $15/hr security guard sitting up front to keep the peace. I mean it's basically the same thing...

I get it. I have been a first responder for 18yrs. But I'm not going to sit here and crap on teachers because they want to feel safe when dealing with all of our snotty kids 5 days a week.

The TEA has apparently spent all summer doing absolutely nothing to prepare safety protocols and contingencies. The fact that teachers are concerned that nobody seems to care if things are done safely isn't surprising. I think Dallas ISD has said they want to delay opening "to prepare for a hybrid system of learning" is crazy. What have they been doing the last 3 months? Seems like they've had a lot of time to be coming up with contingencies. But they apparently sat around, doing nothing, and just hoping for the best when August rolled around.

Hoping is not a plan.

Why do you keep talking about snotty kids? Kids rarely get this and they don't spread it. Just more fear mongering like the media?

Player To Be Named Later said:

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What percentage of substitute teachers would you estimate are older retired teachers or retired folks in general?

I can't imagine a large number of subs are going to be younger, lower risk folks itching to go get into that environment.

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One major upside of being at my school for over 20 years is that we have had a cadre of older subs that I used to teach with, know me pretty well and will sub for my classes as a favor. I usually know when I'm going to be out, too. I know I am in the distinct minority in that regard. They can't teach any of my material, but they can manage the class, at least.

I would not expect any of them to be substituting this year, unless they have already had their turn with Covid and have had a reasonably good recovery.

So, if I'm out this year, it'll be random sub from day to day, and there pretty much aren't any subs out there that teach my AP course.

Most subs are just a warm body in a room. I would not expect any enforcement of social distancing on their end, and admins typically take the "are they keeping a lid on the room? If so, success!" attitude with subs. Hell, they're thrilled if all teacher absences are filled on a given day.

The schools districts have an unequivocal influence on your child's education. If they don't like what you're doing as a parent, they can haul you in front of a judge. If your child needs services, you are at their mercy for diagnosing & structuring the proper education for your child. As a parent, you have very little voice unless you have the privilege of getting a lawyer involved. Which many parents have to do. For the district to now turn around and say "Woah woah wait a minute, you need to parent your kid better" is a slap in the face. They have absolutely pushed the burden of education back on the parents in the name of the almighty dollar.

Furthermore, and I'm talking about the Central Texas school districts since I have the most experience with them, the decision to delay the first three weeks of school was made by the superintendent of Round Rock ISD. When he presented this to the Board of Trustees, who parents physically vote for to be their voice, they all said "Wait, let's discuss this. We haven't prepared for this." THE PEOPLE WHO I VOTE TO BE MY KIDS REPRESENTATIVE IN THEIR EDUCATION WASN'T PREPARED. Then the media grossly ran to Twitter and the rest of the dominoes fell the next day when the Travis County health guy pulled 1,400 child deaths out of his butt and forced all districts in Travis County to go virtual for three weeks, whether they were prepared for it or not.

COVID-19 has been stateside in some form since January. The decisions (and seemingly preparation) for the 2020/2021 school year started on July 14th.

How is this fair to anyone other then the administrations who are laughing all the way to the bank with our property tax dollars and not having to handle education anymore?

I don't know what to do. My voice doesn't matter. My daughter's education doesn't matter. My vote doesn't matter. What can I do next?