John Michael [Applause] William Maurice Danilo Enrique Montez [Applause] raissa Santha dato Montano Sophia Sampson LeeAnn Nicole Murphy [Applause] Caitlyn Murphy Brenna Murphy Nicholas Morabito Simran Mookie saya Mookie Isabelle mukhiya Ethan Moss [Applause] Stephanie Nelson Alina Negron Ilana Negron for NAS NER David nicob Matthew Myron melissa meyer Ryan Murray [Applause] Matthew Murphy [Applause] Matan Oman ski Aaron okhane Jason Oh [Applause] Griffin O'Connor LIBOR nor a daisy on joke ooh Kevin Moran Jen Gabriel Nesser cush Patel Jeet Patel Lee Wan Park Kevin why park Kevin Pangos [Applause] yay Jen pack [Applause] Olivia Valentine Owens Madison Auton [Applause] Jacqueline Sabina Osorio zorco Cassidy ort Kaylie keyless Christopher pusong [Applause] Christopher L Priya Olivia M Perez Jalen Perez Isabella Pereira Marissa Percoco [Applause] Priya Patti Suresh Patel Joshua Road ona [Applause] sanchita ray OB Rashid [Applause] Siddhartha Rao [Applause] Justin Ram smooch Joseph Ram Narine [Applause] Avinash romka lawan lorina Ramirez vida Elvira Ramirez Vida Katherine Quinn Emma Ruffner [Applause] lexy rush Kovan brandon rit wigger [Applause] isabella Riera Brian Richards Jessica I Riccio Cassandra Ren Alice Ren [Applause] [Laughter] [Applause] congratulations graduates class of 2020 [Applause] this concludes our ceremony at this time graduates much health happiness and success in order to have an ordinate and orderly dismissal and safe removal from the stadium we're going to ask all parents first to come down exit to that side of the stadium and then you'll be directed out to the parking lot graduates you'll be at one row at a time you go directly back through the arch there's a gift for you on your way out be well go do great things congratulations [Music]
Jenkins I just want to point out a couple things as mr. Kiley goes into talking about this I'm gonna tie it into the capital study that we had many moons ago and one of the things that noted was that many I believe of our element classrooms are undersized relative to what's recommended for a standard classroom size now if I'm remembering correctly I believe this is particularly true at Cushman which is the oldest of our schools I also think the the D'Mello and powder classroom some of them are under sized as well and so we're some ways behind the eight balls is compared to the other some other communities right that may have newer buildings that follow these sizes is just going to be more difficult for us to get people in there the other thing that I will say is that I have 100% share mr.
Oliver's concerns about the safety of our staff and our students on the other hand I don't want us to forget that not having students in school is going to be devastating for many kids I think in some ways the impact of losing you know being remote again is much harder to quantify like how does that affect kids and it's down the road for many kids right but I don't want to forget that not being in school has many many huge costs to children's development health safety as well and we not that's really super critical - yeah and you know what thank you for that Shannon or dr. Jenkins and while I'm I'm still a firm believer until I'm convinced otherwise in the six feet you know I'm hoping that maybe what mr. Kylie or in the future what's going to be discussed is creative creative reso are using our the space that we do have and with that being settled you know I'll turn it over back over to dr.
