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one here that i have to read at the beginning of every public meeting um welcome to the july 23rd 2020 electronic meeting of the environmental commission this meeting is in accordance with executive orders from the governor to affect social distancing and mitigate the spread of the cobit 19 virus we intend to conduct this meeting similarly to an in-person meeting however please be patient if there are technical issues public comment will be via telephone only to speak during any of the public comment opportunities of which there are two please call 1 so i'll repeat that 1-888-788-0099 and enter meeting id number nine two four five seven nine six nine eight two three so i'll repeat that um meeting id number nine two four five seven six this information is all also available on the published agenda in the public notices section of the city website and on the broadcast of this meeting on ctn channel 6 at t channel 99 and online at www.a2gov.org watch ctn so um so the first item on the agenda is galen would you uh do the roll call i sure will um commissioner graham okay absent uh commissioner skinner commissioner needham here commissioner smith uh commissioner slavic here commissioner appel here commissioner kylie ward yeah did i pronounce that correct that's right okay uh commission president brown president huh presidential commissioner overpack commissioner overpack commissioner mursky commissioner mursky commissioner mitchell here okay that's roll call all right thank you kalyn um the next item on the agenda is let's see let me add these out we have one two three four five we have seven voting members present i believe but we're not this is a working session i'll remind everybody so we will not be voting on any resolutions or other issues of this meeting so um first of all let's welcome youth commissioner gabby buendia to the environmental commission um we're so happy to see you here and uh do you want to um say a few things about yourself thank you commissioner brown um my name is gabby wandia i am a um do a couple of different things i'm an environmental educator at the ecology center i also am an organizer for the michigan chapter of the sierra club and i just moved to ann arbor full time back in last august after living here during the summers and i'm glad to be joining you all well thank you very much um so um let's see the next item is the approval of the agenda did everybody have a chance to see the agenda okay so um is there a motion to approve it second and second i'll we are in favor of approving the agenda as written say aye aye aye or raise your hand um any dissents it passes unanimously um steve yes sorry i i'm sorry to interrupt but i i just uh checked my email on my phone and it looks like commissioner gibb randall is waiting to be admitted to the meeting oh okay thank you and excuse me i believe that ann bannister commissioner bannister is also having difficulty getting in thank you thank you i was trying to figure out why i wasn't here can you hear me thank you bob hi shannon hi so we're at the part of the meeting now for the approval of the minutes so did everybody have a chance to look at the minutes and i i should apologize that um i i made i added some tentative action points to this meeting because i discussed that at our last meeting but we didn't really finalize them you know before the german so um i'm just putting them up there to remind everybody and that i would like to from now on do some action points you know to follow up for the next meeting um you know and we would cover those action points uh at the beginning of each meeting just to track progress on various issues or at the more or at the appropriate time in the agenda um so um let's see so are there any is there any discussion over the minutes as written okay do you have a motion to approve the minutes uh shannon do i have a second bob needham seconds um all who approve the minutes uh for the june 25th meeting say aye all right hi any dissent okay the minutes are passed um unanimously done so we're reaching the first public commentary period so i'm going to read another uh script here and um so galen i think um you may see somebody who's trying to get into who's called into the meeting and what you should do is um in order in the order in which they appear you should write that down and then you should um [Music] and then and then you can select them using the last three digits of their phone number okay and give them access so a public commentary this is an opportunity for persons to speak up for up to three minutes please call 1-888-788-0099 and enter meeting id number 924-5796-9823 this information is also displayed on the meeting agenda and video feed city staff will select callers that have raised their hand one by one using the last three digits of your phone number in order to electronically raise your hand to indicate your desire to speak please press star 9 on your phone you will hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background sounds so that we may hear you clearly please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments be patient there is a delay of up to 30 seconds before the connection is established so galen do you see any um anybody requesting to make public comment i see no one at this time oh bank i just gotta well no one at this time that's in here yeah and they will just to remind you they'll all be phoning them so okay so um let's just wait about another 15 seconds okay well let's move on to new business um the first item on the agenda for new business is a review of tentative action points from the last meeting um the first one i wrote down was engage with ordinance review committee of the planning commission to identify ordinance changes required to advance the a20 goals um this was a great idea of shannon's um i don't know if you had a chance to connect up with uh missy at city staff about that or how figured out how to initiate that so we have not met with um city staff but we um uh john and i have talked about it and talked about kind of who we might be able to pull into this obviously missy would be important or somebody somebody from the office of sustainability um and then we also um talked about bringing in some fellow architects and some fellow engineers that may not be a permanent part of it but that we could at least draw on in terms of where people have experienced frustrations you know with being able to get this kind of work done and where city code gets in the way and you know looking for opportunities where there may be some wiggle room where we're still not sacrificing health safety welfare but looking for ways that we can make the 2030 goals happen more easily um for instance you know we have an anti-idling ordinance and we could be reading that in our pre-construction meetings with contractors and we don't you know have the idol outside of my my house right now for 15 minutes and if that were made clear at the beginning then then i think that people would have a sense of these things and i think we have a lot of good things in the books we're just not um figuring out how to how to make them happen that's just one example let alone other things too but um i feel like there's a lot of ways that we could take the things that we have and make them more effective and then also thinking about tweaking ordinances so that encode so that we can be able to meet our goals more quickly so um john is out of town right now but we connect we've connected and we have kind of a beginnings of who we might think about um coming in to the to the group and interviewing for the process and uh we are both excited to take it on it feels like a fruitful area of being able to make some good change happen okay yeah yeah i'm looking forward to that and by john you must mean john mursky yes sorry yes correct okay um so the second item was uh seized capstone proposals i got to recruit a working group um my is there uh any anything any progress on that so far oh you're muted no we're i mean we're not we're well uh yeah i mean we're way out of cycle for that right now um so the time to start thinking about that's in the fall starting you know a month two months from now maybe in september okay so we shouldn't even think about that until september 15th or so well i would love to you know but right now and the other thing that i didn't anticipate is that our all our planning for fall is still going on and as long as that's going on it's all the covid stuff how to make it safe um there's no there's no head room in faculty uh thinking uh or anyone's thinking for that far ahead from ford showing and i apologize for that no no no apologies necessary um so um it's all very understandable okay so we'll move that down to revisiting that on september september at the september meeting okay is that okay yeah that'd be great all right so the third action point would be suggest metrics for ecological improvement related to integrated pest management and actual features improvements so this is a long-term trend that needs to be consistently measured over time so chris and rita and kerry were going to discuss this does anybody um have anything to relate to that at this point well we talked recently but we um we really just got to the point and carrie jump in if you want um got to the point of saying that that the the work for pollinators would be kind of folded into whatever what else is working on um what else we're working on for the natural features group and so gonna be some kind of coordination with that okay that's the the start that i have carrie would you like to add yeah we also uh considered the answer we got from jen lawson about what we can do next and what we can do to help and she said there's nothing at this point so we kind of got stuck a little there but um i think we're still going to move forward one of the ideas that we had before was doing a certification program to reduce turf grass and that was one of our ideas um but we haven't we haven't talked to jen about that lately but we also have to consolidate all of our goals and come up with a priority list of priorities with the new natural features committee which is now the pollinators committee with the water group not committee the pollinators working group and the water working group is now in the natural features okay okay yeah fair enough you know um we um um as i said before i think it's good to select some specific goals that we can meet with the resources we have available you know to try to help the city and the council as much as we can um according to our bylaws so um you know metrics are going to be part of that but they're kind of up in the air as well because i had a discussion with john about this and uh you know it's not clear that the sustainability dashboard that was set up in 2012 is um really gonna is really working moving forward and um so there needs to be some discussions with the city administrator about this and um you know and how performance metrics are actually going to be managed within the city and um and how to go forward with the um you know the uh the dashboard that we inherited from 2012 from the work that was done in 2011-2012 um you know which is a bit worrisome but i think it's important that we um are able to demonstrate um you know tangible tangible work products and having goals and metrics are very important to that end all right so the next so my understanding is that you um there's going to be a meeting later on sometime before the august meeting and um you all are going to sort through all this and so we'll put this on the agenda then for the august meeting okay so um steve yep i just want to add one other thing that the natural features group is working on an ordinance update for um trees so um just consider that something to be in the pipeline oh yeah yeah we'll discuss that more um later in the meeting about the revised goals in response to a20 okay so um all right so um and then the next the fourth item here was going forward osi staff will submit asks to the working groups for discussion and refinement and then proceed to the full commission for discussion so i think this would be a more effective process than giving all giving all of us um ideas at one mission at one commission meeting so i think it'd be good to just process it a bit in the working group level and then see what happens so um i'm hoping to get um i have not talked to missy about that yet um so i'm going to make that uh i'll see how that goes and report at the august meeting about how what kind of process we're going to have for processing some of these more general tasks that missy had because we all want to support the a20 plan but we did not register many specific asks when missy talked to us at the last meeting on june 25th so i think this would be a good process is there any um anybody that wants to say anything about this topic right now okay so the next item is um to consolidate the working group smart goals and uh and so uh that i think everybody's um everybody's done that on the different working groups of course uh some things are still in flux uh but that was we proceed to the next item on the agenda here which is the revised goals in response to a20 so i expect we'll have quite a lot of um discussion about this um what i've done is i got i got these documents from the solid waste working group um the natural features working group you know the pollinators and the um um and the water quality group and um i consolidated them into a google document um i sent out an email sharing it with everybody i'm not sure if everybody's had the time to look at it but people had a chance to look at it okay well um i will be consolidated of all the working groups finally installed the solid waste form yeah oh um oh no yes yeah later on they they uh yeah so this is part of that document was mentioned about how you know how the these three other working groups decided they were going to consolidate but in um in my mind i think it's very important that for each of our specific goals at least that we ought to have one commissioner to take responsibility for it for advancing that goal i mean for example in the solid waste working group i'm taking personal responsibility for their construction and demolition coordinates and metrics so um by the end of the year i would like to be able to present um you know uh uh i'm not not ready to go to council so but a um that's something ready for um a more refined review by the city staff um and i'm hoping to get that done by september so that would give enough time you know for city staff and council to think about it and look over it a little bit more and um and then see where it goes from there and we can um and then we can all discuss it you know at the october or the early december meeting and decide whether to uh file a resolution and vote on a resolution or vote on a counter draft uh ordinance to pass on the council so uh that's just one example um so i can go down through the list here does anybody wish to say anything at this point um shannon i think um our review of coding ordinances is going to take longer than a month so i think it would be more realistic for us to for for our group to do it in october rather than september because there's there's there's a big old book to go through so sure now of course so let's see first of all did everybody find this uh a helpful process um you know using google docs and sharing it this yeah this is what we've been doing within the um you know within the sideways working group so yeah bob oh you're beauty yeah sorry um i just i don't know if this is possible but i wonder if it might be a good idea for you to share your screen and and show the document uh you know in case anyone is watching at home that's a good question so let's do an experiment um [Music] i will try to share my screen so the host is disabled attendee screen sharing so the host is ctn i believe so um i'm not able to do that um so that's a great idea i think i'll write down that down as an action point to see how that can be done you know used in this uh yes scaling made you the host me yeah if you want to share it oh okay here i go so can everybody see this now okay so i've included the um working group minutes from our um last meeting which we always hold the solid waste working group meets on the first thursday of the month now and um and so the action points are here as i mentioned i'm organizing the information and i'm going to be i'm going to be responsible for the success of construction and demolition ordinance and metrics by the end of the year so just to review what smart goals are you know they're specific meaningful actionable relevant and timely so as i mentioned i would like to have a really pretty well-polished draft document um consistent with michigan law hopefully and available for discussion by the um by the september meeting okay um john mursky is going to lead a smart goal to measure and institute community-wide refrigerant recycling uh john's not here right now but um i'll just say in his behalf that uh you know this was one of the asks the specific asks of of missy during her talk last june um i would remind everybody that these refrigerant gases have over a thousand times the greenhouse gas potential as carbon dioxide they're a whole order of magnitude higher than anything else and they're not just used for refrigerants they're also used as uh blowing as uh for blowing um injector for molding of plastic foam and they're also used in um you know for spray cans for hairspray and things like that so this came out as the number one um kind of uh kind of goal and project drawdown so john mursky is working with staff and other people in the solid race working group and we're going to try to see what can be done about at least tracking and trying to get a tighter control and public awareness about this um threat to the the going to the planet um other than that um i need to talk to um city staff molly majeski and eileen about longer term goals of consumption consumption-based greenhouse gold gas metrics and a possible capstone project proposal and processes for optimizing the end-use value of recyclables and organics it looks like the um since we met last uh the murph contract has been approved by city council in principle which was a a major milestone and so um already it looks like recycling on ann arbor will be the contractor who will be helping uh provide data for their end use and uh and helping us optimize diversion but again that's the city staff that are really responsible for this i'm not the contractor so we'll figure out a process to um to get that working as smoothly as possible and i've just listed the discussion highlights um for people's information so now for the water natural features of pollinators working groups the um the major action in the last month was that they've all agreed to combine their respective working groups so i'll let the leaders of those groups talk about these later on about how they see this working so um are there any questions first of all about um the solid waste working group actions or goals by john steve yeah just a question just looking back in an email you sent to the working group on tuesday and you had also mentioned um citywide but i think he meant year-round composting oh yeah that's another item i don't know if you want to bring that in now yeah i could do that um it's city-wide but also um by that i meant uh commercial as well as residential because right now uh commercial none of the commercial recycling or organics collections is um really track the city staff are working on that right now but it'd be good to get something set in place so here i'll so this is a shared document that means that people should feel free to comment on it and edit it so um i would uh in the future i'll probably give everybody editing privileges or at least commenting privileges um before the meeting so that we have a summary of the working groups um available before we uh before each meeting so um anything else about solid waste working group i can't see everybody's hand because um when i'm sharing my screen i can only see four people so you'll have to speak up okay so bob do you want to comment on the on the water working group sure sorry did you have something else to say no i don't know um yeah so these were uh the main things that we talked about uh earlier in the year um the the floodplain ordinance um in the form of a zoning overlay district is you know moving forward sort of independent of of the water working group but um i did uh exchange some emails with jerry hancock and um he is happy to present where that's at uh to us at our august meeting um and then we can uh discuss it and potentially uh vote on you know supporting that um as it stands so uh that would be an item for the argus agenda if everyone is amenable to it jerry is available on that date so um so that's one that's moving forward uh quite well um the potential updates to the city green streets ordinance i'm not sure what we were talking about exactly there uh quite frankly but we can um take that up at the first uh joint meeting of of the the larger natural features working group and see what people's thoughts are and hopefully get someone to run with that one the third item is just a pretty simple thing that was talked about um getting some educational signs uh installed out at the argo canoe and kayak livery and um i tried to find this before the meeting i could have sworn that there was some recent city action or at least proposed about um making other improvements at argo you know expanding the parking area and things so if that is in fact the case um you know i think it would be you know pretty easy to just try to jump on that and yeah shannon has some information yeah we just reviewed it um on tuesday night uh for argo improvements and so yes there will be like new sidewalk and a new parking lot and things like that so it is a good time if there's going to be some sort of coordination that goes on yeah so we could just kind of send an email from the commission um to i guess it would be the parks department right shannon correct and um hillary i'm forgetting her last name is the uh the staff person that presented and i think he's been in charge of the design um so we could just kind of uh send an email uh you know suggesting that and if they're willing to do it then we could get into some more specifics um the micro plastics you know this is uh we've heard and i don't have the specific um study or metrics in front of me but we've heard that the huron river is in particularly bad shape in regards to microplastics so i think that would be a really great thing to tackle and you know i'd be willing to to uh take the lead on that if if no one else wants to hopefully by the end of the year maybe come up with just you know some sort of recommendations yeah shane sorry keep jumping in here please i was just part of that committee and we when we talked about it one of the things that we had spoken about with that was um that there were some interesting um products on the market that you could put in your in your um washer and that that actually kind of uh attract microplastics yeah and we talked about perhaps actually having those be sold down at argo right um because people are much more in touch with the river down there so that was one thing that kind of came out as an idea but it hasn't you know gone any further than that so um with all this discussion of argo yeah that might be another kind of interesting thing to add into that list there just as a way of letting that kind of evolve further absolutely so like you know hopefully we can talk about that at the working group level and get some recommendations together for the full commission to consider uh later in the year then the fifth one is really i think more of a communication issue that we can also talk about further i'm not you know i think the other items are more more important frankly um but we can talk about that one as well if at the at the next full working group meeting okay um let's see any any comments again i can't see everybody so you'll have to speak up so um i only have one comment bob and that is that uh i've gathered some papers on microplastics that i'll share with you okay in the meantime great thank you yeah i mean there's some some basic facts are that first of all a major source is fleece you know synthetic fabric and fleece also uh people have measured microplastics that come off of car tires and brake pads in the arctic because if you look at uh the deposition of microplastics about how roughly half comes from the air it's airborne and the other half comes through river runoff into the oceans so this is a this has become a big problem also because these mic uh pollutants on major pollutants like um some um like pfas compounds as well as some some anachronic disrupting compounds will concentrate they will bind to these microplastic particles and of course they they many of them are small enough that they're easily inhaled they're easily ingested and they're absorbed um they're actually small enough that they'll be absorbed by within the cells of your body so it's a potential exposure problem in the long term no reason to be alarmist at this point but it's a good time to check check try to check it and see see what can be done to reasonably control it as a potential safety threat okay so there um if there's no comments about the water working group agenda let's pass on to the pollinator working group montcary well these are actually the two things that i mentioned earlier um the assisting the city staff with the um imp educational implementation and strategy and they don't they don't need our help at the moment and then um drafting and a certification program for oh wait no yeah test pesticide use as well as turf grass area reduction and we haven't um worked on that yet okay and that's all we that do i have any am i missing anything rita you're muted all right sorry yes you covered it thank you okay oh i do want to say though i think that um just considering um the first item that even though jen is addressing it i i think it would be great if we could talk about um developing communications in a way that that has some kind of overall effectiveness and i'm i'm just thinking that we have the the city's communication staff would be great if we could work with them in some ways to get some of these ideas across to the community yeah um um yeah are there any comments on the pollinator working group agenda i have one more thing to add just um piggybacking on what rita said we are we are ready to help in any way and there are a lot of things that we can do we think we could do to help out with getting the word out um so you know we're we're willing and able and um we're just gonna wait for further direction okay yeah that's all good all good but um is there any way you can turn that into a smart goal like to you know finish off something uh by you know by a certain date um as a specific thing i know that it's um it's a continuing process but i think it would be good to try to think about you know what's the tangible goal um so steve i just want to say that i think that we should reach out to um jen lawrence and ask her where we can assist since um she had kind of a direction on that and i think it would be a good thing to do actually because we didn't get much of a chance to talk with her about options last time and i i would like to do is she the uh i mean is she the contact person with city staff or um yeah she is for the um the imp work and educational outreach okay that was that was her presentation last time right yeah okay is there uh i mean is there something the parks commission can help out with here i think the smart goal sounds good um to put that on there because we have asked well what three three or four times um this the working group to help and they didn't need our help but i liked stephen your idea of having a put a a goal and a deadline on there and so that gives us a little more oomph to our requests to have a meeting with them to see how we could implement some of our d our ideas which was to help spread the word and all as carrie mentioned okay thanks dan yeah i mean it's just in my experience you know you things can become unfocused if you don't have a specific you know if you don't have a specific deadline or a goal i mean not like then there are no penalties for going beyond it but just having something is a very useful expectation for everybody to have could i just uh mention that this seems like it is a potential opportunity for seas projects maybe uh in terms of uh educational opportunity here something that could be tested out and then uh fed back through to be able to see what works well in terms of getting this information out about lawn reduction and you know sort of turf area reduction native plants pollinator habitat it seems like there's a lot of overlap with things that students could potentially be interested in um well that sounds like a good idea what do you think uh carrie and rita i think that's a great idea we i think so far from our new natural features committee uh working group we're going to have a lot of projects for the c students when when they do their call for proposals yeah i agree i think it's a great idea and um if we can get with them to develop measurable types of things for these kind of communications that would be super okay so who uh so there's one of your benchmarks for september yeah who wants to make that happen is there a volunteer to propose that to the to seize students uh to have something available yeah they have something kind of fleshed out by september so i think uh sorry if i talk yeah of course i think the ideal thing would be um just on top of my head uh is that if uh people had some general you know everyone on the commission and anyone else that we're connected with uh brainstorm general ideas um for that time and then uh we would also present uh somehow i either i would do it or i'd get someone else to do it um whoever would do it best let's put that away uh to present sort of what the process is and a way to craft what is considered to be a a really good master's project idea one that would of course attract students i don't know why that did that um someone turned off my video i've been hey i'll leave my video off since someone turned it off um and uh yeah so unless uh you guys have a desire to do it a different way um well uh well peck um i mean i think you have to tell us what you know how fleshed out you'd like things to be and by when because i think everybody has a vague idea about what you know what would constitute like a real you know uh um a body of information that would be you know adequate to whatever decision or judgments have to be made to bring it forward but there are going to be several different components that have to go into the project to make it meaningful for the students and to meet their requirements so i think maybe that's what you're talking about in terms of um getting someone to tell us what components have to be part of the project yeah because if it isn't an attractive project to the students and to faculty members then it won't really fly and we're trying to change it so that the client meaning someone in you know related to us and ann arbor would be able to be a client quote-unquote but then we'd want to get a faculty member to help with the client to craft the proposal and then those proposals get put in front of the students later in the fall so the hope is that by the end of the fall students have pretty much picked which project they want to do there are always a good number more projects than there are students um so part of this is making it an interesting project and this you know part of what we would present in um september would be what makes an interesting project because one thing i've been really saddened by as i you know i'm trying hard to push the system get more get more students but also uh i don't know just make the whole process work better is that we've had some really good clients uh who have proposed projects who haven't gotten students and in some cases it's kind of almost embarrassing you know like state legislators you know who get all fired up and then they don't get no and the students don't want to work with them and it's more because the the pitch isn't necessarily good you know it's as much that as the projects are saying not ideal okay so how so pack how would you suggest we um what's how would you what would be a fruitful process well what i love is what i'm hearing here today is we continue this process of coming up with kind of proto ideas uh or just call them ideas and then uh what makes them good for students you know i think the idea we just heard about you know figuring out the best way to communicate environmentally sound practices to citizens and then tracking how well different approaches work uh that would be good and certainly there's a lot of literature on that and the big question is what works in ann arbor i suppose i mean that's that's that level of idea and so it doesn't have to be really detailed at this stage um and then we have to somehow i have to somehow find the right folks um and i don't know if the best way to do it is in a meeting like we're having now but it might be we create what some kind of uh working group on this right or whatever mechanism that exists for those who have those ideas to sit with a couple of our staff one or more of our staff and c's to talk about what makes a good master's projects and then there can be some iteration and then that means by the end of september we could actually have a bunch of ideas that are being implemented or at least put in front of the students you know but then it would have to of course we have to build the link with the faculty member and do all that kind of stuff too in the meantime you know in other words is it a good thing for this commission to be doing it or is it a better thing for the commissioners who are interested in this uh plus the folks on their working groups are interested in this uh plus some seized folks to do this separately and it would be a zoom call just like this but it would be just focused on that topic well um i mean as the chair i have according to our bylaws i have the power to um you know to schedule a special meeting there would be a public meeting but otherwise the only idea that comes