Chad West lashes out after he posted on Facebook that he was on the receiving end of “several calls and messages last night from neighbors who experienced 2, 3, 4 and even 6-hour waits at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center yesterday for their COVID19 vaccination appointments.”
Council Member West seemed dismayed at the Mayor, but the entire City Council has been acting as one observer noted “like a bunch of petulant children.”
This local political actist noted “if the Mayor and City Council had to rely on one another for mutual survival, they’d all be done six months ago. Every one of them is more interested in their memo or tweet to score political points than in listening and fixing problems and they are ignoring people with the experience to do help.”
Chad West Lashes Out – In Wrong Direction?
The angry Facebook post came the same day Dallas County reported 1,617 new COVID19 cases and a dozen deaths.
In late January, Dallas County Commissioner’s Court voted 3-0 with two abstentions to prioritize vaccine distribution to certain zip codes leaving black and brown citizens in other areas at the end of the line. An emergency meeting was required after the decision once the Texas Department of State Health Services reminded Dallas County of their obligations under their hub contract to serve everyone.
As reported on Townview Magnet‘s news page, Dallas Independent School District is holding a Learning Loss Town Hall this Thursday night, January 21, 2021 to discuss district efforts to mitigate the loss of learning by students hit hard by the pandemic.
After engaging with more than 10,000 stakeholders and getting feedback from teachers and campus leaders through multiple virtual community meetings, Dallas ISD is proposing three calendar models that would provide more learning time for the students that need it the most.
Dallas ISD started exploring the possibility of potentially adding learning time for certain students after data showed the devastating impact the pandemic could have on students. Earlier this year, Dallas ISD Trustees voted to lower academic standards for passing. It appears they are not reversing course.
Dallas ISD officials wrote more than 10,000 parents, teachers and community members responded to a survey asking for input, and numerous virtual forums solicited input from campus staff, district leaders and community stakeholders.
In addition to COVID19, district officials are hampered by Austin directives contrary to local needs.
Learning Loss Town Hall Registration
Do you have questions about Dallas ISD’s plans to mitigate learning loss?
Dallas ISD leadership will be on the call at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, January 21, in a TeleTown Hall meeting to discuss the district’s efforts to mitigate learning loss by adding learning time for students who have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID19 pandemic.
Dallas ISD families will receive a call to participate, but if you want to make sure you are on the call list, register here.
NOTE: Registration ends three hours before the start of the meeting.
It was attacked by County Judge Clay Jenkins as potentially illegal and now Texas has agreed.
In a strongly worded email to Commissioners, Texas health officials said, “While we ask hub providers to ensure the vaccine reaches the hardest-hit areas and populations, solely vaccinating people who live in those areas is not in line with the agreement to be a hub provider,” wrote Imelda Garcia, an associate commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services.
She continues, “If Dallas County is unable to meet these expectations, we will be forced to reduce the weekly vaccine allocation … and no longer consider it a hub provider.”
In addition to the state action at least two attorneys were preparing motions to stop the new vaccine rollout.
COVID19 Politics At 1500 Marilla
Meanwhile, Mayor Eric Johnson sent a terse memo to City Manager TC Broadnax regarding city vaccination rollout and individual council members seeking vaccine registration hubs.
The Mayor’s memo was immediately attacked as another COVID19 politics power grab by Adam Bazaldua in both personal posts and posts to the Other Side DallasFacebook group.
The two City Council colleagues have been described by another City Council member as “the two boys in the sandbox who can’t get along because neither gets enough attention” from their mother.
“They both just complain about the other and neither does his homework,” the source said.
Dallas County Commissioner’s Court recently authorized what amounts to COVID19 Discrimination in their vaccination distribution plan. Commissioners openly stated the decision was based on race in designating eleven zip codes to receive the vaccine on a priority basis.
On February 1, 2021 those eleven zip codes – 75149, 75150, 75210, 75211, 75215, 75216, 75217, 75227, 75228, 75241, and 75243 – will receive the vaccine. Persons outside those zip codes will not.
Judge Clay Jenkins stated this “will stop shots for everyone else for ‘foreseeable future’.”
The decision is based on data from Parkland Hospital and a new layer on top of existing prioritization. Parkland Hospital reported hundreds of tests stolen this summer due to poor security procedures prior to Dallas becoming a pandemic hot zone.
COVID19 Discrimination
Jenkins also said, “I’m sure we’ll hear from the state of Texas and every suburban city in Dallas County as well as parts of the city not in those 10 ZIP codes.”