Gifford and mr. Kiley so you two can continue sure and and we did we talked about that as well today that the devastating effects of not getting kids back in school and I think that's what's really really frustrating everyone should we'd love to just come on back guys but yeah there's so many complex issues to think about so I'll let mr. Kiley talk a little bit about what he's been doing and then I'll mention a few more things thank you thank you dr. Gifford so as dr. Gifford mentioned I've been working in the school setting up classrooms I I did this last week and then sort of wrapped up my initial observations on Thursday in preparation for our district leadership team meeting this morning and then by Thursday night about 8 o'clock the Commissioner issued issued guidance about three hours after I had wrapped up so that was fun but what what it does say and I think that this puts the district and the school committee and in a difficult situation is the the guidance that was issued late Thursday encourages us to aim for a physical distance of three feet when feasible well three feet is the minimum distance allowed as informed by evidence that's the quote so you know in looking at classrooms there's a you know amazing difference in terms of the number of kids that you can fit in a classroom if if everyone is going to be six feet apart versus three feet apart so we had I had gone around initially and anticipating that there you know might be some issue they're setting up classrooms at six feet and and at three feet and the reality is that you know it's gonna be much harder to get students back to school at a six foot zone a three foot zone is not going to accommodate all of our students so even when you look at non-traditional educational spaces and consider trying to repurpose those in a different way like a cafeteria since we're likely not going to be having lunch in a cafeteria you could look at that as a possible education space you could look at lecture more lecture hall --is-- sort of classes potentially but we have limited large spaces in the schools to do that in but you you know we could certainly get creative and try and maximize the use of every space we were getting numbers in classrooms less than 15 in most in most classrooms so obviously you know the the wider range and when we get to that six foot mark you know where ten kids in a classroom and you know some of the big classrooms maybe twelve but also maybe eight and some others so it's challenging and and some of the the guidance that the Department and the Commission are issued I think is pretty misleading in that they talk about the measurements that they use don't factor in things that are important in a classroom like fire egress which obviously has to you know has to continue to be important for us and providing access to the fire exits and so those are things that we have to take into account and they're different in every classroom so every classroom requires you know requires attention and then there's non-traditional teaching spaces there's lots of those art rooms lots of different things that that we need to think about with different configurations we have we also don't have desks in all our classrooms we have tables and the guidance is talking about all students facing in the same direction which doesn't really work at a brown or hex table or even a science lab table where you know you had multiple kids so input tables together it's a form large so the whole obviously there's an impact on teaching and learning with that as well so we're in the process of of taking a look at that but what I you know going school by the school and trying to figure out what the maximum amount of students we could fit but it's clear that we won't fit all students and so that is that is something that we you know that we need to accept and and plan for and as part of our scenarios so mr.
Kylie thank you for that update thank you for all the work that you and you know your team are doing to measure and go back and forth between the classrooms I'm sure that is a lot of tedious work being done can you just touch upon a little bit too about transportation I know this is something we brought up the last meeting but you know what really what's that what is the guidance thing about Transportation on school buses right now well mr. although they have not you know issued that we were expecting more guidance to come soon but what we currently understand is that students would sit 1/2 a seat that opposite diagonally across the bus that would be 12 kids so 12 kids on a bus is 372 we have 31 buses 372 kids to elementary school in the morning and 372 kids to the middle and high school so not only can we not fit all the kids in the buildings we clearly cannot get them there and we would need to look at options I think the likelihood of getting additional buses is slim so expanding our fleet first of all I don't think the musters themselves will be physically available I don't think they could be purchased I don't think we'd have drivers there's also bidding requirements and other things that get in the way but problems that you know could be solved but I think the biggest thing is we wouldn't get the bus he wanted them so we may you know we've talked about some creative ways to look at that and looking at slacker smart times even within a building having staggered start time that is comes with a whole nother host of challenges and and obviously on the education side and the staffing side and families and kids and how you make that all work is is a lot so it's one of the things that we're looking at though as a possible as a possible solution as we as we move forward but we are limited if if in fact that's the good guidance we're very limited as to how many kids we can you know we can get we've we might be able to do two elementary runs in the morning and two middle and high school runs in the morning and then the same on the way home that would double the numbers so yeah let me ask you this mr.
Kiley is if we were to do double runs at the elementary school are we paying our transportations buy them box by the day or is it by the rug it is by the it is by the bus by the day I but it also you know in in the bid it illustrates what we're asking them to do so I think a variation of what we're asking them to do could result in the need for some negotiation and depending on the scope of it starting over in terms of a bid our vendor is very open to solving problems with us which is great but I think that this is a pretty big problem and it could have a substantial impact and it's just hard it's a big town it's really hard to make that work to do two runs sure no there's definitely a lot to still still talk about that's for sure they just want to just stop everyone just for a second I noticed that our new our new school committee member Mary wait just hopped on the zoom so I would like to take this opportunity to walk marry and you know introduce new step to the public and see if you have any anything that you'd like to say so welcome aboard Mary thanks guys I'm very happy to be here it's interesting year to take this position so it looks like we have a lot of work ahead of us you know as we'll get in there full force trial by fire that's right that's right thank you sorry I was late little technical issues there but thank you no no worries glad you were able to get on so going back to Thank You mr.