immediately in my mind is that we can funnel ideas up through the working groups and then consolidate them into a document and then um and then um and then and then you can make a comment on it back as part of that group well yeah but i think what's uh that's missing a really vital part of this which is to have interaction between those who are thinking of the idea for a project and those in the school who really understand how to make good projects in other words it's that iteration that turns a idea into a cool project and that is the only way you're going to get students interested and so the question is is a special meeting idea might work just fine as long as i can invite some other you know colleagues to come in you know because as a dean i know quite a bit about the master's projects but i'm not the guy who runs them and you want to have some you want some people really experienced and you know making them happen okay well no this is good so um i think i feel like a pin was put into the bubble of like having another meeting which i i would agree with but uh it may be better for just to have an action point now where commissioners forward their ideas to you okay and then you can deal with them as you you know as appropriate just tell us what level of detail we need to get into at this point okay um so before i tell you what detail level of detail when you say deal with them as appropriate do you mean i could then have an offline meeting with them yeah oh cool uh yes so i don't think uh you know i think uh you know just a few sentences would i mean to a paragraph would be great um and once i see what the ideas look like at any level i will sort of ask some additional questions perhaps you don't get a better articulation of what's going on but i think the key thing will be not so much to spend time really working on the details of the proposed project but just to have a you know like a 10 000 foot view of the project and then in a meeting when we talk about it with knowledgeable people in seas we'll be able to calibrate our ideas to the right level of detail and people could then go away and refine their ideas and fill in the missing detail and then i would have some folks at seas who would be able to interact with each person to make sure the proposal is well thought out and then we would chop them around i i suppose i you know i think the next step would be shopping around the faculty members and and uh and then once the faculty member you have a faculty member and you have a client then in a good idea that's articulated then you're ready to go to the students okay now i have a better idea of the process myself um anybody else have any questions or comments yeah i do um it seems like a we're going to have a few ideas coming out of the natural features working group so um we can with all of this information now that we have in the background that we have we can develop some ideas in our elevator pitch so to speak to the students and um and um pack you can put us in touch with any of your staff members from from there i think that our group can can take it from here that would be fine and it sounds like you've been through it carrie i mean okay so you've been to one of our fairs well i've been i've worked with students i've worked with the masters students yeah from season okay great because we have and every year we have a client fair too where the students and all the clients come and they actually set up tables it's really kind of fun the thing that i think stinks about it you know it's just it's not ideal um and but we're trying every year to make it better um i'm really great that you're doing that thank you um but i'm i'm happy to do that yep okay so just send me your ideas yeah and i that sounds like the most efficient way to do it she's she knows what she's doing so send me your ideas and i will put you each at person who generates an idea in touch with someone and sees and you'll be able to iterate and make a pitch do you want to set a deadline for that again you know i don't think anything's going to happen until september but if you want to start sending them to me i can start collating them what i already started doing while we were talking and sending an email to try and figure out when people would be receptive i just have this funny feeling that right now there's no bandwidth for it but i think there will be uh you know by the time the semester starts okay i mean we're figuring out amazingly arcane details you know like how do you root students through a building after before and after class safely you know i mean that's kind of stuff we're working on now yeah um yeah okay and a lot of these i have one more thing on that i'm sorry for interrupting but um and a lot of these projects are going to be they don't have to be in person so they might be more well suited for the remote learning atmosphere also music to my ears i propose you just put kerry in charge of this whole thing no i mean you're i mean you're right on target and i really appreciate it i'm not i'm just being stupid um but she's right we really need projects this year probably that are not going to require uh in-person interactions one of the nice things though is we have approval to do human subjects you know that got taken away uh in the governor's earliest you know the more shut down stages of the pandemic now we have it back and that means that students can actually work remotely um with or socially distance with people so doing survey work and things like that are possible doing field work is possible too but it has to be done under certain circumstances precautions so all that stuff i mean makes this year even more interesting than most and more reason to start early working with the staff so we'll just start setting your ideas i will find out uh who is the best person to interact with and i'll i'll set that all up okay i'll put september one that'd be better i think or you know whatever labor day is sure sir we just want to make sure that um you know there's enough time to process it yeah you know part of my job is to keep my team from exploding right they're pretty close right now okay so um any more discussion about the uh pollinator working group agenda okay so um let's go on to the natural features working group agenda uh chris is not here but uh carrier rita can speak up about this yeah commissioner bannister also is a member um so we um just heard from uh chris that he's unable to make a meeting tomorrow um i proposed that we do some uh kind of subgroup work on the ordinance for heritage trees that we've been working on uh in the meantime between now and and our august meeting so i'm hoping to get that organized um but that is yet to be done um so we are also working on a google doc revision of um the the ordinance on its natural features specifically it has is some large trees here it is trees rita could you um remind me what's the definition of a heritage tree and a leg and the landmark tree um i don't think i can do it off the top of my head but landmark is is a a large tree a heritage tree is exceptionally large and old for its species and we have a species list and we have um sizes uh based on diameter at breast height for each of the species for each of the categories for a landmark tree and heritage so that's an a star point but we're looking at at other kinds of things to support their protection have you all been discussing um some kind of a date when um this might be ready for the full commission we have not said it okay um you know just a gentle encouragement i hear it yeah i hear it um so um i know that chris intends to uh join us and meet uh in august so and as i said i offered to try and get a subgroup of us together to uh critique the work that's been done so there has been some initial review and um we'll see if we can make it move further and okay um well um yeah why don't you just update us at the next commission meeting sure hey stephen i know you can't see everybody so this is shannon raising her hand okay i would just add i would just add one thing to to read his description and that is that landmark trees are currently part of the regulatory process and um i go that's something that that any developer will um encounter as they put aside plan uh forward through the city the heritage tree is a new category and so that's kind of what's different about it is that um you know any tree is a landmark tree i think for an oak it's like 18 inches at diameter breast height but it's it's regular you know so so is one that's six feet across you know so and they have like the same kind of um uh kind of penalty if you will you know it's it's 50 of whatever the diameter is but um so the heritage tree is a whole different category that they would be adding on and so that's i think one of the big changes that the group would be uh working on so landmarks exist heritage doesn't okay [Music] i just might add this is in on number 11.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
so i pledge allegiance to divide of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all right good evening everyone evening let us uh begin with uh lisa can we call the role member o'sullivan here member o'connor here member gracias here member murphy peterson here remember dalton remember hardik remember sarah tory here okay we uh perform we are ready to go so the first item of business would be a motion for the acceptance of the bills that is found on page three three yes in the bottom of page three oh man i moved that the school board approved the routine business services resolution as presented okay any comments or questions all right then [Music] that's fault sullivan yes member o'connor yes member gracias yes remember murphy peterson yes remember serratore yes the motion passes okay uh so at this time we will now uh present the 2021 reopening plan then dr gabe you want to start yes yes thank you very much um there's a powerpoint on the screen but for your convenience there's a powerpoint at your desk if it's easier for you to follow either way um i want to start out as i said many times as i share with the board that i'm very proud of all the work that the oversight committee has done over the last couple weeks working uh diligently to create a plan that i'm very proud to present and that we all are very proud to present that we believe is respectful to all our stakeholders and i think tonight shares to the board and at the end of our presentation every member of the oversight committee has a little part to play and presenting it tonight at the end of course we'll entertain any questions you have regarding our plan so this planning began quite some time we this is to provide the best possible academic experience and being safe by adhering to the academic health and safety guide guidance set by the illinois state board of education idphdc um as recent as maybe about uh four hours ago three hours ago we got another 103 page report from id from isb on some guidelines on the uh reopening school so it is very fluid and we will we have and will continue to adhere to the guideline guidance from the state and these state agencies what is very important though as we planned our begin to plan is to get stake holder input so we did a student family and staff survey and we got some great results we're sharing with you about 83.8 percent of families are likely to send their students to school when we reopen on site about 73 students 70 families and 61 percent of staff at that point felt somewhat safe to com to completely safe returning to school on site we continued during the last couple weeks as recently as this week to continue to communicate with all staff members with it with the getting feedback from them on where we're moving so some people may wonder why we're at january it's not january at all july 23rd and you know some schools we know presented their plan last week some earlier this week however you know in this 2 30 we believe in the collaborative effort so when you have a collaborative effort a collaborative process takes time to be respectful to get input and to really look at the data as you move forward so we began with 13 subcommittees including representatives of teacher association support staff and food service on the screen and then your website and your um packet you see a list of the 13 committees and there was an advisory committee it was an advisory committee to give us input in the event we went back what are some of the issues that we need to face during you know with all of those subcommittees and then from the subcommittee the oversight committee which is the three assistant superintendents the three principals myself carlos uh erdy is uh i guess the ex-officio but she keeps all our notes and makes things look pretty and comes out these designs and all that and make sure that we stay on target so the plan i want to share with you tonight that the again the oversight committee will go in much more detail we feel alliance with restore illinois plan so restore illinois phases one two three italians will work on our d230 proud return to school plan of stage one will be fully remote if the state goes back to one two three phases that ties into what we call stage one when state of illinois is in phase four which they are now are t230 proud has two stages stage two and stage three stage two is suggesting 25 percent of students on site on a rotating schedule and move to at the right time to stage three which is a fifty percent on-site rotating schedule the schedule and the actual periods how it's going to work will be explained in a few minutes restore illinois phase five is when there's a vaccine readily available vaccine that is d230 stage 4 fully on site i would imagine as a state goes from phase 4 to phase 5 and we transition from stage three to stage four it will be a gradual phase as well as we move to the next uh phase one they wanna make very clear is that the remote will look quite different the guidelines set by isb for the cover 19 shelter order were vastly different as it's going to go into new school year when students are remote and they will be through the 25 and with a 50 in our plan students will attend class through a live connection daily attendance will be recorded for each class period and quite different from the plan in the spring traditional grading practices also will be in effect so moving forward we are looking forward to welcoming students on site or remotely we will continue to work to ensure quality instruction delivery for all students on site or remotely we will continue to file idph health and safety protocols they are a key component for our return to school plan we firmly believe the social emotional supports of the students are necessary and they will be provided by our school personnel on site or remotely our guidance evolves will evolve we will reassess the plan as needed as the guidance changes from state agencies and i thank everyone for the continuous their continued to be compassionate flexible and passionate for our student staff is very appreciated in this very very fluid plan we believe the benefits of this plan are are multiple it reduce the number of students on campus to approximately 25 to 50 percent to promote physical distance on buses hallways and in classes through states two and stage three it allows us our schools to adhere to the idph and cdc safety protocols through states two and three it allows for in-person instruction and connection among students and staff and clearly address the concerns raised by students families and staff regarding motivation to remain engaged in learning including grades and making attendance count it does support the academic social emotional needs of our students with dedicated check-in time every day monday tuesday thursday friday first an advisory to check the social emotional aspects of our students this provides dedicated time for our staff to communicate with families and students if this allows for continuation of educational virtually should a student need to self quarantine but still feel well enough to take part in classes because we have both and this structure we believe can easily transition transition to a fully remote should the need arise due to changing restore on a restore illinois phases or other needs so the options for our families is a blended on-site remote program or fully remote at this time eric olsen principal stag high school will con will explain the blended on-site remote program well good evening everyone very good to see all of you the blended on-site remote plan comprises stage 2 and stage 3 of the d230 proud reopening plan this model blends the use of both on-site and remote learning experiences for our students these two stages divide student student attendance to reduce the overall number of students in the school but will still provide both direct instruction and remote instruction simultaneously stage two would see 25 percent of the students in the school on a rotating basis with all students attending school on site one day a week stage 3 transitions to 50 percent of the students on site with all students attending school twice a week those students who are in the school building will follow their class schedule in a traditional manner moving from class to class those who are remote will follow their schedule attending classes with their on-site classmates virtually at the same time therefore students at home will be attending and participating in all of their classes and following the same schedule with the d230 proud plan flexibility is built in to allow for accommodations for students who receive special education services english learner services 504 plan accommodations and other students who have been identified as needing additional support important to note with this plan and different from the state mandates in the spring traditional grading practices will be used and attendance will be taken for both on-site and remote learning students attendance will be taken each period for both on-site and remote learners the d230 proud reopening plan allows families to choose to have their child participate in a fully remote manner and there are a variety of reasons why that families may choose this option and we believe in the importance of allowing families the flexibility to make this choice for their child students who are participating in a fully remote option do not attend school on site however they are enrolled and participating in classes with their classmates virtually with their class scheduler with their class schedule attendance procedures and grading procedures being the same as their classmates who are on site directions and a family declaration form will be sent to families with an august 7th deadline to allow families time to discuss the need to their child and what plan best fits their needs parents make their commitment to a blended on-site or fully remote for the entirety of the first semester or until the state of illinois moves to phase five of the restore illinois plan and our district can move to stage four of the d230 proud reopening plan with 100 of students receiving on-site instruction now uh hand it over to my colleague mr nolting from andrew high school good evening thank you for allowing us to present our plan as eric had mentioned um the schedule in general would have essentially students divided into four groups based on alphabet these four groups would then be fluid based on if we're in our stage two format or our stage three in stage two one group of students would be live in person instruction while the other three quarters or 75 percent of our students would be learning synchronously and remotely and then those students would rotate each day of the week with the exception of wednesdays which for all students and staff would be a remote day as we migrate into stage three then we were able to combine those two groups so in this example groups a and b together and then fifty percent of our students would be in school twice a week for on-site instruction and to the other students would be at home learning remotely one of the aspects that was something that we are very proud of um and i think one of the members of the teacher association leadership referred to as a trailblazing approach to re-entry for school um is our first couple weeks back as you can see uh or as you know as many of you have students yourself our kids have not been in the building since march and our staff has not been in the building since march and now they're coming back to a completely different learning platform based on the circumstances of the pandemic this approach that you see on this calendar example is a thoughtful and meaningful approach to maximize teacher acclimatization back to the building and adjust their learning platforms accordingly this platform allows our staff to come back for an extended period of time for institute days and remote planning instruction days in which they will be working as a collegial team to plan for instruction we will have two days of student freshmen and transfers coming to the school in groups of a a b and c d support uh divided by alpha and then we will begin an orientation week which i'll get to on our next slide that will have a quarter of our students attending live and in person allowing us to get them used to the uh process which will include transportation and other things that will come later in this presentation and other students will be participating in an orientation experience like i said i'll get to in a moment and then we will be able to at that point assess continuation to move to potentially phase three where 50 percent of our students are building these additional planning days allow for teachers and administrators to employ the instructional model and adjust to the still fluid as dr gabe mentioned even as of today uh updates we received from isb and the idph the quarter attendance provides an appropriate phase in for students that will also help inform administration that our processes and procedures that we've been planning on this summer are safe and effective for our students and our staff and then the orientation is an original and significant component we have to realize at no juncture at the beginning of this year will school look the same for our kids we have to make them comfortable and make them familiar and make them aware of what these new expectations are what you see here is a model of what our orientation would look like so if you get a vision the week of the 24th one-fourth of our students will be in school meeting with their teachers going through their schedules getting used to the procedures and processes that we uh that we are under obligation to employ other students will be participating in online uh synchronous presentations um that will include include various topics wednesdays will be an orientation to the remote learning day for all students but these three days that students will be participating in orientation meetings will include three clusters one would be led by the main office which would be including a welcome map an orientation to the grading process which will be distinctly different from what they experience in the previous remote learning platform orientation to athletics and co-curriculars whatever that may look like in the next few weeks and an overview of academic supports and technology resources while during this these phases there'll be a separate presentation from our dean's office that will review our ppe expectations transportation services parking hallway expectations which will be unique orientation to the symptom screening and nurse services as well as other topics and then finally our guidance how do you leverage your guidance support services how do you reach out for social emotional support if needed how do you go about college and career readiness because we're not slowing down on our kids getting ready for life after high school so that is a little bit of an orientation to our schedule welcome miss tyrell dr tyrell thank you mr and good evening everyone as my colleagues have shared appreciate the opportunity to be here tonight with all of you to share our plan now that you have heard how the blended on-site remote and fully remote options align to stages two and three of the d230 proud reopening plan i will share a bit about the specific bell schedule that students will follow during stages two and three the bell schedule that you will see on the next slide applies to both the blended on-site remote and fully remote options a positive component of the plan is that it provides a consistent daily schedule for all students those attending in-person and those attending remotely as dr gay shared previously even though students attending remotely will attend through a live connection to class each day will begin with advisory one of the cornerstones of district 230 giving teachers time to check in with students regarding their academic and social emotional needs additionally you will see in the bell schedule that passing periods will be shortened to encourage students to go directly to class and not congregate in hallways now let's take a look at the bell schedule as you can see zero hour starts at 8 35 a.m and advisory at 9 30 a.m the school day ends at 3 p.m periods 1 3 7 and 8 are 35 minutes in length while periods 4 5 and 6 are 42 minutes in length in order to ensure enough time for lunch periods as noted on this slide wednesday on wednesdays student attendance begins at 1004 a.m there will be no zero hour and no advisory on wednesdays within the proposed framework zero hour class periods are 44 minutes in length on monday tuesday thursday and friday to account for not having class on wednesdays and now mr olson is going to come back up to the podium and talk about ppe and physical distancing hello again so with the d230 proud reopening plan ppe and physical distancing must be utilized to provide a safe environment for students and staff guidelines from the illinois department of public health requires that face masks must be used and worn at all times on campus and on the bus these face masks must meet the standards established by idph for use by the general public exceptions to the map to mask usage by an individual will only be made in accordance with the guidance of idph and through the approval of in of an individualized health plan process from our pupil personnel services department and our nurse's office this approval must occur before the first day of school due to the fact that all students and staff will be wearing masks students and staff will be required to have their ids visible at all times schools will be providing their students lanyards to wear their id's on in the district 230 proud reopening plan ideas play an important role and will be utilized during the day to also allow students to access other services such as transportation and food services this will be explained in more detail during this presentation schools will be providing one reusable washable face mask for each student and staff member replacement masks will need to be provided by the family and replacements will also be available for purchase at the school the d230 proud reopening plan has been designed to promote physical distancing of students and staff idph and the cdc recommend keeping a six foot physical distance in order to avoid close contact the illinois department of public health defines close contact for the purposes of consideration of quarantining individuals as an individual who has who was within six feet of a coveted positive individual with symptoms for more than 15 minutes physical distancing markers will be placed in common areas such as offices bathrooms etc along with the designation of one-way hallways and stairwells where possible within the school building now onto dr wheaton good evening i want to talk about health certification along with ppe and physical distancing in order to be on campus district 230 will adhere to the illinois department of public health rules regarding students staff certifying that they are not present presently exhibiting symptoms related to coca-19 the process for this will be communicated in august according to the to the most current igph and cdc guidance those symptoms include fever of 100.4 degrees or higher cough shortness of breath sore throat chest tightness extreme fatigue loss of sense of taste or smell diarrhea muscle aches or headaches in terms of coping 19 symptoms when the student or staff member has symptoms they must see a medical provider and be fever-free for 72 hours without the use of fever-reducing medication and for at least 10 days in terms of being assessed when their symptoms first appear before returning to school even with symptoms or a positive test if students feel well enough they may continue learning by attending class remotely each of our schools has a registered school nurse on staff who will follow the illinois department of public health guidelines including an isolation area for anyone who shows copin 19 symptoms in the event that there is a covid19 test positive those with the positive copin 19 test must follow the illinois department of public health quarantine rules a medical release will be required to return to school illinois department of public health guidelines will be followed and those include individuals who did not have close contact with the person who is sick can return immediately after disinfection those who had contact with someone who tested positive for copin 19 or is suspected of having a coven 19 infection should isolate at home and monitor for symptoms for 14 days close contact means the individual is what was within six feet of the individual symptoms for more than five minutes 15 minutes i'm going to turn it over to mr nolting again who's going to talk about hallways and classrooms as we do our best to control social distancing physical distancing our hallways and classrooms will be adjusted specifically to accommodate our lower enrollment based on phase two and phase or stage two and stage three we will have increased supervision in the hallway to ensure that students are not congregating and moving as they as they move forward through the hallways from class to class we will be incorporating one-way hallways and stairwells wherever possible to hopefully ensure that there are no congestion areas in our hallways our water fountains will be shut down however we will be encouraging students to bring water bottles because our water bottle filling stations will be available for students as well um and our classrooms will be adjusted um in order to maximize physical distancing in accordance to ibph and dsb guideline at this point we are looking at all desks facing in the same direction and space depart excuse me seating charts will allow will be followed excuse me will be established and followed so that we do have the ability to do any tracing that we may end up having to do if a student contracts or has symptoms we are going to designate teacher zones in the classroom as again as mr olsen acknowledge we need to remove the the opportunity for students and staff to be within six feet for 15 minutes or longer so teacher zones will be established to make sure that that distancing is maintained and we will be looking at signage that will be posted throughout the building to remind students and staff and visitors potentially of the rules about hand washing using masks and maintaining physical distance as you have heard throughout tonight's presentation within stages two and three of the d230 proud reopening plan approximately 25 to 50 percent of our students will be on campus this framework also allows for significantly fewer students on a bus than the idph allows distancing protocols will be followed and students will be required to properly wear face masks students will also be required to wear ids and lanyards which must be visible students will load the bus seats in the back to the front and unload the bus front to back in order to limit interaction and contact there will be no eating or drinking on buses and as always concerns regarding bus issues should be reported to the dean's office each school will review parking pass procedures to accommodate more students driving to campus this should also reduce the number of students riding buses to our schools each of our schools will be setting and communicating specific arrival times and doors the school plans will have specific entrances for walkers bus riders drivers and those students that are dropped off in order to best implement social distancing students will go directly to their advisory when arriving those students attending in person for zero hour will go directly to their zero hour class lockers will not be used as we start the school year but the process will be reviewed as the weather changes later in the semester accommodations regarding locker use can be made for students with medical needs each of our schools will communicate the specific process through town hall meetings just as students will need to go directly to class when arriving to campus they must exit campus immediately after school except for those participating in school-approved co-curriculars which are pending as we follow guidance from the idph isbe and ihsa and now john lavelle's going to come up to talk about cleaning guidelines and food service thank you yeah cleaning protocols are being enhanced to respond to the need for a heightened level of cleaning our director of facilities dave keating has worked closely with our contractor cleaning contractor communication has been ongoing once a plan is approved meetings will occur to finalize a cleaning protocol our transportation coordinator nakisha williams and i have both visited uh with each of our transportation carriers and have reviewed processes and procedures for cleaning the buses and the chemicals they're using have been reviewed by our cleaning team and approved to be cdc approved cleaning products besides nightly cleaning and cleaning throughout the day deep cleaning will be performed on wednesdays and saturdays additional electrostatic sprayers have been ordered for each building to be able to cover large areas in an efficient manner hand sanitizer stations are being added near each washroom by entrances and in common areas and mr keating has also ordered disinfecting wipes and a supply will be provided in each of the classrooms moving on to food service principal has been working to identify areas