o strike and mister McMichaels and and they pulled together a pretty big group along with our new transfer system transportation director and they're going to be looking at all aspects of driver recruitment with the goal being that we'd have adequate number of drivers and maybe even more and then be able to eliminate the double routing that none of us are really happy so that brings us to the actual recommendation and the recommended changes there's three of them and the first one is to change the time for our secondary schools Carmel High School in the middle schools and that recommend changes to start school at 8:45 a.m. and then in the day at 3:45 p.m. now what that is is that's an hour later for the middle schools it's 55 minutes later for the high school and both of those are within the all the REC studies recommended 8:30 or later for a starting time for adolescents so so that is the recommendation for that timing second recommendation is for elementary schools to start at 7:50 a.m.
rubadoux just to think that someone like that could leave and no one would come in to replace him it's not a message we want put out there but we have to because of the circumstances we're in you said a tremendous job as has the whole staff but it's amazing what's how it's transforming middle school oh Lord they've been doing well just my two cents and I I agree I mean my concern my concern becomes the fact that and I've been around long enough to to see this happen is once you cut something from the budget to get it back really I mean takes more than an act of Congress type of deal and I'm being facetious but you know it did you kind of position it to try and get any position back becomes very difficult because you can always find the dollar to go someplace else so just want to make sure we tread lightly Thank You mr.
and end at 250 p.m. at 7:50 is 15 minutes earlier than they currently start like this school year and the reason for that was to provide adequate time in between the start of the elementary in the start of the high school and secondary routes because the true buses have to do the elementary routes first and then get to the secondary routes and that's increased and that's also a 30 minutes longer a 30 minute longer school day than we currently have the third recommendation is a district-wide 40-minute late start day and days that we would do that twice a month approximately for teacher professional development the reason it's approximately is because sometimes on short months we won't have to to late starts we might just have one you know on some of the vacation months and that is it those are the three major recommendations now just to give you a little background and all this is on our website with a lot more information but just just to highlight some things why you know why do we want to change the secondary times and make them later and I'm not going to read all of this but in the American Academy of Pediatrics you know the American Psychological Association and the list is longer what's on this slide I'll recommend that adolescents will you know it really meets certain developmental needs to start school no earlier than 8:30 and later is probably better the reason that when the basis that the studies have shown is that anybody's done junior high who teaches junior high and those that puberty changes a team and and one big part that it changes is the circadian rhythm which is that sleep-wake cycle that that repeats every 24 hours and the shift causes them to be more alert at night which means they have a hard time getting into deep sleep at you know or in the evening till till late early and then they're in a deeper sleep in them in later morning hours and so the whole idea that the change is to match up with that circadian rhythm research also indicates that kids need more sleep just because their physical growth and the adolescent brain development and there's a lot of concern about the lack of sleep among teenagers because it affects our mental health their physical health or academic achievement and also safety so so that's kind of the why of it and and then we wanted just one more time review the benefits so what they showed studies show is that the benefits of this is decreased rates of ls and depression anxiety obesity drug and alcohol use overall performance and in really anything academics academics athletics the worst increased attention in class less fallen asleep better attendance a better cognitive function and decision-making and then even fewer automobile accidents or risk-taking behaviors for your discipline referrals and so that is a you know kind of a quick review of what those changes that secondary change was all about now move to the elementary changes the elementary school day be recommended to like I said begin 15 minutes earlier and end at at 7:50 and end at 2:50 this is a 30 minute increase from the current school day so it's a 30-minute is we have 30 minute longer day and the plan is to use the extra time for 15 minutes of that time to be added to the academic block so teachers can use them for you know more innovative experiences for kids and really there it's a teacher's choice you know as to what you want to do a big part of this comes from wanting to decompress that day because it's a very very full day the other 15 minutes would be added to our current 15-minute recess that we have each day that would create a 30-minute recess block for students and the idea behind an unstructured play is well document a lot of the studies about that how important that is and that would lengthen that would double you know our current recess time for that unstructured play so why and I shared this slide just because I love this slide because it talks about a lot of things that are really good for our elementary kids that's not to say that these aren't happening during the school day now but like I said it's a very compressed day and I think what thought process on it is if we add that time we could have more of this what are some of the benefits more opportunities for stem and steam activities and you can kind of go through that list there's an unstructured play again student choice is important I'm giving them times to choose some things that want to do social-emotional learning is something we're trying to incorporate and find space for one of the ones I think is compelling just time to breathe you know in the transition from going one thing to nothing to another thing and maybe some time for students to collaborate more and so those are some of the benefits that we could see now this providing a little more time for third part of the recommendation is for district-wide they'd start twice a month and Takai explain a little more detail what that would be like is that it would just be - we would you know we would advertise the dates and do a lot of reminders but twice two days a month the buses would run the routes 40 minutes later and while we're on that delayed schedule the teachers across the district would be collaborating and so a late start day for the secondary schools for Carmel High School in the middle schools would start about 9:25 a.m.
