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Dana Mitchell I will save my comments for my update okay and Colleen would you like to say hello yes thank you very much it's my pleasure to kind of continue to serve as this on your community and I just appreciate opportunities and you've got the wonderful community and a great staff thank you for having me help and serve thank you okay and at this point we'll move on to item 8.0 report action of closed session matters 8.1 student matter final settlement settlement for office of administrative hearing oah oah case number two 2019 one two zero zero zero four student number nineteen twenty one twenty five and do I have a motion on the floor I move to approve item 8.1 second hey moved by board member greer seconded by board member ariana's and he just kept on oh we already had her discussion never mind okay we can vote now you and it passes 5-0 so we will go on to the distance item 9.0 distance learning update mr.
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characters Bureau is going to talk to you about shortly in addition to student support specialist and an SR bi tech admin in order to integrate the curricular moons given that some kids will be in distance and potentially will be in a hybrid model additionally we're looking at purchasing a lot of sanitizer sanitizing stations disinfectant funding set aside for deep cleaning as well as dr. cells asked that we had a custodian to every building at least and in some places more than one so that we can focus on sanitizing all the touch points and really our big priority is keeping this base clean facilities as safety were purchasing protective shields for desks where for example in the K through two if they if we have circular round tables or if we have rectangular tables we need to put on shields on the table so that the kids are separated in addition protective shields for any interactive points with the public as well as signage which I'm going to show you we've engaged with an architect that took three sample schools and walked through from start to finish everything that's a recommendation based on the American architects Institute Institute of Architects applying all of the standards that they come up with for safety with egress and safety within the classrooms PPE we worked with them we did an assessment these coverings are going to be required for every staff member as well as every student they're going to be required to provide their own face coverings but we're planning for a certain amount when kids show up without them or with inadequate coverings we have them on hand to provide we're providing all the teachers with them face fields in addition to the masks so that you know their eyes are covered and during those based covering breaks you know everything have additional protection and a lot of protection for the special ed staff that we'll be working directly with our most vulnerable students such as disposable gowns and additional shields for those children that will allow them Kelly we'll talk a little bit more about that but there's a clear part of the mask so you think and read facial expressions so we're able to have them be able to participate in their learning in the best way possible in addition we set aside funding this year because we when we fed the families we were lacking in reimbursement from the federal government and so we needed to set aside some money from this year's budget for food services so that's about five point two million this assumes that we can fit everyone in the classes and that we don't need to buy more teachers or more desks so this only works you know live which and that it's a work in progress is because when we get the results of the survey that we sent up to the parents when they're selecting whether they're going to be full distance learning or in a hybrid model if what or we know if we're going to be in a hybrid model we'll have a sense of the numbers and we'll be able to say whether we can safely and effectively within the guidelines hit the kids in the classrooms and not have to spread out even further if we assume we had a hundred percent all in model and nobody's remote this doesn't work because we have about seven hundred classrooms that have more than twenty-four students so why the mere mention that you know we're really strongly advocating with the governor and to allow us to start in a model that makes more sense to be able to distance the kids out more corny you may want to comment I think this appropriate at this time there for example the high school he has about 500 classrooms that have more than 24 now the mitigating recommendations is when you can't achieve the distancing given that everything is cleaned as washing the pans the ventilation windows open things of that nature that the mass provides the safe distance but when you look at the high school alone for example with 500 classrooms in a block four sections 125 a period you'd have to probably add 20 25 teachers and then have the space in order to teach them which versus the game in Mossel the middle school I see Christian Europe you know as a few hundred could have been over that now I have the elementary so you know the amount of money that we would have needed whether they exceeded 1012 million dollars I think and that's talking about added buses and men think so what you see here is our best shot to try to create the conditions that we know we could provide within the resources that we have I'm sorry yeah that's really good dr.
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There are many people here, although they are the directors of technology, the doctors, the people who work in transformation, all express their appreciation for what is being done, what is being tried to be done. Right now, there are the priorities. The state has many priorities, and each district will begin, as you know, with 180 days and 900 hours of restricted time. The state has also approved the use of instructional numbers and work hours throughout the year for students. There is a plan for all students throughout the day, whether they are physically present, online, on a computer, or completely remote. If something happens when we start classes and something else happens, we are also prepared for distance learning. There are 33 instructional models in schools to choose from: the live learning model and distance learning, as well as community-based learning. They have been sending out questionnaires and other forms of information regarding how your children will participate in school programs.
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Ortega superintendent Ortega thank you you know that dr. Mitchell set up her the presentation again just like my comments we're very happy and pleased today to dive a little bit deeper into our into our distance learning plan is set to take off here in August and welcome input as we as we move along dr. Mitchell can you see my screen yet or not yet no okay okay can you see it now yes yes okay so it says support for success you see that yes okay perfect good evening president Bibles Vogel board members superintendent and cabinet since last week's board meeting we have been working on planning for the implementation of our support for Success plan Pedro Nogueira reminds us that it's not simply the learning it's the stability stability is essential in the lives of children and as we begin and as we begin 2020 in the distance learning environment in the midst of a pandemic we know that creating stability for our students academic emotional social stability is of the utmost importance and that stability will come in the form of many facets and we'll take a coordinated effort as we begin to plan for the opening of school in the 2020 school year we wanted to circle back to a few items from the last board meeting and provide you with an update on some of our plans for our support for success Dana Dana you're not sharing your showing your desktop not at the screen so it's pretty small can you can you see it now for you yes okay okay thank you thank you for that so as we head into this new environment and a pretty and important question that we ask ourselves is in what ways will we support parents and how will we engage them as partners in their students education we do know that regardless of a distance learning or a brick-and-mortar environment the research data show parent engagement has an impact on student achievement as an example literacy training and support is required for our title line schools so we're looking at some additional options in addition to families and schools reading roads and thinking about how we can continue to increase parent engagement as another example miss Carbajal Camacho has been exploring the work around responsive schooling and culturally and linguistically diverse students and our D lac has had many conversations about how to get more families to participate and remove barriers so this year we will continue to develop a cohesive plan that meets the needs of families bridges the home school connection and utilizes our community liaisons to ensure strong parent engagement plans as we head into a USD support for success distance learning 2.0 one of the areas we need to plan for is implementing evidence-based parent engagement strategies in a distance learning environment there are two ways in which we will focus our partnership with parents through workshops tools strategies and communications the first one is to provide parents with specific learning tools strategies and resources they can use to support learning at home and the second one is to provide parents with tools strategies and resources on the online platforms that we use such as Google classroom Google applications Google meet as well as helping parents with access to our many digital curricular platforms because sv-98 requires synchronous instruction and we will be doing this to Google meet we need to provide parents with the tools and the resources they need to log in and to help their students to log in and essentially we need to create opportunities for parents to learn how to use and to