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AISD's (and other districts) Plans for Schools Starting August 18


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Looks like Austin ISD may ask secondary teachers to teach 7 out of 8 periods next year, instead of 6 of 8 this year.  Effectively, each teacher will have 16% more students which will allow them to eliminate a large number of teaching jobs.

Why would a new teacher take a job with AISD, pay social security AND teach 16% more, when they can go to ANY surrounding district and work less, not pay social security, and work in nicer buildings?

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22 minutes ago, Texas Jeff said:

Looks like Austin ISD may ask secondary teachers to teach 7 out of 8 periods next year, instead of 6 of 8 this year.  Effectively, each teacher will have 16% more students which will allow them to eliminate a large number of teaching jobs.

Why would a new teacher take a job with AISD, pay social security AND teach 16% more, when they can go to ANY surrounding district and work less, not pay social security, and work in nicer buildings?

The district I work for talked about that a couple of years ago, but didn't follow through. There's no fucking way they can do it. That would mean that every other day teachers would be teaching the entire day with only a 30 minute lunch. Fuck every single part of that.

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1 hour ago, Texas Jeff said:

Why would a new teacher take a job with AISD, pay social security AND teach 16% more, when they can go to ANY surrounding district and work less, not pay social security, and work in nicer buildings?

A shit-ton of other districts already pay more than AISD does these days.  But some of them are also more demanding hours-wise.

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On 12/16/2021 at 10:53 PM, atomheartbevo said:

A shit-ton of other districts already pay more than AISD does these days.  But some of them are also more demanding hours-wise.

Man, I don't know how that is possible.  I know AISD teachers at two high schools, a magnet school and a "traditional school".  Most of them are working 50-60 hrs per week to keep up with teaching, grading, training, planning, office hours, things the district is requiring for equity initiatives, 504 accomodations, and it just goes on and on.  Different levels of students require different things, but the teachers I know are already stretched pretty thin.

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1 minute ago, Texas Jeff said:

Man, I don't know how that is possible.  I know AISD teachers at two high schools, a magnet school and a "traditional school".  Most of them are working 50-60 hrs per week to keep up with teaching, grading, training, planning, office hours, things the district is requiring for equity initiatives, 504 accomodations, and it just goes on and on.  Different levels of students require different things, but the teachers I know are already stretched pretty thin.

A friend and his wife work down in Fort Bend County for FBISD, and she started at a much higher salary than she would have in AISD, but she also works easily 60 hours at times.  He puts in that amount of time as well.

They've both wanted to move back to Austin, but they would be taking pay cuts.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm worried that Omicron is going to spread through schools like wildfire over the next couple of weeks. I got tested by my school nurse this morning and there were three other teachers in there doing the same. I have a feeling some schools will have to shut down or go virtual because of a lack of teachers and subs in the building.

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My is a teacher (not AISD), and she genuinely has a passion for it. However, this year has been her worst year of her career, and for the first time she actually contemplated quitting.

Her biggest frustration is the kids -  not sure if this is broadly experienced or her particular school, but she said the kids have been exponentially worse this year. Also, the amount of superfluous b.s they have to put with seems to grow every year.

Just like today, districts seem to fill up their non-instructional time with consultant-driven crap that has no real value to classroom instruction efficacy. She would love more time to work on her curricula or in her classroom, but every in-service is full of useless nonsense.

Also, as noted above, the accommodations have also gotten out of control. Almost any kid can find some reason to require special accommodation, and then the teachers have to jump through hoops to make sure Little Johnny is taken care of.

This is probably universal, but parents continue to be adversaries. <Get off My Yard Warning> When I was in school, if you got in trouble at school you would get in more trouble at home. Today, 95% of parents side with Little Johnny instead of the teachers.

Finally, at least her experience, most school administrators would not make middle manager at any company. There are some good ones but most of them I would not let mow my yard.

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37 minutes ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

I'm worried that Omicron is going to spread through schools like wildfire over the next couple of weeks. I got tested by my school nurse this morning and there were three other teachers in there doing the same. I have a feeling some schools will have to shut down or go virtual because of a lack of teachers and subs in the building.

Just heard a local ISD is going virtual. Unfortunately, demographically, its students are among the most vulnerable. 

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36 minutes ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

I'm worried that Omicron is going to spread through schools like wildfire over the next couple of weeks. I got tested by my school nurse this morning and there were three other teachers in there doing the same. I have a feeling some schools will have to shut down or go virtual because of a lack of teachers and subs in the building.

