The world is indeed upside-down these days:
"How to make up for the pandemic’s devastating learning loss? Massachusetts families say summer school will be key; Support for summer school is particularly strong among Black and Latino parents" by Bianca Vázquez Toness Globe Staff, March 16, 2021
They take a year away from the kids and put them through hell, and now say you will have to go to summer school to catch up?
THAT is CHILD ABUSE!
As Massachusetts leaders and school officials grapple with how to make up for lost learning from the pandemic, a clear majority of parents say robust summer school offerings need to be a part of the solution.
Fifty-seven percent prefer summer school to other alternatives—such as a longer school day next year—as a way of making up for lost school time, according to a poll of a diverse group of about 1,500 parents of school-age children released Wednesday by the MassINC Polling Group.
The support for summer school extended across all racial and socioeconomic groups polled, but was especially strong among Black and Latino parents; 73 percent and 70 percent, respectively, preferred summer school.
“If you don’t want this to be a lost generation, then kids need more time,” said Juan Gonzalez of Marshfield, one of the parents surveyed and a strong proponent of summer school for his 8-year-old son.
It would depend on who is the teacher.
The poll, the third in a series documenting parent perspectives on education issues, was conducted in February and March in both English and Spanish. It was funded by the Boston-based Barr Foundation, which also provides financial support for the Globe’s Great Divide team focused on education inequality.
In other words, it's an agenda-pu$hing piece of $hit, kids.
The poll found deep concerns among Massachusetts families about academic regression during the pandemic—but also mental health. Nearly two-thirds of the state’s parents say they fear for their children’s emotional well-being.
“It just goes to show what a universal impact this year has had on kids from all kinds of families,” said Maeve Duggan, research director at MassINC Polling Group.
A full 63 percent of white residents said they were “very” or “somewhat” concerned about mental and emotional well-being, compared to 52 percent of Black and Latino parents, and 57 percent of Asian ones.
They should be, and going forward isn't going to be any easier given the dystopia that have prepared in the return to $chool.
Wealthier families are particularly concerned about the pandemic’s negative impact on their children’s academic, social and emotional well-being.....
That's when I walked out of class because I just learned the Globe is not only not written for average people, they act as if we don't even exist and we soon might not.
Related:
"New evidence that it may be safe for schools to seat students three feet apart — half of the previous recommended distance — could offer a way to return more of the nation's children to classrooms with limited space. Published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, the research looked at schools in Massachusetts, which has backed the three-foot guideline for months. Illinois and Indiana are also allowing three feet of distance, and other states such as Oregon are considering doing the same. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now exploring the idea too. Other organizations have issued more relaxed guidelines, including the World Health Organization, which urges one meter in schools. The American Academy of Pediatrics says to space desks "three feet apart and ideally six feet apart....."
That was from a study reported a week prior, and if that doesn't alert to the scam as variants close in(!!??!!) then nothing will.
There is NO NEED for DISTANCE and NO NEED for MASKS, folks!
It's all a CRIMINAL $CAM!
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"Mass. school officials eye summer as a chance to help students hard hit by pandemic" by John Hilliard Globe Staff, March 14, 2021
After a year turned upside down by COVID-19, some Massachusetts school districts are looking ahead to summer and how they can use the traditional time off as a chance to expand educational opportunities interrupted during the pandemic.
Makes you want to puke, doesn't it?
School officials in Framingham, Chelsea, and Fall River said they hope to offer families and staff the option of participating in summertime programs — including academics, enrichment, and the arts — as a first step in what is expected to be a long process of helping students resume their normal schooling and lives. There would also be mental health support to help children navigate the trauma caused by COVID-19, school officials said.
The brainwashing from culpable criminals never ends.
“I think this once-in-a-hundred-year pandemic requires an extreme and robust reaction,” said Adam Freudberg, chairman of the Framingham School Committee. “We have to go big.”
That saying is $ickening.
