Australia under complete lockdown after a second wave. Only one person per household allowed to go out for shopping.
Will this be necessary for the U.S. in the coming months?
I have enjoyed a lot of great music at the Tupelo Music Hall in Derry, NH. The owner, Scott Hayward, wrote an article about the state of his industry. Whether you are a fan of live music or not, this has a lot to say about recovering, or not recovering, from the current situation.
Yes, our niece lives just outside of Melbourne and she
is on lock down with her husband and 2 young children.
They are making the best of it.
Philip, Australia’s lockdown is both stringent and long (6 week), and in response to relatively few new cases, compared to, say, Texas , Florida, or even spiking Rhode Island.
The Australian government had beaten back the virus, and has had a good record so far. They’re determined to contain it.
Here, it’s a mixed bag. I think many governors are not at all in containment mode, even in states that have experienced enormous spiked (De Santis, for example). Then there are governors like Lamont and Baker, who are in containment mode. Will this translate into Australian-style lockdowns? Doubtful. The American public won’t tolerate it, even here in Massachusetts. I believe that what you’ll see instead is `smart’ or targeted restrictions. My guess is bars won’t reopen until next year, for example. Indoor dining may close again until further notice. Strict capacity limits will be observed on all modes of transportation.
We’re not the only country that won’t tolerate lockdowns. The Dutch are seeing spikes in new cases that are translating into increases in hospitalizations and IC usage. Nevertheless, there’s a large movement opposed to any restrictions or new lockdowns, including mask requirements. I’m a bit surprised, considering how the Dutch tend to be rule-followers.
In the spring there was meme after meme telling teachers how much we had under appreciated them and thanking them profusely. A few months later we put them in a position I would not wish on anyone. Shame on us
Posting on behalf of the Uxbridge Teachers’ Association:
Uxbridge Teachers’ Association Statement on
Restarting Learning for the 2020-2021 School Year
August 4, 2020
The educators of the Uxbridge Teachers’ Association want nothing more than to be back in our schools doing what we love, teaching the students of Uxbridge. We deeply miss our classrooms and the joy that teaching and interacting with our students brings every day. The COVID-19 global pandemic has affected every aspect of how we teach, yet we have continued to be ready to turn our practices upside down and inside out to innovate and work to meet the needs of our students and families in the coming school year.
Safety in our schools has to be our number one priority for a successful reopening for all. We have looked everywhere; in D.E.S.E.’s reports, in the plans of other districts, in our own shared ideas, in scientific research, in medical data, and the history of global pandemics for signs of hope that opening this fall, in a hybrid model would be safe for us, our students, and everyone’s families. But instead of signs of hope, we see warning signs. Governor Baker said recently that, “Early data seem to indicate that more young people are being diagnosed with COVID-19 here as well as throughout the country.” In fact, we see that virtually whenever reopening takes place anywhere in our country, the number of cases rises. The more people involved in a reopening, the greater the increase in cases.
True, most will survive, but some will not. Making matters even worse, scientists are learning that even survivors of the virus may sustain serious damage to their lungs, heart, kidney, and liver that will haunt them all their lives. Throughout Massachusetts, average new cases per day have risen, not fallen, in the past two weeks, likely due to the partial reopening of our state this past month.
So we ask ourselves: Are we ready for that to happen in our town as a result of the reopening of the Uxbridge Public Schools?
Uxbridge is at a point in it’s recovery that it feels as though it is safe to return to school with few active cases in the community. However, once schools have been opened to in-person learning, the safety bubble in Uxbridge will be breached. Teachers will be coming from numerous other communities, as well as our valued school choice students. They will unknowingly be bringing the wider connections of their communities into Uxbridge.
We appreciate the efforts to develop ways for students to safely return to school – PPE, plexiglass dividers, tents, hand sanitizers, extensive “deep cleaning,” division of students into groups of cohorts, enforced wearing of masks, outdoor teaching, social distancing and more. But while we’ve heard a lot about the things that are being done, we need to see the specifics and we ask – are we sure they will work . . . well enough? Will they really be 100% safe? What is the plan if a student or teacher tests positive? Imagine just one student or teacher is asymptomatic and comes to school, spreading the virus for days or weeks before they know they have the virus. Is that acceptable?
Is one child or teacher contracting the disease acceptable?
Is one student or teacher dying acceptable?
Our answer to these questions must be NO. There is no loss of life or health that is worth the risk of returning to any form of in-person learning at this time.
While many are hoping that the return to school will help address the social, emotional, and mental health needs of our students, in-person learning in any form will not look like school as we knew it. We, as teachers and staff, are seriously concerned that there will be more trauma for our students while navigating the safety restrictions including remaining 6 feet apart and avoiding all physical contact, interacting with peers and staff while masked, and playing and eating alone. We all want some sense of normalcy, but a return to in-school learning will not provide that. Given all of the safety precautions and the anxiety levels of both students and staff, school will be an alien experience for students and will likely do more harm than good to students’ social-emotional well-being.