Per a local school site, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) is interfering in local direction again. COVID19 response plans have been shot down by Commissioner Mike Morath. He has rejected a proposal submitted by dozens of South Texas superintendents earlier this week that would have given districts the ability to continue a mostly remote instruction curriculum should COVID19 numbers surge over the winter break. While this decision does not impact Dallas now, it could if COVID19 numbers continue to rise.
South Texas and the Rio Grande Valley has faced a disproportionate number of COVID19 numbers. The Rio Grande Valley is just 4.7% of the entire Texas population, but accounts for 17% of deaths throughout Texas.
At a press conference Tuesday, Cortez and McAllen Superintendent J.A. Gonzalez outlined the plan, which would have included a waiver allowing districts to continue online instruction for 100% of families in areas with a hospitalization rate greater than 15% without having district funding affected. It also requested rapid COVID-19 tests be made available for priority students who do choose to attend on campus, with Cortez and Gonzalez citing potential superspreader events over the holidays as a chief motivator for the proposal.
TEA COVID19 Response and Funding
TEA has a long standing problem on the COVID19 question.
Dallas ISD Trustees Mackey and Michiche have previously both publicly stated it is better if students stay home and learn virtually. COVID19 continues to hit school after school including shutting down two campuses and numerous classrooms.
24 Hour Dallas is holding a Drinks On Brink Zoominar this Tuesday, December 15, 2020.
Join 24HourDallas as they host Drinks On The Brink, a free Zoominar that explores Dallas’ independent bars and how they might navigate the coming months. Guest panelists include Dr. Eric Anthony Johnson of Dallas’ Economic Development office, Stephanie Keller Hudiburg, the Executive Director of the Deep Ellum Foundation, and Jeff Brightwell, a partner at Dot’s Hop House.
You can register for this event at no cost to you here.
Neighborhood pubs, taverns, bars, and saloons have played pivotal roles in United States history. Paul Revere was known to frequent Boston’s Bell In Hand while first President George Washington favored Williamsburg’s Christiana Campbell tavern. The ideas, treaties, and revolutions that have shaped our nation have often been crafted and confirmed with a tip of a glass.
COVID19 and public health issues are concerns, but independent bars, pubs, and restaurants need financial relief they need to weather the pandemic. A major concern is what ideas, treaties, and revolutions are being lost with independent bars being lost to a pandemic.
24 Hour Dallas: Drinks On Brink
This is just the latest effort by the 24 Hour Dallas coalition to bring attention to issues hitting the Dallas service industry the hardest. 24 Hour Dallas had Seize The Night – Carpe Noctem – and race consciousness events in the summer and has existed to assist the Dallas service industry since 2015.
County Judge Clay Jenkins issued a written statement saying in part: “The improving numbers, while early, are an indication that residents are renewing their strength and engaging in shared sacrifice and patriotism to keep our community and our country strong until such time as the vaccine can be widely distributed and have its effect.”
Dallas County recently announced it is counting only positive antigen tests – also known as rapid tests – as probable cases. In other notifications of results, antibody and “household” results were included.
1675 New COVID19
November Dallas County hit 1500 daily cases. These rising cases are also contributing to the nearly 1600 in Dallas Independent School District. In early November, that number was less than 800.
The rising numbers do not appear to be stopping multiple public events where attendees forgo masks though meaning numbers will continue to rise.
Virtual only instruction may be returning to Dallas ISD after the Thanksgiving Break per two sources in Dallas ISD administration meaning another major change to the Dallas ISD calendar.
Dallas ISD has shut down Caillet Elementary, a 586-student campus located in Northwest Dallas, this week over concerns about the coronavirus spreading among the school’s staff and students.
Virtual only instruction, or online classes, were mandated after five positive cases among staff and students within the span of a week.
The campus is the second school in Dallas ISD to be temporarily closed because of COVID19 concerns. Hotchkiss Elemenyary was closed in mid-October for three days, allowing school administrators and central staff to track down those who might have been in contact with positive cases, and perform a deep clean of the school.
Caillet will be closed until Nov. 17 when in-person instruction is expected to resume. On Nov. 16, rapid COVID tests will be provided to teachers and staff in the morning, and students in the afternoon.
According to the DISD’s tracker, there have been close to 900 cases of COVID19 among staff, teachers and students since the district started reporting data October 5, 2020. Almost a third of those cases have happened since the start of November, reflecting a larger trend of cases in Dallas County and Texas.
The state is closing in on one million confirmed cases of COVID-19, and Dallas County hit a single-day record on Tuesday, with 1,401 cases.
Jennifer Finley, the district’s director of health services, said that county health officials have indicated that there’s likely a wave of cases on the way.
