The battle between Iowa high schools and state.

[Cyforce]

It's purely political and they made it painfully obvious. Ask yourself this....if they are so upset over sports why did they ONLY protest/march on govs mansion? Why not do the same to the school board/super? If you're being truly honest that's who ultimately made the decision that cancelled sports for DMPS. All DMPS had to do was 50% like the other schools and they'd be playing but nope.

Yep, who cares if it kills the grandmother that raised you. I hear foster care is a pleasant experience.

I'm not talking about the kids that chose to play I'm talking about the other 30 some thousand DMPS students and their caregivers that would be forced into this situation.

Our Governor has set the bar where she doesn't see DMPS as a high risk. Of course she chooses not to see the real picture.

 

[SEIOWA CLONE]

So much for the idea of local control that the state has been preaching for years. Its almost like its your district until we tell you what to do, and then the local district becomes part of the state of Iowa education policy.

 

[isucy86]

Actually schools that choose to put 2000 kids in a building all week and then play team sports against another communities are the ones endangering of communities.

Some schools districts have taken the position they can safely educate students. I live in Dubuque and there was a lot of concern going into August because of the level of community spread. The district decided to go with a 50/50 option of in-person and online learning. Overall about 78% of parents chose to go with the 50/50 structure and about 22% went with 100% online.

Today was the start of the 3rd week of school and there has been 1 student (Pre-K) and 2 teachers (1 Middle & 1 District Office) who have tested positive. There are 8000 students and 2000 teachers/administrators in the Dubuque Public School District.

It early and an outbreak could happen, but so far school administrators, teachers and children parents have provided a safe learning environment.

In Des Moines area I have seen published dashboards for West Des Moines and Waukee Schools Districts. They show the following positive cases:

• WDM - 15 Students/ 5 Staff (K-12) with 126 students/staff in quarantine for 14 days due to close contact. I did a internet search and WDM district has 8,800 students and 1,250 staff.
• Waukee - 11 Students/ 5 Staff (K-12) with 269 students/staff in quarantine for 14 days due to close contact. Waukee disctict has 9,200 students and 1,800 staff.

So among the 3 school districts which I found published dashboards, there are 27 students who have tested positive for Covid among 26,000 students. People keep saying- FOLLOW THE DATA!! So far the data shows in-person education is safe for students.

I have no issue with DMPS system deciding on 100% online education based on the heightened risk of community spread among their students & communities. But if that is their reasoning for going 100% online, then they need to be consistent with the risks that sport participation places upon their students.

 

[Cyforce]

Ok, so you're rural enough that 100k can still get a decent house.

My point is you aren't in an area of poverty. Likely your community and your opponents have low Covid risk or at least less than putting 2000 students in one building.

I've stated prior Des Moines East has over 2000 students only 43 varsity football players. Penalizing those kids because of this is simply stupid and just shows once again puts political agendas ahead of right and wrong.

 

[Clonefan32]

I see both sides on this argument. I can understand the concept that if it's too risky to have school in person it's too risky to play sports. It's a you "can't have your cake and eat it to" situation.

However, it's also abundantly clear to me that this is nothing more than a power-play by the State. I can understand their rationale, but it's not hard to see the reason it's being applied is because they don't like how DMPS has handled their return-to-learn. But having kids get caught up in this sucks.

 

[Urbandale2013]

I see both sides on this argument. I can understand the concept that if it's too risky to have school in person it's too risky to play sports. It's a you "can't have your cake and eat it to" situation.

However, it's also abundantly clear to me that this is nothing more than a power-play by the State. I can understand their rationale, but it's not hard to see the reason it's being applied is because they don't like how DMPS has handled their return-to-learn. But having kids get caught up in this sucks.

It’s a power play by everyone involved. As you said it really sucks for the kids involved.

 

[BigD]

So maybe there is a compromise that can happen here. If every other large high school in the Des Moines area can meet the 50 percent in-person threshold, there must be a way for the high schools in Des Moines to meet that threshold.

You would hope so. DMPS originally had a 40% in-person plan in place (before Gov. Reynolds required 50%). I would hope they could reinstate that or some other partial plan at tonight's meeting and get the negotiations going.