It's going to be a shitshow, more so than in August, imo.  Recall that there were high cases of Delta when the kids started the school year, but with a combination of masks and a less contagious variant, there wasn't too much disruption, at least not at my kids' schools (Highland Park Elementary and McCallum High).

Based on what I've seen, Omicron, for the most part, is anywhere from asymptomatic to mildly symptomatic along the lines of a short-term cold.  But it's more highly contagious, and even with the elementary kids getting the vaccine in late 2021, I think we're going to see substantially more cases in the schools. 

I was hoping my kids would've already caught it heading out of the winter break.  On top of school, I've got my high schooler already in basketball, and my younger one about to start basketball this week, so it's only a matter of time I guess.

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1 hour ago, Harrison Bergeron said:

This is probably universal, but parents continue to be adversaries. <Get off My Yard Warning> When I was in school, if you got in trouble at school you would get in more trouble at home. Today, 95% of parents side with Little Johnny instead of the teachers.

When I was a kid...."oh, you got paddled at school? It's going to be so much worse when your father gets home."

1 hour ago, Harrison Bergeron said:

Finally, at least her experience, most school administrators would not make middle manager at any company. There are some good ones but most of them I would not let mow my yard.

I'm partly convinced it's the parents + lawyers. The amount of red tape continues to grow.

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1 hour ago, Harrison Bergeron said:

 

Her biggest frustration is the kids -  not sure if this is broadly experienced or her particular school, but she said the kids have been exponentially worse this year. 

 

This is universal. Locking kids, particularly little ones, out of schools for a significant time really hurt their socialization/behavior.  My wife's teacher friends say the kids' behavior is a nightmare this year.  

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5 minutes ago, bschoolprof said:

This is universal. Locking kids, particularly little ones, out of schools for a significant time really hurt their socialization/behavior.  My wife's teacher friends say the kids' behavior is a nightmare this year.  

Our kid came home from kindergarten the other day. Asked him if he got his "treasure box" as his prize for good behavior. (Kids get a caterpillar piece for being good; six pieces they get to pick a small toy."

"No, I didn't get to pick today because it's more important to be safe."

"What? What do you mean?"

"XXXX(another kindergartener) was throwing chairs in the room today, so the teacher told me we needed to be safe instead of picking a toy."

I still haven't quite figured out the whole story there.

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As a teacher, I agree with just about everything written on this page thus far.

Student behavior is off-the-charts worse this year.

B.S. from "central office" continues to get worse.  I will say that I am extremely lucky to have 2 amazing admins.  So much so, that it's kept me from moving to my desired position as a middle or high school history teacher.

I go WAY out of my way to build really good relationships with all of my students' parents.  I rarely have a problem with them.  Granted, I also teach at a low income school, so I don't have as much "helicoptering" as most.

I absolutely do not want to go virtual.  I'd rather teach in a bio-hazard suit than go virtual.

 

 

 

 

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New quarantine/masking rules just came down the line over the weekend.  I think kids will continue to care for one another as they have throughout this whole ordeal.  As stated above, real worry will be lack of teachers/subs when it burns through their own households.  

Not as terribly worried as we used to be, but since I can literally hear the assaulting cunts in my local ISD warming up their screaming vocal chords...I know another shitshow is in the works.  I'm an asshole but I cannot imagine my first thought dropping my kid off at elementary school being, "Which staff member can I fuck with today?!?"  

And the best part is she's thinking about running for school board.  And I know she's gonna crash the superintendent search meetings that are non-public as of now.  And then probably run for state rep.  And when she's done blaming everything on CRT, she can get back to her true passion-torturing small animals for fun.

good luck to y'all, my fellow parents.  Hopefully this is the last truly fucked-up semester for our little ones!  

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2 hours ago, Message Board User said:

18 months ago I was posting that all kids should be in school, in-person, full time and I was crucified at the time - I was 100% correct then and now.

My kids only went virtual when they had to.  Otherwise they have been back in full time for almost two years now.   ZERO issues with them or the school or parents.  

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4 hours ago, FirstTimeCaller said:

Our kid came home from kindergarten the other day. Asked him if he got his "treasure box" as his prize for good behavior. (Kids get a caterpillar piece for being good; six pieces they get to pick a small toy."

"No, I didn't get to pick today because it's more important to be safe."

"What? What do you mean?"

"XXXX(another kindergartener) was throwing chairs in the room today, so the teacher told me we needed to be safe instead of picking a toy."

