Developments

Things that have happened in the past few days:

• SFUSD sent out a “Welcome to the New School Year” mailer with information about masking (indoor required, outdoor recommended as per CDPH guidelines), vaccinations (highly recommended for kids over 12), and returning to school after illness (can return after 24 hours of being fever free WITH a negative Covid test, or after 10 days without proof of negative result – at least 10 days of isolation after a positive Covid test). They were (IMHO) very cagey about ventilation safety, especially in the case of poor air quality (during fire season) requiring doors and windows to be closed.

• My school sent out something to parents, and my other school (that I no longer teach at, but that hasn’t removed me from the staff email list) sent out something to teachers, so I have some idea of the protocols we will be following (pretty much CDPH guidelines to a tee). We will be following the same protocols as above, and they also specified that social distancing is no longer required in any way.

• I found out last week that a colleague I’m friendly with is not vaccinated. They seem to think that masking is as effective as vaccination. I find this very disheartening, and now I’m wondering how many other staff members are not vaccinated. I hope our admin will communicate what percentage of staff and students are vaccinated before we start the school year. Our district is not requiring we be vaccinated, and neither is SFUSD. I found this editorial articulated my feelings on this better than I could.

• The staff room furniture will be moved out of my new classroom today – almost a full week after I requested it. I did clear out, and then clean thoroughly, the shelving in the room and got most of my boxes unpacked. This week I’ll work on setting up the rest of the room. Our first day of meetings is this Thursday. On Monday students come to tour campus and on Wednesday we start the school year!

• We have no childcare for our son this week but we’ve been able to divvy it up with the grandparents so that each of us only has to take one day off. My son will also come to my classroom with me for a day. My kids start school on Monday, August 16th.

• The cheaper aftercare option we were banking on informed us (on Friday at 4pm) that they will no longer be walking kids from our son’s school to the program. We are still welcome to utilize the program, but we need to arrange our own transportation. Since said transportation has to happen at 2:55pm every day, I highly doubt we can arrange it. This means we cannot actually use the program. The only other option is the after care that YMCA provides for $630 a month (which thankfully I enrolled in as a plan B). We are trying to find ways to cover one of the afternoons so we only have to pay for four days a week, but I’m not sure we can make it work. I’m incredibly frustrated by the amount of money we’ll be forced to pay for after care, but I also recognize how lucky we are to have secured a spot. Evidently the YMCA usually offers 12,000 aftercare spots throughout the city, but are only able to provide 4,000 this year because of staffing shortages. Other programs are offering similarly decreased coverage, resulting in a city-wide child care crisis. So yes, I’m incredibly frustrated by the amount of money I’m about to spend on what amounts to essentially 10 hours or coverage a week, but I’m also very thankful to have that coverage.

• My son just finished his sixth week of martial arts camp (he attended two three-week sessions) and he really flourished there. He’s decided to try for his Junior Black Belt, which he would need to earn before he turns ten (in October of 2023). Trying for his black belt would require a level of commitment he has not shown previously, and I’m curious to see where this goes. I’m very proud of everything he has accomplished and excited by the development of his first long term goal. We’ll see where he ends up.

• On a related note, my son tested for his second stripe on his blue belt on Saturday morning and I got to stay home for the whole thing. I have to say, I very much prefer belt tests over zoom than in person. It may be the only thing I would absolutely choose to “attend” over zoom, rather than in person.

• We started getting the New York Times in print on the weekends. My daughter, and our cat, are pleased with this development.

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• This article in New York Magazine articulates a lot of the confusion I’ve been feeling about our numbers in the US, and especially in San Francisco, where our incredibly high vaccination rate is not stemming our spike in case numbers or hospitalizations. It’s a brutal read, but I appreciate seeing that my questions are not crazy, and are being asked by people who understand what is happening a lot better than I do.

• The anxiety I have been feeling has turned into dread. I’m trying hard to just breath through it, and to remind myself that there is only so much I can control. Obsessing over all the possible outcomes does not serve me unless I am actually taking concrete steps to prepare for those outcomes. If I can’t do that, I need to let it go. If I don’t, I’ll go crazy. But interestingly, I think in letting go, I make space for the dread. It’s like where the energy of anxiety used to be I just feel… hopeless and sad. I think I just need school to start, so I can distract myself with the busyness of everything.

Happy Monday. I hope we can all keep the dread away this week.