Nunes okay so we sat in regards to the revisions to the stern handbook this we were looking for a vote for from us on those those revisions well I would entertain him I would yeah ask for I see John looking like he's ready to make a motion no [Laughter] FY 21 20 21 student handbook as presented thank you a second I'll second that okay I anybody opposed okay yes am i muted again so although I'll do that again all those in favor okay no one opposed passes thank you very much so next we have superintendent update lots to update lots of things I'm sure you'll be sharing with us lots of changes I'll turn it over to you dr.
and then the late start days always end at the regular time so 3:45 p.m. would be the ending time for that in the elementary schools then would start 40 minutes later and that would be 8:30 a.m. and again they would end at the regular time a note on that one is that we had a lot of concerns by families that a late start would put them in a bind for getting to work on time because we're starting earlier this would actually be 25 minutes later than the current school day so it's still 25 minutes but it wouldn't be 40 minutes different from what you're doing right now you know what the schedule is right now and also because we were we we've gotten that feedback they're real concern about what about we are gonna get to forget to work and let me childcare cost that sort of thing and so we've been looking at it and we believe we're confident that we can do no-cost childcare and have that available for students in K through 8 so that would cover elementary and middle school for parents who may need just to drop their kids off at the regular time on those late start days and had some questions like who would watch the kids kind of thing and and we're we've got two options mr.
Gifford thank you madam chair so before we get into the discussion about some of the remote learning plan issues I just want to mention once again that a very positive note that as you saw US News World Report names our high school as one of the best high schools across the country and I'm hoping that you read through some of the criteria that they used to determine this and I won't go through that but there is about six areas that they look at her high school and Dartmouth high wasn't named one of those and I think there were about 24,000 across the nation and we were around 1,300 across the nation in the 130 or so in the state so that was a good positive during this time of a lot of negative so we were happy to see that you have to submit your name for that or no no they just do the review themselves and then look at obviously some of the information comes from the Department of edy across the country and they look at the number of AP classes that are offer the graduation rate state assessment scores etc so it's a number of items and judge them and we would just happy to see that yeah wonderful so another on another note with all of these changes and the end of school happening we had to come to some consensus as to how we were finishing up our educator evaluation so we've we've met with our union a couple of times and we think we've come to a nice agreement on that just about you know folks being able to finish up those evaluation sessions give the final reports whether it's a summative hour or formative to folks and move them along so we don't see any issues with that and should be able to finish that up so that was some good work that went on relative to the remote learning plan and those kinds of things as you know with the school extended school closure the Department of Ed just released updated their calling prerequisite standards and this came out I believe it was Friday night because I didn't see anything Friday afternoon but I did see it Saturday morning so they're updated standards the message from the Commissioner had been that they were going to identify grade-level standards as again I called him they call them prerequisite standards that they were recommending that students should know to be able to move on to the next grade so with that in mind and once we saw that come out although we had already started the conversation before that came out from the commissioner we have created a template that we're using for all grade levels to identify what standards have been taught what standards we can't address because I should back up a little bit because this is about new teaching new content as before it was simply you know providing enrichment activities based on the previously caught taught standards so we are moving along because of the extended school closure so we've created a template and that's been that's being shared at all grade levels some of the work that's already been done for example the director of teaching and learning met with our coaches this morning who will then help like the elementary schools etc and I have to say some of our teachers a way ahead of us already they're already looking at the work they've already identifying the standards they've taught we've met all day along with folks including Friday with representatives we this morning we met with middle school elementary and high school folks early this morning to continue to come to agreement on how to roll this out how to make sure each school has an understanding of what the direct teaching could look like whether it's a live session a combination of live sessions of teaching and taped sessions etc because they're collaborating in teams so they might have one teacher tape a lesson and be able to share that we'll have a live session so it's a it we can't be specific on every Tuesday this will happen or that will happen cuz there's so many variables involved with the the office hours that are remaining the enrichment activities that folks are creating our main point to people is our teachers is that it's live it's live in taped so it's direct teaching of new content which we are identifying throughout the schools and it looks like we're in very good shape we've covered most of the standards that dusty is recommending that and all skill that the lie the check-ins with kids continue to take place because kids really need to see their teachers I need to get feedback and need to especially now with the new content be able to say I need but this that or etc with that said we also have some updates to the high school which I gave you some of these draft documents that are going forward the high school has worked hard on trying to get more kids involved in the activities that we're offering so just as before nothing's changing with gray turn one and two as far as the scores that students have already acquired their ability to make up those lessons resubmit relearn connect with their teacher on those activities that they may have not done well on etc still stands and students have made been made aware of that teachers I've already talked to one today they're receiving