Stewart and I recommend that we ask the trustees to consider staying put with our current health care provider and programs and in a better climate and in a better future scenario then go back to the drawing board and take a look at pricing and future opportunities for our employees and please keep in mind that we're real cognizant of the fact that this is nobody's fault and nobody planned it and you know these are circumstances that ended up kind of out of our control and time slipped away from us you all know that essentially March and April have kind of disappeared from all of us so that's kind of where we are with it so if you have questions we'll try to answer them would because last month the board of trustees voted to go with Kairos and so it would take a motion in a vote to to return to where we have them information and timelines we recommend we stay with our program at least for the current year and get an earlier start oh yeah you can usually have your discussion after your first and second if there's a saying this is a discussion so sherry and Laurie we have a motion on the table by Doug to remain with our current provider that's a motion on the floor somebody can second for the purposes of discussion what happened Laurie Laurie are you with us sherry are we muted no we're not new Laurie are you there we don't hear you we see you but we don't hear you she's kind of hidden well she's behind us over there if she says something and comes on she'll come up there where Cherie are you did you hear that we have a motion on the floor from Doug yes I heard it I will not that's alright Laurie did you hear oh sure you could you could second for the purposes of discussion and then you could withdraw your second later if you don't want to keep it okay so Laurie keeps coming in and out she seems to be here but we don't hear from her I'm gonna text her which means we don't have a quorum Laurie's back ah she keeps coming in and out I've asked if she has called me on my phone Laurie are you there she's out again she still longer she just needs to unmute and thus are the challenges of having an open meeting in digital space I texted Laurie a couple of times to try to bring her in technically right now she's calling me Laurie are you there that's fine so right now we've returned to having a quorum Laurie Crampton is on the phone with me we have sherry and Doug Doug let's put a motion on the floor to remain with our current health care provider and to Laurie second stat now the floor is open for discussion can I ask a question um Kairos was gonna do an end-to-end audit for us to see why our rates were going as high as they were going and it's the same audit that was mentioned with the other insurance company would that still be taking place if we maintained with as bait or would we just keep going I think that part of the thing key is that the audit is not just about the rates but it's also about the structure of the trust document and the structure of the trust but beyond that we would let Tara answer that Tara not so much well both what what exactly is entailed in the audit and then and then we could talk about separately about and asked chuck about an end to end so Tara can you respond to the question about what the audit entails sure hi Kate so we've been we started to go through the documents that we've been given and any of the contracts and anything of that nature we've started going through that we started going through any of the financials that we've gotten ahold of unfortunately we haven't received everything that we're gonna need in order to do that but we have started putting together some of the recommendations based on just the overall organization but we would we wouldn't be able to complete that or to finish any of that until we receive all of the paperwork unfortunately it's a little bit scattered right now and we're I know that the administration's doing their best to try to pull some of that stuff together because of dates back but it will it'll take a while regardless to do that and inaud it but yeah so we have started that we just we haven't received all the paperwork so that's what we're at right so if they were to go back and just like stay with as bait right now because of the status of everything with this Cove in nineteen and everything like that would that affect Kairos releasing that information to us or would there be a fee that we would then be responsible to pay Kairos for finishing that work before you know we will do guys we have no problem giving we don't have I mean we haven't done much on that yeah I mean we haven't done an extensive amount of work as of now because we still gathering paperwork so we have no problem really saying what we have done by any means to the group and I mean I can't speak on behalf of as bait whether that that they would take that over or not some things that sounded like Kairos would do this and they would be covered by prepaid legal it probably would have been and we probably could still roll that over and we've worked that out with them Chuck is there do you all do that same kind of service you know what Carolyn we don't that would be back through the growth of the brokerage so Caroline I have Gregg tightness and Frank waters on my husband's cellphone they can't get into them okay we'd love to have them in the meeting yeah they can't get in they're trying to do it by phone and it just sits and spins and it says waiting to be invited oh that's because they got up they use the number from the invite so if you use the if I can read you off the number that they should be reading the other code no life size Cherie they have yes it's two different codes to put in there's two codes to put in read that email heart yeah we're not going to have it I have a turn yeah mute your mic before you give it to them on your phone cherry okay go to you your computer sure you're out on the YouTube and we can't let that pass wear it out so mute you're okay I'm I'm muting I'm going to give them the information okay you've got some good points there why you've seconded to the motion would you hold on to those until we can see if when you get sherry back and and Greg and first waters back on because that way we would have a full board and they can all hear the concerns please can everybody hold on for just one second because we only technically don't have a quorum at this moment until sherry comes back in right and that's why you Lori we want you to repeat what you said you and Doug are with us Sherry's on a temporary hold so we need her to hear your comments and you too Ronnie we are live on YouTube we are live on YouTube and everyone else can hear you so just reminding you a comment about dancing on the phone we're sitting here chuckling about two phones talking to each other right we have two phones talking to each other we have to digital commands and sherry are you back with us unmute and say yes I am i was getting instructions you are awesome we waited we put it on hold because when you check out we've checked if we don't have a quorum so now that you're back and doug is on the line and Laurie's on the line we have our Laurie has a comment that she wants to [Music] okay Laurie thank you for that that is a critical issue relative to the financial health of individuals as well as their own physical health and Chuck did you hear that I do hear that thank you and I do appreciate it and we absolutely will work harder on that okay and then Ronnie you're next go ahead Ronnie you wanted to speak Ronnie I just want to die Canyon yeah we can hear you hear me now okay I just wanted to reiterate that the family plan on this is going to jump drastically and I've had people very concerned over that were just hit the switch all right Terry can you mute your microphone can you mute your microphone so because we're picking up background noise when you came on thank you for your input Ronnie mister flora and dr.
Kellis Thank You mr. president members of the board and members of cabinet I would like to just give a shout out to all of our die cert heroes we have the opportunity over the last two weeks to finish up the NYSERDA hero patrol we had only gotten through a certain number of those recognitions before we were shut down and over the last couple of weeks where you were able to go out and using social distancing do surprise doorstep recognitions and present them with their their packets there's still more to come on that as we celebrate our Dicer heroes but it's always a good thing to celebrate the extraordinary staff that we have in Dicer there's been a lot of questions asked about what are the graduation plans for our seniors in Dicer there have been some great suggestions given and our administration is looking at all of those possibilities there are certain conditions that are outside of our control such as the University of access now the State Farm stadium is not certain that they can actually host our graduations on the dates that we are hoping so we are working with them we hope to have it nailed down a plan actually three options depending on what the circumstances are at the time and we are hoping to go public with that by within the next few days anyway hopefully by the end of the week and that's all I have to report we'll go ahead and move on with actual item c2 Governing Board updates I do not have any I'll just go ahead and go down the list and we'll ask both start with Tracy do you have anything oh just a couple had the opportunity to sit in and attend several of the CIP presentations via Google hangout the schools are feeling the pinch just like every other school is with regards to making sure that the teachers are doing what they're doing and the students and so it was good to sit in and listen you know the benchmark scores and what their their goals are going to be for the rest of the year so that was awesome to sit in last week participated with the Dicer heroes patrol a lot of the surprises were great to see on people's faces as we did yes practice social distancing and dr.
Cronyn on her retirement it is well deserved thank you Board of Ed members for all you are doing to help insure our student success I watched the recording of the last meeting and thought it went well considering it was virtual I do however feel the need to make note of something a few members commented about before I do I would also like to say that I also agree that teachers have been working nonstop and they need to have set hours in which they will respond to email so they can log off and be with their families with that having been said the comments I am referring to how to do with young students doing online schoolwork late in the evening and remarks about how parents shouldn't allow this board members need to also remember that the majority of folks are working from home well maybe the only time a parent has work with their child one-on-one with schoolwork is after dinner when the parent is done working or one younger siblings have been put to bed or perhaps the student is a natural night owl or the family has only one computer that all siblings share or the family has had to adjust to doing night school so the kids sleep in later in order for the parent to be able to get any of their own work done luckily my two children are in high school but I remember how it was when they were younger and I cannot fathom trying to work from home while they are with me and trying to help them with schoolwork and keep them entertained let's cook all the time nevermind that they can't see their friends so please let's support everyone administration teachers students and parents during this difficult time lastly and most important to my family to my family please postpone graduation if at all possible do not cancel it and I hope it isn't done virtually even if done in July or August these kids at least get to see each other even from a distance just have the seniors there are no guests in the stands parents can watch via a live stream use the entire football field and clip the chair so far apart that they can all wear their caps and gowns and walk by mr.
Kay already you welcome back to the evesham Township Board of Education meeting please all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all that was really weird you guys are all I'm you and I'm just hearing myself as a school teacher does it feel right all right because obviously we are again in our second virtual meeting just to kind of give a couple heads up here I am for running this meeting I have one screen for the zoom and then I have another screen for the agenda so if I'm if I'm looking off camera I'm it's not the NFL Draft I promise I am looking over there so I can actually read what's going on so I'm not giving you the proper eye contact eye I apologize we are going to move into public comment first because we have no presentations it would be kind of bizarre to have one like this so we're gonna move past that so we're gonna head into into the public discussion of agenda items only now before I read my mighty usual usual thing about the three minutes and stuff I want to just you know let you guys know just a couple of things anybody who's interested commenting and I'll mention it again later on the meeting number one when it gets the public comment we're going to disappear and the number of the call-in number is going to appear on the screen so don't don't panic if you don't see us we we are listening we can hear you number two it's also make sure that you turn off you turn off your computer it's like calling into a radio so make sure that you you do that as well and this isn't really a good forum right now for a back-and-forth question and answers this is the time for you to you know tell us what you feel or if you have an opinion something or something that you want to the board to know about this would be good we will try our best to answer anything if we can but we we don't have the ability to do a true back and forth so I just before I go into the public content I just want you to know that so you're aware of that mr.