at each of the buildings to accommodate added spaces for students to eat lunch a system will be in place so students are directed to go to their assigned eating areas the use of dividers is being explored since new guidance came out yesterday allowing large spaces to be divided into more than one area you know it's important we you know get the kids to lunch as quickly as we can so finding spaces close by the cafeteria is important congestion and eating areas will be reduced because juniors and seniors will assign study halls there will be no self-serve stations in the cafeteria in the cafeteria the director of food service mary morgan has developed both hot and cold lunch options with some level of variety but selections will be reduced considerably face masks can be removed once students are seated or they can maintain social distancing payment scanners have been purchased and communic and communication is planned to only allow a cashless touchless process for checkout the cashier will also have the ability to look up students in the system or to manually enter an id but students will not be using a keypad at checkout breakfast and afternoon grill will be eliminated to avoid students congregating at these times in the morning and afternoon and just after three o'clock food service will be distributing frozen take-home items to those students who wish to buy or receive meals for days they are not in attendance these meals will be available for both free and paid students dr drager's up next good evening everybody nice to see you in person i hope everyone's enjoying their uh their summers to the best of their abilities my pleasure being here tonight i have the privilege of sharing um our plans for social emotional learning technology and co-curriculars for for social emotional learning as always our our staff remain ready willing and able to provide services for all of our students our psychologists our social workers our counselors are looking forward to welcoming our students whether it's through advisory whether it's through individual meetings whether it's through virtual or face-to-face meetings when the students are in the building we are ready to go with our students our advisory as you heard earlier from our principals are going to be in the first period of the day to welcome our students in and they'll be scheduled every day for that extra relationship building with our students we know that this is going to be a critical component of our students school day we're looking at ways to design additional supports for our staff to be prepared to work with our students we know that many of our students will be experiencing a lot from where we left them off in march so we need to be ready to support our students on their return in um for technology under the leadership of our brilliant cto mr john connolly again we've been we've been um one-to-one with our technology for for years now so our students are very well used to having their chromebook supports um so we've been doing this already for a while our staff is also very well prepared working with our technology we're focusing on supporting staff and students on virtual learning opportunities as well as expanding our blended learning opportunities our students we worked very efficiently mr connolly again under his leadership ensuring all of our students have technology supports at home and internet at home through offering hot spots and we'll be very quick to assist our incoming eighth grade students particularly students in need that might need internet service as well so we already will be working at ways to identifying our students to make sure they have the tech that they need co-curriculars are a little bit different as dr gay explained earlier today the rules of the game change daily we're watching very closely to see how how this proceeds and we'll be following guidance from idphsb and ihsa we're hoping to be able to run some of our extracurriculars if they're approved we we hope to run them mostly virtual and our main goal will be safety um and you know we want to try to have our students have as many experiences as they possibly can here at the high school but we need to ensure that they are safe in doing so so that's an update from the tech co-curricular and sel point thank you look at that drier i have to i'm going to cover the other two stages of d230 proud one and four so stage one is if restore illinois is in phase one two three and that's a fully remote plan the full remote plan will mirror the blind that i blended on-site remote plan as much as possible to assure that when we if we do go to stage one we have a smooth transition for our students between the stages if fully remote the same bell schedule will be used as dr tyrell talked about earlier all the classes will be held five days a week the same as a blended on-site remote plan and we will continue with traditional grading and attendance procedures will be in place also special service department will communicate with their families to assure that accommodation are being met as possible iap iep provisions will be met and special programs to communicate to address specific needs as always part of d230 co-curricular sponsors and advisors will develop plans to promote participation in remote setting whenever possible our amazing pps service team will be available remotely we will continue with our free and reduced lunch for students and as always the district will follow the state idpa cdc guidelines which will remind we which will may require us to change our plan as we move along and d230 proud stage four again aligns with restore illinois phase five that's our fully onsite plan it is only possible if a vaccine or cure is readily available and district 230 will move to fully on site when illinois moves to phase five in accordance with state guidelines but i'm confident we'll have to transition to that as well now carla will explain the communication plan so we realize that this is a lot of information that we just shared with the board in our presentation tonight so we have a robust communication plan in place to make sure that our family students and community understand the plan can consider their options and make the choice that is right for their family so tonight we are presenting the presentation for your approval tomorrow if approved the communication plan and the choice form for parents uh to let us know which decision they have made in stage two will be sent out through phone email text mobile app website social media we've also created some videos and we're in the process of translating our documents into the top languages that our families speak to make sure that everyone has the information that they need that information will all be available at our dedicated website d230.org coven19 once families have the information in their hands they will then have the opportunity to attend virtual meetings that will be held by each of our campuses so stag will hold their virtual meeting on thursday july 30th and sandberg and andrew will hold their meetings on tuesday august 4th specific details and invitations will come directly from those campuses and an important date to understand is that friday august 7th is the deadline to choose an option the blended on-site remote or the fully remote option and i'm going to walk us through the choice form of mr nolting would you mind clicking on that button on the silver computer walked away from the microphone i apologize for that how our computer is set up i can't actually click on the form at the moment but the form is very easy to fill out it's just a matter of a few questions you'll be asked to select which school you attend which option you are picking and then there are a couple specific questions to those uh particular options you hit submit and the information has been uh sent to the school that will come out um with the plan uh tomorrow um to families and it'll be a very easy uh process for people to go through i just like to add to that that choice form it also talks about also parents will give us an idea how they're going to transport their students be a bus walk drive drop off it also also asked what kind of they plan for lunch bring their own lunch buy a lunch or in between it helps us plan for lunches we're suggesting um sac lunch i don't know i say these words are like who thinks of these words but brown bag one stack lunch i don't know these you know um and people know that right so it will help us determine with our buses of you know numbers on bus as well as lunch so um i think mr olson put this form together i think am i missing anything else on there uh no but included in there are just reminders of the procedures for everything you know you select fully remote you're selecting for the semester reminders that if you're coming on site or selecting the on-site remote that that you're required to follow all of the guidelines i'll find by the district in school that are aligned with idph so all of that is is built into the system of checks and double checks and reminders i mean as you can see there's you know i thank the oversight committee for their participation you see much work isn't put into this plan much thought uh it's much much a lot of work and much work to come if the void approves this plan tonight we have we know we have a lot of work out of us we have a lot of work and providing and um solidifying the professional development it has to take place there when the staff comes back we have a lot of work that's going to be done with with the buildings you know and getting prepared which they have been working on that but um again that's why we're presenting this tonight so we're gonna answer questions on the board we will have an opportunity in a few minutes we have no public comment present but we do have some comments that were sent to the um website today right yesterday and today last couple days last couple days which will read out loud so they're part of the record um but mr serratore i don't know if you want to see if there's any more questions before you read those you want to read those first or yeah um no i'd like to thought any thoughts on the plan the court may have any thoughts on the plan yeah i mean again as dr gay just said i mean i i'd like to thank everybody who was involved in this i i mean i know that you guys have put in hours upon hours upon hours to put this together and you have taken every option into consideration when you've made this plan and i know you've come up with the plan and then the state changed the rules and you had to start from scratch again and you've done that numerous times um and you know this plan to me is done with everyone's safety in mind as much as possible we know nothing is perfect but nothing will be perfect um but i just want to thank every one of you for for everything you've done with this because uh this this is really pretty solid to me and and you've done an awful lot here um and there is a lot of information so before we get to the community comments we'll see if any of the board members had any questions so does anybody have any questions yeah go ahead um you stated that meals will be provided for even those kids remote learning so how do we get the meals for them um yeah after the meals meals would be available for pick-up families come and pick them up or if the student is in attendance you know on the abcd schedule they could they would be able to pick up their meals for the rest of the week for the rest of the week okay and one other quick one health certification must be provided to board the bus so is it like a piece of paper is it a form that what is that self-certification is that we're still working on okay we're still waiting for uh our skylighting sky word i don't even want to spot here because the skyward is working that's our management system management system um and they're working on a system that we can that we can connect quickly easily to ourselves we're still working on the details of that our attorneys made a very clear way to be consistent on the way they come so all the bus drivers not the drivers all the bus students said they have one plan it could be different for walkers or kids coming in so that plan and i think i've shared through the past that we we're we're still finalizing that with the state analyzing the governor's office and i believe skyward is looking at some i missed a meeting i think this week is looking at a plan that may assist does that correct great thank you anyone else okay i i did have a couple questions bob on the initial school opening up through labor day we're in stage two so when we come back after labor day is the plan to stay in stage two or is it to go to three i can answer that sorry um okay we're gonna watch the next two weeks when the kids come back we're gonna watch we're going to watch the metrics we're going to see what's happening you know i always say it's easy to add and subtract we may not go right to 50 maybe we go to 35 maybe we go to 37.
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good morning everybody i show nine o'clock and we're gonna respect everybody's time and start on time um we have a lot to cover honestly and in the world of uh that we're all living in right now it's it's changing by the minute but we're gonna get you some information it'll be helpful for you to start the school year i'll trade the microphone off occasionally for people in the building that need to talk about their uh their corner of expertise and we'll try to get your child prepared to start the school year i'm going to have some opening remarks here to start and i've noticed that this stand over time likes to fall down so if it's a comedy act well just run with it uh i give a similar statement when we have scheduling meetings in the spring and i'd like to emphasize one point for everyone most of the families in here are families of freshmen there are some other new students that are new to greensburg schools but as as freshmen each one of the the students in here have an opportunity to write the story that they want here at the high school we're all dealing with covet and all the changes that come with that but if you just look at your at a high school experience right now is a fresh start if you've had a poor experience in school if you've had a great experience in school right now you're kind of hitting the reboot button when you enter the high school doors and really where that gets documented is in a transcript we have semester grades and those grades are put in a permanent record with your child's name on it and then we track that of course until we get to a diploma and we have conversations with kids all the time that they don't realize that yes you have to have 43 credits to graduate and you have to have the right mix of credits and they kind of we have a kid or two that gets lost in a shuffle and doesn't realize oh i have to pass health yes you have to pass health you just don't get moved on but i use that example to illustrate to all of you all these students that are in here and parents isn't that right now is an opportunity to write the chapter the story the way that you want it written if you want to come in and grab these opportunities and take advantage of them it's right out there in front of you there are moments in life where you have that and this is one of those times just grab it it's right there so if you've been as a student if you've been thinking you know i probably could have studied in science a little bit harder now's the time now is the time why wait why wait another day take advantage of that right now and we'll surround you with a bunch of resources and people that care about kids care about human beings and also try to teach you some standards along the way we have we're an early college high school we offer dual credit we offer rigorous academic opportunities through all of our different electives and course content areas so i'm very pleased with that i'm very proud to say that i'm a principal of a school that offers that and there's other people that contribute to that and you'll hear from them in a minute but so many opportunities and all that has to happen is that your child has to take advantage of them will there be bumps in the road yeah there'll be bumps in the road i mean we're all dealing with covet i mean that's that's a major bump obviously but we're gonna do the best we can look at a situation and and move on and move forward in a positive way so i just encourage you as i close in my opening remarks each student take advantage of what the high school has to offer and do your absolute best because then you can write that story in a positive way and let it catapult you to the next chapter of your life i just graduated the class of 2020 and one of the speeches of the valedictorians talked about entering the kindergarten classroom and the teacher said welcome class of 2020 and they couldn't imagine and get that in their head that yeah they will graduate high school one day and here all of you are getting ready to be freshman in high school and be graduates very soon in four years so looking forward to working with you on that moving on in the presentation the teaching and learning environment we want to maintain an organized environment so that way teaching and learning can happen sometimes that means we have to get in people's way we try to do that in a healthy way we try to do that in cooperation with parents we also try to um with high school kids it's a little bit different than an elementary setting or younger setting we try to have rational conversation with kids and and empower them with making good choices and we go through a lot of layers to make that happen but most importantly we want to be sure that we are maintaining an environment here that teaching and learning can thrive and we try to do that in the classroom at all times we're also managing and i'll talk about this later in the presentation we're managing you know social distancing managing uh keeping everyone safe and healthy i can talk about things in the building that we're doing with that and also masks obviously the governor came out yesterday and i'll touch on that a little bit later but the teaching learning environment is is paramount for us and we will do things to maintain that in the building lastly this is a rule when i was when i was in the classroom still this is basically the one rule i used and if you have respect and you have respect for yourself your peers and all the adults the experience here at gchs is going to be fantastic doesn't mean you're always going to agree with everything that's said by another person or even an adult for that matter and that's okay but if you learn to show respect it's going to be given and it's going to be earned and it's going to flow throughout everywhere you go so i'll just leave it there respect yourself put a good image of yourself out there okay be responsible there is a time to have some fun but there's also a time that you need to get serious with some academics make sure you're aware of what you're projecting to others also with your peers we need to be nice to each be nice to each other students need to be kind to one another it's it's a it's a constant struggle and there's a lot going on with social issues there's a lot going on with love and there's a lot going on with hate in the world and we want to be a force for positive and we want to be kind to one another and then last but not least the adults i'll use this example with respect for adults there's a thousand different opinions about cell phones in school there's a thousand different opinions it's impossible but the one thing i can guarantee if if an adult asks a child to put a cell phone away that child needs to be compliant now there's a bunch of different interpretations with that um we can get in the weeds about the individual circumstance but when it comes down to it if a dog politely asks a child to put a cell phone away we expect the student to be compliant and we will we will enforce that and be fair with people and talk with them on that so that's just one example but showing respect to adults being kind to one another and then also respecting yourself if we have that kind of flow in the building that your high school or your child's high school experience is going to be wonderful it's going to be fantastic i'm gonna park it there for now and i'm gonna move on to our counseling department okay and um i will let them introduce themselves that's probably easiest um or mrs sofenberg can introduce them all um it's the whole team coming up that oh yeah that's morning okay that's okay oh well then make them talk no before i turn the microphone over i think most of you recognize miss sue offenberg i would like to just say a couple words here i've worked closely with this lady for seven years now has it been seven it's been here longer than you yeah i know yeah so i'll go seven years and from a counseling team perspective there is no stone that is unturned when we're looking at options for kids i am honored to work with this group i'm honored to work with sue you're in very good hands with your child as we work through scheduling issues and also i mentioned 43 credits there is a particular path to graduation and there's opportunities for dual credit and opportunities that that lay a foundation for things after high school and these counselors and this counseling team and everyone in our department they are experts in that regard so very honored to let sue take the microphone and introduce their team good morning it's an honor to be here the class of 2024 yes yes woo yeah right yes the class of 2024 and we are here to uh make everything as possible and to move as slowly and because i've got some parents that are probably a little teary-eyed because they're i just remembered it yesterday when my child in their mind went to kindergarten and now we're talking about high school so it will not move super slow but we will move at a pace that we need to move and um it will go by very quickly but we are here to serve you along the way and i want to introduce some folks mr soldier is on the end and she is the person behind the scenes in our department that takes care of um teacher grades as they come in and report cards and honor roll and reports for us and mailing and the list goes on and on but um she's out in the hallway at times and um she's in the mix but students sometimes are not aware of who is that lady and what does she do okay because we kind of hide her because she's she's busy that is true she becomes very important because you've got to have that parking permit okay next is mrs hershauer she's the front runner in the in the counseling office and she will be the first line of assistance when you as a student come in she can answer a lot of questions just general questions if there is something that is very specific then she will get your child you as a child to the proper counselor next we have miss rodman if you registered last year at the junior high in february with miss brand miss brand got married and her husband snatched her and she moved and could not make the transition back so she left us and we are happy to have miss rodman so she is our new counselor on board okay and next is mrs heard she's been around for just a few years and you have met her in february if she was your counselor the key factor is as a student you need to know who you're a counselor is your counselor yes there may be times we get in your way but for the most part your counselor is your best friend okay is your advocate and we are here to help you socially emotionally if there is some type of physical if there is something that's going on academically if there is something mentally that you need assistance we're here for any of those aspects but we're not mind readers so unless you communicate we cannot read minds and if you don't feel that you know us well enough then communicate to your parent or your aunt or whoever or your best friend and they can advocate and come on your behalf but we are here definitely to help you and you need to remember that everyone received a schedule your schedule if you have it with you was divided up that you have first semester blue days periods one three five seven and white days periods two four six eight it tells you what teacher you have it also tells you where that classroom is that's where you're expected to be if you think there is something wrong with your schedule you need to see us today as we have told you back in february sign up for what you need and what you want and once you have those and every freshman got what they needed and wanted those are your courses so if we run into some academic challenge that we don't know how to get over around through then come see us and we will help you with that we will find that resource person or the resource out there whatever it may be to help you get through but we're not going to throw up our hands you know the first week and go well this is too difficult we haven't even given it a chance yet so think about those things remember every course is a credit every semester so at the end of this school year we should have earned 14 credits that is our goal and we want to make those the best 14 of all possible we have 180 days in this school year four times 180 is 720 days you are in high school 720 days as mr peters alluded to what story you create is what is going to carry through down the road so when an employer at graduation time ask us about attendance your attendance record could set the priority whether we land that job or not okay those courses that you take set that criteria if we're going to go on to further education we want you to be challenged we push our students but we don't want you to be so overwhelmed that you do throw up your hands that's when you gotta come to us if you feel any any of those feelings come see us we will do everything we can to help you okay last thing is this remember you may have a bad day it doesn't mean that life is bad it's just a bad day when you're having a bad day there is someone else in this building in this state in this world that is having the best day of their life we don't want to rob them of that and hope this day gets over we don't want to be selfish we learn from the bad days or the not so good days life is good and we're here to work together to make things better that's our goal okay do we have any new freshman or any new student that does not has not been assigned a schedule if we do we want to kidnap you now and get that schedule for you so that you're ready to go okay when you walk around you be sure that you know where the counseling office is it's straight up the ramp and when you get to the top of the ramp it's the door directly to the right that's where all the good stuff happens okay we have the best jobs counselors have the best jobs in the world because our goal is to help people that's what we do our office hours are seven o'clock in the morning to four o'clock in the afternoon from a parent standpoint if that doesn't work for you we have we have been known to have meetings in the morning before you go to work if it's important which it is for you to come in or in the evening so we have some flexibility with that but please communicate with us and we are you know it's not parents it's not students it's not administrators it's not counselors it's everybody together and we all have to make sure that it works because there's no one more important than your child and the class of 2024 thanks just a piggyback off what miss offenberg just said um if there are uh students prospective students in here that don't have a schedule uh make sure you see them right away to get that set up also if you have not registered at all please stop by the main office and make sure we get you properly registered if you have any questions about that feel free to stop by and ask questions we started off with the counseling department and the next part here and we have some parents as well that are staff members i'd like to just point out all the staff members here so i have keith hipskin down here in the front with me who is our dean of students i have mrs sonya kochmeier who is our assistant principal i have david jackson who teaches at vansp sorry dave i know you thanks dave i think heather cummer is here hi heather thank you mrs cummer teaches family consumer science for us mrs tammy williams our curriculum director is there any other staff members here mrs clifford there's mrs clifford in the back she works in her main office elementary teacher anybody else any other staff members here um just kind of show you and and also demonstrate things aren't perfect but we also try to create a family atmosphere here we try to put the needs of the kids first when we make decisions and i think as you as being the parent of five kids also uh being in the trenches with all this stuff this past spring and as we work through things together and work with our counseling department i want everyone to have a feel that we're going to look at the overall needs of your child and try to do our best so take comfort in that we'll try to do our best as we move forward okay i'm going to go ahead and bring mrs kochmeyer up to the stage now she's going to talk about these items that are they just happen to be organized on our website under the for students tab she's going to touch on these very quickly good morning it's so good to see your faces and welcome to greensburg high school we try to have information out to you at your fingertips and it is readily accessible right now on our website i usually give a spiel about getting involved find something you're passionate about and pour into it whether that's the fine arts athletics or we have a whole bunch of different clubs and organizations to pour into i know mr novak is here with junior optimist today but all of this is located on our website accessible either on a phone or a computer whatever you have um and we have there um the 2020 20 2021 extracurricular activities i encourage you to check it out find something you're interested in we also have the teacher name or the adult sponsor of that club or activity and then you can go to them and ask them about it if you're a little nervous find someone find the counseling department find us and we'll help you get connected with that club or activity if you go check it out don't like it don't go back try something different i know we had a senior graduate two years ago he tried out for swimming for the first time as a senior his biggest regret in high school was not trying that sooner so i encourage you you're in a new building try something new okay i'm going to kick it back to our website you'll also find a link there to skyward i cannot push this enough please get connected with skyward whether on whatever device parents get connected you can see grades attendance you can also see discipline things of that matter and then reach out to us with any questions or concerns that you have you'll also find our student handbook that is updated there for this school year you can find all of our policies and some good bathroom reading material that was supposed to be a joke need to work on those um we also have our blue white schedule we're on a block um so one three five seven and then two four six eight you can see those things there there's lots of other resources for students and for parents there on our website again i encourage you to get involved here at the high school you may meet some incredible people that you normally wouldn't by getting involved okay welcome and look forward to working with you and seeing your smile well smiling faces maybe behind the masks next week or two weeks quickly i'd like to go over some notes from our front office ladies mrs julie mintz is technically my secretary and then mrs ashley clifford is our attendance secretary and the keeper of all things great she just takes care of everything a couple notes here if you are late or need to leave and return during the school day you need to sign in and out of the main office that is so important kids as a students as they get older are getting more liberties and we try to give students opportunity to have those liberties until they prove that they need to be taken away and one of the responsibilities that students need to have is signing in and out okay that's how we track where kids are that's how we have accountability when parents call in where they've gone and their the student at this age needs to start taking accountability for that we're going to work with parents absolutely but we try to encourage that the student take it upon him or herself to sign in and out of our system that's in our front office when students need to leave please call us in advance and we will provide an early dismissal pass it'll make the flow a lot better if you call in ahead um probably the worst case scenario is showing up at our door at 1 25 and your dentist appointment is at 1 30 on the other side of town and and your child's in pe class in our field house it's just uh not a good recipe for success so if you call ahead let us know we'll write that pass we'll have it all organized and arranged beforehand yes parents as i said need to call ahead um for appointments and absences and there's a voicemail attendance line that is open 24 hours a day so like if it's in the middle of the night and you've had a rough night and you know your kid's not gonna make it you can call at that time and say billy's not gonna make it he's he's been up all night that is totally acceptable um if a student needs to make a phone call during the day that student needs to come down to the office we have a landline available or we can give them a safe place for them to make a call using their own cell phone that's no problem we we discourage a student taking the liberty to make those calls on their own in the building so if if i'm walking the hallway and i see that i'm gonna i'm gonna interrupt that student they need to they need to take care of that business in our front office and last but not least bus riders just curious who in here thinks they're gonna be a bus rider and students you can raise your hand if and this isn't make or break do you think you're going to be a bus rider okay i want to emphasize that the buses are going to be called and there's a rotation of how they come and after the first few days you're going to know that my bus comes around 310 312.
