Staying home

 Our useless school district, bent to public pressure and decided (out of the blue), on Monday to remove the mask mandate from the next day, 1/25.

The mandate had been in place since school started on Jan 6 and was the only thing keeping the numbers low in our schools. Despite that we are having 130 new cases (kids and teachers) being reported in the district each week due to COVID.  

The district claims lower numbers in the county as a reason. I am a data junkie. Not sure where they are getting their data from but the positivity rate in our county is ~20% and not dropping but instead has gone back up from 18% on Monday. Previously in Sept, the positivity rate was 5% and they had masks for almost 2 months.

I get it that everyone is tired and exhausted, but to me, a mask mandate is the simplest way to ensure everyone can attend B&M school with minimum disruptions.

On FB, many parents were worried and outraged like me. Sadly, the majority were thrilled and virtually high-fiving each other that the mask "child abuse", as one poster called it, could end!. 

Beanie has been having anxiety around COVID since school began in Jan. I reached out to the counselor hoping they would have some suggestions, eg virtual option for a few weeks, but they are not offering that.

I was able to make Beanie feel more comfortable by upgrading her to a KN95 mask, reminding her that she was vaccinated and that everyone was masked.

Now with the mandate lifted - why could they not have let the week finish out who knows!! - she is more stressed.

As such I kept her home from school today and will do the same  tomorrow. On Friday, she goes to Enrichment which is small group, almost all the kids wear masks in that class (mandate or not).

It will also give me an opportunity to look at the school COVID numbers after a week of no masks.

There are some options offered by the school  - one being that I can pull Beanie out of school for a short time and re-enroll her, Many parents do that of they are travelling overseas on vacation, or have done so for COVID. That is an option. Things are getting better but it will be a good 2-3 weeks before they are anywhere near what I would consider controlled,

I am not worried about her falling behind. In her latest STAR math test, she is a full Grade level ahead in both Math and ELA (mid-4th grade level) and has surpassed her year end goal of being Proficient in reading.  Today, she spent the morning doing did Math worksheets, 45 minutes of reading, and ELA at home. 

I am not sure what I will decide, but I am so tired of all this -constant worrying and stressing.