For all of these stated reasons the Uxbridge Teachers’ Association refuses to return to in-person teaching and learning in our district until it is safe to do so. Therefore, we call on the School Committee to make the decision, as soon as possible, to resume school in a fully remote model this fall. The sooner the decision is made to stop spending time and money on halfway measures, the sooner that parents and families can begin planning for the difficult adjustments many of them will need to make and the sooner that teachers can begin in earnest the serious work of making remote learning more effective this fall than it was in the spring.
Sincerely,
Brian Carter
UTA President
Voted and approved by a majority of members of the Uxbridge Teachers’ Association
the second largest paragraph from the bottom, basically the social and emotional impact on the students, I don´t think parents and guardians could possibly understand that piece. Nothing parents/guardians are doing wrong, but its a piece just not thought of.
Wait til Johnny or Sarah comes home in tears by the second or third day of school. They can see their best friend 5 seats away, but because of assigned seats and social distancing, they really can´t talk or have any time in the halls to socialize, for even a few minutes.
A second round of tears later in the evening when Johnny or Sarah is struggling with the work because they missed some of the instruction due to the teacher´s voice being not as clear due to the face mask wearing.
What is your town doing Tom?
In person? Remote? Both?
Not officially announced, but I believe remote. Perhaps a 2-1-2 schedule. (2 days for each half of the alphabet, etc) and block scheduling, so perhaps 80-90 minute classes vs the normal 42 minutes.
not remote ……. hybrid.
I wondered. As well as the full in home option?
good question, don´t know.
I think full in home is required by DESE
Thanks Tom
In Boston there is now concern with college students returning to dorms and off-campus housing this month.
It’s back to “party time” probably.
And college kids coming from all over
Tom, I don’t understand the though process for In school. Camps are now a mess with many kids and young counselors testing positive. One school system opened. A kid was sick and waiting for a covid test and the parents sent him. His test came back positive the first day and school shut down with many exposed. The rule now is three days covid symptom free after a positive. No test to see if negative. No one can tell me that parents will not do EXACTLY the same and send kids back sooner than they should.
I believe there are high need kids who do have to be in person. And they should be. That is it.
I really doubt there will be 5 days per week in person learning this academic year 2020-21 anywhere.
No one is planning that that I’m aware of in MA. It is one group two days and a deck for group two days with a cleaning day somewhere in between. Or maybe one week in and one out. All have to offer full in home.
And I bet there may be some that go “all” remote for the entire year. We will see.
Both my girls will have kids at home and one is a school committee member. If I were a betting woman, I’d say it is only a minor of time before they have to shut schools.
Its not an easy decision and I´m glad I don´t have to make it.
I totally understand wanting to get students back into the classroom, that´s a starting thought I share.
But, all the things you and others have mentioned about Covid.
I just don´t know what is best for all.
It is a horrible decision. My first thought is what’s best is to do what is safe for all and then make it happen.
Joshua, besides complete shutdown does Australia mandate “masks” combined with social distancing?
I believe so.
My overall thoughts today are similar to yesterday, though I was dismayed to see the final death toll yesterday rise a bit above last Tuesday’s. I’m hoping we’re now on a plateau rather than a growth curve in terms of deaths. I believe we are. Not that a plateau is good. It’s certainly not when the nation is losing more than 1,100 people every day on average.
Testing is down nationwide. This is a concern. I don’t know why this is.
I’m puzzled by the placement of Rhode Island on the `persona non grata’ list. It’s had a few days with relatively high case loads, but really not any worse than Massachusetts. While it had a couple of days with test positivity over 5%, it’s mostly been below 2.5%, which is similar to Massachusetts.
Our focus should be Florida, California, North and South Carolina, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, and several others. I frequently see license plates from these states in downtown Boston (outside Cheers, places like that). These states have much worse testing numbers than Rhode Island.
This is NOT a federal system issue, as some claim. Quite frankly, it’s underfunding of public health agencies, some sloppiness (purposeful and otherwise), and a dereliction of duty on the part of state and federal government to get its act together. This ain’t rocket science. We have the capacity to collect data and report it in a timely manner. We just don’t do it, because it’s not a priority of ours.
C-19 for 8-6 is up…
Actually they are down.
The message was indicating that the chat post was up, not the case numbers. I post it every day when I set up the new post.
Comments are closed.
Your no-hype southeastern New England weather blog!
Australia under complete lockdown after a second wave. Only one person per household allowed to go out for shopping.
Will this be necessary for the U.S. in the coming months?
