gripper indicated you know we're still in the same month from the last board meeting however I did update the right side of the worksheet and I'll just I'll take you through the highlights what changed from our last meeting is that the governor has let us know that schools will definitely be closed through March 20th so this estimate of savings due to do to covet and doing and due to being in remote learning has been updated and I'm assuming that this will take us through May 31st that in other words we would be back by June 1st so this this does not assume that we're out for the remainder of the school year I Vincent we just thought Interjet you said March 20th earlier I think you meant May 20th iPod May 20th right the governor extended from April 20th to May 20th and so this right hand side assumes that we're back as of June 1 so it's roughly two and a half months worth of savings so going through this the this first hundred $50,000 in savings would be from not having substitutes who we advise that they can collect unemployment so this $150,000 savings I just want to point out that on the benefits line down below here we have to assume that when the substitutes collect unemployment because we're a direct pay we will pay seventy five thousand towards their unemployment benefits so it's a net seventy five thousand dollars in savings the other large item here is this hundred thousand dollars for student activities this assumes that there are no spring sports and a hundred thousand dollars savings is from not paying stipends to the coaches for spring sports Jeff just confirm we haven't heard from CIA C officially but we do expect to by tomorrow well I'm just interject real quick then they did cancel all sports through the end of May with the possibility of playing in June they've also canceled spring playoffs so there won't be any state playoffs it's looking more and more like we're going to be out for the remainder of the year unfortunately okay Gracie will not be playing you know sanctioned contests after for the playoffs okay thank you this next category this fifty eight thousand dollars in savings is the result of not having staff working additional hours or overtime and that would be all our non-certified staff benefits you know the net that we're showing here you've already talked about the seventy five thousand dollar increase for unemployment compensation we also have some employees that have moved on to our medical benefits plans because their spouses have lost coverage so I do expect that you know we'll see an increase in medical benefit cost again twenty five thousand is a rough estimate at this point so the net therein benefits is actually an increase of about nine to two thousand moving into instruction the $85,000 that I'm showing here is a reduction that's paid to our special ed providers for our place Student Services we're in remote learning and so our our outplacement providers for our special ed students but in doing in making that remote we do expect about a 15% reduction and those are being negotiated and then you know moving on and trying to do this quickly because the not a lot has changed this line item 186 thousand two hundred plus this sixty thousand dollars in and savings from fuel you know that's what we're estimating will be the reduction in transportation costs I know there's an executive session where we'll talk about that goes baseline proposal at this point but it would their proposal would reduce to a payment of eighty percent on our daily special ed and regular ed runs and we would pay nothing for sports charters field trips or or any other charter that's not running right now so again the combined savings there through May 31st would be about two hundred fifty thousand and then the last section operations and maintenance we're projecting about a sixty eight thousand dollar savings the bulk of that comes from the suspension of our cleaning services with performance environmental so the bottom line is we are expecting overall savings to be six hundred sixty six thousand dollars however I do want to caution everyone that we know that there will be additional cost that are not reflected in this estimate yet because we don't know the numbers with any specificity but we will be providing additional special education services that are compensatory because we can't provide the full slate of services our students right now the remote learning mode so there will be an offset against that 666 thousand and I hesitate to speculate what what it might be we hope to have a little bit more clarity when we meet with Finance on Monday thanks Vincent I don't know Adam had a question hi VIN I just noticed on your line item breakout there about an increase in unemployment expense for substitute teachers mm-hmm and I guess they just it's my own ignorance I suppose that so does each substitute teacher are they hired on an annual contract as I thought they were per diem they most are per diem you know the only substitutes that are that are given a contract a long term substitutes that are covering for a specific teacher who's out on some type of leaves such as maternity but under you know under the scenario with the pandemic you know they are eligible for unemployment and so they've they've applied and and some are already collecting I know that so so even though we don't have like a specific contract with many of our substitutes we're still responsible for their unemployment because they know there are ways of okay all right so they're not like in they're not treated as like an independent contractor they do have like an employment agreement with the school system for a particular year just so I'm understanding yeah well they don't they our employees of the school district but they are not operating under any kind of a contract or employment agreement you know they're when they work they get paid so it's just because of the the agreement that was reached through the federal government that the these substitute teachers can apply for unemployment and therefore we're I guess the lack of a better term I'll have to pay out for for that for those benefits because of those agreements or is that something we would normally do no we would if anyone collects unemployment the because we're a direct pay they call it for unemployment any employee of ours who is collecting benefits from the state the state bills us for that so it's not different for substitutes it would be any employee who was laid off would be receiving unemployment compensation and it's our responsibility to pay that to the state okay thank you you're welcome let me check the queue okay actually I had a question of insulin going back to the special education services I know we talked about this not a meaning but last week and some conversation so we do anticipate some Kappa to Tory or remediation efforts for those social education students once the assessments could be done and I hope Jeff we're Marling to be a little clearing out a little later what that means but this the the money that we expect and on those students when this settles down so since we haven't quite spent that money on special education right now we're not going to be eligible for excess cost grant sharing we'll be eligible for that when we actually do start spending those funds or and will there be an opportunity for some kind of reimbursement non-road I certainly would well let's put this way the grants themselves in excess cost as a grant the parameter the parameter of those have not changed so today at the student cost including transportation which we're not paying any right right recurring it but we starts when it's dark to the extent exceeds four and a half times the per pupil expenditure that is still eligible yes you raise a good point though so if we're providing compensatory services in the summer because new fiscal year right and I don't know if if we expand hours of that three times pause before the shutdown the fiscal year ends June 30th we started you know there's that there's a clock reset I be curious to know I will I don't know but I like things that we need to put some contact as a cave today but I haven't heard back yet study do we have any questions from board members on this part of the finance report I don't see any I know the next one tight a lot of questions which is our medical report that's okay I'm going to try and do the same thing I'll present the screen okay can everyone see the all the red up there okay so this is this is our medical benefits report through March 31st you could see here we started the fiscal year with 3.7 million in reserve these are the claims by month and this is the update so for the month of March claims were seven hundred sixty five thousand 401 what I will add here is we saw an increase in our stop loss reimbursement so on a year-to-date basis stop loss from large claims have been paid to us in the amount of a hundred sixty eight thousand a lot of what's driving these last three months of claims are large claims for you know several employees or their dependents the 765,000 you know is a relatively high number for the month of March because you know again a new HSA plan year starts every January so the bottom line is that on a year-to-date basis net claims have reduced the trust fund balance by this 1 million 2 2700 8 so as of March 31st our trust fund balance is two million five eleven six twenty and then if we look at the math on you know what our average claims were expected or some fifty thousand we have about three point three months in reserves however this year's claims are running about eight hundred fifty seven thousand per month so that if you do that math it's about two point nine three months of reserved for claims in that two point five million and then down the bottom here I just wanted to point out that you know last year on the way to day basis I'll claim for about seven hundred sixty one thousand and so this year were I think 851 773 there are no kovat related claims in here to speak of you know if they are it would just be or cost you know minor medical expenses our testing and I'm not sure if we're going to have any large Kovac related claim it's too early to know but that's where we stand as of March 31st with our medical benefits claim the truck fund so I'm gonna come back questioning thank you very questions from the board members yeah there are none can I do one thing mr.
Porter down I did want to share the update on the grab-and-go program that were providing meals over at Dodd middle school we did a distribution today and so you know this show I assume everybody can see the chart that's on the screen now we good can you see this yes okay thank you so these are the distribution dates you could see that we did a distribution today through each of the distributions these are the number of meals served this is how many children were served and so the number of meals served meal day served times the number of children served times two because we're serving breakfast and lunch each day equals the total meals that would distribute it so today we distributed six thousand eight hundred ninety six meals the four days are Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday and on a cumulative basis you could see that we've distributed 66 thousand four hundred seventy eight meals again this is available to children who live in Cheshire age 18 and under they don't have to be Cheshire public school students this is the total expected reimbursement that we'll get for serving these meals so for today it's 18 thousand one hundred two dollars and on a cumulative basis it's a hundred seventy-six thousand 407 so these reimbursements are there to cover the actual cost of the food that is provided in this case to the children and there's also you know an allowance that's included in the set rate that should cover labor costs related to the distribution and the preparation and the actual cost of the food so I thought it was important that that the board members understand you know the number of meals we are on a 2 day per week distribution now going forward so we'll be distributing Mondays and Thursdays mondays will give meals for three days and Thursdays we plan to give meals for four days so you know we are serving seven days of breakfast and lunch when we are distributing those meals and the reason that we reduce the number of meal distribution to two per week is just to try and minimize the exposure you know of our staff to two resident and vice versa and it's been working out very very well obviously there's a lot of effort and work that goes into you know making this possible you know of course I want to thank you know not only the manager the managers of the kitchen but all the staff that's involved in doing this I think the program is going very very well any questions yeah I mean mr. gribble has long yes thank you my well first an observation it appears at least more recently that the number of meals being served has stabilized in the 800 range I guess and so my question is when when school is running the children that we would normally I guess that give assistance to is are the are the meals that you're finding is this is more not just for for the children who would normally participate in the the programs that we have but we're finding that there's been more additional meals served to to people who wouldn't normally participate in an assistance program so I'll answer the question this way if you look at our free and reduced lunch population and that's prior to the pandemic where there's a lot more people that are unemployed now so the we had roughly 600 students and Cheshire that were eligible for free and reduced and you could see that there's about 850 children that are being served meals but what I can't tell you because we don't track students and names of who's picking up the meals so you know I couldn't tell you of the 850 how many of those are a free and reduced lunch students but we are certainly serving more student meals than there are free and reduced lunch so if you just kind of extrapolate that yeah we're definitely serving additional students beyond our free and reduced lunch population however you know kind of go back to the point I was making now that there are you know more people that are potentially unemployed and I don't have an income level or are on Huskie that free and reduced lunch number might be up higher right now makes sense yes it does thank you welcome thanks 10 has a question yeah I'm on right okay thank you for that yeah I was just thinking about it today it's my wife told me it's three hundred thousand people estimated in Connecticut that have entered unemployment the past month five weeks we're about kinetic chasers with 30,000 out of three million people some are 1% less than 1% but that means we probably have about 3,000 people in kidney in Cheshire that went on unemployment right it's just to feel it at a local level it just it feels even crazier to see it that way I'm just curious because you had mentioned then since you'd mentioned the cumulative reimbursement I apologize if I missed it what's the total cost to date of it well allowance - but I'm just looking for a ballpark just curious to know what we're talking about here well when you take total cost I just want to be clear so the cost would be the cost of actually purchasing the food you know and the bags you know and then the labor to prep the food and distribute the food so the can't answer definitively what our cost is you know a food service manager is working through that you know in a in a in a typical meal period the reimbursement that we get you know does come close to cut I mean it covers our past because our food service program you know is I don't want to say it's profitable but our revenues exceed costs were allowed to move up to three-month of that revenue to be used to purchase equipment and then and do you know any other type of improvements to the program but this is we're in a unique period because we are not getting the revenue from charging for meals for students who are not free and reduced lunch eligible we're also not selling any ala carte items so when we do the math we're not going to be I don't think the revenues that we're receiving will exceed expenses I don't expect us to be underwater by a lot I guess sorry I guess my question I've said it in the last couple meetings I mean I want our employees to have their jobs now I do and I support what Jeff's been doing with that but I just so take sort of the labor out of it I'm just curious you mentioned before those 176,000 for meals total so what's the cost you mentioned I think was like a huh food cost yeah just a food car saying I'll get back to you on that but it's okay it's less than the hundred you know 76 or 186 styles in there because the Earthmen we get does cover labor typically okay okay okay yeah no I guess in my mind I just see that the Ayase who are helping and stuff I see that as this sort of a segregated but sort of for me it's a segregated issue yeah the food cost is not 186,000 it's clearly less okay okay when when you know I'll share with the board one we have the updated spreadsheet but the business of the manager of fou Clara's mental and Aika provides very deep now cost of purchasing food you know and supplies labor you'll see all the detail in there okay thank you okay thanks questions board members and was there anything else to an update do you want to give a heads up about the upcoming Finance Committee meeting next week sure Tony yeah we're gonna be having a Finance Committee meeting I believe at 7 p.m.
