Yakima SD Going Remote for a Week

 According to a press release by the Yakima School District, Superintendent Dr. Trevor Greene announced to YSD families today that the district schools must transition to remote learning (with some in-person exceptions) for Tuesday, January 18 - Monday, January 24, 2022.

"We are continuing our struggle with staff shortages due to illness/quarantine. The omicron COVID-19 cases are expected to peak in our area next week likely making in-person operations impossible. We do not have enough bus drivers, food service workers, or school nurses to support learning in our current format. The cases are expected to decline rapidly after the peak and we will watch that data and more importantly, its impact on our staff and families closely".

Again, I think if districts are having this many problems, they should do remote until the end of the month and Omicron dies back (as it has in other parts of the world.)

Comments

Anonymous said…
Look at what Yakima is doing, though! Continuing to provide FAPE?!

"Self-Contained Special Education classrooms will remain in-person, including transport, and on their normal schedule at all schools."

(https://www.ysd7.org/RemoteLearning)

Elementary SPED
1/16/22, 3:36 PM
Anonymous said…
Melissa- If you have a chance listen to NPR Kuow noon hour today & interview with Rekdal. The logic of closing schools across the board is not the current CDC & WA public health advice. It is a highly nuanced and variable situation depending upon many things. I think most people are not understanding the evolution of virus, factors, how vaccination affects etc. SPS has been closing schools but only temporarily under certain conditions such as not enough staff. SPS should be providing the higher quality KN95 masks (soon) as students are advocating. There is a supply chain delay of some kind here as opposed to elsewhere. The governor stated Jan 5th our state will be sending them to schools. In a highly vaccinated community (ex Seattle area) the effects of Omicron are very different. We did not have vaccines last time around and it was a different version of virus and situation. Everything here is open, including bars, restaurants with no expectation of a lock down. The virus will still circulate no matter schools open or closed. They are expecting an extremely sharp decline. There are so many asymptomatic & mild cases circulating right now. Nearly all of us will have contracted Omicron eventually according to Fauci, it evades the vaccine. Closing schools is always a very last resort. The bad clearly outweigh the benefit. Schools are in fact more safe than most places in the community society has no problem with being open. Most districts are also unable to pivot quickly to a high quality remote model. The model SPS had implemented was on an emergency basis. The data very clearly indicates online and remote is extremely harmful to children.

Parent

1/18/22, 1:25 PM
Anonymous said…
Northshore superintendent stated in KUOW today that self contained special education is prioritized in person and normal schedule in the case of closed schools.


Parent
1/18/22, 1:27 PM
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