navigate these platforms or plan for this begins next week we've already scheduled three opening school planning meetings with our elementary middle and high school principals to create a plan for parents support around technology and strategies to help their students at home in preparation for this meeting we've already provided the principals with the summary of the salient research on the connection between parent engagement including some of the highlights of Karen maps work and her parent engagement framework and we will be sharing more with you as we don't develop the very specific plans of this implementation story the next piece is around technology all summer we have been hosting virtual meetings with teachers to get their input and communicate our distance learning plans teachers have expressed a strong desire to give students a tech boost prior to the start of the school year especially when we think about our younger students who may need support and learning to navigate our online curriculum or Google classroom or Google needs providing opportunities for students to learn some of these things prior to the beginning of the school will give them a boost so at our principal planning meetings next week we're going to coordinate what this will include as well as the logistics currently our new students register for school on our website through the Ares online enrollment process one of the things that we do need to think about is how we are welcoming our TK and kinder students and their parents to their new school in a brick-and-mortar we've had orientations canned around up all kinds of things so what we need to do now is we need to coordinate what this will look like in a distance learning environment and this is also on our planning meeting with our principals to determine how we will be welcoming our students back to school especially our TK and our kindergarten students and I will be providing more information for you in your weekly board updates as we solidify these these plans I want to talk a little bit about preschool we received guidance from the state who determined that CSP PS can align to their le A's and as a result our preschools will begin the year with a distance learning and and continued to be funded when the le a site has determined it may not open we are currently enrolling students for 11 3 hour sections at three schools for Longfellow to a paramount to a Marie when it Powell when it valley Dale and one at Magnolia in in addition to these six schools we are in the process of getting Dalton and Lea licenses right now Dalton has a provisional license and last week our application for start-up funding of over $31,000 for Dalton was a free so we were hoping to offer section at lea and Dalton as soon as we are fully licensed I also want to let you know that in terms of our special education preschool we have six three hours sections one or three mild to moderate sections and three moderate to severe sections at Longfellow we continue to also have our Dual Immersion preschool and eat the K is 2 K we have 2/3 our preschool sections and to eat c c ck and CK classes one each at Longfellow and Valley do as an update in terms of professional learning and support in 2019 through 2020 21 our e TK and TK teachers have been participating in the California early math initiative learn strategies from the Sobrato early academic language program and they will we just received word that they will be continuing to support us in our distance learning environment this year we're also participating in a professional learning network with other California districts with our California education partners which is a pre-k to third grade coherence collaboration specifically focused on mathematics the next piece is around pink together so yesterday I met with Stacey gall Domas who is the general manager for San Gabriel think together programming and we talked about some of the highlights of their summer programming and I learned that 585 of our students participated in think together programming this summer they offered high interest modules including social-emotional learning healthy living stem arts and enrichment and then language arts and mathematics support as well as virtual field trips now let me know that their data show that students mostly appreciated the inclusivity of think together the confidence building and the student connections that they were able to make with one another so the great news is is that we are going to continue with our think together programming next year the greater news is that the conditions of their grant is flexible next year and they are able to align their programming to fit our needs so knowing that we're working collaboratively to create possible options for the school year and some of these options that were exploring include options and distance hybrid in-person both during the school day and after this school day and we're also exploring learning hubs right so how things together might be able to support students with their learning and academic support so as we get closer I will be sure to share all this information with you the next piece is around our AO SD virtual academy this week we sent communication home to families that we will be hosting for a parent community reopening schools meetings July 23rd 6 p.m.
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Solley yeah thank you so much for pointing it out it's prioritizing with what we have and the architect that we're working with is making sure that we're spacing the desks out so that the you know there's a template and they've gone through walk through three different types of schools and classrooms I'm going to show you some examples so we're literally putting dots on the floor to locate where the desks will go which is why you know right now today Kevin mentioned the results of the preliminary results of the survey something close to 30% of families might choose distance learning that would help us spread out the kids in the classrooms in the way that we need to do otherwise it could be another five million dollars that we have to go back and ask for okay so okay so on the facility side we're following the CDC and CSD as well as the American pediatric Association guidelines and we're coordinating directly with the school nurse supervisor and the director of public public healthcare pronti ensuring that schools meet high cleanliness before we even reopen and we're going to maintain the monitor throughout the year so we're hiring those additional custodians we're buying sanitizer for every single classroom there's going to be a replacement cycle throughout the hallways we're putting on sanitizer containers and also a hanging wall hangings there's signage reminding people to wash their hands for 20 seconds in addition to signage reminding them to sanitize next to the sanitizing station so planning for and maintaining appropriate social distancing within the classrooms hallways at the time of arrival dismissal and in common areas we're also working building to building going in and looking at first the plans and then walk doing walkthroughs of all the buildings to put down decals that are going to remind the kids the distance within the hallways so for example where Highway is 10 feet we're going to have one-way directional where the flow will allow we're working with the building principals and individuals dots that are six foot apart to remind the kids to be mindful of their distancing so you know that's one piece we're looking at all of the egress so every single time and I'm a kid makes a movement and they're mostly going to be in the classrooms in that elementary middle but when the buses arrive we're four times the busing so that the kids are spread out within all the buildings when they entered multiple doors and they go right to their classrooms and they're going one way directional so and then the ventilation protocols we're working with city and facility professionals and I'll have you advance to the next slide because I'll talk a little bit more specifically about that in just a moment so I mentioned the building by building facility plan going into detail at three of our schools one elementary one middle and one high school and then Kevin myself rich Talbert our director of facilities and Kathy O'Dowd are a supervisor of school nurses and Ellie church this our director our special ed are going through a building by building meeting with each individual principal and making plans that comport with what a recommendations are for classroom setup and for egress as well the the lunch distribution and I'll get to when I talk about the food but there's not going to be any kids in the cafeteria we worked through the recommendations at least according to the current plan things could change because you know the state hasn't yet issued waivers for the things that we need to do we anticipate that and are hopeful that they will issue the waivers that we need but there'll be a point of distribution that will distribute the food to the classroom and we'll talk a little bit more about that later we're working on setting up all the isolation rooms because the state requires us to set up an isolation room again it needs to have ventilation we're hopeful in some cases where there's for example specials rooms now that the specialist teachers are pushing into the classroom some of those could be utilized as isolation rooms the high school has already identified a room that's very close proximity to the nursing room now the building mechanical systems we've worked with the city to work through how we're going to test and replace filters and I'll talk a little bit more about that and we've set up really strict protocols for sanitizing and cleanliness throughout all the buildings again our biggest priority particularly in response to the community feedback that we got so facility operations this it is agreed to review all the BMS the building mechanical systems to ensure efficient operations this is really important to make sure everything's functioning they do it normally but they're going to do it more stringently this this summer they're