Back to school?

My town has decided to not open school until January and continue with online learning. I work for the County school district and so far we are going back to classroom teaching in September. I vote for January and hope a vaccine will be ready but I'm not holding my breath on that.

Our school districts get more money for butts in the seat versus online teaching so it's pretty predictable which way the schools leaned. The school admins painted a glowing picture but did a parent survey. Fortunately over 40% of parents wanted to stay online. At some point if and when the positivity % drops enough, the school will try to re-open but parents can still opt for online lessons.

The az university system seems even worse. Financially most public universities have no choice but to try to open. They need tuition checks, dorm rent checks, nonrefundable parking passes, etc and then they can admit defeat and go back online. Of course it only takes one big darwinistic social event for things to fall apart. And typical teenage behavior makes that almost a certainty. We opted for online classes for our freshman dtr at least for the first semester.

My daughter has been back at college in Georgia for two weeks. I'm concerned for her. Class time is cut in half and more online work. She is a RA, and instead of being in a large dorm she got lucky and is in charge of a modern log cabin with 6 girls.
I think our district is still planning to start in September. Although our governor is saying online classes can happen, he is pushing for classroom teaching.

Dallas ISD delayed in-class 4 weeks. Other districts opened, but with optional on-line. Its all over the place around here. Each district makes its own rules.

Good friends dad died of it this past Saturday, her mom is still in the hospital with it, but should be getting out any day now. They picked up 2 grandkids to spend a month with them before school started, a week later, were both in the hospital, week later, one was gone. Kids carry it with zero symptoms. Thats gonna be what gets the schools.

I'm still working from home. Son goes in 5 days a week, works at Kroger. Wife goes in 5 days a week, works at TruGlo. Pretty much cancels out my staying at home. Before its all over, we are all gonna get it, or have already had it and don't know it, IMHO.

I notified the school district yesterday that I was only willing to go to 1 high school out of the 7 they operate. I'm playing the odds that going to all the schools I will have a higher chance of getting Covid then if I just stick to one school and less exposure.

You have to take care of yourself in these times. Another friends dad died of Covid on Monday. 78yrs old, no real health issues other than being 78. He lived in Kentucky, they let their gaurd down and let the grandkids visit. Common denominator with both deaths were the grandkids coming to visit.

Kids will be ok in the schools, its the vulnerable they come in contact with that won't.

I'm worried that kids will come to school, have the virus yet no elevated temperature. With some students opting to learn from home, my wife has two classes with one student each. Her third class has three students. That hopefully will give us a better chance. Once the colder weather starts the virus will hit hard. My concern is our district had given us zero guidance on how they are disinfecting the schools.
Sorry to hear about your friends father.

We all received the flu vaccination over the weekend just to get it out of the way. We'll see how effective it is this year.

My oldest started the freshman year online but decided she needed to live in the dorm. She finally found a compatible roommate and didn't want to have to take a chance with a random roommate assignment later. The good news is her university has been doing relatively well with testing and monitoring. They sample each dorm sewer line for a covid early warning and then parade the dorm occupants for testing when needed and randomly otherwise. They really crack the whip with dorm rules which is a good thing. At least for now curriculum remains online even though she will be living on-campus.

My younger one is taking all online classes. He says slightly more than half of his classmates opted for online classes.

My daughter goes to college in Georgia and has been back for over a month. Students have tested positive for Covid and have been in confined dorms for a two week period. Her professors openly are saying they think school should be closed. My daughter is an RA for the dorm. It is a modern cabin with 5 girls living upstairs and my daughter has her own room on the first floor. Up to this point other dorms were not allowed to mingle, now they started letting them visit other dorms. Her classes are both online and in the classroom with social distancing. It's scary.

Today my wife went to a staff meeting at her high school. When the principal asked for opening comments, a spokesperson for the teachers said they had talked and wanted me to be a full time sub in that school for the year regardless of needing a sub or not. They stated they would not be happy if another sub came in before me. That discussion went on for 45 minutes. That was nice of the teachers, but I'm actually hoping to get in less days because of Covid. It is the smallest school of the 7 high schools in the district and I had emailed to the district office that I wanted to go to that school.

Flu shot is on my priority list. Saturday I will go to CVS and get the shot.

I did the caravan to moved into the dorm. I couldn't get out of there fast enough out of fear of being exposed to covid. Everyone is good about wearing masks outdoors but in the dorm they sometimes violate rules like only 2 per elevator. I saw 6 kids pile into one elevator while we were waiting to go up. One university public health professor said they were still struggling with making elevators safe. I would guess HVAC systems are also a challenge.

They only allow 1 visitor per room and claim to do random room checks to make sure the kids are following the rules. The school plans to close campus after Thanksgiving for full online learning including finals. Fortunately the kids can get tested whenever they want. I imagine they will be tested before being released home.

My daughter's college now allows the students to list 5 students that can visit their dorm. In my daughter's case, with a total of 6 students, they are allowed 5 quests total. My daughter is the one to enforce the rule. We will see how that goes. My son wants to fly down and hunt on campus for deer season, but I'm inclined to say no. They have 27,000 acres an open it for hunting in an area that is remote. I don't want him to get infected and come home.
Her semester ends at Thanksgiving break. I'm hoping she can dodge the bullet until then.

Schools around us are open.
Parents mostly support it as many don't have internet available.

Our son was in NY for storm work, lineman. One person in their crew up there was covid positive. Came back, company didn't do any quarantine or testing. Foreman blew off their requests and turned out he was covid positive too (and knew it). Several people at work tested positive, no deaths. Many people in direct workspace and didn't contract it. To date, the closest person I know of directly that has passed from covid was co-workers father and he was 84.

Today we had our first confirmed cases at a school I work at. We received an email from the district, but as of now we don't know if it is students or teachers. I'm sure we will find out over the weekend.

That's got to be unnerving... stay safe.

There should be a major penalty for being sick with it and still doing activities that will spread it to others.

They closed down the small school here in Nevada, TX. Had 8 cases. Students and staff.
Friend lost her mom to Covid complications this morning, both of her parents gone in less than a month.

This is only the beginning. I worry what the Fall season will bring.

As far as we know they quit telling us of new positive cases at work.
Only way you know if it's in your area and sometimes the employees lie and show up sick anyway.

My daughter's university saw increased positivity the last week so the school strongly urged a 2 week shelter in place for those on campus. Next on the hit parade is cold and flu season.

A total of 7 girls live in my daughter's dorm/log cabin. One of the girls tested positive and had to leave. School doesn't have any more isolation units so the girl , who lives out of state had to go to a hotel. We are waiting to see what the rest of the girls are told what to do. My daughter is the only one with her own room.

My daughter was fortunate as her roommate had covid-19 sometime before moving into the dorm. Apparently she experienced no symptoms, lived closely and drove in cars with her parents and they didn't get it. It's a deadly quirky virus.

The college had the girls staying at their cabin, bringing them their meals. They will test them for Covid on Wednesday. The college feels that if they test them now, they will get a false negative.

Both Covid tests came back negative. My daughter has to keep quarantined until October 3rd. 5 of the girls went home leaving only 2 in the dorm.
My concern is when school lets out in November; will millions of college kids be coming home with the virus and have no signs?

Shelter in place seems to be working. On campus positivity rate fell to 3.5% or so.