Everything posted by Larry T. Spider
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
Nothing yet. My guess is that we will eventually say classes are cancelled indefinitely as Hays did. It keeps you from having to play the week extension at a time game. It leaves the door open to coming back this year if something drastically changes but also signals that people better start buying into the online learning that will be provided. Pure guesswork though. This is the last week of optional activities vs required coursework. We should know some specifics for requirements starting tomorrow. I talked to an assistant principal at a low income school and he guesses that 25% of his kids will participate. Not really sure what you do with that other than let it go. Technology devices have been collected, inventoried and should be available for pickup soon. Packets of work have been going out at locations where food is being distributed with more sites on the way. I will be doing that starting Wednesday. Pflugerville ISD starts their required coursework tomorrow so we will see how it goes.
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
Username checks out
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
The people leaving NYC and spreading covid in other cities reminds me of all the northern Italians going to their vacation homes in southern Italy.
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Thread of local businesses that don't survive the coronavirus
Agree. No way they are making much off these family packs. Just burning inventory and keeping people at work as long as possible. Vendors that serve restaurants have got to be so fucked. Huge inventory and no where to move it.
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
We were wondering that. Wife is PPCD and had a Zoom conference call and told me they're still trying to figure out what to do about special education. She's trying to figure out how they're going to get ARDs and other required stuff done. We are waiting on TEA for guidance. Don’t want to start doing one thing only to get slammed with lawsuits down the road. There are a few lawyers in town who basically sue us for a living so I’m sure the sharks are circling. TEA says they are waiting on the US department of education for guidance because the laws are federal. I can’t say anything about them without it being political.
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
Our biggest challenge is that experience levels and expectations are all over the place. Some parents want daily organized lessons with a ton of activities. Others want something minimal because parents are working from home and can’t help their younger kids. Obviously the number devices and internet connection is something else to consider. If we roll one thing out to appease one group, the other starts freaking out. I’ve collected info from about 200 families and there is a distinct divide about what they want/can’t handle. In addition, some of our teachers could teach via zoom for 8 hours a day starting tomorrow. One can’t get into the meeting we are having right now...
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
It going to be optional activities for a long time. As soon as it’s required or grades are taken then we have to fulfill special education requirements. We have no capability to do that at this time. We are basically providing resources for kids as well as ways for them to connect with their teachers and each other.
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Thread of local businesses that don't survive the coronavirus
Good lord, they need over 100k a month to break even? Even running the leanest operation possible. You could never convince me to invest a dime in the restaurant/bar business. I do appreciate those that take the risk though. Thoughts on me making a thread where people can post their favorite local restaurant that is doing to go/delivery right now? No clutter, just the recommendations.
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
Nice humblebrag
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
Noticed the same thing. My thought was that we can actually go over the speed limit now.
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Thread of local businesses that don't survive the coronavirus
This thread is getting quite.....surly.
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
“The governor traveled to Arlington Wednesday to discuss the situation unfolding at the Texas Masonic Retirement Center after a resident infected with the virus, 77-year-old Patrick James, died early Monday. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says the residents of an Arlington Masonic home where a man infected with COVID-19 lived will be tested for the deadly contagion.“ My grandmother lives here. Fun.
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Thread of local businesses that don't survive the coronavirus
They don’t allow trucks...
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
Absolutely. If all the kids with college educated parents go home and continue their education as normal and the others struggle to find internet access and don’t have parents at home, the gap will continue to widen. Those are the kids most at risk of sliding backwards over a normal summer. I can’t imagine what it would be like if it was a 5 month break. My guess is that we will putting together some jump start camps and the like for August.
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
According to the email, it's up to individual principals on how to handle the staff. If they're going to teleteaching then they'll do training to let all teachers know how to handle it. Not sure how my wife is supposed to teach pre-k special education over a computer. Hopefully she doesn't have to go in for any training considering they often do online training. She has three ARDs scheduled for the 24th and she's trying to figure out whether they are still going to do them then. I told her they could all do in a teleconferencing call. She's not sure how that would work since everyone involved has to be audibly recorded for the records. I’m a elementary campus administrator in AISD. They have basically told us to stay tuned for more direction. While the email said that teachers will receive direct communication from their principal, campus administrators are still waiting for direction from the district. Principals are under the impression that they will be receiving specific instructions from the district, not making their own plan. They will likely be used to train staff on the district plan, communicate with parents, and figure out logistics, especially at title 1 schools.
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Thread of local businesses that don't survive the coronavirus
Damn, if they are in trouble then just about everywhere is. They stay packed on weekends. I can imagine that place has some overhead though.
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
My MIL had elective knee surgery this morning in Houston. Called the hospital on Friday to double check and they said it was a go.
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
AISD students are out for an extra two weeks. Staff need to be on standby to roll out distance learning if we are going to need to go that route. They have been told to check their emails regularly for updates. No idea what that would look like yet. Hard to transition to that model effectively in two weeks but it will probably be a make the best of it situation.
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
I keep getting reports of olds saying it’s just the flu and carrying on as normal. I’m not cheering for Darwin but.....
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
I agree that most kids that would be considered for retention will move on. Many times the parent wants it and they are on the same page with the school. Most of my battles are with parents that want it and I don’t. There’s not really much research to support it as an effective intervention after kindergarten.
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Thread of local businesses that don't survive the coronavirus
The long term economic impacts for small businesses that do survive will be rough. A lot of time to regain profitability, pay off debt, and rebuild cash reserves. Nobody will be thinking about expanding for a while. We will be fine in the long run but it may be more than a year or two before it’s all out of the system.
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
I bet they automatically advance everybody unless it’s an individual schools decision to retain a particular student.
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
Oversimplification but certain grades are SSI years where you test, kids that fail get intervention and retest, kids that fail second administration go to summer school and test a 3rd time. Students in special education can opt out of second administration if an ARD committee decides that. A delayed calendar fucks all of that up.
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Thread of local businesses that don't survive the coronavirus
Definitely agree that this will be the end of a lot of local bars and restaurants. Other than the bigger names, it will be hard to get much info on them though. Most will close for a while and simply never reopen. Its a really tough industry. I was reading an article about San Antonio restaurants that closed in 2019. One guy said he could have made it would 6 more customers per day. Have to image there are a lot barely getting by that this will destroy.
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Formerly DT: COVID-19 - Featuring Lots of Politics, now CR because political talk not going away
State testing for kids in Texas.