Sioux Falls schools won’t make masks mandatory this fall, so could they at least build more outdoor classrooms like the new one at John Harris Elementary?
“It’s a perfect opportunity for kids to have a different space to learn. We know that kids learn in all different environments and so this is just another opportunity for them to explore,” Instructional Coordinator Cynthia Breen said.
After months of applying for grants and fundraising, Cynthia Breen and Stefanie Hage are finally seeing progress. Knocking down the walls of a traditional learning environment and opening up the possibilities.
…There will be rotating schedules that allow all students and teachers to have use of the space.
It also creates more room to be socially distant.
“We will follow what ever the district tells us. They are still in the process of figuring out what exactly that will look like in the fall. Once we know, we will implement whatever they tell us about how many kids can be on the area at a time or how close they can sit together,” Breen said [Max Hofer, “Construction Starts on Outdoor Classroom at John Harris Elementary,” KELO-TV, 2020.07.09].
Why should schools have to beg for donations to build sensible, safe learning spaces? Governor Noem, you’re still sitting on hundreds of millions in federal coronavirus relief funds. Shake loose a hundred million for the school districts to build a thousand of these outdoor learning spaces so kids and teachers can go outside and learn in the fresh and less virally loaded air! Throw in a couple of nice heaters for each outdoor classroom, like the bars put on their patios when we banned indoor smoking, and we can use those outdoor classrooms all winter long!
No masks? Expect a quick shutdown.
Masks are the cheapest and effective way to help control this and yet common sense does not prevail. It seems the moronic argument it that it interferes with their first amendment right and yet the 1st amendment doesn’t specifically say you must wear clothes. Try going naked, see how far you get!
My 2 cents: Single-use disposable medical quality masks distributed daily, free, in schools (if safely opened). Mandatory use. Worn all day, every day. Imagine the impact on “transmissivity” [(C) Ryan] when EVERY kid in the country prevents aerosol spread! These likely can be well engineered to cost “less than two cents” each. Land fills can handle these slips of polypropylene until recycling is mastered that pays/profits for itself. The USA can easily handle this bit of mass industrialization. Teachers and peer-pressure can enforce kids who might unfortunately be stupefied by their parents to obstruct mask-Nazism. Kids can proudly teach adults how to use/remove/dispose masks properly. Child-Nazis unite!! (I do kid)!!
Disposable masks distributed daily to students are probably cheaper than building an outdoor classroom. Plus, it’s easier to distribute masks than to create an outdoor space that students and teachers can use in January.
Of course, we could also make some great low-cost outdoor learning spaces with some nice lattice privacy screens and straw bales for movable seating.
The reasoning behind recommending, but not requiring masks is to accommodate some students with special needs who might not be able to tolerate a mask. I’m sympathetic to these students, but there are other students who have conditions that make them particularly vulnerable to serious, even deadly, results if they contract the virus. It’s a hard decision to make. I would favor mandatory mask wearing
Regarding outdoor classrooms: I can remember when I was in elementary school, we actually had large ports in the walls called “windows” we could look out once in a while and see the beautiful greenery of the outside, or the not-so-beautiful but more longlasting winter snow and ice. and blue sky. Some of the kids had trouble with day dreaming, so it was advised that all these windows that let in so much light that other kids needed, be boarded up. So in their wisdom, all windows were covered up with that orangey-pink plastic-masonite-plywood, whatever that stuff is, the only use for which seems to be covering up whatever view there may be of the outside world for children to see.
Regarding masks: it’s an impossible decision. I have an elementary grandson with high-functioning autism (used to be called Asperger’s), bright, sweet, creative kid, very narrowly focused and given to spells of melt-down type anxiety. Doesn’t live in this state. Lost his daddy who was his stability to cancer at an early age. Mom can’t talk to him about pandemic without melt-down. When I’m faced with the idea of “sacrificing the few to preserve the many” I have no answers for anyone. About what to do regarding kids going back to school– I do have fear about reopening (as I think we’ve found out) in the middle of a surging pandemic. In SD it doesn’t seem so bad, but Mr. Pay may be right, it may be a short semester.