The planning comes as billions of dollars in federal stimulus money is being earmarked for school districts across the country to help children grapple with the academic and emotional toll wrought by COVID-19. President Biden signed the $1.9 trillion stimulus package into law Thursday.
Massachusetts Secretary of Education James Peyser, in a statement released Tuesday, said the state is working on plans to expand in-person summer school programs and “acceleration academies” during school vacations to help students catch up.
I think the kids need the vacation because of the toll.
The state is also increasing support for struggling young readers, access to special education services and mental health supports, and college and career readiness programs for recent high school graduates, Peyser said.
The Baker administration expects to announce more detailed plans regarding schools in the next few weeks, the statement said.
Where is all the money coming from to pay for all this, other than the Fed printing pre$$ operating at Warp $peed?
Glenn Koocher, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, said that with the influx of federal money, “districts will be looking carefully at summer programs and tutoring especially for those at-risk students for whom remote learning wasn’t successful.”
Some kids stayed late and fixed that.
Planning is already underway in Chelsea, where families have been devastated by the pandemic.
Chelsea Superintendent Almi Abeyta said summer learning will include a variety of offerings such as calculus for middle schoolers and literacy programs for younger grades. The city will also provide academic support for older students working toward their diplomas. Social workers and school counselors will be available to all students in the summer.
“If a student is struggling emotionally, it’s really hard for a student to learn,” Abeyta said. “We have to meet their social emotional needs, and then you can start to help them.”
They are also looking to the fall, including a new program that — by design — will be run remotely.
Chelsea’s “Twilight School,” a remote program for high schoolers that begins this fall and will run from 4 to 7 p.m., is designed to allow students who otherwise can’t attend class during the day to pursue their education at an alternative time.
How about 3 a.m.?
There are students in Chelsea whose families rely on them working for financial support, she said, and the program is designed to meet their needs.
“We’re thinking out of the box right now. What we realized is our students are still having to provide for their families,” Abeyta said. “What we realized with the remote learning is that you can expand the remote learning to anytime.”
They just an$wered my que$tion, and how $ad.
In Fall River, Superintendent Matt Malone said the district is designing extended learning plans for the summer and coming year that offer a mix of academic and social support.
“The research experts are saying it’s going to be a couple years to close these gaps. We are not going to do it overnight, but we do need to have a plan,” Malone said. “We are in a marathon here.”
The kids are damaged for life, dammit!
Thomas Scott, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, said school administrators are not considering plans to simply drill students on material they might have missed during the year.
“We want to identify where is the learning loss, what kind of academic support they need, [and] the social experience that they have been missing, and provide that as well,” Scott said.
Summer educational programming is expected to get a boost from the state’s share of the federal stimulus’s Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief fund, which is estimated to be about $1.83 billion, according to a March 8 Congressional Research Service report.
The funding would include an estimated minimum of $1.64 billion for school districts in Massachusetts, with about $329 million reserved for addressing learning loss.
The remainder — approximately $183 million — would go to the state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Those state funds would include $91.5 million to address learning loss, $18.3 million for summer enrichment, and another $18.3 million for after-school programs.
I'm $ure it will all get where it is $uppo$ed to go.
In Framingham, extended learning proposals include a Summer Institute for high schoolers to earn graduation credits, a youth theater company, enrichment in areas like math, technology, and English language arts, and even television production.
Freudberg said he hopes the city’s School Committee will be able to approve a plan around the end of April.
“We have to get this right — it’s for our kids, our community, and our families,” he said.
To move ahead with summer programs, there are issues still to be resolved, including the role of teachers in planning discussions.
Christine Mulroney, president of the Framingham Teachers Association, said in an e-mail that she has not been involved in conversations about extended summer learning and services. Freudberg said the union will be consulted, and a staffing plan will be worked out.
Merrie Najimy, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, and Beth Kontos, president of American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts, each cautioned that educators and students must be part of the discussions that shape state and local districts’ extended learning time and summer programs.
Those groups must also feel safe enough to participate — and that means taking steps like ensuring widespread vaccinations for school workers and that communities reach low community spread of COVID-19 before proceeding, they said in separate interviews.