on next Monday where we're going to be discussing various fiscal issues that may be a very great interest to the town of Cheshire thank you sir we'll have more detail on that later is what other name I move on to personnel and this is religiously because the Personnel Committee has not met since the last board meeting but I vote over in and Jeff this is a typically an annual event although this year it's kind of an odd situation so Jeff and Tim yeah if you want to give an overview of what then that were using kale and why we do this every year yes thanks Tony we're looking at two motions this evening and as mr. Peres Jeanne said there are this is a pre annual event but the context of the world we're living in now kind of sensitizes this even more so it's not easy to go through most educators across Connecticut have been here at one time or another but the first motion I'm asking you to make this evening is around non-renewal of interim contracts so when we have a teacher who may be out for the year a child rearing leave or something we'll put that a hire a teacher I'm an interim contract so we're asking those contracts be non renewed that's pretty much a matter of course that happens annually pretty much no matter what circumstance wonder then the next motion I'm asking you to consider is in regard to not renewing first in second year teacher's so each year what we do is evaluate where we are financially the board has settled on a budget and has move that forward to the town when the town the town does not finalize their budget by May 1st when we have to notify teachers that they're gonna you know whether they're gonna return on contract or not so what we do along with most districts across Connecticut is non-renew groups of teachers there are 38 teachers that are in year one or two in the cheshire public school systems so they would be non renewed and if our budget is reduced by any significant number unfortunately some of those teachers certainly the vast majority of them would not be but some of them may not be coming back and if we don't do that and we wait until after May first and then we have to lay those people off first of all you know they wouldn't be able to it's harder to go look for a job as we get toward the end of May if that's really what they wanted to do but then we would also have to pay their unemployment which is mr.
Massey and I already touched upon a little bit we'd be paying them and unfortunately they wouldn't be working for us so the goal here as it has been in every year that we've done this in the past is to hire all these people back as soon as the budget is but you know we don't want to put ourselves behind the eight-ball which is why like I said many other districts do this as well I know I saw a question pop up mr. Griffin review yes thank you so yeah my question I guess is on the the second motion that we have and why it's specific to years one and two why not include year three and like because it's through the end of year four so why not include anyone who is not a kind of teacher just as a precaution obviously that we hope to god that none of that would ever have to happen but why not just why not you know just go all the way and then we just bring everyone back you know we can I think that's a really good question and it's a logical question the rationale there is the human element to this when you're non-renewed I don't care if you're the greatest teacher in the world or not it produces a great deal of anxiety so what we try and do is balance the fiscal element against the the practical realities here in the in the human side of things so with 30 a pool of 38 teachers if if we get down to eliminating 40 positions in our budget extra it would be cataclysmic that's that's not gonna happen I know you wouldn't let it happen the council wouldn't let it happen our community wouldn't let it happen so I'm not gonna create that level of anxiety for year three and for teachers and and to be fair I don't think we we're gonna eliminate 38 not even close to that but the issue is that we need to look at a full pool of positions to determine which positions we may have to eliminate if any no we've done this in years past and frankly in the last four years that I've been superintendent haven't eliminated any positions through this process so I think the likelihood that we hire everybody back is still pretty good but this is just a kind of finding that sweet spot between what's practically you know intelligent to do versus what's sensitive to our employees to do thank you if I could just ask one other quick question if I recall the number of teachers total teachers that we have employed it's like is it 400 teachers 400 okay thank you yeah thank you and before I turn about the Tim had a question so our clarification I I know because of the situation is going on and not just in our town state also massive the virus and economy there was some sort of reaction I guess when the letters went out about this non-renewal to teachers and I think people are a little more sensitized against to to the situation so this one make sure we're all clear this is not an action that the board is anticipating or is going to reducing reducing positions number one we haven't start budget deliberations yet with the town that doesn't start until April 30th and they're probably late May maybe even June depending what the dates are before we get a bunch of number back so this is or gets dr.
stolen now congratulations by the way if I've to say that earlier but as Jennifer has indicated that you know there's gives the board some flexibility that should a worst-case scenario come before the board for next year's budget or some more for students foreseen financial circumstance at least gives us one avenue to look at for for expenses but it's not the only so we're not there yet you know I I've been through I think a lot of these so far I know why we do this I am a little sensitive to the fact what's going out the optics baseball to put folks at ease this is not a pre courser for anything to come yet it's just a standard operating procedure so I hope folks understand rap Tim I'm gonna turn back to you anyway you have a question thank you Tony yeah did you just say is that gonna go that the letters have already been sent out we notified people that there is looking to potentially take action on this so tonight you officially move to 9 renew those kind by people now the trick to this is that you know as a principal my 15 years here certainly is superintendent we always it person we go meet with the teachers and let them know and kind of reassure and then their colleagues really do the same because the service when they hear this there's a first-year teach to reassure them this is a little unique in that it's rich so what we did was have every principal personally connect with each individual who first and second year pool once this is official same then to connect with those folks and reassure them again is Tony just said you know an official back to work here anymore she's kind of a uncomfortable circumstance until we get it resolved and hopefully the very in your future okay so you sent out a letter but it was an unofficial letter I mean does all the work yeah the letter indicated a we you know I was presenting this before the board is a recommendation oh okay okay I understand okay all right thank you okay shall I Tony you want me to make a motion here yeah this isn't a questions from board members though yeah sorry I apologize there's two motions but they cover the same for my should I think I should probably put them oceans on the floor before we go any further I think if we have discussion on absolutely okay I'll make the two motions right now separately or together do you have a preference I think okay well one motion I'll make one motion then we can go through this one quickly all right motion that the Cheshire Board of Education pursuant to Connecticut General Statutes 10:00 151 authorizes the superintendent to non-renew the teacher contracts of all certified professional employees serving under an interim contract subject to CGS 10 - 151 at the end of the 2019 2020 school year second second so the motion actually been seconded is there a discussion in as there is none okay unless you want to say something I think I think it makes sense what we're doing that's all no I I agree it's and again I people's minds this is not a definitive action this is just unfortunately something that we do by statute by May first again should in the future a being goes south it was flexibility but we do this every year but that being said the notion that the Treasury Board education pursuant to CGS 10 - 1 5 1 authorizes superintendent to nominee to teacher contracts at all certified professional employees certainly under an internal contract subject to CGS 10 - 1 5 1 at the end of the 2008 20/20 school year all those in favor yeah yes all those opposed seeing as there is none the motion passes unanimously thank you second second motion non-renewal of non-tenured teachers that the Cheshire Board of Education pursuant to CGS 10-2 151 authorized the superintendent to non-renewed the teacher contracts of all non-tenured certified professional employees that are in the first and second year under contract for the Cheshire public schools subject to CGS 10 - 151 at the end of the 2019 2020 school year and further to authorize the superintendent to communicate written notice of such non-renewal to the affected teachers second awesome motion has been any discussion I just say seconded second Tony if I could just make a comment just my question of afford to to dr.
