The decision to not allow our children to go to school on a normal in person schedule for the 2020/2021 school year was made behind closed doors with zero opportunity for parents to have direct input due to no live public meetings. This is 1 full year of our children's formative educational period. Not educating them for 1 year at this time in their lives will handicap them going forward into all other grades.
All parents who dealt with the attempt at online learning this past Spring know that the chances of our children learning anything during 1 full year of that is unfortunately very close to zero. It is in no way worth the risk that it might work or might not. This isn't a game. It is a simple fact that younger kids just do not respond well to online learning. It is not serious to them.
On top of that, the decision not to allow all children into school under normal scheduling will without a doubt adversely affect the 70% of parents who cannot work from home remotely. Who will pay their bills when they cannot work due to childcare and learning assistance? If they do work, who will pay for the childcare that will be required? Who will provide it? In the last Board meeting online not one member asked these questions of the Superintendent. Can you, members of the Board, be that disconnected from us that you would not even think of this?
And lastly, all we hear is that this is based on science and that the Governor said we must do it. The Governor has no duties in the North Carolina State Constitution that include compelling Union County Board of Education members to follow his wishes in operating our locally run and funded school system. And as far as I can tell, there is no science whatsoever that theorizes or proves that our children will be in any additional danger by going to school than they would normally be as per flu and other common ailments.
Children in EU and East Asian countries have been back in school, many without masks and distancing, with no noticeable adverse health effects for them nor the teachers and staff.
We the parents and taxpayers of Union County North Carolina cannot allow this decision to go unchallenged. We have access to large auditoriums, outdoor sports venues where we can organize several in-person live meetings at which to voice our opinions, comment and questions directly to the Board and on the record.
This petition seeks to compel the Union County Board of Education to allow us direct access to the facts used for this decision, the voting members positions, and to the Board itself in person and live, to inform them that we will not lose 1 year of vital education for our children for reasons not connected to their well-being. We want our kids in school, learning, interacting and moving forward in life. This decision cannot stand as is.
Updates
July 21, 2020
The stories coming in from parents about the impact of remote learning on our children are heartbreaking and confirm why this work matters. Email your school board members today and demand they prioritize in-person instruction for the upcoming year.
July 21, 2020
The momentum behind this petition proves that our community is finished with decisions being made behind closed doors. Post this link to your Facebook page and text three friends to get them involved today. We need to keep this pressure on the Board until our children are back in their classrooms.
18 Comments
Our kids deserve the education you are denying them. The CDC is recommending in school face-to-face learning. Not only are there no measurable health benefits from not sending them to school, there are multiple negative implications of keeping then out of school.
My daughter has an IEP that isn't going to be followed with this plan. She needs to be in school more then 1 day a week.
This is putting more stress on the parents and even more a financial burden.... parents have to work and elementary school aged children are not independent enough for online learning... schools must open and move forward!!!
Why bother going one day a week? Union County has not been affected like Charlotte! We have to get back to normal
I truly believe that all five of my children that are in school need to be in school and not at home because I had a learning disability and my children have a IEP And I don’t have the patience to sit and do schoolwork and try to find something to them when myself doesn’t completely understand it
Its absurd that an educational system would assume that children ages 5, 6, 7, even 8 and 9 years old can do this online learning on their own. Their online "learning" system is wrought with flaws. I have never used something online that opens so many browser tabs! The very old computer my children shared in the spring often crashed. How can a 5 year old know what to do with that when their adult parent cant even figure it out? We as parents are trying our best to provide a food and roof over their heads, we made due with what we had to in the spring because everyone was in a panic. Now we know more. Every other profession has been going back to work safely, people are going out to stores, on vacation to the beach, even protesting and rioting but when it comes time to go back to PUBLIC schools, its just not safe? I truly hope that no one expects us to buy that. Charter, private, Catholic, college/university, day cares -- all going back, some have been back for months with little to no incidents. Again, we now know more and if there is a problem it is isolated and mitigated quickly. We, as parents, should not be held more responsible and more accountable for our own children's education if we do not have the means necessary to do that or else we'd have already chosen home-schooling if we could have done so. There are families out here who were struggling before this pandemic hit and now they're in deeper financial hot water than they originally were and the only concern the school system has right now is to make sure we know what supplies they need us to buy for them? Sorry, all of this is just a slap in the face and I dont care if people disagree with us but please do not mock us for being in the position we're in. We're trying to do the best for our children. We dont need people telling us we are wrong to complain that we're heading toward bankruptcy due to having to choose educating our children over working to provide for them.
My kids were so excited to go back to school. See their friends and enjoy learning. Its time we stand up amd show the world. We can move forward with our lives
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The decision to not allow our children to go to school on a normal in person schedule for the 2020/2021 school year was made behind closed doors with zero opportunity for parents to have direct input due to no live public meetings. This is 1 full year of our children's formative educational period. Not educating them for 1 year at this time in their lives will handicap them going forward into all other grades.
