Wednesday, October 14

Things to do for school

- meet with CUSD#300 - Thurs. Oct. 15 at 2 p.m.

- meet with Mr. Lehtola and Mrs. Hasson

- figure out parent-teacher conference stuff

- figure out mentor completion stuff

- complete Mrs. Mitola's evaluation

- give away the stage lights....

Things I Could Do or Need to Do In the Future

• Reserve campsite at Loud Thunder for this weekend.
• Wash the trailer.
• Winterize the trailer.

Things that I NOW think about with the coronavirus. (10/14)

Last night the CUSD#300 BOE voted 5-2 to remove the hybrid learning model in place and return to full in-person learning with full remote option that is mandated by the state.  This vote was contrary to the recommendation presented it by the administration in conjunction with feedback from district staff.  The view of the pandemic by some people, many of whom I consider intelligent, educated people, just simply baffles me.  The general take-a-ways I felt summarize the discussion were 1) kids don't get sick from the virus;  2) too many students and their families are unwilling to commit to the resources and opportunities available to make remote learning doable, so an abnormal number of students are failing; 3) too many other students and their families feel that the hybrid model isn't offering enough of an education, so a return to full instruction is needed; 4) surrounding school Illinois districts and neighboring Iowa districts are hosting full instruction with students, so CUSD should be able to do it as well.  So beginning November 9th CUSD#300, students and their families will choose between the option of returning to everyday instruction or full remote, just as teachers and administrators had pretty much become comfortable with delivering the hybrid model and having a pretty good success record of keeping students and staff healthy.  And the vibe I got was that if this decision is wrong or an outbreak occurs in the district, the BOE can just call a meeting and roll back to the hybrid model or full remote.  One thing I am comforted by is that the BOE believes we should be able to do what all the other school districts are doing, so I am looking forward to determining if neighboring school districts are cutting high school English teachers, cutting high school vocational teachers, piecing together junior high language arts teachers.  I'm also interested to see if these other districts don't have a high school family and consumer science program, if they have only a 1/2 time high school art teacher.  I'm also eager to see if other school districts have stretched their administrators and support staff employees as much as has been done in the Rockridge School District.  On the other hand, our parking lots look great, we have a new all-weather track, and the meeting last night was held in a gymnasium that has gorgeous new scoreboards.  Maybe all the surrounding school districts have those two.  And I'll close with this.  I pray the five members of the BOE are right, and there won't be an outbreak in our schools that causes a serious illness or perhaps even death to a student, a staff member, or a community member that becomes infected as a result of an outbreak in our school district.  I hope those five members can all call me and tell me that I was too much of a "doomsday" person.  On the other hand, if an outbreak occurs, and serious illness occurs, and contact tracing efforts determine that there a superspreader event occurred in the district that may have been avoided, the tracing can be ultimately traced to the five members of the BOE that voted in favor of advancing instruction to full in-person learning because kids don't get sick, remote learning is hard, hybrid instruction isn't good enough, and everybody else is doing full in-person instruction.

We don't have enough chromebooks to go one-on-one, so we are going to have to share chromebooks and/or go back to the use of chromebook carts in the classroom, which means not only are teachers going to have to wipe down desks and seats, but we will also have to wipe down chromebooks too.  So we aren't supposed to use textbooks, we aren't suppose to use paper/pencil, and now it's likely that we don't have enough chromebooks in the district to use those either.  

• Stats
• February 29 was the first reported positive case in Illinois. 
• March 20, there were 585 reported positive cases.
• As of May 29 (3 months), there were 120,260 positive cases and 5,390 deaths.
• As of June 29 (4 months), there were 142, 461 positive cases and 6,902 deaths.
• As of July 31 (5 months), there were 178,837 positive cases and 7,495 deaths.
• As of August 29 (6 months), there were 231,363 positive cases and 8,008 deaths.
• How did I miss September 29?

• ILLINOIS PREVIOUS DAY
• hospitalizations - 377
• ILLINOIS YESTERDAY
• hospitalizations - 406
• ILLINOIS TODAY
• hospitalizations - 390

• ROCK ISLAND COUNTY
• YESTERDAY - 3,411 positive cases; 83 deaths
• TODAY - 3,446 positive cases; 85 deaths

Prayer for My Heart

Holy Spirit...

Help me have... 

    a pure heart, that I may see;
    a humble heart, that I may hear;
    a heart of love, that I may serve;
    a heart of faith, that I may abide in the spirit. 

                                                                     Amen