Solan was just a sort of information because I believe that this motion like I said the exact wording I think it comes up every year at this time I was just sort of informational I just wanted to to find out because because of 10 - 151 covers all 40 months so that's why I just wanted a point of clarification as to why we're specifying that's all thanks Thank You Adam up Tim you had your hand up yeah thank you Tony I again I support this and I would this is the same reason I could have given for the last motion which is a comment that I had made just a little while ago you know 20 30 million people unemployed if you break that down just to Cheshire we probably are looking at 2,500 to 3,000 people here in Cheshire that have lost their job in the past five weeks we only count eight or nine thousand households I'm not convinced that we go into that we will go into the next school year with the same with the same teachers we could we could lose a few bodies I think this is the prudent thing to do and I don't say that lightly I don't I don't want I don't want to even have this discussion but when I'm looking at these numbers seeing that many people or that many households this is what we all know how devastating it is and I just want to be I want to be thoughtful about this and keep our options open at this time and be a good fiduciary uphold my fiduciary responsibilities to everybody in town thank you Tony thank you Tim and I I agree with your comments a and we're just trying to keep our options open but we know we we do put our students employees you know Ashley first and foremost and you know this doesn't change that we'll see how things play out again this is just an option for us to consider in the future if we didn't have to go there so thank you Tim any other comments from the board members or questions I'm seeing is there are none yes we read the motion and the motion of the table is that the treasure board education pursuant to CGS 10 - 1 5 1 authorizes superintendents who non-renew - teacher contracts of all non-tenured certified professional employees that are in the first and second year under contract for Cheshire public schools subject the CGS 10 - 1 5 1 at the end of the 2019 2020 school year and further to authorize Intendant the key noted to be effective all those in favor aye all those opposed seen as there are none no one's hands up no comments the motion passes unanimously thank you Tim that concludes our personnel we do have a policy update Adam that would be you [Music] I'm sorry then did you have you yes Tim Tim if you're talking where we can't hear you alright we'll get back to you go ahead Adam okay so yeah for policy so let's see I don't even know if honestly I don't remember if February 24th was our actual last policy meeting because I thought we had one were removed some other bylaws through or oh no for I was at the policies for continuity I think then we we had so this is the meeting before that would that be correct I've I think what we did last time was we bypassed the February meeting to talk about the most recent one because of the policies right oh work zone yeah and I were kind of working a little backwards tonight okay so so what happened at this meeting was that we reviewed bylaws 91 30 and 90 90 321 and this is we had already post this for a first reading and and I think at our last meeting we actually had already moved these to a second reading because I don't see a motion here to do so so the the motion that I have here and which would cover actions that occurred on February 24th was that we made a motion to to move the four four policies listed here for a third reading and to be put into force by the superintendent and all of these four policy changes due to changes in state statutes so I don't know if there are any questions before I move to to read the motion I don't see anybody raising their hand up and so I think you're good okay all right so I'm just gonna go right right through the motion here move that the Cheshire Board of Education give a third and final reading to the following policies and direct the superintendent to place it policies into immediate effect forty-one 18.5 responsible use policy policy number 51 twelve pages of attendance policy number 51 18.2 homeless students and policy number 61 forty-two basic instructional program do I have a second second thank you Andrew discussion if any again I'll just comment that we had reviewed these policies of potentially at least certainly through the first half of the year I don't even recall perhaps they were holdovers from the end of last year but they've been thoroughly reviewed and I'm confident that they are ready for implementation Thank You Ana Mari or any other questions on the motion from the board seeing as there is none are none the motion it is that the cheshire Borja keishon give a third and final reading to the following policies and throughout the superintend the play set policies intermediate effect number forty-one 18.5 responsibility use policy number 51 twelve ages of attendance number 51 18 point to almost delivers and number 61 42 basic instructional program all those in favor aye aye all those opposed there's one abstention since Tim Moya unfortunately got disconnect nonetheless the motion passes I just got connected as you voted out her I don't really know you voted on I'm assuming it's policy but yeah sorry tonight I say pop on and off I was gonna wait but no worries at all thank you thank you welcome back Thank You team I saw motion passes and have any I'll updates on a policy or is that it there are no other updates at this time thank you school motto Jason come you know that hasn't met Andrew I hear that we're gearing back up yeah the updates can be pretty brief but the school modernization committee is going to pick up again on May 4th via zoom meeting um once the details are available they'll be post towns website at that meeting both Arcadius and Colliers who are both the two responding firms for the owner's representative RFP we'll be doing their their presentations and hopefully sharing their screens and it'll be an interactive meeting we could ask them the questions I'm so Kay keep the process moving forward so that again as Monday May 4th at 7 p.m.
thanks Andrew and it's gonna be a is there is there gonna be open to the public at least able to watch or do we know yet yes right thank you they will be open to the public there's not the agenda hasn't been established or sent down no it was a lot of interest I think all the upper transparency listen in on the interviews might be good at it yeah thanks Allah Mike thank you awesome thanks Andrews we're having any other standing committees I know it's been a busy time so I think if we could snuck in a committee meeting in last few weeks probably almost impossible thing going on so that pretty much completes the committee stand community ports next up is approval of minutes in our board of ed packets was going to be agenda there's a link to the board education special meeting that we held on April 6th is there a motion to approve those meeting minutes mr.
chairman I'd like to make a motion Adam makes the motion is there a second second faith ham seconds emotion any discussion or changes to those minutes inquiries the hands I know changes I think they were pretty accurate and also what helps is the fact that the names are recorded so is easy to go back and just double check on things seeing as there is no questions on the motion repeat it for all of us the motion is that the cheshire gorgeou commission approved the minutes of April 6th 2020 special board education meeting all those in favor all those opposed is there are none the motion passes unanimously thank you correspondence unfortunately Katherine hell did not make the mean tonight issues our board of secretary I have not receive any correspondence the only corresponds right we see was questions really the curriculum which we addressed last night I know Jeff if you receiving correspondence since the meeting started but thank you next up is what we all look forward to at every meeting this lecithin seaport thank you very much Tony and I know there was not one bit of sarcasm in their introduction it all seriousness because I there's no sarcasm especially there in all seriousness you know unfortunately during this time frame there's so much going on that I think we get a lot of detail from you during this report in the past the prior to this I would say you know people but yeah even especially you okay so we're all ears I got to so I was asked by mr.
Massey on and if he could give a quick tech update during the superintendent's were party actually asked if I would formally introduce some so ladies and gentlemen our chief operating officer mister Thank You superintendent I didn't need to be quite that formal but thank you Jeff can everyone see green yes yes yes okay thank you so I just wanted to give a quick update on technology and technology support as you know dr.
Solan and Miss Solano have reported you know tonight previously as we've gone forward with remote learning we've increased the types of things that we're doing with remote learning which is is obviously a very very good thing so just running down these bullets we're supporting about 3,300 students that are in grades 3 through 12 and of the above total we've got 2150 one district own devices that have been in the hands of our grade 7 through 12 students since the being beginning of the year they will already one-to-one but since going to remote learning we provided another 310 district devices to our elementary school students and that amounts to about 26 percent of the students in grades 3 through 6 so they're using a district device at this point the things that we've expanded that are working well on the remote learning side our use of Google classroom in elementary and also we're starting to phase in use of video by out our teachers and so we believe that will likely increase the demand for some additional Chromebook devices to be provided as well as technical support you know the probably the most important thing I wanted to let you know is this next bullet that the support level has been very high you know we've responded to 270 fourths of tickets or support calls those are the ones that are logged plus there's there's non logged events that are being responded to through email that you know not only of tech assistance but our non tech staff are assisting students and parents and staff with the good news here is that there is support requests are generally closed the same day that they received and most are handled right away so you know I think the message here is that we can continue to provide support even as the number of devices that were supporting increases we're still in good shape and able to do that remotely and I you know we're here to support you know what the educators are doing and we'll continue to do that I would like to acknowledge and thank the families who have been using their own devices at home because that enables us to continue to provide you know devices whether they're new devices or replacement devices when devices fail so the students who really need them can continue to have them as we go forward and then lastly I do want to acknowledge and thank the managers and the staff you know on the technology side as well as all you know the managers and staff that are in the background you know providing the support that the educators need so that you know we can continue to do a good job you know during this remote learning period to support the students you know and the parents you know and certainly as Vincent thank you for not the ads quick question I first so I know I know our team there is doing phenomenal job with this again I we don't afford you get to hear from every single person in school district using technology but what we have been hearing very positive in terms of support especially for follow through through the sort of kovetz site you set up and contacting you through you know the various email and support tickets it's going well the question had is has the what was manage our internal staff IT or tech related his hands tickets versus 80 pecks is there been any increase support needed for me puts since we did the learning or as a pretty much been within within bounds contract I mean in the past looks like now we only go to Apex when we need you know support at the net at the network level or more serious so good after that I'm referring to that's providing the support you know is our technology manager TechSoup provide where you know an hour and a five you know technology assistance you know all district and quois you know and it's not that we haven't gone to Apex you know escalate certain things but you know for the most part I will say that our network has been very stable platform has been very very good across the network you know as we increase you know the use of video you know that may put some strain on the resources but we have a lot of banners you know I'm sure all the board member grow we get our bandwidth from Connecticut Education Network you know and even though parents are and students are connected at home that of all traffic will has to route you know through the Cheshire you know cools network because that's we're able to manage the google chrome devices so so far all good thanks Benson I know Adam have any questions you know Jeff will refer you questions and I think so in your screen share there you said that the what was it was at K through six or was a K through three students there were 26 percent were using Chromebooks and if that's the case I'm assuming that since some Marlene had said that the are at least a majority of respondents it was like 99% of people had their own devices I'm guessing that means that the other 75% or so is using like an iPad or something and so I guess my question is I'm guessing if you were to use an iPad you're downloading a Chrome browser and then logging in under the student ID and if you are are there are the same they're the same protections afforded to this to the student using the Chrome browser on an iPad or a PC as the purpose of the Chrome are the protections and the lock downs the same where a child or assuming on I don't know what the protections are based on age but if they were to exit out of the Google classroom tab or whatever or any of the programs associated with Google classroom can they navigate outside of the Google classroom while they're logged in under their student ID well I'll take a stab the the 20 just to be clear the 26 percent what that refers to is the grade three through six students who are using a district device so that means seventy-four percent are using a device of their own at home you know and obviously if they're logged into Google you know our Google site you know or Google classroom you know they get whatever protection is available from Google but if they're on their own PC you know or iPad you know or their own home device and they're not on they're not logged in up to their Cheshire k12 dot C tus Google address they we can offer any protections there it's just their own home to bike but they are limited as long as they're logged in to Google Chrome most of the device on the cheshire k12 CT us platform right that was my main concern it's like yeah if they navigate away from their own law if they if they're not using the school login anymore then yeah obviously