K-12 Schools & COVID

[The Lens]

Lots of chatter this weekend in our neighborhood about new quarantines / shut downs.  More and more of tracing goes back to sleep overs, after game team parties, etc.  People are letting their guard down about who they let in their homes and whose homes they enter.  It is wiping out entire sports teams right as state is approaching.  I think people are rationalizing, well its just 8 kids coming over, not realizing the math behind it.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

Lots of chatter this weekend in our neighborhood about quarantines and shut downs.  More and more of tracing goes back to sleep overs, after game team parties, etc.  People are letting their guard down about who they let in their homes and whose homes they enter.  It is wiping out entire sports teams right as state is approaching.  I think people are rationalizing, well its just 8 kids coming over, not realizing the math behind it.

Just had a conversation about this with a co-worker this morning.  They had been letting their high school son go over to other's houses, but now they are cutting that back.

And she is someone that believes that schools should be open because she believes it can be done safely.

[Marquette Fan]

Our District switched from a hybrid model for secondary students the week of 10/19.  Previously they had two cohorts - everyone was virtual on Mondays and one cohort went to school in person Tue/Thu and one cohort went to school in person Wed/Fri.  But starting the week of 10/19, all kids in the secondary schools went in person for 4 days.  There went any social distancing .  And it's been a disaster as I feared it would - the cases and quarantine numbers have gone way up since then.  And all 3 high schools in the District have gone virtual for a week or two due to a high number of cases and one middle school and three elementary schools have gone virtual for a portion of time due to so many students/staff being out on quarantine. 

They originally wanted to vote at a board meeting next week to go back to 5 days face to face for secondary students.  But that would be a huge mistake in my opinion - hoping they go back to the original hybrid model - that worked a lot better than what they're doing now.  And also hoping they add gating criteria which they don't have in place right now leaving the administration able to switch things around based on just what they want to do and not necessarily based on how things are really going with Covid case numbers in the community.

[pbiflyer]

Palm Beach County Schools have a rise in reported cases. Since only positive cases are kept out of school, not those in close contact, I suspect the numbers will rise. Also, they are relying on self reporting. I know of one positive case where the parent did not notify the school. They just kept their kid out of school.  Again, I think another reason for future spikes.

[Marquette Fan]

Palm Beach County Schools have a rise in reported cases. Since only positive cases are kept out of school, not those in close contact, I suspect the numbers will rise. Also, they are relying on self reporting. I know of one positive case where the parent did not notify the school. They just kept their kid out of school.  Again, I think another reason for future spikes.

I think our District is relying on self reporting and notification from the health department.  But the health department is overwhelmed so I thik notifications are a bit delayed.  And we've had parents in our District send their kids to school when sick waiting on Covid test results that ended up positive - so irresponsible. 

[Skatastrophy]

Studies are finally coming out that prove the obvious: Schools reopening is dramatically increasing the R0 of coronavirus when analyzing the impact of 790 'phases' across 131 countries

> Reopening schools was associated with a 24-per-cent increase in R after 28 days, although the researchers cautioned they were unable to account for different precautions some countries implemented for reopening schools, such as limiting class sizes, social distancing, cleaning, personal hygiene, face masks, and temperature checks.

The article: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/coronavirus-r-rate-school-closures-lockdown-lancet-study-b1251617.html

The study: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30785-4/fulltext

[MU82]

Elementary schools re-opened here in NC's largest district 2 weeks ago. There have been a few clusters but so far fairly well contained.

Middle schools are supposed to re-open Thanksgiving week (2 days on, then 3 days off for the holiday, then back the following week).

Not that it's very important, but I am quite sure there will not be middle-school basketball for me to coach this season ... and that's OK. If they said today that they were going to play a season, I'm not 100% sure I'd go back. I'm healthy (that I know of) but my wife has some pre-existing conditions and it probably wouldn't be wise of me to return. As I said, I doubt it will be an issue.

EDIT: District just decided today that in-person middle school won't start until Jan. 5. The slim chance of having basketball has just turned slimmer.

[GooooMarquette]

Some of Minnesota's largest cities are moving toward all distance learning:

More Minnesota schools halt in-person classes as COVID-19 cases rise

https://www.mprnews.org/story/2020/11/11/more-minnesota-schools-halt-inperson-classes-as-covid19-cases-rise

For reference, Bloomington and Duluth are MN's 4th and 5th largest cities. I have also heard rumors here in Rochester (3rd largest in MN) that we will move to all distance learning after Thanksgiving.