I still haven't quite figured out the whole story there.

See my post(s) above about inclusive classrooms. 

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32 minutes ago, Harrison Bergeron said:

At least it only is temporary and short-term.

I remember when spring break 2020 was only going to be extended by a week or so.  

That bullshit is coming to AISD again I bet.  They will ease us it one step at a time but it’s coming. All over a variant that is weaker than all the others before it.  

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6 hours ago, Harrison Bergeron said:

My is a teacher (not AISD), and she genuinely has a passion for it. However, this year has been her worst year of her career, and for the first time she actually contemplated quitting.

Her biggest frustration is the kids -  not sure if this is broadly experienced or her particular school, but she said the kids have been exponentially worse this year. Also, the amount of superfluous b.s they have to put with seems to grow every year.

Just like today, districts seem to fill up their non-instructional time with consultant-driven crap that has no real value to classroom instruction efficacy. She would love more time to work on her curricula or in her classroom, but every in-service is full of useless nonsense.

Also, as noted above, the accommodations have also gotten out of control. Almost any kid can find some reason to require special accommodation, and then the teachers have to jump through hoops to make sure Little Johnny is taken care of.

This is probably universal, but parents continue to be adversaries. <Get off My Yard Warning> When I was in school, if you got in trouble at school you would get in more trouble at home. Today, 95% of parents side with Little Johnny instead of the teachers.

Finally, at least her experience, most school administrators would not make middle manager at any company. There are some good ones but most of them I would not let mow my yard.

Same was true in AISD 40 years ago.

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6 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

When I was a kid...."oh, you got paddled at school? It's going to be so much worse when your father gets home."

I'm partly convinced it's the parents + lawyers. The amount of red tape continues to grow.

When I saw a lawyer walk in a PTC 50 years ago, I knew things were going downhill from there. 
It was really interesting when Madalyn Murray-O’Hair showed up for one conference later on. She turned out to be a barrel of laughs.

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8 hours ago, Harrison Bergeron said:

Her biggest frustration is the kids -  not sure if this is broadly experienced or her particular school, but she said the kids have been exponentially worse this year. Also, the amount of superfluous b.s they have to put with seems to grow every year.

She's not alone - teachers at my kids' charter school say the same thing (though it's probably not as bad at charter vs public).

Why is this happening?  A couple hypotheses:

1) We've all lost our collective shit over the past 2 years and it stands to reason that the anger adults are taking out on each other are trickling down to the kids.  Crime is up, traffic fatalities are up, fights on airplanes, hyper-partisanship online and IRL (it's no longer "I'm right you're wrong" but rather "I'm right you're evil")...it's all related.  Adults are angry and stressed so why would we expect the kids not to be?  We've lost our humanity.

2) I think the 20-21 school year did irrevocable damage; school was de-prioritized (intentionally or unintentionally, that was the message).  So if the adults don't think school is important, why would the kids?

8 hours ago, Harrison Bergeron said:

Also, as noted above, the accommodations have also gotten out of control. Almost any kid can find some reason to require special accommodation, and then the teachers have to jump through hoops to make sure Little Johnny is taken care of.

There's a kid in my son's class who is a constant little shit to every other kid and the teacher and he will explicitly tell the teacher (who has the patience of Job) "you can't do anything to me - I'm special ed!"  And you know what?  The kid's pretty much right.

Nowadays when a kid is a little shit, the question that is asked more often than not "What accomadations does the teacher need to make (without any additional help) to make sure Little Johnny isn't a little shit?"  The teacher is held responsible instead of the child or parent.

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as a parent of two boys with 504s, i'm supportive of accommodations. i think yall are tilting at the wrong windmill.

my wife is also a teacher, and i see the bs she has to put up with, so we get both sides of the equation. there are some teachers that simply don't believe in adhd. believe me, it's a thing, and it does require some extra work on the part of teachers.

i've also seen my wife come home in tears because a third grader basically destroyed her classroom, throwing chairs and ripping stuff off the walls. i've seen her work 60 hour weeks, etc. i know, i know, summers off, gfy. she easily puts in a full year's worth of work in 9 months in aisd. 

aisd is fucked for many reasons, but recapture is the main one. enrollment is down, the district sends a huge amount of its funding out into the rest of the state, and admin is bloated. i think @smoky above is exactly right. aisd can't afford to go virtual. it was a trainwreck, and i say that as a guy who was more than happy to stay home with my sons for virtual education. i just don't think omicron is that dangerous, and now we are all vaccinated. i'll get my sons boosted as soon as we can, and move on from there. 

before we had vaccines, and we knew a lot less, i was very willing to stick with virtual. now? they both are double pfizered and will soon be boosted. right now, it seems that omicron isn't too bad for vaccinated people. so, once again, follow the science of the day. it's the best we can do.

