Provost: the mission of UCLS is to educate faculty children. If it has been hijacked by parties with other priorities, then shut it down and start anew with admin and teachers who are dedicated to accomplishing that mission. Many other schools are doing so on smaller budgets and with less real estate.
A
Anne D
5 years ago
Why is it that every school in Chicago has figured out how to do this, with far fewer resources? Why is it that U of C with some of the smartest minds in the country isn't able to figure out the managerial and logistical steps in getting our kids back to school?
It is not about means nor smarts, it is about the administration letting our children being held hostage by labor negotiations, labor negotiations that you will not even make transparent to us, the parents.
You are impairing our children's ability to learn, their wellness and their future.
You are impairing Lab's reputation in the city, in the country, and with admissions officers all over the Ivy League.
I am hearing advertisements on NPR advertising for fall enrollment at Lab. The word is out -- why enroll your children in a school that won't deliver its most basic value proposition? Latin and Parker are having a field day.
We are now hearing that even Fall 2021 may be compromised.
Will Lab ever recover from this catastrophic managerial failure?
You must act now to immediately bring our kids back to school.
K
Katherine Buck
5 years ago
A group of concerned parents will be gathering in front of Blaine Hall on Thursday, February 25 at 10 am to advocate for our students.
Please join us (RSVP using evite link for planning) -- http://evite.me/PeXjhVEgmg
J
Jenny Farver
5 years ago
Lab says it prides itself on being child-centered. In the past year I have seen anything but that.
A
Amy Boonstra
5 years ago
American society in 1918 worked creatively to support in-person learning, even in the cold winter months with children wearing coats and windows open in the classroom. Let's use our imagination to make in-person schooling possible for our children. Confining them to their bedroom to learn in front of a screen all day is not healthy for anyone. We can make spring quarter and the upcoming year better in unity.
S
Summerson Carr
5 years ago
There is no question that Lab's communication--between administration and parents, and also apparently between administration and teachers -- has been absymal. After all, teachers are central to the success of any implementation plan! More generally, any policy is doomed to fail without anticipating and debugging problems and points of resistance in advance--whether legal or procedural difficulties, lack of buy-in from necessary staff, etc. The Lab administration's continued failure to do this leaves me with very little faith in the success of a 3/1 return for our 3rd and 4th graders. I am signing this, nevertheless, to express my extreme disappointment about how Lab has handled itself thus far and to join fellow parents in calls for transparent communication. (Not acknowledging any of the challenging questions at Town Halls, by the way, is not the way to go).
R
Rana Choi
5 years ago
I've had some experience squeezing out every quarter inch in designing high-rise residences in Manhattan and Seoul, as well as educational typologies at Harvard and MIT. While it's hard to know what precise factors are really keeping Lab from opening as other schools in Chicago, if an extra pair of eyes and hands would be helpful in moving from the 5-ft to 6-ft distance guideline, I'd be happy to support. Please feel free to contact me.
L
Lu Gao
5 years ago
3/1 may not be realistic but need to improve transparency during the communication and we know the process how the decision is made. As a private school, parents will use Latin or other top private schools as benchmark to see how our school does when facing the pandemic.
S
Sonia Bobra
5 years ago
Strongly agree that elected parents and students should be part of the decision making process from Day 1, with feedback in all directions. The school has done a great job with N-2, and it can for the remaining grades for health and well-being of students and families. The last minute disruptions to schedules are extremely challenging to working parents and families, particularly front line workers. Decisions need to be made by those affected.
A
Adam Cifu
5 years ago
You have to do better. Schools were initially closed in an effort to assure that healthcare facilities were not overwhelmed. This was reasonable. We based decisions on our experience with influenza and its spread among children, also reasonable. We are now a year out from these decisions. We know that corona-virus is very different from flu and that spread among children and in schools is low. Community spread is rapidly falling. Our teachers have been vaccinated. Our experience with in person learning at lab has been good. There is no reason to delay much more widespread opening than is presently being considered.
We as parents, the people who care most about our students education and pay tuition deserve to understand why things are not moving faster, who is arguing to go more slowly. Whoever it is, that party needs to convince us.
J
John Fitzgerald
5 years ago
Featured
Lab's handling of the pandemic has been catastrophic and severely detrimental to its students' mental health. We need to return to in-person instruction now. I thought Lab was committed to creative problem-solving!
J
Jeffrey Ellis
5 years ago
Featured
I echo all of this, particularly the request for transparency around the Faculty Association. If it is a major factor in decisions, the parents should at least have more of an understanding on how. If there are legal restrictions on what can be shared, please just tell us that. If there are not, then much more should be shared than has to date.
