Teachers are in quite a bind. They absolutely do not want to go back to the classroom for fear of contagion. They kinda want to be considered "essential" in the hopes this guarantees their paycheck - hastag nofurloughdays and all that. In fact they'd like to see a pay raise and have compared themselves to...wait for it...doctors! Now, they are significantly closer to nurses both in level of education and ongoing training but it sounds so much better when you claim you're like an MD, eh? Ballsy move.
Here's an alternative plan: let's have a gap year. Just call off the whole damn thing. No furlough days. An entire furlough year. Spend the money saved on infrastructure. Facilities expansion. HVAC upgrades to include UV-C sanitizing. Might want to consider copper handrails and cafeteria contact surfaces.
Upgrades to content delivery may be in order. Books? Why? No books? No lockers? Current technology can do much to reduce dilly dally.
The timeout can also become the pause that refreshes. There will be time to ask and answer some serious questions. If we had nothing, as would temporarily be the case, is what we now have what we'd build? Is it really a good idea to use DeKalb Schools as some half-assed health care platform? Really? Should that be the county health department? And is a school system really a reverse Uber Eats, where you bring 'em over and we'll feed 'em. Is this really the best way to provide government funded daycare? This is a wonderful time for parents to get in touch with their little darlings and maybe realize they're not all you claim they are.
Maybe a gap year will help streamline social services, removing them from an already overburdened education system and move the teaching and learning back to front and center. Of course there would have to be a "hold harmless" policy for all students. All would receive a gap year promotion and with colleges and universities dropping requirements for objectively measured academic accomplishments it really would be no-harm-no-foul. Honestly, until we get serious about learning most students would be no worse off taking a gap year than going through the motions of the current system.
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