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as a parent of two boys with 504s, i'm supportive of accommodations. i think yall are tilting at the wrong windmill.
my wife is also a teacher, and i see the bs she has to put up with, so we get both sides of the equation. there are some teachers that simply don't believe in adhd. believe me, it's a thing, and it does require some extra work on the part of teachers.
i've also seen my wife come home in tears because a third grader basically destroyed her classroom, throwing chairs and ripping stuff off the walls. i've seen her work 60 hour weeks, etc. i know, i know, summers off, gfy. she easily puts in a full year's worth of work in 9 months in aisd. 
aisd is fucked for many reasons, but recapture is the main one. enrollment is down, the district sends a huge amount of its funding out into the rest of the state, and admin is bloated. i think [mention=465]smoky[/mention] above is exactly right. aisd can't afford to go virtual. it was a trainwreck, and i say that as a guy who was more than happy to stay home with my sons for virtual education. i just don't think omicron is that dangerous, and now we are all vaccinated. i'll get my sons boosted as soon as we can, and move on from there. 
before we had vaccines, and we knew a lot less, i was very willing to stick with virtual. now? they both are double pfizered and will soon be boosted. right now, it seems that omicron isn't too bad for vaccinated people. so, once again, follow the science of the day. it's the best we can do.
All of this is correct, but I find it odd that people are bringing up virtual school as a response to Omicron as protection for children. I've not heard anyone in education mention it much less promote it... it's a red herring.

Now, you do need to worry about virtual school as a response to teacher absences because that is a bubble that I'm convinced is going to pop. Your kids' teachers are going to get Omicron, and considering how few subs there are in the systems, schools cannot afford to lose teachers. My campus is already starting out the semester with teachers out (in addition to the vacant positions that have been taught by subs most of ther year). Campuses are having to get creative to find coverage. Pulling the EA from my room is a regular occurrence... that means SpEd and 504 kids don't get the services they're due. It's wrong, but the campus is left with no other option.

So, if you want schools to stay open, you better also advocate for kids to be vaccinated and masks to be worn. Not for the kids, but for the teachers.
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1 minute ago, tchookem said:

So, if you want schools to stay open, you better also advocate for kids to be vaccinated and masks to be worn. Not for the kids, but for the teachers.

Lol if you think the parents who don't give a shit about other kids health are gonna start giving a shit about teachers health...

I'm monumentally glad to not be a parent right now. Education is an extremely well executed trainwreck right now. From burnt out teachers to MBA-holding school admin to uninterested and anti-knowledge parents, it just seems like a complete unmitigated shitshow.

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It's going to be interesting to see the results of the AISD testing clinics that opened yesterday and today.  The district encouraged all students to get tested before returning to school tomorrow.  My kids went to the McCallum High testing site yesterday late morning, and waited 25 minutes before being told that they were out of tests.  They went earlier this morning and we'll see how that goes.

Even if the number of students in ASID who get tested before tomorrow doesn't approach 50%, I imagine there's still a sizable amount of students getting tested, and with the transmission rate of this variant, I have to believe there will be a lot of students who test positive and start their semesters virtual.

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2 minutes ago, tchookem said:

All of this is correct, but I find it odd that people are bringing up virtual school as a response to Omicron as protection for children. I've not heard anyone mention it... it's a red herring.

Now, you do need to worry about virtual school as a response to teacher absences because that is a bubble that I'm convinced is going to pop. Your kids' teachers are going to get Omicron, and considering how few subs there are in the systems, schools cannot afford to lose teachers. My campus is already starting out the semester with teachers out (in addition to the vacant positions that have been taught by subs most of ther year). Campuses are having to get creative to find coverage. Pulling the EA from my room is a regular occurrence... that means SpEd and 504 kids don't get the services they're due. It's wrong, but the campus is left with no other option.

So, if you want schools to stay open, you better also advocate for kids to be vaccinated and masks to be worn. Not for the kids, but for the teachers.

yes, for sure. 

aisd fucked the goat on personnel when they did layoffs during covid. they gave every teacher $1000 bonuses, then eliminated positions. my wife was one laid off, because she had just joined a school, so last in, first out. she's since found a better situation, closer to home, even, so it's not all bad. but what the fuck kind of stupid management is that during a pandemic. i understand that math doesn't work without butts in seats, which is how funding works. don't even get me started on how stupid a metric that is. 