Stewart this is Kate Ms Brown and I have been working on trying to figure out a way to find some insurance that or a supplemental plan that our employees can look into to cover spouses and their children and we got in touch with James from national life and he had a contact that he put us in touch with who has sent information to me on like so elemental insurance for families so I can work all to you and what he has given me so far so that if that's something that you guys want to roll out to like employees as an option for family coverage for just like the spouse and the children then we can look into that as well for you know giving that out to the employee okay thank you muted we hear your cell phone ringing and there's a lot of movement and noise coming from you [Music] who else joined us you joined us yes yes [Music] Kelly yes Kelly hi we have a motion and a second on the floor to remain with as be for our current health care provider and we are now in discussion and each individuals or you know the opportunity to chime in we've heard from a few of our members and our trustees and at this point we've heard from both of our providers that are in the discussion of Kairos and as made as well anything you'd like to add I [Music] so with Kairos they can't enroll using like zoom or something we we can't we've actually had a lot of success with the zoom meetings were at we had more participation for example we have Chandler School District in the valley and typically there's 20 to 30 people per meeting that show up and we have 200 people showing up on those zoom meetings because it's just a lot more convenient for them so we've been doing the face to face with zoom meetings with the employees and we've had a lot of success with that and then there's recorded webinars as well so that they can get back in if that timing doesn't work for them Tara Tara is that onboarding them and from a previous program or is that just reeling because they were in your pool before no no absolutely not so with all of our new groups we are we're getting on and explaining the differences between their plans and going through all of that but it's it's from the start we know that they're the new groups and that it's not just rolling over the plans by any means good question Greg that's one that we had been asking about we have John here in the room and we have Michelle I think Michelle's still on the phone Michelle Rhee's still with us well yes I am and I'm sorry the problems came in when we have people who are not necessarily technologically savvy they do need a lot of hand-holding even with plans that they've had for years and we are just under such a time crunch that I see it being a problem and then additional so I guess some of the plant just the plan I understand the family cost and I don't I want to make sure that I'm sympathizing and it's I mean I understand that the family cost is jumping and if there are alternatives I completely understand the May 15th I've never seen the AAS or the state statute that says about the May 15th but regardless if you guys were to send that form over we can fill that out for you it's just making or just filling out the rates for each of the plans and tiers so I hope that that May 15th and that two-week window I've never seen that state zapcic but we can we can easily make that piece work and I don't want that to be something that's scary because we can take that on in-house for you guys but the big thing for the chief in the plan changes I mean we're low I understand the deductible reset to and it would be 12 months so they would get six months on the back but it is a $250 less you know our deductible is $250 less our coinsurance is 80% coverage and right now they're only getting 75 percent coverage the out-of-network deductibles are fifteen hundred and five thousand under Kyros and forty five hundred and fifteen thousand through the Aetna and the ass beat and I know that out of network issues are bigger out there than really anywhere else in the state just due to the location but maximum out of pockets or a thousand dollars less under Pyro's two thousand dollars less for families we have the zero dollar teleMed for all of the plans now because of the köppen 19 and so I just want to make sure that even though I understand that change is scary and I really do sympathize with that piece of it but just in the network the difference in the network and the plan design changes are and then are an enhancement and so if there is you know if we need to get on the phone and walk and please through that we have no problem doing that I I just I know that there's the fear there but I don't want the fear to outweigh the the reality of the better coverage it's better Network if that you know if if that's something that we need to do yeah and Terry that's you know we I think all of the board members who were present and listening and reading all the data from last month you know it really the issues really are not so much are not so much the differences in the plans relative to what Todd and I are proposing it just boils down to this time thing of getting it done and the fact that John and Michelle know our employees even in a rollover 20% of our employees need to be walked through we can look we can carry our we can walk through that via foot we have we have an entire team that can walk through and do paper forms for them so if that something that if there are D calling in and having trouble with the rollover we have no problem walking them through the phone that's what our entire customer service team and our member service team is there to support I mean we have groups that are ten times or five times your size more than that joint or that are coming in and that we've all boarded and later than now and I understand that this situation is different but we still have other groups that are continuing to join and it's the same time period so I just I I recognize that but I think that with the amount of the amount of support that we can provide I I'm just I don't know if frustrated is right word but I just am I wish that we could show you because we've had or I wish that you guys could call on different groups to see how their onboarding experience has been because we have I mean we've invested a significant amount in the employee educational piece of it but then also just the support behind the scenes so Tara I think the other side of it is going out to get appointments with doctors and trying to deal with the true open enrollment and the period of opportunity to shop is not there in this climate it's hard to go out and find specialists and get appointments and deal with your prescription and rollover of prescriptions and then as Laurie had mentioned the financial aspect the six months at the back end really doesn't do them much good up front now relative to their financial conditions so it's a little bit more than just the you know the completing of the paperwork and then as michelle had mentioned and I'm just reiterating so I apologize but everybody to rehear the concerns relative to our lack of fab' individuals that would be able to understand and zoom in we have 450 total employees we would not be seeing zooms of 30 30 30 30 30 without in the timeframe of making all this happen within the next few days is an arduous task for two individuals that are already swamped with a bunch of work which is why we put these recommendations with this for consideration trust deeds it's everything that's Tara's saying it's everything that Michelle and Ronny and Lorie and all of us have been saying and we just want everyone to hear and consider all the facts are there concerns or buts that people want to provide into this discussion Tara this is sherry district I have a question for you yes these employees are already covered by a doctor here in Bullhead City mm-hmm on the Etna plan aren't the odds pretty good it's just gonna be a new insurance card because they're gonna be already under the blue plan immediately right and they're not going to be changing doc all they have to do is get their new insurance card what is correct thank you I thought part of the thing was we're going to Blue Cross so we had a more robust Network correct and the other thing on the pre-authorization for the pharmacy is if we can get a pre authorization list from your current PBM and we will have and we've talked we've had this before but we will have our PBM our current PBM take that in and abide by that because of the circumstances now so that I know that you guys just changed PPM's like mid-year I think just a couple of weeks ago I'm so we can take that free office for those people so that it's not a hiccup for your for your groups but well we'll definitely take care of that piece Greg you are correct what and one of the benefits that you all discussed and that all of the group that comes regularly talked about was the seem to be a preference for Blue Cross Blue Shield blue shield so that's one of the reasons and that's not the reason but the thing is we're focusing on this time issue and not so much on the real issues that we should be considering and should have already considered which is the coverage and those things it's a concern about this time frame and you all know that this kind of theory has already said she can deal with that why are we not letting her do this I don't get it okay and that's why you're having a meeting as a group to tell us how you want to proceed my Michelle and my concern is when we have talked with the representative I'm not getting that same kind of feeling from them I mean they the person that we were training with specifically said due to the coab in nineteen they would not be able to help us in the way that they normally would that set off alarms for me we have people who are j1 teachers that need to go you know and they often leave the day after school and this is just such a huge time crunch for them to make all of their decisions - and get everything in order and and back in time if this is it's all a timing and everything that has to go - with the board and then go to the next thing we're just we should have had this done a month ago we're just so out of time and I'm not very confident when I meet with them and I'm getting something different when I'm meeting with other people so that that has me very leery of it being able to be accomplished Michelle Gabriel is also on the phone and I mean between the support is that it's not in person but if your employees want to call in we can go through and walkthrough on the on the paper forms Jen Gabriel is our Senior Account Manager Jen are you on can you speak to that I can't and hi Michelle and I'm sorry that wasn't the understanding that you took away from our meeting and Tara's right we can have as many webinars as you need or one-on-one conversations with staff with your staff because we do understand this is a challenging time and changing insurances is always painful to begin with we're here to help with all of that we just can't at this point in time come and meet with them in person but we're willing and open to have as many meetings as we need you to help them through and we have the whole month of May I know you guys are concerned about getting everything into a SRS but we have the month of May to get folks in to make their plan decisions and so forth does that help at all I really don't think that the timing will work I'm just being as honest as I can with the rollover of people leaving and coming in and again I do have the people as contact as being about you know even in my own and it's trying to get a refill on a Med and my doctor does not want me coming into the office because I have a spine allergies and I'm coffee and he does not want to see me those aren't things then when we change insurance we've got to go end do things so I don't want anyone being in a bad condition just because of the timing sharing district I wouldn't I I only know two employees that are on and that's dance tickling hate halt you employees we are trying to do the best for you it's a little more work so be it but it how do you feel in which way you would you prefer what are your thoughts I would prefer Linda Krause I was that wasn't a yeah I were going to Kairos yeah you know in talking about the prescription thing I just had to handle that two weeks ago because we just change and my doctors had no problem we didn't meet we're on the phone we got it done taken care of I don't think that's a problem and it was pretty simple I think the eighty percent is better than the seventy-five I think the 750 deductible is better than the thousand the out-of-pocket expense is better the doctor list is better I think it's a natural change even if the I don't care if the cost of Cairo was more I think Cairo would be a better policy I understand the circumstances that they have to change but right now we all have to be tech savvy to teach and we're online we're doing it with our kids I don't see where the problem I see the problem with the bus driver office nap shouldn't have a problem but that I don't see many problems with the teachers yeah I mean my daughter loves teaching online right now I mean I thought all you guys were too many our Kelly here turn and I just wanted to state that I would like to live to kairos also it just seems like a much better plan and it's more available availability for the doctors or for the people that work for us that have more doctors to choose from versus having to go far away to go see somebody that's covered in the network Thank You Jerry do you wanna say anything that's okay um Kairos I feel that our doctors probably already take Blue Cross Blue Shield's so I don't know how much it would be and changing Kairos okay thank you Christina you're on did you want to say something yeah I'm like an ID I'm going to Kairos and makes more sense okay Richard Hanna you're on do you want to say something hey guys it's rich i'm here i'm your dell rep I don't think I should have an opinion and if I'd seen your face I would have recognized that so thank you she thinks you're one of my ways James James you're an employee but you're running our YouTube do you have anything you want to contribute [Laughter] thank you juliawesome doing good just a second Greg I was trying to hit all these good I'm sorry Julie you're on did you want to contribute anything Julie Alison I guess not Ronnie you're up wait a minute okay Julie's on now Julie go ahead no I was having some technical difficulty I know I'm from what I'm gathering if we proceed forward with our new provider I think things will still move smoothly okay okay Ronnie just for my experience when I was working in human resources this before so hey Ronnie I am just trying to be an advocate for the folks that are can't you hear me yes yes can you hear me yes I'm just being an advocate I don't have I don't pay a family plan but I know it's going to be very hurtful to change for the folks that we do have to pay for a family if we don't find an alternative