How can they be so $tupid?
The MTA, which represents about 110,000 workers, is also planning to release its own recommendations for summer extended learning programs, Najimy said.
“The stakes are so high, and the people who know best are the people closest to the school level,” said Najimy, “and that’s students, their parents, [and] their educators.”
Kontos, whose organization includes 23,000 educators and staff in cities like Boston and Springfield, said extended learning efforts in the summer and beyond could be a chance to help strengthen school communities that have been separated by the pandemic.
“This is an opportunity to create the community that might have been lost . . . because we weren’t together physically,” Kontos said. “This is a chance to bring us together, reconnect the learning community, make it enjoyable, [and] make it safe.”
I should have skipped this class.
The teachers union is playing hardball after the pandemic exposed Charlie Baker’s Republican heart, so make haste and get to class now before a fight starts:
"Brandeis University president Ron Liebowitz accused the institution’s trustees of trying to force him out of the presidency over misguided disapproval of his fund-raising record, according to a heated letter he sent to the board Monday evening. Liebowitz, who in mid-2016 took the helm of the Waltham liberal arts university, which is sponsored by the Jewish community, said he has spent the past four years working to rebuild the university’s reputation and finances, which include a $35 million structural deficit. Prior to his tenure, the institution faced declining fund-raising and was the subject of negative publicity for several incidents including the proposed sale of Rose Art Museum holdings, yet despite progress, trustees are unsatisfied with his fund-raising performance, according to the letter that Liebowitz sent trustees on Monday, which was obtained by the Globe....."
How much does a tru$tee earn?
"The move follows a lengthy labor dispute between the union representing faculty members as the public university struggles with the economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic and declining enrollment that has forced steep cutbacks and furloughs of other university employees. The leader of a union representing faculty at Salem State questioned the need for the furloughs, claiming the university has a $14 million surplus due to a mix of federal aid and pandemic relief funds. “Our students are going to be harmed,” Tiffany Gayle Chenault, president of the Salem chapter of the Massachusetts State College Association, said in an interview. “In a pandemic where you’ve got students that are … overburdened and stressed, they need their faculty members. We can’t serve our students, because being on furlough, we’re not allowed to work. So we can’t respond to their needs.” Salem State President John D. Keenan said the university was facing a $9 million deficit in 2019 before it ballooned to $26 million last year amid the pandemic. “The question is, why are taxpayers paying millions in unemployment for employees of a state university system with millions in reserves and millions more … in surplus from COVID relief funds?” Chenault said. Keenan said the furloughs remain necessary despite the surplus, which he confirmed to be about $14 million with more funds expected from the latest aid package signed by President Biden. The university has faced declining enrollment and a rising budget deficit that predates the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, adding that he is focused “on the long-term sustainability of the institution.”
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Time for lunch:
"The robots have arrived at Bridgewater State University, and they‘re delivering burgers and fries. From dawn to dusk, 15 squat, white, six-wheeled machines trundle across the campus, toting snacks and drinks between the university’s four restaurants and the 1,200 students in the school’s residence halls. The self-driving machines are engineered in the tiny eastern European nation of Estonia by San Francisco-based Starship Technologies, and Bridgewater State is the first university in Massachusetts to deploy them. “It’s just something new and adventurous,” said Staci DeSimone, general manager of Sodexo, the company that runs the campus restaurant system. “Something unique, that helps the university stand out from other universities.” It’s also extra insurance against possible COVID-19 infections, because it reduces the chance of students and restaurant workers infecting each other. Starship was founded in 2014 by the Estonian co-inventors of Skype, the videoconferencing software now owned by Microsoft....."
Sophomore Carolyn Fopiano gets a cheeseburger and fries delivered to her dorm (John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)
She looks like she needs to get some exercise, or at least take a walk.
