(Updated 2:45 p.m.) A new online petition is urging Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) to conduct simulations of what in-person learning will look like before the school year starts.
As of this afternoon, the petition has received 674 signatures since Scott Waters created it one week ago on Change.org. FCPS Superintendent Scott Brabrand is expected to pitch virtual-only learning at a school board meeting this afternoon, but it is unclear how and if the plan would proceed.
Recently, families picked whether they want fully online learning for the upcoming school year or hybrid learning — a mix of in-person and remote learning — for their kids in the county’s public school system. In total “111,712, or 60 percent, chose hybrid learning,” Patch reported. “This includes 31,289 who did not respond and were automatically given the in-person option. The other 40 percent chose online-only learning.”
The petition outlines what a simulation could look like, saying that adult volunteers could role-play as custodians cleaning, students who do and don’t wear masks and teachers grading quizzes.
One proposed aspect of the simulation would assign a volunteer playing a “student in each class to be an asymptomatic Covid-19 carrier, ask those students to keep a record of the surfaces touched and the number of people they came into contact with that were closer than three feet at any time or six feet for at least 15 minutes.”
The petition says that the simulation ideas were developed by middle and high school teachers and that different simulations might be appropriate for elementary schools, special education and transportation services.
Supporters of the idea said in comments under the petition that simulations could help the school system find and address in-person learning issues beforehand, instead of trying to fix things after school starts.
“A simulation would drive home the realities about to be faced by students, teachers and staff members,” one commenter wrote. “And if you cannot willingly find adult participants to do this simulation (which will be [a] reality in the fall), perhaps you should rethink your current plans for in-person learning.”
The petition asks that “in addition to observations made during the simulation, collect feedback from all participants and consider a focus group of those assigned to play specific roles.”
Whether or not the school system will take up the proposal is unclear.
“The concept is certainly worth consideration as we are all working together to prepare our students, families, and staff for a safe, responsible return to school,” according to a statement shared by FCPS Spokesperson Lucy Caldwell.
More from the statement:
FCPS is deeply appreciative of the efforts, the work, the collaboration and the commitment of FCPS teachers and support personnel. Their roles are crucial to the success and well-being of students across the division and their voices are being heard. We will continue to prioritize the health and safety of our students, staff, and community in developing our return to school plans.
Caldwell did not answer Tysons Reporter’s question about whether or not the school system is discussing simulations.
Photo via Element5 Digital/Unsplash
A virtual town hall next week will tackle systemic racism and equity issues that students face in public schools.
Fairfax County NAACP and Fairfax County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Brabrand are hosting the event.
“From academic achievement, enrollment at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, to the School Resource Officer program and the school-to-prison pipeline, systemic racism affects our children’s lives every day,” the event description says, noting the town hall will focus on students’ experiences.
Previously, FCPS officials and Fairfax NAACP hosted an event in May, where Brabrand said he is committed to seeing the school system work faster to address racism within the public schools, WUSA9 reported.
FCPS plans to announce a new anti-racism curriculum which could start as soon as this fall, Fox5 reported. A recent petition is asking the school system to improve its Black history curricula.
The upcoming town hall is set to take place at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, July 21.
People interested in watching via Zoom are asked to RSVP. The town hall will also be available on Facebook Live.
Photo via Sam Balye/Unsplash
Families and school systems are starting to make plans for when school starts again in the fall.
For Fairfax County Public Schools, students will either learn fully online or with a combination of in-person and online classes.
Roughly 45% of respondents to our poll earlier this week on learning options said they prefer fully online classes, while about 40% said they want the hybrid model. Approximately 15% of the respondents said they either don’t know which to choose or that the topic doesn’t apply to them.
FCPS and county officials are worried about childcare options for working parents, especially ones who can’t work from home.
Let us know in the poll before if you are facing childcare challenges ahead of school starting back up. Feel free to discuss in the comments section what your experience has been like.
Photo by Charles Deluvio on Unsplash
Fairfax County officials want to address looming childcare challenges ahead of the upcoming school year.
