I have questions for the District and I think you should too

This is what I sent the district for tomorrows board meeting. It is a hair over 400 words so I hope the read it.

I do not know a teacher or parent who does not want to start school on time.

We must all remember the district making plans to open up and parents and teachers who have grave concerns are not enemies of each other, the enemy is the problem we are trying to solve which is how to educate our students while keeping both our staff and our students safe.

I also think everyone should acknowledge all the hard work the district has done preparing to get us back. That being said I have questions I would like the superintendent and board to answer.

Since the district is knowingly sending teachers into conditions where they may get sick if they do can teachers sue if they do so? What about the family of a child, or does that family just assume that risk by sending them to school?

If a teacher must quarantine because of exposure, then their family will as well, if the spouse is working will the district compensate their employer for the time/work missed?

If a spouse of a DCPS employee gets sick, will the district cover all their medical costs and expenses?   

Are teachers going to be expected to teach while quarantined or sick? What about students, what is the expectation for them if they are sent home?

If a teacher exceeds the allotment of missed days because either exposure to or catching the coronavirus will the district hold their PTO harmless, reimburse any medical costs?

How is the district going to require staff to put an app on their personal devices?

If the app tells an employee to stay home, do they have to use personal or sick leave?

The sad reality is there is no way we can open schools safely. In the spring we shut down the entire city when there were a few dozen cases, now there are hundreds. It took Florida 111 days to get to 100 thousand cases and then just 13 days to get to 200 thousand.    

We are fooling ourselves if we think things will be much better by the start date. Wouldn’t a better and safer plan to use the time we have left to figure out how to make distance learning better?   

We do so many things out of an abundance of caution, and where I get, we are not throwing caution to the wind, everyone knows schools will be dangerous places where the virus will inevitability find its way into.