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Now back to class:
"In Burlington, Vt., students evicted from school find community in converted department store" by Gal Tziperman Lotan Globe Staff, March 17, 2021
Ruby Wool’s new high school has twin escalators with ornate wood paneling. Her environmental science class has a bright red carpet and a Calvin Klein logo on the wall. The cafeteria is emblazoned with a Michael Kors logo; a classroom features a large Levi’s ad.
Wool is among almost 1,000 students now attending classes in a former Macy’s department store after toxic chemicals were discovered in Burlington High School in Vermont, forcing a quick relocation. The curious education setting has drawn national attention and more than a few somewhat dated jokes about teenagers hanging out at the mall.
For students who had already been displaced by the pandemic, it was yet another twist in a tumultuous year. The move comes as communities across the country consider how to use retail spaces that once housed malls and department stores and now sit eerily empty. In Burlington, school officials hope the influx of students and teachers will help connect the school with the city’s downtown.....
No more Saturdays at the mall unless it's in school!
That is the new environment in which kids will find themselves.
Related:
"The findings, published Friday in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, raised new concerns about the safety of the region’s drinking water and the fish consumed from the area’s rivers and ponds. The results also suggested that the chemicals are far more prevalent than previously believed....."
The only problem is there is no thir$t for covering compounds have been linked to cancer, low infant birth weights, and suppression of the immune system in drinking water.
Also see:
"A New Hampshire legislative committee controlled by Republicans voted Friday to accept funding from a $46 million federal grant to expand the number of charter schools in the state, a turnaround from last year’s vote when Democrats held the majority. The Joint Legislative Fiscal Committee voted 7-3 for a $10 million installment for the schools. Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut said the grant will focus on at-risk students. His department was awarded the grant in August 2019, but it was rejected. Last year, in voting against the funding, the then-Democrat-led committee said New Hampshire needs to support its existing traditional public schools and charter schools first. Senate Democratic Leader Donna Soucy said in a statement Friday that the grant leaves state property taxpayers responsible for filling a $17 million gap in state funding."
Now hurry up and fill out those financial aid forms now that the education commissioner has won authority to force school districts to bring students back to classrooms full time -- drawing criticism from unions who refuse to be silent.
After all, the road to a stronger democracy begins in the classroom and civic engagement is fundamental for a free and fair society, but we often overlook the importance of a moment of online infamy that can lead to investigations into allegations of student emotional manipulation:
Sara Brinkerhoff, age 4, in her car costume, took part in a march and rally from the Haymarket RMV to the State House steps, on Sept. 26, 2020, to demand action from state legislators to pass a bill allowing all state residents to get driver's licenses (Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff)
"After a ‘significant’ outbreak of COVID-19 cases among Swampscott students, officials urge unvaccinated residents to get tested" by John Hilliard Globe Staff, March 20, 2021
An outbreak of COVID-19 cases among Swampscott High School students following a recent off-campus event is having a widespread impact on the town, prompting officials to switch the school to remote learning and urging unvaccinated residents to get tested for the virus as soon as possible.
On Saturday, town and state public health experts were working to determine the scope of the outbreak, which Superintendent Pamela Angelakis has deemed Swampscott’s largest since the pandemic began. The high school will be limited to remote learning until April 5, she said.
An estimated 100 residents were exposed to COVID-19 as a result of the new outbreak, said Sean Fitzgerald, the town administrator, though that figure could change as the town’s contact tracing continues.
Fitzgerald said any unvaccinated resident — even those who don’t have any connection with the high school — should get tested for COVID-19.
“We certainly have a significant outbreak and we all have to be mindful that our behavior affects the entire community and the entire Commonwealth,” he said in a phone interview Saturday afternoon. “We cannot let our guard down.”
Swampscott officials’ work to stanch any surge in new cases came as the state Department of Public Health reported 1,880 new confirmed coronavirus cases in Massachusetts, which brought the state’s total to 577,902.The department also reported 29 new confirmed coronavirus deaths, bringing the state’s death toll to 16,498.
Swampscott, which is where Governor Charlie Baker lives, will be mounting a renewed offensive against COVID-19 as a result of the outbreak.....
