WHILE WE WATCH ENDLESS VOTE COUNTING, COVID IS SPREADING AND SOME AREA SCHOOL SYSTEMS ARE GOING OR STAYING ALL REMOTE INCLUDING SUCCESS ACADEMY

As the country monitors the endless election count where the candidate who leads the popular vote by over 4 million votes has to wait to claim victory thanks to the obsolete, unfair to the point of almost being like a UFT election,  Electoral College system, the COVID-19 pandemic rages on. School systems in the area are going or staying all remote but not NYC public schools, where parents are being encouraged in at least one case to send their kids back to buildings.

From News Today:

Success Academy, the city’s largest charter school network, will extend all-remote learning through at least March of 2021, the network announced Friday.

The decision was made to avoid any disruption to schooling, according to Success CEO Eva Moskowitz, who cited uncertainty about a resurgence of the coronavirus and the possibility of sudden school closures.

Notably, Moskowitz also argued that fully remote learning is the best way to ensure that students receive quality teaching during the pandemic, and avoid some of the pitfalls of having to create two different versions of school at once, remotely and in person. It is a stark departure from the city’s district schools, which have invested heavily in reopening physical school buildings, but have struggled to staff both in-person and virtual classes and have yet to attract most students back to classrooms.

“It is not at all clear that this version of schooling would be better than the quality we can produce with strong remote learning,” Success officials wrote in a letter to families. “While district schools are open and a small number of students can physically be on campus, students are often being taught remotely by teachers who are not in the classroom with them. This is not our vision of great schooling.”

I don't often agree with the charter school queen but staying remote is sensible policy.

There are public school systems in the area that are also not willing to unnecessarily risk the health of teachers and staff and are going fully remote. This is from NJ.com:

Clifton’s school district will switch all facilities to remote learning on Monday with officials citing a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in the Passaic County city as well as COVID-19 positive tests for 12 students and four school staff members in the last week.

A decision will be made in January 2021 on when to reopen schools in the district, which had just resumed in-person classes on Oct. 12, Danny A. Robertozzi, superintendent of schools said in a letter to the community. Clifton’s district is among the largest in the state with more than 10,000 students across 20 schools.

Newark is fully remote too until early 2021.

In NYC, cases of COVID-19 are rising. This data is from the NY Times:

At least 7 new coronavirus deaths and 1,202 new cases were reported in New York City on Nov. 6. Over the past week, there has been an average of 880 cases per day, an increase of 46 percent from the average two weeks earlier.

As of Saturday morning, there have been at least 273,386 cases and 24,054 deaths in New York City since the beginning of the pandemic, according to a New York Times database.

That second wave is here. Now is the time to hunker down to contain the spread but what did I get from my son's elementary school? A letter pushing me to return my son to the building.

We have reopened our school building safely and welcomed back our students and families. It is great to see their eager young faces smiling as they return to their blended learning classes in person. We are practicing health and safety guidelines and have had a successful transition. As the COVID-19 infection rates have stayed markedly low citywide and in our school, we know many of you are considering having your child return to school for in-person learning. If you previously chose full-time remote learning for your child, now is your chance to opt into blended learning for the remainder of the school year! You only have until November 15th 2020!

The school needs to look at the NY Times. We are experiencing record COVID-19 cases in this country. We don't need advertisements for blended learning. On the other hand, my daughter's school, to their credit, just sent a very neutral letter advising us of the open period.