Kylie dr. Gifford do you have anything else you want to add to that I'll take I'll take Shannon's question first before okay and then you John thank you more money I mean great like ultimately this is what it comes down to so I suspect mr. Kylie have you been in communication with the town side just sort of I keep trying to say this every time we talk about this because they keep talking about cutting your budget and it's like we can't do that right these are the things we have to do in all of those [Music] yes so I would say that the town has certainly recognized and that you know what we do is going to be different from what we planned and that it's not going to come without cost so they have certainly had that you know recognition in the discussions that that we've had so I'm confident that that they understand some of the things that we're going to be going through and depending on the models we choose it the cost will vary and depending on how we move forward in terms of the options it makes a big difference as to what it costs I I we are not at this point making decisions based on cost so we are making decisions based on what we feel you know can be best for students and so that's that's our line of thinking at the moment but you're right there's the cost is of course a factor just if I could follow up I would just say that's really what my concern is is that you know money it's not great in any town right now but our school funding levels being so low that um we have probably less wiggle room with a lot of other communities there's not a lot of fat that can be trimmed anywhere for us and so a lot of this is just gonna come to someone from somewhere and I'm just deeply about that that we do end up doing something that's not I mean we want to do what's best but if what's best is expensive I'm deeply concerned about our capacity to pay for that and so I think we got some vestige that we need to sort of back home but it's going to be really important figure out how to pay for this do right but and our staff your mute thank you doctor drinking with the noon yeah just a quick question this is either going to go to mr.
Kylie dr. give it but you know talking about the stag you know double runs if you know able to do and different things work almost sounds like this is also going to be a logistical nightmare you know central office all wise because you're gonna have to make sure if we go to this hybrid method that everybody from one family is all on the same schedule am I missing something or am i correct here because that way we're not inconvenience it and I don't mean it you know we've got everybody in one family on the same schedule versus you know parents trying to juggle two different schedules two different weeks or however it works right I think that's another piece of the puzzle yes yes we did mention that that is it definitely a piece of the puzzle depending like you said on what model gets chosen the thing we did ask the building teams for this week into next week to do was meet with parents groups and just brainstorm ideas wrapped around the requirements that we know so far the safety requirements about what they think would work best for their for that school as I said no school high school and then the Elementary has a group will come back together and and look at those hopefully well and then we'll continue to get more into guidance and try to craft out what plan would work best for the district as a whole but noting what you just said as well as students and inclusion classes and numbers of students and cohorts up some of the other so some of the appliance that's expected to come is as you just mentioned about transportation guidance for our special education programs also even cleaning re or entering the building which I think we have a decent handle on right now but part of it I think really frustrating as well is all the work we've done over the last few years on project-based learning students collaborating work and wits like are stepping backwards when you talk about destined rows and lecture style and but I know it will pass you know we'll eventually get back to normal but some of the other things I'm trying to look at my list here cuz there's so much just let's see actually I think what I can do now as well as bring em I asked Andrew Crisafulli to come in because he has a few updates on the athletic program because we still will be looking as well on extracurricular including the bands and music programs yeah Reddick's look at my list here cuz there's so much just there we go so if the end was hanging out there mr.