[ZiggysFryBoy]

Our Catholic school just got moved to all virtual through thanksgiving.  No transmission at school, but things like hockey tournaments did us in.

[The Lens]

We've paused in person until next Tuesday.  5 isolated cases.  4 students, 1 substitute teacher. 

They seemed to have changed their protocol.  Instead of isolating / Q'ing kids clustered together in homerooms, they were keeping entire homerooms home.   Soon 6 homerooms were home.  And a bunch more kids bc of siblings.  Ideally people get tested this week to measure spread, though they have determined none of the cases link up.

IMHO and uneducated opinion, I think they jumped the gun on the pause too quick.  Not sure if going back on Tuesday is just what they're telling us or their true intent.  Our health department told them they could stay open, they were not concerned.

(Hilltopper doing cartwheels over this news)

[ZiggysFryBoy]

We've paused in person until next Tuesday.  5 isolated cases.  4 students, 1 substitute teacher. 

They seemed to have changed their protocol.  Instead of isolating / Q'ing kids clustered together in homerooms, they were keeping entire homerooms home.   Soon 6 homerooms were home.  And a bunch more kids bc of siblings.  Ideally people get tested this week to measure spread, though they have determined none of the cases link up.

IMHO and uneducated opinion, I think they jumped the gun on the pause too quick.  Not sure if going back on Tuesday is just what they're telling us or their true intent.  Our health department told them they could stay open, they were not concerned.

(Hilltopper doing cartwheels over this news)

Our principal sent an email last Friday saying dont do extracurriculars, and that means y'all going to that tournament.  The kids involve were sent home on monday, now the shut down. 

We think this is the school's way of saying knock it off and dont F this up for everyone else.  We are in support of her action, if this is the case.

They miss 1 day (Th), Friday was an off day already, then 1 week virtual, plus the 2 days before Thanksgiving.   Not a bad time to send a stern message.

Indoor winter sports are going to be a disaster for schools staying open.

[Marquette Fan]

The Covid cases hadn't been too bad at my 8th grader's school so far this school year.  But the last two days the numbers sky rocketed and they became the latest school in our District to go to all Virtual temporarily.  Now all 3 high schools, 3 of the 4 middle schools and 3 elementary schools have gone virtual at some point due to Covid numbers.  The only middle school that hasn't gone virtual yet has a much smaller enrollment than they other ones - it's the STEM school and they can actually socially distance there.

There's a board meeting coming up in an hour where they will be discussing the schedule for secondary students - should be interesting with the District Dashboard getting crazy high right now.

[The Lens]

Our principal sent an email last Friday saying dont do extracurriculars, and that means y'all going to that tournament.  The kids involve were sent home on monday, now the shut down. 

We think this is the school's way of saying knock it off and dont F this up for everyone else.  We are in support of her action, if this is the case.

They miss 1 day (Th), Friday was an off day already, then 1 week virtual, plus the 2 days before Thanksgiving.   Not a bad time to send a stern message.

Indoor winter sports are going to be a disaster for schools staying open.

Yeah we're waiting on that honor code form to come home.  I would guess 60%+ have kids in hockey, WYBL hoops or indoor soccer (plus a few Irish Dance) it will be interesting to see what happens.  My son played all summer for Chapman AAU and then did his 3 on 3 this fall and we didn't have any reports of cases from those.  Kids are playing hoops masked up.  I think the issue comes from overnights and in between games when parents are mixing families together etc.  But what do I know. 

[Pakuni]

My younger kid's school just went all remote through the Thanksgiving holiday. At least three confirmed cases, all in different grades. First pause since the school year started in August.
Hearing it's likely a lot of schools in the region will go all remote for at least two weeks after Christmas break, because of expected travel and holiday gatherings.

[injuryBug]

Yeah we're waiting on that honor code form to come home.  I would guess 60%+ have kids in hockey, WYBL hoops or indoor soccer (plus a few Irish Dance) it will be interesting to see what happens.  My son played all summer for Chapman AAU and then did his 3 on 3 this fall and we didn't have any reports of cases from those.  Kids are playing hoops masked up.  I think the issue comes from overnights and in between games when parents are mixing families together etc.  But what do I know.

Middle school sports is tough cause you are stuck in a gym with 8+ other teams for 3-6 hours.  Not ideal for this situation.  I still think high school sports are ok.  Spread is not happening during events football has gone well to this point.
For hoops our conference is allowing 2 tickets per player.  So with if you are keeping the gyms to 10% or less capacity people can easily spread out and watch the game masked up.
Hopefully my HS senior gets his final year of hs hoops.