and how quick are we going to be able to find an alternative for the people with a family and the the deductible is starting over it's going to be a hardship on people maybe not a large group but it's going to affect some of our employees so one of the things that you know we can look at and again this is gonna be a district in a decision from you guys but what we can look at is lowering down the family rate but in doing so that makes the employee only rate go up so what we really look to do especially on the initial rates that we're putting out there is we want to make sure that going out there the original rates every plan for across the board and then every tier is paying for itself so if that's the cost of the family that's how we rate it now some groups we do have groups that say hey we have a ton of families or we have a lot of feet you know we have families that again like you guys are saying or a tough time paying for that can we lower down those family rates but the employee only rates then go up a bit the other option is to look at a plan that has a higher deductible and I know that that's not that's like seems like the cop-out or the easy way out so we can look at both options I just want to make I don't want to sound like a cop-out by saying the higher deductible one but we can look at you know restructuring some of those tiers just know that that means either it's gonna be a higher cost for the district or a higher cost for a majority of the employees which would be employee only and the employee only tier and I can I ask how many employees actually take advantage of the of the family plans if you give me a well if anybody else I'm saying currently right now like Michelle and John how many of our employees how many of our teachers actually are signed up for family plans because if it's just a few then what miss brown and I have found could be a great alternative for them I have that yeah jim says he he's using his memory says 10 to 15 in our district Michelle do you know from high school it's probably got to run about the same my other question was timing wise because during those meetings they were really pushing us using their dental and vision where that was going to be more expensive if we don't use theirs are we still going to be able to get this all put together and out in time or do we have to switch over to there oh yeah you guys can you you guys can keep everything the exact same you did you did vote to leave those alone Richard Richard this is your turn did is that going to create a project shouldn't will create a problem but is it going to create a problem for you this late yeah thank you madam chair no I mean it's a plan you've had in force if we don't make any changes you know we're here to support communication and we understand the times again counting Tara mentioned Weatherby webinar or tele-dentistry again just here is administrator really to support you all and how best to communicate with your employees so so timing is not a perceivable issue for us okay Greg you we kind of put you aside until this and all the teachers did you have something else well what's the overall difference bottom line to the district between the two plans annual basis roughly how many thousand dollars if we stay with the current vision and dental and relative to the district stuff it's pretty much a wash between the two it's it's pretty much you know remember those numbers we had at the time that the difference in the individual employee cost was only like five or six dollars it wasn't very much you know there are some other things some of those add-ons that that might make a difference relative to life insurance and some of those other things but if we stay with vision and dental and that kind of thing it stays it's about the same nothing has really changed from the information that you all were making your decisions on last month the only issue that we had that we were concerned about that we really felt that we needed to bring back to the Board of Trustees is the time issue and considering that and we were particularly concerned when Michelle and John were reporting to us that that messages they were getting sorry Jana this is not accurate but messages they felt they were getting from you all were different than the messages that we had gotten from Tara so we didn't feel like we could proceed that we could go ahead and proceed without bringing it back to the board we weren't wanting to err on the side of being overly cautious as opposed to just going ahead and then the board's ironing later that maybe some of those fears to Lori we can talk through and a lot of I mean a lot of the employees have questions and you know Kate and like a lot of employees on the call have been through a lot of these discussions and meetings all throughout so they've had more and so those are some of the things that we're working through on the phones and through the webinar questions are in the zoom questions with the employees and walking them through that or if there are employees that have special circumstances with medications then we have our own call line at Blue Cross Blue Shield Kyra like it's a Kairos specific for just Kairos members that they can call in to get that transition of care and so we will there be any gaps should there be any delays in the open enrollment and that transition period would there be any worry of gap no absolutely not so they would have coverage you know July or at midnight you know after June well my do on the front end and I definitely want to make sure that I acknowledge that I understand that it's there is work on the front end that has to be done but we take I mean as much as we can possibly do we take in-house for our groups we I mean there are some things that we have to get obviously from the district and you know that's the part that's on the HR and we need that from payroll and everything but we are there every step of the way we can help you know and we just see that communication right so if we knew that the ASRs was a concern for you guys just communicate that piece because we can do I mean we have no problem if you want to send that form in we can we can do it and send it back in and you guys could just submit it so we just need that open communication to know you know what those concerns are so that we can address those because I think that there are a lot of fears that you guys have listed out that we could have you know taken on and made that you guys feel better had we just had that conversation Greg you wanted to say something I'm still leaning just going with Kairos okay I forgot that we had two other employees here in the room in person and they're not folks who are the meetings like you all are but they want to contribute to this so we have Gina covert our director of CTE at the high school so I'm sure Claire is a significant difference if we roll from as bait to Kairos in the life insurance policy and then also in family situations for pre-existing conditions and being one of those employees that has that situation I'm not real pleased with the idea that my life insurance policy's going down with this role and then I would have to purchase supplemental life insurance and then with that supplemental life insurance I would have to re-qualify for that supplemental life insurance I have a family member that I have to be able to take care of two years salary wouldn't take care of him and with this new plan I don't even get two years of my salary I get less than that pre-existing conditions having to qualify again under an insurance policy with a pre-existing condition I think that that's a significant issue because then you roll from one you know doctor or one insurance plan and you've got a pre-existing condition that's not going to be qualified and way I'm reading it that's the same so you can keep your life insurance with where it where it is today so that's not something that you have to come with Kairos I don't think so not when you're buying from a group plan well I'm telling ya it's that's how it works so if you guys want to keep your life insurance separate and you guys want to get you numb if you guys want to keep your supplemental life insurance with where you have it today you can keep that supplemental life insurance where it that is today and then what about the employee if it's less if what you're offering is less than what our salary is so that wouldn't that wouldn't fall under Kairos so that Kairos would just be for your medical provider like your life insurance policy for an employee is say $50,000 if I remember correctly and so if you have employees that have been here for longer than that they're not getting their salary times twice which is what we get now okay but so Tara what you're saying is that the life insurance piece is an add-on for Kairos so we could stay with hounam if we needed you that is correct what just a standard employee so even just for this just for the employees even for the employees never mind family we have it we have we have several groups that just have medical with Kairos eventually just because of the administrative piece they typically start to move one them in just so that we can help in service those but if you if you know it's the five six $5,000 base but you don't have to have that okay so so now here's and I'm gonna try to figure out how to ask this question correctly so bear with me yeah no problem okay we're rolling from as bait to Kairos and typically we have this group plan that is nice and clean and now we're looking at rolling from one program to this new program with this buffet of options what does that do to us as a group you know boom boom boom you know and then next year when it comes time to renew they don't have a buffet if they if the district just says we only want to offer this then we only offer that so if they say we're gonna have our we have our Kairos and we have our life insurance unum and emeritus for their dental and somebody else would that's fine I mean that's not a buffet in the in the eyes of the employees they only see those options there so at this point we've heard from a lot of employees we've heard from everyone how does the Board of Trustees feel about where we stand we have a motion on the floor and a second - does anyone want to discuss that further or we revote I didn't I didn't hear the motion when it was on before I got here oh I admitted to you when you arrived it was a motion by Doug Lutz to maintain our current provider and Laurie Crampton seconded that motion and then we went and then we went into discussion and we've been discussing it for a while now we just wanted to see where the trustees are with the information you've heard from Tara from our employees and the concerns we have a withdrawal of Laurie's second we should bring this back to a vote then do we have motion or it dies and it just stays where it is what was last month that's true okay so your options are we motion for a new motion or we let it die if it dies last month you already voted to go with Kairos and maintain our current dental and current Vision Plan life and life insurance with Lumina and that would be at where we stand the trustees is that something we can put together Tara quickly we can't do that legally at this point because we're not giving any other vendors an opportunity to do the same thing so what we'd have to do Laurie is we'd have to look at that for next year okay we'd have to start over if we were going to do that or at least offer as mate the opportunity to return with similar a similar opportunity so okay you know the plan you the things you voted on are the ones that we need to go with now or to stay with what we have based on how you vote as a board or don't vote if you want to just leave it alone well we can still look at if we're keeping them as our own as you know the trust and whatever the information for instance that Kate says that she and Sandra have come up with could certainly be thrown in the mix at some point to come back to you all but that would you know there's no reason this this trust couldn't decide later to offer more than one of life insurance program if it chose to but for right now you leaving things the way they are not changing a vote today would leave us with Kairos unum vision direct and emeritus for dental so you know so that's up to you as a as a board of trustees stay or motion for a change can I ask one more quick question sure Ronnie has a quick question go ahead aye aye Gina brought up their pre-existing and I never really heard an answer on that that could also affect a lot of people I'm just curious how that is with Kairos on the pre-existing disability Ronnie was in relation to the life and we have the option to stay with unum for the life so there's no a pre-existing conditions to worry about got it thank you yeah no problem so sherry Greg Doug Laurie stay or motion cam Laurie says stay with will you voted on last month I say stay so we have a second sherry second and Greg we're just saying we're gone with last month here your motion dies for lack of a second I think considerations concerns and okay and that's good for the record thank you okay so we had sherry and Greg and Lori and we never did get Frank on did we okay any other questions or things that we need to talk about all right well thanks Tara it's gonna be up to you to really get these people through we're trusting you trust me when I tell you that it's like I'm gonna be on this like no other so um just know that I'll be on it personally and you ever really you guys have a really good team behind you I mean really good I only know enough to get dangerous and they have all of the ins and outs and they can help out but if there are any concerns ever you guys I mean Carolyn and Todd know they can reach me anytime anybody any of you guys can reach out and at any point you know to ask questions or to you know have your concerns hurt so okay thank you great thank you all for your input thank you all for coming today and spending with us and we're going to clear this matter up okay thank you job thank you everyone we have a motion to adjourn move we need a second second
Kellis would put the balloon in front of their doorstep and step back and so it was just totally awesome to drive all around surprise El Mirage Phoenix furia Buckeye it was just awesome to do it I participated in being a special guest and a kinder teacher check in with her kiddos it was great to see the kids actually on screen and just having a grand time seeing their teacher and the special guests popped in not sure if everybody knows that this week is National Library Week and so I think then any media specialist that's either in our schools those that live and breathe by the library and also in our regional libraries that we thank them for what they do also this week is administrative professional week and then also today is the Administrative Professionals Day and so I just want to give a shout out to Louisa Braun for putting up with the five of us and dr.