Perotti you can come on in so I guess before Andrew speak start to get said I guess it's safe to say that as you and your district leadership team are looking at the different scenarios and how this is gonna play out I'm sure that you know every school every grade level is a little bit different from the elementary to the middle to the high school as far as you know at the elementary level they stay with one teacher right so I'm curious as to and we can talk about this later but I'm just curious is at the high school level and really a thigh school level with students are constantly changing classrooms you know how that will play and I'm sure that's just just something else to think about what I'm glad I'm glad you brought our ad on so we can hear about what is happening this fall or you know what could potentially happen I'll turn it over to you Andrew thank you for being here thank you thank you thank you for having me let's just make sure I have this volume off I was watching the meeting a meeting in the background so alright so um to answer the the million dollar question I don't have an answer for this we're going through from the athletic standpoint the same as the schools are going through with academics I've met without coaching staff of the fall twice already in the last three weeks to give updates as I received them you know where we currently stand again in the perfect case scenario we we begin with our traditional false start dates which is the 21st of August for football which is a Friday and the 24th of is a Monday would be the rest of the sports again that would be one that would be the ideal situation and again I think we'd all agree that the ideal situation is probably going to be the most challenging one we could have a delayed start date to the fall albeit it could be delayed for some sports a little bit longer than other sports that's again a conversation that has taken place we could have staggered sports starts or ultimately the fall season could be canceled and again those are some options that have been shared in the committee work the committee seats that I've sat on again I think we'd all agree that some type of fall athletic season and experience is something that we're shooting for obviously the longer the season the better for not only the community but our student athletes and our staff but again this is an ever-changing situation I know that the governor came out with Youth Sports guidance for phase three a little while ago I was able to read most of it they did they did classify sports in in kind of a fate different categories as far as different risks obviously the highest risk would be the contact sports and I know that obviously football and soccer fit into that and if you're looking beyond the fall season you have ice hockey and basketball that also fit under that umbrella you have some that are sports that you could start I guess you could say on time but again those are decisions that are going to be made by the state and it will trickle down to the low level and we're gonna get all that information and have to make the best educated and safe choice for us locally all right so that's that's it that's the update for fall sports and like I said in to kind of summarize it all my fingers are crossed and the kids and community need it so we're gonna do everything in our power to make sure that happens my biggest worry other than any of the stuff that I mentioned is transportation I know mr.
Kiley brought that up a few minutes ago obviously sending a soccer team up to Brockton and having 45 kids on a bus is probably challenging and problematic I think that any time that you have to get extra buses for transportation obviously the cost goes up the spacing on the bus is obviously a concern there's a concern that some sports or some schools will go back to school traditionally or you know be able to run an athletic program some might not so the state is gonna have to make a decision as to how they would like to carry on with the fall season where you might have some schools that have the ability to start something well those others that do not have that same ability okay so again transportation in my in my opinion is going to be the one challenge so with that with the transportation when we pull from we pull buses and transportation from the same company as some of the other local high schools so you know obviously if our need goes up for you know multiple buses in which you would normally have to only reserve one you know a local high school in our area could have the same need and now you get into some type of situation where the company just cannot provide the demand dr.
Jenkins also note that in the past right because of our lack of field space a lot of the kids worry they're using transportation or sharing cars to get to other spaces right except the high school soccer teams would drive over to the middle school that's gonna increase our couple as well because we can't let poor kids get in a car who write who are maybe we can I don't know are we thinking we're gonna have to do that up for some of the sports that are not well I mean you know traditionally you know this the the kids again when when it's when it's off cycle off campus and I'll say off campus meeting off the the campus of Dartmouth high school and a lot of the stuff take these plays a lot of the activity takes place in the middle school that kids would take busing over after school or provide their own transportation or have a parent drive them again those are all those are all concerns you know the the the situation in which you can have multiple kids riding in the same vehicle is probably not something that's going to be on the table so that again that is that is a it's definitely a concern thank you mr.
Chris Cucuy you're welcome yeah can I add one more thing sure okay okay so we are we are in the midst of trying to organize a strength and conditioning program to offer our students at Dartmouth high school albeit following all of the social distance rules and regulations having you know particular sign offs having our strength and conditioning coach Andrew Medeiros running the program having a minimum of three of our coaches on site to help him so at minimum we'd have four adults we would probably have to keep roth the amount of students that we could service we're gonna do three one-hour sessions 7:30 2:30 8:30 to 9:30 9:30 to 10:30 and again we do sign ups through family ID for that and have you know the proper medical sign offs for that and again you know following all of the all the guidelines with sanitizing equipment keeping groups 20 feet apart from one another having social distancing within the activity of keeping kids 6 feet away which asks to the activity they can take them off during the activity but when they leave wearing them again and this would all take place outdoors because again we at this point are not in a position to feel comfortable again opening up our doors and bring anyone you know in the building so this would be outdoors on the campus of the high school well thank you at least you know that something at least something positive in the right direction all of this mr Noonan question yeah Thank You mr.
