Tuesday, July 14th, 2020
Today was as pleasant as yesterday, very pleasant to be outside and almost cold my breezy office. While I have the back to the door when at my desk, which I do not like, I am taking to the view and sitting in front of an open window and have the wind blowing in. The birds are no less noisy inside than they are outside though.
All in all it was an unexpectedly packed day, with calls and a couple of items I just want to finish up and somehow they never quite seem to want to get done. This is partly due to how this organization works; there is forever one more person to consult, one more issue to address, as a result of which everything takes five times as long to get done. In addition, new process and procedures are added, which are not designed to speed things up. Oh well, it is what it is.
A pleasant interruption of my day was a 45-minute swim. I have discovered that the 13:00 and 19:00 slots are 45 rather than 30 minutes so going forward will try to book those over others. The day ended with weapons in the park.
Plank Sensei continued with the movements and the Jo he had taught on Saturday and I think I can finally more or less remember the combination. Now it is about coordinating the body parts, but the concept of using the rowing exercise with the figure eight Jo warm up has been helpful and I have included the Jo hand movement (minus Jo) in my little morning weight shift routine. With now weapons class on Tuesday and Saturday some of the stretches are back in my life too; just no tumbling. Class was a full two hours! Not sure how long we can practice in the park; there may come a point in time when it will be too dark at night. Until then, I will enjoy what I have.
There are two ongoing discussions today. The first one is on the neighborhood Listserv, with people reporting that their BLM yard signs are being stolen. While not great damage it is annoying and is taken by the community as someone clearly being rattled. Every time a sign is reported missing, I run out to check on mine, but thankfully it is still there. There is increasing support for reporting these thefts to the police, which is more of a strategic move as it results in increased crime numbers and hence more police patrols of the neighborhood. While I feel perfectly safe here and often leave all windows open and neglect to lock doors, other people seem to feel threatened.
The second is on the BCCPTSA Listserv about the reopening of schools. The Board of Education has deliberated the current plans and the discussion, summarized below, is less than satisfactory as it does not address any of the questions related to seniors returning to school.
1. Montgomery County is still in phase two. Not until we move to phase 3 or 4 will there be a wider reopening, including schools, according to the County Health Commissioner, Dr. Travis Gayles. We need further lower burden of virus in the county in order to re-open schools. If we are still in this phase on Aug. 31, any reopening of the physical school will not happen for a while.
2. There is an expectation that in high school, teachers, particularly of higher level subjects and electives, may not be returning to schools. Students who have opted for the hybrid model might be in the classroom, watching the teacher on a screen. (This something that will need much more clarification.)
3. MCPS is testing HVAC systems and ordering many more air filters. It sounds as if they believe that a significant number — but by no means all buildings — can achieve engineering standards. But some will not. (It is unclear what will happen with those buildings and those teachers and students.)
4. There will be limited seat space for in person learning (the hybrid model) — so that it will not be seamless to transition in. It will be more like a COSA (change of school assignment process) if you originally opted for virtual.
5. The plan is to have both tracks, virtual and hybrid, approximate each other.
6. There was a promise for more live teaching — but not clear whether that teaching will always be provided by the class teacher of record, particularly in the elementary and perhaps middle school.
7. There is not a detailed outline yet of how a virtual day will work, in terms of time and classes.
8. Grading will return to the usual MCPS policies — no more Pass/Fail.
9. Fall sports are still undetermined; those decisions are made partly at the state level, week by week.
10. They have quarantine and contact tracing plans, according to the county health director.
11. Parents will have from July 27th to August 7th to elect which option of schooling they want, hybrid or virtual -- and whether they need -- bus transportation.
12. In ES and MS, A or B days will be assigned by 1) Last name/Address; 2) grade level and 3) school cluster. High school returnsare based on grade. Select special needs students would return in the first group.
13. Part of the reason for the phased opening is to be able to modify the plans based on how they are being executed.
14. There were two suggestions from board members: 1. That teachers teach in the schools, with all resources, and students access school online. and 2. That only elementary students return to school and thus MCPS use all school facilities for elementary students. This second idea was largely deemed unfeasible, although MCPS will respond.
This whole virus business is a real pain. And of course, its handling in the USA is a major clusterfuck. Numbers are up again. Worldwide 13.2 million cases have been confirmed and the USA added 54k in 24 hours to bring its total count to 3.48 million. This kind of data may no longer be publicly available as the administration has ordered all data be reported to the administration bypassing the independent Center for Disease Control (CDC). There are real concerns that the administration will manipulate data or prevent data being published to ensure the moron in chief does not look bad in the run up to elections.
These are techniques used in authoritarian states or dictatorships and not befitting for the greatest democracy in the world. I just had a typo in “democracy” to read “democrazy” I feel the later is a perfect description for the state of affairs. How do I register a new word for the world?