P
Pedro Afan-Pla
5 years ago
The lack of creativity, flexibility, and transparency from the university and Lab administration is concerning and makes me feel very pessimistic about next fall. We also deserve to hear from the Faculty Association. Especially for the LS, it is a complete failure not to have kids back in a full-time schedule. For MS and HS they should be back with more than just 3 or 4 days of in-person classes every 15 days. I am a teacher in a high school with way fewer resources than Lab and we have been in a hybrid model, bringing students to the building 2 days a week since February 1st. So far zero cases among students, faculty, and staff in the 3 weeks that we have been in a hybrid model. (With a majority of the faculty in my high school having received as of today only the first dose of the vaccine.) Time to go back to the classroom.
P
Praveen Adhi
5 years ago
Featured
For the first time since we joined the Lab community 8 years ago, we are questioning who Lab serves. We expect Lab to to be a national leader, yet the majority of schools are much further ahead in getting kids back to school. The kids are suffering unfairly. It is time to bring them back to school. The science is clear that schools are safe for students and teachers.
J
Joanna Martin
5 years ago
Featured
I would like to see this University make in person school a priority, especially for the lower school. If six feet is mandatory than other University spaces should be used immediately. The University has ample resources and spaces to achieve in person education.
B
Brent Doiron
5 years ago
I strongly support our children returning to in person learning (as has been successfully done in many other schools). I was initially very encouraged by the fast vaccination of our teachers, so that they can safely interact with each other and our children. However, the decision to remain remote, and the lack of transparency in how it was made, has left parents feeling a tragic mix of anger and confusion.
J
Jill Haddadin
5 years ago
Kids need to be back in school. No transmissions in n-2.
G
Gitanjali Kapila
5 years ago
Surprise, surprise. Lab, as an institution, has simply forgotten its mission to serve its students. The administration believes that 'father knows best' which is an antiquated framework for leadership and does not in any way honor its DEI mandate and is incapable of being accountable to those who pay tuition dollars. As I said to Ryan Allen recently in an email - you are here to serve the students and not the other way around.
G
Gabrielle Lyon
5 years ago
Featured
I am most concerned about not having a better understanding of teachers' concerns and how these are affecting - if at all - decision making. I also (as a working mom) am extremely upset about the lack of advance planning and short -term changes that affect my ability to care for my children.
A
Andrew M Jessen
5 years ago
It is time to do what is best for the education and mental / physical health of our children. They ALL need to be in school, in-class, full-time. The SCIENCE shows that schools are a safe place for students and educators, and many school systems (even in Chicago) have made in-class learning work. It has become painfully clear that the adults have lost the plot and now are just engaged in a power struggle between the union and the school. This is quite disappointing for an institution and educators that hold themselves in such high regard for creative and independent thought. Your homework assignment is past-due. Find some courage before you fail.
Provost: the mission of UCLS is to educate faculty children. If it has been hijacked by parties with other priorities, then shut it down and start anew with admin and teachers who are dedicated to accomplishing that mission. Many other schools are doing so on smaller budgets and with less real estate.
Why is it that every school in Chicago has figured out how to do this, with far fewer resources? Why is it that U of C with some of the smartest minds in the country isn't able to figure out the managerial and logistical steps in getting our kids back to school? It is not about means nor smarts, it is about the administration letting our children being held hostage by labor negotiations, labor negotiations that you will not even make transparent to us, the parents. You are impairing our children's ability to learn, their wellness and their future. You are impairing Lab's reputation in the city, in the country, and with admissions officers all over the Ivy League. I am hearing advertisements on NPR advertising for fall enrollment at Lab. The word is out -- why enroll your children in a school that won't deliver its most basic value proposition? Latin and Parker are having a field day. We are now hearing that even Fall 2021 may be compromised. Will Lab ever recover from this catastrophic managerial failure? You must act now to immediately bring our kids back to school.
A group of concerned parents will be gathering in front of Blaine Hall on Thursday, February 25 at 10 am to advocate for our students. Please join us (RSVP using evite link for planning) -- http://evite.me/PeXjhVEgmg
Lab says it prides itself on being child-centered. In the past year I have seen anything but that.
American society in 1918 worked creatively to support in-person learning, even in the cold winter months with children wearing coats and windows open in the classroom. Let's use our imagination to make in-person schooling possible for our children. Confining them to their bedroom to learn in front of a screen all day is not healthy for anyone. We can make spring quarter and the upcoming year better in unity.