replacing all of our merv 8 filters and identifying with rich Jalbert special conditions to replace with a higher level particulate filter mark 13 the school starts and we have before school even opens we're going to operate all ventilation systems at full capacity for one week and we're going to remind administrators about ventilation changes and they can't make any adjustments without working through the facility director as well as this the city director okay can we can go to the next one after school opens now you might have read some of the guidance about ventilation is really important this is one of our biggest priorities just to ensure that we have proper air flow and so we're following the guidelines to flush the air inside the building for a minimum of two hours prior to occupancy and then one hour after with the dampers open as fully as possible and we'll program and lock the fan schedules to align with the schedule of building occupancy and we're going to keep the ventilation system running during all hours the building is occupied so this keeps maximum flow and then at a minimum where the temperature will allow and we don't have other means of insulation available and windows we're saying should be open to allow for a minimum level of fresh air exchange in the open occupied spaces I did want to mention in this plan our facilities yeah we've sent a memo out to all the partners that we normally do rentals with that for at least the first six months we will not any rentals so that's a loss to the district of revenue and it's for safety means that we're doing that yeah okay okay and we can move to next so this is showing the signage I mentioned us working with the architects they've identified all the locations throughout the buildings where we we would be it would be good to put these signs so if they skip cover and require before entry at the entrance of every building you know there's no visitors I think if you read through our plan you'll see that and even parents we're setting up tables outside so kids forget something that's entirely necessary medication or something they'll be a table outside with a drop off place for the parent to drop parents are not going to be coming into the buildings we're going to remind children in the students in the hallways to maintain six-foot social distancing through signage okay we can move to the next one and then like I mentioned the hand cleaning we're going to just put up signs to remind people wash hands prevent spread through hand sanitizer you used to as if you're out in the community now another thing I mentioned earlier is the floor signs so where it's allowable where the a we were pre making ourselves and putting on the floor and various parts of the EE so someone asked earlier about a classroom so this is just showing you know the architect was showing us how we would set up with distancing between the desks so you know each each room has a certain capacity for what we can what we can fit through terms of desks to be appropriately distance and we're going to adhere to that okay and this is just King Street here's another example of the classroom setup with distancing this doesn't it's not doesn't look exactly right because this is what our custodians did so just briefly tell you the where we are in the process all of our custodial staff have gone into all the buildings and moved all the extraneous things to the walls so whether it's beanbag chairs or rocking chairs or storytime places we're moving all that to the walls and the week first week of August principals are going to invite certain teachers in to come in and take away items from the classrooms we're really just gonna have desks to encourage the maximal maximum you know just the thing with the desks and that's what it's gonna be there's also a six-foot perimeter around the front of the room which you can't see here for the teacher area and it's a corridor that's going to be set up in each classroom for the teacher to be able to have a bit of room to move at the but maintain that social distance and they're also going to have plexi and I don't know if it's called flexi but face shields that are made of plastic that will be available to them should they choose to use in addition to their face coverings those are face shields yeah those are the face shields so the busing and transportation you know you know Kerry is going to talk through the scheduled busing and transportation is a big consideration for the schedule I've got to be able to get the kids in and out safely as you saw on our survey earlier of the people that are planning to come for in person we can ask to me that as many as fifty percent will still be riding needing to ride the bus it may be lower when we get the final results of our actual survey when people are really having to sign up for what they need but we're requiring face coverings per the guideline and CDC guidelines for all students and drivers on the bus those drivers are also going to be provided with boxes of masks disposable masks so if a student shows up without a mask we are going to provide it so that they can safely ride the bus we're intensifying the cleaning protocols between every run and the windows are going to be open on all the runs so if you have to wear their appropriate clothing you know when it's colder out but the guidance and the recommendation is to keep those windows open and we're going to be prepared for the increased car traffic we're training staff and we're looking to partner with the city to get additional staff for traffic flow and to modify some of what we're doing with traffic low flow like for example at the high school and we're going to work through that with each of the building leaders principles about arrival you know where we can set up separate place for the bus to come and a separate place for parents did you drop off we will and where we can encourage entrance by cohort we will some buildings won't allow for that safely but we're working through it on a building by building basis mm-hmm okay I think I'm ready for the next one oh and this is just showing a spray down of the bus with a appropriate disinfectant just don't have everyone like turn after every run on all the touch points and at the start of the day and ended a foot up for the seats food service we're monitoring upon the CSD food service nutrition safety guidelines we're still being required to offer five you know choices of different types of meals they're called components and so because it's going to be of a grab-and-go nature we're going to put four different things in the bag and the fifth is the milk and they can choose the milk but that way we're going to have the flexibility to have them have a snack during the day and we'll I'll explain that a little bit more in a moment and we're gonna give additional safety protocol training for cafeteria staff they've been working through the whole summer as you know then food distribution so they're very very familiar with masks where I'm keeping the masks on wearing their gloves they're very safe at any rate because they're dealing with food but you know they've stepped up all the protocols and so we're just gonna remind them of that and do a couple of run throughs because the you know one thing I just want to mention we applied for the CEP status for the entire district and if we get approval for that that means that Debra high school yes and Westside we're not going to have to collect rosters or have people sign in digitally you know to get their lunches um it will be able to just do a count and it could be like the other schools that are on CEP applicable so we're eliminating all the touch points there's not going to be a point-of-sale snacks for the first six months we're not going to be doing that and we're going to be distributing to the classrooms ideally what the schedule hopes for is a grab-and-go so we'll be able to in the in the case where we have enough workers they'll be doing the bringing to the classroom in the case where we don't we're going to work through the union to find out who the appropriate staff will be to be active volunteer helpers to come get the food and bring it to the classrooms and then ideally like I said it'll be in enough time so they can eat a snack if it's a late dismissal for example for the Elementary they might not be getting out to 135 and they won't be eating in the classroom and ideally it will be a grab-and-go but that again is subject to approval by the state we better get a waiver for that yeah and that's and that's the my update for the facility's food and transportation as they coordinate the one things I would have is why do I do that when we looked at the schedules and the number of individuals needed to be spread out for the lunches with the masks off we thought it presented a real danger for the kids and so we've had to cohort them differently and we have to work through that I think we have obviously this is one sided right now we've got to work with the teachers and the other groups to make the thing happened but offensively we've had to go to this system in order to distribute the food to make it them yeah you you might here to dr.
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They are also looking to hold meetings for parents, staff, and the school. We are asking for the reopening of schools. These are all systems. Families are being asked about choosing which program they will use. Going through the feedback on the questionnaires, there are many, 73% didn't respond, 52% want their children to go to school in person, 64% want to take the bass, 4% want to use the book, the heavy model, and video, and we are offering an account, and 1% didn't respond and only want distance learning through the school and the city. Some suggestions that have been given are to focus on meetings. There have been many questions regarding the pee, also increasingly about the presentations regarding the model and regarding the different levels of the school. Many are asking about the ventilation or not of the schools, as well as the medications, the facts about the medications, and who will disinfect the schools.