If people are taking precautions the kids can have some normalcy staying in school and enjoying extra curriculars.

[forgetful]

My younger kid's school just went all remote through the Thanksgiving holiday. At least three confirmed cases, all in different grades. First pause since the school year started in August.
Hearing it's likely a lot of schools in the region will go all remote for at least two weeks after Christmas break, because of expected travel and holiday gatherings.

K-12 should do what most colleges are doing, and what your kid's school is doing.

Going all remote through Thanksgiving and Christmas. Too much travel, family events, that can lead to a massive spike in infections. Just leave those centered in families, and not further spread in schools.

It's only a matter of probably a month of schooling. Wait 10-14 days after New Years, and start in person education back up again.

[GooooMarquette]

K-12 should do what most colleges are doing, and what your kid's school is doing.

Going all remote through Thanksgiving and Christmas. Too much travel, family events, that can lead to a massive spike in infections. Just leave those centered in families, and not further spread in schools.

It's only a matter of probably a month of schooling. Wait 10-14 days after New Years, and start in person education back up again.

I agree with most of this, but I’m not sure it will be time to re-open schools in mid January. Most of the projections I have seen predict that hospitalization rates will be higher in mid- to late January than they are now in many parts of the upper Midwest. If that proves to be the case, it may not be prudent to resume in-person schooling until a few weeks later. Maybe mid- to late February?

[mu_hilltopper]

(Hilltopper doing cartwheels over this news)

FINALLY!!!  oh god I hurt my back.

[forgetful]

I agree with most of this, but I’m not sure it will be time to re-open schools in mid January. Most of the projections I have seen predict that hospitalization rates will be higher in mid- to late January than they are now in many parts of the upper Midwest. If that proves to be the case, it may not be prudent to resume in-person schooling until a few weeks later. Maybe mid- to late February?

That is likely to be the case. I was mainly going by being as generous as possible in letting schools be open. Zero need for the added risk over Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years holidays.

Most likely, things should stay closed until mid- late February, maybe even early March. But the earliest schools should be considering being open is mid Jan.

[Marquette Fan]

Our District should be all virtual with how bad the Covid numbers are in the community.  But there's no way the school board and administration was going to do that - have to make all the parents happy who want face to face no matter what and don't think Covid presents a risk. 

One small thing to be thankful for though is our school board voted to switch back to a hybrid cohort schedule for 12/1-1/22 at least for secondary students - everyone is virtual monday and half the students go in person Tue/Thu and half go Wed/Fri in person and are virtual the other days.  My 8th grader's school went all virtual starting tomorrow through 12/1 so when she's back she will be on the hybrid cohort schedule again at least.  The Covid numbers were much better when they had the hybrid cohort schedule.  They had switched to 4 days face to face for all secondary students the week of 10/19 and even the Superintendent admitted at tonight's board meeting that this didn't go well.

[lawdog77]

My daughter's school released statistics, and there are more cases from students e-learning than there are from students attending classes.  0.8% of students elearning have tested positive. 0.7% in person have tested positive. 919 students have been quarantined as a result of close contact. 2 of those have later tested positive.

[MU82]

My daughter's school released statistics, and there are more cases from students e-learning than there are from students attending classes.  0.8% of students elearning have tested positive. 0.7% in person have tested positive. 919 students have been quarantined as a result of close contact. 2 of those have later tested positive.

It's basically a statistical tie, but it's nonetheless very interesting. Have they drawn any conclusions as to why, or at least theorized as to why?

[lawdog77]

It's basically a statistical tie, but it's nonetheless very interesting. Have they drawn any conclusions as to why, or at least theorized as to why?

Kids at school are used to wearing masks, so they keep wearing them around non family members. Kids who are e-learning seem to not wear them as much when they are around other people. Just their theory.

[Galway Eagle]

My daughter's school released statistics, and there are more cases from students e-learning than there are from students attending classes.  0.8% of students elearning have tested positive. 0.7% in person have tested positive. 919 students have been quarantined as a result of close contact. 2 of those have later tested positive.

Wouldn't a proper conclusion be that elearning lead to less people getting infected than not elearning? You figure that if they're at home elearning then it's someone else in the household that brought the virus in and then it wasn't brought to anyone else as opposed to being brought to school where many more people get exposed.

[MU82]

Kids at school are used to wearing masks, so they keep wearing them around non family members. Kids who are e-learning seem to not wear them as much when they are around other people. Just their theory.

Interesting.