John Foust and Walter Alcorn, the supervisors for the Dranesville and Hunter Mill districts, presented a joint board matter yesterday to tackle the “unprecedented need” for childcare.
When classes start again this fall, Fairfax County Public Schools is planning to offer two systems: fully online and hybrid learning — a mix of in-person and online instruction. Working parents, especially ones who don’t work from home, now have to figure out childcare options, which have been complicated due to the pandemic.
Alcorn and Foust said that the county may have to expand its role in child care options depending on great the need is.
“For the sake of the children and their families it is essential that good quality child care services be made available,” the board matter said. “It is also critical to advance the county’s efforts to restart our economy that those parents who work but do not normally need childcare when schools are fully open can work and contribute to economic activity.”
County Executive Bryan Hill said that the county has 2,000 childcare providers: “The first thing we want to do is fill them up.”
Chairman Jeff McKay said that childcare providers he’s talked to have said that they are concerned about surviving the pandemic.
“Oddly, their businesses hurt more than most because what they are worried about is a ton of people now teleworking and not needing daycare,” McKay said.
The Board of Supervisors approved the board matter, which directs county staff to work with FCPS and to update the supervisors on how the county can provide additional resources and support.
“Even in the best of times, the infrastructure for childcare in Fairfax County is not adequate,” Foust said yesterday. “And these are far from the best of times.”
Photo by Shirota Yuri on Unsplash
An online petition created by two Fairfax County Public Schools graduates is calling on the school system to improve its Black history curricula.
Tyler Hensen and Rachel Murphy, who are both graduates from 2012, launched the Change.org petition, which states that the school system’s curricula are insufficient to address systemic racism.
Here’s more from the petition, which has gained more than 800 signatures so far:
FCPS has played an important role in providing a safe and encouraging place for us to grow as students and world citizens. We have each had our lives positively impacted by the care of hardworking teachers and staff who opened our minds to a range of issues, fields, and passions. In a school system that is home to students who speak over 200 languages, FCPS prides itself on the racial and cultural diversity of its students and staff. However, there is a deficiency in our classrooms regarding education on issues of structural, institutional, individual, and systemic racism. Thus, we are calling for action to be made in the existing curricula and culture, for this action to be overseen by a committee that is responsible and responsive to all stakeholders in the County, and a public statement released by the FCPS School Board committing to lasting change.
We know that this proposal is the beginning of an ongoing conversation between our administration, community, and student body. The basis of justice, equity, and change begins with a properly educated and informed generation. We propose a list of tangible actions which are available to be read here.
In a recent statement, FCPS said teachers are working hard to improve the social studies curriculum:
A group of Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) teachers have been collaborating with colleagues from five other Virginia school districts to create a social studies curriculum that presents diverse perspectives and challenges students to critically examine materials, events, and institutions for bias, identity, and multiple perspectives. The new curriculum will be available to students in grades 3, 4, 6, 7, and 11 as soon as this fall.
Beginning in 2018 under the umbrella of the Virginia Inquiry Collaborative, FCPS teachers worked with colleagues from Albemarle County, Virginia Beach City, and Charlottesville, and later Madison County and Powhatan County Schools, to collaborate aroundcurriculum development designed for use across Virginia, beginning with a focus on fourth grade Virginia Studies.
According to a WUSA 9 report, the students said they believe their understanding of slavery and racism represents a “tremendous deficiency in the understanding that we are then released into the world as young adults with this really deficient understanding of how we are perpetuating a problem.”
They want the new curricula to emphasize the historical impact of Black leaders, writers, artists, and thinkers.
The petition also calls on FCPS to create a committee that oversees the implementation of “anti-racism” into the curricula and culture.
Photo via Sam Balye/Unsplash
The deadline is nearing for families to decide how they want their kids to return to Fairfax County public schools this year.
Families have until Wednesday, July 15, to complete a form indicating whether they want their kids to take fully online classes or join a hybrid model combining in-person and online learning.