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is English 7:30 p.m. Spanish and on July 24th 8:30 a.m. Spanish 10 a.m. English and a reminder will be sent tomorrow and during these meetings we will be explaining the distance learning block schedule plan as well as other options such as our a USD Virtual Academy sv-98 requires that eliezer I'd stood until quarantine or have been exposed to Coppa 19 with an online option the AOS D Virtual Academy will provide students and families with the option to choose a year-long fully virtual academic schedule and this academic this Academy will offer a large range of rigorous courses for students from TK to grade 12 it will include grade level online coursework UC approved courses in English language development world language electives and honors and AP courses for high school students we are committed to ensuring that rigor relevance flexibility relationships and social emotional support are essential elements of all of our learning options and throughout the learning experience with the Virtual Academy we have our highly qualified certificated teachers providing instructional support progress monitoring and live virtual interaction and this again this Azusa virtual Academy is intended for a full year program so beginning tomorrow this will be posted on our website and parents will be able to enroll their students online a couple of points I want to also make about this is that students who are enrolled in Virtual Academy will be enrolled in their home school and can take part in school activities graduating high school students will receive a diploma from their home high school and participate in the graduation ceremony to align with sv-98 Virtual Academy students will participate in synchronous and asynchronous interactions with our teachers and their peers as well and students will be expected to attend scheduled synchronous meetings make satisfactory progress in order to meet districts and grade-level standards and parents will also be receiving product reports at the regularly scheduled grade report a series on August 17th the district will host the a USD support for success virtual conference this virtual conference is going to include a variety of breakout sessions in which our teachers will be and are certificated staff will be able to choose we have a lot of topics that are going to be available there breakout sessions around instructional technology blended learning illuminate tools virtual IEP s social-emotional learning care solace pl roadmap teacher toolkit suicide prevention and ongoing resiliency CTE Advisory our teachers on special assignment will be providing curricular planning and support restorative practices new science curriculum support and middle school reading supports last spring we provided a plethora of professional learning support and our teacher surveys have indicated a desire to continue to learn a variety of topics so the support for success virtual conference is going to provide teachers with that variety of options from which to choose to best meet their learning and finally as we think about programming and we think about distance learning and we think about making sure that we're understanding what is working and making sure that we are continually improving it is critical that we gather information that supports our efforts to address the impact of school physical closures in the spring and the onset of our distance learning block schedule plan 2.0 this fall in particular we need to understand the experiences of our students who have the highest need in order to ensure equitable instructions for all students this year dr.
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cells point other schools that are able to eat in the cafeteria their smaller schools we you know after talking with in and talking with the middle school principals we've got you know nine hundred and a waved in the high school those of you that have been there we've got three hundred and thirty and a wave and in most of the middle schools and after talking with Cara Prunty and with Kathy o down it's just not safe to have that many after we're covering in the classrooms in the cafeteria so which is why we're looking at doing a grab-and-go type type meal and we'll still the the students will still be getting their full you know balanced nutritional meal it's a quarter of those the next section is Kathy and Kent thank you Kevin good evening everyone I'll be addressing the topic of supplying of our PPE the personal protective equipment so as Courtney had mentioned for the state guidelines space coverings are required for all district staff and students they will be asked to provide their own health services will maintain a backup supply in the event that a child doesn't have one or if the mass becomes soiled during the day something happens to it we will have a backup supply in the event that there is a student who cannot tolerate wearing a mask and that may be some of our special ed students or some students who have medical conditions the staff working with those children will be provided with additional PPE such as face shields and yeah that would become necessary okay Oh community local health officials when the staff member or a member of their household is tested positive for Kovac and is possibly if those others in school we will be asking families to we'll be providing a checklist and we will be asking that as well staff to self monitor as home there will be a checklist for certain symptoms and if they are experienced and not feeling well they should stay at home should metaphor would come directly to the school nurse that a family member or someone in the household or a student themselves has tested positive for Kovac there's a process in place that information will go from school nurse to the principal and to me I will be notifying dr.
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All these areas have plans, and in a meeting many students spoke about how important it is to be active, their priority is to be in high school, in middle school, and implementing things, but not so much congregating with many students, the workers, and how to help the studies use the Masks are going to be used to clean the classrooms every time the children enter and leave. This intention is perfect; it's being presented to address all those questions and considerations that parents might have. This PowerPoint presentation focuses on the health of the students and the staff. Health is paramount for us, to see how they can develop within the social distancing guidelines we have to follow. We 're also talking about vulnerable workers, their families, and their family members. Again, the protection of workers and students is always being discussed. It's not surprising, and people on the street are always in contact, talking about the social and emotional aspects.
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Jennifer Edith Brian has developed a plan to implement student experience checkpoints and what these are are a series of short survey questions and they have been taken from a pivot learning and unbound IDI a document that's called equitable learning recovery toolkit so these student experience checkpoints coupled with listening circles with our elementary students middle and high school students to gather data on how we can better meet student needs and address gaps experienced by particular student groups so three times a year we're going to collect data using this student experience checkpoint and administer it to all students in grades 5 through 12 we're gonna analyze the checkpoint results and develop listening circle protocols based on the need for a deeper understanding of what that data is show and the factors contributing to student success as well as those that are posing barriers to success and then from there we'll host one our virtual listening circles and we will include fifth and sixth graders our middle school middle school students and high school students and our participants will represent a cross-section of all students including English learners special education socioeconomically disadvantaged foster youth ethnic groups and homeless we will analyze this data and use the findings to inform our planning at both districts and site levels Nina can you just clarify are you gonna have sort of great span listening sessions or you're saying you're gonna have all these different students in one group together we the plan is to have we would have groups with students who are fifth and sixth grade and then we would have middle schools too so these will be separate is that what you're yes I'm saying I'm meeting so as we as we take an equity stance it is important to analyze both the student achievement and the opportunity gaps among student groups school improvement literature suggests using equity audits as a tool to mitigate gaps by identifying achievement and opportunity gaps as well as their root causes so we are exploring equity equity audit tools that will help us in examining structural inequalities in our system as we work through a cycle of continuous improvement question yeah now it's open for questions dr.
