In reply to: Our school has gotten lucky, and made some of its own. posted by Bruno95
We're an understanding lot but getting this dumped on us last Friday, less than one week before Thanksgiving was a bit rude. This is not a news flash and we are paying tuition to attend the school.
Further, it's not appropriate that decision hinged on the teachers going out of state for Thanksgiving. First, the families all signed an agreement pledging to comply with rules to limit the chance of this happening. We have complied and part of that was celebrating Thanksgiving at home in isolation. Second, it's against CDC guidelines for these teachers to travel, but the school is condoning this behavior. It is not appropriate that the reason we are going remote is that teachers are flaunting the guidance.
distilled down: our kids are going remote because the teachers are acting in bad faith. Further, it's shocking the school solicited the opinions of teachers rather than controlling their behavior. I'm not an employment law guru but I don't think it's out of bounds to require that teachers comply with CDC guidelines in the employment agreement.
Now there is going to be tension between the parents and teachers and that is very disappointing. This is all whinging on my part. I would rather just take the kids out of school at this point given how poorly elearning has gone for my one son and how much of a hassle .
My wife taught there many years ago. I was always impressed by the school.
That’s what AI indicated earlier and consistent with some further messaging our school sent out this evening.
Doesn’t change the fundamental point that the AD is effectively enabling bad faith actors.
But the gist has been the AD made the decision based on input from the teachers. 30% of parents wanted to move remote, which was an increase from 15% over the summer. Most of those people anecdotally wanted to go to a second home in Florida or the Caribbean.
We were doing so well and I thought our performance would be a strong point of difference. Now we have stumbled at the goal line. It’s frustrating.
Presumably in response to all the complaints. That communication said the AD apparently divided everyone into three buckets based on the survey responses (both family and teacher). According to our principal, most schools were placed into either “business as usual” (stick with in person) or “pivot” to full remote until MLK day based on these responses. A minority of schools (including ours) were placed in a middle bucket where the AD said you’re on the border and so you decide locally. Our administration chose to use the data to pivot to remote. The email tonight was much better than the one over the weekend, shared data points, and attempted to explain some inconsistencies. I still don’t agree, but at least we got some of the data and some more clarity.
And I am equally frustrated, though we didn't get the data on teachers opting to travel that you seem to have received.
Our communication wasn't even that the Archdiocese forced us to, but rather the administration chose to based on the parent responses.
Also we were furnished with the data once parents began to raise hell about the late notification and decision. Our principal told us we were one of 30 schools out of 400 archdiocese schools to do this. EDIT: Apparently it's 30 out of 162 schools.
There has been a communication issue and your post isn’t surprising. We are at ICSJ in old town.
And that was at least responsive to the complaints that you got your survey data. I haven't even gotten a response to the note I sent on Sunday, nor have the other parents that I know who also protested the decision.
We're at SBPS in North Center, and I have nothing but praise for the school's efforts since March until the decision this weekend. I know Sacred Heart (non-diocesan but following Archdiocesan guidelines for the most part) is staying in person.
Also - we are actually keeping the PK open 4 days a week, and only going remote for K-8.
After a fall surge of coronavirus infections, more Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic schools will temporarily transition to e-learning next week.
Catholic elementary schools were scheduled to shift to remote learning for two weeks at the beginning of next year, but “escalating COVID-19 rates within the general population” prompted the Office of Catholic Schools to modify its original plan, spokesman Manuel Gonzales said.
The decision also comes after the archdiocese surveyed stakeholders at all 162 schools in Cook and Lake counties to measure their comfort with in-person learning during the holiday season.
The survey measured parent satisfaction, preference for in-person or remote learning, and stress and workload considerations among teachers, Gonzales said.
“The results were that 80% of the schools needed no, or minimal, alteration of our current procedures,” he said. “The other 20% were candidates for more extensive adjustments, and it is for those schools we will be constructing individual (virtual learning) plans.”
The archdiocese will work with the 20% of schools that will transition to remote learning, and those schools should have their plan defined by Wednesday, archdiocese officials said. Officials from the archdiocese did not identify which schools those are.
This adjustment comes as educators continue to try to figure out how best to proceed with in-person and remote learning amid a pandemic.
Most public school systems in the Chicago area decided to continue with remote learning this fall or opened their buildings for limited in-person classes. Chicago Public Schools has remained remote since the March statewide schools shutdown but aims to begin bringing students back in January.
However, schools in the Chicago Archdiocese opened full time, with safety measures in place and remote learning options for parents who were not comfortable with their children returning to the classroom.
Was some hot garbage.
As has been demonstrated, polling is terribly inaccurate. And the way those questions were phrased was completely misleading and, I believe, lead to inaccurate conclusions based on faulty responses.
Bruno mentioned that their teachers gave up their social lives, and it's true. And it's not easy.
But one of the things that you keep in the back of your mind when you take an overseas job like this is that, if something comes up, you can always hop a flight home.
I have had teachers over the last several months who have lost parents, siblings, etc., and they aren't able to get home to their families to mourn with them. I see the toll that it is taking on them, and it is awful. But they are still showing up, every single day.