LIHU‘E — Kaua‘i Complex Area will be implementing a 100% distance learning model for at least the first four weeks of school beginning next week.
The Kapa‘a-Kaua‘i-Waimea Complex Area will utilize a three-stage distance learning model to start the 2020-21 school year, according to the Hawai’i Department of Education (HIDOE).
Yesterday, the complex area superintendents on neighbor islands announced the distance learning models schools will be implementing on Monday, Aug. 17, similar to that of the model O‘ahu public schools announced it would be transitioning to last week.
School leaders will reevaluate plans for the rest of the quarter during this time.
For this first phase, Aug. 17-20, students will physically return to campus on a coordinated and scheduled basis. During this time, they will connect with teachers, receive training on distance learning and gain access to the technology they may not have.
Beginning Aug. 17, school cafeterias will host grab-and-go style meals for students as dine-in services will not be allowed.
During the second phase, Aug. 24 through Sept. 11, full distance learning will be implemented. Staff will be at designated worksites, and special education services that cannot be performed through distance learning will be available.
Public schools on Hawai‘i Island and Maui County, with the exception of Moloka‘i schools and Hana High and Elementary, also announced intentions to work on the three-stage distance learning schedule, as announced yesterday.
Last week, Kaua‘i’s public schools were still weighing the options of using different models of instruction, including in-person, blended and distance-learning.
Earlier this month, HIDOE launched the ‘Ohana Help Desk, a technology support tool for students and families during the transition to online and blended learning. The desk can be reached at 643-3375 or ohanahelpdesk.org.
There has not been one case of a student transmitting the virus to a teacher. Teacher’s can safely social distance from students. According to the CDC children are not the spreaders of this virus. Asymptomatic carriers rarely transmit the virus according to the World Health Organization. Do some research and looks these stats up for yourself. The DOE had how many months to get it together?! There are so many children at home with their abusers. Being neglected, abused or molested! School was their only safe place where they could be checked on, monitored and reported on.
The CDC has reported that half of covid positive tests may be FALSE positives. Yes, mainstream media does not report this news. They like to keep everyone in fear and panic. So does our government. Wake up and take matters into your own hands before all of our freedom is taken away and all we will have left if our government making the choices for us and our families.
Tuberculosis spreads through the air when an infected person talks, coughs or sneezes. According to the CDC TB is the leading infectious disease claiming 1.5M lives each year and infecting 23% of the population yet this was never on the news. No stay at home orders, no closing of schools, no mask mandates.
OUR KIDS DESERVE TO BE IN SCHOOL! I am not saying covid is not serious. It is but TB and the flu are just as serious but have not gained as much media attention and hysteria as covid. Ask yourselves why? Hmmm election year. Stop letting our kids suffer because of this.
You’re the one making the claims – don’t ask us to look up your data for you. Provide a link to REAL data (like the CDC claim you make – let’s see the CDC link) or we can’t believe you. Even worse, it sounds like you’re lying.
No, that person is not lying. They are reporting alternative truths that our mainstream media have chosen not to report because the government have compelled them not to report it.
The fact of the matter is that certain government factions, including corporatists, want our schools and small businesses to shut down and stay closed. It benefits them very well.
Forcing our keiki to stay home instead of attend school is not for their safety or wellness, it is so that the rich can get richer. Sadly, Hawaii’s school superintendents and our teacher’s unions are both in the corporatists pockets, which is why they are all following this illogical narrative.
Schools should stay open, airports should be closed. It’s that simple.
More COVID craziness!!!! What about the data? To date, there are 4 active cases on Kauai, 51 total cases since this madness started, less than 5 hospitalizations, and all travel related.
We also know that for the majority of people in the world that COVID-19 is treatable. We also know that COVID is more problematic for people with co-mobilities such as diabetes, old age, obesity, and autoimmune diseases.
We know that children without co-mobilities are the least impacted group in our population. How many cases in Hawaii can be traced back to school attendance? I would argue that our children are safer in school than in the general public as the exposure to the virus is coming in through traveling.
The argument about the amount of facilities, doctors, and supplies on Kauai being a limiting factor to getting back to normal life is bunk. Our hospitalization counts have not come close to taxing the system and our death rates are below the national average. Part of this is because the virus is not as deadly for the non-comorbidity population and the therapeutics are more effective now than at the beginning of this pandemic.
At this point (with only four active cases and a 14-day travel quarantine) it is clear that 100% in-class schooling is the best option for our kids as the probability of transmission is very low and the probability for recovery is very high. If our complex area superintendents want to be “Safer” then a hybrid of in-class/online learning is advisable. With very few cases (active and recovered) on Kauai, the third option of online-only learning is too extreme and does more harm to our children’s mental health and education than the virus itself.
It would be advisable to include the names of Kauai’s complex area superintendents so that we can give credit to where credit is due.
Based on the data, the leaders on Kauai and in the state of Hawaii need to focus on 1) testing; 2) reinforcing our supply of rooms, ICU’s, ppe’s; and 3) focus on the population most at risk that is those with co-morbilities. Mayor Kawakami….please work on creating COVID living guidelines for those most at risk; create a volunteer group to help support those most at risk; and let the rest of us get back to our lives and livelihoods.
It only takes one. As you can see, Covid19 is making it to the island. One slips by and a kid acts as a carrier… Then what?
What are you even talking about? On Kauai, not one single local child has caught the virus, ever! The ONLY transmissions were from the mainland and that cesspit O‘ahu.
Meaning that right now Kauai could have been a 100% virus-free sanctuary for our residents and our keiki had our leadership here had done their jobs and kept Kauai the other islands locked down.
But no, Kawakami’s and Ige’s friends at the airlines pur$$$suaded them to re-open, and this is the result.
And it doesn’t help that Hawaii has a lazy, ignorant, azz-backward DOE and teacher’s union BOTH who are trying to give themselves and their dues-paying members a year-long paid staycation at home.
Who is simple minded? More people on Kauai have died this year from auto accidents than Covid, yet we allow driving. More people on Kauai have died this year from drowning than Covid, yet we allow people in the ocean.
It is time for our leaders to focus on the simple solutions and concentrate on things they can control. First accept that an outbreak of Covid-19 is coming to this island, you can’t stop it (well you can if you outlaw travel to Kauai forever), and anything that has been done so far has just postponed the inevitable as we are just flattening the curve.
Controlling Covid is not unlike the laws we have for safer driving or safety measures we instill at our beaches for safer swimming. We have a fourteen day quarantine in place and when testing becomes more reliable, economical, and faster then all visitors should be tested prior to arriving to Kauai. Is the testing going to be one hundred percent effective…..no but it will reduce the likelihood of the virus.
We need to learn how to live with the virus because it is not going away anytime soon.
I have a small daycare next door where keiki are running around as normal keiki. School would probably be safer. Open up the schools. School is daycare.
Our keiki need to be back in school full-time, especially the younger ones. Not only are they missing out on an education, but the psychological effects are devastating, even in homes that do not have abuse. Our teachers are trying their best with distance learning, but it is no substitute for in-person instruction. Especially after this long!! We cannot wait until the election is over. Politics and corporate interests cannot be more important than Kauai’s keiki. We shouldn’t be grouped in with what is going on Oahu in light of the inter-island quarantine.
Are there any parent groups pushing this issue with the DOE? I would like to be involved. Please email me at kauaicaresforkeiki@gmail.com. Mahalo