some requests for those updated to be able to resubmit activities and and projects so only turn one into grades that have already been done will be counted for their GPA and then going on now that we know we have extended learning happening how they're handling that is we're going to be asking students that be where we up until May fourth because we weren't sure when we were going back or if we were just offering those enrichment activities and to be honest you know there were there was no accountability for her students say we were hoping and encouraging and meeting with them and having them do them now we're asking or at least providing a parameter per se where two-thirds of the enrichment or the activities or the new learning the new content we were asking this we're encouraging and telling students they need to complete two thirds of goals it's like a 65 percent who complete them and get feedback from their teachers not to be counted as a grade or GPA or towards their GPA from terms one and two however if they do the two thirds they would get a pass for this second half of the year which would just show up on their their transcript but again not account for whether they pass or fail the class based on their first terms one and two grades so we're still giving students every opportunity to maintain their GPA maintain their pass of the course we will still give them credit for the course it's just what's going to be on the transcript if some child a student just determines they're not gonna participate at all in this life what they would get a fail on they're a fail mark on the transcript for term for and but again I have to reiterate it doesn't I know it's complex it's it's a crazy time but we want the first grading period to count towards that final GPA and whether they get credit for the class those are some important things the as I've said before the work has been ongoing all week since the Commissioner announced last week or in the governor as well we've had numerous meetings the lead teachers have been involved at the high school we've met with the union folks many times where everyone is in agreement that the work needs to take place especially the new teaching it's just trying to determine what's fair and appropriate and doable for everybody so we're still kind of working on that I know that the high school has a 7:30 a.m. meeting which I'll be in attendance as well I'm just looking through my notes to see if this oh and one of the big things I want to mention with the high school that they're going to be doing which parents and students will be made made aware of once we come to this final determination is that they'll be looking for the students to do what they're calling reflection activity at the last week of their school to be able to wrap up their learning for this time and they can then show their learning in various whatever they choose it can be a it can be a paper to the teacher both those a multimedia presentation with video clips etc think talking about things of what they learned from these power standards but high school is just trying to wrap up the learning for kids and have teachers have something in hand to be able to give them feedback on it could be a written reflection or any other format that's approved and discussed with their teacher we also have discussed the end of your activities I sent you some draft options that we've topped with the high school has talked with the team also with the students I also attended a student meeting last week on Friday with the student leaders and I know that mr.
McMichaels been talking with our before scare before school care folks and maybe we'll make a deal with them and to cover that or also we may utilize our instructional assistants who would be available to help with that some of our instructional assistants work for the before school care so there's that's not a new thing so but we feel like we can we're confident we can cover that okay so why why do late starts and to explain it quickly the purposes of the late stars to provide all of our educators right now it's happening at the high school only but this would provide all of our educators the opportunity engage in collaborative professional development teachers to work in teams called professional learning communities you madam PLC's mentioned a lot this has probably been the most effective way for teacher growth and to really move the needle is getting teachers together in these professional learning communities and work together they use that time to review current student data so that's really you is to meet these needs of the kids that the kids have educational research indicates collaborative environments typically see higher student achievement and usually it's a higher highly productive working environment so what's it going to cost and the cost of this change we were estimating it right at three hundred thirty six nine thousand dollars a year and that's the estimated cost to pay elementary instructional assistants and also our front office staff and any other hourly workers who work he'll be working the additional 30 minutes a day this change does include shorten in the middle school day by that 20 minutes and the high school day by about 50 minutes most of that time will be eliminated by extra time that's in that school day that's not instructional but you know we don't we're not prepared at this point time to just to be able to make an estimate on what the savings might be of that because we'd really need to take a deeper dive into seeing what all there's a lot of people to do a lot of work and we'd really have to take a deep dive to figure that out but that's what the financial impact would be in this proposal so in review the three changes are there and in closing I would just say that we believe that this proposals in line with our Carmel clay guiding guiding principles we've tried to keep students at the center of every decision having a safe non-threatening learning environment keeping students academic social emotional physical needs addressed students and employees are held to high personal standards expectations we realized that high quality employees are vital to the success of our organization and that effective teaching and learning requires continuous improvement that's the late start piece diverse opportunities benefit students open and transparent communication maintains stakeholder trust we've been as open as we possibly can with this and I've been reaching out to stakeholders for well it's been a four-year journey parent community involvement enhances student learning and that's why we reached out to the families then finally fiscal responsibility is fundamental to achieving our vision so with that I will hand it over to you all for discussion and I've got the team here online who are ready to pitch in and answer your questions as needed - thank you oh thank you very much dr.