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5 minutes ago, tchookem said:

All of this is correct, but I find it odd that people are bringing up virtual school as a response to Omicron as protection for children. I've not heard anyone in education mention it much less promote it... it's a red herring.

 

There are several examples (keeping schools closed as a precaution to limit spread) posted upthread. It's not that uncommon right now in the northeast.

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Lol if you think the parents who don't give a shit about other kids health are gonna start giving a shit about teachers


And these will be the first people bitching about virtual learning or how their kid's education is suffering.

This virus feeds on ignorance and selfishness.
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Got an email from our kid's school (DISD) that the school nurse can test students with symptoms and/or unvaccinated and symptomatic students who are close contacts of a confirmed positive student or teacher. That seems like a much better way to go than what we had before which was my kid having strep and being sent home and asked to produce a negative PCR test after a 10 day window. 
 

It's really going to be a shitshow for the first few weeks. 

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There are several examples (keeping schools closed as a precaution to limit spread) posted upthread. It's not that uncommon right now in the northeast.
Thre problem I've always had here is that nobody ever wanted to set metrics that would trigger a response. Even in March 2020, I was asking, "Okay, so when do we call it safe to return?"... crickets

When we returned in August I asked, "Okay, so when do we say it's time to lock it down again?"... crickets.

Fuck.
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4 minutes ago, Harrison Bergeron said:

I have not seen it, but is there data out there on how many students, teachers, administrators, staff, etc., have died from Covid-19 as a direct result of in-school transmission? I am not sure if that is really possible to glean given imperfect contract tracing.

It's just like the rest of Travis County, Texas, America and the world, less that one half a percent of the worlds population.

<0.05%

Survival of the fittest says hello

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2 hours ago, South Austin said:

It's going to be interesting to see the results of the AISD testing clinics that opened yesterday and today.  The district encouraged all students to get tested before returning to school tomorrow.  My kids went to the McCallum High testing site yesterday late morning, and waited 25 minutes before being told that they were out of tests.  They went earlier this morning and we'll see how that goes.

Even if the number of students in ASID who get tested before tomorrow doesn't approach 50%, I imagine there's still a sizable amount of students getting tested, and with the transmission rate of this variant, I have to believe there will be a lot of students who test positive and start their semesters virtual.

Surveillance testing on a low risk group for a disease that is endemic and for which there are effective vaccines and treatments just defies logic at this point.

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It's going to be interesting to see the results of the AISD testing clinics that opened yesterday and today.  The district encouraged all students to get tested before returning to school tomorrow.  My kids went to the McCallum High testing site yesterday late morning, and waited 25 minutes before being told that they were out of tests.  They went earlier this morning and we'll see how that goes.
Even if the number of students in ASID who get tested before tomorrow doesn't approach 50%, I imagine there's still a sizable amount of students getting tested, and with the transmission rate of this variant, I have to believe there will be a lot of students who test positive and start their semesters virtual.
I read out of 1200 tests, one third were positive yesterday.

Would like to know how bad or non existent their symptoms were.
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3 hours ago, Nolacycling said:

San Antonio's largest district says 1,000 staff members did not return from winter break

That's a bit misleading. 1,000 were out sick the first day. From that headline, I initially thought they had quit.

Still, 1,000 teachers out sick is crazy.  The article said they could only fill 58% of the vacancies with substitutes.

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20 minutes ago, CooterBrown said:

That's a bit misleading. 1,000 were out sick the first day. From that headline, I initially thought they had quit.

Still, 1,000 teachers out sick is crazy.  The article said they could only fill 58% of the vacancies with substitutes.

And I wonder how accurate it is to say 1,000 were out "sick."  I'm guessing quite a few were either asymptomatic or had mild cold symptoms that otherwise wouldn't keep a teacher or student at home, but since they tested positive and have to follow strict quarantine rules, they're reported as "sick." 

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And I wonder how accurate it is to say 1,000 were out "sick."  I'm guessing quite a few were either asymptomatic or had mild cold symptoms that otherwise wouldn't keep a teacher or student at home, but since they tested positive and have to follow strict quarantine rules, they're reported as "sick." 

They said it wasn’t necessarily COVID. it was all reasons for a sick day.
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