I like Mr. H’s idea about a bunch of outdoor classrooms. grudznick would say to do it outside in the winter down to about -10 wind chill. Kids need to learn to love the outdoors and toughen up. Buy them some nice El Bean coats with all that money the schools are getting from the covid bugs. Buy bar heaters too, like Mr. H suggested. I don’t know why he’s backtracking on this blogging idea. And if it is cold enough, you don’t have to worry about mandating masks. Just provide them, the kids will wear them.
Look at the Rosebud today. They’ve rescinded the lockdown and are running rampant, throwing their AWOL president into his own version of time out. I say let the kids go to school and do it all outside.
How Taiwan is doing it
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/taiwan-covid-19-lessons-1.5505031
This is from Axios Cities, by Kim Hart:
School districts are taking it upon themselves to help families get connected to the internet as they face down a long future of virtual learning.
Why it matters: In the COVID-19 era of education, broadband is an essential service that families need to stay connected — and that school systems require to equitably educate children in their districts.
The biggest hurdle: Most schools don’t even know which students are lacking internet service, and the neediest families are often the hardest to reach.
Driving the news: The Trump administration is pushing schools to fully reopen in the fall despite surges of COVID-19 cases in multiple states. At the same time, many districts — including the country’s largest in New York City — are working on hybrid plans that combine limited classroom instruction with virtual learning.
Perhaps the most ambitious initiative is a $50 million, public-private partnership in Chicago, which aims to provide 100,000 public school students with home internet service for four years.
That’s a big undertaking in a city where, in some neighborhoods, nearly half of households with school-aged children do not have in-home broadband, according to Kids First Chicago.
How it works: Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is using students’ addresses to determine who lacks internet, then gives families a unique code to sign up directly with an assigned service provider.
United Way of Metro Chicago will handle paying the bills for the households.
Philanthropy donors, including Citadel CEO Ken Griffin and Crown Family Philanthropies, are providing bridge funding for the first two years of service. CPS will cover the costs for the last two years.
Local organizations will help families understand how to use the broadband service and hook up the devices needed for online education.
Other efforts are also underway:
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced last week that the state would use $10 million in CARES Act funding to reimburse schools for improving internet connectivity for K-12 students, about 20% of whom were not able to access online coursework during the spring.
In North Dakota, state agencies worked with local internet providers to connect 1,762 homes to broadband service.
The Racine, Wisconsin, school district mobilized secretaries and teachers this summer to call or visit families — including those in temporary housing and shelters — to identify those who do not have adequate internet service or devices.
Between the lines: The most successful districts have maximized their purchasing power by partnering with other nearby districts or municipalities, said Ellen Goldich, program director at EducationSuperHighway, a nonprofit that is working with school districts on data collection and procurement.
“Service providers want to meet this need for their communities,” Goldich said.
“But they’re better at meeting that need when schools frame it in terms of a business opportunity.”
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This is a link to what North Dakota is doing: is.gd/hD1VE4
On Donald’s comment about kids who can’t “tolerate” a mask: if we have an activity that involves lots of people on whom we can’t keep masks, and if coronavirus is still prevalent and unchecked by vaccine, then we just can’t have that activity.
The special needs of some students do not outweigh the health needs of all students.
A 5-4 wingnut majority of the Scotus will surely tell Master that religious schools and religious freedumbs will trump any and all rights of non-religious kids.
Sincerely held religious beliefs is the Rosetta stone for dismantling settled laws.
There must be a FB/4Chan prairie fire burning behind the “patriots against masks” madness?
Use the empty malls. There will soon be many more stores that will go belly up. Use the malls for classrooms. They already have handicap bathrooms. They are already huge open spaces. They have huge parking lots. They are empty begging for some help. We have the money to make that happen. Plenty of security and logistics for getting kids there to load and off load. That and the regular schools would make for plenty of social distancing…oh, and give the teachers a raise and hire twice as many.
In Rapid City, the old Albertson’s, the Praire Market, Main Street, Rushmore Crossing, man there are millions of square feet of abandoned retail and warehouse space available….and we have 1.25 BILLION bucks to make it happen. In Pierre, the same, In Aberdeen, the same. Sioux Falls put it to use rather than build new schools, you already have the structure use it. Most of the owners got some kind of tax break or TIF’s so call in the chits and lets make a deal.
Sounds like a smart plan Jerry.