chairman two quick questions I Android I guess the thumb question here is number one if you know we got not as many students on the buses that's going to entail an additional cost you know to the athletic budget for transportation number two in lieu of that are you looking your possibility of not everyone per se dressing for all of these events you know if they're away or a long distance yes that that is definitely something that I know has been done I mean I can speak that the student athlete twenty-five years ago I remember what our teams would go on the road especially with football you would not bring every student athlete that's on your roster you'd have a travel squad that's one way to combat you know I know there's different schools that have talked about the the ability to possibly host varsity level as obviously the primary the primary level and then if you have the not only the the ability and the financing with finances of money to be able to serve as sub varsity then they can have that conversation again this there's going to be no one correct answer and it's a lot of it's going to be a school department based because our situation is much different than a New Bedford High School in Bedford High School is much different than Bridgewater Raynham and Brockton so again we're going to have to take all of that information and May the best decision for us so I mean the one thing that I've without coaches is is the control what we can control and we can't control decisions instead of coming down we cannot control our own personal opinions towards this you know don't waste your energy on that you know use the energy in a positive way to really continue to to build your programs to sell you programs and work with influencers that are gonna be finalized at some point thank you sir you're very welcome anyone else dr.
Jenkins but I'm still trying to wrap my brain around some of this um one thing I've seen in other states and I don't know if you said this I may have missed that my Internet's not great um some of the states are thinking about flipping seasons not happen in Massachusetts and the reasoning for that is if you flip this we'll use the example you're you're speaking to you flip the fall and the spring you would assume okay well the spring has baseball and it has softball and it has tennis and it has a lot of the sports that would make a lot of these requirements very easy to incorporate the problem is this if you were to flip those seasons and we have an outbreak and those seasons need to be shut down those student-athletes lose two spring seasons not just one okay and that now now to your point dr.
Jenkins and I'm glad that you brought that up there's there there are a handful of states that are considering that in the conversations I had at the end of last week the NFHS which is the governing body of high school athletics supposedly is going to be considering flip-flopping those seasons for the one for one year you know that hasn't been finalized yet but it but there's definitely a strong push for that there are there are some positives and negatives to that obviously the positive would be you could start a sports season with some sport offerings that are much easier to be able to run with the restrictions that are going to be in place like I mentioned with some reason we have to shut down again and you know those kids would lose two seasons you also would think on the back end where you'd have the spring season where you would have a football season or a soccer season or a field hockey season that would start the third Monday in March it would last till mid-june you'd basically take seven weeks off and then stock football it's not soccer all over again and there's health concerns with that too so again there's not going to be the best answer globally per say it's going to be more of an individualized state and then it will trickle down to our individual towns and school departments yeah I guess you know as the mother of a soon-to-be senior football player I don't see the likelihood of his senior season sort of fading away but you know in another hand I feel in some ways I think some kids may end up having to choose sports this year and what I really want to try to do is to maximize the chance of the most kids getting at least Wolfe mm-hmm yep one of the things that we've we've strategically done is some school departments that have opened up fall registration already on we use the platform a family ID we haven't done that yet because as you know things change week to week originally in the the 28 minute video that I sent out that kind of you know introduced the newcomers to our program and then kind of pounded away at the inner details of of our department and the import information and dates I mentioned that at the beginning of phase 3 we'd open up family ID but we would not be collecting user fees because again not knowing you know what direction this is going to go I mean you know you could have I mean football is always the first one that's brought up especially in the fall and when you're looking at from contact sports kind of view that it's going to be a challenge but again if some reason a sport was not able to be carried out in that season there are some other options and so obviously kids would have some wiggle room to maneuver around and select something that they might want to participate in if their chosen sport is not offered and I certainly don't I don't want to send the message out that that is happening that is certainly not the case at this point as we speak and I've learned over the last few weeks that to be guarded with what I say because a lot of times what I say even though it might be my opinion that's taken as fact but yeah there have been no decisions made about fall sports at this point and from what I've been told it will align a lot with you know the way the ability for schools to be able to roll an athletic program out depending on how they're going to how they're going to service the kids academically you know in and also what the restrictions are going to be and again a transportation certainly is my number one concern in all of it well thank you anyone else mr.