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um i believe that was in christopher's last email that that is part of the um c's project list number 11 where we get the two neighborhoods rather than do a whole new woodland map for the whole city we would have these two neighborhoods and uh he uh christopher graham was going to talk to jason talent about that further okay so thanks ann yeah that uh it does look like a very attractive potential seize capstone project i'd work on it myself but um you got to start paying tuition i know so um [Music] let's see so in terms of number 10 help seek amendments to flood plain provisions um in chapter 55 um bob do you have any input on that or well i i i think that's the same thing that i mentioned earlier i i think that's uh the floodplain overlay district that um jerry hancock is spearheading can i ask a quick logistics question here with the sort of combination of these three groups these three working groups under one um what does that mean sort of day day-to-day for uh how we might be meeting the reason why i ask is because the natural features working group has been meeting and talking and having really good discussions for a very long time and i think that some new people in there uh could do a great job of trying to figure out how we extract policy out of the things that were like i say having very fruitful discussions about um so i put that out there sort of sort of a larger question about how uh these three groups work and if uh natural features can get a little uh sort of boost from some other folks listening in sometimes yeah no that's that's a great point mike i mean the way i've been thinking about this is um you know in my experience nothing really happens until there's a champion for it so i think in my sense of this um of the commission and you know the people in it and its bylaws and everything i would hope that what we can do is have um like each and you know a working group the first kind of tier of working groups should be around the smart goals you know where a commissioner is going to lead a group there only needs to be one but they could recruit whoever else they want from either the commission or um and or anybody from the community general community broader community to work on that goal but i think that that would be a tier one effort that uh to to do a tangible to to do a tangible product to put a stake in the ground and to get it done i think it's it's good to have one person responsible for that not a whole group not a committee that's just from my experience personal experience and then below that the working groups can work to develop smart goals out of the more broader goals and concerns that we all have so they can be discussion within the broader working groups and i'm just not i would like um i would be ha i would like to have a discussion about this in this meeting you know i talk about how this would really facilitate a process on moving forward so um i'm throwing that out there so i'm wondering um so people speak up if they want to comment again i can't see everybody um i'll pick that up again uh i guess part of this question also relates to this idea of a of a seas project and also the sort of sustainable landscape stuff that natural features is talking about with the sort of lawn reduction things that pollinators are talking about um and the obvious water quality improvements that we get so i i feel like there's um i'm terrible at these things or i'd step up and volunteer but i feel like there's this opportunity to while we're all here together to sort of figure out how um uh there might be something uh out of uh legislation that's already been passed for this uh um uh lawn reduction effort uh to to turn into something that's that john murski is going to be able to say hey there's progress on anybody else well um so again i mean i just think that uh it's it's more difficult to get something done unless somebody um chooses to be a champion for it so you know it's up to them to decide how much they're going to get done and how much time but they should feel free that they can recruit as many people and resources as they can to get to to bring their vision to fruition and meanwhile we this would be this is the forum for discussing um [Music] for each of these for for anything in the cities that pertains to the city's environment this is a forum for discussing what some of these um [Music] you know broader concerns are but without some articulation and some specificity um it's hard to make progress on anything so um i i agree about that uh so this is rita speaking right now um i would be willing to to um step forward at least on the pollinator side of things um but also i as a member of the natural features working group there is a fairly large group as you know that's been meeting to talk about this and those people are not represent not here in this meeting tonight and i feel like it's worthwhile to have a chance to talk with them um as contributors i'd like to get input from them as opposed to just taking this and and running um that's my feeling right now no i i think that's a good idea is uh would could natural features still go on tomorrow without chris i have proposed that and um i unfortunately i didn't even see his message until late today so i don't know um just because i put it out there because it's on many people's schedule already and uh it could be a good opportunity to be able to hash some of this out um and maybe you know we uh we keep chris's spirit in mind in terms of the bigger trees but then see how um this ordinance could really potentially be shaped on the ground to get people to try and change their behavior um you know it's really the passage of the the fact that council has adapted it is what makes this such an exciting opportunity to be able to make a quantifiable opportunity towards sustainability with people's land use choices so yeah i would be more than happy to zoom in to uh this meeting tomorrow if that would sort of help keep the ball rolling right okay well um i will see if i can reach out to people tonight um and um let you all know okay and if not tomorrow then it possibly is something that could be done relatively soon i don't know okay so the other thing that i want to say is that um what you're suggesting mike is is something that um that we need to keep in the context of whatever gen um lawson is doing as well so it's like somehow there's got to be some kind of coordination there that would be worthwhile i think so i'll reach out to her too okay so our uh so i'm a little confused i mean are all these um or all these topics and you know natural features pollinator and in the water feature working group are they all like as jen lawson the focal point on city staff for all of these concerns no these are just the goals from when we were separate working groups i think many of these are what we presented in our meeting as our goals i can't remember when we did that but um earlier in the in the winter earlier in the year so anything having to do with water is going to be with jen lawson i i suspect but um in terms of the meeting that's gonna that could potentially happen soon with natural features i think it'll probably involve all of us not all of us but everybody in in the pollinator and the water working groups along with the natural features so this is something that we can discuss when we meet okay um i mean at this point i mean the question comes to my mind about um what's the um what's the perceived advantage of consolidating all these working groups rita were you going to say something oh now you're on mute oh you're muted rita i think that this was a suggestion from the last meeting of the environmental commission to consolidate these groups and so we did wow that's my understanding of it yeah yeah missy suggested that any kind of rationale around it or a broad discussion about it that i recall i mean i think that's up to us it's not up to missy on the osi it's like i think it's up to us collectively to figure out how we're going to be most productive so uh so um maybe you all can just have a if it's it's um it's it's you know it's it's too bad that i mean i'm sorry that chris could participate tomorrow but maybe you could just continue a discussion at that point and then inform and inform him what what the discussion points were i don't know if he has any questions the meeting that's set up tomorrow was really focused on trees and that's what chris has been working on so maybe you can make some more progress on them figuring out what other goals you might specify besides the ongoing which is at a pretty late stage my understanding is you know the tree amendments the heritage trees you know all these other things are are not quite as far along in our process and the commission's processes these three amendments to chapter 55.
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i don't know we may ease ourselves into that as a readiness to the staff the readiness of the kids the redness of the families i think we're we live in stage two and three for a while under the state under phase four we're gonna be deliberate we're gonna be respectful we're gonna be thoughtful as we move so i don't wanna i don't think we should set a date we should look at the data okay and then my other question is probably for john and you may not have this answer but since we are dealing with teenagers i can imagine that we're going to have them some of them will show up in the morning to get on the bus and have forgotten their mask so will the buses have extra mass will they have to go home and the bus waits for them or you know definitely in those first days it's you know it's going to be nationals because they're going to run out the door and then forget yeah we'll be right back when we're at 50 we're talking about how many students out of us and now we're talking about 25 so we're going down and the state was allowing 48 42 47 47.
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you're getting old enough that you can hear the numbers and be responsible for getting on your own bus because when you don't make your bus what happens is front office staff member has to call we call your parents your parents get upset they have to come get you and then it puts everyone in a bind just because the student didn't make the bus like they're supposed to okay so i think students of this age are very capable being accountable for that and we can make accommodations to to make it better for you so just want to get that out there those buses are announced regularly before i get into this slide i'm going to bring up mr hipskind are you prepared mr hipskin okay all right yeah you stayed up all night okay all right so mr hipskins our dean of students he's also um transitioning out as our safety representative of the building him and mrs kochmar worked together on that so there's there's a couple issues he's going to touch on um and then i'm going to close my message with this information here and then we'll we'll release release you guys into the building that's good well good morning glad to have all of you here starting out your high school career and and looking forward to getting to know you and meet you and and i hope that your start gets off to a a wonderful experience here i'm the dean of students and i'm that guy who has to get in somebody's way once in a while you know uh for for all of you that are thinking about getting married someday you know your wife is that person for most of your life she's kind of has to remind you how to do and don't do and and i'm sort of that guy here in the building so when you come into high school mr peters talked about respect and kindness and you don't have to share every thought that you you have on social media because that spills into the building you don't have to share every thought that you have about somebody walking down the hallway if someone gets a little sideways and that will happen from time to time and you need a little redirection it usually starts pretty pretty quietly with a conversation maybe at some point a warning at some point then it turns into some light penalties or severe penalties we do expel students from time to time that just can't seem to fit in they they come in as a tasmanian devil spinning down the halls knocking over lamps and tables and stuff and and they just can't seem to get things collected and we also arrest students from time to time and so it's not a real pleasant spot to get into so if you come in here and you you treat people with dignity and respect and kindness and you establish yourself as someone that will listen and uh take direction you're going to get along just great here i think that uh uh the cell phone thing as mr peters alluded to is become crazy to be honest with you all the things that go on we do have a no choice if people can't seem to get where they're supposed to go if they can't follow the direction of the teacher about putting a phone away was take your phone for a semester or nine weeks and uh you will not have that in the building and if you can't comply then you may not be part of this building at some point and we we don't like to go there but we do go there if we need to things are going to change and mr peters is going to talk about the covet 19 changes that we have or whether it's extra people in the bathroom you know guys all standing around sharing stories or girls putting their makeup on with 39 people in the bathrooms that's just not going to be something that's going to fly this year is going to be different this is your first year here at the high school so maybe you won't have a a different experience than the older kids but it's important to know that there will be a lot of changes coming i get a kick out of the fact that over the last four or five months they talk about the same remedies for covid19 of you know social distancing or just staying home or or washing your hands or wearing a mask and they can talk about that for five months i i don't know how we can talk about that over and over and over and over again 24 hours a day so we will have some guidelines in place for you and i will be someone that will be asked to enforce a policy once in a while regarding some of those things i'm really not against you as a student when you have a disciplinary problem i want you to know that i'm on the side of families i'm here to to be an extended parent i've got 10 grandkids so i've got uh i'm extended grandparent as well and i think it's it's good to know that when you come to the office that we do want to get along i want to build a relationship with you a couple of things before i get off the stage here entering and exiting the building that's going to be important for day one day one when you arrive to the building you will have about four different locations that you can go to you will come as a bus rider you will come into the main doors here and be dropped off in in front of the main office you will be walking down towards the bookstore down the hallway past the counseling office there and you will go you can stop there that's one of the sites that you can sit at in the morning you can also go down to what mrs kochmeier has named pirate cove which is just outside the cafeteria you can stop there and and sit out there outside the cafeteria you can go into the cafeteria and you can also sit in the northwest lobby so we're going to spread that out so that we don't have a big cluster of students with this social distancing requirements if you are a car writer and your parents are going to drop you off it's important to drop off in the west lot west lot only for drop off and pick up i know there's parents who get in a hurry it's raining outside you want to pick your child up quickly you you sprint to the front door to get them i i know that those things happen we've had a few kids over my tenure here that have been bumped by cars i i know that sounds crazy um mom's got two little babies in the car whatever it is there's distractions going on she's hopefully not texting and stuff happens out in the parking lot so car riders drop off and pick up in the west lot only right outside the gym doors here or this auditorium auditorium door here your student after school can come out the west doors through the band hall and you're actually just as close to picking them up as you would be out front there's a little traffic after school i realize that but please honor that and respect that we ask the students to be obedient with that we're encouraging we're asking the parents to also be be compliant with that when you drive any drivers here as freshmen not very often you have to raise your hand but if you're driving to school you have to have a driver's permit if you're riding a moped if you're riding escape skateboards and roller skates and all those things are really not allowed on school property when we have those back flips going off on these front steps out here we've had some injuries with kids trying to you know get on their mountain bike and do back flips off of that those steps and things so if you're riding a bike or a moped it gets parked in the back in between the field house and the high school there there is a place to park your bike or your moped we have some extra chains if you need to lock something up with that doors open at 7 10.
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yeah am i wrong um well i mean on the other side hand we have the pollinator program i'm sorry the ipm program that has been passed by council and so that's kind of active as well so you know so i don't know so yeah okay okay it really feels like it's two different things to me as we're talking even though we said we would consolidate them it just it just does to me i don't know carrie any thought yeah i think that we can um as a as a new group as a new working group figure out what the priorities are and that that's certainly one major component i would imagine so and there are some overlaps i see in the goals okay so so maybe you all can make some progress on that tomorrow you're gonna well it might not be tomorrow but we we are planning to meet with august 4th sorry yeah we'll we'll we'll get together and and consolidate and prioritize come up with some goals okay i mean are people comfortable with this as a basic organizational principle i mean because i mean what i say that i in my experience nothing's happened without a champion and somebody should really declare that they're going to do something by a certain time and then um we should resource those as our first priority so um here's the thing steve chris is our champion on the trees yeah you know and he's not in this meeting oh no and so i feel like not exactly comfortable jumping in and saying i'm the champion on the trees because he's done the one well no i wouldn't but of course that's uh but there are all these other things that are listed as well right and those have not been talked over with the rest of the group yeah we've been doing trees okay so why don't you all discuss ipm and lawns um i'm not going to promise that for tomorrow um because the group isn't exactly ready for that but yes okay all right so um so does anybody um before we move on to the next agenda item is there any uh does anybody feel the need to discuss these topics any further okay so let's move on to the uh to the next item on the agenda which are by reports from committees other commissions um council and chair john's not here so the energy commission will wait till the next meeting um shannon how about planning um i would say that the um the carbon neutrality plan has really emboldened the planning commission to um make asks of developers for projects that are not staying within their existing zoning and one that just passed the other night which might be of interest to all of you in terms of its process was one called valhalla which is right across from pioneer and is surrounded by the u of m golf course right now it's a collection of um of single-family homes and the developers there wanted to upzone it a whole lot like a whole lot more density and basically the leverage that we felt like we had to be able to even consider that ask was to make it very green which it really wasn't um coming in it was it was a little bit but not much so as we work through this process there they've come before us three different times and they are now the first all-electric building to go uh through the planning process they have solar over um most of the buildings and i think have like a 500 000 you know kilowatt system and um and have ev charging stations and also um have uh affordable housing as a component of this as well so i think that this this whole 2030 plan has really given us some direction and frankly some teeth for um asks when people are not doing a buy right development so it's a it's a big change from what is currently there and it will definitely be a shift from what people would see as they're driving down that portion of of main street but it also is on transit it's next to a grocery store you can still walk to town from there you're part of a bikeable areas and for a lot of reasons it fits the city's master plan in in other ways even though the zoning was not part of that it was actually a it was a township parcel um so um kind of one of the funny little islands so uh i think that you know because of the um you know the the work that that that came out of some of the things that we've been supporting that planning commission feels much more emboldened to be able to make those kinds of asks and has i think also some some specific things to ask for and some tools to think about with with that whole process so uh it feels it it um feels good to be able to you know think about how we can push developers to make things far more green than what they were coming into it so um it has yet to go to city council i'm sure that there'll be changes there or whether it will pass we don't know but um to have uh you know a multi-family complex be all electric and have a sizable portion of it on solar is a is a big shift from the business that's been done so far so that's what i would say is my report okay that sounds very encouraging is this the parcel that's uh protected by that large netting from the golf course um it is kind of it's surrounded is on the main street side and it's surrounded by the u of m golf course so it's kind of a funny little parcel um that is tucked in um so there are homes that are near it but not next to it because the golf course kind of encompasses it go goes on all sides except for the main street side so the nearest homes are several hundred feet away um [Music] but uh yeah so it's a it's a it was a funny little township island um that was zoned to be single-family um but uh it's up being up zoned a lot to be able to accommodate this development and we felt like this was our chance to be able to um you know think about making it a whole lot more green than it was so well that's good to hear um anybody else hey um um mike how about the parks commission i'm sorry you're muted uh no meeting again this month we're bumped in next week okay okay um how about council yeah um well i think steven you already mentioned the um good news that staff and everyone reached an agreement with uh recycle ann arbor to reopen the murph and um and how uh potentially huge that can be for southeastern michigan um if we can be a regional headquarters again for recycling and recycling education and so i know um i'm excited to do more on that and and um and then see we'll be saving estimated hundreds of thousands of dollars um a month from shipping it to ohio and i'm hoping there'll be lots more exciting things we can do with the materials you know even if there isn't a market someplace else there might be some innovative markets for our recycled goods and then all the education for reducing in the beginning so i'm sure there'll be a lot of exciting things for all of us to do helping all that all of that unfold no that's really good news anne um and it uh it will involve a lot more regional cooperation so this just brings up the whole topic of werma again you know the regionalization proposal so i don't know i don't know if that's um about where that is now and uh and what can be done to if there's any any actions that could be done to help help make regional discussions and planning easier you know between city staff and [Music] uh county and other other entities yes and i spoke to recycle ann arbor earlier this week and um i think the general idea was that we could still uh recycle for other communities without needing a werma agreement and a worm agreement would be nice but as these two stumbling blocks um were the weighted voting where ann arbor would be on an equal footing with much smaller communities and that didn't sound uh like in our best interests or prudent and to put ourselves at that kind of a disadvantage and then um the responsible contractor language so i think the warmer itself is is still in the background but nonetheless we can still partner with other communities to accept their recycled materials okay yeah well thanks a lot for that update um is there anything else you'd like to mention no i think that was the main okay yep thank you um so that's the time for the chair report i only have two things to mention and one is um one is um well i can't read my notes so one is um the attendance um our bylaws indicate that um um commissioners need to attend um need to attend a majority of the meetings annual meetings that uh that uh you know once you've missed three meetings uh you're kind of on notice so i'm thinking that um i'm thinking that this is something that uh i'm going to pay more attention to and that uh you know if people are absent uh um their third time for their third meeting in a year i'm going to try to talk to them about uh about um you know about that and um and uh so i just wanted to mention that that it's in our bylaws and that we should be um uh we should be paying attention to this we've had a lot of applicants to the commission um we have a lot of work to do and i think it's important we have if people don't feel like they have the time or the real commitment to fulfill this role that we should probably um try to consider you know finding another candidate to come join the commission and and put there in the water so um and the other thing i've noticed is that we have not susan hutton was our vice chair and so she's been gone since may so that the next item on the agenda would be um electing a vice chair there would be part of our august meeting agenda so i'm looking for any volunteers or nominations um and so that will be part of the agenda so i'd like people to think about that um uh that's all i have to say right now um so the next item on the agenda is is there any discussion anybody like to discuss anything about that just noticed chris graham is over in the attendees section i don't know if he can be let in or if they if he's just permanently in the attendees today i just moved him over yeah he's a panelist now he can speak he was in purgatory hey chris hi steve hi how long have you been there a while ah sorry i was trying to get in but i couldn't figure out how to do it i guess you have to do it you know i think galen has to do that um so we'll do better next time why are my fishes showing instead of meat there we go thank you very much so um zoom agenda where it's reporting from staff um i can give you a call and update you about uh i'll get the minutes drafted soon and send it to you and we'll we can have a discussion sometime at your discretion basically so i'm going to stop sharing my screen at this point and uh so the next item on the agenda is the report from staff um galen you're on the floor yes um good evening everybody uh we have a few items um that i would love to update the commission on uh right now uh last month we had a week-long youth 820 youth sustainability week which was in partnership with the uh and our public schools uh youth councils uh we have an excellent group of youth that uh we've been working with also uh we're working on a partnership with the freeman center and uh we're doing uh two psas right now we're doing a psa uh the first one would be like an introduction to a20 and the next one will be a multitude of psas um actually over the uh seven uh strategies so uh there'll be a psa for each strategy that's going to be all action oriented uh informing residents on what they could do or can do so that's my update right now and also uh we're looking forward to definitely a good uh year with ann arbor public schools um we see our youth sustainability week as an annual event that's going to culminate all the activities that the youth councils from the high schools have been doing so we'll bring those in and periodically we'll uh you know bring them in uh for training opportunities or whatnot it might be virtual and then also uh we're working on our uh ambassadors program which is called the uh sustainability ambassador program and we're convening uh about 10 11 folks next week um to begin uh those discussions right now we have a skeleton of a nine week sustainability course that's going to teach residents uh you know different elements of sustainability many of them will be taught by city staff uh some other community members with expertise um also we're working on a circularity paper with the solid waste department that circularity paper will be up uh put into uh i can't remember the magazine offhand but we put an abstract together so far and we got some interns doing some research and myself jenny patoski eileen naples whenever she returns we'll be working on that paper and the due date for that i believe is december of this year that's our update oh great thank you i'm not i'm not understanding what a circularity paper is well uh it's dealing with the uh circular economy you know like solid waste uh materials management you know solid waste production and we're actually writing an abstract on what we're doing here in the city so we're looking at some of those uh at best practices across the country and we'll be putting those things into a paper you know later on this year and we would definitely you know come on and share with you you know that time okay um we're about two weeks into it right now okay so gail and if people want more information is this information all being posted on the a20 website uh not the circularity paper because that was solid waste originated um but i can uh have a meeting with any guys you know myself jenny patoski just to update or just do a official update on where we are you know periodically as we go through these months and you know also you know it'll be good if we can get some input too as well okay so um okay so the next schedule meeting is on august 27th to the zoom meeting again um the next item on the agenda is public commentary so i'm going to read my script again and uh gail and we'll see if anybody's phoned in okay i could comment i was expecting somebody might call in um [Music] so public comment this is an opportunity for persons to speak up for up to three minutes please call one eight eight seven two eight zero zero nine and enter meeting id number nine two nine five seven nine six nine eight two three this information is also displayed on the meeting agenda and video feed city staff will select callers that have raised their hand one by one using the last three digits of your phone number in order to electronically raise your hand to indicate your desire to speak please press star 9 on your phone you will hear an automated announcement that the host is allowing you to speak when speaking please move to a quiet area and mute any television or background sounds so that we may hear you clearly please state your name and address at the beginning of your comments and please be patient there is a delay of up to 30 seconds before the connection is established commission president brown uh we have a question and a question and answer from one of the attendees or ron um i've allowed him to speak if he would like to speak his comment or i can read it yeah um is he only gets he connected by phone oh no no he's uh one of the attendees he's in the uh room with us okay well why don't you uh know why don't you have him well so what are the alternatives you want to talk you want well um uh he uh he posted a comment in the question and answer box but he's also in here so he can speak it if he would like to or i can read it oh great everybody can hear me yeah can you see me also i haven't been able to this is my first zoom meeting like this usually when i've done zooms it's everybody's picture is up there but anyway yeah i just uh said something i've been i've been chatting a little bit with ann about uh my experience in marquette um just to make it quick uh lived in ann arbor in the 80s an 88 moved to seattle lived there for 30 years moved to marquette uh lived there for two years now i'm back in ann arbor and when i was up there last year i had the idea of pursuing a lot more alternatives to polystyrene in restaurants coffee shops bakeries and all that i didn't see a whole lot of uh businesses um using alternatives to polystyrene but there were a few in contrast to coming down here have enjoyed lots of takeout as i said in the uh in the question and answer box but virtually every uh restaurant uses styrofoam or plastic i found that to be very odd because when i lived here in the 80s you know i canvas for greenpeace and public interest research group and uh it seemed to be a very you know environmentally conscious city so i was a bit taken aback by the uh by the um prevalent use of styrofoam it's every place so everybody knows about styrofoam the fact that it's can be you know trash that you see on the ground it can be minuscule particles that are in the water that gets into the food chain harms wildlife and the objective up there was to use lake superior as a unifying issue because it's a you know it's something that everyone prizes uh environmentalists and not so environmental alike so it worked um it got a lot of media coverage across the u.p uh in all the newspapers up there and we had the tv stations and all that i had a you know an array of speakers representing business restaurants nmu city commissioner all of that it was an awareness campaign it was to incentivize and educate and for people to just participate as i mentioned in the uh question and answer thing there was uh senate bill 853 a few years ago where there was a permanent ban on bands of this sort meaning you know there's no way if you bring your big box here that uh you're gonna be pushed into you know buying more expensive materials to send folks away with so understanding that i've been talking to ann a little bit about what's another angle maybe on a local level purely local level an ordinance an agreement a resolution from the mayor's office that says you know here's some businesses who are doing this yay go ann arbor we can do this um without having to pass a law so um i'm just at this point wondering how to uh maybe intersect with uh an existing um an existing uh you know subtopic of the environmental commission very interested in natural features uh working group uh the heritage landmark tree thing sounds good if this is something that can be inserted into an already functioning uh category of uh things that uh you folks approach i could work with ann on how to go forward from there um and uh yeah i'm just uh floating that out there what what does everybody think of the possibility of getting uh restaurants bakeries coffee shops uh who kind of come together and say yeah we can do this uh in many cases cheaply or more or more uh cost effective than even styrofoam or plastic i have a lot of data on that that came from a business owner up in marquette frankly marquette way up in the u.p you know much smaller town than ann arbor but they're very very much more conscious of this now and i would like to kind of uh put that out there uh as once again incentivize and participate kind of thing not a boom ban or law that's going to you know um turn away restaurants and make them think that they're you know doing something that they have to do rather than doing something that they think is right and want to do the question is um how do i help how do i get involved uh and then there's the uh the heritage landmark tree thing i'm very interested in also um taking a closer look at that in ways that i can volunteer to uh to to keep that to keep that going or improve it or sustain it okay um ron yes could you just mention your name and address yes it's uh ron carnell 2300 arrowwood trail ann arbor 48105.