Tebow had another meeting today and I think they're coming to a good conclusion pretty soon I know the faster we do that the better because people are anxious and need to know especially about graduation so we have some good ideas there and hope to get that done very quickly so those are kind of the big updates I know I sent you some documents and I know it's it's complex and but I think we're in a very good place that's the cap order how am I gonna do deal with the issue of equity that's a very big question and right now we have a couple of highlights and I should have mentioned them I actually had them jotted down and push my paper aside of course Lori and Beth are working really hard on that issue we are related service teachers are providing services with obviously virtually to our kids they've created those remote learning plans that they have for the individual the IEP s the interventionists our are working with our classroom teachers so there they have links on the Google classroom the teachers and of course our special ed teachers out working with general ed teachers on differentiating but you're right I mean it's never going to be 100 sent like we would like a hundred percent agree um Wow our students have access to the Internet as far as honestly as far as I know I haven't heard any we've reached out reached out and reached out and there have been a handful of students I have to say that haven't really been in contact with our principals and our principals continue to try that we have yeah no I understand what you're asking and the other thing I did want to update that now that we have the extended school closure our special ed Department is working to provide the next step which would be virtual team meetings that we will be starting but not before we have some clear-cut mmm parameters and also some training for our teachers to help them to be able to do that so that's going to be our next step in that world okay and thank you thank you so I think I'm gonna manage you can hear me right I hear the same concerns as dr.
Beresford for that presentation I know that there are questions from the board so I'm gonna just go kind of a roll call order from how we sit at our normal meeting so that would be Katie Lynn Leila and Pam I will go through it once and then we can circle back again so if you've got multiple questions you know you can ask a couple and come back and if you've got more questions you'll get a second chance so first Katie any questions I do hi thank you Mike are you able to hear me okay perfect so my first question is regarding elementary school teachers how will their day change with adding the 30-minute lock are they saying are they required to stay in the building longer is it just more time with actual students what does that look like maybe you want to talk to them about you created that block of what the schedule might look like for teachers sure so right now our teachers are in front of students for six hours and thirty minutes and so 30 minutes of that is the students lunch so they would be in front of our students for a full seven hours in the past we had teacher hours from 7:40 to 3:10 but last year we changed that where we no longer have those teacher hours so their day would change in this seven hour day they would be in the building longer then they might be now however as you know and when you pass by any elementary school our teachers are there all hours anyway but they would be required to be in front of students for 30 minutes more thank you my next question is in regards to recess what are some of the initial thoughts regarding or what about indoor recess we live in Indiana so there will be time where we aren't able to go outside sure and that is something as they're looking at recess with indoor recess you know what will that look like if we have tea right now when we do indoor recess they're in their classrooms so that may continue that they'd be in their classrooms obviously having a lot of different things for the students to do a lot of times when they do indoor recess now they use different makerspace pieces to really engage the students they have lots of indoor recess games so we would continue using those tools to engage our students so that they can have some downtime and have fun to connect with their peers thank you I just have a few more oh and will this affect lunch times the lunch time would still be the 30 minutes that the students have and what about after school sports or after-school activities are there gonna be as their thoughts on the guidelines for how late they can be if they can be before school which would negate the benefit of them being able to sleep more have there been discussions yet along that route yeah I can answer that one for you Katie and yes one of the concerns was early on when we were looking into this is well what if you know the day starts later we'll just the coaches and we'll the sponsors just do everything before school and then we'd lose the irony now and the answer to that was where we landed just worgen some we're gonna have to monitor those the teams that currently practice in the morning swimming is a great example we just saw they you know they come in at 5:00 in the morning and so I get a lot of advice from them on snowy mornings because they're on the roads at same time I am they will have to monitor that because like for instance the swimmers they they'll still practice in the morning but they'll be at 6:00 instead of 5 you know and but we will have to monitor that we don't start loading up that morning you know and keep an eye on that okay thank you and their last question for now is about that 15 minute block for teachers to use that it is my understanding and please correct me that it's not necessarily where we want them to invite invent new curriculum it's something where we want them to expand on the good things that they're already doing if they wanted to do perhaps an experiment that you know they didn't have enough time for before they have a little extra time is it really going to be kind of up to the teachers and in turn like the schools kind of what they do with that yes they in that 15 minutes would be not as you said to an invent new curriculum to really go deeper in their curriculum that they currently have because right now we just do not have enough time to get fitted all in the way we would like to so that might be as you said doing an inquiry project or doing a lab experiment it might be spending more time in their literacy blockage it'll vary based on the learning that's going on it'll vary by classroom it will vary by day in year it won't be a prescribed piece and the other piece too it'll really help them to have some more time for that social-emotional learning piece for those connections those pieces that are so important for our students a couple of years ago you may remember that we extended the day because a lot of snow days that we had and the feedback that we got was it just gave kids time to breathe it really gave them the time to build those connections with each other and not feel so rushed throughout the day thank you that's all for right now Mike thank you Katie thank you dr.