Families who pick the fully online option would have four days of synchronous learning. The hybrid model would combine two days of learning in schools with asynchronous online learning.
Superintendent Scott Brabrand has said that the school system will consider adding more in-person days — not to exceed four — depending on the demand for the hybrid model.
For families who are having trouble deciding, Brabrand encourages parents to see how their kids react to wearing a face covering for six hours — the amount of time they would need to wear it while at school.
No matter which option parents pick, students will return to the county’s public schools on Tuesday, Sept. 8.
Let us know in the poll below what your preference is for students returning to school this fall.
Photo courtesy Dan Dennis on Unsplash
Students in Fairfax County public schools will get two more weeks of summer vacation.
The Fairfax County School Board approved the superintendent’s proposal to wait to start school after Labor Day.
The school board voted yesterday (Thursday) to push the return date for students from Tuesday, Aug. 25, to Tuesday, Sept. 8, according to a press release from Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS).
The two-week delay will give staff more time to prepare for online and hybrid learning — especially since the deadline was extended for parents to pick which learning option they want.
Parents have until Wednesday, July 15, to indicate whether they want their kids to take classes fully online or a combination of in-person and online learning for the entire upcoming school year.
In a newsletter today, Melanie Meren, who represents the Hunter Mill District on the school board, said that she was originally not in favor of the pushed start date, but changed her mind.
“I reconsidered after I learned that school principals and directors of student services expressed concerns about the time that they will need to turn around the enrollment data from parents and build the master schedules associated with the two options,” Meren said in the newsletter.
Now, Meren said that the new plan will help support “the quality of the learning experience.”
The school board’s vote only affects students’ return — staff will still follow the original schedule, allowing additional days to prepare. Meren noted that staff will receive professional development opportunities, like socio-emotional supports, along with training for the new curriculum and technology during the two weeks before school starts.
In response to queries about why online learning can’t start in August, Meren said that having the two school systems on different schedules “is not feasible.”
Photo via Element5 Digital/Unsplash
Falls Church Development Moving Forward — “With the Falls Church City Council’s first in-depth public look at the detailed special exception site plan for the 9.77-acre mega-West End development project Monday night, an undertone arising from the Covid-19 pandemic’s ‘unbelievable headwinds’ suddenly facing it in these extraordinary times was in the background for the three-hour discussion.” [Falls Church News-Press]
List of Local PPP Loan Recipients — Patch has lists of local businesses in Vienna, McLean and Tysons that received loans of $150,000 or more. [McLean Patch, Vienna Patch]
Local Leaders Respond to DeVos’s Criticism — “U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos had some criticism for Fairfax County Schools’ virtual learning during the pandemic and reopening plan for the fall. Leaders from the school system, the largest in Virginia, responded in defense of the plan providing only virtual learning or a mix with two days of in-person learning.” [Patch]
Pandemic’s Impact on Local Dentist — “As coronavirus restrictions in response to the pandemic ramped up in mid-March, dentists like Dr. Nicole Van closed their offices for all but emergencies. Since reopening, the dentist’s office experience looks different from pre-pandemic times.” [Patch]
Photo courtesy Hilde Kahn
Vienna Welcomes New Elected Officials — “The new Town Council members, elected during a year with a bumper crop of candidates but virtually no door-to-door campaigning, already are working well together, [new mayor Linda] Colbert said.” [Inside NoVa]
Citizens Group Calls for More Police Accountability — “The Fairfax County Police Department implemented multiple measures following a series of controversial incidents in recent years, but the McLean Citizens Association’s board of directors wants the department to do even more to make officers accountable.” [Inside NoVa]
New Names — “Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam wants school districts across the state to change school names that honor Confederate leaders, writing Monday in a letter to school board leaders that those names ‘reflect our broken and racist past.'” [Patch]
Call to Defund SROs — “Fairfax County NAACP and State Del. Kaye Kory (D) sent a letter to Gov. Ralph Northam Tuesday asking him to reallocate state funding away from supporting police officers in schools and putting it toward more school counselors.” [Patch]
Local Companies Land “Inno on Fire” List — Both McLean-based Somatus, which focuses on kidney care, and Tysons-based RunSafe Security made DC Inno’s list of the companies, organizations, people and initiatives focused on innovation. [DC Inno]
Superintendent Scott Brabrand said during a town hall last night that he plans to ask the Fairfax County School Board this week to delay the start of the school year to after Labor Day.