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say was not 47. at 50 percent we're around 20 22 now we should be 10 or 11 on the bus so i think where we feel comfortable with the amount of kids on a bus with the mass i do think if realistically if a student misses you know doesn't have the mass like a week or so we may want to call home we may want to see how we can help with the problem maybe something else we need we need to talk about you know and it's something we can help well and we're going to have them at the doors for guests you know any guests coming in the building uh visitors whatever they're going to be they have to have a mask come in they don't have one though because whatever you know we're going to make sure we have one um and they're going to be escorted to where they have to go and come back and that may make some people happy because they have to wait for the escort but uh we think that's the right thing to do yeah we're gonna i had a question on lunch um when we have 25 of the students there would it be better to just you know just take sambar they've got three thousand kids actually less than that yes and at twenty-five percent that's 750 students you have three lunch periods that's 250 there's six months periods well yeah i'm getting that yeah okay sorry three launch periods so that's that's 250 students generally speaking probably less probably a lot less per full lunch period okay when you're 25 if you're looking at 50 students per pod per place you've got four gyms in the lunchroom i may even talk about the pack or anywhere else would it make more sense to keep those students there for the full hour instead of having those students go to a classroom which is more it's not as open and not as not as much space it might be it might be complicated because now when you go to fifty percent you have to change something i just it's just something to think about and that's something about i do think that freshman sophomore is already assigned for half hour yeah freshmen and sophomore students across all three buildings are already assigned to study halls and by assigning junior seniors to study halls we think that we can get to a more manageable spot in terms of the number of facilities within our buildings that we're going to need to be able to accommodate the 50 but we're already digging into our schedules to look at how we can be smart with those placements in the study hall and lunch and designate different areas yeah i don't know this i'm just thinking is it better off having 50 students in one of the gyms for a full hour rather than a gym for part of the time in the smaller classroom for part of the time just something to think about based on our numbers on mr o'sullivan i think we're gonna need those spaces for both parts of the full hour so we could be in a little bit of an issue if we tried to assign well that'd be the full 250 would be both parts of the lunch hour because you're going to 125 for 6a 125 for 6b just again some of the things it is no it is and this is this is the part of fluid and if if the border through this plan we you know we start running you know with some of these plans and a lot of individual schedules that we looked at i mean unless we don't also know how many people will choose remote which will dictate possibly less than 25 percent that makes sense yeah we don't have that number listen okay anybody else i just had one question in regards to our nurses will they be provided special training is there any special protocols being put in place for them um as we start the year yeah the nurses is the state mandating something i don't i honestly don't know if the state's mandating training but there will be training for the nurses there is um we are looking at there's isolation rooms that are necessary there are you know our nurses are phenomenal we'd have to work with you know like cdc to make sure all the guidelines are followed the nurses because there are some students who come down you know for medication throughout the day there are kids students to come down because not co-work but you know just everything high school student so all that will be taken account again the nurses are phenomenal and they will work with all the guidelines and training anybody else i do believe we have 19 okay [Music] 19 so at this point they will be read to the red into the record for um yeah fraternity i don't know yep at least until the minutes are hyped fast lisa all right so this is from dana birch my name is dana burch i'm a member of the district 230 teachers association and a teacher at vja i had asked if you had asked me the 2019 school year would end and where we would be throughout the summer of 2020 and never in my wildest dreams would have imagined we'd be in the middle of a global pandemic however we are unfortunately for the usa including illinois we are not anywhere close to having overcome this disease just today cases of illinois alone have set a new high since we ended in june as a teacher i understand the need for in-person contact and instruction and as i as i feel there truly is no substitute however the liability here just seems way too high at this juncture to allow anyone back into the building like this i too as a parent i'm struggling with what to do with my own children we've already made arrangements to homeschool my preschool-aged daughter we are terrified to send my son to kindergarten even though we know he thrives on being in school he will also probably remain home and work remotely i myself am worried that i will contract it and pass it to my family or worse end up in the icu or death i really feel we should remain remote for now and reevaluate maybe monthly or semester there is just way too much risk to be involved the reality that even just one student or staff member or even their family members could actually die to this all due to us all being back in school should be enough for us to remain remote for now until more reliable treatment or vaccines are available thank you for allowing me this opportunity to voice my concerns this is from will hung i have medical conditions along with my daughter's grandmother which puts us at high risk what is the plan for going back to school from patricia hunnell i am a grandparent of an incoming freshman and i am very concerned about returning to school next month my granddaughter has several medical issues which make a typical school experience risky given her our current circumstances and i am immunocompromised and that puts me at very high risk should i contract hobit i hope you will consider at home learning options for children at risk from the kenny's good afternoon i have been a teacher in the district for over 10 years i am also a proud d230 graduate i am also a member of the teachers association i first want to extend my gratitude towards the district and committees for working tirelessly on a plan and during these unprecedented times i cannot imagine the stress the district is under right now and coming up with a plan i assume we have many d230 parents who would like school feedback in-person instruction i'm a parent myself and remote learning was not easy for us in my home however i am putting aside my frustrations with teaching my own children in order to keep them safe i firmly believe we should start the school year on a remote learning model as other districts in our area have chosen to do i'm sure you're receiving an abundance of emails from teachers in regard to the safety of our students staff and families i stand by my colleagues and all these valid points but the focus of my email is a little different i would like to focus on time implementing a plan such as the one drafted by the district in my opinion is wasting time if this plan follows through and we begin the year in-person instruction we will inevitably move to e-learning in a matter of weeks or days and this may come with no warning teachers will then have to toss the plans that they've worked tirelessly over the last half of the summer to adhere to this new split schedule and throw together a remote learning plan no one would have predicted what this past spring looked like we had no choice but to scramble at the last minute to get a plan in place but this does not have to be the case this time around we know that if we start in person learning we will end up with cases quickly and will ultimately have to shut down and move to a remote learning plan is it really worth the health safety and yes the time of all this to enter our building for a week or two i really hope the district considers starting the year of remote learning this will give teachers enough time to collaborate and plan effectively and will keep our students and families safe thank you for your time and consideration from kathleen o'connell i hope this email finds you well after repeating the right after reading the revised plan i continue to have concerns about reopening schools in the new plan we are putting people at risk for only 35 minutes of instruction per class a week is 35 minutes worth the potential of exposing our students ourselves and our families i personally don't think it is worth it when we can e-learn which guarantees everyone's safety also will the schools now be doing temperature checks since this won't there won't be as many students to check each morning too many teachers are high risk or live with someone who is high risk how do we say that 35 minutes is more important in people's lives i know one teacher who is currently looking to have to move to a studio apartment because he can't be near his wife who was high risk my 18 month old daughter spent the first week of her life in critical condition hooked up to every machine possible to help her breathe she is now doing great but i am terrified that kobe will do to her lungs if i expose her to it these are just two examples of teachers who have a lot to stay careful i understand this is difficult situation for everyone we all want what is best for our students staff and our community i ask that you keep this in mind when making decisions about how to proceed this year from emily moser hello i just wanted to ask as a parent of this community for 22 years i would like to know why it's up to the school board to decide what's best for my child have you considered their well-being over the last four months of the stay-at-home matter some factors that need to be addressed when children are feeling confused highly anxious or emotionally numb their ability to create creativity and schoolwork at home is impaired adjust expectations about school performance accordingly to focus on their emotional ability to cope until the brains are working better by learning how to control their emotions they might not be able to retain much new information with this to take into consideration what is the future going to be like how will they adapt anger frustration moodiness and continual irritation this leads to a lot of anxiety stress and depression as a parent of a soon-to-be senior can you please address this thank you for your time from kathleen cordova first of all thank you for your dedication and service to our district i appreciate all of you i also understand you take your you'd take your safety seriously and cannot meet in person tonight i respect your decision teachers are the reason of our children succeed they gave us students hope when coving hit in the spring that they will preserve this and they did they are the reason why district 230 is so successful we have amazing teachers who have shown their grit stamina and perseverance they had the rug pulled out from underneath them and continued to make our district proud these same teachers who were supported tremendously in the spring are asking you the board to keep them and the students safe and having classes returned through remote learning stag teachers submitted 18 pages of cons of concerns regarding the blended reopening plan 60 of our teachers in our district do not feel safe returning to school our district has the capacity to do remote learning and do it great we have spent a large amount of money on technology and we can successfully educate all of our students in the safety of their home safety is and always should be the number one priority for teachers and students teachers are children themselves many of whom have met vulnerable parents these vulnerable parents are the voices of reason for our teachers they give them strength they are the best friends and they are often the reason behind so many of our teachers going into education teachers are also parents themselves many of whom have young school-aged children some of which are also vulnerable these vulnerable parents and children cannot afford to get sick neither can teachers we do not feel comfortable sending our children to school many teachers have felt anxiety stress and fear over this reopening plan their mental health has taken a beating during coven they are juggling multiple hats all at once and simply walking a tightrope to help in order to survive remote learning is not easy in fact most teachers will tell you it's harder than in-person instruction if we are willing to do more work it should mean something we are not invincible while many teachers wear capes we simply do not have a covered cape not yet anyways we are human this virus will attack it is inevitable that it will spread in schools please support your teachers and students now more than ever we are counting on you thank you for listening from laurie dulec thank you for the opportunity to share our thoughts i'm a proud staff teacher and teachers association member i have been unsettled and worried about the return to in-person learning since june i am concerned about the health and safety of my students their families and my colleagues i am also worried that i may bring this virus home to my children i am upset at the idea of not being in my classroom with my students but i realize it will be far more devastating if one of my students or a family member or i as their teacher can track this potentially deadly virus i have been given the responsibility to protect and nurture my students their studios their safety is my highest priority returning to school at this point puts them and all of our staff at risk if medical professionals and scientists assisting quarantines and social distancing are the best ways to prevent the spread of this virus it would be counterproductive to create an atmosphere where students and staff are gathering and breathing in the same air for hours at a time i'm asking you to do the right thing despite the fact that remote learning is not the way anyone wants to begin the school year if tonight's board meeting had to be held remotely because conditions are dangerous please consider the safety of hundreds of people gathering in the same building for hours our district was one of the few that had a solid remote learning plan last year and i'm proud of the technology we have implemented to prepare our students instead of creating two sets of plans for in-person and remote learning please allow us to spend the days leading up to school in preparation of solid remote learning lessons our plans will provide continuity because they will also allow us to prepare for the inevitable a surge in the virus that will eventually result in another quarantine i've attached a link to an article posted on nbc news site entitled illinois is 1 624 new coronaviruses cases makes highest daily rise since may thank you for your consideration from dan duleck my name is daniel dulac i'm a teacher at stag in a d230 teachers union member i'm writing to you today to strongly encourage you to reject administration's plan to return to in-person learning in august i am very concerned for the safety of our students as well as myself our district has gone to great lengths to create schools that are technologically advanced we have given every student a laptop computer and the staff has been well trained in using technology in the classroom but we all want to be in the classroom teaching i believe it is the best interest of our students and staff to begin the year utilizing the remote learning we have worked so hard to establish we really need to listen to the scientists and doctors who are telling us that quarantines work look at what happened in florida and texas when they opened up too soon our district has always been an example of south suburban districts to emulate let's continue to lead by making a decision that is based on scientific evidence and sound logic thank you for your time from rich carrick my name is richard curie and i'm a union member of district 230 i thank you for your constant contribution to our students families faculty staff and many stakeholders of the communities that you serve i am emailing you today to let you know that i am not the only union only union member who is in favor of starting the school year off with remote learning and thus not in support of your proposed plan i can go on for hours about why we should start school with remote learning but i will just echo the words of multiple superintendents around the state from down south to our own region it was it will be difficult to follow cdc guidelines during this time putting the students teachers staff and even parents at risk because of the disease transmission and losing even one student or one family member to cover 19 to transmission from a student due to hybrid or face-to-face teaching at this time is losing one too many there is too much at stake at this point and too much uncertainty with going back to our buildings between 500 and 800 students and staff members in a building at one time even going back 25 would not follow cdc guidelines and putting students staff and parents at risk numbers are up as a whole numbers of 10 19 our demographic and 20 to 29 year olds are at an all-time high even our president wants us to wear a mask now a complete 180 from earlier in the spring we need to remember that earlier on in new york had high numbers due to sending the elderly back to nursing homes and that was an ignorant initial response to the pandemic now that we have more science to back up the data we must do what is right for our students and start with remote learning thank you for your time i'm colleen gelfie as a parent of a student at bja and a district 230 union member i am one of the 83 of our community members who said we are ready to send our kids to school in person to destruction after reviewing the most recent draft of the reopening plan i have a few questions and concerns to be honest this plan is unnecessarily complicated with the expectation that 75 of our students attend my live connection while the other 25 are in class this plan only leads itself to remote teaching with the structure why have students in the building at all if teachers have to conduct the same lesson with teachers remotely as in class i was under the impression that in-person learning would mean i could engage with students seated before me while the students at home worked on other tasks but with this structure the student and class will serve as a live audience for my remote session also one day of in-person instruction for 30 minutes is simply not enough why not two days and what has to change in order to transition students to two days a week it is vitally important for teachers to build connections with students in the first couple of months in case we have to transition to fully remote learning later in the year and that can be the best achieved through in-person instruction students need more time in class thank you for your consideration jill wright i'm writing to you as an employee of district 230 and a member of the d230 teachers union i feel fortunate to have spent my career at a school district that has always strived for innovation aquatic equity and progress this past spring despite all the challenges with the quarantine brought i was so proud that d230 had everything in place for e-learning while so many had to scramble to transition and while the grading mandate was not one that encouraged every student to participate to their fullest i found that the majority of my students did make progress some of my students even thrived especially those who tended to have anxiety and or attendance issues during in-person school i do not nominate the difficult decisions that you are that are before you at this juncture i know that the plan to return to school this fall is one that has been a labor of evolving hours of thought it represents the best effort to meet the many academic social and health needs of our students the flaw in the plan is the same as the flaw in the plan of nearly every school district and country there are simply too many unknowns what if what if it is too soon and even one student teacher staff family member loses their life because of exposure tied to the return what if the long-term effects from contacting contracting covet 19 because statistically there will be school-related infections that are just beginning to be understood are dire are more dire than we knew than we believe what if we ended up having to run to fully remote learning because of an infection or because of a state mandate as a scientist i spent my career evaluating information and using this to inform my decisions i'm not an alarmist i'm someone who or someone who lives in fear i fully believe that this pandemic has a finite timeline and that a vaccine is on the horizon however scientific thought has taught me patience patients to know when the most prudent thing to do is to wait for more data now is one of those times everyone is anxious to return to normalcy i can't imagine a fallout a fall without the excitement of meeting new classes in person introducing students fun of physics listening to the marching band practice outside my office window homecoming all the traditions the newness that make me love my profession but the proposed hybrid learning is not going to bring normalcy the time in history is just never going to be normal since the normalcy that we long for is not possible i'm asking you to keep us safe our district has the resources to offer quality education remotely to me this is the chance we have been waiting for to put the investment and technology and training to the test and prove to ourselves that it has been worthwhile this pandemic is not going to last forever and patients may be our very best ally in the return to normalcy only history will show whether we return too soon but i guarantee in the historical context two three even six months will seem a short time to have had to do to be patient please consider full remote learning in district 230 until there are fewer what ifs my thoughts are with all of you and i thank you for your incredible service to district 230.