 

[beentherebefore]

You would hope so. DMPS originally had a 40% in-person plan in place (before Gov. Reynolds required 50%). I would hope they could reinstate that or some other partial plan at tonight's meeting and get the negotiations going.

As an outsider looking in, but also realizing that I do not know all the issues that DMPS is claiming/experiencing, it would seem as though it would not be unreasonable to move to 50 percent if there was a plan for 40 percent.

 

[BryceC]

Some schools districts have taken the position they can safely educate students. I live in Dubuque and there was a lot of concern going into August because of the level of community spread. The district decided to go with a 50/50 option of in-person and online learning. Overall about 78% of parents chose to go with the 50/50 structure and about 22% went with 100% online.

Today was the start of the 3rd week of school and there has been 1 student (Pre-K) and 2 teachers (1 Middle & 1 District Office) who have tested positive. There are 8000 students and 2000 teachers/administrators in the Dubuque Public School District.

It early and an outbreak could happen, but so far school administrators, teachers and children parents have provided a safe learning environment.

In Des Moines area I have seen published dashboards for West Des Moines and Waukee Schools Districts. They show the following positive cases:

• WDM - 15 Students/ 5 Staff (K-12) with 126 students/staff in quarantine for 14 days due to close contact. I did a internet search and WDM district has 8,800 students and 1,250 staff.
• Waukee - 11 Students/ 5 Staff (K-12) with 269 students/staff in quarantine for 14 days due to close contact. Waukee disctict has 9,200 students and 1,800 staff.

So among the 3 school districts which I found published dashboards, there are 27 students who have tested positive for Covid among 26,000 students. People keep saying- FOLLOW THE DATA!! So far the data shows in-person education is safe for students.

I have no issue with DMPS system deciding on 100% online education based on the heightened risk of community spread among their students & communities. But if that is their reasoning for going 100% online, then they need to be consistent with the risks that sport participation places upon their students.

I've been wondering about this - is there any place that is aggregating all of this data? Where are you finding these ones?

 

[MLawrence]

I've been wondering about this - is there any place that is aggregating all of this data? Where are you finding these ones?

Dubuque Community School District has been doing it for themselves: https://www.dbqschools.org/coronavirus-information/covid-19-dashboard/

 

[BCClone]

I've been wondering about this - is there any place that is aggregating all of this data? Where are you finding these ones?

Iowa department of education. Go into their data bases. It will give you last years info, so it will get you close. I would look at them if our school was borderline in beds for moving classes, I could go and see if the freshman class on other schools just above or below would move us up or down, not perfect, but would get you a feel. Basically breaks down percent minorities, and I believe free and reduced along with other things if you look though them. Will warn you that schools that might have merged may not be in order. Example off the top of my head, North Union school district will under one of the previous school districts numbers possibly. So if you don't find them alphabetically then look under A for armstrong-ringsted, or where North Kossuth, or Sentral of Fenton may have been due to just assigning them that old schools number.

 

[AuH2O]

Some schools districts have taken the position they can safely educate students. I live in Dubuque and there was a lot of concern going into August because of the level of community spread. The district decided to go with a 50/50 option of in-person and online learning. Overall about 78% of parents chose to go with the 50/50 structure and about 22% went with 100% online.

Today was the start of the 3rd week of school and there has been 1 student (Pre-K) and 2 teachers (1 Middle & 1 District Office) who have tested positive. There are 8000 students and 2000 teachers/administrators in the Dubuque Public School District.

It early and an outbreak could happen, but so far school administrators, teachers and children parents have provided a safe learning environment.

In Des Moines area I have seen published dashboards for West Des Moines and Waukee Schools Districts. They show the following positive cases:

• WDM - 15 Students/ 5 Staff (K-12) with 126 students/staff in quarantine for 14 days due to close contact. I did a internet search and WDM district has 8,800 students and 1,250 staff.
• Waukee - 11 Students/ 5 Staff (K-12) with 269 students/staff in quarantine for 14 days due to close contact. Waukee disctict has 9,200 students and 1,800 staff.

So among the 3 school districts which I found published dashboards, there are 27 students who have tested positive for Covid among 26,000 students. People keep saying- FOLLOW THE DATA!! So far the data shows in-person education is safe for students.