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Sal and then we will immediately along with our medical adviser be consulting with Cara crunchy at the Health Department on as to how we will proceed okay I have I think we lost you hear me yes okay Kevin can you go back one slide sure thank you okay so I've been working with Courtney our Director of Finance and I can confirm that we do have an ad we will have an adequate supply of protective personal equipment in place for reentry I have done a cost estimate for her for the entire years to what I think we will need I've placed an order that we will that will take us through the first four months of the school year so we will you know ensure that all those safety measures are in place okay all right you can go to the next five Kevin thank you so we are required by the state to identify a supervisor isolation room in every building for individuals who have been assessed by the school nurse and determined to have signs or symptoms of Cova 19 the room will serve as a waiting area until the individual can be transported home so I am working with the building principals with rich Calvert our Director of Facilities we've also discussed it with the architect that we've been working with and we will be identifying those buildings and a process will be in place to identify staff members who will supervise intial children can be picked up as part of our sick day guidelines which parents will receive and will also be posted on our website it's our expectation that students who are ill will be picked up within 30 minutes I understand that parents need to work and I greatly understand those challenges so they will need to have someone else does it may be that you can come pick up their child in the event that they are ill okay the isolation room will also be utilized by the school nurse in the event that an aerosolized procedure must be performed if we have any special needs students who require suctioning or any type of aerosol treatment we would need to utilize that isolation room as well the superintendent of the schools has a procedure for the closure of schools for a length of time based on a positive cove in 19 case or cases and to the risk level within the school community of the term but determined by the local health officials again any suspected case of Kovac we will be sending home we will be collaborating with the Health Department and their recommendations we will determine how we will proceed after that and we will be identifying a response changing within each school and the district with specific responsibilities in terms of reporting to the school nurse to me to the superintendent as well as identifying staff we will need to identify more than one staff person who would be responsible for Dupleix pollution in the event that someone is out Thank You Kathy okay so from the human resources perspective obviously one of our greatest challenges is trying to figure out how we're going to align staffing and part of the reason why the survey is so significant to my group is that as parents make elections and as we tried to decide where we're going to assign children how children are going to be moved through the system we need to obviously align our staffing accordingly so that's why the the survey asks the kinds of questions it does so that we can have a better idea in human resources about how we're going to respond in terms of current employees what's happening in my office primarily is how to handle those folks who may need to take time because either they have tested positive themselves or they reside with someone else or have interacted with someone else who has tested positive for Kononenko the 19 so we are in the process of finalizing training of all of our HR specialists on working on the ins and outs of the families first protection act which provides specific protections for people in those categories and so that we can provide support to our employees in addition we're engaging in regular communication with all of our employees and our HR teams to explain how a variety of different protections will work so the familiesfirst Protection Act the Family Medical Leave Act collective bargaining agreements that have their own leave provisions in them Kevin if you can go back one side please my team is being trained on how all of those pieces will fit together for our existing employees in the event that they need to take time as a result of some sort of either a diagnosis or an interaction with someone who has been diagnosed for existing employees we're finding that it's incredibly important that we provide additional training to them to give them some peace of mind on the safety protocols how they work and so over the summer from the spring and through the summer and into the fall we're going to continue to push out additional training and support a lot of it is being done through our Employee Assistance Plan through our Cigna they have provided a wide variety of webinars access to personal health and wellness videos and information on how to stay safe in the fall during the pre days immediately prior to the opening of school we've scheduled some additional training including a Q&A session with a health care provider who can help some of our staff work through things like what if my mask breaks how do I respond so we're trying to create kind of a diversity of training for folks so that they will have some sense of security when they come in to work and that's been something that has been well received and it is important for us to continue to convey to our employees in addition we have made sure to publicize and encourage use of a telehealth program so for those arm of our employees to participate in Arsenic net insurance plan there is a telehealth option available and Cigna will continue until October to assist in coverage of deductibles for if for any of em please do sleep testing so part of our big push is to make sure that everyone understands what's available for those employees who cannot return to work that's going to be the line share of our work going forward we are aware that we have quite a few employees among ours who have serious health conditions that will make it a challenge for them to come back to a full in person learning environment so we've been working with union leadership to make sure that the message is out to all of our employees to please connect with either me individually or with a member of my team who's been designated to handle confidential health matters and we're engaging in a one-on-one discussion with those employees so that we can understand this nature of the serious health condition they present and whether there are reasonable accommodations we can provide to those employees that will allow them to return into work safely and appropriately there will be a wide variety of individualized reasonable accommodations that we can provide right now the numbers are not huge we have about 25 employees who have come forward so far I expect that come August those numbers are going to continue to increase and so we'll continue the process of one-on-one dialogue which is what is not only contemplated by the way that we try to do business and the damn brave public schools but it's also required by the law to engage in a dialogue with folks who come forward with a serious health condition so again in addition to kind of the regular hiring and processing and onboarding that we're doing right now it's a significant push for us to make sure that we've provided a sense of security and a conversation with our folks who are concerned about what the ramifications are of returning to work with a serious health condition so that work is ongoing on my team that's all I have thank you Kevin may I have two minutes jack dr.
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Again, to the students and staff, I want to say that there will be many additional cleaning staff to cover all the questions and concerns. There's also a section that outlines the plan, expectations, and operations for students in training, as well as the social and emotional aspects for students, teachers, and technology to help students. 111 for students... The connection of technology and, more than anything, the emotional and social support, also the families and the school together, but late 80, and also the extracurricular activities, all of that will be presented, and it is what will be presented with respect to the facilities and in the operations, Korn, and wants to thank all the legislators who are present and all the representatives, the teachers as well. There are many things that will be discussed tonight. We are all building homes, building, contributing to this. The first thing that will be discussed is the resources that are there.
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Mitchell yes please thank you anybody have any questions yeah I have a couple questions thank you for the presentation I'm just a couple things so how are we planning on ensuring that every student has internet access and the computer I know last year we just sort of did like an opt-in survey it's a how are we gonna how are we gonna ensure that this year so so you're asking how are we gonna ensure that every single student has access to devices in the internet yes so we're actually what one of the first thing we're gonna do is we're going to start before school even starts and we're circling back to our families that had that said in our surveys and not only that but they had indicated to their teachers or to their site administrators that they didn't have a device or they didn't have internet so part of that process was to reach out to them we made phone calls we kept spreadsheets and reached out to them to determine you know how come you're not connecting how can we help you can we connect you with you know devices an internet so the first thing is is circling back to those families many of those families had gone through the that spectrum offer and so we want to make sure that if they are not connected before school that we will get them connected the second piece of that is that we need to develop that same system right so understanding the minute that students are not engaged part of sv-98 is creating that learning continuity attendance plan and one of the requirements is that we have something in place that's called a school reengagement plan so we have to make sure that any students who are absent are not participating we've got a team for that so we have a plan in place to work with the sites to develop that re-engagement team and then the other piece is that this needs to be ongoing we need to be doing outreach with our families to ensuring that all students are participating another way to be able to to look at that data is attendance is required in this with sv-98 and so teachers will be taking attendance in Aires and that's going to include whether or not they were engaged and so that'll be another way for us to know immediately if students are not participating by looking at their attendance Yolanda board member who drew his opinion yes thank you so my question is great presentation by the way very clear thank you so I know the state aren't they giving us some funds for to continue our distant learning right so my next question so I know that you're gonna give up the Chromebooks on the 24th of July Friday is that is that what I read or I read something about that what was that for so we are we continue over the summer we've been continuing to distribute Chromebooks and at last count it's over 5,200 Chromebook devices that we have distributed to families and so all summer long we have had we've continued with our hotline our emails and making sure that families let's just say they were participating in summer school or think together activities and maybe there was something that was you know wasn't working or they were having trouble they had a hotline or an email they could call and every every Friday they would make they would have appointment to come in and do that so we're we have it on the calendar to continue to do that I will go ahead so the handing of the Chromebooks on the 24th is that where the fall classes or for I think it you know what I think yeah you know what I put that as a recurrence and so I just did it every Friday and so I probably need to go back to the ED services calendar and take that piece off so yes for you for district office we're gonna will continue to hand those out but that's thank you for that because I know we have approximately 7,000 students and then you went in we have 5,000 something up right now so you know we're we have this big gap that either they're doing it are they able to do it on hard copies you know they want some people do want it that way I know but I just you know want to be sure of course it every student you know it's going to be learning whichever way is less for them and their families of course mm-hmm and I just want to know so who is going to oversee the the virtual academy is that overseen by a principal or a department that will be overseen by the director of alternative programming mr.