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i know over my 42 years of being around education you have uh kids that get dropped off at six o'clock in the morning sometimes um sometimes every day doors open at 7 10. breakfast is served every day lunch is served every day but the doors will not open until 10 after 7. the registration piece that mr peters mentioned some of you may have thought you registered double check with that we've got about a hundred students or so that have not registered and some of those i know maybe just didn't push the right button or or whatever on the computer so you might want to double check to make sure that you've been registered accurately you may get a call on that or a notice from from us about that anything else sir have a wonderful uh year this year i look forward to getting to know a lot of you right out of the box here all right as i close here um normally in normal freshman orientation i'd be giving you an ura speech about class of 2024 and go get the world and all that fun stuff but i have to have a little commentary here about covid um and uh it's actually the presentation i'm getting ready to talk about here has changed a little bit since uh the governor came out yesterday so i'm going to i'm going to be honest with you about what i can i'm going to go over the adjustments that we're making here at the high school and then if you have concerns specifically don't be afraid to approach me about those and talk to me individually so i'm going to go over the adjustments that we have here at the high school first off the gcs roadmap is we actually edited it yesterday afternoon and it was pushed out once again and i think the website link has been changed especially with the wording on mass okay master getting mandated in the state of indiana if you've not heard that and the governor is going to sign that into an ordinance starting monday so please be aware of that and that's going to impact what we do here at school and we are going to require mass you see the bullet down the page there that's just going to be in compliance with our governor's office and we're watching that closely we've been watching all along um and it's it's uh it changes all the time it's fluid it's unprecedented it's crazy it's all those things but we're watching it closely and that roadmap is a good place to start for a general approach to school it's the board adopted policy that guides all the buildings in the district about how we're handling this crisis so that's general information feel free to check that out adjustments specifically for gchs i have no lockers there when we made that decision to go with no lockers it was honestly before the mandate of the mask so i'm going to take the governor's ordinance into consideration and give it some thought but i want to be honest with you as parents and as freshmen be prepared to not have lockers until you hear otherwise okay i'm taking it under consideration i need a little bit more time since the governor came out yesterday but i want i may not change my mind on this okay i understand the concerns about carrying all these materials and a new student but the concerns about social distancing and keeping everyone safe was a bigger concern so i'm going to take it under consideration but just be prepared that you're not going to have a locker now athletics is a little bit different pe lockers are different i'm talking about lockers in our hallways you're going to have a pe blocker to change clothes in that's going to be available in our locker rooms and we're going to space you out for that okay you're also athletics if you're in a fall sport you bring stuff in we're going to accommodate those types of bags somehow some way probably in a coach's classroom or something we'll secure those but when i say no lockers i'm talking about the blue royal blue lockers that you're going to see in our hallways at this point we're not assigning them but i am cracking the door open a little bit i want to i want to think about the implications with now having mass in the building because that decision originally was made when we did not have a mass requirement to to keep social distancing so it's complex it's changing all the time i'm trying to be very candid and honest with you since you're here in front of me in this moment so we'll we'll make a very tough decision and try to land in a spot that's in the best interest of kids and the whole well-being of the child not just so you can put your you know biology book in the locker we're taking more into consideration just that okay water enough about enough about lockers four lunches we're spreading out lunches we did have three lunches in the past and they were in the middle of our third block of the day we've adjusted that we're going to four lunches to cut that down i actually made officially the lunch schedule yesterday got that finished so four lunch blocks in the third block of the day they all fall in that same block and that is to cut down on the number of kids in each lunch and it also allows me to spread out seating and and give as much space as possible we're going to spread out of the cafeteria and go into the lobby and actually we'll monitor that if we feel like they're still not spread enough or there's more concerns we'll take advantage of all the space we can to give kids uh you know food and nutrition at lunch lunch is an important part of the school day and we don't want to overlook that so we're making that adjustment water supply okay bring your own water bottle okay we will have a filling station we have one in our cafeteria i i believe we're going to get another one and a strategic part of the building i just don't want to promise that because i'm not quite sure that's here yet we're going to try to have another one and the water fountains per suggestion from health officials will not be available those water films will not be available i'm also working on trying to provide a water bottle for kids too but i'm not going to make any promises on that so be prepared to bring your own water bottle and that will be acceptable all right masks are required uh we've updated the roadmap skyward app um i the reason why i emphasize the skyward app it it kind of sticks out to me because it's not really relevant to the adjustments but the skyward app is going to be important in case the status of school changes so if it's good in general in a traditional setting of school to help you stay informed but if all of a sudden there's a huge outbreak and we're not physically in the building the skyward app is going to be crucial for you to stay connected to what we're doing at school grades updates just attendance all those discipline all those things that you need to be plugged into your child's education write their house in the skyward app okay i want to say one last thing about lockers before i turn the page the real concern about not having lockers too is kids carrying around book bags it's always been viewed in schools of having book bags going around from class to class as a safety concern and that is very legitimate you're about i'm balancing all these things and making a decision but i want to i want to stress one thing to everyone with book bags if we don't have lockers and kids are bringing book bags if something doesn't look right we have the right as school administrators to search that backpack and when we make that stance with searching those backpacks it's gonna it's gonna help create a safe environment we're not gonna target kids we're not gonna pick on kids but if there's a lot of vapes there's a lot of different things that are out there we take the safety very seriously so it's something we're managing and massaging but i want you to know if a kid brings something in and we feel like something doesn't look right we're going to have a conversation and if the if the evidence leads that we need to look at that backpack we're going to look in there and we'll call a parent we'll bring people in if we need to just to make sure we're on the up and up but we're going to stress the safety so a lot of factors to consider on these on these lockers and backpacks but i wanted i wanted parents and families to know that one-way travel this is another adjustment that was made that we talked about prior to the mass mandate our hallways we're going to make them one way to prevent people from crowding in the hallways and also passing by one another as they walk through this map is probably not going to make a lot of sense to you since you're not familiar with the building i'm going to try to walk over here this is organized north is up south is down okay so the 200 hall is this one that's running that way straight perpendicular to your back or to this auditorium that's the 200 hallway it's kind of hard to see but that direction the traffic flow will only go that direction right and then the back hall that goes to the north the 700 hallway that is back um going towards our vocational area our cte area back there um that is in the 700 hallway and then the 400 hallway on the other side of the building comes back this way and that'll take you to our cafeteria and then the other hallways are built around that having different directions we have adjusted to a five-minute passing period this year to cut down on the time in the hallways we will be sensitive to kids having enough time to get to where they need to go we're not going to be the tardy police but we're going to have a realistic expectation of kids traveling to where they need to go there the the mask mandate changes things some but there's still a concern our kids need to be kept spaced whenever possible and we need to keep them healthy so we're going to take some logical steps to do that and we're going to make tough decisions and i just tell you appreciate your support as we go through it no answer in all this is perfect but we're just going to do our best so there will be copies of this map available and we'll you'll get a chance to walk the building here in just a second last but not least i think with kova that i'll that i'll say today uh classroom precautions those deaths have been in classrooms have been spread out as much as possible in those rooms we've created as much space between those desks as we can there's cleaning supplies in every classroom those areas are going to be cleaned regularly and if something is of concern we're going to clean it right away we also moved additional custodians to our day shift from the evening shift to help accommodate those those different items so that way we can clean throughout the day and we also have electric electrostatic cleaners that will clean surfaces and and and just stay out in front of us as best we can so we're we're having a lot of uh a more robust approach to our cleaning process in in response to this pandemic um you guys have anything else to add oh yes i do yes i do thank you this is my last comment i promise we have added a nurse an actual registered nurse here at the school last year we were sharing one between the junior high and we actually have a registered nurse here in our building that's going to be here every day she's going to be leave a little bit before the end of the school day but she's going to be here to monitor the health of our students we're working through the clinic procedure those procedures will be a lot different we're obviously going to take steps when we feel like someone's symptomatic we're going to get them removed from the general population as fast as possible and then work with local health officials about how that child's attendance is impacted and how we handle that situation if they've been exposed to multiple people so that will be done with local health officials as we work through that on a case-by-case basis but that nurse is in our clinic i'm happy to announce that because i'm making all these decisions in school and i'm not a health expert i'm just i'm just a school administrator so try to do the best we can but we have a very qualified health person with us that'll help us along the way and help keep your child safe so i'm going to stop there what i am going to do now is i'm going to release you the building in the past we had tours that were guiding you but in the sake of social distancing you're going to be able to walk the buildings the classrooms are going to be locked you're not going to be able to walk in classrooms but you are going to be able to if you want to take a picture of that map you can with your phone and you can get a you can get a glimpse of okay yeah there's maps posted around the school there's also directional arrows okay that are posted that are ready for the first day of school i'm gonna let you go through um go through the building and get a sense and then if you'd like to have any kind of conversation discussion with me you can you can see me at
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okay um thank you for your comment sure i think the commissioners that are on the solid waste working group um we should uh i'll i'll personally contact you in sometime tomorrow probably or over the weekend okay invest these in some more detail okay great i'll just i'll just say at this point that uh um that yeah that uh senate bill was actually provoked by a uh a law that was passed by washington county here to ban oh my the band plastic bag so it got an immediate response from the michigan chamber of commerce and the chemical manufacturers association and so that's how that happened um there are it depends on the state like you know it's going to depend on actions of the state legislature going forward but i can update you on other bills that are going on for example there's a building drafted to ban uh pfas you know polyfluoroalkenated sciences and food wrappers and things like that so i can talk to you about some of that and then we can see how um you know how we might integrate you into the work of the commission okay okay thank you uh real quick on the subject of pfas i recently got uh you know got aware of that um knew a little bit about it before like now i know more we have to live right by the huron river this is more of a kind of a personal thing fuller lake is and a friend told me no no don't swim in there a lot of people do don't do it it's pfas what's the deal with just swimming do you do you guys have any insight on that um yeah i think uh just swimming uh there are no recognized health dangers but it's the county health department that manages information okay in my awareness there's no ban on swimming there's no concern about that however there is concern about foam if you see any particularly whitish foam in the river you need to avoid that you need uh you need the um you know you need your pets and everything like that to avoid it as well because the peacocks will concentrate in the phone i see okay well uh thanks for the information on that and i look uh forward to um learning more about what i can do and how i can work with ann on this this uh struck her is a pretty good idea so um and uh and like i said i've got nothing but time i can i can put in some work okay well i'll give you a call tomorrow okay thank you very much you're welcome um any other comments caitlyn i don't uh see anybody else no okay so let's wait another 10 seconds 15 seconds hi how do you raise your hand around here stephen so uh for a number of years after phosphates were banned in michigan i was regularly seeing foam below the barton dam in the river and i really didn't understand that and of course i presume that was fifa's contamination coming down the river it didn't last long it was usually done the foam was usually absorbed by the time he got around to argo pond i'm also curious and i haven't seen any um scientific studies that say what the sources of the microplastics in our waterways and in the ocean um are they plastic bags is that the source is it um um okay i mentioned this earlier i have some scientific papers that i can share with you as well as bob needham um it's basically uh major sources uh lent from fleece from synthetic fab fibers and fleece clothing um clothing that's getting washed and then emitting these fibers yeah that's possibly the major source in the river it's also airborne about half of it is airborne and it comes from many sources it can come from brake pads automobile brake pads automobile tires so we've traded asbestos for plastics in the air and brake pads yeah we'll we'll have a we'll have a discussion of that [Music] the next meeting um is going to be uh bob needham's organizing and it's around water quality issues and so we're we'll have time to talk more about this topic later maybe at the next maybe the august meeting thank you i'd like to learn this but i'm happy to share uh the information i have with you all okay yes sir and i'll just copy everybody on it um so um let me just summarize the action items i think we have the ones that we had from last time that uh we'll just update and then i'm going to add two more um one is the uh that uh commissioners um will send their ideas for capstone projects to uh peck um just a paragraph a rough paragraph outlining what the idea is by september 1st and uh so uh chris because you came in late the basic idea was that uh um you know to develop uh clients what are called clients for c students capstone projects um they'd like to have ideas and projects to collaborate on with the local community so every community think about sending their ideas to uh to pack for these projects needs to be a paragraph uh by september 1st and then we'll go through the process and you know see what floats to the top okay yes sir and then the uh the second action point i have is that i'm going to share the draft um my draft ordinance for construction and demolition recycling with people before the meeting and uh i don't think i'd like some input from other people but i don't think it will it we'll see if there'll be time on the agenda for the next meeting um the next meeting bob is gonna have the majority of the time and uh on what we're going to talk about water quality so um i think that's it um are there any other suggestions did i miss something we were gonna make up a smart goal for the ipm work with jen lawson [Music] that's sorry thank you ann okay um so um so um are there any more um action items last call okay well um i uh we're at the end of the agenda so i will uh i'd like to adjourn the meeting a motion to adjourn it um shannon seconded by chris okay so uh the meeting is adjourned at 8 p.m uh thanks everybody for your time thank you everyone it was really great to meet everyone i hope i hope we uh can see more of you really thank you thanks for coming in arbor and contributing yeah i'm and you know i've got i've um it's my thing you know uh seniors kids environmental stuff pets i'm all of that all right okay thank you everyone and we'll and uh mr brown we'll talk to you uh we'll talk to you soon is it steve is it steve brown yeah yeah okay all right yeah we'll we'll uh we'll catch up with you maybe tomorrow hey yeah for sure thank you sir take care everyone bye-bye everybody bye-bye everybody you
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from gordon engelhardt the disappointment of the district's back-to-school calendar is gut wrenching i continue to see the statement of students well-being so let's look at it from a vantage point in action currently and currently in illinois under stage four the largest establishments that are open are restaurants hospitals are the exception while eating establishments are limited to 50 capacity there are none that will hold a minimum of nearly 1 000 people interacting and changing who who they sit with or walk with for seven hours a day staff would face these numbers for an added four days a week the number of potential exposures students would face to this highly infectious copenhagen virus would be unprecedented no establishment other than hospitals have had so many people in such counts of proximity for such an extended amount of time even sporting events have less participants and those individuals are tested continuously i do not see in this plan that everyone will be tested daily temperature do nothing if a person is asymptomatic cdc and world health shows studies that asymptomatics are the super breeders super spreaders of this virus if one student gets sick what will be the repercussion if that person is asymptomatic and spread the virus to their friends staff and family then what if they are unlucky and die would you say if only we hadn't i watched my wife dying she was on a ventilator for three weeks her cause of death came as a total surprise i had no choice how i wish every day that i could have prevented it the members of the board however do have a choice you could say we are not willing to expose our children to the potentially lethal virus yes education is very important but i would contest that a person's life is far more important than in-person education for staff our risk is compounded four times we will be in contact four days a week seven hours a day and we are the oldest population who are at risk of complications of this virus we unlike students are not given the opportunity to teach learn remotely what is the option for those staff members with diabetes obesity age copd etc this in-person learning at this time is a gamble a gamble that no one will get sick over the next 18 months a gamble that would affect our lives and our family's lives forever you have to you have an opportunity to protect our students and community by issuing remote learning for the fall semester is it ideal in a world with covet 19 no but we are in this pandemic remote learning is far more ideal than the risk of any student staff and family member becoming sick is the health and well-being of anyone in our schools worth the risk of in-person learning over remote by action that is what this plan is saying i beg you to consider and implement remote learning for the fall semester of 2020.
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from katherine v hello i am a former student and current taxpayer of district and i have many many concerns about your plans to be open i have to say i'm appalled that you are willing to risk your employees co-workers lives and your students lives by opening the school how ironic that you did not feel safe enough to have this meeting in person due to covet 19 that you want your schools to be packed full of thousands of students and teachers i am so thankful for the education i received at stagg high school i am so thankful for my teachers that truly care about my life as well as my well-being so many of them are still employed at stag and i'm absolutely horrified that you are choosing to put their safety and their lives at risk please don't do this if you open the schools it would be a slap in the face to your students teachers and every single essential worker that has put their life on the line for us not to mention the hundreds of thousands of people who have died from this horrific virus i'm kristin corcoran my name is kristen corcoran i'm a member of the teachers association and a teacher at vja my concerns for the proposed plan are for our staff and our students and may i feel hopeful that our nation will be a better place and debit wise unfortunately this is not our reality one of my greatest joys is being in the classroom with my students and i've been lucky enough to do this for the past 15 years i'd like to stay healthy enough to do this for at least another 15 years please consider the proposed plan in favor of remote to start with a reassessment after the certain amount of time not only is it the safest option and follows the most current research available it also allows teachers to focus our efforts at making remote teaching the best it is can be for our students the risk of this plan is not worth the reward at this point in time i'm an educator a devoted one i'm also a daughter wife aunt mother friend and i'd like to be all of these things for many years to come i want my students co-workers and families to have the best possible chance at staying healthy any choice other than starting remote and reassessing is not worth the risk there are too many unanswered unanswered questions at this time i'm michael murray my name is michael murray and i'm a d230 teachers union member i would like to strongly encourage you to not accept the administration's current plan for returning school i'll simply give what i think is my best reason what's the rush why not step back let the districts try let other districts try it and see what happens looking at our state versus wisconsin in recent weeks i think it is an apt comparison we remain shut and our numbers have dropped wisconsin opened up and their numbers are rising heck tonight's meeting is going to be held remotely for health reasons why would students returning to our schools feel any safer from kristen mazda hello i'm a union member teacher and a parent and i have multiple concerns for the updated school opening plan how can administration hold a virtual meeting to ensure the safety of all yet our reopening plan recommends students and teachers at risk in person teachers at risk in-person classes for the next three weeks research has shown that the virus spreads through air quicker than indoor environment since the entire school building share the same hvac the virus would spread to all very quickly the illinois federation of teachers unions the iea cps unit and many other teachers unions have demanded full remote learning and i believe we should too how can we ensure proper home health checks when students or staff members may be asymptomatic 25 to 50 of our student population has roughly 500 or more students plus staff members that is too great for a number of individuals in an indoor environment what will our district do is students cannot wear a mask due to certain health issues or if a student refuses to wear them if a student takes their mask off in a classroom hallway or cafeteria then people will potentially be exposed if a student or staff member tests positives and we are required to quarantine for cdc recommendations how will this impact our sick days if our district legally responsible if someone contracts the virus on campus school districts such as home at flossmoor evanston stevenson and oak park rivers forest are pursuing full remote plan due to the health and safety of their community and our district should do the same i do not want to choose between my job and my health nor do i believe it is fair to ask that of teachers if ihsa has announced plans to delay fall sports which most of those are held outdoors why would we not postponing class in-person classes as well as covet 19 members in illinois continue to spike daily why would this be a safe time to put people together in one building if students are given the option to choose full remote learning due to safety concerns then i believe it is only fair to allow employees the same option the surgeon general and multiple other medical individual individuals expressed concern that now is not the time to open schools and why are we not listening to medical advice i believe in our staff members that i know we will continue to deliver meaningful lessons and make connections with our students while continuing remote learning students cannot thrive in high stress environments which is what in-person classes currently are students will be fearful how can desks in classrooms be appropriately disinfected within passing periods what about students or staff that have elevated risk factors will they be allowed to pursue remote learning given the crisis the pandemic i beg you to not allow in-person classes until we have enough information and evidence to safely open schools i respectfully request the district we choose to continue remote learning for the upcoming school year from claire devontes my name is claire davontes i am a teacher at andrew high school and a member of our union i love my job and desperately want to go back to school i want everything to go back to normal right now we are in the midst of a pandemic normally is not going to happen anytime soon when we ended in person instruction in march the daily common case count was in the low double digits today our case count was nearly 1600 the fact that we are even debating whether or not to return to in-person instruction is unfortunate returning to school even at 25 capacity still exposes students and staff to hundreds of people a day it isn't a matter of if someone gets coveted it's when how can the district and board guarantee that no one will get it one return in august are we willing to sacrifice a student or staff member the solution is simple we must begin the school year remotely and remain remote until we have a consistent and substantial decrease in cases i understand that this is not an easy decision to make and that regardless of what is decided someone will be left unhappy perhaps the district and board would reconsider making this kind of decision one that has potential to kill or cause permanent lung long-term damage to the health and safety of students once they are able to meet in person to discuss and vote on it your health and well-being is very important so is mine and that of my students i implore you to consider what many of my colleagues are asking for which is remote start to the school year and our last comment is from michelle hutchinson teachers association president one thing that is and has been abundantly clear to me as the association president is that the teachers in our association truly love their work it's a calling we are truly d230 proud we miss our students and desperately want to return to our pre-coveted world and other wishing if only wishing made it so sadly we are in an unstable world fighting an invincible force with deadly capabilities and characteristics that are not fully understood by experts i know that today the district 230 administration will be presenting a reopening plan to the board this model will have our students in the building at 25 capacity while the association understands the district's motivation as fierce protectors of our students we are very concerned about how we will remain student and staff safety the risk of return is very disconcerting at this time especially with the rising numbers of cases in the state and in the towns our schools are located in a survey of our association members this week showed that 60 of our teachers favor remote learning as teachers we all recognize how important in-person learning is we also recognize the hybrid model will be considered more socially distanced learning students will need to stay six feet apart from each other and keep their mass on all day as teachers we will not be able to take advantage of the strategies that we know work best with students such as collaboration grouping cooperative learning reciprocal teaching and peer learning it is possible that essential curricular minutes can be lost as teachers work to ensure that everyone is maintaining social distance wearing masks and hand sanitizing teachers and students especially those with high risk medical issues will be trying to teach and learn in classrooms that they will have to hope are being cleaned properly students will have to change classrooms and walk in hallways that may not have been the proper ventilation needed to give them to keep them from getting sick remote teaching learning in fall 2020 will not resemble the crisis teaching learning that occurred in march 2020.