Cara foetus and particularly in light of the data that you showed us that about 1/3 of the students are sort of not regularly accessing right sort of on online right and you know particular concern for me is this the 27th of February and 38% of our high schoolers haven't logged in and are not necessarily taking advantage of options to improve and so I don't wonder if that May 1st deadline is premature in part because students may start checking back in they may hear well on the 4th everything starts to count and now they're gonna log in and find out oh my opportunity to improve has passed so because we have such a high volume of students who haven't logged in or haven't been regularly doing classwork I'd like to see some consideration of extending that I'm a nag if I nag my kids like all the time have you teachers let's work a plan like let's do that students who don't have those supports at home need to do that and I'd also like to hear what are we doing to reach can you explain in more detail particularly now right when they've got to do these things to progress to the next grade it's easy when the kid doesn't show up we know that you know we send out a plan and we can really follow up what are we doing for that approximately third third of the students who aren't regularly checking in and doing these sorts of things what's our plan for that up to this point I have to say especially I've heard from a number of the principals for kids just what you're speaking about and we've actually even tried to reach out to the district level as well to try various phone numbers etc I have to say it's very few on the elementary level obviously as you can see from the data over the last seven days that's what that data showed that those whatever it was 27% or something of the high school 38% 30% I'm trying to look at my data now yeah thirty-eight yeah but the the guidance counselor's at the high school level and I know we've been in touch with the director should be making those continued contacts but I think you're right that with the shift in the expectations it's a bigger issue because it wasn't that way before the May fourth deadline yeah some of the students who haven't been hearing optional optional right the ship is sort of sailed for that yes yeah I don't know wonder whether we ought to concern that and then the only other thing it's everything I might add is there is a lot of angst about the graduation option yeah and whatever we do we're going to end up pissing off a lot of people I mean there's no good choices here there really aren't right you think allowing some ability for parents to have some input like a short survey or something that doesn't mean we have to be bound by what they say but I think people want to feel like they have a voice and this a little bit um might go a long way towards heading them off right people say well I wasn't consulted and I don't like that decision they're still not gonna like the decision but at least maybe allowing for some input well you know let and let them see the results that if it's really split then they can see that not everyone's happy and understand what a tough decision that is but I think allowing some public input it's not a binding vote just we're trying to get a sense of the community would go a really long way to speaking some of those fears thank you dr.
Dudley thank you dr. Beresford Lane do you have any questions yes I have two questions to hear and I first question is that I remember the Como Teachers Association did a survey asking teachers about their opinions on changing secondary school start time and then extending 30 minutes I remember there's a high percentage of elementary school teachers that do not did not support the extending 30 minutes for elementary school and I want to see if there's additional discussions with the Como Teacher Association following a survey and what's a feedback after that and the second question is and Amy just shared that there will be quite flexibility for teachers even daily changes here to how to use the 15-minute and tie and I just wonder how much consistency we want at a building level or a degree level so like it's the the great say first grade they still have the same time for recess well you just allow teachers just to structure their day are totally totally different every day I just want to get an idea about how they work if you allow flexibility by still wanna maintain maybe consistency full of grey things like that thank you doctor do you want to address that the second question and then and then we've got Pete Pete O'Hara with us who's the president of the CTA Carmel Teachers Association and I don't know Pete is is that something you might want to share a little bit about the feedback from the teachers appreciate being here we want to have a teachers voice you know in the meeting so but Amy wants to go ahead and answer that second question first so then the flexibility that I'm talking about is the flexibility that teachers would have based on what their students need at the time what would stay consistent is for example recess all students would have that thirty minutes of recess that wouldn't be flexible to say we're we're all I'm going to do 20 minutes of recess today the other pieces that would be consistent and that are consistent right now are the curriculum when we think about the curriculum at the first grade level that curriculum we have a guaranteed viable curriculum and all of our first grade classrooms and that's to say that a student at college would is receiving the same curriculum as a student at Prairie tres so those consistency those that is all consistent but what is more flexible is the time students need to learn that prison we have students across all 11 schools that have very different needs and some students learn things very quickly other students need a little bit more time other students need to back to that information to earn that so that's the part with the flexibility but the consistency would be in there lunch time would all be consistent that recess time would be consistent and the curriculum would be consistent as well thank you Peter I'm gonna put you on the spot is that okay that's why I'm here the the elementary teachers are passionately concerned about the extra time and the extended day and I just got to tell you that since last week when dr.
Jeff Kenny thank you madam chair I agree with dr. Jenkins I love the idea of putting on a survey for the for the parents but on another note can we just talk a little bit about what we've already kind of touched upon with the numbers that you shared with us about students that have not logged in no when you say not maybe you may have said this already maybe I just missed it but when you're saying students have not logged any you say these are students that not only have they not logged into a device but have they made any kind of communication with their teachers or with anyone in the school dr. gyfer all I know is the data we're able to accumulate from our device that are you know our data system that that specific data was logged into their accounts within the last seven days okay so that's from the devices yes and I have not heard from in and Jonathan I know he's on board he can probably help with how he got the data cuz he helped us out with that but I know we have had a couple of principals who have only mentioned a few students that have had no contact at all in one or two I know two in particular we reached out from district level and did then get communication with the parent other than that that's all I know from the elementary okay yeah so I couldn't speak to specific other than the data I have so I guess my concern is and like you said maybe that's not the case and maybe you know there are more students that are communicating with their teachers and other through other means but almost 1,200 students that have not logged in that's a scary number to me so but we're saying maybe it's a lot less than that because students are actually communicating with their teachers and in some of the way shape or form but I would hope at the very least that our that our staff our building administrators our outreach workers and I know to some extent they're doing this they're they're reaching out to families that are that are right now for a lack of a better term unresponsive they're there haven't been communicating they haven't been engaging um so you know I hate to see any student be left behind so I would really urge you and your team to do whatever you can to make sure that we are and I want to believe that for the most part we are reaching out to all students especially the ones that if we can't get in contact with them then like you said whether it's a phone number reaching out to them via email or through a phone call and then just just on another note I notice it in just out of curiosity I had forgotten what mr.
