I wrestle with the fact that many of our families have elementary-aged children at home who could greatly benefit from having an in-person school setting due to their learning modalities/needs. I believe returning to school safely is a choice that should be offered to the families of FCPS. When we do return to in person learning, it should be through a highly advised and well thought out process that puts the safety of our entire FCPS community first. A famous boxer was once quoted as saying that "Everybody has a plan until they get hit." We have to have a resilient plan in place that is able to take a COVID-19 infection hit and still safely meet the needs of our community. If not, we would be setting ourselves up for disaster. Things like the following: adequate health and cleaning staff, PPE/supplies, prepared educators,substitute staffing, and uncomplicated learning mandates with clearly communicated opening and closing procedures are essential to a resilient plan.
I am fully aware that there is truly no perfect plan against COVID-19 and the havoc it invokes upon us at all levels of life. With this said, I would be in favor of a plan that would support the students of FCPS without inducing more stress upon them. We must remember that our students, (like us all) are doing all they can to “hold it together” during this time and that we should support them as best we can.
For me the must haves in any Re-Opening Plan are:
-County/State Health & Safety Department Support w/Continual COVID-19 Data Updates
-Adequate Staffing & Cleaning/PPE Materials
-Proper Spacing of Students & Staff at all times
-Simplistic School Scheduling
-Elementary Students Phased in First
-Parental Choice to Opt-out of in-person learning
-Improved Technology Use for Faster Parent Communication (In the case of a reported outbreak)
-Established transition points for parents who wish to switch (Home or In-Person)
-Simplistic Teacher Requirements (i.e. An online teaching group / An in person teaching group)
-Flexible School Closure/Re-Open as needed for outbreaks with minimal to no learning disruption
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