With the holiday season — and flu season — right around the corner, and a general level of “COVID fatigue” in the community, Finley said she could potentially see a rise in cases within the school system.
COVID response teams have been created on each campus, and the district has been “trying to ramp up” its staff for contact tracing, Finley said, “as to not exceed our bandwidth” if cases at schools do start to climb.
At the beginning of the month, Dallas County officials reported 1500 new cases per day. Dallas County has clearly returned as a hot zone for infection rate well beyond our July numbers.
What Does A Return To Virtual Only Instruction Mean?
Dallas ISD’s Board of Trustees had already planned to take up lowering educational goals due to COVID19 at their Thursday, November 19 Board of Trustees meeting. Now it appears they will also consider a return to virtual only instruction predicting lowered standards will become the norm.
It is not clear if teachers whose pay is based on student success will enjoy this same standard on goal changes with a move back to virtual only instruction.
Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center is providing Thanksgiving meals for 400 in South Dallas at the Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center. This will be available on a first-come, first-served basis.
After a successful kick off last month, the Center Table Fall Harvest series – presented by The Mark Cuban Foundation, The Dirk Nowitzki Foundation, The Heroes Foundation and North Texas Food Bank – will continue Thursday, November 19, from 9 am-noon at the Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center. The center is located at 1800 Bonnie View Road, Dallas, TX 75216.
With many families facing tough times, the drive-up event will offer free food boxes for 400 families. The event is open to people who reside in the surrounding neighborhoods of the Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center including Cedar Crest, south Oak Cliff, southern Dallas County and Joppa.
Food boxes are limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis to 400 families. Pre-registration is not required. Volunteers and staff from the Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center will wear masks and gloves and will practice social distancing.
In addition, as part of the Center Table Fall Harvest efforts, free chef-prepared meals for four will be delivered to senior citizens and grandparents in the Center’s surrounding neighborhoods in advance of Thanksgiving week (November 21-23). Made by The Bearded Chef and Chef Joslyn of Sankofa, the meal packs include a turkey, two sides, dessert and tea. Also, free meal packs for homeless high school and college students will be delivered to schools or available for pick up.
“The true heroes are all of our neighbors who have been impacted by the pandemic. Many of them are and have been essential workers. They are hardworking women and men who have and continue to make significant sacrifices and contributions to our city and society. And to that end, we owe them a debt of gratitude. This is one way to express our gratitude,” said Trina Terrell-Andrews, CEO of the Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center. “While we all are experiencing a challenging season, we must do all we can to support one another.”
Center Table Fall Harvest will continue in December (date forthcoming).
Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center
The Mark Cuban Heroes Basketball Center is a multi-purpose facility for neighborhood youth and families providing sports and leadership programs.
The November COVID19 numbers continue to be a headache for both local politicians, businesses, and residents as cases are rising quicker than expected. On Tuesday Dallas County health officials reported 1400 more COVID19 cases — all presumed new and the highest single-day total of the pandemic.
In July, Dallas was considered a “hot zone” because we were averaging more than two hundred cases per day. Dallas is now running between five and seven times that number. This may cause local hospitals to move to a surge capacity model.
Currently, the county is running out of available hospital beds. Per county data, the inventory of adult ICU beds was 52 as of Tuesday — one of its lowest points since the virus’s peak in July. The figure does not include beds that hospitals can add if needed. Each hospital has its own surge plan, which could include doubling up beds in rooms and converting surgical centers, but COVID19 is not the only user of bed space.
Every fall and winter elderly patients suffering from influenza use ICU space. Additionally, victims of car wrecks, heart attacks, and strokes all need these beds also.
“We are 7-10 days away from reaching our highest COVID hospitalization census to date if we do not immediately renew our resolve and change our behaviors,” County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a written statement.
According to Jenkins’ chief of staff, Lauren Trimble, Dallas County epidemiologists have recently spent less time sorting through which cases came from the state’s reporting system, since there have been so few older or backlogged cases.
Health officials use hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and emergency room visits as COVID19 tracking metrics to evaluate impact in Dallas. In the 24-hour period that ended Monday, 479 COVID-19 patients were in acute care in hospitals in the county. During the same period, 431 ER visits were for symptoms of the disease.
Dallas ISD November COVID19 Numbers
The cases in Dallas ISD are no better.
Between the first day back, October 5, 2020, and November 9, 2020, Dallas ISD is reporting an eighteen fold increase in COVID19 cases. This rise is occuring in all areas: central staff, school staff, and students. These numbers seem to match Dallas County at large which recently reported 1500 cases in a single day.
