Wilmingtech

We live in a small mountain town of about 800-1000ppl. Our house is just over a mile from our tiny downtown where the elementary, middle and high school are.

We think it's funny that the kids that live "in town" have a bus stop about 3 blocks from the school. About 12-14 kids will sit out at that bus stop for 20 minutes waiting for the bus, even in the rain, when they could walk 10 minutes and be at the school.

Doesn't make sense to me.

gear64

I'm so thankful I grew up in an era of independence, and believe me stuff happened back in the 70s; but that was life for better or worse. For school I walked 1 - 8, in high school dropped off early years, public bus home, sometimes chose to walk. My kids rode the school bus. As a lifestyle my kids just never seemed interested in the stuff I did. Not sure if peer related, internet, gaming, electronics related? They never proactively tested whether I had the guts to let them live as free as I did. I lived mostly outside, mostly playing unorganized sports, sometimes just hanging out, sometimes seeing just how far we could ride our bikes and get back by designated check in (usually meal time). Before drivers license it was also common to ride public transportation all over the place from a pretty young age, whether to the mall, the museums at Forest Park, downtown, etc.

I don't know if typical as I've only visited once, but in Netherlands I borrowed a bike from hotel to visit neighboring areas. On way back I passed a school at end of day. Kids just came flying from the school on bikes like bats from cave, it was awesome! I wish there was more of that here.

Sentionc

Yeah, we're facing that problem, too. Huge car traffic to school. We're often late and kids complain very often that they can't do their homework. They're often upset about this situation.

Koyote

Less than 10% of child abductions, and less than 10% of child sexual abuse, is perpetrated by strangers; the overwhelming majority is done by relatives, friends and acquaintances. So, the fear of some unknown bogeyman, which often drives parents to restrict their children's mobility and exploration, is rather misplaced.

Also, your claim that "times have drastically changed" is likewise not supported by the evidence...Unless you mean that incidents of maltreatment of children have dropped in the past 25 years, since that is actually the case.

Phil_gretz

The Wilmette public schools have a web site that describes the Phase 4 return program. I've read the presentation materials that were prepared for returning parents. Some parents may opt to not have their children return to in-class instruction. But if they do enroll to return, then they'll be following the Phase 4 plan. Currently, only K-4 are returning to class fully, 5-12 are in the modified/hybrid program. More details are available on your locale's web resources, if you have any questions.

mstateglfr 

pretty sure the makings of covid were in an unborn bat or whatever at the time of this thread's first post...

DrIsotope

"School" is back in today in our district. One kid got their crappo Acer laptop replaced with a Mac mini + 25" monitor. The other is using their overbuilt gaming PC for school. First class @ 8:30am. Set up their webcams yesterday.

Book pickup was the easiest and most streamlined ever-- one grade per day, 90-minute blocks by last name (A-C from 8-9:30, D-L from 9:30-11, etc,) and this is how the schools should have been doing it since day one. Took 20 minutes.

The electric bills are through the roof already (they've been home since spring break in April) but I have to say I will not miss the 4+ car trips a day to the HS. They're home at minimum through the end of 2020.

The district will decide what's what for Spring 2021 by end of year. The neighboring school district has already been in a week. The reduction in early morning traffic is absolutely fine by me.