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the new guidelines from hisby will allow us to teach new concepts give praise and assessments and create a remote environment that works for our students and staff the association understands the decision to reopen schools is not that not one that the district or board takes lightly we implore you to let classes start remotely the association is certain that at this time remote learning is the only safe option for our students staff and community in closing i will leave you with this thought as an english teacher i usually find irony enjoyable but in this case it is disturbing and dangerous how prudent does it seem to open schools to thousands of children and adults when we have to conduct a board meeting virtually thank you caroline from reading the the comments and they will be part of the minutes um for uh they'll be logged in the minutes um that um concludes our presentation to the board and um it does sorry that's all right um the one thing i want to make sure is in the minutes is that uh especially in response to some of the comments this meeting was not held remotely we were present for the meeting so just so that is it is no we were not remote when we held this meeting um okay at this time i would like to ask for a motion please i move the school board adopt the kova 19 reopening plan approval resolution as presented second well she made my member of sullivan seconded by a member of murphy peterson to approve the colbig reopening plan this time i would ask for any comments or questions i i i'd like to address some of some of the issues that we uh we just heard it's this is an extraordinary historical time i think we have to acknowledge the the elephant in the room there isn't a plan that in existence that could possibly be drafted that can address all of the concerns of everybody in our district we have to acknowledge that everybody comes from their own position their own background their own experiences and consequently this plan might not be perfect for their family but i can't help but also notice even in the objections that we're reading into the record that everybody seems to be looking at this from their own perspective as a board we don't have that luxury we have to look at what is the best interest of thousands of kids and i do know that there are parents that are clamoring for their kids to get back in school and anybody who thinks that teaching by way of zoom or or remote teaching is the same as face-to-face has never experienced either one because there is no comparison i personally i don't want to break into anecdotes but i taught a zoom class last week and i taught a face-to-face class today to law enforcement they are worlds apart and delivery content by way of virtual teaching is a weak form of content delivery period it's not that it can't be done it's not that our students can't learn something but it's much less effective and we have to acknowledge that so i think as a board we have to do what's what ultimately is best for everybody rarely would i ever be in a position where i would disagree with our teachers our teachers are the backbone of of this district and uh we've always had i think a really great relationship with them and i hope that certainly continues but we don't have the luxury of of making decisions based upon family concerns and family issues that that clearly affect and frankly tug at the heartstrings of all of us that it may affect their individual families we can only hope for the best for them individually so i certainly hope that this vote whatever it might be recognizes that there is no perfection we have to make the call show some backbone step up to the plate and and do what's best for everybody the entirety of this district thank you dave anyone else i totally agree dave and this is unprecedented times we don't know i think that a lot of work and time has been put into this plan to try to really accommodate the majority as safely as possible i did have a question if anyone in this room could possibly answer what have we done with our hvac system filters have we changed to hepa filters have because it seemed like a lot of concern about air conditioning which is in the news we're not really supposed to be inside but if we changed any of our filter systems in our buildings dave you can you may want to come to the microphone because i think it's this is dave keating our director facilities yeah currently um we change our filters as uh as needed through the school district we've got a set pm system that comes out every three months so our filters are stronger you put in have stronger filters and you're going to start your units and you'll hear all air cushion breakdowns you'll have no airflow at all so putting in a stronger air filter won't help but we are in the process of looking into certain things that will help break down particles in the air and we're trying our best but all the school districts do the same thing at colleges so we're trying our best to get all the equipment we can to help so we already looked at sites for i feel there's our change regularly but um but we're looking at roof type units that are the large spaces that will um we're pretty confident of those that we're going to be able to do the airflow so yeah the the hvac system is is definitely something that dave's been working on in john level under his leadership and actually a name from the past five years is on roofs as we speak looking at that and then my next question would be is there any plan or a possibility to let the students and staff during lunch hours go outside they have a break they have fresh air yes part of the pe program that we're looking at as pe students is every day is to go outside take the mat have students take the mask off go outside um walk the track they're not gonna be able to change in the in the pe locker room but to walk the track walk around the outside of the building when that's there we believe it's probably important to take the mask off is when they can um in the event it's it's it's a rainy day as we move forward to you know fall or whatever um we talked about mindfulness that activities that can take place in schools and in the gyms are pretty large again if we're at 25 percent we're talking maybe 10 to 12 students we in this large space that would be able to possibly um i think we talked about taking working with them as well with the teachers and staff would there be any time carved out for them to have the same because wearing a mask for six hours is going to be challenging correctly i'm wrong i think teachers still have a planning period so the teachers have a planning period they teach typically five they have a planning period every day that they would be able to take it off the student the teachers will be here before the st the students they're at that point as well and i believe if they're in their work space depending on some somewhat some places they have their own classroom some places they don't in a workspace there's barricades so yes there would be time for staff too we agree it's this is we're sitting here at a meeting right now for a couple hours and if a classroom has windows that can open will they be allowed to open the windows to make them feel more comfortable and have fresh air circulating yes ma'am okay i think that was all my questions i think i got a quick question that just thought of a little off topic but are we gonna have student teachers in the building in the fall i don't know that yes dr wheaton says yes it could be student teachers that program's still going through the schools through the colleges universities well that's something we need to address as well haven't already mm-hmm but i mean davos what he said is i couldn't say any better so thank you it was great my thoughts exactly um you know you have legitimate concerns from the teachers uh but we also know that we have legitimate certain concerns for the students and they've been out since march and they need that connectedness and even that social and emotional structure um so that's kind of what my thoughts are on that okay so kate um i just wanted to say thank you dave because i think you summed up quite a bit of how we're feeling i did have one question for dr wheaton as they were asking in regards to if they're sick are our teachers and staff considered under the cares act are the teachers under the cares act if they're sick okay thank you thank you one last thing i want to publicly congratulate the the committee for putting all the work in i know this was going on for a couple months and there's a whole big organizational structure pyramid put together so a whole lot of people put a lot of work in this as dave mentioned there's no perfect plan but uh looks like you've thought of everything you could possibly think of although you never know now nowadays but uh i just want to publicly thank you all for doing a whole lot of work and we really appreciate it thank you sir one more thing and for the public that's watching us also the as the numbers change this this could get shut down anyway okay the governor could shut us all back in and then we have to follow those we have to follow what the state mandates we are a public school so um just echoing what dave mentioned at the beginning of this as the board the board has to do what's right for the majority and for the majority it seems that the families really understand and know that their kids need some kids a lot of kids need in-person teaching some kids can handle the remote this is a hard time for both because even be at 25 is not going to be the same the schools are going to be very different irregardless but a lot of kids do need to be in the building seeing their teacher sitting in a desk and having as traditional of a of a day as they possibly can so we really are sensitive to all the factors we truly are yeah one last thing um you know dr gabe mentioned before this thing is really flexible this plan yes the chance of this of us implementing this on the 12th or whatever they are and then again on the 20th and then again on the 24th and the chances of something changing is you know pretty likely you know considering every other change been going on since march so and that's something to keep in mind this is a flexible plan i'm sorry to interrupt but yeah that's true and even if the board approves us and we're in the 25 we don't have a deadline you know that we may phase in moving up forward as we move forward um and we will you know we have to have a plan so we have a structure so we can do the next steps that are necessary to be planning as we know we'll start somewhere yeah and i i do think you alluded to it in your presentation but if in fact there was some type of unfortunate uh suddenly all kinds of people started becoming infected that there was a brick we could go right to remote immediately 100 this plan allows us to easily transition to a fully remote plan because every wednesday no matter what program we have 25 percent 30 whatever every wednesday is fully remote basic asynchronous sorry guys they're looking at me thinking this um so to transition the full remote we think is seamless at any time it's a tremendous amount of work because it's a tremendous amount of work trying to think of every conceivable thing and cover it is it's just phenomenal that you guys you know worked and i know like somebody said you you know got to turn on a dime you got to pivot because you've got everything in place and you think you're almost done and then all of a sudden oh no wait no it's different so it is really a difficult task thank you for doing it um and um it is it is it's a tough thing to decide on it really is it's a really hard decision to make yes ma'am yeah so anybody else have anything else all right then i guess i'll just wrap it up and uh you know again and kind of working off what dave said i mean this is a very very difficult decision for the board it's something that we do not take lightly and there's a lot of issues here we understand teachers issues we understand the students issues many of us um have either ourselves or our spouses that are essential workers that have to deal with this on a daily basis many of us are out working now and dealing with this on a daily basis it's just life that has to be dealt with and sometimes it's not the easiest thing to do what i would say right now is um and kind of as as pat said and and looking at our students you know we we mentioned a lot about the concern of the students contracting coverage or the teachers but the one piece that wasn't mentioned by anybody is the social emotional piece of our students we don't know what's going on in the mind of those students well they've been sitting home for months not having contact with their friends with their companions missing out on a lot of things that kids their age should be able to participate in and i think that also has to be taken into consideration that there are a lot of other issues here besides colvin yes covet is the most important overriding issue and is it a concern of course it is i'm not waving it off or taking it lightly but the point i'm trying to make is is that i believe right now it is essential for our students to get back to some type of normalcy and as a result of that i feel that our teachers have become essential workers and as a result of that i think it's time that we get them back in the classroom with our students and do this as best as we can we have the possibility that we have to go backwards and we all understand that but the plan is flexible enough to take that into consideration and on the other hand we also understand as we've said a number of times this plan has been gone through numerous times to try to look at every single flaw and every single possibility of something going wrong to make sure that we could put controls in place nothing is flawless nothing is perfect nothing can guarantee anything and i hate to use this phrase because you know it's used all the time but nothing is guaranteed and all we can do is the best we possibly can do and move forward so if no one else has any comments uh lisa let's vote remember o'sullivan yes member o'connor yes member gracias yes member murphy peterson yes member dalton yes member heartick members here tori yes the motion passes the reopening plan is approved once again thank you everyone and the meeting is adjourned oh i'm sorry excuse me everyone excuse me you know there's a lot of work out of us and we're prepared to do this and we're going to be as many you guys said we're going to be watching what's happening out there we will you know um we'll continue to work with our amazing associations all three associations our teachers our food and esp associations to work to get the as we transition into the next next phase and um we're going to be deliberate we're going to be meaningful we'll be thoughtful as we move um with our staffs and with our students as we as we bring people back in a very deliberate way and we're not this is not a race we're not trying to be the first sisters district to have 100 percent back that's not the point right point is there some continuity so i thank the board for their support yeah and we would expect no less again thank you all right now at this time i'd ask for any motion to adjourn i'm or do you want the motion for the to vote this in but we voted you just did just a motion to adjourn yeah we voted in six years now we just need the motion to return so moved okay all right motion made by member of murphy peterson second event member dalton to adjourn and we vote please member of sullivan yes member o'connor yes member gracias yes member murphy peterson yes member dalton yes member sarah tory yes we are adjourned at 7 39 p.m thank you everyone yes thank you
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just in case okay call this meeting order uh we just called this meeting today so that we could have some open discussion open more discussion about possibilities of serving the september 9th date that the governor discussed or september august 20th 21st right in there so we it would be a good idea for the board to get together and have some discussion on that so let's start the discussion i'll start okay i feel that as long as we can properly prepare and have a good plan and service i'm in favor of starting school on time on or originally not necessarily on time but our original day thereabouts and the contingency that we have a good plan together protocols to protect everybody not just rush through something to try to get the energy but if we're ready to go i say that i'm ready to support that starting at the reason i i would agree with lucas there's lots of information out there some for some again certainly opening the schools uh but i think coffee county is not a really high area right now with uh with infections and i i really think it's important that we have to get our kids back in school i mean uh you know we i think ufc 244 did a wonderful job last year making that happen with lots of different um caveats to you know trying to get kids to learn but it wasn't the learning environment that they deserved and uh but i agree with lucas if we can do this in a safe manner and if we can't then we reevaluate and step back but i think that we should move forward and have our projected opening date and you know if something comes up before then then you know we we look at it and change but as we know i mean things change daily but that's my comment i think it's important for kids in favor of starting school on time if we are able to like james said if you look at the numbers in our county currently i know there's ongoing discussion with the health department we're in a pretty good spot as far as our county goes especially when you look at the number of kids that have been affected by this it's really a very small number so i think it's very important that we get our kids back in school but i also think that it's important to listen to staff and the school administration to see what their level of comfort is as well because it's not it's not just the kids that we're looking out for as well but we also want to look out for our teachers and all of the school personnel as well moving forward and if we could have all of those safety measures and all the equipment and supplies that we need in place for to start as originally planned and i'm all for that yeah i agree i don't want to rush it i mean but it has to be a well-planned thing and if we get we'll plan out plan and if we can do that and start as our original family you know these there's kids that you know we haven't seen since spring break you know and these there's kids out there that um that you really need a school environment this morning i spoke with uh lindsay payer i happen to see her and we discussed some of the facts that she has presented um on to the commissioners on monday she talked to you know uh we need to move forward we need to get these kids we need some normalcy and um we have great administration that is working in a plan and working with health officials we have a committee started to make sure that we're you know meeting all the needs and doing everything that we need to do to start on time and we we need to meet the guidelines and we also need to meet the state's expectations as far as hours that we're you know serving our kids and giving them an education for it as well so have you heard what you always said and having a chance to talk with you guys all individually we've been working tirelessly with administrators directors on different thoughts different plans and it's a challenge because again of the moving target that we've kind of dealt with in regards to it was state control first now then it became local control and then it became state control and just some different things with chat i guess this is challenging again i'm not critical of anyone in leadership because i'm in leadership and i understand how it's it's it's a difficult a difficult thing so now having said that now um we spent a lot of time the whole day yesterday with health department officials there lindsay payer carl lee dr shell was in communication via text as well as phone administration directors and we met for three hours yesterday and so asking them the question first and foremost do you feel like we can start school on our normal date august 20 and they they said yes with say guidelines in place health safety guidelines we started to work on those health safety guidelines when we got those completed yesterday then i guess i want to share with you those guidelines and i'd like to hope to do a monday special board meeting because i i yesterday because we were meeting all day long i didn't have a chance to get everything formally typed up and ready for this meeting i hate to do two meetings but it's just something that we need to i want to have you guys look over the information i'll have it to you tonight in your board report and you'll have a chance to look over at the week this weekend not only the plan that we have in place for the health safety of all of our students and our staff and then also the plan we have forward moving forward with the educational process because if you look at that navigating change document 1078 pages there were basically three different models of education there was the on-site um basically that kind of is normal if you will with some the new normal adjustments you have the hybrid model the mixture on-site and at-home online learning and then you have the online or remote learning model we we put together what we feel like is a very good plan and it ties in with what our staff will be utilized before when we were doing continuous learning and they have some familiarity with work that they've been doing with tech padres this summer with craig courtney and so having said that uh courtney finn was sent and so having said that um we have put together what we think we've got our plan ready we've been having discussions all throughout all throughout the summer so i would be able to share that with you guys on monday and you'll be able to look to approve everything moving forward then that allows us to get involved with the advisory committee so for example the health safety guidelines um university has sent out an advisory committee meeting a request for people to join the advisory committee those that have said that they would like to as well as beyond that committee as well as the the administrators giving me some names of parents or community members that would be good on that on that committee we'll look to get them together and we'll look to review our plans for health safety islands hey did we miss anything we want input from them because quite honestly we don't know if we've got everything covered that we need to have covered we'll talk to them about the the educational fund so you guys will formally look to approve the plan monday but it's a it's an ever-changing ever-evolving document based on the public input that we will get from those committee type groups that we have to put together as well as our staff so it'll create different meetings again with the advisory committee we'll have probably ibbb with uh with negotiations they'll want to be a part and look at the possible calendar adjustment the one thing that our administrators that will tell you this ahead of time our administrators did feel like when you talked about the preparation piece because of what we're doing what we're planning on doing the plan we're looking to give you has a lot of things that we have already worked on and done before we feel like we need one more day of training and in-service so what we're looking at in the calendar let's see could you possibly tracy slide to that this is the calendar that we are currently we adopted we would look to possibly take 17 18 and 19 of august and make those in-service days those would be mandatory in-service days for teachers we would basically take the 14th of september and slide it up to the 19th the 19th would become the 20th which is a flex work day for staff and the 21st would be the first day of school so we'll have a first day of school come back friday and then come back to start the full week on the 24th that would be a proposed idea again that we would look to the book to approve that's what our administration directors they feel like they need one more day to make sure we've got everything ready to go and hopefully to edit and if i can get that information out to staff sooner the better that way they know when they are prepared so um andrew again there'll be more information regarding uh you know the plan that you guys will get this weekend as well as we'll look to to discuss this as a special board meeting on them shane can you hear us yeah okay before craig talked we went around and gave our thoughts on uh how we feel about so do you want to go i heard all that okay do you want a good say that again do you want to go ahead and say what you want to say uh i would talk way too long well do you want to give us the shortened version i don't have a shortened version i'm not i mean we're here to agree or disagree with the calendar right whether we support starting when the governor has suggested or are original or close to its start date yes yeah what practice that i agree with so i guess so i just have one other thing i'd like to say so i so we've all been in discussions with the administration before this you know that uh hey what do we think you know and so certainly the administration has been you know they are the ones that think that we can open up and we're here to support them or not support them we think we have a fantastic administration uh you know the teachers i mean throughout the whole organization uh and and we are here to support them i think the change to the date of the 21st is actually a really works out probably a pretty good idea because we're not going to be 100 right on day one but on friday you know come monday we can regroup and say what did work right on friday so we have the whole weekend to figure that out and and kind of adjust on monday and we're probably going to adjust there for a week or two but we're going to do the right thing and if people have comments about that or or have suggestions then certainly feed that administration exactly and i want to thank the the health department staff know they've been just instrumental in working with us in an ever-changing world uh hospital staff as well dr shell just a variety of different people uh again i just want to thank those people i want to thank everybody for their patience because this is this is this is not easy this is very very challenging it's very very controversial or a divisive type of a topic but we just we're trying to do our best and we're going through all the information and processing as quick as we can i will say this kind of as a little information ahead of time or a spoiler alert if you will we want to do everything we can to meet the needs of our students our staff and our visitors our patrons into into our schools it's it's very very important we need our kids we need our staff we need everybody we need we need the whole system to work well and it's not easy like when we had our staff meetings this wednesday i told them all i started off with none of this is fun and none of this is easy but we can make this work and so we need our kids we need our kids we need our families and that we're going to try to provide learning models a couple of different models that will allow everybody to have their needs met and we want to work with people to make sure that this happens because again education is so important it is so important for us to do everything we can just to have the kids with us i know our staff is missing the kids and i know i'm missing seeing kids and i'm missing seeing our staff too so we're just missing everybody and we want to get back to doing what we do it's it's truly like you say it's a life mission for people in education so i've probably talked too long but i just want you to know with our plan we will be talking about and looking to approve on my knee we believe we can meet everybody's needs and then if things change we'll come up with a change to try to meet everybody's needs based on what happens in the world and without related building 19.
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correct yes i have a question more out of curiosity what is the rest of the league doing i know i talked to someone from wellsville and they think they're starting on the 20th um i asked mr watkins to get some information and they are they're in discussions with again with we we thought again like two like about ten days to two weeks ago we kind of thought we had everything pretty well lined up and we were going to try to get together and approve a plan and then things started to change obviously with some different uh some different uh oh i guess just some different uh information that we received from the state so it's just as far as the league schools they are they're having these same discussions that we are having now so we don't have any specific information from them yet okay thank you i did hear uh shane and it wasn't from one of their officials but um i just i understood that usd 243 and 245's really really really are starting on time or around on time and melbourne is actually meeting next wednesday like we're doing to make that decision as well so it's just people around and again i know everybody's interested in knowing and i received emails and phone calls and then i i was at the fair wednesday night and we had discussions with people i know everybody wants the plans it's a it's a process that has to occur where we have to get the board on board first then information goes out and we start to gain more information because i feel like that's the way we need to do this information goes out and then we make adjustments we'll cut for example the health safety guidelines that we have you guys may have some adjustments to them and we may adjust them monday night we may get our advisory committee together and they may have some adjustments we may have to re it's going to be a moving i don't say moving targets can be an adjusted document a continued adjusting document and that's the way we need to do this i mean this is what we need to do based on what's happening it's our means for our community exactly i kind of wanted to speak towards i appreciate shane's comment but uh i don't know how i'll come across saying this but i want our focus and i believe our focus is to be on our kids and our kids education and our kids health and safety our teachers health and safety all that the discussion about what other schools in our leagues are doing are going to pertain to us based on sports and academic or sports and extracurricular stuff but first and foremost we need to teach our kids in our communities and our i mean i did every sport in high school and i think that stuff's important but i don't want to sacrifice some of our curriculum and education based on a you know attract leader or something that's it's going to stink it's going to not be good for those athletes but i want the education to come first i think it's going to i just don't want any of those to cloud our judgment because we want everything for our kids some things may not happen but the education i'm grateful i think we're going to make the first priority and safety of this legion good comments okay any other comments so we need to look to say that board meeting a special board meeting for funding um you guys can just you know what what works for you i know dr thorpe he let me know ahead of time he couldn't be here because of some responsibility but he said just you know go ahead and try to schedule [Music] because there probably is some public that would probably like to attend wesley versus you know someone may be working to scheduled thank you is for you guys shane can you hear me [Music] i don't you just have to set it this my schedule's i've been adding stuff on left and right so you just got to set it and then i'll have to tell you because i don't it definitely can't do it before three in the afternoon but after that it becomes anything after three i'll try and it all depends what comes in it's just really good i don't i mean i think any time or whatever it would be good for people to make well we will also just uh we'll have dinner at 5 30 for you guys if you would like to have dinner that way you don't have to even have to worry about finding then you can come from your job if you want to that type of thing and so we'll have dinner at 5 30 meeting will start at six yeah okay all right and it will be here okay okay the current board we're getting we're getting closer as you can see we're getting closer to the man where where are you gonna get the dinner craig's house um uh sad to see what my wife is willing to cook so menu is to be determined oh well yeah oh well anyway if you if you have separate square left what do you think well that's what i was going to say if you wanted if we have leftover ribeye steaks we could try to do that i'm not sure you want to hey i'll make that motion thank you okay okay i i will talk with you i will consult with you on whatever i'm whatever i could be ordering but i may not have to order so thank you i appreciate that thought that would be great all right okay thank you thank you everyone thanks everybody [Music]
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[Music] hello hello can you hear us yes got it thank you great basically we talked about the 2021 calendar okay we had a chance to discuss this just a little bit at the friday meeting that we had again there's one small adjustment to this calendar i changed the date on the calendar but i didn't change the date in the middle in regards to the no school in service on 14th so basically that 14th that september 14 day is shifting to august 19th so that's the one small adjustment um on the calendar i'll win the flex day too because the flex day moves to august 20th thank you and we need to switch that in the middle so i actually i switched those on the calendar but i didn't switch them in the middle for those so we'll look to approve this and again i don't know i'm good because kathy freeman is uh the beautiful president kathy um i've been in contact with her in regards to this and of course the timeliness of everything happening quicker than what we'd like we'd like that two to three months to get this all put together instead we have two to three weeks so i good advice it's okay for kathy for any comments if that's okay at all kathy if you haven't um the only comments in going through the surveys were that there were some people who felt that they might need more preparation time and there were some that preferred to do online until they were sure that everything was down in the county number twice but i presume we didn't ask about um our are you going to come back and uh because you're going to ask that so we are our questions our survey okay our questions did relate specifically to that so hopefully those people said that they would like to be the online instructors that that is something that is going to be pursued that's all the information [Music] again we are i say moving that start date back a day for kids it gives us one extra day of planning one extra day of preparation again in talking administration directors we've been talking about all summer long a lot of different scenarios and then finally when this is seems like it's hopefully becoming the scenario that we're going to be working with we feel like that taking that one day from september moving into august will hopefully help everybody get prepared our focus on two of those days is going to be technology and technology related to the different methods that we're going to utilize for for instruction in the kids so and we'll talk more about that with our plan here coming up other questions oh [Music] just you know i never got it yes okay uh we'll go into the school safety and learning plans this is probably the big one we're here for correct so craig will let you take it correct now let's start with the health guidelines if you would please um we have been working on these well since june 1 when we had a meeting here uh central office with not only usd administrators staff our city staff excuse me administrators and board members as well as administrators from 243 and 245 uh different health representatives from the county trying to think of who else russell stuckey was here with emergency management a lot of different people and then there's been meetings and and discussions going on all throughout and now that we are we hope at least heading in the right direction and again the timeliness of this whole thing we would love to have two months to try to put together these guidelines in a an advisory committee first before we come to the board to look for approval but because again timeliness is a little bit of a challenge right now and so with these health guidelines these are what administrators and directors came up with with the coffee county health department uh carl d lindsay payer and then dr shell was in consultation with what we were looking at new eight to start again this school year we put down the date for 723 but as we know down at the bottom all items are subject to change based on current information so here is a list of some of the things that we agreed on that we feel like are important now you may have some suggestions and discussion items and then the advisory committee which we're looking at meeting july 30th which is thursday about six o'clock here again advisory committee i'm gonna send an email out after this meeting we'll look at we're basically going to do the same thing as what we are doing now with the advisory committee we're going to look at health guidelines we're going to look at the learning plans and we're going to make any adjustments that need to be made and then we'll have the august 10 board meeting come back and approve those based on current information august 10th again these are fluid documents flexibility is the key so with that i will i will just offer i guess any questions you may have administrators and directors are here in the office and they they were involved in this in this as well i might end up calling on them in regards to for example you might want to you know ask doug or anything regarding the bus and transfer buses and transportation um food service for diana hess or you know on apple line so i have a question on the the massive warrant is for everyone unless valid exceptions are lying [Music] we would have to fight for example uh if you and and you guys can chime in if i miss something so for example a student with special needs potentially might not be able to wear a mask we may have a situation with a health concern student with asthma potentially that is having problems with wearing a mask um we could deal with uh i'm trying to think of anything else we talked about correct deaf hard of hearing students um that type of thing and there's there was some guidance that came out not only in the governor's order 2059 right that we would recommend as well as another document from the state that i think that we would reference to create what that list looks like so there's real good guidance in what cdc just put out on opening schools and it talks specifically about that so and it talks about some of them what you just said and remember with school districts we can be we can choose to be more restrictive we can't choose to be less restricted so let's say the county says masks are god are not needed but we determined that we really feel like we should have them we can do that we can't go the other way though administrators directors anybody have anything okay we'll go kathy um there's a question on when i opened up the guidelines on number three um it says temperatures will take in before it enters into the building when we came to our staff meetings that you said that it will also be taken at the bus stops and there's nothing in this document that i saw that indicated anything about on the bus stop so that they would be boarded before entering on the bus so i don't think that was an oversight but i didn't see it anywhere else it's probably just something that we did not we didn't specifically state i guess in my mind i see the temperature when we take them before entrance into the buildings need to include the bus piece because we want less you know the temperatures be taken before the bus i think it was i think it was taken off and we said irregardless of whether it's taken on the bus we're going to recheck them when they hit the school because we don't know what kids mixed together after that i think that's when they removed it we should probably have the same safety on the bus though yes yeah absolutely we'll put that we'll add that and then this is part of the reason we're doing this as well as with the advisory committee because you guys all have so that doesn't make any sense to me okay so if you're going to let them on the bus you should have their temperature right so what are you gonna so taking it when they get off the bus how are you going to get them back home then so say they're so what's your number you haven't defined ill in your kids that would get it taken out off the bus that showed up with the mom and dad those kids so you haven't defined you what temperature that is that needs to be in there somewhere and real quick lori you on said we talked to lindsay about that because the ksbe document recommended 100.4 but we're going to stick with 100.