Sick of getting jerked around yet?
Those that oppose the federal edict and pull the fire alarm can explore the echos of the present as Boston schools launch staff COVID-19 vaccination clinics while echos of the past tell us that in 2015, Robert Durst, a wealthy eccentric linked to two killings and his wife’s disappearance, was arrested by the FBI in New Orleans on a murder warrant a day before HBO aired the final episode of a serial documentary about his life.
Oddly enough, Durst’s murder trial in Los Angeles was paused in July 2020 because of the coronavirus and it has yet to resume.
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"Colleges are planning for a more normal fall" by Deirdre Fernandes Globe Staff, March 10, 2021
Colleges across the Boston area are planning for full dormitories, mostly in-person classes, a cappella group performances, football games, and even study abroad programs this fall, a sign of optimism that the pandemic will have subsided and something approaching normal college life can resume.
As the pace of vaccinations quickens, officials at the University of Massachusetts system, Harvard and Northeastern universities, and the Wentworth Institute of Technology said this week that they are planning for a more traditional return of students and faculty next academic year.
The hope is that much of the population will be protected against COVID-19 by summer and the many rituals of campus life that were put on hold during the pandemic, from face-to-face club meetings to sports events and dance recitals, can return.
“We’re expecting to be back,” said UMass president Martin Meehan. “By the end of August, beginning of September, we should be in a better place.”
Some colleges have begun sending buoyant messages to their students in recent days broadly outlining expectations for the fall. They are also trying to reassure high school seniors, who will have to decide in the coming weeks where they plan to attend college, that their campuses will be open and the experience will be worth the high tuition.
Still, universities expect that many of the activities that had been curtailed or canceled this school year will begin anew. For example, Northeastern is reviewing what countries will be safe for students interested in studying abroad, said Michael Armini, Northeastern University’s senior vice president of external affairs.
The determination will likely depend on how much of their population is vaccinated, what travel restrictions are in place, and how well the government has fared at keeping COVID under control, Armini said. Australia, where new COVID cases are in the single digits, may be a reliable destination for a semester overseas, while Canada, which is still recording 3,000 new cases a day, may be off the table.....
You are better off staying put off-campus, kids.
Yes, everything will be normal -- except for the graduation:
"UMass Amherst plans to hold four in-person commencements in May with no guests" by Matt Berg Globe Correspondent, March 20, 2021
UMass Amherst will host four in-person commencement ceremonies in May for its graduating class, according to school officials, but instead of walking across the stage while family and friends cheer, graduates will be greeted with an empty stadium.
Unlike a traditional commencement where family members and friends pack McGuirk Alumni Stadium, students will instead walk across the stage with no one in the stands, school officials said Friday. Only graduates — no guests — will be allowed at the ceremonies, which are scheduled for May 14.
“These will be in-person gatherings, although by necessity they will require much different arrangements as we protect the safety of our students and the community amid the pandemic,” Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy said in an e-mail to students.
A livestream of the ceremony will be available for those unable to attend the ceremonies, which will be “smaller and shorter,” Subbaswamy said.
Graduates will be required to socially distance, wear masks, and follow health guidelines, the e-mail said. Additional details, including testing requirements for students to gain access to the ceremony, will become available in the coming weeks.
Just skip it like I did then.
“I’m really grateful that the seniors will be able to have a commencement,” said Sara McKenna, a UMass senior who was involved with the planning of the ceremonies. “Even though it will be different than in years past, I think that we found the best possible way to hold a commencement in person while considering everyone’s safety.”
She says that after all the hoops they have made you hop through?
University officials planned the commencement with a group of students, all of whom advocated for an in-person event if it could be done safely, McKenna said.
Zach Numan, a senior at UMass, was elated with the school’s decision to host an in-person ceremony. “I’m glad UMass made the call and I think it’s the right decision,” Numan said. “It’s a shame guests can’t come, but it’s also a shame this entire pandemic happened.”
Yes, what a $hame.