I have enjoyed a lot of great music at the Tupelo Music Hall in Derry, NH. The owner, Scott Hayward, wrote an article about the state of his industry. Whether you are a fan of live music or not, this has a lot to say about recovering, or not recovering, from the current situation.
http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1101496966722&ca=92803dda-e4ba-4b35-8d75-be98f0ed869c
Yes, our niece lives just outside of Melbourne and she
is on lock down with her husband and 2 young children.
They are making the best of it.
Philip, Australia’s lockdown is both stringent and long (6 week), and in response to relatively few new cases, compared to, say, Texas , Florida, or even spiking Rhode Island.
The Australian government had beaten back the virus, and has had a good record so far. They’re determined to contain it.
Here, it’s a mixed bag. I think many governors are not at all in containment mode, even in states that have experienced enormous spiked (De Santis, for example). Then there are governors like Lamont and Baker, who are in containment mode. Will this translate into Australian-style lockdowns? Doubtful. The American public won’t tolerate it, even here in Massachusetts. I believe that what you’ll see instead is `smart’ or targeted restrictions. My guess is bars won’t reopen until next year, for example. Indoor dining may close again until further notice. Strict capacity limits will be observed on all modes of transportation.
We’re not the only country that won’t tolerate lockdowns. The Dutch are seeing spikes in new cases that are translating into increases in hospitalizations and IC usage. Nevertheless, there’s a large movement opposed to any restrictions or new lockdowns, including mask requirements. I’m a bit surprised, considering how the Dutch tend to be rule-followers.
In the spring there was meme after meme telling teachers how much we had under appreciated them and thanking them profusely. A few months later we put them in a position I would not wish on anyone. Shame on us
Posting on behalf of the Uxbridge Teachers’ Association:
Uxbridge Teachers’ Association Statement on
Restarting Learning for the 2020-2021 School Year
August 4, 2020
The educators of the Uxbridge Teachers’ Association want nothing more than to be back in our schools doing what we love, teaching the students of Uxbridge. We deeply miss our classrooms and the joy that teaching and interacting with our students brings every day. The COVID-19 global pandemic has affected every aspect of how we teach, yet we have continued to be ready to turn our practices upside down and inside out to innovate and work to meet the needs of our students and families in the coming school year.
Safety in our schools has to be our number one priority for a successful reopening for all. We have looked everywhere; in D.E.S.E.’s reports, in the plans of other districts, in our own shared ideas, in scientific research, in medical data, and the history of global pandemics for signs of hope that opening this fall, in a hybrid model would be safe for us, our students, and everyone’s families. But instead of signs of hope, we see warning signs. Governor Baker said recently that, “Early data seem to indicate that more young people are being diagnosed with COVID-19 here as well as throughout the country.” In fact, we see that virtually whenever reopening takes place anywhere in our country, the number of cases rises. The more people involved in a reopening, the greater the increase in cases.
True, most will survive, but some will not. Making matters even worse, scientists are learning that even survivors of the virus may sustain serious damage to their lungs, heart, kidney, and liver that will haunt them all their lives. Throughout Massachusetts, average new cases per day have risen, not fallen, in the past two weeks, likely due to the partial reopening of our state this past month.
So we ask ourselves: Are we ready for that to happen in our town as a result of the reopening of the Uxbridge Public Schools?
Uxbridge is at a point in it’s recovery that it feels as though it is safe to return to school with few active cases in the community. However, once schools have been opened to in-person learning, the safety bubble in Uxbridge will be breached. Teachers will be coming from numerous other communities, as well as our valued school choice students. They will unknowingly be bringing the wider connections of their communities into Uxbridge.
We appreciate the efforts to develop ways for students to safely return to school – PPE, plexiglass dividers, tents, hand sanitizers, extensive “deep cleaning,” division of students into groups of cohorts, enforced wearing of masks, outdoor teaching, social distancing and more. But while we’ve heard a lot about the things that are being done, we need to see the specifics and we ask – are we sure they will work . . . well enough? Will they really be 100% safe? What is the plan if a student or teacher tests positive? Imagine just one student or teacher is asymptomatic and comes to school, spreading the virus for days or weeks before they know they have the virus. Is that acceptable?
Is one child or teacher contracting the disease acceptable?
Is one student or teacher dying acceptable?
Our answer to these questions must be NO. There is no loss of life or health that is worth the risk of returning to any form of in-person learning at this time.
While many are hoping that the return to school will help address the social, emotional, and mental health needs of our students, in-person learning in any form will not look like school as we knew it. We, as teachers and staff, are seriously concerned that there will be more trauma for our students while navigating the safety restrictions including remaining 6 feet apart and avoiding all physical contact, interacting with peers and staff while masked, and playing and eating alone. We all want some sense of normalcy, but a return to in-school learning will not provide that. Given all of the safety precautions and the anxiety levels of both students and staff, school will be an alien experience for students and will likely do more harm than good to students’ social-emotional well-being.
