Tonight @TurlockUSD presents their DRAFT "Safe" Re-opening plan to the school board as an informational item. Please indulge me as I enter into the puclic record its many inadequicies.
https://mcusercontent.com/b94b77b5a0c9fb1d05b9edb39/files/b62ca47f-752f-4141-a48d-6d1bc3ca22b3/Safe_Schools_Reopening.pdf
1/10

Why a waiver? B/C some in our community are hell-bent on sending our Ss back to school even though @StanCounty remains at 12.5% 7-day positivity rate. We're still in the purple category of CA's color coded COVID naughty list.
2/10

Districts are required to consult with all stakeholders before submitting a final proposal to obtain a waiver that would reopen K-6 classes for in-person learning in areas where COVID is rampant. I am unaware of any teacher groups that collaborated on the plan. It shows.
3/10

Parents and families of our Ss are supposed to fill-out a district survey about the draft plan starting tomorrow, 9/16. However, the informational Town Hall is scheduled a full SIX DAYS later on 9/21. How is it possible to get informed, usable feedback this way?
4/10

How is the District ensuring that the Google Form survey will not be compromised by users with fake email addresses skewing results?
5/10

With regard to county COVID data, the presentation slides only report total case numbers (cognizant of possible post Labor Day spike) but neglect to include county positivity rate which is still 1.5x's the 8% we need to achieve for 2 weeks in a row. (daily data is noisy)
6/10

Page 8 of the full report downplays aerosols as a way to promote the idea that stable cohorts of small kids without masks can be safe. New research shows that kids also have large viral loads...

7/10

... so if masks cannot be worn by the littles, "routine and continued screening of *all* students... is imperitive" for a safe return to school. What is the testing/screening plan you might ask? Well, it leaves much to be desired.
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/08/looking-at-children-as-the-silent-spreaders-of-sars-cov-2/
8/10

District plan relies heavily on self-screening and a mysterious SCOE staff testing process. Self-screening, as we now all know, finds symptomatic folks that had already been an asymptomatic spreader for multiple days. What are the specifics of SCOE Surveillance Testing?
9/10

In response to “How will school officials ensure that students & staff who have symptoms/exposure to COVID-19 will be rapidly tested”?
The answer is “Advise students & staff to get tested”??
Who will pay for tests?
Will tests be done in town?
Will schools give the tests?
10/10

Staff will be surveillance-tested so an individual staff member gets tested once every 2-months, but batches of staff will get tested more frequently. Details of this plan being developed by Stanislaus County Office of Ed have not been released.

WIthin the 36 -page report, the term "If (or when) possible" is used 15 times to describe how safety measures will be implemented. Who defines “possible”? What happens when “not Possible” truly affects safety even though they tried? This reads a liability escape clause.

And lastly, the Blended Learning model is poorly explained by the district and poorly understood by teachers and the public. Cohorts of A & B students will have two days on campus and three days at home. Considerations...

Are individual classes split into A & B or is one class an A class and another class a B class?
Will students be randomly grouped for A & B?
Will groups based on learning needs?
How will siblings at the same sites be divided?
Will families have input?

What are students doing during their three days at home?
Packets? Teachers can’t teach on Zoom and In-Person at the same time with the technology in our district, so really, what are students going to be doing those other three days?

In conclusion, I really wish the district would have collaborated with it's hired experts -classroom teachers and classified staff- & consulted with a diverse parent group as plan was being developed. I fear that not much will be changed from this draft, but we shall see.

I think it'd be wise for the district to focus on distance ed through the end of the semester so we aren't disrupted by smoke or flu & COVID combo. Most kids may be asymptomatic, but what are the lifelong side effects? I don't want my son to have to know that answer.

You can watch the fun tonight via live stream! Don't forget to play "Which board members don't take public safety or board policies/norms seriously?".

Please listen, learn and make your voice heard!
https://www. http://turlock.k12.ca.us/virtualboardmeetings