New Mexico

My only guess is that she's playing politics to appease our rather large constituency of ex-Texans in the Southeast. The decision, however, rests with the APS board. I know that our most recent teacher survey (for my middle school) had 9 teachers willing to return today, 23 teachers who will retire/quit if they have to come back now, and 45 teachers (including myself) who will happily return AFTER we have been fully vaccinated. This ratio is pretty much the same district-wide.

You would think, with all the sturm und drang about getting kids back to in-person teaching, that the state would prioritize teachers for being vaccinated. The large majority of teachers have yet to be vaccinated. If they had poked us first, we could already be back in school.

I will never understand the cavalier attitude of many about this deadly virus. Many teachers are 50+ years old in this state. The selfishness of conservative parents (and even some liberal ones that I know) is astonishing. We spend more time with their kids than most of them do, yet they treat us like minimum wage babysitters.

I remain hopeful, as you do, that they'll kick this vaccination process into high gear swiftly, before these mutations start to take hold and throw our whole recovery plan out of whack. How blessed you are to have your granddaughters with you! I feel horrible that their senior year will be so messed up. I know that we are doing all we can to try and mimic some degree of normalcy for our wonderful and deserving graduating students. I just wish we could do more.