Beresford put the in the loop out the emails that I am getting are about 15 to 1 of teachers and again they're passionately concerned about it and they're concerned about kids and they're concerned about the extra time and how the extra time affects kids and I think probably some of you have received emails stating the same concerns so yeah that's just something that that is they're very concerned about it and very passionate about it and very passionate about the fact that it's how it affects kids thanks Pete appreciate you sharing that and give us a straight thank you thank you for the information so I just wondering I see there's a concern here from teachers and they are uncertain about benefits to kids are we planning to do any follow-up study and can the boy hear about you know how its implemented maybe after a semester after year to see what teachers think and then what students think about it I would say to do any more studies at this point in time I think we've had we've surveyed a lot we've had a lot of discussions I think we've kind of turned every every detail this topic you know one way you know then if it was if you're asking me if we it was implemented would we review you know how it's going absolutely just like we do with anything that we would implement well yeah that's what I suggest you check the effectiveness of it no not again Vesta gating just you wait do we what not by just you know after we do it how it goes I wonder how he goes thank you well thank you in Thank You Pete I do believe dr.
Crowley had said for our preschool students are we are we charging them tuition right now I know that's a little bit off we just made that decision today we had been bantered back and forth especially since we didn't know when school was going to get out or not but we've just made that decision that no we're not going to be doing that okay we feel as well as much as our preschool teachers are part of the remote learning etc that as we know so much of the preschool experience is that we know not unlike all other the students but there is such a it feels different and they have to kind of be there to get that experience so but anyways the short answer is no okay but the expectation is still there for some type of remote learning with I'm sure to come he's here just to may I come to the podium you may here ok here we go thank you I I was listening to everyone and I didn't want to overstep the conversation just to quantify and qualify that data data is a snapshot taken from the Google admin console ok that's what I was the first seven days now one thing that I know mr.
Beresford correct me if I'm wrong that at the end we will provide a way for teachers and families to share their thoughts obviously today is just a recommended and discussion so we have received a lot of input from teachers and and some students and parents just in the last couple of days and we're open to hearing more of that Leila do you have any questions I do it sort of stems on what Leonard asked and the other previous questions thank you board members because I thought they were great what I wanted to better understand or get a little more information about excuse me is the conversations that the administration has had with the teachers and the type of response because we as a board have received several emails of our very passionate elementary teachers but we've also received emails from parents who support some are a little concerned but in conversations that I've had personally with people reaching out to me directly there has been a lot of support as well and I've got teachers that are on both sides of the fence so what I'd like to better understand is what what has the administration done to have some of those conversations deeper conversations with the teachers to solicit not only feedback but understanding I can then yeah I guess I could start with when we did do that feedback study we you know I did a whole group on just teachers and we divide that into elementary teachers and secondary teachers and I'd shared that you know that information with you and that was a do you want to do that this was not that was not a you know instrument where we said do you think we should do this or not it was about the you know the information I just shared with you about the you know the benefits and the studies and all those pieces and and we we got pretty favorable results on those topics about you know about that research and then but that was very different from the the feedback that Pete's competing his group surveys where and Pete you want to talk about the I think you did two different surveys did yeah you know we did one early on and then we did one just a few months ago and they were a lot more pointed and maybe maybe they weren't written the best fit they were good for us and I like to call my last one a poll because I needed to get the pulse of where we were and that's where we really found out that the elementary teachers were so upset especially about the extended day middle school teachers were pretty much on board and it was split at the high school quite frankly and but as time goes on I think we see more and more at the high school level at least more more support for for this because of the sleep we know about teenage kids need more sleep and you know the other thing I want to say about that is that dr.
Olivera is I just texted her she's very proud of the extended learning site and the numerous hits that are there which is actually the the first phase of this pandemic education the extended learning site and we have thousands of hits on that so this does not reflect what a student is doing it's just a snapshot of them logging on in the past seven days where those people are the omission of those 1100 people for logging on so it could tell a story but it doesn't completely define the the effort or the participation that the the children are doing at this moment I think this it's a bigger story as most data can be sure no understood and that's kind of what was my my thoughts mr. Gallow saw was that you know this is just one one piece of data and the other piece though is you know our I want to I guess the bottom line is from my point of view is I want to make sure that the dominant public schools is reaching every single student that's and I think mr.