Donavan and wave please if you have any input on discussion of how you graduation will be held delay do not cancel my senior employee employs you thank you and the next public participation comment and last is from rich Matt singer and Kathy snow and they are representing the Danbury High School PTO we think everyone can agree that the class of 2020 is missing out on a lot of activities that would have been happening in the next few months if it weren't for kovat 19 the PTO is selling yard signs to help celebrate the senior class of 2020 signs are $15 or $20 for one that is personalized with the first name parents can be made by cheque or via venmo - at the HS 2020 sign the order form is available on the PTO page of the Danbury high school website and signs are available in the word congratulations in English Spanish or Porky's just indicate on the form of which language orders are due by May 1st we hope many Board of Ed members purchased signs as well as share this information it would be great to see them popping up all over Danbury in the coming weeks and they did include a link to the order form which will be in the minutes and that is the last participation thank you very much stand you up Nia I need a motion from ke to accept the consent can I make a motion that the Board of Education approves the items on the consent calendar exhibit 20-40 one through exhibit 20 - 42 as recommended second motion made by a second like Joe to silver and a question concerned emotion seeing none all in favor of the motion could I hear aye all right all right motion so care we don't have an employee represent think ask is there an employee representative out there is tonight I know they were invited well I don't see any on the list I guess not there is no Gladys I don't see it we did invite a student can you guys see me I doing yes we can you're welcome how are you guys is everyone good yeah we're good so we had our virtual you're a week from April 6th to the 10th right before spring break over 100 pictures were submitted and it was overall very successful over 16 students one gift cards which will be sent to them the senior class officers have started an Instagram page to showcase where seniors have committed for college prom is not officially postponed yet but we will keep everyone up to date on that nothing's been decided as Danbury girls field hockey and soccer teams work together to give truck drivers snack bags which is really cool Chromebooks were distributed to students from mid-march to early April distance learning has been an adjustment to all students but seems to be working itself out all options for graduation are being considered currently we will continue updating you as time moves forward and my beauty officers and I hope that everyone remains safe and healthy you know during this unprecedented time Thank You chief thank you everyone thank you Jake thank you yeah I've got to say I'm okay right III don't mean you may be getting a lot of questions and one thing we've learned from this this pandemic every day is a new adventure and we do meet twice a day our cabinet nine and I'm sorry ten and three o'clock we'll make decisions the morning that we change in the afternoon so I just think it's it's it's good for us to update you on what has been going on regarding the connectivity the engagement the computers the distribution of food the training and also there's issues with that issues but conversations left not left out that we just began discussing last time on grading so we have kind of sit back and I think we're going to put it right on the screen so you could follow along Kara and Kara and Gina oil here again updates on what we're doing I think you'd be very proud of the teachers and the administrators and the students the way that coming together but it is it is an effort each and every day to get to get this thing through so why don't we start with you okay Kara Kara are you not there here head unmute so can you see my screen yes and everyone can hear me okay okay great I'm just a way to move this over so I can see my entire screen as well okay so dr.
summers if I said anything correct please correct me I I'm doing this based off my memory from a month ago so no we're good okay all right so I'm gonna read the public content what I'm when I'm supposed to read and then we'll go from there all right the meeting will now be open to the public referencing agenda items only however if your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or personnel items or negotiations we ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to three minutes per person is there anyone out there of the millions and millions of you listening but I would love to discuss anything on the agenda for those of you who are not used to what we do we are gonna have another public comment at the end for stuff that is not on the agenda this is just for what is on the agenda right now all right so if you have anything about the agenda please go ahead nothing so far Joe okay Frank they can still hear me right yes okay so make sure you give it a couple seconds because the screen like you said the youtubes about ten seconds behind so yeah yeah so the screen with the phone number no just came up just now so I'm a couple minutes sure Frank and we have to do this again in May we should do something about elevator music I just give it another 30 seconds last time they were called before the public session so Rob they've had they've had they've had the number all week on the website so you let me know when when we should go okay let's wait the 706 all right you hi Frank at 7:06 we're gonna move forward okay yeah sounds good all right we're gonna close the public comment for agenda items only so we're gonna move to item 6 which is our annual appointments and approvals of those annual appointments I need a motion to approve items 6.1 through 6.15 but I have a motion motion by miss Fleming seconded by mr.
Kellis and for everything that she does and greatly appreciate it and that's a good one Thank You mr. Singh well let's go ahead and move over to you miss Pritchard do you have anything no thank you thank you how about Jen tanner thank you thank you damn no updates thank you awesome thanks so much okay let's go ahead and move over to deed one motion to approve consent a giant agenda items and I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve the consent agenda items as presented second was that miss pertree yes thank you motion made by jailors it's not going to by miss Pritchard we'll go ahead and vote and that pastor to thank you so much and then we will go ahead and move down to e1 consent agenda items so hold the recommendation for approval of sole source vendor for the twenty twenty-one twenty-two sorry the Twenty twenty Twenty twenty one fiscal year we're in information sorry all right information f1 policy governance more monitoring of adopted policy section 11 school community relations dr.
Tsao asked me to make sure that we you know give a nice little update on where we are in time the last couple of times that we got together they were just sort of brief snippets of where we were and so we decided to kind of put it into a little bit more of a holistic view for you so that you can kind of see where we were and where we are in terms of our implementation and how things are going I know there's a lot of concern around connectivity so that'll be a good of what we talked about today along with celebrating some of the things that we think we're doing really well especially in our conversations with other districts as well as talking about continuing the conversations around our challenges and working to problem-solve some of those and I'm not sure why this is not advancing so give me one sec hmm okay there we go okay so um if you remember if you took a look in the in the distance learning plan you would have recognized that we identify sort of four phases of implementation as we did our kind of our kickoff and our startup to get us where we are at this point and so that was to increase the capacity for our teachers students and families to connect that was sort of a number-one priority to increase the teacher administrative capacity to successfully navigate in a digital platform and use distance communication tools and interactive web-based learning programs and then to provide ongoing digital support once we got going communication to teachers parents and students through a support team and to provide additional content and scaffolds for curricular support k5 and then once we get to that point how do we continue our continuous improvement cycle to respond in a timely manner to support all aspects of this work for parents teachers and staff it and everyone involved and I'm having a little bit of an issue with 40 there you go okay so before we can even talk about computers and connectivity and curriculum and assessments and and digital components as you remember one of our very first initial concerns was for that of the safety of our students and our staff as well as basic making sure that we're taking care of basic needs the little chart from maslov's hierarchy of need and our very first steps that we took really kind of fell within this the red and orange zones of psychological needs and safety needs dealing with you know organizing how we're gonna get food out to our students and our families making sure that our kids are safe and our staff members are safe and making sure that people are feeling secured so remember there was a tremendous amount of work that was done to me to ensure that we had a system in place to serve our families that there was an amazing amount of negotiations and collaborations with union members through through HR and renegotiating contracts and making sure that everyone had a place in a role and that our staff members were feeling secure and that our students and families needs were being met and this is still ongoing work as we move forward oh yeah and then there's toilet paper we felt that that also felts fell somewhere between the orange and the red as well another need okay a little humor okay so within phase one what you're gonna try to break this down a little bit into phases and sort of highlight some key features so I'm gonna invite Geena Jasmine into this conversation for phase one since she played a very critical role in coordinating the the surveying and the the distribution of computers which is still ongoing and so this was the phase where we need to increase that connectivity and the way to do that was to get computers and information and to begin that process I'm gonna let Gina take over for a second okay and talk a little bit about some of the things that we should be celebrating sure thank you so Kara actually if you want to click on the portal increase you know please thank you so one of the first things that we worked on was increasing parent communication with the schools and and we felt like parent parent engagement equals student engagement so we started focusing on updating and actually gathering parent emails and encouraging parents to log on to the PowerSchool portal so prior to March 13th which was our first day of shutdown we had less than 30% of the district on the on the Parent Portal and and parent email accounts and and a big reason for that is because we had just started planning to roll out the portal for elementary families so we've we've had the portal at the secondary level but we didn't have it at the elementary level with that we sent out letters home the week before we closed with instructions on how to create the account we posted instructional videos in multiple languages and then as parents started to respond we run reports twice a week to determine the numbers that we have so on March 31st 88% of parent emails were complete and accurate and 78% of parent portal accounts were created and then as we moved through the month of April and the last time I ran a report on April 17th we're at 92% for parent emails and 85% for the portal and what that means is we can expand the communication that we have with parents not only the robo calls that they receive frequently now they can receive emails as well as everything posted online so yep go ahead thank you and then the second piece of that was our device distribution so we started by creating a request form and posting it at each school's website got out some robo calls to encourage parents to request a device for their child and one of the key factors to the success of this plan is that we tied the picking up your device to the times when you could come and also pick up food and as we look back now we feel like that was a very strategic move because it brought people out and it served two of their needs two of the big names that they had and really could none of this could have been done without volunteers we we put out a call and just said we need volunteers and literally within minutes my inbox was full just tell me what to do how can I help they stirred out in the cold they made phone calls they made more phone calls I think most days people have done nothing but make phone calls for us for the past three weeks and in multiple languages so that that also has been a key to the success of 93% of the requests have been fulfilled and we continue this process today we're still reaching to families and getting them devices we now have enough devices so that if you have multiple children in your family everybody can have a device so that's an ongoing process I don't see that slowing down and so that that has been a key a key to this whole process as well and then we also did a parent survey yeah do you want me to go out out of the slide sorry oh yeah if you click on parent survey that will bring you to a different place yeah thank you yeah so he did a parent survey last week and the results you can just click through each one Karen oh don't talk about it so first question what level does your child our children attend so you can see that the majority of families that answered have elementary level students one to the next please question two how much time is your child spending on school work daily so based on the results it looks like between one and three one to four hours a day as reported by parents next please question three how able is your child to complete assignments independently and again the majority were pretty independently and somewhat so we will use that knowledge you know and pass it on to the teachers as far as where they stand with their assignments next please does every dps student in your household have access to his or her own device to participate in distance learning and you can see by what was reported that the majority of students do you have a device and again as I said we're still reaching out to the families who who don't and we're still hearing from families who you know now need a second or third or fourth device or we're filling in that gap do you have internet access in your home the majority of family said yes they do we still had pockets of people who tell us that they don't and we've been working on getting them hotspots in their area so the two percent of people in this survey that said no we have reached out directly to them to get hotspots in their areas you know if I could just add to that um we didn't actually you know translate and communicate a lot of information about free internet access in the area and folks did reach out to that but because of the overwhelming demand all at once that