There is no question that Lab's communication--between administration and parents, and also apparently between administration and teachers -- has been absymal. After all, teachers are central to the success of any implementation plan! More generally, any policy is doomed to fail without anticipating and debugging problems and points of resistance in advance--whether legal or procedural difficulties, lack of buy-in from necessary staff, etc. The Lab administration's continued failure to do this leaves me with very little faith in the success of a 3/1 return for our 3rd and 4th graders. I am signing this, nevertheless, to express my extreme disappointment about how Lab has handled itself thus far and to join fellow parents in calls for transparent communication. (Not acknowledging any of the challenging questions at Town Halls, by the way, is not the way to go).
I've had some experience squeezing out every quarter inch in designing high-rise residences in Manhattan and Seoul, as well as educational typologies at Harvard and MIT. While it's hard to know what precise factors are really keeping Lab from opening as other schools in Chicago, if an extra pair of eyes and hands would be helpful in moving from the 5-ft to 6-ft distance guideline, I'd be happy to support. Please feel free to contact me.
3/1 may not be realistic but need to improve transparency during the communication and we know the process how the decision is made. As a private school, parents will use Latin or other top private schools as benchmark to see how our school does when facing the pandemic.
Strongly agree that elected parents and students should be part of the decision making process from Day 1, with feedback in all directions. The school has done a great job with N-2, and it can for the remaining grades for health and well-being of students and families. The last minute disruptions to schedules are extremely challenging to working parents and families, particularly front line workers. Decisions need to be made by those affected.
You have to do better. Schools were initially closed in an effort to assure that healthcare facilities were not overwhelmed. This was reasonable. We based decisions on our experience with influenza and its spread among children, also reasonable. We are now a year out from these decisions. We know that corona-virus is very different from flu and that spread among children and in schools is low. Community spread is rapidly falling. Our teachers have been vaccinated. Our experience with in person learning at lab has been good. There is no reason to delay much more widespread opening than is presently being considered. We as parents, the people who care most about our students education and pay tuition deserve to understand why things are not moving faster, who is arguing to go more slowly. Whoever it is, that party needs to convince us.
Lab's handling of the pandemic has been catastrophic and severely detrimental to its students' mental health. We need to return to in-person instruction now. I thought Lab was committed to creative problem-solving!
I echo all of this, particularly the request for transparency around the Faculty Association. If it is a major factor in decisions, the parents should at least have more of an understanding on how. If there are legal restrictions on what can be shared, please just tell us that. If there are not, then much more should be shared than has to date.
The lack of creativity, flexibility, and transparency from the university and Lab administration is concerning and makes me feel very pessimistic about next fall. We also deserve to hear from the Faculty Association. Especially for the LS, it is a complete failure not to have kids back in a full-time schedule. For MS and HS they should be back with more than just 3 or 4 days of in-person classes every 15 days. I am a teacher in a high school with way fewer resources than Lab and we have been in a hybrid model, bringing students to the building 2 days a week since February 1st. So far zero cases among students, faculty, and staff in the 3 weeks that we have been in a hybrid model. (With a majority of the faculty in my high school having received as of today only the first dose of the vaccine.) Time to go back to the classroom.
For the first time since we joined the Lab community 8 years ago, we are questioning who Lab serves. We expect Lab to to be a national leader, yet the majority of schools are much further ahead in getting kids back to school. The kids are suffering unfairly. It is time to bring them back to school. The science is clear that schools are safe for students and teachers.
I would like to see this University make in person school a priority, especially for the lower school. If six feet is mandatory than other University spaces should be used immediately. The University has ample resources and spaces to achieve in person education.
I strongly support our children returning to in person learning (as has been successfully done in many other schools). I was initially very encouraged by the fast vaccination of our teachers, so that they can safely interact with each other and our children. However, the decision to remain remote, and the lack of transparency in how it was made, has left parents feeling a tragic mix of anger and confusion.
Kids need to be back in school. No transmissions in n-2.
Surprise, surprise. Lab, as an institution, has simply forgotten its mission to serve its students. The administration believes that 'father knows best' which is an antiquated framework for leadership and does not in any way honor its DEI mandate and is incapable of being accountable to those who pay tuition dollars. As I said to Ryan Allen recently in an email - you are here to serve the students and not the other way around.
I am most concerned about not having a better understanding of teachers' concerns and how these are affecting - if at all - decision making. I also (as a working mom) am extremely upset about the lack of advance planning and short -term changes that affect my ability to care for my children.
It is time to do what is best for the education and mental / physical health of our children. They ALL need to be in school, in-class, full-time. The SCIENCE shows that schools are a safe place for students and educators, and many school systems (even in Chicago) have made in-class learning work. It has become painfully clear that the adults have lost the plot and now are just engaged in a power struggle between the union and the school. This is quite disappointing for an institution and educators that hold themselves in such high regard for creative and independent thought. Your homework assignment is past-due. Find some courage before you fail.