you're gonna do whatever you would have done before but as long as they are logged in or at least using the tabs associated with their school ID they do not have the opportunity to have anything except for educational content as long as they were using their own just the CPS ID if you navigate to your own Google ID or whatever then yeah obviously all bets are off with that because that's just my understanding correct and that's a good question and what we've done is you know when the the remote learning first burst on the scene across Connecticut nationally a lot of folks immediately jumped to things like zoom and you know and quickly retracted that because of the privacy issues and zoom bombing is actually a term now where people were jumping in so we gave our survey for parents and first step to said yeah we do want more video there's clamoring for that but we needed to find out how we could do that excessively and effectively and safely and so the other feedback we got was that elementary parents were getting bombarded with email so what we've done is created Google classroom accounts so that there's one source of information for parents they're not getting blown up with emails they log on with their child's email address so all of our kids have that email address that they can only email other CPS accounts receive email from other CPS so that's secure and then they go on three through six started today actually with video and I know there was a lot of enthusiasm for that where kids actually K through six excuse me started with video today so I know there was a lot of enthusiasm for that the teacher invites them through the Google classroom so other people it's a secure way to lock it down into small groups of kids the students can see if choose they can turn off their camera the same way you can but if they choose they can see their peers in the class and and the teacher and vice versa that social connectedness of schooling has been a core part of education for centuries and so I think you know we'll talk a little bit more about that transition but we are where very deliberate in how we rolled out video and we seek to roll out more video for kids middle and high school is in the in the coming weeks so everybody pretty much has to be logged on to now in order to access what we do which provides greater protections go ahead Tim thanks Tony yeah with regard to Jeff is that gonna go you had said I think today or yesterday you rolled out to K through six video what is it what sort of you know as of right now and I'm not sure how fluid this is what do you expect in terms of the availability of the video over the next few weeks in K through 6 and K may be different than six but in turn what do you mean by availability of the video because people who have cameras on their computer could access that now that's a switch that we turn it on in the background of of Google Chrome on our platform they every you know who has a district Chromebook had a camera we just didn't make it accessible we can shut it off from our home platform now we turn it on for those grades so that they can use it if they choose okay so who chooses to use it is it the individual classroom teacher with Marleen no yeah well it's the end user just like you have the capacity now to turn on and off your camera the student on there and has the capacity to turn on and off their camera okay so how do i phrase this our teacher is supposed to be making themselves available on a daily basis for K through six on video is it on a weekly basis six hours you know I'm sorry I want to be clear that that today we did enable the camera setting on the logins through cheshire public schools for the students into kindergarten through sixth grade there is not this this does not necessitate or or require a teacher to be doing synchronous learning it's an option for teachers to have small groups where they can connect with the student they can do one on one intervention or support or give feedback or in the instance of maybe some of the younger kids in kindergarten or first grade a teacher might try and hold a morning meeting where the children can see each other I was talking to a dad today where one of his you know K one or two sons was online and you know felt like he was watching his friends on TV like is that them can they see me so it was fantastic I want to make sure folks know that the teacher and control that just like the owner of this meeting can and they can mute and or and or someone off of of the meeting if number one there's something happening that it shouldn't be or you know a student is being loud over the last couple of days the teachers at the elementary level have been going over the etiquette of google meet with all the kids to do that so I just I just wanted to clarify it's not a synchronous type of thing but it's an it's an optional instructional tool that the teachers can use and it is what is Marlene as talking about the instructional element inherent in this we're very sensitive to the fact that is she also had a broach Don it's an emotional element to you know kids are really excited to see their peers it's very hard for your standard eight-year-old to not see their friends for an extended period of time it's hard for a 48 year old so there's certainly an emotional element to all of this that I don't want to look because this is hard for our kids on that level too so this is an opportunity for us to you know better connect our kids and our staff and that's a big part of what we try and do every day so we're happy to be making this step forward we're confident that we're doing it in a more responsible way in a more private way so we feel really good about the steps we've taken and clearly our kids do too after day one we're looking forward to continue to extend it you had a question yeah I did something that Marlene said so so much instruction in this and the younger grades is you know breaking up into groups and working one on teacher working one-on-one and this may go to what Marlene was saying but that is still happening and if she's working with a small group of kids and she's got the whole class what how how is she managed eat she or he managing that in the classroom we are not recommending that teachers hold synchronous classes with 20-something students because for exactly that reason it's it's incredibly difficult to to manage that short periods of time are read aloud a video you know doing a video through screencastify or or producing a video through screencastify for students to watch it's fun that that synchronous piece we're really looking to do in in much smaller groups and we're phasing it in right we're starting small and working our way and a teacher will build upon that that that answer your question yeah thank you and I realize that's what you were answering with Tim I just wanted to clarify so thank you thank you thank you I had one observation back to hams question about personal devices at home not a district nice so the way this works is have chrome my personal laptop or I'll be see if I'm stupid I go to open a tab in chrome I login to Google classroom while I'm in Google class when a tab that's all I can see I can do is then district whatever I'm sorry instead I can't you know from that tab wander off and to other things to removal classroom that's not allowed I can however open another tab and go watch the video or spongebob for 10 minutes and then jump back so the end of day so long at the point is meat or screencastify your protect around is outside it at home PC if you're not in those tabs your you know your bounty of parental controls I'm at desktop or laptop and to that end if a parent has some questions on that or is looking for best practices if I'm not mistaken they think we had something up on the co-ed website for a clinical a fake user on that if not maybe push them up there things they can do to secure your PC that departments not aware of today but I think would folks be the frontier or both even bit they all provide some kind of antivirus protection suite as part of that I think most folks have that but again I'm gonna be a worried about pants left questions you know how to secure it on the vices we're looking at Google classroom it's things that the outside of that they not sure we would go to addition for that guidance but that what you were saying Tony cuz I really appreciate that so when kids are using there's church or public schools credentials there is some safe searching that's going on because of that but it doesn't match what we have at the district level the home network is certainly going to be different than the district network but yes if people have questions about that I can absolute put them in touch with our folks in our technology department who can explain the these gritty details of that so thank you yeah well we're complicated you know they think sir we would have heard from Forbes by now especially if they're not gonna rig up the old carpet that we had in the past but Tim you had a question yeah comment I think I just want to go back to what Jeff had said about the social emotional part of it and I think that is important I mean just when I take my kids out for a walk around the neighborhood and stuff and I see other kids walking by I usually stop them and just ask them about how it's going and one of the things that many of the kids not all the kids but many of the kids miss the interaction and I know you just rolled out K through six today but to whatever extent you could do that as quickly as possible in a safe manner even through something you know I'm thinking like you mentioned a morning meeting or morning announcements you know I don't know sixth grade at all but just like five minutes of a little bit of face time and that might lead to a hey some funny face and then they have a little chat separately in Google classroom now like text messaging or however it works just to add a little bit more normalcy to their life sooner rather than later so and I know it takes time I don't I don't mean to suggest it doesn't but just advocating for that yeah we've got a good timeline to roll that out this week we're rolling out the k-6 we had the most desire for that based on the surveys and the next phase will be middle school in high school but we want to make sure that we spend at least five days making sure that it's it's working well with the k-6 students but I agree thank you thank you I turn back to you Jeff you're still not in your update all right thanks a lot I'm glad Tim mentioned earlier the the unemployment rates that exist and you know that's something that you wouldn't think as a school system that we pay attention to though we actually do because of things like you're talking about whether it's food service budgeting computer access all these variables have an impact on us too so you know if the Department of Labor has their statistics available online as a matter of fact we were just checking this the other day March shed Cheshire at 2.5% unemployment it was actually the third lowest in the state but we are don't forget on that six week lag so we will continue to monitor that is it relates to food service prep as it relates to technology and it relates to social emotional issues and counseling in the home so that is something we continue to monitor Adam you had a question yes thanks I'm sort of on that note as things get tougher and hopefully it won't get much tough at do we have anything in place to supply hot spots I know that wasn't like a real concern at first as I think it was like 99% of households have internet and that sort of thing but if something terrible were to occur do we have anything in place to with a local company or anything to implement that or with the state of Connecticut well it's a good question Adam it was a sensitivity that we had entering into a remote learning environment and we've ordered hot spots and we've distributed hot spots so those in case you don't know provide Wi-Fi signal to the home so it's basically just a device that provides Internet access to you the people in your home or it could be a larger area depending on the actual device but so yes we do have some backup for that the other thing I want to go back in just a second is touch upon another remote learning vocabulary where people they may not be comfortable or aware of a synchronous learning there's synchronous and asynchronous learning so synchronous learning is I have my whole fourth period class meet together at 10 a.m. every day all of us are expected be there we haven't committed to that situation because home lives are so variable you know you may be taking care of your little brother or sister that at that time you you know your parents may be working we still have a lot of working parents in our community front line parents with research and medical services so you know that we haven't committed to a synchronous learning environment so I just wanted to clarify that language to faith you had a question as well I did thank you the Department of Labor about the unemployment personally I know number of people who have just had to leave Connecticut for a loss of job and everything else what ten weeks into this have we seen withdrawals of kids yet of families who have had to leave no okay thanks our enrollment has been static actually more static than it is otherwise really you know over the course of a month you'll see limited in our community limited transient so you'll see limited moves in and out of the community but during this period it's even less so because I think it's really hard for people to get anywhere Oh anywhere so we're pretty much on lockdown Tim okay thank you sure yeah I'm just curious so you have what you have 3,300 students who've been basically they're supposed to be online for the past month or so some of them you're gonna have a handful of students that are yeah what is it truancy or you know taking those out have you had any of you had any more than say one or two have you had any noticeable problem of students who are simply just not logging in that would normally come to school right yeah what we've done is really emphasize engage and so all of our staff are being asked to be very sensitive to monitor who they're getting responses from enough and then they filter that through the counselor mental health vote if building-level who in turn along with the teacher will make those connections now Marlene was just telling a story last night at a the curriculum committee meeting about an art teacher who hadn't heard from a student drove to the house and had a conversation in the driveway so what we're really trying to do is make sure that all of our kids are engaged because this can be as I said an emotionally difficult time so it's it's a different perhaps population that we're working with now and it is critically important that we continue to keep our kids engaged particularly if this extends even further than the made deadline that's estab well we're on a way to make sure that we do that part of it and make sure that kids are so sure just two other quick ones graduation is always a big deal and it's a sensitive topic right now for the class of 2020 whose you know spring full of memory-making has really kind of been pulled out from underneath them unfortunately and it's really tough I'm for them and so our team has a real desire to make their graduation as special and as memorable as possible I got to commend dr.