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dr. Fong yes yes well I just want to share with the group that the hybrid model actually is the best the wize model to start the reopening for the reasons is that in the pain that most of us understand that children are not as susceptible or not as severely impact by the coronavirus the reality is is definitely not the case a paper published from the mayor's College of Medicine in a journal of the American Medical Association they looked at a two and a half week period for March to 14 - April the third during that two and half week period forty-eight children were admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit in the United States and Canada so it's only a two and half way period of those 48 children admitted to the intensive care meaning they have severe illness as a result of the Cobra infection 17% of them have no known medical conditions therefore is 83 percent of children admitted to the intensive care unit have underlying medical conditions such as diabetes obesity asthma and so on and complex medical care situation so that if we want to provide the best safe well environment for all the student the hybrid model give you give us the option that they can stay home I think they can stay home if they can afford it they can manage it and we turn to school when when dependent is over or when a vaccine is available or when - basically the condition of the corner virus infection is much much reduced or almost you know with the herd immunity maybe can stop it so I think this is the wise approach with the hybrid model at least at the beginning and because we can always modify this you go along but that is a wise thing to do thank you check the dr.
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They are talking about rural expenses, which are 5,000, 25,200, 6,294. That is the broad amount of money that has to be spent. Well, regarding the security of the school facilities, 285,438, the PIPI, which is 169, and of course there are large ones that have to be used. They give us the titles of the grains, which means the resources: the curriculum director, the technology director, the supervisor, the supervising nurse, the Chromebooks that have to be needed. They have to put face shields later, they're also going to talk about integrating them into the curriculum, first at a distance, then in fiber optics, and three modes, models, and meters to see them according to the tastes, let's say, those who clean in schools are going to focus on disinfection, on deep cleaning, they're going to buy Beijing protection, they're going to put 12 tables on, they're going to cover the tables, they're going to cover them, as they say, like a sheet, yes, with respect to that, but they're going to follow the recommendations, we're going to apply all the standards for safety in the classroom and also outside the classroom, you're going to see face coverings so that the children themselves are going to create their own face coverings, and it can't be, if they want, apart from the mask, they can also use one, it's like a face covering with the other special education teachers, you're also going to see them, they're going to use different different outfits, as they say, to work with the children so that they participate in learning, in addition to that, with respect to the families, they're going to send them to serve, they're going to have 20 or 25 teachers in The amount of money being allocated for all these things that are going to be done is being considered.
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Paul Hernandez thank you hmm okay I I have a suggestion I had a suggestion given to me or a circumstance where people live in very tight quarters say they're you know two kids are sharing a bedroom it's a two bedroom apartment or one-bedroom apartment and the kids are in different grades and so there they are in the living room one listening to their Chromebook another one listening to their Chromebook trying to pay attention while they're hearing their siblings if we could reach out maybe to one of our wonderful donators when I donate ear plugs or earphones for our students in those circumstances I think that yeah okay um I'm just gonna go down because I didn't see who came first so Adrian I mean board member you're muted Adrienne you're muted we can't hear you about now okay you had such a good suggestion Gerry that I'm trying to it slipped my mind won't you come back to me I think I'll write it down when it comes back to me okay board member Cruz Gonzales so yeah I have a couple other questions um so one and just really piggybacking I think even know what just Jerry said so I'm really glad to hear that we're talking to think together and one of the things that I'm seeing around other districts around the state is that they're trying to create learning centers or resource hubs where students that for the exact same students Jerry just talked about or maybe students are homeless right they were creating a space where they can come in that has an adult there that not the nuns and not the teacher is going to teach them but a bit an adult so they're in a supervised location a learning environment that they can learn and and not everybody for like all of the students but small cohorts right you know whatever whatever criteria we ended up deciding is them has the most need and so I just want to know I can't we thought about that where are we on that like is that a possibility because I could I'd like to know about that yeah that's a great question so in my conversation with Stacy Gotham as yesterday that was one of the the points that we talked about and I brought that up to determine is that a possibility is that something we could do so she said that she was going to look into that and then she would get back to me and so as soon as she does I will let you know okay great and then my next question is around the parent outreach right and actually it's a little question but also just maybe a statement of opinion um so I really appreciate the fact that we're thinking about how we can connect especially for the students on a regular basis but I also appreciate that in your presentation you talked about how critical of parents are going to be in this whole process so I'm wondering in terms of connecting to family and making sure that we're meeting the needs of the family that may go beyond just beyond I mean obviously the the critical piece is the education of the child but also just you know making sure the family feels like they're supported to be able to provide helped that were kind of asking them to do now um so um do we are we are we gonna have a plan around how we reaching out systematically to parents on a regular basis whether it's like on a weekly bi-weekly basis you know how often that we make sure that families are contacted to make sure that we're that they feel like they're that there's a connection and that we know that we are trying to support their student success as much as possible and we know that they're a partner so I just wanted to put that on your you know just put it on there too out there to see if that's something that we can do because I think we did a lot of opposite I felt like we did a lot of we did a lot of follow-up but we did a lot of opt-in in the spring and so the more that we can systematize and make an intentional and be proactive about connecting the better board member group thank you so a couple couple questions one I'm just curious to know I know that we made the decision to not collect Chromebooks at the end of the year which which makes perfect sense did we do the same thing with books are our books where books collected or do students still have books I think my daughter still has hers and so are the how does that exchange happen that's a great question so so it's a is a combination of both right so one of the things we did as we were you know in closure we had to figure out a couple of things one our outgoing seniors and our rising 9th graders we had to develop a plan to say how do we do this and how do we do it safely right so those are the grade levels that were able to to do that and so principals really worked hard to to create a system which takes a while for for them to come for the families to come in and exchange the book so for the other grade levels we need to do the same thing but what we'll do is we'll do it concurrently so that's also on our list of planning meeting with the principals to talk about how do we do this again keeping a safe socially distant manner and how might we be able to bring the books back in exchange kind of at the same time and accorded it in a core nated effort so that is on our to-do list for sure and the other piece is that is we want to do this via Slee before we start school right so we want to try to get as many things in as humanly possible so our elementary principals come back next week our middle school principals just returned this week so we've got those meetings on the calendar and that's really what the that's you know reopening planning so that is definitely one of the things that we need to pay attention to yeah and a couple more questions too and so looking at looking at that taking into consideration so I mean they're not new books each year right so my my daughter who was in third grade last year has a book that a in a third grader coming in this year will need so so yeah so doing the exchange but in a way that she gets hers in first so that it can be given to it yeah right other couple questions I have around virtual the the Virtual Academy then can you maybe in a 30 seconds can you can you summarize I mean so what is what is the difference between the virtual to clarify between their virtual academy and for a parent who is saying I'm just going in you know the traditional model which is exclusively distance learning at least for the beginning of the year what what are the differences is it just that it will continue on virtual okay can you describe some of the new ones yep and so as you know it sits right now distance learning is our traditional instructional program we're just doing this in a distance remote learning format right so the Virtual Academy is going to be also remote remote learning for the entire year so students who are going to choose like I'm a I'm a fifth grade student and I am going to Marie Elementary and I am with my teacher and my students and that class right now is distance learning until we begin to transition into you know reopening schools again right the Virtual Academy is different so the Virtual Academy students would stay in that program for the entire year and so they will have a teacher and again it's really going to depend on the enrollment right and that's how we'll look at how it's staffed in terms of the curriculum that we'll use you know it could be a combination of depending on the grade level you know the curriculum that we currently have some apex classes for students for example who are taking me some AP classes so that Virtual Academy the nuance is is that if a family chooses to do our traditional instructional program that right now is distance learning at some point we're likely going to transition hopefully you know we'll be able to safely reopen you know in the future the Virtual Academy is not it is a separate program and that is a commitment for the year that is a distance learning format dr.
