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As Yogi Berra might say: As expected, this is going to take longer than expected

Yesterday news arrived that Governor Polis has closed the schools for a further period. It seems as though this works and like the social distancing, is going to be painful. My daughter, for example, is facing reduced hours as are others who are close to me. I'm sure that you already know people who are experiencing reduced hours at work.

Colorado Governor Jared Polis announcing new Covid-19 efforts. Photo: Official Polis
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It is probably worth looking back at the Panic of 1893, 1874 and also the Great Depression for some lessons in this. Instead of a run on the banks we are experiencing a run on toilet paper. But otherwise the panic among people about their future is very much in evidence.

Economists define an economic depression as unemployment of more than 15 percent. I submit that we are there now, due to layoffs, reduced hours and other effects in the labor market. It isn't over yet and I worry that worse is ahead.

Worse, the Federal Reserve is focused on stimulating the supply side of the economy. It is the demand side of the economy that is in trouble. And the Fed's efforts are limited by near-zero interest rates. The next effort could see a historic first for the Fed: negative interest rates.
I don't know how that would work.

At the virtual school we are running into issues related to the access to videos on school-supplied Chromebooks. YouTube and the software we use to manage Chromebook use places restrictions on some videos. For some reason the history videos are hitting these walls.

Mrs. Sherak and I are trying to work towards resolving these issues. Be patient, let me or Mrs. Sherak know if an assigned video has been blocked. It appears, at this time, that it will be unblocked on a case-by-case basis.

Another issue I'm personally experiencing is tech issues. I am using the laptop keyboard right now, but I prefer a full-sized and separate keyboard. The most recent Windows update knocked out all my external keyboards and as they are older legacy units, there are no driver updates. Rolling back the update worked for about five minutes. Then Windows decided to update the software-- again. :(
Some of the students are loving this experience. Others, frankly some of the same students, need direction. How do we provide that remotely? It's a good question.


Parents and students, we need to hear from you about what is working and what is not working.
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