Gabe CHS principal well as well as a Dave hunter and Mike loogey who were on a call today with me Marlene was on the call we had met with the number of seniors and the same thing happened yesterday as well where we're trying to just solicit student ideas kick ideas around with them because we do want to create some memorable experiences particularly for our graduating seniors as they close out their Cheshire Public Schools experience with us and so stay tuned optimally will have as traditional as a ceremony as possible but absent that opportunity because of health issues you know we want to do something special for them and so we're working on that so stay tuned obviously it's it's fluid we're pretty far away from mid-june and we're hopeful that things do improve to a point where we could have something resembling a traditional ceremony and then something else is well for our kids that have already lost so much through this spring so stay tuned for that I want to close with you know what I thought was a pretty awesome card that reflected the sentiments of the staff and the district and I've said me before that you know education for centuries has been a brick and mortar face to face proposition in the matter of literally two days Monday and my name Tuesday after that half-day Friday we had we had to prepare for a remote learning environment I really commend all of our staff who made that possible as well as our students and parents for their flexibility but I received the card that kind of thought reflected the sentiments of our staff across the district so I'll read you a portion of it and she's talking about the the pandemic and she said oh okay it's hard but I feel supported I'm learning a lot and being pushed into places I might not have gone that's good I'll be uh it will be awesome when we can finally get back in class I miss the spontaneous energy that can actually only happen in a classroom but for now Public Health and Safety is our priority we got this and I think that just reflects the the attitude that exists amongst the Cheshire public school staff and I couldn't find a better way to my report and to share that with you so thank you Deb thank you for passing that car down on tonight awesome Jeff thank you for coming in that is there any uh any questions from the board on the superintendency port okay and I we had a cooking last night those very very informational and touched on a lot of topics with online learning I strongly suggest unless watching that wants a deeper dive on where Marlene talked about with the video and the curriculum evolve being definitely take a take a watch is more detailed there and worthwhile and again if there's any questions any of that please email the email address be on the agenda you'll get back to you on that as soon as there is no other questions the next item up on our agenda is all business which we have them listed tonight we have audience Jeff will receive any course correspondence before I move on to the next section I was just looking quickly and we had not what okay so they're really good I think people are have you done watching these board meetings yeah tonight I don't know maybe is the voice on or something I can't imagine you'd be with us oh yes funny my neighbor who is kind of in an installation of board meetings not really you know literally go to or not because they they can't just a crime since this lockdown they've been watching pretty much all of our google meet meetings and so last night when we ended I'm sure we'll get one tonight to you thanked me for having a great meeting and I guess what the family does is during board meetings on Google meet they actually put a puzzle together while they're watching the meeting and I say what if that's what you're doing that your hobby getting you hobby or me to get your button the board you know if but I know folks will follow up on this and I'm sure get questions but Tim what's up did you have a question or a number of viewers for Mike any idea 20 book 20 what's good again it's still more our physical meetings so we'll take that and before I go on to the chair update did you have something you wanted to say or comment thanks hon you know it's just a moment of self-promotion I don't know if you want me to mention it now or or afterward just about what we did I think it was earlier this week that's all let me go you know what okay so uh if I think was early this week I you know it's all sort of blurs together right now Tony and I appeared on the cheshire cast with Corrine ash and Trisha I forget her last name I'm sorry Trisha but we had a great 60-minute conversation for their podcast and we were invited back and hopefully as I think Tony astutely said that maybe put someone on besides myself on the podcast do because the other board members have other interesting perspectives but um Cory and Trisha I had mentioned that they're going to try and get us out a little more often as we go through this this a unique time so it was a thought we had a good conversation it actually talked a lot about the technology that we're using and some of the other issues that have been going on at the in the school system so it's a it's a great listen it goes pretty fast and you know enjoy 60 minutes I don't think you'll regret it Thanks yeah thanks Adam since we ran the chairman's update that was gonna bring that up it was a great opportunity I know they've been trying to get us on there since I think the even before you election but they're so popular it's amazing and the yeah it tangles by fast I think yeah Trisha Cramer is correct and Cory Nash I know we went longer than an hour I think it was a lot longer so I don't know what Cory ended it out but it was very positive that's like big questions they may least from my perspective I'm sure I'm shares this it was really questions from the from a community perspective you know no politics no I know rumors it's just basically hey what's going on talking about about safety committee you know the initiatives very freshing and you know board members will tell you we are we don't really get a chance to have that kind of a public discussion even the board meeting so it was a nice Avenue and hopefully we'll take advantage of that and we'll fight more core members to it as we can get that going so thanks we're not up Adam I really have much of an update you know again it's a Jeff cover a lot of things you get more information encryption committee meeting last night I have been throughout this whole quarter virus situation been part of cabe's board chair distribution group discussion and you know every district is going through very similar situations that we they're trying to do online remote learning that's slightly different circumstances so that's slightly different challenges that we have in Cheshire but by and large everyone's kind of learning on the Flying Star to share best practices which is nice to see and I from kind of times I get some things from from the list I'll send to the board just for FYI but it's just right now are working through contract negotiations based on the governor's executive 7r order we're going through our data bus which we'll talk in the Zeca session at the end it's meeting but nothing out of the ordinary one thing that came up is I guess some towns and cities looking at next year's budget are we starting to think about or being asked to eventually reduce their budget request and one of the questions that came up from some of the board chairs was does the governor's that could have order protect next year's budget and no I don't think was a other provide anybody it was really meant for this year for this current situation for most contracts things like that those of items necessary protected but you know should you know come to a recommendation so next year is budgets and more offering procedures normal course or it takes them but one of the questions that came up is you know Jeff and Ben as the answer Kate hasn't had one yet but is there are there penalties or repercussions for not following that executive or I'm not saying we're going to do this but the school district does not negotiate the bus contract what happens I just put out there no one seems to know yeah there's not really a clear answer to that you know okay that it was more it's the directive I'm assuming that if you fail to follow an executive order there could be a consequence to that but what their consequences isn't clearly delineated yeah it might no means when I saying you know it were advocating us but it just it's actually some of the questions that other districts are going through so just so I put it out there okay right here an answer officially I'll let us know beyond Matt I don't any other updates I do before we adjourn for executive session I do want to just talk about upcoming meetings starting with the most immediate one this this Monday evening is 7 p.m.
the board of that Finance Committee is going to have a special meeting to talk about the upcoming budget process for 2020 2021 we mentioned earlier that we have our first meeting with the Town Council Budget Committee unable 30th three of you budget we proposed back in early February I believe I've been asked by count leadership to look at our budget request and see if there's some items like that least postponed to next year so the fans can he wants to let's go through that with Jeff and Vincent it will be on Google it'll be streamed YouTube live so as always the public answer your questions and commentary by disaster pilots stay close I think as a town moves forward and so let's get some clarity coming up I guess the the clouds on coronavirus will give us an idea what we can expect next year town wide but beyond that we have fast good meeting Monday night April 30th is our town council board of education budget review on May 7th Thursday May Center 7:30 we have a Board of Ed Icicle showcase the details for that will be announced in on Thursday May 21st at 7:30 p.m.
we have a regular board a business meeting more unlikely between the 7 and 21st by another meeting if there's any bus contract decision or both of me made on I've asked for I'm going to ask all our our committee chairs to see if we need to schedule anything be a finance planning personnel excited around between now the end of June trigger down and calendar if it's not already on there so if anything new comes up we'll make the public aware but beyond that I don't have any updates scenes that were at the end of the gem that we are going to be a journey into executive session with no action to follow so that being said do we have a motion to adjourn to the executive session otherwise I wrote so is there a second second Thank You faith so the seconded the motion treated move to adjourn the executive session to include the superintendent and chief operating officer to discuss the transportation with little action is Bow Wow all in favor aye none capacity Anthony can ask Noreen so with that being said we are damaged legged fortune and we're not going back to their meeting as meetings adjourned so thank you for well as walking thank you for the entire staff has been not just helping here tonight but involved this little situation you gentlemen that doesn't a job that's coming worst performer your form to the public who have farms very closely so thank you again and that being said before I close my session we will get a separate link emailed to us for the executive session session well from Jeff's we're going to looking off the bat very shortly and that being said this meeting is adjourned
hello I'm super Mike Morris and thank you so much for joining this livestream we are thrilled to have three counselors one from the elementary one from the middle and one from the high school level on today and the focus of our talks today and the Q&A will be about students supporting students emotional health and well-being we know this is a particularly difficult time for many of our students and families both in terms of the kind of fears that are out there in terms of virus but also because also due to the fact that school the school closure and the extent of that school closure particularly with the news this week that will last for the rest of this academic year and so we have three great people on to help talk with us about it and so each of them are going to spend you know between three and five minutes describing some common challenges students are facing and and some thoughts of how families can support their children and then the last 20 minutes or so will be Q&A so you may see that there's a question-and-answer there's a question or chat feature on this certainly can use it sooner but they can be better to wait a little later and we'll be opening up for more ongoing dialogue and support but our first person we're gonna have on is summit Academy counselor Jamie Knox and so I'll bring her on so she can share starting with the adolescent at the high school levels just some common challenges that may be happening and some tips again for you for families on how to support them so thank you Jamie for being here and I'm gonna scoot off so it's all Jamie thank you thanks everybody so again as dr.