many people did not get appointments to admit until mid to late April as well so some of those are still folks that will be coming online in the next couple of days over the next week or so according to some self reports of people who originally reached out to get that free access and then we were curious if the people who answered the survey were took advantage of the meal distribution at the same time as the mobile distribution and these are the results of that okay all right and so another survey Thank You Gina another survey component that we did that was part of a larger more comprehensive report to the teachers kind of indicated you know the question that was asked of the teachers was based on the number of students that you have on your roster how many in increments of by five percent what percentage of your roster is connected and again this is teacher self recording so you could look if you see the the blue and the turquoise are your highest levels of connectivity along with the the green so you see that thirty nine point three percent of the staff self reported that they had 100 percent of other kids konnected thirty one point two percent of the staff and the turquoise had BP 95 and 99 percent of their class connected and if you keep following along with the green eleven percent said they had between 90 and 94 percent connected so by and large you had about eighty one almost eighty two percent of the teachers reported that they had at least you know 90% of their rosters connected when you start to get down into the the yellow and orange zones the numbers drop a little bit and then of course the red and the purple are you know areas where there's not very great connectivity and so what we have done is we have created individual pie graphs for every single school that looks similar to this that is linked to a spreadsheet by by grade level and teacher teacher role so that building principals will be going over this on Thursday with building principals so building principals can have a little bit more of a zoomed in information about the level of connectivity in each classroom because as we mentioned in the last board meeting google classroom itself does not give us super great back-end information about connectivity in terms of the in terms of the submissions and the number of things happening there so which is why we put out the survey but I will say though that the the sixty to sixty four percent and some of the some of the smaller places that reported just under fifty percent we do I did track that down and there is less connectivity in some of our ESL bilingual classrooms and in a few of the special ed certain types of special service classrooms where some students may be doing something different and Kelly Cruz can can talk a little bit more about that the connectivity there but in some cases a teacher could be reporting that they have 50 percent connectivity in their classes but they only have two teachers that are in an OT class so two students that are in ot classes some of it can be skewed additionally some of the students that show up in the bilingual and ESL classrooms as not connected appear to be in sort of a higher concentration in those classes and then those students are also appear in the teachers classrooms as well so generally if a student does not check in to their ESL classroom or their bilingual class room they're also generally not checking into their their core classroom as well so that the number can be represented in more than one place in this in this view so but the goal is to create many action plans around you know why students aren't connected and to track down who those students are and to kind of create a plan to get them connected there are you know the two highest reported reasons I'll go back out to to getting into some of our challenges with this the two highest reported reasons inhibiting connectivity is not necessarily the device although we still know that we need to get those in the hands of students but it's really a language barrier and the lack of understanding how to connect to our platforms so we've given you a laptop but I'm not quite sure what to do with it I don't know how to get to the next level and so there's been a little bit of a disconnect but that's mostly because of a language barrier so we have to work through through some of that but each week by a by large C the number of connectivity is increasing the number of devices keep getting distributed we have more devices coming in and so will will reach a point where we have full saturation it's just a matter of making sure that our families are on the other end of those devices and that they're able to function in our environment in it within phase 2 the distance learning the goal is to increase the teacher and administrative capacity to navigate in this new environment and to be able to kind of work with communication tools and web programs that we brought in to supplement and to support and so to do that some of the celebrations around that was that we had to create very clear roles on what teachers and administrators had to do in this environment and we were able to articulate those in our plan we spent some time during the pre-launch really doing some vision building about even though this is a pandemic and a crisis and an emergency sort of plan that there still is a larger vision behind distance learning and that if you had that vision in mind then we could actually be building towards more quality and not necessarily view this as just trying to get by sort of a mode I mean our teachers have really taking on this and our administrators and there's a lot of creativity coming out of this time period and people really stepping up to to kind of fulfilling the pieces of that vision for the future which is going to be very exciting we sent a strong message one of the things I think that we did really well and did right from the beginning was about building community in your classrooms before we left for for this distance learning we were spending time working on restorative practice building community and classroom connectedness and teacher to teacher and student to teacher relationships and so how you know it was important for us to be able to transfer that over in a digital environment as well so we saw that as a relationships as a priority and a foundation and we continue to send that message and encourage the use of the synchronous time with students to make those connections and to check in there was a lot of redeployment of human resources and grade-level banding we took our coaches reorganize them and they are main supports for k5 in helping to design lessons that are consistent in common I'll talk a little bit about that when we talk about the the k5 Google classroom is they'll spin on that a little bit more we spent a lot of time doing classic Google classroom training training with IXL learning a tizzy Raz kids which are programs to support second language learners and we concentrated our conversations around well we can't get everything done between now and June so how are we focusing on the highest leverage standards to work with kids that we maximize the time that we have in this environment and then of course our challenges continue to be sped confidentiality in this environment and delivering mandated services and again Kelly HS will talk a little bit more about some of that a little bit further in and we still struggle with getting our k2 kids to to submit work and making sure that that what we're doing there is as beneficial as it can be and so we're working hard to to reach our kids and we're working and exploring new tools with which to do that and I'm also spending time talking to other districts to see how they're handling k2 k2 k2 is more challenging for everybody in the in the general region so it's not just us and then how do we provide support services we have some pairs and tutors and and special staff and how are we making sure that we're using them in the most efficient manner in this in this environment within phase three we decided that we were going to be on providing ongoing digital support communication to teachers parents and students so once we get teachers connected and working how do we continue to support them in this environment and then how do we particularly support our k5 level who was not really quite familiar with Google classroom and using some of the digital tools that that were more common at the secondary level and so the celebrations we have around those are the this idea of a superuser teacher group which I I think I talked a little bit about them in the last board meeting I'm so proud of this group this is a 131 teachers who came forward to collaborate to provide professional training to their peers they do this every Tuesday they'll be doing this every Tuesday between now and the end of the year teachers can sign up for those sessions they were part of the distance learning transition team which was again dr.
Lanza Lana any questions or comments pertaining to our annual appointments all right seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs. barber Giovanni yes this is Everhart yes mr. physic era I can't be that dramatic yes farming yes mr. Canton yes missus oh yes mr. Waynes Alana yes mr. Meighan yes to everything but 6.3 6.3 that's a notice 6.3 correct okay and mrs.
Kelly Thank You mr. president and members of the board members of cabinet are continuing monitoring of our governing board policy we presents section 11 and mr. croto will introduce to this item thank you doctor tell us mr.
Franklin banca assisted me with that that was amazingly along with a few other administrators again mark arlequin Kristi's Aleta Laura Mead and making sure that were the feedback loops from what's happening on the ground is translated into what the team needs in professional development we have every Tuesday have those distance learning workshops we also have a weekly push out common lessons on the k5 Google classroom this is a classroom resource site that's developed by the coaches who have been assigned to grade levels to put together several lessons that get pushed out each week with the teachers the teachers have the option to use them but they're they're highly encouraged and we do that so that it is as consistent across k5 is possible to make sure that we're having conversations about how to adjust in a meaningful and consistent way and to make sure that we're collaborating on with the types of information that goes out to students and what we expect back in terms of student work and that has been very successful and the teachers have been very happy that they've had this resource to go to and they've been doing a great job with that we've been putting together parent and teachers tutorials for the programs that were that we're launching and we've made a link on our web page for that and any professional development that we offer in the district we have recording those and they are offered and to be accessed at a later time if teachers can't make some of the sessions so with all of that some of our challenges that remain is that we're still trying to balance the flow of information and the training that we're offering you know in this environment so how much is too much how much is too little you know we'll get an email from some parents that will say this is amazing this is wonderful thank you so much my students highly engage this is perfect we'll get another email that says this is there's not enough work my child needs more I you know I got to keep them busy for four or five hours help me out and then you'll get some that's it you know this is just way too much work this is overwhelming and you know I'm not I'm not able to assist in my child is struggling so we're you know we get feedback across the board on this and you know in some of the I'd want one person tell me that you know one of the questions was about how many hours does it take to do the homework and you think the response was along the lines of well it takes me four hours to get them to do it it only takes them about an hour once they start so you know there's a lot of challenges with the at-home learning and providing structure at home to do that in making that shift so it's kind of across the board with it with those challenges so as we checked in and I'm just thinking I just want to say the board jelly don't go into it so currently but I know there's been a lot of questions and asking you know what is going on how is it going we just think to give you the breadth of this and if it's at a at a level that it's too granular for you I have to apologize for that but it's just there is a lot of specificity to this there's a lot of good work to it and that's the venue in terms of how we're trying to present it but leave some time at the end the questions if it's okay to keep going on yes we're good yeah I can go back to any slide that someone wants to take a look at us well I think we just need to move through it okay I'm trying here okay so nine days into the distance-learning shift we wanted to check in with our teachers to see how they were doing and we have a good number of our teachers that are either feel that they're rock in the new environment or that they're very confident and they're learning new tips every day and more that are gaining confidence every day and working on organization so we have very few teachers that are that are kind of feeling lost in this environment that those are represented sort of by the purple there and that's about 4.5 percent and we put some measures in place to make sure that we're reaching out to some teachers who may need some additional support and the last phase of distance learning some of the celebrations about timely support and feedback systems we have we had to put in all new virtual systems and structures and replicate those in a digital environment we redesign the health desk for more digital support we have our Wednesday grade-level department meetings we have the boot camp I've Google classroom we established regular office hours across the board and we have consistent district messages posted in every Google classroom parents have come to rely on dr.
Ryan yes motion carries all right let's move to item 7 which is approval of the minutes I need a motion to approve items 71 and 72 do I have a motion I'll make a motion motion by miss Ryan seconded by Miss Hart are there any questions or comments pertaining to the approval of our minutes from March 26 2020 all right seeing none let's go to a roll call please this is Barbara Giovanni yes this is Everhart yes mr. physic ro yes miss Fleming yes mr. Canton yes this is null yes mr. Waynes Alana yes mr. Meighan yes this is Ryan yes motion carries awesome all right we're going to go to item 8 which is superintendents report and administrative items I need a motion to approve items 8 1 through 8 6 do I have a motion for that miss barbara Giovanni seconded by mr.
president superintendent callous members of cabinet in accordance with reviewing all our policies and procedures we present to you section 11 and there are no changes for this section right now and that's all I have thank you excellent let's wait I like it all right are there any questions from the board No going once going twice no sale all right we don't need to take action on this right correct it's important inflation perfect all got moved down to information item f2 bond committee recommendation for election dr. Kellis Thank You mr.
