Monday, October 05, 2020

In Which Waffling Occurs (Not By Me)

 Now our school board is considering opening, at least for K-2, in the next few weeks.  (This is irrelevant to me because my kindergartener will stay at private school this year, in-person.)  They cite all the authorities I and others sent them, on how younger students' school opening should be a priority and even the state department of education insists K-2 should be open.  Amazing!  Someone read all their angry emails!  

Amusingly, they have chosen to display this month's case numbers as per 100,000, despite the fact that our county has 26,000 people in it.  (3 cases a week here is 24 per 100,000 per 14 days! OH NOES! 1 case a week is still 8 per 100,000!) and our city has 7000 people.  So a total of 38 cases is reported as 549 per 100,000 over 2 weeks... which looks a lot more alarming



It's college students.  Who could have guessed.  (There is remarkably little bleedthrough to other age groups, all things considered. This graph also includes some nearby cities, all of which are at least 50 miles away.)

Anyhow, I will believe the school opening when I see it, but there has been an enormous amount of pushback on their decision to close the public schools on six days' notice because of the case numbers you see in mid-August.  Children in this poor, predominantly rural area are experiencing real harm and real consequences, and I hope they do open the schools.

2 comments:

  1. I hope they start making more sensible decisions!

    Ours has stated they won't be planning to bring anyone back until January assuming cases stay stable, but they seem to be sticking with the plan from the start of the school year which is that they would only return in phases (vulnerable students first). I'm hoping they do stick with the plan so it's organized and not a ridiculous rushed mess.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jenny F Scientist8:49 PM

      At least your district has a plan. Ours doesn't seem to know what the word means.

      Delete

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