Maura said I'm going to be speaking with parents and teens about the adolescent crowd so just want to start today talking off about some typical signs that your adolescent is reacting to some stress and there is an abundance of that in our environment right now so these stress reactions may look like things physical symptoms often crop up headaches stomachaches rashes you may notice sleep or appetite disturbances some increase in agitation they may be more active or irritable decrease in energy they might be isolating more than usual or it just kind of has a different flavor to it they may be having some kind of increased concerns about stigma and in justices as they see them in the news in their daily life in general this is a good thing but if it's an or behavior or it has an edge to it it just might be an indicator of some increased anxiety and this is how it's being channeled you may notice that your teen is trying to exert control over the things that they can right now so they may be a little more rigid and less flexible and they're thinking they may want to sleep when they want to sleep watch things they want to watch and they may be slightly less open to your suggestions otherwise so just please everybody choose your battles safely and just choose your battles for your own sanity they may be resistant to or outright ignore some of the home rules that you've set in place around physical distancing and also lastly their coping skills and ability ability to tolerate stress may regress to a younger time in their life and so it may seem like they're handling these things like they did when they were 10 or 11 years old and as parents you'll be able to see that so here's some tips about how to manage that for both parents and kids so parents in regards to physical symptoms offer soothing do whatever generally makes them feel better and after the symptoms have passed let them know that stress does affect our bodies this is a helpful thing to be aware of and just be reminded of in the moment you know anyone get nauseous before a big test it's kind of something similar to that for parents and for all take care of yourselves first and foremost the two analogies that come to mind you know when you're on the plane and the and the flight attendant is saying you know case of an emergency put your own oxygen mask on first and also in the more challenging moments that it does take two to tango so what I'd recommend is just trying to spend a little bit of time thinking about your own triggers to stress and how you generally respond to stress as well as your teens triggers and responses because there is an abundance of stressors in our environment right and so in this case an ounce of prevention and thinking about these things is really worth a pound of cure general examples of triggers changes in routine lack of alone time we're all kind of on top of one another right now in our homes not eating well having to manage working from home and co-parenting and there's just so much out there so remember that when we are stressed we are far less effective communicators so if your teen is telling you or you sense that they are stressed or scared or upset don't minimize or avoid their concerns this can sound things like it's going to be fine stop worrying everything's going to be okay instead listen with interest and let you know let them know that you hear them that it's okay to feel scared and worried help them just sit with those feelings share - with words appropriate to their age if you also feel stressed or uneasy in this way you're teaching your child that's possible to feel really uncomfortable and awful and not fall apart under the weight of those feelings you're teaching them how to tolerate stress if you do fall apart and you have a less-than-stellar parenting moment congratulations you're human and if you don't please in the comments tell me your secret the trick with this is just to acknowledge and talk about without getting into too much depth if we've if we've made a misstep and let the let your team know that sometimes we break down and that's okay if you go there had a difficult time apologize own it acknowledge it this is known as a repair attempt and please remember to have compassion for yourself and do know that the most healing part of any relationship is when we've made a misstep and we make an attempt to repair it lastly just kind of give your team the benefit of the doubt if they're having a really hard time or if they've made a mistake they will its predictable it's age appropriate approach them when you're calm especially if there's a conflict of foot and be really ready to hear what they have to say be curious and listen and ask questions to help better understand their point of view and this keeps the conversation open and in general we all benefit from routines try to create them stick to them and most importantly right now let yourself and your kids off the hook when you stray from those well-intentioned routines like to hear my other colleagues as well so thank you and I look forward to the questions thank you so much Jamie for that insightful piece I'm thinking about our all the students in our district and we're gonna work our way down so the next up is going to be Hector Santos whose accounts there at our regional middle school talking about the pre-adolescent and middle adolescent student and I think there's going to be overlaps between what you hear from all three counselors but there are unique parts just developmentally where students are and how they're processing this information so I'm gonna get Hector on the line yes good afternoon my name is Hector Sanders and I'm the show's been canceled Amber's middle school and I recommend supona children wellness at home through the three C's color matrices and the first one is communication for our middle students just to talk into so on significant about the negative feelings can be very healthy so parents issues set aside a checking time during the afternoon especially like a 7:00 p.m.
to ask your child about the day in general you could ask questions like how do you feel if there's anything new you learn today about these crisis and so on and I think that you should use what we call active listening which is like be attentive you know noting what you had you know convey that you listen attentively to what they have to say no interruptions so supervise what your child is watching on the media's you know there's a lot of competition for the you know the last news on the media so you should tell your children not to know all the information on the Internet is accurate and he he and he should consult with you if there's any questions about any information that he heard on the news in always communicate positive information you know say positive statements this is temporary our best days are ahead of us and this should pass soon the second strategies that we can use as consistency and on these difficult changing times and with the schools closed this is I think one of the biggest challenge for all of us and it's important to create rules and routines yeah parents should create a schedule with the student input because as you know this part of the developmental stage that they usually goes against everything that that we say to them so it's important that they have an input on when you create the schedule because these he's gonna be more likely to follow through so the schedule may include time to study time to play outside physical activity and even time to play video games so don't forget time to interact with friends and family as you know friends friends are the most important thing for the middle school and also important element on the schedule is that there needs to be implemented with fidelity so don't forget it once you create a schedule to follow through faithfully last one is the control in control in the form of a software plan the thing that is important to be proactive rather than reactive in school we call it prevention versus intervention so we should create a plan you should create a plan with your children in case of an emotional reaction this is gonna give your child a sense of control in case of any given prospective situation for example you can discuss well what do you do when you feel it over well will you feel in inches what what is help so because you're inside it could be things like deep breathing go for a walk or even listen to music and finally I think that this is the best strategy that any parent can practice with the children and he's and always work in his affection 15 the wish you heart over children many times during the day and let them know how much we love thank you so much Hector and as I have a student just entering a child rather just entering that phase of life that's its ring and true to me and I have another child who's going to be I'm looking forward to the advice of our next speaker which is Tara Luce who's going to talk more about the elementary elementary age student developmentally and what they may experience and some tips from them so I'll get Tara on here Thank You Tara and welcome thank you hi everyone it was so great to hear my colleagues speak they had really important and relevant things to say I wanted to start by just acknowledging that you know our families across the district are really experiencing a broad spectrum of challenges and they have really just we all have a wide array of different resources to meet them and so we definitely think about as counselors those basic needs being met are so important so if you as a family are having any challenge with basic food needs that kind of thing please reach out to your counselor please reach out to our Family Center because though that platform it allows us to be able to start thinking about the emotional needs of our families I also want to say that I've been just working so often in meetings with colleagues I've been on the phone with parents I am a parent so I really see both how hard our teachers are working and how hard our families are working and how really challenging this all is I will tell you from the perspective of having an 11 year old and spouse who's working full-time from home we're lucky enough to have our jobs and at this point I think my kid is feral and so just coming to that perspective of it's so hard to be balancing alright I have three minutes right now that I can attend to you is and so I really am thinking about how to bring in ten and real focus in the times I'm with her I know my kid you all know your kids and so really thinking here's the time I have to really listen to them to pay attention and really bringing my full focus to them to her when when worked when I had those moments because she responds to that I think the other thing is so I've got my kid who sort of like tipping towards teenage years and so I'm also really paying attention to those moments when she's really honestly available to me and trying to jump in at those moments I think what I've noticed for the family as I've spoken to and for my own child is there are really big moments of temper tantrums or shutdowns there are times when the sir certainly sarcasm is on the rise and I think you know it's easy to react to that and I'm really trying to push myself to look underneath that look at the upset feelings that might be causing those sort of behaviors that I'm not necessarily used to seeing as regularly and then helping my child work through those feelings is really important so really sort of looking past the anger that your child might be showing you towards what could be underlying sadness or underlying worries or anxiety and helping them work through that Crocker farm we've been really putting out a lot of information about mindfulness there's a lot of really good science behind taking a minute to take a deep breath to take a minute to really pay attention to what's around us and staying in the moment you know interestingly that's not necessarily my home channel and so I also really pushing movement because when really super physically active that has so many layers of impact on our health and well-being including our emotional health and so I'm really encouraging families to find what is your home channel around movement is it a dance party is it yoga in the living room is it boot style workout boot camp style workout and how to engage and pull our kids into those things because moving our bodies is one of the ways that we really are able to stay emotionally healthy the other thing that I've really talked to a lot of families about is doing what works for your family really centering your family and your family's needs and setting up routines that work for you I know I've talked to a lot of parents and they're worried they're worried about what the long-term impacts are going to be on their on their child and I think one of the things that we can do for our kids is live as much in the moment week as we can and set up systems and routines that really support the whole family and so whether your kid is learning through cooking or learning through Legos or learning through puzzles that family time is really as part of what's going to be super key to that child feeling grounded and therefore do better have better outcomes I'm really looking forward to answering some questions thank you so much for listening Thank You Tara so at this point we're gonna get our whole team on here so that everyone can see them see if I can actively wow there we go and so we really I want to start by thanking the three of you in a relatively short amount of time I think you've actually described the developmental levels during a crisis and I'm glad we asked we have such talented folks at our staff because this could easily be like a Mass General Hospital conversation but you all are so grounded actual work with children no disrespect Ms General Hospital but in it was working with children and children in this community in this district that it was great to hear and and I think for many of our viewers I'm sure they agree with you could see the flow of the conversation from Jamie talking about our older students to hector then to tara and there was a lot of overlap and what you said and yet the differences are real in terms of developmental pieces so i'm going to look through the comments and if there's anyone who wants to have a comment or a question rather they certainly can i had a couple people who emailed me questions parents guardians in the district so i'll probably start with those and i'll keep an eye out for the comments but one of one of the questions i received was my child is expressing sadness of the loss of spring activities that let excision sports in the spring social events like dances trips to Six Flags and without school and these offense they're really really sad so what advice might you offer for for a parent who's whose child's expressing those kind of feelings and those those sorts of very reasonable emotions given that context and anyone could start and jump in that a world so I would say for and I work with the older kids Tara Hunter it was so great to hear your voices I just thank you for sharing your pieces I learned a lot and I've got kids at the elementary age so Tara thank you and so when I think about you know kids having a process through information coming at them the unknown of the kind of what's gonna be happening in the weeks and months ahead validation which I spoke to a little bit is just a really key part of kind of listening and helping your adolescent and child process some painful stuff and so what validation is is kind of listening with your whole heart not rushing to problem-solve as parents I think sometimes we are just desperate to help our kids feel better or provide them answers