Beresford and I have talked about this I don't a lot and we have not always agreed we have not always disagreed but we listen to each other and we have been part in this and you know I have done my best to represent the teachers and the feelings of the teachers and to take back as much information as I could and as I can and you know we we've it's it's been a it's been a group effort it really has been so teachers have been involved all the way I'll second that and like when when peace group did their surveys we met with his leadership to go and get the results of that and and the second one as well no so he invited me to meet him with the entire all the CTA representatives from what all the buildings be all the buildings and it was the last day it was far last day before we found out about this not having school anymore and and it was a great we were there for three hours we just discussed everything and everybody put everything on the table it's great great session it really was it was yeah that's when I throw a compliment back that working with Carmel teacher associations awesome yeah you know we can have great discussions and even whatever side of the table you're on and it's it's always respectful and it's always you know looking out for the best interests of our kids thanks Pete thank you dr.
Oliver I can probably expand that from March 12th to see the activity of students of logging on from that point forward to see if anyone is completely not there you as we know 8 through 12 have their own Chromebooks we we handed out about 350 Chromebooks of the 600 people at the middle school from 6 and 7 and an additional I believe 2 to 3 with 300 at the elementary school when we have a variety of people as well as students as well yeah just to get an idea and what we just to give a quick update we've had many of those pickup drop-off days and then we've also done Singleton's for kids have had problems with individual computer absolutely shall have the online help that they go to with the work order system and also the the principals are running that on a very like almost a weekly basis where if someone was left out or just it has a problem or needs a charger so there's that continuous cycle as well okay no thank you thank you mr.
Beresford that's all I have for now Mike thank you thank you Leila thanks again Pete have you have any questions yes I do thank you first of all I had a question earlier wondering if we could leave the elementary day the same and go ahead and change the high school and the middle school yes as far as like changing the time of day for the secondary schools and we could that that can be done the we'd have to think through as far as that as far as the times changes go you know what we could do that because eliminating a half an hour would not mess up transportation it may actually Roger do you want to weigh in on that a little bit I know you looked at that yes if I understand the question if we if we had the secondary school start at 8:45 its shorten their day and and they were out at 3:45 and then had the elementary day start 50 55 minutes before that which in this example would be 750 as was recommended if we did not extend the elementary day then then obviously they would they would be that they would end their day a half hour earlier which at the end of the day that would give us an additional 30 minutes too far as running the transportation system which which in in today's world of being short of bus drivers that would actually be a benefit in terms of giving us more time to run the elementary routes before the high school day was finished so while we would not be able to do would be to continue to have the elementary day inside of the secondary day well that's not what I was asking right I didn't think it was so assuming we would we would flip the bell times if you will but not extend the elementary day that would be the result okay also I have a huge question about prep time and I know that we weren't going to talk about or that wasn't something that you are going to investigate right now I'm for teachers eliminating collaboration I figure we're still having specials at 50 minutes a day is that correct have to defer to Amy on that so in the day yes specials would still be 50 minutes correct okay so if there's 50 minutes a day five days a week that means teacher would have 250 minutes per week if we add in recess which is 30 minutes per day or I am assuming 3 days because I remember the days I had to have recess duty and I would have to have it twice a week so that would give me three days of breath so that's 90 minutes and that's not counting days for indoor recess when you wouldn't get those days so that would give a teacher 340 minutes a week except for late start weeks so I'm a little concerned about the prep time issue that's coming up when the high school the middle schools and the elementary schools are all going to be equal in time period I would see that discussed prior to vote if possible please yeah that's a separate issue that's why we didn't I did not add that to the the you know the proposal or the recommendation in order to to discuss prepped time and those kind of changes we need to have a probably a separate candy tail conversation with a caramel teacher Association and and look and how that would do in order to provide prep time to teachers while you know while recess is going on we would have somebody has to watch the kids and so we'd have to determine if it would be like a rotation system like what you're talking about Pam or if we would hire an instructional assistants or or read rework the schedule of instructional assistants to cover recess but we have to make sure we have solid supervision so that's why that's not part of the this recommendation it's a lot of detailed work and and really we it was we didn't want to muddy up this presentation by yeah you know by trying to sort all that out that has budgetary you know additional very you know impact so we'd have to to do that's my next question the initial cost that we had put in for this was and that was back in December was four hundred and seventy seven thousand three hundred and twenty-five dollars would be the cost for this to go into place if I figured my figures correctly and only I was only counting six and a half hours for three hundred sixty minutes a week or a day so if we had recess at each school which is say five grade levels three minutes each that's 150 minutes of recess it would have to be covered so that's like 42 percent of a full day of 360 minutes so the IAS per building you'd have to have to because we usually had two on recess duty when we were out one at least two teachers so there would be 22 total Ayase and I was figuring that that was like one hundred forty-seven thousand eight hundred forty dollars more so the total cost I came up with was about four hundred and eighty three thousand dollars in addition to if we do hire IAS to cover recess and also thinking ahead