Brabrand kicked off the town hall by saying that families will now have until Wednesday, July 15, instead of Friday, July 10, to pick whether they prefer four days of synchronous online learning or two days of in-person learning with asynchronous online learning.
Brabrand said that he wants to extend the start date to Tuesday, Sept. 8, to give principals more time to prepare, because the survey deadline is getting extended. The pushed back start date this fall would not lengthen the school year, Brabrand said, adding that he wants teachers and staff to return at the normally scheduled times to get a head start on planning and reaching out to families.
During the town hall, audience members called and emailed in questions asking about what the two learning options will look like, COVID-19 safety measures and what to do about childcare. Here’s what the superintendent said.
Safety Measures for Students and Staff
Brabrand said that more health and safety protocols, including recess and playground equipment, are expected to get released later this week. Currently, he knows students and staff will be asked to wear face coverings in schools.
The schools will not check every child’s temperature, but will check if a kid shows up without a mask, he said, adding that parents will be expected to complete a form daily about whether or not their kids have COVID-19 symptoms.
Students who show COVID-19 symptoms in class will be sent to the clinic and then possibly have to wait in an isolation room before their parents come to pick them up, he said. For COVID-19 cases, schools would decide on a case by case basis what to do after the contract tracing investigation, he said.
Brabrand urged families are struggling to decide between the two options to see how their kids respond to wearing masks for six hours.
What School Will Look Like
Brabrand stressed that FCPS will remain flexible if the pandemic dramatically worsens or improves, but he said that he wants to curb parents going back and forth on in-person vs. online learning during the school year.
“We’ve never had to create two separate school systems before, ever,” Brabrand said.
While he wants parents to stick to their choice for the entire school year, he said that the schools will consider emergency situations on a case by cases and school by school basis.
Depending on how many families select in-person vs. online learning, Brabrand said that additional in-person days might be offered. Even if FCPS increases in-person learning, teachers would have Mondays reserved for planning and additional time to work with students who are struggling.
“We know that for families who want in-person, they want as much in person as possible,” Brabrand said.
Brabrand said that capacity is the key reason FCPS won’t offer five days of in-person learning.
The schedules for the two days of in-person learning would work alphabetically by last name so that families with kids in multiple grades would go to school on the same days, Sloan Presidio, the assistant superintendent for instructional services, said last night.
Currently, the school system is trying to figure out to maximize learning space for students. Brabrand said that he’s working with principals to consider temporary learning space outside. The weather, though, could pose obstacles, he added. School cafeterias are also places that might turn into classrooms this fall, Brabrand said.
As for online learning, families can expect FCPS teachers to use Blackboard Collaborate Ultra and Google Classroom for video conferencing, Brabrand said, adding that FCPS has plans to use a new platform called Schoology.
Childcare Concerns
Several callers raised concerns about childcare when deciding which learning option to pick, saying that their childcare centers don’t have plans yet for the fall and that they don’t know how the synchronous online learning would work if both parents work during the day.
Presidio said that FCPS is planning to have several hours of learning for kindergarten students in the morning, but that families should check with their schools’ principals to find out what the schedules would look like.
While FCPS is working with the county and private childcare providers, Brabrand said that childcare challenges are outside the scope of what the school system can accomplish in a few months.
“I know childcare remains one of the critical issues,” Brabrand said, adding he would like to see faith communities offer more support.
Brabrand said that people can expect future town halls — including Spanish language, Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) and Special Education PTA ones — and more information on health and safety guidelines.
Image via Fairfax County Public Schools