that we just may not have and so when your kids expressing some sadness and frustration about activities that won't be happening again sitting with them acknowledging their feelings seeing the wisdom and and that it makes sense that they're feeling that way reflecting that back to them again just not rushing into trying to problem-solve and if you see particularly teenagers if they've opened that door and they're actually talking to you which is like very exciting you know part of what you want to do is just be watching them if they start to kind of glaze over or you're losing them it might be just something for you to keep in mind that you might have jumped into problem-solving too soon you might have stopped validating and just sitting with them and you might be trying to problem-solve and so these things are going to take time to process and the more you can model just sitting with them the more comfortable they're gonna get doing that on their own over the course of their lives okay I think let's hire did you want to jump in I'll just just yeah you're totally right and I also think it's you know I read an interesting article that recently the title was it's okay to not be okay so our kids it's okay for them not to be okay right now and just especially for young kids it's a really good reminder that you're the way you feel right now that will change you won't always feel this sad you will always feel this mad that our feelings change naturally and so it's good because sometimes when you're in it so much it's hard to know that it this too shall pass yep for the next question I'm gonna try to display it on the screen see if it's our first go around at this technology but yeah it worked do we talk to young kids like for instance kindergarten about the long term process or focus in the short term if the former how do we have this conversation so maybe I'll start with you Tara given the age group that the question came from yeah first for sure I would focus on for kindergartners on the short term the developmentally they don't have the same sense of permanence in time that we do as of yet and it will be enough to focus on the short-term I think listening to our kids I think there's been a lot of talk today about really listening so if they have a long-term question you know I would answer it but I would answer it in a short and succinct way because I think living for the moment and living in the now is very kindergarten age way first of all and and it also living in the now is very a mindful way of living the living too far out in the future sort of breeds that anxiety thank you the next question I'm going to bring up talks about a certain age group but I will say that I'm hearing it from every age group in our district and it's about being a child being concerned about not being ready for fourth grade and I'm hearing that from families and children across the age levels banned including 11th graders who were concerned about what does it mean for 12th grade courses and you know can i still take this math class all the way down to the youngest students so Jamie do you mind starting us on this one and they maybe could all have all three respond because I think the concern is acute across it sort of it may feel different and be expressed differently but it is something we're hearing from families and students across the bands yeah sure so so there's kind of you know there's there's many different interventions with this one and so a couple of thoughts would be you know number one I think we are as a society so focused on being productive and getting things done and having to be ready that this is this is a time where we're all being kind of forced to slow down and what that does mean as we are missing some time and learning I have such tremendous faith in our teachers I have a I have a kiddo at Crocker and I'm so impressed by them I work closely with Hector and folks at the middle school and those teachers and teachers at the high school I just I have a lot of faith that one thing you can let your child know is that they are going to be received very warmly next year their teachers will be considering all of this we know the expectations have shifted and so that might be the answer to that piece and then the underlying is that there's some anxiety in there right and so there's some anxiety about not doing enough not not being prepared enough and so to Tara's point earlier about being intentional finding strategies to help your kiddos cope with anxiety using mindfulness and and other pieces Thank You Hector from the middle school level yes for the middle I think that like Tara was saying and Jamie before I didn't acknowledge is very important because you usually when when a fourth grader said I'm not ready to for the next you know I'm not ready for school I'm not ready for the fourth grader for the fifth or sixth grade whatever grade it is they don't really don't know he's really they're feeling so usually when you talk to the child you should go to the details okay you telling me you know feel ready could you tell me exactly one means not to be ready for the next grade and then when when they start talking about the details then with that's when you doing the work you know because they I'm pretty sure is like 80% for abilities that they won't give you any details you know is only a feeling you know they won't say although I need days I need more multiplication or I need to know geometry before go to the next level so I think that if you go to the details I think the person the child is going to convince himself or herself that is really a failing and this really doesn't have any reason not to feel that it's not ready it's not ready for the next grade level thank you Tara yeah you know I interrupted my daughter talking to a friend today about not being ready for seventh grade and not not all the things that they anticipated we're gonna happen this spring that we're gonna help them get ready for seventh grade and she said I used my counselor voice but I did interrupt and say you know they're smart people at the district and like directors and principals and teachers and and psychologists and alter are already trying to think like how can we vision next and how can we make it good and right so just reassuring your child that there are a lot of people who are already starting to look at this question and make this the softest landing that kids can have yeah yeah I'm gonna step out of my facilitator role and actually jump in on Terra's point there is that something that you'll see in a newsletter that's coming out today our weekly one is that we want students and families to realize at the beginning of the school year next year is not going to look like a typical beginning of the school year that our staff are highly cognizant both academically as well as socially that our kids are going to come in in a different place they haven't been in the same building with their peers and five well they won't have been in their buildings with peers for five months the adults haven't been together for five months and that's its own challenge because we're all as human beings were used to that social connections that are occurring much like we are in a virtual context right now and so it is we're going to be doing a lot of work over the next few months to plan how that works but it won't be business as usual it won't be okay we're gonna open up our math books and we're gonna start out with the fourth grade curriculum and that's going to start on day one we're gonna be very cognizant that it's going to be a definite different spring and we're gonna have some really smart people as Tara said including counselors teachers and others they're working on what that entry point looks like but but I think until we get there I know it's hard but if it does help to communicate it to your child or even to know yourself as a parent as as many of us talked about in the call we have these dual roles that we're not planning next September 2nd to look like a typical September 2nd a typical first day of school the first week or first month of school because not we're not a typical environment right now and we're you know it's the terrible cliche about I always get cliches wrong but round pay square peg round hole right all those kind of things we consistently as a district priority look at the whole child and the whole child's gonna look different this fault and they did last fall that's just the nature of it so I agree with whatever and said but I wanted to say even from a district perspective terrorists spot on that we are going to approach this task quite differently than we have in the past there this is another one going to display that I've seen quite a bit and I don't think well it's talking it in at the elementary level it's not the only ones that only place I've seen it which is some level of shyness anxiety about being in an online class with teachers I think for some students they're incredibly excited about that and for other students we've heard this from significant number of people that you know getting online and seeing people and being aware of this format is really new for students and students who may be very comfortable in an improv aeronaut everyone's been comfortable in an online environment so I didn't know if anyone wanted to jump in some tips or some thoughts of how to support families with that Tara no so yeah I've been just because I've been hearing this a lot and I think experiencing it with my own child I think we all come to the online platform with different experience but also you know different strengths and weaknesses around I think young kids especially can get really visually an auditorium overstimulated it can be really challenging I think that like any new thing it's worth making attempts to to practice it because what we get what we practice we get better at I would say start short and sweet and structured to the extent that you can and maybe even smaller so maybe similar video chatting with a close relative or a close friend it are all ways to sort of build up that callus for a kid and I also think like it is definitely not worth picking a huge fight over it's not worth the battle or to cause that upset or disrupted experience but so you know really pick that balance but start slow and short and small enough Hector Jaime anything you'd like to add yes I think there's some things we need to be careful in we need to find out if this is lack of will or lack of skill you know just something you know children at that age they don't have the skills to go in a video conference like even for us at all completely mere never mind time you know so I guess we need to determine first this is lack of a will or lack of skill you know it does lack of skills we need to teach the skill first and then with a child feel comfortable with the skill then we go to the next level which which will be the bit wilt yeah I think the last thing that I would say would be you know I think we are also cognizant and aware as counselors and and dr.
Morris is superintendent that we do have you know there are some students and families for whom you know there especially with the older kids a lot of battling about doing homework and that creates an tremendous amount of stress and so please if that's what's happening in your home we we do not as educators and counselors and administrators want you having to battle with your kids about doing work we don't want you recreating that stress at home further kind of upsetting everybody and making things so much more painful and difficult you as Tara said so so wonderfully earlier you know your children this is during this time especially when there is so much stress and uncertainty on a good day this is about remaining connected with your family and so if you're if you're struggling around those school pieces please reach out to you know parents please reach out to to educators and people and their teachers in the building and try and problem-solve with them so that this isn't this isn't a painful thing on top of everything else to be dealing with at home something I with my Parenthood on I've seen other parents try and we tried it this week is also for some families for some children getting on but not having the video on is a safe fourth entry point so that they can be experienced in and in my case wonderful the teacher asked much knew that my child does not ask the question my child answered it went back to mute so that for some children may be a strategy as an entry point that feels more comfortable for them I agree with everything that said not to disagree with you know any of the points the three counselors made but I hadn't really thought of that until I saw another parent do it and and I see another thought from actually another staff person so I'll just read it out loud I'm really enjoying this technology sorry a sticky tape over their own picture you know it is I'm still not used to looking at myself when I talk I'm on these calls not YouTube calls but video conference calls way more in the last month and the rest of my life combined and so just thinking about that I think that's a really sticky note that's KP tape but yeah as she notes in a later comment I think that's a really helpful tool as well and I think thinking of strategies again to get kids started to avoid the conflicts that people said but just because you're on a call it doesn't mean you have to have your facing either by anyone or you have to see yourself on it so thank you Emily I love that idea see a couple more questions that came through there the next two are sort of both about transitions so why don't we start with this one which is about the high school transition seniors who are grieving the loss at the end of their high school careers traditions and rites of passage that come with senior spring so I think I'll ask Jamie to respond to this one because I know you have a couple graduating students at your site and yeah yeah so I think you know one strategy might be depending on how your senior is talking about this and like let's always take a moment it's heartbreaking to think that they're not going to have this this moment and so their grief is completely understandable and if you need to cry with them and share in that pain that's a really powerful moment sometimes and so one thing that I would offer and something Hector said earlier got me thinking about is sometimes in the details and so if your student is seniors worried about not having these kind of rites of passage maybe talking through with them what would it have meant to have had that what feeling do they think they would have experienced walking across that big stage and so if they there is something about being able to kind of narrate that that fantasy that allows them to access what those feelings would have and we'll help them process a little bit better so that's one strategy another is just appreciating that the grief process is varied and in fact this may be a grief process for many of them and so you can just kind of google the the seven stages of grief and you may notice anger and bargaining and acceptance and and it may go back and forth all the time and they may express you know anger at the schools being closed again validate listen don't rush to kind of create any answers or tell them that what they're feeling doesn't make sense so those would be some of my initial thoughts on it yeah and I'll jump in on that one also to note that this was this is it's a really good question and it's a gigantic gigantic thing four students were seniors and to the point where if then if you watch the press conference for the governor to close schools for the rest of the academic year he made a specific point to speak in