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Fong is our medical adviser so I appreciate that he was one of the advisors as my mayor Belton was speaking about this prior to that the beginning of the meeting that we're going to Cole let's say a letter of which he'll be signing to attest to what he just said let's continue with the academic experience please so cam and Cal hi I'm Kara and Kelly has a mirror on the director of instruction so I know that folks are very anxious about this part so I want to try to do my best to kind of clarify some of the some of the differences in in the models the choices that you've made and then what we were required to put forth to the state of Connecticut so this slide explains that at Danbury public schools like every school in Connecticut was required to put forth a model for in-person learning a potential switch to hybrid learning and then a distance learning plan in that in all phases of the plan phase one two and three we were required to offer distance learning as an option to families regardless of the face so the in in the in-person plan okay this is a traditional relatively traditional schedule with health and safety guidelines and expectations followed and teachers and students are coming to school every day there may be some modifications to the schedule which will you'll see when we walk you walk you through some of the sample schedules most of this is to accommodate some of the other factors that we have to deal with such as having students who are in a distance learning program and also being able to accommodate busing transportations and some of the increased expectations that are required to follow by the state of Connecticut in in all phases of the plan we anticipate making sure that our students maintain digital blended connections throughout so when all students come back we want to make sure that everyone is up and running technologically they are hooked up to some of our very high quality platforms that we have recently purchased that we will maintain through next year and possibly the next year afterwards so that should there be a need to switch to a hybrid or distance learning model at a moment's notice similar to the way that we did in the in the spring of last year that we have all these pieces in place students are ready to go and that there is more of a seamless switch over and less disruption as we move forward okay so I just want to make sure that that was very clear the hybrid model is a model that again should the should we have to move to would be a a two-day a week model a B model three days a week of distance learning with other opportunities for the synchronous instruction so on the days that students were not in and we would still may maintain contact with students again we'll go over what that looks like in more detail and some of the sample schedules that we're putting together now to work through some of this again even in a hybrid the distance learning full distance learning option is still available to parents additionally special education students and bilingual students may have more contact to receive services in this model Kelly true just as our pupil services director can touch upon that a little bit after this slide before my next one to give you a sense of what that might look like and then in a distance learning model students and parents because parents are partners in distance learning engage in the learners learning with materials and supports from the school this could be a blend of synchronous and asynchronous learning I'll talk a little bit about the fall cohort distance learning group in a second but should the entire school district shift to distance learning there be an increased expectation for more synchronous live instruction and some of the components that based on the feedback from parents teachers and students we know needs to happen in sort of our distance learning 2.0 plan and I'll talk a little bit about the fall cohort in the next slide when we when we get to the choices and what that will look like but I'd wanted to make sure that there is a distinction between sort of the folks entering in the fall cohort and sort of the overall difference between when we have to shift as a whole district to distance learning and at that point students will be with their with their regularly assigned teachers so Kelly can you talk a little bit about the special ed piece and then I'll talk about the choices that folks are asked to make since there are a lot of questions around that sure good evening everyone Kelly Tricia's director of special education um I'm gonna focus a little bit on the hybrid model everything that dr.
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They will try to provide other things that are needed as well. Right now, they are prioritizing what they have. There are many types of measures. For example, they are putting markers on the floor. They are looking at different ways to maintain social distancing. They have to see and find the best way to continue with that on the operations and facilities side. That is, they have to follow the guidelines, the guidelines, and work with the AM and FM nurses, supervisors, and principals of the public school system, and ensure that the schools follow the guidelines and the priority of reopening and maintain and monitor at a high level throughout the school year. They plan and maintain social distancing between classrooms, also between students in the classroom, in the hallways, when arriving, when leaving, and in some common areas. They are going to take measures to see how that distance is maintained, especially sometimes.
