Our latest FB post: Burger King lets you “have it your way” in order to customize your dining experience to satisfy your personal tastes. Similarly, the Johnson County Health Department has made decisions based on community input because their menu – oops – gating criteria (1)

was not satisfactory to their community.
Let's set aside our issues with how crazy that is and let's set aside our issues with Fulton and Company making the school announcements (for students and teachers) after 4:00 on a Friday. (2)

Let's set aside our issues with the mishandling of some remote learners and the inconsistent and thoughtless ways they have been treated.
For today, let's focus on the hybrid learning model which is arguably the worst of all options. (3)

Sure, small classes sound amazing, but this model is double the workload for teachers and really short changing the students. Here’s why. (4)

Hybrid means your kids will only go to in-person school two days a week. The other half of the alphabet will go two different days/week. And then all students learn remotely on Fridays. It's currently set up that the first half of the alphabet will go Monday/Tuesday and (5)

the second half will go Wednesday/Thursday. Say your kid is a Wednesday/Thursday in-person. On Monday and Tuesday they will have "schoolwork" but no instruction, because the teachers will be busy instructing the in-person students. (6)

Depending on your kid, that could mean they bust through their assigned tasks in an hour or two and then have the rest of the day to mess around, or it could mean they put off doing it both days and show up to school unprepared. (7)

What it absolutely doesn't mean is that your kid will have access to instruction all week long. The hybrid learning model DECREASES instructional time and INCREASES the exposure to Covid. (8)

If we were going to be doing hybrid forever there are absolutely ways to do it well, by flipping instruction and setting up collaborative project-based learning models, but the teachers in SMSD don't have time to do that. (9)

They barely have time to keep their current rafts floating. much less build a new boat. Plus, of course, this isn't a long-term model. When the numbers go up we will be back in remote, or if they go down we will be full in-person. (10)

By the time teachers figure out how to do hybrid learning well, that rug will be pulled out from under them. Again. (11)

So here we are - at another moment when the district could have done the right thing for teachers (who are largely making it work really well in remote learning) and for students (who need consistency and routine more than they need to roam some halls with other kids)... (12)

...and for the community's safety. Changing some colors on a graph doesn't change the reality of people being impacted by this sickness. But go ahead, SMSD, have it your way. (end)