Sal's Friday letter and the updates we drew robocalls social media and lots of surveys to provide information in real time on our work and our progress and again their challenges are adjusting to the staffing needs of rapidly changing staffing needs meeting the commitments with the work/life balance which you know has and quite a bit for many of us as well as teachers and students and then reaching ESL families who are not connected and then I'll turn it over to Kelly for a minute so she can talk a little bit about some of the celebrations and challenges and especially for just a quick update on the special ed we continue to move forward with the one-on-one Google classrooms for every single student receiving special education or related services and the purpose behind this is to maintain student confidentiality so each one of those pages is individually created for the student based on their services that are outlined in their IEP we are also moving towards having teachers do more Google hangout meetings so those are virtual meetings on where they can check in with students to see how they're doing socially and emotionally and also on start to model and deliver services we are not providing all services virtually but we're doing a combination of some structured support through Google classroom and then some virtual meetings with students and this is a across special ed in any of the related services so social work psychologists support OTP T's siege um in addition I have to credit the special ed Department um there are stefan Utley some challenges to work through on the needs of different students but their outreach to family as an engagement of students um has been tremendous we still have a few challenges some of our students are still having difficulty with the online learning format and so for we're making individualized decisions for kids and for some of our students we have decided to do more of a work packet format um and take some of the learning offline for them if they are struggling with it due to their disability um we are also working out a system in which we may look to provide services with parental consent in smaller groups with special education students but there are a lot of confidentiality pieces that go into those decisions so I'm actively working on that with my team as well as district legal counsel we are also trying to resume PPT meetings virtually so we have legally mandated ppts that have been put on hold during the closures and trying to put some structures and support in place to resume those meetings and two of the last things is our extended school year or esy services as you see in the last bullet on the slide oh is our summer school programming and so we have started conversations about what that may look like should we need to do that in a virtual format as well and lastly is the concerns over compensatory education um so what that means is for students that have had gaps or lapses in certain services due to school closures um that we will need to relook and see if any students are owed additional service time to help them to make progress towards their goals and objectives in their IEP so that will be ongoing and wraparound into next school year and just bringing that to the board's attention as it will also have fiscal impacts on the amount of time and support that are needed for kids thanks Kelly and our English language learners as well you know this is a special group that we've been pretty consistent and providing support knowing that this was going to be a bit of a challenge and so our society of coaches are doing that providing tutorials for classroom teachers and department heads K + k5 ESL bilingual supervisors are constantly providing workshops tirelessly at developing resources and in classroom lessons for the teachers and working through with them on those pieces and also accessing families to provide them tutorials on how to get into the classroom how to access some of the programs that we've brought online and and doing so in in multiple formats and different languages and again working very closely with our families and again the internet the challenges with this group if we do have some issues with the internet and online access it tends to be with these students and so we are concerned about equity and we are working tirelessly to shore that up and sometimes when we do get the students connected with they're having trouble completing the assignments so some of the assignments and the level that they're at are too difficult or they just haven't acquired enough English to grasp some of the things without you know and not being in a classroom with a teacher and they're surrounded by other students can be very difficult so you know there is difficulty there and we're still again working through those challenges and then we're also looking to find a way to test and identify new ELLs we still have students that are looking to register in our district that never seems to end and it is an ongoing process so you know how do we prevent a backlog by the time that we open to make sure that we're processing students efficiently and we're testing them and appropriately placing them in the classes that they need to be so we're working on a process to to achieve that now and then very getting close to the end here the grading update as you recall from our last conversation that this state was about to issue guidance and they have done so the they issued it about a three page document but the bottom line is that they are encouraging pass/fail options which is not surprising the decisions are still local and flexible they need to be made clear districts whatever they do just need to articulate what they've done so that college colleges can interpret those I attended a seminar a webinar actually with hosted by local CdSe and then local colleges that all talked about the tremendous flexibilities and understanding and that this is not going to hurt students going into college or in the selection process and that there's certainly a wealth of information on transcripts to with which to make decisions by and that different colleges will have some different requirements some are still counting the SAT some are not some are waving but that as long as we are clear in how we handled this time period in our articulations to colleges that they will use that as part of their criteria the CBSE crafted many articulations and agreements with the Connecticut universities in interpreting pass/fail so kind of a hold harmless with any pass/fail as well as the n-c-double-a so any of our student-athletes do not have to worry about that I've been and participated in many local regional discussions on what other high schools are doing in terms of grading and many seem to be offering a blended model so students will be still getting grades and working towards those grades and then in the end if they feel that the grade does not reflect their effort because they had a challenge during the time period that they may apply for a pass/fail and so we have made full decision on that yet we're still kind of monitoring how this is going and we are going to you know make final decisions once there's clear guidance from the governor around the May 20th target date certainly if we come back earlier than pass/fail may look different and we may decide on something different so we are leading in the Lindley in the direction of of the grades at the high school with pass/fail options and kind of a hold harmless situation and but again final grant final decisions will be made in the next couple of weeks all of the quarter grades for all the grades are in quarter through four powerful for the high school at the elementary level we're considering the use of narrative reports to kind of guide how students you know did in this environment very difficult to assess performance the kids in many areas so we're continuing those conversations as well and I'm sorry to interrupt quick Joe's got his hand up for a question Joe yes sure okay no problem hey hey real quick question about the grades um it's said there's been discussions articulation center with Connecticut colleges it's that only with public institutions or is that all of the colleges in Connecticut so right now it's it's it's all your you know your Connecticut University systems hold your community colleges so you know private schools are still private schools but what I can tell you is that there were some private schools on this call that this webinar that I attended and they were not just the schools in Connecticut I'm trying to think of all the ones that are on there it's escaping me at the moment but you know you had we also had New England schools we had you know Saint Anne Salaam you are I was on the line at Brown there was a few and and what they had said was that no one is going to be harmed by this by this pass-fail if there was a pass/fail on a transcript certainly past looks better than fail but no one you harmed by that and now that is taken into consideration as a moment in time on a transcript that is it is viewed as viewed very holistically and that things that are very important still are those recommendations and and then again clearance a guidance from the from the sending school on how they handled the grades so that the schools and colleges can interpret what that looks what that means to them in terms of I mean obviously the state of Connecticut only has influence over schools that are within the boundaries of the state of Connecticut yeah urban schools the governor is a certain level of control cuz we sanction them we accredit them and to a certain extent the state of Connecticut can tell them what to do or bad things can happen to them in the future do we know if there's any input are there any private schools not buying in doing office but thinking about the commissioner excuse me was that the the conversation has been with the public universities but they've been communicating with private schools okay I think you're right on target they really cannot mandate it as they can with the public sector but what you're saying is the feedback they've given us is that mandate but they can encourage strongly highly highly influenced and just to give you a quick example we had a you know we you know right after the commissioner says the guidance out and had all these articulations you know we had gotten a memo about ECE college credit courts and that they were going to ECE college credit courses and that some arm of Yukons like well no we're still gonna you know make sure that kids are still being issued a grade in that class because you know there could be an issue down the road and so we kind of forwarded that that memo to the commissioner and the submission immediately called UConn and said oh no you know you're gonna solve problem solved and the new new guidance came out on the credit so I I think that and you know especially with the potential of revenue loss with all of these colleges anybody who's gonna be would turn away a student for a pass/fail in this environment would be would be very silly so we're definitely that all the all indications that I received from that webinar with with regional colleges was about the complete understanding and compassion for this time period and and what a pass/fail may mean and and how that plays into introduce into a student's overall picture thanks yeah you're welcome ok if you have any questions just someone shout out to me because I can't see with Mike when we finish the next slide and so the next steps is you know how do we monitor the Google classrooms now that we've got a high degree of connectivity how do we then make sure that we're that what we're putting out is very consistent and we're calibrated you know when we are in schools and we're able to get in to do reviews and data rounds we're able to see that you know by grade level what it looks like at a grade level what it looks like across a few grade levels and between between our buildings and so how do we how do we now translate that work into in a virtual environment to make sure that we have consistency with the work that we're asking kids to do and how we're responding to that and then they'll be able to support teachers in that through professional development choices some of the PD topics that emerged of interest for the teachers or around how to assess students in this environment how to create more interaction engagement and then how to provide effective feedback and so we'll be focusing in those three main areas moving forward you know as you know we're still planning for the unknown during this time period with this whole new shift but at the same time all of our normal operations are still still coming we still have scheduling to do we still have grading to do there's summer school there's budgeting they're staffing hiring all of those so things that are happening concurrently with this this you know kind of enormity that we're dealing with so lots to do there we're considering possibly looping students at the lower elementary next year we have a delayed opening in the fall we haven't flushed through that at all but it was just an idea that how do we mitigate the loss of students you know and how do we kind of immediately pick back up right where they were before sort of all this happened and and how do we make sure that we have continuity of instruction and learning happening so we're toying with some ideas there and we're also I'm seeking guidance from other school districts and the state as well how to mitigate the loss for this time period and then as always and foundational is making sure that our students families and staff members are safe and healthy and that scores right back to our base base of the pyramid so you have any questions I'd be happy to take those Amy so can you just Kara a great job could you just explain to me what looping students means sure so well you might want to use no bridge as an example yeah that was exactly where I was going so at Mill Ridge the teachers will stay from and maybe Kelly might be able to jump in as well they will stay with so if you're in first grade or if you're in kindergarten I think she does it between grades 1 & 2 yeah I want to you you have the same teacher in 1st grade that you have the same teacher in 2nd grade that you had in 1st grade and so it's a seamless transition so that teacher knows exactly where those kids are they don't have to they don't lose any time and kind of reassessing and finding out where they are and in relearning their interests and their likes and their their work habits and their dispositions which you know tends to happen in the fall we said we tend to kind of redo some things and get to know our kids and that's a new group and a new teacher a new dynamics and so when you loop students you eliminate a lot of that and you you really jump right into it and you've already have patterns connections with families and parents and you know things and plans in place back that you would want to continue on and so it's a way to sort of leverage growth and accelerate kids and so it doesn't you know it's great when with the right circumstances and so at each school is gonna be a little bit different so the tricky part about looping is that you know it has to be the right fit there's certification issues sometimes the certifications for a teacher are different and for kindergarten than they are in 1st through 5th grade so you know it could look differently and we haven't flushed through all of it but it's certainly a possibility that we're considering depending on where all this school closure goes ok great thank you you're welcome Gladys I had a question if you don't mind I can't see you so I don't know it's Joe written hello hi hi Karen I just I had a question just about the grading policy just a clarifying question so for like a pass/fail model if the district were to go like personally I I'm a big fan of the optional pass/fail model but I was just curious for like the the verbage of pass/fail in my experience in a pass/fail class a pass does not affect your GPA but I fail what affect your GPA so that's why I've seen some schools I mean I've seen it more in college just because that's what I've been around but it's been credit or no credit yeah which is sort of like it doesn't affect the GPA whatsoever whether you get the credit or don't get the credit prize that is that kind of what