We might have a possible explanation for working virtually during the pandemic:

We can work virtually if we are uncomfortable working in person during the pandemic. If we have a medical reason for not working in person during the pandemic, we have to take a medical leave.

Let that sink in.

Joseph M. Rathke

Ida Education Association President

We’re told that the Board values their employees, and then another thing happens.

The Ida superintendent has told us repeatedly that if we feel uncomfortable when we return to five days a week, we can teach remotely and not be punished for it. Part of the rationale is that the students deserve to have their teachers and the teachers want to be with their students. She repeated this at the COW meeting.

On Wednesday the business manager told two teachers who have been working remotely that they had to be in their classrooms on Monday or go on leave. I talked to him and he said it is now not feasible to teach remotely with students coming back five days a week, so they are instituting a new work rule. These decisions will be decided case-by-case.

One of the teachers has stage one cancer. In a normal year they would be at work during treatments. Because their immune system is compromised from chemo their doctor does not want to risk an unnecessary illness from COVID and then have to delay an upcoming surgery, so they’re working from home.

They zoom in every day, take attendance, and interact with the students. On Sundays they come into work to get materials ready for the next week, handle technical issues with projects, grade projects, and then will take work home to grade during the week. This has been great for the students and for the teacher’s recovery. But now we may lose this teacher to another District.

The other teacher is a COVID long hauler and is on oxygen. In their daily zoom sessions, students go to the board to work out problems and the teacher provides immediate feedback. They come in on Friday’s to handle other duties that have been assigned to them. On the weekends, time has been spent in the classroom to make videos and get materials ready for the coming week. They’ve also been tutoring a student at 7 pm during the week, and they just started working with a senior–who is not their student–to help him graduate. Now on Monday, all of this comes to an end.

I can’t reconcile being told “we appreciate you, you can work virtually and won’t be punished for it, but you have five days to be back in your classroom.” 

This is who we currently work for.

Joseph M. Rathke

Ida Education Association President

With a new, faster-moving coronavirus variant now confirmed in Michigan, the state is boosting its vaccination goal.

The state’s lead epidemiologist Wednesday estimated that at least 90 percent of Michiganders 16 and older may need to be vaccinated against COVID to effectively beat back the spread of the coronavirus. That is a dramatic increase over the state’s previously stated goal of a 70 percent vaccination rate to achieve herd immunity from the virus.

Source: Michigan: 90 percent need COVID vaccine for herd immunity. That’s unlikely. | Bridge Michigan

The most famous dysfunctional family of 1990s television enjoyed, by today’s standards, an almost dreamily secure existence.

Source: The Life in The Simpsons Is No Longer Attainable – The Atlantic

For American families and their children, school is more than just a building. It’s a social life and a community, an athletic center and a place to get meals that aren’t available at home. The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted — and continues to disrupt — the lives of U.S. students in profound ways.

Many kids haven’t set foot in their schools since March, when most in-person schooling shut down across the United States. Teachers are working tirelessly to educate their students online, but they are growing increasingly anxious about the kids who aren’t showing up at all.

An estimated 3 million students may have dropped out of school learning since March…

Source: A Quiet And ‘Unsettling’ Pandemic Toll: Students Who’ve Fallen Off The Grid : NPR