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Mitchell if I can add just a couple more nuances sure key number one the probability of being with students that you're used to and you're in your neighborhood that go to your particular school you'll be probably with students across the district also the probability of a teacher who is currently at the school that you belong to there's also probably probability that it might not be a teacher from that particular school so those are some additional kind of nuances that would separate those two programs and then the last question that I had is actually in line with that as well how are teachers for the Virtual Academy selected how will they be identified that we haven't gotten to that piece yet as soon as we have our our enrollment opens tomorrow and it will close on the 31st and so that's our window to be able to say what does it look like in terms of our enrollment and after that then we will take a look at that staffing piece so right now we're not sure but as soon as we know we will definitely let you know all right board member Chris Gonzalez thank you I had one last question and that is around is this so so buried in the governor's new orders is the ability to seek a waiver from the county hospital to be able to open up elementary schools right K by K so knowing that that is a eventual possibility right I have you guys started thinking about that possibility and and maybe trying to bring the younger kids back sooner then you know as soon as possible so what we know right now is that we we do know that they have talked about that waiver but right now that waivers not available that's not they have not released it yet so at this point we have no idea what it is we don't know what the protocol it is we don't know what it's going to require and so so right now we just don't know what that is until we actually did the waiver come from the account from the health department or from the or from the the county superintendent we believe that comes from the County Department of Public Health okay okay and I'm sorry if I cut you off board member Kirsten solace I didn't mean to remember Rodriguez Pena yes question regarding the the Virtual Academy does it determine on the enrollment if you're going to continue or keep it or how are you can determine if you know that you need like a full class or do you determine to continue or to go with this model that's a great question we do not need a full class to be able to do this right and so the the structure of it will depend on we'll have some flexibility put it that way depending on you know how many students we have but we will be able to offer students a fully virtual online program regardless of how many students we have oh thank you okay board member ariana.sea hi yes I have a question about Virtual Academy you said that it will open tomorrow until July 31st sorry go ahead keep going I have not seen any advert are we how do parents know that there you know for example that they want it you know they're thinking about this but how do they access this so this is we are kind of unveiling it tonight and tomorrow on the website is going to be all of the the handout it's going to have the chart that you know talks about the different options that we have and then we'll put that on the website and there will be a link that says if you would like to register we've already created a Google Form it's ready to go it's in English in Spanish and then at the parent meetings that we have scheduled this week that's where we're gonna also kind of talk about that and we really we wanted to create a window so we could get an idea in terms of again that staffing piece too so we're gonna we're gonna open this up and an offer to the community and put it on our website and social media and try to get the word out as as much as we can another if I can add to that another highlight of that is that the team has worked on a FAQ format and so we've tried to think about questions that the community and parents might have about the Virtual Academy and so we're gonna have a fake you sheet as well to help to help with that and for the Virtual Academy if the textbooks are needed would they also be able to get them from their home school absolutely Chromebooks right you know everything that they would need yes absolutely okay any more questions comments the greedy so one of the things that I also wanted to ask was the grading for the because this is new in our you know that we're offering this to parents so like you said they'll be able to graduate they'd be able to participate in the activities for Virtual Academy would they be able to participate in CIF sports if they decide they want to do sports that's a you know that's a great question I did reach out to see is to ask that very question and so what they said wasn't the email I got back was they are working on guidance and that they would let us know so I'm going to keep after that question because it is a question I know that you know our students our families want to know so I will keep on that one and then I will circle back and provide that to you in your weekly packet so oh okay all right it looked like you almost said something and board member ariana.sea also asked about grades yes you asked about grades and so are you asking specifically about Virtual Academy or everything it's no I know in distance learning we had last week we spoke that they the students will be receiving grades yes and be graded also in their participation but for a Virtual Academy would it be the same or would it be different this is absolutely the same so same marking repair reporting periods right triads semester so report cards you know grades and area is the same the same exact thing remember sorry one last question okay and it's about distance learning one of the questions that I have so this is a new you know a new way to start the school year again we talked about last semester was a crisis it was a swim or sink type of thing teachers needed to like hurry up and get online what are what are we providing our teachers so for example a teacher that has been teaching for the last four years already has the lesson plan already prepared ready to go now teachers have to develop new lesson plans for this new school year so therefore they're going to have to prepare and it's going to take a little you know it's going to take longer so what are they doing this on their spare time what are we providing as a district for this for these teachers got it so in terms of preparation time yes so in the distance learning block schedule we actually have built in teachers have preparation time built in every day for prep time and at the secondary level when you look at the block schedule plan teachers have their prep periods and so with the block schedule plan like let's just say I'm a language arts teacher and my prep period is period - well then every week I would have my my period - would be my preparation time I have another question sorry the outreach for teachers in elementary they have fewer students and they do in the middle school or high school one teacher has over a hundred and fifty students a day so the outreach for those teachers for every single household is going to be quite substantial and so are we providing them with assistance from like aides or other you know other types of resources for them to be able to reach out to their students that is a that is a great question and so as we take a look at again this you know you're right this outreach plan we need to make sure that we're doing that that's part of the plan so we need to really develop what that would look like and then who's available to be able to help us so we will definitely be looking into that and figuring out know you know what's that coordinated effort going to look like so we will definitely circle back to that one and put that in your Friday packet for you thank you okay board member Greer thank you so a couple other questions just circling back to some questions from the last meeting to make sure that they remain on the kind of on our radar so one I'm curious to know what is our timeline with this so I know that a lot of these plans that we have you know they're they're tentative are they're you know they're they're not quite official I know that we're getting feedback from parents at the end of this week to speak into certain aspects at what point do we expect to be able to finalize formalize you know some of these things and push it out announce it and communicate it out to the community one and then two in regards to two things that I brought up last week one was the there's that one block of time where where school starts earlier on Monday there actually was a mom who reached out to me and and kind of said that she had some similar thoughts and opinions around that the challenge of that one being an earlier day and she actually suggest had a suggestion that thought was good to pass along which is what if that space was was used to create space for parents for a particular class to be able to check in with their their teachers during the time so if there's a if there's class for a parent on Mondays at 8 o'clock to talk through some of the the you know learnings and activities and teachings that will happen throughout the course of that the week and so I thought that was a you know a creative suggestion that I wanted to pass along and then ii also was the same thing around you know thinking timing for lunch pick up I know again it's currently scheduled four times during the the course of the teaching you know time and so just kind of keeping that on the on the radar even if there isn't a response you know necessarily now but but those are definitely two things I'd like to make sure that we have time and space to really hear some of some of the thinking from I'll respond to the the third point kudos to nutrition services they were tuned into that conversation understand the value in terms of not interrupting quote unquote you know instructional time and creating a space because sometimes students themselves have to assist with that nutrition and distribution and so they have been working hard since our last board meeting and I believe that we are close to being able to do Monday's from noon to 2:00 p.m.
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casimiro just went over will apply to students with special education needs if we were to move to a hybrid model students with more significant needs particularly those that are in our self-contained special education programs as well as some of our bilingual students would be it would be a partnership between school and family to determine which of those students would benefit from coming in for additional days under the hybrid model and that would be determined on an individual basis based on students individualized needs and so what we would do is look to offer additional day is beyond the two in-person days to those particular students and Families again in conversation communication with parents to make sure that they were in support of that option as some of the students have more challenges with accessing and making progress on their IEP is under the distance learning model particularly those that need more hand over hand instruction and things of that nature so as that if we were to go to a hybrid model if you have a student that is in one of the kind of categories that I just described the district will be reaching out to you and having conversations over possibly some additional options that may be available at that time thank you and just to add to that and you could stay on this slide Kevin this is fine the ER ESL students I'm sorry I meant the slide that you are on thank you our ESL students would also receive their services whether they're in person or distance learning that we would make that happen if they were ESL students receiving ESL services okay lots of consternation around the program choices for the fall and so I want to be clear Deborah public schools position is that we too want to start in hybrid learning similar to you know some of the other comments that were made earlier hybrid the hybrid model is the best for Danbury and we are striving to get permission to do that in the absence of having that permission if that's at this very moment and we've got some folks who are working on that our legislators who are working very hard on our size mayor dr.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above