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Saturday, February 20, 2021

Education Matters: CATCH UP WITH MR. G - THIS WEEK IN DCPS

 Education Matters




CATCH UP WITH MR. G 
THIS WEEK IN DCPS



This week in Ron DeSantis, he blasts CDC guidelines, threatens to withhold vaccines and lies about the pandemic.
Ron DeSantis is a menace, before the pandemic is over he will be responsible for tens of thousands of deaths. From WCJB.com, DeSantis is calling it a “disgrace.” He says these new guidelines are not rooted in science. “We’ve been open the whole time, since August. We had kids doing camps and athletics and all that over the summer and we’ve been in-person as much as anybody in the country and yet,
Greene just can't be honest about the pandemic.
In a community meeting, Greene said cases of COVID exploded in January because we had just returned from Winter Break. She showed a graph backing this up too. The thing is cases exploded because the district changed the way it revealed cases. Basically, up to that point, we had been lowballing the numbers, and it was a Christmas miracle that they finally decided to be more honest. From the Times
If Greene and the board will not stick up for staff and students during a pandemic, when will they?
It is tough being a teacher, a student, and a parent right now. Every day on social media, I see good people stretched to the limit and about to snap. It is heartbreaking, but what is equally heartbreaking is how the superintendent and school board DON”T care. I used the word don’t purposely because where they occasionally say they do, their actions, or often lack of actions speak much louder. It
Testing in Florida is nothing but a scam
There has been some concern about what will happen to teachers if too many kids opt-out, will they not get their growth scores and be eligible for raises? Some have mentioned their schools may lose funding too. I don’t believe we should worry about these things. Everyone knows that high-stakes testing is bad for public education; everyone but the voters, that is. I would like to see Tallahassee e
Families, opt your children out of all the tests you can.
In an action news Jax piece the district was deceptive about having children take tests in the schools because they can always just say no to or taking the tests. https://www.actionnewsjax.com/news/local/duval-county/dcps-virtual-students-grades-6-12-take-fsa-andeoc-exams-in-person-per-state-mandate/FGIFGJQ4MZD6HA7HPBIZKWIRWU/?fbclid=IwAR33udqrRboE4KcRMDJjCOMmKDk9VR-YRMz3qAVK26stNVQHBTy15a_dqoo M
Contact tracing in DCPS is bad and shows no signs of getting better
Let me ask you a question, if a student found a gun in a classroom, would the district wait a week to look for the bullets, or would it evacuate the class immediately? Would they call the police but let it sit there for a week until they got there? Well, when the district allows contact tracking to be days or weeks behind, it's putting staff and students in danger, but rather than do anything abo
Who listens to teachers in DCPS? Nobdoy.
The answer is apparently no one. On the one hand, I am glad after a week of unrest, the district listened to students and changed their ham-fisted and tone-deaf "take off the mask" campaign but incredibly disappointed again at the realization nobody with any authority listens to and cares about teachers. We shouldn't pretend for a second that they do. When Vitti left, he said, and I am paraphrasi
The year before Pratt-Dannals was fired he got stellar reviews.
I mention this because the school board recently rated superintendent Greene highly effective, a sentiment I don’t think the majority of staff and, at this point, families would agree with. I have a different take than the school board one that comes from being in the classroom and doing the novel thing of actually talking to teachers, and that is she needs to be thanked for her service and shown
DCPS High schools go on alert because of district incompetence
It's never good when you wake up in the morning and the media is reporting schools will be on high alert because of threats of violence. It’s made worse because the lion’s share of what’s happening falls squarely on the district’s shoulders. When I wrote about the district’s “take off the mask’ campaign, my

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