his way directly to seniors and he offered some language so I think also acknowledging perhaps even that you know at the highest level of the governor recognizes how hard this must be I know at our high school there were surveys that went out to students and families about end of year activities and that the intent was that not just to gather feedback and have students be involved decision-making that was certainly true but also to give them some ownership and so I think if there are similar things that they can have any feedback for the schools we're really open to hearing that we want to make decisions that give students that feeling that agency that even in this situation they're still they have some sense of control in some sense of how graduation and and what will happen to some of those end of your activities and we've gotten some fantastic ideas from students so thank you and from families thank you for participating but you know it is my heart goes out to them you know it really is a rite of passage and I think transitioning to a similar or not similar but I think maybe some similar you know because some of that senior piece is the loss of the end of your activities some of it's the normal anxiety that happens when high school students graduate it's all wrapped together and it's really hard to untangle but this question is looking at a sixth grader worried about a jump to middle school and not being prepared so I think I'll have a hectare start maybe Terra jump in also yes good yes like I said before I think that one of the good questions for that is asking you know what why are you being that being prepared what you need to be prepared for for middle school and then go to the details so that way you're gonna see better what he really meant by by now being prepared for middle school so I think that that will be - just to start you know with the conversation as the student give you the details you're gonna have a better picture how to answer you know he will say something like I'm not sure I don't think that I'm a baby I'm not mature enough and whatever they say you know you're gonna have a better picture so to answer any questions that they may have and also he would be also good like the way like I miss it before go to sixth grade before go to middle school you know to our school visit is that possible you know it's all in there that's one of you there the strategist later my sixth grader is definitely feeling this and it's similar to answer the question or the fourth grade parent I think we're gonna we're gonna figure this out together and we're that your sixth graders should know that the vast majority of sixth graders feel this way and we're gonna figure it out all together and make the landing as possible so I'm just going to call that director very good yep and we're nearing the end of our time I'm just gonna respond to a couple of other comments so there's a question about the parameters for online interactions with virtual outreach to students and I you know I can answer that one which is there's a wide berth for teachers to make the best decisions that they have students that they have and it's a hard decision to make as we heard from people who who students in terms of being online live calls are not participating and so their sensitivity around that there's also sensitivity that many families have parent or parents who are working in the homes of being online at a specific time is it a isn't available or isn't possible for many families who don't want their children online without them being in the room so you know I think what we've said is that two staff members is try to make the best decisions we have a survey going out today to gather feedback both on that and you know I know there's a see there's another comment about being challenged and what I would say is educators but their whole career is preparing for something and this isn't it but it's not what people went to school for and I think our staff have done a fantastic job in five weeks trying to transition from what we know is school to something very different to what we know is school understanding that there was technological differences emotional differences and how people were processing this and the fact and you've heard a couple of you mention it that many of our staff members have their own children at home which sometimes in my life I will say happens that sometimes get in the way of me doing what I want to do at a certain moment of time and so we're putting out that survey so we gather feedback so we can understand how staff members are experiencing distance learning how families are mentioning or experiencing distance learning and we'll share that feedback so we can continually improve this process over the rest of the spring now that we know it's lasting all spring and so I see a couple comments but I think the big thing I say on that front on academic front is please share that feedback with us we're open to it and we want to hear it and I'm interested in hearing both of the staff and the parent feedback and how do we match those as we move forward you know and I see some comments about more live zoom meetings I'm an anti zoom person so I'll leave that for another day but that product I guess I shouldn't say that on a live stream but but in any case I think there's been a real mix and I'm looking forward to the feedback because the question before and the question about some people not getting on so people liking that and is it to have 21 six-year-olds analyze Rihanna's zoom column what's what are some of the benefits of that and even in sixth grade you know I think it's it's a real real challenge so I would I acknowledge those comments I'm just concerned because we've got about two minutes before you have to wrap up but there was a comment I'm not going to display it on the screen but just a sixth grader who's been crying each night about how much she misses her teacher and won't get back to her again and so I just wondered if for my counseling point of view would advice you to give that parent and I think we've just spoken to it a bit but just the acknowledging the sadness acknowledging that it's a real loss and look up the stages of grief because it will go back and forth and this self-care you know just you know there's mindful apps that you can download and you and your child could listen together for a few minutes to a mindful app before going to sleep and just sort of start disrupting that pattern a little bit because it's good to feel the sadness and we're such conditional creatures and see it's easy to see bedtime all the sudden as the cry time which can be good so you know walk that fine line but you know having some deep breathing mindful moments but my child is definitely grieving the loss of her sixth grade teacher who she sees you know during each week but she's definitely grieving that loss as well so I feel that here are the thoughts from Hector Jamey about I mean even though I may be an elementary question I know the same things true may manifest itself differently the secondary level but that structure consistency and kind of connection and relationship I should say with teachers at the secondary level anything you'd add to what Tara said yeah I mean I think what I would what I would add is just you know parents caregivers foster parents out there watching you all know your child's best and so please be thoughtful and thinking about is is this crying that's happening normal because we all cope differently and it takes some of us a little bit longer to process if you're starting to get worried that this is a little bit a little bit more than maybe some sadness and missing the teacher and that you're needing some extra help please please please connect to the resources that you already have if you're at Crocker maybe call Tara if you are at the different levels you know Hector and I are certainly available please know that you can definitely reach out there's a lot of mental health resources in the community CSO service net if you want to speak to their intake workers about what's going on it's been my experience as I've transitioned over to kind of telehealth with all of my students doing individual sessions that the online format isn't as awkward or uncomfortable as I thought it might be so please don't hesitate to reach out and and try and kind of expand your circle a little bit if you notice that your child's reactions are are getting a little bit more intractable and you're having a harder time figuring out how to how to help them general rule we should always validate children's feelings you know there were minimized and always be legitimate and genuine then you know show respect and I'm pretty sure that will by showing respect you're gonna start with a very good working relationship so it's three o'clock when we said we'd end certainly there's incredible amount more that you could have and I see some of the comments about perhaps doing more of these but I really want to thank Jamie Hector and Tara because I've learned a tremendous amount I know about 130 hundred forty people a live stream at the highest point so I appreciate that this is being recorded so for people that couldn't get on at this time we'll try to provide that resource for everyone but thank you all I really appreciate your time and all the work you're doing and I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend thank you thank you thank you
all right I think where you are up and running so we're gonna get this meeting started hold on one second I mean I see if I'm on YouTube anybody else have YouTube up and see us out but it does say on my screen live on YouTube it says that we're on yeah I mean I say it I'm just getting getting a text here for mr.
packs and saying he can't find us so I want to hold my one second I clicked on the link in the agenda or the meetings the video link and just this sends me to a page with the last meeting we had there should be a live button there well see you the meeting is launched on what do you call it board docks from my side I started the meeting so maybe go back in I didn't start the meeting before so maybe that's why you can't see it what click on the video thing again yeah go back and go go back to it I don't see it yeah it's just the 420 yeah even if you go to the link that's at the bottom that's not live still the 420 yeah it's just the 420 yeah even if you go to the link that's at the bottom that's not live still the 420 now at the top of our screen of the zooms Krantz as a live on YouTube yeah but I have to go to the link that's at the bottom I have this on YouTube as well so the for Tony yeah when I went up there I a copy streaming link and entered internet works on YouTube as well if you go to the agenda and for 427 right underneath it the heading says live and when you click on and it brought me right right to our meeting on YouTube live yeah like if you go go to you you go to board Doc's right yeah meaning and you go to the meeting and you go to April 27th meeting right yes attend a regular business meeting and right underneath it it's got it it says video so if you hit a video it comes right up it comes right up it's there okay all right are getting started fine didn't come up but it might be there's like a 10 second delay remember in my my email see there's like a 10 second delay so all right we're gonna call this meeting to order and as per the open public meeting statement the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the rate of the public to have advance notice of and to attend the meetings of the public bodies at which time any business affecting their interest is discussed and acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the board of education policy 0 1 6 2 the Board of Education of the borough of member has caused notice of this meeting to be posted in the bamberg office Board of Education office and at Bamber high school and mount or fax that a courier news barrel of bamberg bar clerk southbound Burke Board of Education and any person whose request an individual notice and paid the required see at this time we have to do the Pledge of Allegiance so I don't really have a flag for the so I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all real quickly before I turn this over for roll call so those of the public if you'd like to participate in the board meetings members of them of the public must use the to agenda questionnaire forms that are listed on the agenda one for agenda items and one for open to the public thank you alright Mike if you could please give us a roll call please mr. Autry mr.
ball yeah based of um here ms Muhsin here ms Martinez here is Morris here miss Stevens here miss Rosamond Oh mr. vada lair here miss de Fazio here 9 present okay Tyler mr. Archie did email us earlier today he had a recommitment this evening so he would not be able to attend so at this time president's comments I hope everyone is holding up well I know it's been very difficult for myself as a teacher I have to say you know switching at that last minute was really a tough transition for me so I really appreciate all of the teachers in the district making that same switch also looking through the agenda tonight I saw the mindfulness training that you had done and I just wanted to you know send a shout out to all the teachers that participated in that because it seemed like a large number of them really took it seriously so that was good to see and in today's craziness I think being able to take a breath and being mindful of is probably one of the most important skills we have so good job to them yes and we're going to continue with that training next year moving forward so if we have more teachers who would like to participate in that we will have opportunities for them to do so moving forward I do not have any other comments of the Internet we've had not we've not had any committee meetings as of yet so we're going to go to open to the public for agenda items only and they're like I said there's a probably a 10-second delay on our feed so let me see how many responses we have three responses so as I read them I will refresh to see if any more come in the first one is from Michelle Conover a teacher at small each school she is asking about eight point two eight point four transfers of grade levels to different buildings her comment is do you think it was wise to make these transfers of grade levels this summer as we do not know the state of the corner virus situation and how will questions get back safely when will this happen in addition you are doubling the student population of Smalling this will greatly impact the scheduled special teachers special education classrooms and ultimately fill this building right back up after the addition was built which everyone believes would be for sixth grade so 5th grade can sit back into small e why was the decision made at this time this particular decision was made a long time ago actually it was part of our plan to do this addition as well as an addition on block yet and reduce the overall footprint of the district from six buildings to four part of why we're moving third grade right now currently is due to space we need to get third grade and sixth grade back over to get both of them over to Smalley because we need some more instructional spaces for pre-k ed special ed at the lower levels and unfortunately you know we're just moving a little quicker than we anticipated with third grade but that is due to space all right so the next question comes from Damaris I'm going to assume this is Damaris cologne I believe it is by her address 324 Evergreen Avenue approval of personnel I noticed that all secretary positions were approved for the upcoming school year and that mrs.