I have no issue with DMPS system deciding on 100% online education based on the heightened risk of community spread among their students & communities. But if that is their reasoning for going 100% online, then they need to be consistent with the risks that sport participation places upon their students.

The problem with the last sentence is putting 2000-3000 kids through a building, even at 50% is not on the same planet in terms of risk as putting 60-80 kids outside on a practice facility.

Saying "if it's too risky for in-person school, it's too risky for sports" is a poor argument in my opinion. It's not like they are shutting the school down, they are shifting to online learning, which is a reasonable substitute. Not ideal, but a functional substitute. There's no substitute for sports in-person. Sports are incredibly valuable for kids in learning lessons that don't happen in school.

 

[Gunnerclone]

I don’t like to admit when I’m wrong or own up to mistakes I’ve made...but my 14-18 year old self thinking that HS and HS sports mattered more than anything and would be the best and most important time in my life was dead wrong and absolutely stupid and that wasn’t even during a global pandemic where more Americans have died now than all US battlefield deaths in the country’s history combined.

Seeing that Roosevelt kid spouting off about “this is my senior season it is the most important thing in the world” just makes me cringe so hard I atrophied.

 

[beentherebefore]

The problem with the last sentence is putting 2000-3000 kids through a building, even at 50% is not on the same planet in terms of risk as putting 60-80 kids outside on a practice facility.

Saying "if it's too risky for in-person school, it's too risky for sports" is a poor argument in my opinion. It's not like they are shutting the school down, they are shifting to online learning, which is a reasonable substitute. Not ideal, but a functional substitute. There's no substitute for sports in-person. Sports are incredibly valuable for kids in learning lessons that don't happen in school.

I agree that sports are valuable to kids and society. I love sports! I spend time daily on a sports message board for goodness sake! I know this is not the place for this argument, but maybe school is not the best place for sports. But sports is generally a school activity in America. So it is what it is.

Now, a large school may have an enrollment of 2000, but. each individual classroom generally has a population of around 20-30. I know some classrooms will have more and others will have less, but it's generally at the same or smaller number than what may be involved with the sport or activity. And if the students are fully masked in the classroom and in the school, and if the general guidance from experts is to be trusted, then a student in a classroom may potentially have less exposure than an unmasked student at practice.

Granted, outside practices may allow for less exposure risk, but lots of physical contact among athletes has to be an issue in an area with large amounts of community spread.

 

[BCClone]

I agree that sports are valuable to kids and society. I know this is not the place for this argument, but maybe school is not the best place for sports. But sports is generally a school activity in America. So it is what it is.

Now, a large school may have an enrollment of 2000, but. each individual classroom generally has a population of around 20-30. I know some classrooms will have more and others will have less, but it's generally at the same or smaller number than what may be involved with the sport or activity. And if the students are fully masked in the classroom and in the school, and if the general guidance from experts is to be trusted, then a student in a classroom may potentially have less exposure than an unmasked student at practice.

Granted, outside practices may allow for less exposure risk, but lots of physical contact among athletes has to be an issue in an area with large amounts of community spread.

Several of the teams yesterday in NC iowa practiced inside due to the rain. Also, VB is an inside sport, not sure why only the football team is being mentioned and nobody wants to address the VB team, CC teams, the pep bands, marching bands, choirs, and other extra curricular activities that happen.

 

[beentherebefore]

Several of the teams yesterday in NC iowa practiced inside due to the rain. Also, VB is an inside sport, not sure why only the football team is being mentioned and nobody wants to address the VB team, CC teams, the pep bands, marching bands, choirs, and other extra curricular activities that happen.

Volleyball may be a big issue.

 

[beentherebefore]

Several of the teams yesterday in NC iowa practiced inside due to the rain. Also, VB is an inside sport, not sure why only the football team is being mentioned and nobody wants to address the VB team, CC teams, the pep bands, marching bands, choirs, and other extra curricular activities that happen.

And then there is wrestling.

 

[BCClone]

And then there is wrestling.

Just going off fall stuff, but yes, wrestling will be interesting to see what happens there.

 

[cycloneG]

And then there is wrestling.

Just going off fall stuff, but yes, wrestling will be interesting to see what happens there.

 

[BCClone]

Well, they are wearing masks......