Kylie I think the district did a really good job and made sure that all of the parents who paid for spring sport got their money back I got a check from the chowder Dartmouth for the money back but I want to thank you for doing that because for a lot of parents in something I appreciate that yeah mr. mr. mr. Kiley in his staff did a fantastic job at that and like I said hopefully at this point everyone got the refund of their obvious admission now that is great thank you dr. Duncan here thank you thank you folks Cooley I appreciate it I think that at least provide some clarification some guidance to the committee as well as the community at large who may be watching this you what you're dealing with right now and how you're how you're planning on you know every scenario possible so thank you for your time thank you thank you folks that being said before we go on to our next agenda item one of the things I just want to bring up to our gifted is obviously you're having meetings all the time with the various various leadership team members at any point do you think it would be beneficial because let's face it I'm looking at this from the perspective of no matter what the Dartmouth public schools does in the fall with a reopening of school we're gonna have families we're gonna have parents that are disappointed with the decision that was made so to combat that you know I think it might be helpful that if if you're having bi-weekly meetings that maybe one of us could sit in on with your er staff is just really as an observer so we can have you know we can have a little more of the inside guidance what you're going through and what you're dealing with when you're going through trying to get these reopening plans so I'm not sure if my fellow colleague to be interested okay yeah definitely yeah what are your thoughts I know I didn't talk about this previously dr.
Gifford I'm springing this on you now but I think it would be important as we move forward until next week are the building based teams will kind of be crafting their draft ideas and then we'll be coming back together next week with all of us to hear about those ideas and then start to sort through what might work best for the district but I think that's a fine idea and we also want to note that we've given them the idea that we could possibly each level might look a little different I'm just throwing out some you know for example the high school might do certain classes remotely only or a certain grade level I'm just throwing that out there or discuss the elementary we might get them all in on a staggered schedule I don't know we don't know but this is why we want the levels to really talk about what might work best for their building but yeah as a district we might have to make a different decision so that would be fine I can keep the committee updated on those times it's right now we don't have a schedule a permanent schedule we just kind of fit it in when we can that's fine sure maybe comment circling back to the July 20th meeting maybe we can set something up there and we can buy that maybe you'll have more of a schedule as as it's getting close to dr.
Johnson Oh mr. Oliver and I talked about this a bit and I wonder I mean miss Roy can answer this question I've seen a lot of surveys where parents are saying I'm gonna keep my my students home next year and I know that's what we're looking at but I'm wondering if you have seen any increases and requests for home schooling and then a bigger picture concern is that if we do see an increase in home schooling how is the state can handle that financially if our financial reimbursement from the state is based on attendance like if we get 10% of students home schooling for a year and then they come back the following year we're gonna be in a lot of trouble so have we seen an increase is there any guidance from the state on how they're gonna handle that we've gotten a couple addition additional requests but I when I I've also talked to a few families about waiting for a full remote option and requesting something of that you know in that nature because it's a big responsibility to take on home schooling whereas a full remote option we have families who are medically compromised and for the adults and the families and they just don't want to take a chance in signing the kids so they've sent me a couple requests for that so when we have our plan set that would be what I would advise and we have a pretty quick turnaround on that stuff so nothing nothing quite yet okay well thank you everyone for that I think that was a good discussion and you know we'll see what the next meeting Ming what the next meeting brings and what information has changed with the state dr.
Gifford right thank you yes so next up is we just took touching upon or going back to our school committee assignments now that we have our new member weight on board with us I'm not sure if Kate has the committee is that how we're on so typically Mary what happens is every year when we reorganize the committee and there's a new chair elected usually a new vice chair and we all have different cell belongs different sub committee okay and because we had Riyadh's about a month ago yeah I think it was about a month ago now we've rearmed the committee you weren't around we weren't elected yet so we wanted to circle back to that get you involved and get you up to date and see if there's some subcommittees that you could sit down and I'm hoping Katie has that far but I don't can I jump in here and say that I have been for several years the official school committee represented to the Dartmouth education foundation but I know Mary's already on that board so perhaps I'd be one sort of easy thing for you to do that you would be that official liaison now sure I know they have the other assignments okay you're muted date I don't see her so at the meeting where the assignments were handed out Carol was not included in any of those assignments but dr.
Jenkins did mention that one of the less onerous assignments would be school committee policies note on that so that to kind of guess I guess get the new members feet wet in that committee that's the only thing that I notice what does that entail school help school committee policies is there anything dr.