what's the district yeah so so if you had a pass and so we have a credit we have a credit only option now and yeah I remember that yeah at the high school and so so would be it wouldn't really be much more different than that and so it's kind of like you if here's where you were before this happened things just sort of freeze right it's like a it doesn't help or hinder you the fail though we would have to we'd have to assign probably a number to that you know 60 64 something like that that indicates that there was a fail but you know that if student was if a student was failing because of a because of we have other options as well so if there was something that was that was an issue because of health because of this crisis because of the stress of job loss anything along those lines certainly we have other options we've in completes there's health codes things like that that don't necessarily equate to a fail on a report card and so I fail would be very almost difficult to get in this environment if that makes sense understood yeah but that's just kind of what I was wondering just because it's almost like I'm sure if you're getting a fail in a pass/fail class you you may have earned it but you know I was just looking at the few kids who are truly having issues at home and you know just one kid is enough for me to to not have it you know and not have a pass/fail but have it like a credit no credit and that's why I was just curious yeah yeah and it's tricky and that's why you know work you know the way I'm place I'm leaning towards is that it's kind of a you know you continue with the grades but there is this option and it would be it would really be an individual assessment and I would leave that to the experts at the high school to pursue though the kids and know the family situations and know you know if it was you know you know how best to provide judgment on something like that okay absolutely thank you so much but you gotta know we're still having conversations just outline the guidance let you know what most districts are doing and kind of where we're at but not necessarily I've made the final decision okay cool thank you so Kara my question is there is a committee within this day that's looking at what how school is gonna look when we look at opening in September or whenever we if in my report we're going to talk more about that guys and we have a actually Kevin we have a report but the answer your question it's yes well we need an expansion okay Thank You Carol you're welcome anyone else implications and you're gonna you know doing a lot of work for the district on Tuesday actually on Tuesday dan Barrett is selected to give a state presentation jointed to two on the initiatives and things that are being done so thank Cara and her book for a leadership in getting us to this point great job I know it was kind of long but I said to her no but I did say look you know it let's go deeper down and only do only because I just think the board should know in case parents ask what is going on house how are things being conducted because you hear things but I can tell you we've been diligent and we change a lot what we try to keep some consistency I think the question for next fall Gladys futures brought that up is is monumental we're deeply concerned about gaps and we're gonna I think we have a responsibility to all of our kids to do to do justice to their learning needs and we need to come up with a helpful model for themselves thank you what in the one action items okay yep we're at action items action name a healthy food certification lick emotion that pursuant to CGS section 10 - 20 215 F the Board of Education or governing authority certifies that all food items offered for sale to students in the schools under his jurisdiction and not exempted from and that the Connecticut nutrition standards published by the Connecticut State Department of Education will comply with the Connecticut nutrition standards during the period of July 1st 2020 through June 30th 2021 this certification shall include all food offered for sale to students separately from reimbursable meals at all times and from all sources including but not limited to school stores vending machines school cafeterias culinary programs and any fundraising activities on school premises sponsored by the school or non school organizations in groups the motion has been made back a second second by Joe are they in a question concerning this motion Katherine Kathy okay Katherine sorry no my misunderstanding no I was waving my hand sorry motion so might do that with just one motion under age be sufficient and we just eliminate the next two motions yeah we could supply to its directly but you have to approve separately okay I'll call it be for them to beat motion meanie Gladys did you say yes yes the Board of Education the Board of Education or governing authority will allow the sale to students of food items that do not meet the Connecticut nutrition standards provided that the following conditions are met one the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day or on the weekend too the sale is at the location of the event and three the food items are not sold from a vending machine or school store an event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity for example soccer games school plays and interest collects Interscholastic debates are events but soccer practices play rehearsals and debate team meetings are not the regular school day is the period from midnight before 2:30 minutes after the end of the official school day location means where the event is being held and must be the same place as the food sales have been made by Captain Catholic Kathy could I hear a second second second new bat cake are there any question concerning this motion they're not all in favor the motion could I hear a motion so care why would you the next motion is she here burn burn bill you're still on mute Lauren okay I can't cuz I didn't happen my now okay mention exemption for beverages the Board of Education or governing authority will allow the sale sale to students of beverages not listed in Section 10 - 221 Q of the Connecticut General Statutes provided that the following conditions are met 1 the sale is in connection with an event occurring after the end of the regular school day on the weekend to the sales of the location of the event 3 the beverages are not sold from a vending machine or schools store an event is an occurrence that involves more than just a regularly scheduled practice meeting or extracurricular activity the school day is the period from midnight before to 30 minutes after the end of the official school day location means where the event is being held it must be the same place as the beverage sales the March operating results analysis motion that the board of education accept the March 20 2008 a results analysis general fund and grants in accordance with 20 - 44 second it's show I'm sorry to you guys sure I'm just a brief update on where we are we met with rich with a on Friday sack of your finances the big picture for the operating budget is that we have about a two hundred and twenty eight thousand dollar surplus at this point in time in the budget but that's offset by a gap that we have or that we have with the school lunch program that results in about seven hundred and fifty thousand dollar negative negative and the net is about negative 521 521 thousand I'll explain that so basically every month that we're operating the food service program we're operating it in the red we're required to do it and it's the right thing to do we're feeding about two thousand families a day we now have an operation they're running on Monday Wednesday and Friday so we're feeding families but every day in the week because they're getting multiple milk it's Monday through Saturday but in accordance with the executive order seven are we do not lay off any of those staff members they all continue to get paid their full salary and those that are coming to work for us we're also getting paid in the voluntary basis to be there so as a result look that we're still running our full payroll in the food program the school lunch program but we're only giving out two thousand deals a day where it's normally it's over twenty thousand our revenue that we generate for the the school lunch program is a revenue supporting program so that means that every month that we're operating it it's operating in the red to the tune of about two hundred fifty to three thousand dollars and there's not much we can do to change that we have we'll get into music executive session then some negotiations with Sodexo that will alleviate some of the Sodexo fee that we're seeing so that there's no no profit and the fee is adjusted to reflect this condition that all of that said so we're going to have to look up for that deficit but we do have funding that doctors I wanted me to speak with you about it was in the attached report from that but peers actually emergency money that's part of the cares Act so we anticipate the district from that cares act funding will receive about 2.2 million dollars based on our assumption from speaking with Kathy Dempsey from the state the state CFO about how they want the funding will be allocated they submitted the application the state for the to this bed funding on April 14 and it's anticipated that Connecticut will get about a hundred and eleven million of which Danbury will be allocated 2.2 million that funding is flexible in that it can support any activities that are authorized by the I da da and the ESEA in for any Cova drilling activities or Perkins grant but really effective these what that and we'll have one year a little over a year to spend it we can spend it through September of 2021 one of the pieces that it will be offsetting is that we anticipate the food services gap that we have now so going back to the operating of it we had a net positive about 125,000 and that consists if we go through the individual line items I can just briefly highlight the things that have changed since our last board report as a result of the coded epidemic the main drivers in what's changed in our budget because if you'll recall the last time we spoke we had a pretty much flat budget we were closing with a minor minor surplus of you know forty thousand dollars really that's a negligible amount now we're showing a sling and that the main drivers are subs we're not panicked paying our daily subs so we have a savings there our buses we're going to talk to an executive session about where we are with that bus transportation negotiation there are savings and our buses they're not driving executive order seven are that Kim will brief you on shortly you know says in layman's terms that we're going to keep people to the expense that it will allow us to continue our services upon reopening so in that vein and to that and we are still pouring all of the transportation contract for the drivers and some minor pieces are the fixed cost that they need to pay and they would go out of business if they weren't able to completely able to continue to support but there's savings in the transportation because of that so there are some parts that were we're a community profit margin and the indirect overhead and for the days that the drivers were not on table so there's leavings their fuel and electricity propane we are self pay on our propane we have some savings on propane electricity the the lights aren't on in the building's we have savings but that's offset by the cost of the things that we had to invest so you can see it in the detail report and we'll be having conversations in the Finance Committee about this but technology we bought thrown bucks for one to one that Gina and Cara have been talking about previously in this in this in there demonstrate in their presentation and also we bought specific technology for the special ed students that's a technology equipment that's reflected in this budget distance learning in the good work that care has been doing with all the principles that she spoke about we have some software investments that we need in order to enable that there were some expanding upon things we were doing and some where new things that were able to you know have synchronous and asynchronous learning in my right and and also you know I don't want to misspeak but it seems like it really really brought us to a whole another level was what we're able to do with our students remotely so technology distance learning a small increase in legal fees and professional development associated with working remotely and one of our big savings has been in benefits so it's not fully reflected in this budget yet because it's still a little bit unpredictable so I didn't fully take down the encumbrances but we saw savings about a million dollars this last month in in our in our health insurance drawers because people are home and they're not going to the doctor's the reason I haven't taken that down yet is because it's uncertain what will happen in the upcoming months if people are going to get sick and those will be expensive we're self-insured so here in this report you see about six hundred thousand dollar difference from what we showed in the last report so there's a savings of about or a difference of in the in the positive of about six hundred thousand dollars in the health insurance so what does that mean for us that means that we're going to have to continue to refine three big categories number one is what's going to happen with our grants the new grant that the feds are we're going to be recipients oh one thing I apologize I didn't mention that in the the federal funding then your money then emergency rivers is something there's there's actually two components that what I was talking about before is the elementary and secondary emergency relief fund that's the one that's 111 million of which we think will get about 2.2 million it's it's allocated a type of entitlement basis it's about 83 percent of our location is what we expect for our eligible expenses the second piece is the government governor's emergency act fund the state of Connecticut claimed about twenty eight million dollars for that statewide and broadly speaking it's going to the most significantly impacted area if there's a lot of leeway for how the governor can use that money and that cell might have more specificity from this call today but what we know what I know today is it's pretty broad and we're not sure yet how the governor will use it but that's another funding source that we'll have potentially available to us possible and the third one is the FEMA funding so we're working with the city to submit FEMA claims related to you know like gloves and materials and things like that that we purchased to keep our staff safe and students safe while we were doing the sanitizing of the buildings as we continue to do so so the big picture is for this year what our strategy is to be is as peasant as possible so that we put ourselves in the best position as we can to weather the storm that we have next year I don't want say storm I'm sorry to be in a good fiscal place next year and doing that like I said we'll be refining our look at the benefits piece will be making further adjustments to fuel and utilities like for example we might pre-purchase some propane now because it's so cheap depending with the board finance committee approves and in that that and we also had a grant report that is attached that just briefly I wanted to say you know it shows that we have about eighty two point six percent spent year did the of all the grant funding so our total grant budget is thirty two million and our encumbrances and expenditures projected to eighty three percent and normally would close the year around 93 to 94 percent because some of those grants can roll this year we know that will get higher than eighty two but it won't be at ninety three percent because we have the ability to roll the Alliance money so we do look like we're going to have some Alliance funding to roll towards being able to spend next year when we build our budget we're gonna have to think about not just twenty one but also fiscal twenty two because the things that we're talking about at least right now are just sort of one-time monies that'll be available to us but that's what I wanted to let you know about the budget and about where we are now one last thing in talking