All parents who dealt with the attempt at online learning this past Spring know that the chances of our children learning anything during 1 full year of that is unfortunately very close to zero. It is in no way worth the risk that it might work or might not. This isn't a game. It is a simple fact that younger kids just do not respond well to online learning. It is not serious to them.
On top of that, the decision not to allow all children into school under normal scheduling will without a doubt adversely affect the 70% of parents who cannot work from home remotely. Who will pay their bills when they cannot work due to childcare and learning assistance? If they do work, who will pay for the childcare that will be required? Who will provide it? In the last Board meeting online not one member asked these questions of the Superintendent. Can you, members of the Board, be that disconnected from us that you would not even think of this?
And lastly, all we hear is that this is based on science and that the Governor said we must do it. The Governor has no duties in the North Carolina State Constitution that include compelling Union County Board of Education members to follow his wishes in operating our locally run and funded school system. And as far as I can tell, there is no science whatsoever that theorizes or proves that our children will be in any additional danger by going to school than they would normally be as per flu and other common ailments.
Children in EU and East Asian countries have been back in school, many without masks and distancing, with no noticeable adverse health effects for them nor the teachers and staff.
We the parents and taxpayers of Union County North Carolina cannot allow this decision to go unchallenged. We have access to large auditoriums, outdoor sports venues where we can organize several in-person live meetings at which to voice our opinions, comment and questions directly to the Board and on the record.
This petition seeks to compel the Union County Board of Education to allow us direct access to the facts used for this decision, the voting members positions, and to the Board itself in person and live, to inform them that we will not lose 1 year of vital education for our children for reasons not connected to their well-being. We want our kids in school, learning, interacting and moving forward in life. This decision cannot stand as is.
Updates
July 21, 2020
The stories coming in from parents about the impact of remote learning on our children are heartbreaking and confirm why this work matters. Email your school board members today and demand they prioritize in-person instruction for the upcoming year.
July 21, 2020
The momentum behind this petition proves that our community is finished with decisions being made behind closed doors. Post this link to your Facebook page and text three friends to get them involved today. We need to keep this pressure on the Board until our children are back in their classrooms.
18 Comments
We are forced to look into alternative options to pass around our children in group settings with strangers, daycare (where they will be more exposed), not to include the cost of all of this. Our children will suffer academically. My 7 year old will not sit in front of a computer all day and “learn” and that is a ridiculous idea to think a child would learn that way. Things need to change.
Our kids deserve the education you are denying them. The CDC is recommending in school face-to-face learning. Not only are there no measurable health benefits from not sending them to school, there are multiple negative implications of keeping then out of school.
My daughter has an IEP that isn't going to be followed with this plan. She needs to be in school more then 1 day a week.
This is putting more stress on the parents and even more a financial burden.... parents have to work and elementary school aged children are not independent enough for online learning... schools must open and move forward!!!
Why bother going one day a week? Union County has not been affected like Charlotte! We have to get back to normal
I truly believe that all five of my children that are in school need to be in school and not at home because I had a learning disability and my children have a IEP And I don’t have the patience to sit and do schoolwork and try to find something to them when myself doesn’t completely understand it
Its absurd that an educational system would assume that children ages 5, 6, 7, even 8 and 9 years old can do this online learning on their own. Their online "learning" system is wrought with flaws. I have never used something online that opens so many browser tabs! The very old computer my children shared in the spring often crashed. How can a 5 year old know what to do with that when their adult parent cant even figure it out? We as parents are trying our best to provide a food and roof over their heads, we made due with what we had to in the spring because everyone was in a panic. Now we know more. Every other profession has been going back to work safely, people are going out to stores, on vacation to the beach, even protesting and rioting but when it comes time to go back to PUBLIC schools, its just not safe? I truly hope that no one expects us to buy that. Charter, private, Catholic, college/university, day cares -- all going back, some have been back for months with little to no incidents. Again, we now know more and if there is a problem it is isolated and mitigated quickly. We, as parents, should not be held more responsible and more accountable for our own children's education if we do not have the means necessary to do that or else we'd have already chosen home-schooling if we could have done so. There are families out here who were struggling before this pandemic hit and now they're in deeper financial hot water than they originally were and the only concern the school system has right now is to make sure we know what supplies they need us to buy for them? Sorry, all of this is just a slap in the face and I dont care if people disagree with us but please do not mock us for being in the position we're in. We're trying to do the best for our children. We dont need people telling us we are wrong to complain that we're heading toward bankruptcy due to having to choose educating our children over working to provide for them.
My kids were so excited to go back to school. See their friends and enjoy learning. Its time we stand up amd show the world. We can move forward with our lives
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We are forced to look into alternative options to pass around our children in group settings with strangers, daycare (where they will be more exposed), not to include the cost of all of this. Our children will suffer academically. My 7 year old will not sit in front of a computer all day and “learn” and that is a ridiculous idea to think a child would learn that way. Things need to change.