For all of these stated reasons the Uxbridge Teachers’ Association refuses to return to in-person teaching and learning in our district until it is safe to do so. Therefore, we call on the School Committee to make the decision, as soon as possible, to resume school in a fully remote model this fall. The sooner the decision is made to stop spending time and money on halfway measures, the sooner that parents and families can begin planning for the difficult adjustments many of them will need to make and the sooner that teachers can begin in earnest the serious work of making remote learning more effective this fall than it was in the spring.
Sincerely,
Brian Carter
UTA President
Voted and approved by a majority of members of the Uxbridge Teachers’ Association
the second largest paragraph from the bottom, basically the social and emotional impact on the students, I don´t think parents and guardians could possibly understand that piece. Nothing parents/guardians are doing wrong, but its a piece just not thought of.
Wait til Johnny or Sarah comes home in tears by the second or third day of school. They can see their best friend 5 seats away, but because of assigned seats and social distancing, they really can´t talk or have any time in the halls to socialize, for even a few minutes.
A second round of tears later in the evening when Johnny or Sarah is struggling with the work because they missed some of the instruction due to the teacher´s voice being not as clear due to the face mask wearing.
What is your town doing Tom?
In person? Remote? Both?
Not officially announced, but I believe remote. Perhaps a 2-1-2 schedule. (2 days for each half of the alphabet, etc) and block scheduling, so perhaps 80-90 minute classes vs the normal 42 minutes.
not remote ……. hybrid.
I wondered. As well as the full in home option?
good question, don´t know.
I think full in home is required by DESE
Thanks Tom
In Boston there is now concern with college students returning to dorms and off-campus housing this month.
It’s back to “party time” probably.
And college kids coming from all over
Tom, I don’t understand the though process for In school. Camps are now a mess with many kids and young counselors testing positive. One school system opened. A kid was sick and waiting for a covid test and the parents sent him. His test came back positive the first day and school shut down with many exposed. The rule now is three days covid symptom free after a positive. No test to see if negative. No one can tell me that parents will not do EXACTLY the same and send kids back sooner than they should.
I believe there are high need kids who do have to be in person. And they should be. That is it.
I really doubt there will be 5 days per week in person learning this academic year 2020-21 anywhere.
No one is planning that that I’m aware of in MA. It is one group two days and a deck for group two days with a cleaning day somewhere in between. Or maybe one week in and one out. All have to offer full in home.
And I bet there may be some that go “all” remote for the entire year. We will see.
Both my girls will have kids at home and one is a school committee member. If I were a betting woman, I’d say it is only a minor of time before they have to shut schools.
Its not an easy decision and I´m glad I don´t have to make it.
I totally understand wanting to get students back into the classroom, that´s a starting thought I share.
But, all the things you and others have mentioned about Covid.
I just don´t know what is best for all.
It is a horrible decision. My first thought is what’s best is to do what is safe for all and then make it happen.
Joshua, besides complete shutdown does Australia mandate “masks” combined with social distancing?
I believe so.
My overall thoughts today are similar to yesterday, though I was dismayed to see the final death toll yesterday rise a bit above last Tuesday’s. I’m hoping we’re now on a plateau rather than a growth curve in terms of deaths. I believe we are. Not that a plateau is good. It’s certainly not when the nation is losing more than 1,100 people every day on average.
Testing is down nationwide. This is a concern. I don’t know why this is.
I’m puzzled by the placement of Rhode Island on the `persona non grata’ list. It’s had a few days with relatively high case loads, but really not any worse than Massachusetts. While it had a couple of days with test positivity over 5%, it’s mostly been below 2.5%, which is similar to Massachusetts.
Our focus should be Florida, California, North and South Carolina, Illinois, Ohio, Texas, and several others. I frequently see license plates from these states in downtown Boston (outside Cheers, places like that). These states have much worse testing numbers than Rhode Island.
Very interesting Re RI. Thank you, Joshua
Problems with data collection and reporting continue to plague the U.S. By contrast, our friends the U.K. and Germany have it figured out. https://twitter.com/EricTopol/status/1291033180678455298
This is NOT a federal system issue, as some claim. Quite frankly, it’s underfunding of public health agencies, some sloppiness (purposeful and otherwise), and a dereliction of duty on the part of state and federal government to get its act together. This ain’t rocket science. We have the capacity to collect data and report it in a timely manner. We just don’t do it, because it’s not a priority of ours.
C-19 for 8-6 is up…
Actually they are down.
The message was indicating that the chat post was up, not the case numbers. I post it every day when I set up the new post.