with the city we don't have a number yet from the city the mayor still working through the budget overall you know he's talking to people at the state he's looking at every eventualities and possibility with it with revenues and you know everybody knows the situation we're in we're just we're not in the good situation fiscally right now as a country as a state and in the city of Danbury so we'll have to be very very prudent very careful when we plan for our budget next year and we look forward to working with the board to do that has been for us so thank you so very much thank you know there was a second you gave Dan a question concerned emotion is not on all those in favor could our eye all right motion so careful thank you again coordinate Thank You Gladys yes thank you today we did have a online median so we do write with the Commissioner let me start with a few things tomorrow we will be getting the memo about 111 million dollars 15 percent of that money is going to be set aside for governmental use from Hartford the rest of it will be distributed throughout the state of Connecticut we've been arguing for categorical money simply that means that it comes to reppin to the Board of Ed and that's been achieved because the money is being distributed as as Courtney just told you 2001 so we that's going to be a real godsend for us in terms of handing our deficit and moving towards next year so about two point one if until they put it in my bank account [Laughter] we did talk about that we talked about the statement was made municipalities are looking at boards effete saying with the school year being shortened with all the money you're saving what are you going to give us back well guys we're going the other way Danbury is paying all of our expenses we really have one way venue for our money that's going out the revenue in cafeteria is not happening we have some savings as Courtney talked about but all of that I believe unless we get the funding is going to be subsumed into the cost what the board needs to be mindful of and I think the government government was wise of doing this they've said to the board we don't have to expend that money as July 1st we have up to a year to expend it which is saying to us that we can move into next year with those funds to help us carry us over not knowing what we're going to get for an allocation from the city so I am concerned about the allocation but I'm hopeful that that money that we do receive if we're careful and utilize it corrected we'll be able to utilize it next year and that's a good thing and he affirmed that today I also graduation that's a big issue across the state and it's not any different with your hearing over the TV with governor's about what's happening in Atlanta versus what's happening in Georgia for a Windham County for example I think head I want to say total cases four or five hundred and the question is you know should they be held to the same standard regarding attendance and things of that nature you look at our part of the world down here we're at a different standard but what the commissioner said is that anything you do play it it needs to be in conjunction with your health department and they'll be getting some clarity to us about suggestions we all want to have something for our youngsters but it's going to as you all would want us to be it has to be under safety someone had mentioned this because if you're watching the Air Force Academy they had a graduation this weekend and the watch though was they march six feet apart in unison that nine hundred graduates but there were no spectators you know I'm just thinking and I want what was mentioned today on the call was that you know it might be a little difficult for for districts that have the kind of control with the general public when you have a graduation asking people not to come in and the Commissioner was just asking districts to be mindful of all those things that could create a problem for us so things are on hold Dean is talking to students and for their input and we'll be giving you some information about those options and you heard Kathy snow today graduation right now someone help me it I think it's June 12 yeah it's luck June 12 so we will have a graduation and there will be a recognition of our youngsters but as asked Dan is working with some students so we'll get some feedback from them we also talked about the cares act and that was mentioned but tomorrow have that money what I don't want you to feel as though we'll be getting some meta funds I think what's going to happen the Urban's that are getting as much money as we are through title 1 probably will not see the other part of that money which I think will be distributed to other districts that are not title one eligible so I don't suspect they will be getting too much I noticed that the mayor is hiring us are for for this cohort 19 money and maybe someone can find some other grants that we'll be able to bring something into the district but other than this federal 1/2 million plus I don't see it's getting much more money for that I want to thank miss Daley for Texas Roadhouse you know last week we elected to take a little break but we were pretty aggressive in putting out information to the public about where they could get food and Texas Roadhouse stood out a great job with that Emmanuel with her group I have also the I think is United Way is it that's doing doing some more activities United Way involving honey or her and beau we're doing that and I think Kevin could mention that I didn't want to Kevin talk a little bit about the biggest challenge we're gonna have if you look at our pandemic point there's no reentry and giving lunch tour but what we're doing with that looking for sure sure and dr.
Lanz Ilana okay should we make sure all right before we have any questions or comments dr. Blatchford if you have a report yes I do thank you evesham has characteristics and values that set us apart from other school districts I'm not seeing in any way that those other districts are not doing well or to be disrespectful it's just that our approach greatly benefits the students during this time of remote meetings we were very effective from the very beginning recently we made some changes to apply to provide even higher levels of instruction for our students we are removing one item from the choice board assignment and replacing it with a science or social studies lesson direct instruction is more beneficial for the students and parents do not need to help their children with the choice or tasks the revised schedule has the same four lessons the only difference is we took away one lesson from the choice board and now teaches a delivering of social studies or science lesson teacher directed lessons are more meaningful and helpful there are not more assignments for the students it's an even choice which is to infuse therefore they still have four we are not adding a flexible day to our student our schedule or a flex day that may work in some other districts we don't need it Nev sham what happens is it could benefit some teachers or some students but for the most part all of our students would lose instructional time we are providing our teachers with a great deal of support they receive help in learning a lot of new technology skills the principals and supervisors are providing additional content assistance also and principals of scheduled google meets with grade-level team support through questions and options for implementation principals and supervisors have already shared recorded live lessons in the area of science and social studies we are looking after all of our students and teachers students are not the same and our teachers are very flexible and grading and have the power to be flexible in grade we take into account families and teachers that burden such as caring for their own children or relatives and our principals and supervisors are always willing to help them the evesham Township schools provide the best instruction for our students these minor modifications and is scheduled to the remote plan enhance our educational program we owe it to our students to provide absolutely the best possible education and once again we are flexible in supporting and working with students faculty and parents thank you very much thank you dr.
president members of the board and members of cabinet Ken Hicks will introduce the Senate colleague and community members online thank you very much I need a participate in the board meeting tonight this is as the board is well aware a presentation and information was provided to the governing board last week with maybe a little concern of getting full understanding from our bond committee of the recommendations that were happening which was a little bit different than when we surveyed them there was a little disconnected that they were saying after going through the process and I created a survey sent the survey to the bond committee members the majority of them said to continue with the bond I sent them an email letting them know that my going to recommend the opposite of that that this is not the right time to be going out for a bond after talking with the board wanted to do circle back and make sure that we really a lot of things were in flux at that time movement so with advice and guidance from the governing board from the last meeting crafted an email encouraged everybody to reply to everybody so it wasn't a survey per se to collect more feedback and information and it was unanimous on this time after just touching base with him giving them the pros and cons of why I mean I was recommending the comments that I did to the board about not going out for a boar a bond in November and really delaying the process and we look at it in December January to see if it's feasible then and it was unanimous going forward at that point that all the committee members said this is not the time and in fact if you look at the agenda item itself I did cut a few comments directly from some of the emails that were submitted and so just to share them really quickly one of the comments from one person was I believe Dysart is doing an extraordinary job of being empathetic and supportive of the community in any way it can and I would hate to see that message inadvertently tainted by pursuing money another one there are so many fiscal knowns right now from the feds on down to the local level and then finally now is not the time to go out for bond because of the financial struggles of all of our of all communities at this time and so I think they they help put some really good points in there but just highlighting three of them they were all appreciative but all of them at this point and agreed that it was not the time to go out for a bonding the bond question and I will stand for any questions we're doing that I appreciate your extra attention to the detail and also the fact that you've added in the comments and given us some of the direct feedback that really helps us especially in this virtual meeting world to get some of that feedback let's go ahead and open it up for questions mr. Prichard do you have anything yeah just to kind of um just to echo I think mr.
sarah also wanted to add for gradual elevation I'll be reaching out to Adult Ed in the middle school who principals as well to talk about their graduation exercises and now we can have an update for the board community at our next meeting just interpret quick Joe's got his hand up very question judges over sir dr. sell real real quick you mentioned graduation hill obviously everybody wants to do something we can carry out and maybe past July 1 is there a way we can even if we bring people back for a graduation ceremony to postpone it later in June I'm obviously there because at some point over the summer over time you can't cross but is there a way to do it and hold a ceremony even if it's in July if you become safer for students and family you're I'm you he's still muted I mean I'm you now you that the Commissioner spoke about that there are some districts that are thinking about doing recognizing kids next December there are some that are postponing it to July one of the things challenges I think Dan is worried about and you know we have 205 we have faculty that come to it as well and a lot of logistics so the possibility is yes and if we divorce you to do that to have that done if we think that's a possibility but as I say there's some districts that are looking at July and actually some were looking at December when kids return from colleges and other places so I think that's on the target as Jake talked about the kids are talking about all of that and we'll kind of get their sense of what they think excellent did you have a question you meted rich sorry he's on me no no I didn't know just resting my head it was heavy okay good so Kevin would you talk about the re-entry please sure sure so a couple of weeks ago the district was invited to participate in a webinar that encouraged districts around the country to reconvene its security and safety committee to develop an annex to the district safety plan and really and frankly I think many of the districts like myself were surprised that this was the initial guidance from the webinar but what they went on to talk about was the reconstitution of schools pulse ovid of 19 so one of the first things that we will be doing in our initial meeting first me formal meeting will be next week so at the conclusion on this presentation I'll be asking the board chair if we could have a board liaison for this committee so the the district will be Greek reconvene in a group like I said next week some of the in the purpose of the convening is one to review the safety plan as written right and it will be a quick overview but there's typically an NX to plan and one of the annexes to this plan will be around safety and security post kovat and so some of the items and just to give the floor to the community and an idea of what the team will be looking at some of the items a team will need to consider and we kind of broke this up into four phases is one is to identify the key community members and stakeholders and you need to be on a team and so an our safety plan right now the chief of police that fired the fire chief or EMS representative and then of course the appropriate members within the districts or person head of facilities a person had a security etc and then of course the appropriate brought cabinet members and so moving on from there we would be looking to develop goals for the Committee on those goals what would would focus on and in this case a threat and hazards and those hazards are or the cove in 19 and in this pandemic if you will we will clearly define the roles of the members on a team and frankly we have to anticipate another wave of Kovach 19 and then what did the district's response will be in the event of another wave of Kobe 19 so we are seeing at least right now some phase 2 of this work is address key prevention strategies in a plan and and talk about how and talk about how if we had to close schools again or if there was any modified closing of schools one school closed down a couple of schools closed down all schools closed down have a plan in place for some type of academic engagement you heard dr.
Blackford any questions or comments pertaining to superintendents report or those administrative items in Section II I just it's Janice no I wanted to add that I did receive as a parent of two boys and mes I received the email today that came through the school that was written signed by misma Gulick and it explained all of what you had just explained dr. Blatchford so thank you for doing that it was very informative and I think it's a new good way to change things moving into the future with having the two video lessons each day Hey and one choice board so I'm looking forward to that starting on Monday thank you very much and what in terms of education if you're staying the same you are going backwards and we are not a backwards district we want to continually improve and like I said I couldn't have been more proud of Evesham when we first started this and now we're even better at it and I promise you be as long as this lasts so we will continue you better literally on a daily basis but thank you thank you Thank You Janice anybody else all right seeing none let's go to a real call this is barber Giovanni yes missus Everhart yes mr.