if we left the elementary school day the same and spent the same amount of money that would be seven and a half teachers that we could hire to help cover and and maybe make class sizes a little smaller next year and help cover what the help the kids recoup from what they went through this year did you want to that I'm just giving you some information that I have and my last question is is this I know in 2009-2010 they took three over three million dollars away from the school system because they were they had a lack of state funding so do we know or have we any idea of where the state funding is going to be going since we've been spending money on the coronavirus and all of the additional expenses that have been going with that and I know that there's a lack of state income coming in now so I'm wondering do we have any idea of what we might be facing next year and maybe into the next two years Roger do you want to talk to that a bit yeah the short answer would be we don't know and I don't I don't think anybody knows we could anticipate that that the economy clearly is has you know been significantly impacted and that likely will have an impact on sales and income tax which is where revenue found from the state formula looking back to 2008 and nine the circumstances are are different in a number of ways one is is that the the state has a I believe and I think most people believe a very healthy rainy day fund they have about 13 percent cash balance which is almost double what we maintain and and so hopefully if this you know if this is not a rainy day I don't know what would be and so the question will be is will the state legislature look to there to use rainy day funds and if so how much and and what might the loss be in in sales and income tax when when people get back to work and we're not locked down you know they'll start to get better insight but the assumption is is not every job that was out there will continue to be out there so so we just don't know what that financial future bring and couldn't guarantee that there wouldn't be a shortfall as there was previously but but locally we're we're in pretty solid shape in terms of our financial stability and and you'll recall in 2009 that financially we were not particularly hurt by the shortfall because we were able to transfer cash balance our own cash balance from our debt service fund over into our at the time our general fund and and and then right after that we had a successful referendum and so it's also really impossible to anticipate what the flexibility might be and what the choices might be there very well for example could be a relaxation of how them you know the local money is used as far as our debt service cash balance and and and other cash balances for that matter and then and and Carmel schools also maintains a cash balance not specifically for this purpose but for an unanticipated you know financial challenges and certainly this would qualify okay one more question which I just thought I'm sorry so if we if the elementary date remains the same and starts at 750 like we've we've proposed that means the cost that we have projected that this will cost over and above what we're already spending that will not happen that's correct yeah yeah the our there would be no change in the hourly workday at that point okay so the 336,000 that were that we're not we would not face that as an expense correct okay that's good thank you I might put that into perspective just because it's three hundred thirty six thousand dollars is a lot of money for most of us and and and sometimes it's difficult to understand the scope of the formal schools budget which is well over a hundred million dollars and so again not to minimize it in any way but three hundred and thirty six thousand to put that in some type of a comparison is about one third of one percent of our salary and benefit costs yeah but still it when it's about six teachers right yeah I'm not minimizing it that's again we have almost a thousand teachers and and I know all of us would appreciate having you know anymore whether it's six or one but but I I thought it was worthwhile to have some comparison of the money because the numbers that we deal with are so large that for many people it's it's hard for them to get their arms around the you know the financial aspects okay thank you remember that I'll remember that at negotiations next time gotta remember we would never bring a recommendation if we weren't comfortable with what the funding of that would be and that that we wouldn't be able to handle that we are keeping an eye on class sizes and you know those concerns as well okay thank you so if we if we could we possibly put an ia in all the classrooms or in a lot of the classrooms so that the teachers have additional help next year to help make up the deficit may be that the children have from the end of this year just the thought yeah there'll be some we'd have to evaluate and you know we'd have to be have more of a learning plan than just their bodies into into classrooms but but right now that's a good question going on with districts all over the state is you know what is the loss and then is the loss because kids are engaged they are doing things but we don't know if the gap is going to be huge or or not and you know it's being a former classroom teacher is every year the students come into your classroom and there are all different levels and that's kind of the art of teaching is that you take all those different levels and you work with the kids in small groups or individually to bring them up you know to the you know to be prepared for the next level and and that's not an uncommon thing that goes on in our classrooms but so you know I don't know you know it's hard for us to make an assumption that kids are going to be drastically behind the times come you know come fall but we have to be alert to that and we have to you know assess that when we get our kids back in our classrooms where we can work or work more effectively with them one on one would that be accurate say dr.
Gallow Schaffer for chiming in just just last but not least I know I brought this up before in the past and I know I think Tracy Oliveira was against it however I'm still assume right now where we're not doing anything with any kind of handouts or paper packets is that correct dr. Gifford because I haven't heard anything brought up about that yes we have not done that not a general rule I think a few special cases were made but in general no no okay well it just it's disappointing especially when 44 students at Cushman that probably don't you know could use some kind of other materials that and I had asked that that that's not been done so I do yeah we didn't do that okay thank you I do want to just add I just got some 1d just like mr. Gallow show said about the enrichment page which is extra they were about over 3000 logins there so at least we're knowing knowing they're looking at those and also to dr.