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three no picking your nose so now my nose itches work [Laughter] how can i get everybody on here wait click gallery view and you'll see everybody tom can you help me find the gallery of you my husband's gonna help me a minute i'm having a little trouble okay upper right hand corner okay yeah i can't seem to see it yeah i don't i don't have gallery either i don't know it's going to be different on the ipad on the tablet terry than on the computer yeah yeah yeah i'm set okay thank you because whoever talks gets the view for me yeah okay i think we have a quorum yeah let's call to order nancy kupka present mike davenport president shirelle fuller present dan nicholas president terry pavicich here rick pavinato here joanna vazquez drexler here okay we have a quorum let's uh start with the pledge i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and justice okay um just a little we're gonna just to run down what we're gonna do we're gonna start off i'm gonna give rick the floor for a minute he wants his announcement he wants to make then hank is going to do a presentation i'm going to do a presentation mike has asked to speak and then we're going to open it up for the entire board okay rick you wanted to say something yeah if you see me close my screen tonight or turn it off it's because i had eye surgery and i probably should have done it a lot more last monday night i didn't think the meeting was going to be as long or as bright as it was and so it's only because of if the background gets too bright or lights in the background you're going to see my screen probably go down more often than than last week i texted nancy last week and told her but i didn't say to everybody so i wanted everybody to know why okay thanks rick and stay comfort yeah do what you got to do absolutely okay hank all right i just i don't have a presentation i just have a statement can you guys hear me all right yes all right so i'd like to start off by thanking the board of education for setting aside an additional night to discuss the proposed plans to return to school i also appreciate all of those including students family members staff and community members who have taken time to send along their thoughts and concerns about our plans for this fall last week the board received 255 public comments made through the online form to the board in addition to the remarks made in person during the meeting so far we've received an additional 300 comments online and this is on top of hundreds of emails that we've received as well please know that the district 99 team and the board of education review and care about and consider each and every comment while we have indicated that all comments would be read tonight the number of comments prohibits us for reading each comment instead we have reviewed all of the comments and will share an overview of the public comments please know that each individual comment has been shared with the board and will be entered into the minutes so they are part of the official record of this meeting of the 300 plus comments we've received so far today starting the school under the proposed hybrid model many wanted to see additional hours of in-person learning eighteen comments advocated for remote only learning for those who are comfortable with the hybrid schedule people cited the importance of supporting the mental social and emotional well-being of students they also feel the district's plan is one that creates a safe physical environment many are thankful for having a choice about whether or not to return to school for in-person learning many comments pointed to a concern that there's not enough instructional time built into the hybrid plan several pointed to science as to why we should open others pointed to science as to why we should not open while it is clear that there are varying opinions about how we should open school i think it's safe to say that most if not everyone agrees that this is a complex and difficult decision the illinois state board of education gave clear guidance that schools who can return to in-person learning should do so the illinois department of public health shared guidelines for schools to follow based on those guidelines the administrative team has developed a plan that we believe is safe for returning students to in-person learning if the health metrics regarding covet allow us to do so the dupage county health department has also assisted our team in devising this plan that starts with safety all showing that the best outcome for our students is to have them back with us whatever time we can have them our best tools for making sure the kids are okay are based on having them physically with us everything else pales in comparison i think you're breaking up again give it a second to catch up yeah okay yeah if in-person learning is what is best for kids then it is our duty as educators to do whatever it takes to meet that need no matter how uncomfortable it makes us or how much work it takes our calling as educators is to do what is best for the education of our students and best is here at school in a safe environment the administrative team believes this is accomplished in a hybrid plan this plan also gives families the choice to select a fully remote option as of noon today 214 students out of the over 5 000 students in our district 4 percent of the student body have chosen the fully remote option of the 214 students selecting fully remote learning 20 percent had pre-existing medical concerns while the other 80 percent did not as long as it is safe to do so i believe that we must bring students back to in-person learning this is the same approach being taken by other high schools across dupage county the only high schools in dupage county considering starting in a remote format are those with much higher rates of covet in their community following the illinois department of public health metrics the positivity rate number of hospital beds and icu beds in dupage county indicate the conditions are not in the range to send us backwards in our plans i've said that all along that in the days before school opens we will use the current health data to determine if we can return to in-person learning if these numbers change and there's a seven-day increase in hospital emissions for cova-19 related illness or reduction in the hospital or surgical beds or icu capacity below or a positivity rate above 8 percent i will then discuss with the dupage county health department and may recommend that we don't return to in-person learning and go fully remote at that time we are working on a remote learning plan now one that is more robust than what we delivered in the spring and teachers are assisting us in the development of that plan learning can be accomplished with a remote learning plan however it will never be as good as having students here in person the administrative team believes it is essential to start out the school year with in-person learning and maximize whatever time we have to gather safely in person i acknowledge the board of education has the responsibility to represent this community and also has the weight of this decision to make along with the administration although we have shared a great deal of information with the board and the community regarding how to keep students safe ultimately the board of education needs to decide if we can do the plan that we have proposed in the end we are all involved in a very difficult decision where nobody can really be sure of the correct answer if we don't bring students back to in-person learning the virus won't spread at school however if students don't come to school we cannot be sure that we are keeping them safer from all of the other risks in life schools help mitigate so with that i will turn it over to the board um to have the discussion i believe nancy uh you you were next on the agenda yeah thank you hank you know since i expressed my opinion uh which was informed by facts last week i had assumed everybody kept up with the numbers as as i did and i received some criticism about that which is very well founded so i brought some references to review with everyone tonight uh these have been added to and updated since i sent some of the national numbers to the board on tuesday rod can you put the slides up okay so i'd like to start talking about the cdc uh how the cdc released information promoting the importance of schools many have referenced uh what they have just read about this in the media and here is a portion of the cdc document it is true the cdc recognizes the value of in-person learning and they offer resources and tools to help schools who may elect to bring students back to help to do so safely i don't think that anyone here including me can test the importance of in-person learning or that in the right circumstances we will be able to open safely but if you dig into the guideline a little bit more you'll find some additional direction next slide please rod the cdc promotes these guiding principles when i compare these to the hybrid model i think we fall between more risk and highest risk more risk because we have students coming into the building but highest risk because students will mix between classes and activities it is after all all about risk the risk of exposure the risk of transmission etc even with the best social distancing there is risk nothing magical happens at 6 feet or 15 minutes or at state and county lines so i find the note but i find the numbers concerning so let's take a look at those numbers together next rod please this is the seven day moving average of new cases by day this is from the cdc this is a national number and it includes hot spots as well as areas that have had low numbers of cases as you know the trump administration changed the reporting structure i'm not really sure how that impacts this chart but if anything it probably would be higher next um thank you so here's the state of illinois you can see where the darker areas are there are more cases this is in many ways an artifact of population density the more people who live in an area the more people who will fall ill let's look at dupage county specifically next slide please as of today we've had 1178 cases per 100 000 people next slide now the next two uh slides i'm going to show you are just progression and numbers when you look at how this is reported in terms of counties these are the numbers of known cases it's a cumulative number right so it's going to continue to get higher from last wednesday and last friday knowing just the number of cases is really insufficient to identify the risk or probability of infection occurring in a population because again more more populated areas will naturally probably have more cases so if you look at the numbers of cases per 100 000 it provides a fair uh comparison so the 100 000 is in blue and dupage county is in red um we are we're actually the 12th highest county head of 102 counties in illinois we're actually the 12th county highest county which i think is is pretty good um but we look like we're the third or fourth third highest here just because the way i sorted it but we are the 12th highest county what i take away from this slide is that while it could be worse we're substitute we're still at substantial risk so here was 7 22 i believe was wednesday 7 24 it was friday right if you can go to the next slide again here's 7 24 we had 1151 and today as of this morning we're at 1178.
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do i'd like to call the immediate order with the pledge of allegiance well good evening and welcome to the july regular meeting of the greek council school board um first item on the agenda tonight is adjustments to the agenda so we have one item this month and it is going to be item 9 f and it is a 3 000 grant that we received from the putnam county community foundation okay all right can i get a motion to a justin agenda okay we have a motion in a second all in favor all opposed motion passes next item on the agenda is we're going to try a little something different this evening um i've heard from a few different board members and people have made comments to them hoping we'd like liking us to move the comments from the audience section to the beginning of the meeting so people can comment on agenda items prior to his voting that's the way it was done and i was first on board and some reason we moved it to the end um we just heard some some interest in having people from people having a move to the beginning so we'll try that this evening and see how that works and see which wood works out best for us so next item on the agenda's comments from the audience hearing none next item on the agenda is organization of organization of the board for the next for our next year first item is election of officers office of the board president okay we have a motion in a second any discussion thank you um all in favor all opposed motion passes next would be the office of the vice president okay we have a motion and a second vice president any discussion hearing none all in favor all opposed motion passes next on the agenda is the office of board secretary okay we have a motion and a second for the position of secretary to tell pierce um in the discussion okay all uh all in favor all opposed i sped i suppose i should vote on that table i'm all opposed motion passes next item is to appoint the school board appointment as legislative liaison to the isba the indian school board association that is typically the president it doesn't have to be thank you um but we have a motion in a second to get discussion angry done all in favor all opposed motion passes next would be to appoint corporation treasurer kelly rover finance director second okay we have a motion and a second um any discussion yes um all in favor all opposed motion passes next would be to appoint the deputy corporation treasurer that being shelley gardner okay we have a motion in a second you need a discussion all in favor all opposed motion passes next on the agenda is to appoint our corporation attorney that would be susan traynor chastain with lewis and campus see and their chance excuse me we'll get right back with you soon let's go back to e upon to appoint the high school ech eca treasurer ashley dorsett i have a motion and a second any discussion hearing none all in favor all opposed motion passes next item on youtube is to appoint our corporation attorney susan trader chastain lewiston campus susan is new as our primary attorney this year um susan a lot in the past but i've worked with you for the past nine years um she's very familiar with our school corporation and his employees and the way we do business and this would be a wonderful fit okay we have a motion and a second any discussion hearing none all in favor all opposed motion passes next on the agenda would be to establish the date time and the place of our regular school board meetings currently we are fourth monday of the month at 7 00 pm typically in the board meeting at central office um we we've decided that's i think where we're going to stay well if someone would make the motion to stay what we have now but we kind of decided that until things kind of returned to normal um we would probably have here we'll have every board meeting over here until further notice just because you know if you look around the room we all can fit in you know safely so so we're just going to plan to have board meetings here until further notice but that's probably not going to be the regular place of the board meetings someone would just make a motion to say let's maintain the port one day or if you wanted to make a change do right that's true right okay i have a motion in a second to maintain our established date of the fourth monday of the month seven pm at central office board room all in favor all opposed motion passes i guess before we go along too much further i should have done this at the beginning i know i didn't do it last weekend but i'd love to welcome mr jeff gibney as our new superintendent um kind of blew through all that last last meeting mr gibney comes from bloomfield school district where he's been attorney for her attorney superintendent for the past three years that's a few miles down the road so he's a member of the community already and i think we'll continue to see him out about restaurants and grocery stores and welcome look forward to many years and i would also like to welcome mr ed wilson who's not in attendance tonight um i wasn't able to make it this evening but uh he's just been appointed by the castle township trustee's office and this is his first meeting of his four-year term so i can welcome mr wilson and we can do that again next month so next item on the agenda would be the approval of minutes uh first would be the regular meeting minutes from june 22 2020.
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hi my name is superintendent mike morris and thank you for joining us to this live stream this morning about pelham preschool uh we have two other folks with me i'll let them introduce themselves as well hi good morning my name is lee whiting jones i'm the new principal at pelham elementary school and my name is carol scotty i am the pelham preschool teacher and thanks to all of you for joining us to this morning um really we're gonna have a very brief introduction and share the context and then hopefully have some conversation uh the way the conversations work if you're following this on youtube is in the lower right hand corner of your screen you should see that there's a comment bar where you can type something that would come through as a live chat and we can bring that up so it's visible to everyone as well as answer those questions that we have but really our spiel is quite brief this morning it's really an opportunity for for families to be able to ask questions uh understand uh the current situation what our current plans are the flexibility that our current plans are having to be built with in the current climate and really help you to get to a decision point that'll help us for our planning so if you can use the comment bar even just to say hello that way we know that you're able to comment we'd love for you even just to say hi or we hear you or good morning or something like that that'd be helpful for us to be able to have it generally takes about six to ten seconds for your comments once you make them to come onto our screen so if uh while i'm doing an introductory introduction if you're able to uh do that it'd be helpful for us um so i just want to start by sharing the context um so we've talked about the setup pelham school committee meeting recently the couple things we know are that pelham preschool is a beloved part of the pelham school experience for a great number of our youngest children we believe in the the benefits of preschool for all of our students and all of our districts and the pelham preschool provides a wonderful foundation for students to do that and we have a lot of testimonials for families and staff because they see the value in that the current situat the pelham preschool was developed all the way back i think it was 2012 or 2013 and we're really appreciative that it has been because it's been generations of kids who have now gone through that pelham preschool and many of whom have continued on to pelham school one of the things that we are challenged by the current moment it was built as a self-sustaining preschool in other words it does not receive any state funding it's not an integrated preschool and the way the croco farm is that has a calculation of 7 out of 15 students have to have special needs and there's slots and there's a formula that's not the case for the pelham preschool the pelham preschool accepts students there's there's some different pay structures that are involved but though it's fully self-sustained and as the town of pelham and the pelham school committee set it up it was intentionally designed to be self-sustaining because it was really supposed to support the pelham school experience and it has one of the challenges during this pandemic is march 13th i made the decision to close all schools in the three districts i worked for pelham amherst and the regional school district and that included the pelham preschool as well as the other preschool at carco farm elementary school as you know over time the governor stepped in and declared that schools were going to be closed for the rest of the spring at this point right now our transition rates in massachusetts western mass in particular are quite low we are planning on being back in person and through a phased model our youngest students would be at the front end of that phase model because we know that they enjoy the enjoy is probably the wrong word but i think they do but uh not that older kids do not enjoy but they benefit from live in-person instruction at the highest level just developmentally where they are and so we're deeply appreciative of our preschool staff and we're deeply appreciative that we live and probably i said this in a public meeting last week probably one quarter or 20 percent of the country in my personal opinion should be thinking about reopening schools at all and this hap we happen to live in that 20 percent uh if we're in california or texas or florida or south carolina uh or many many other places i think there uh i would i would have deep reservations about that uh right now our we look good in massachusetts you know a lot of a lot of recommendations are if the testing rate's over five percent schools shouldn't open you know we're at 1.9 we were 1.6 last week we have to watch those trends right but we are still well under uh the metrics of that the challenge is we don't know if that'll change uh we can hope you know we think there's some our governor i believe our governor has taken some strong steps of not reopening things like amusement parks and water parks and and things that have opened even neighboring states like connecticut and new hampshire but we don't really know how the virus will travel we don't know how the increase in other states will affect massachusetts and the northeast so it's something we're watching for and the reality for our preschool program is if we're going to plan to run it next year we really need a commitment from families to be able to um to compensate staff which is through our tuition all year long whether it's live or it's uh in a virtual format otherwise we we can't financially the pelm school committee uh can't financially take on that risk in very challenging financial times so uh today what we're trying to see is what questions community members have about that what does it look like live what does it look like in person what are some of the benefits of the program i want to be really clear that our staff members will have positions in one of my districts regardless of what happens that's one question i've gotten from a number of families already is does this mean people will be unemployed and affirmatively can say no to that question that being said you know i think the pelham preschool has shown time and time and again that has strong family support and staff support and and this time we're trying to figure out can we financially take the risk to run it next year or does it have to go on hiatus for a year and that's we only will know that when we have confirmed uh commitments from families and we need to figure that out probably in the next week because both the staff need to know what their jobs will be next year and families need to know what whether the preschool is running or next year so this is really the opportunity i know some people have called since a letter that uh principal wedding jones uh wrote and talked to her but we wanted to have both you know miss luddy and myself on the call to see if there were questions what the questions would be so again people can just type in their questions uh on the you know through the youtube feature i'll type in something so you can see at least one question come through it's not really a question but that way you can see how how it comes up and really we're here to answer any questions that anyone in the community might have for for any of us it could be for me could be for a principal or it could be for our staff member so while we're waiting for questions to come in again because it takes slower this morning thinking about 10 seconds because i have both screens open um i didn't know if um carol if you'd like to share anything or lee if you'd like to share anything uh as well as question more questions even mine took yeah took quite a while to pop up uh if you'd like to share anything more about the program or anything more about the situation just want to give other people an opportunity to to chat and then hopefully get more questions rolling and can have a little more interactive dialogue would either of you like to jump in okay um i guess i'll jump in and just mention that i i really am excited that there's been an outpouring of support and um i know that it's a difficult time for parents especially parents that are new to having children in preschool and i just want you to know that i'm certainly here to support you and answer any questions that you may have to help you make the best decision for your family and i do see a question came up it's a really good one um so i'm just going to read it out loud to make sure everyone can can see that or can hear it hi thanks for chatting today with the preschool following the deci guidelines or the eec guidelines for closing and restrictions so i can start with this and then carol and lee you can jump in our preschool program at pelham is really unique there are not as many of there's a lot of integrated preschools because of the child fine requirements so the preschool at crocker firm actually services students repel them who have disabilities who require um that level of service and that's to an agreement between the town of pelham and town of amherst so there's a lot of clarity on those type of programs which follow deci guidance this program is sort of an in-between program because desi had to allow us to open it and back eight nine years ago but it's not a integrated program so it falls in a gray area um so i think the the clarity for the closing and restrictions that i would have is we would be reducing the number of students um because i think uh our primary uh guidelines we've been using is the original cdc guidelines and those sort of for me trump the deci ones and we've done that actually even at the k-12 level where desi has had guidelines and if they were anything less than what was recommended by the centers for disease control we defaulted to the most conservative guidelines from health to safety perspective um but i'll i'll stop talking and see if carol and lee have anything they'd like to add to that okay i think i think that describes it you know so roughly we'd be thinking about 10 students the size of the room i think lee has mapped out i think it was a little over a thousand square feet is that right no this room's actually about 840 square feet so if it were um a you know k to six classroom we would say 18 students could fit comfortably with six feet of space but given the the the needs of the early childhood environment we felt much more comfortable with a number closer and i think the other thing to note uh from my perspective is we would not expect preschoolers to stay in desks most of the day the way that you might think at a middle school high school level even at a middle or elementary grade level that's not what three and four and five-year-olds are designed to do and so certainly there are some seat activities on that suggestion there aren't and we'd have to have seating that would keep students um reasonable distance apart uh to miss to the principal waiting jones point but i think at a larger level we know there's going to be activity and movement and it would look different because we we would not want to have close the close proximity one thing that is still being discussed including this morning actually by me and another group of uh superintendents is what are we doing with masks because that is one of the things in the guidelines so i would say that is that is one sort of outstanding question um that we're still trying to have the at the deci guidelines a mass are not required for students under grade two i've already made the decision at grades k and one that face coverings are required i'm using different terms so you might notice there's a difference between face coverings and masks but i think for some students at the primary grades a face covering that might be kind of like a face shield might be appropriate not at the upper grade levels but certainly when we think about preschool that may be a better fit for some students but i think if we are running the preschool that's where we start having individual conversations with families about what's going to work best i know for the preschools that have opened up in the community private preschools in the larger community they are most of them are requiring masks so i do think we'll probably land in the place that's closer to the eec guidelines around some of those pieces as opposed to the deci which are designed much more for the k-12 environment so it was really long-winded but it's an excellent question and there's a lot there to share on that carol uh you don't have to but i don't know if there's anything else you'd like to share on that um i think that that covers it well um and just another piece with the cleaning and the sanitation of toys and all of those pieces i have an extensive eec background and and i would want to of course implement the strictest of cleaning standards and all of the rest of the pieces that go along with keeping the environment physically safe as well yeah i appreciate that so let's see if there are other questions that come in um for those of you who haven't been to pelham preschool before as we're as we're waiting and maybe prompting some other questions um it's at the back end of the building it's by the early childhood area so right across the hall from kindergarten which i don't know how you feel carol i always thought it was a lovely spot um to be with other young children and to be able to see uh those children um on a routine basis and see what kindergartens are there and and their there's site visibility to a certain extent even across the hall and i think that's a really nice thing i wondered if carol one thing that comes up for a lot of families is um about drop off and pick up in the covet environment as our buildings won't have visitors enter the building and just i don't know if you had any initial thought not to put you on the spot but just initial thoughts about um what how did it work pre-covered and then maybe i can jump in with how it might be modified uh in a covet environment yeah so um pre-covered of course families would generally come into the building and and help their children to put away their things and you know say goodbye sign in do all of the typical things um however in the afternoons the buildings were locked and so we did have a staff member who would meet families at the exterior door and sign them in um i'm assuming that with the covid we would have the typical drop-off rituals routines hugs you know sign-ins but that they would happen at the exterior as opposed to inside the classroom yeah that's exactly yeah thank you carol um and you know we just want to be realistic and honest about you know some of the differences i think um where the location of the preschool is is a perfectly is perfect situ perfectly situated because it's right near the back entrance um to pelham school so i think we'd be able to do that i'd be much more concerned if it was located where like sixth grade was which has a door but it doesn't really go to any place accessible um and uh fifth and sixth grade so it you know i think that is an advantage to where the room is currently located that way we also do have um excuse me an outdoor space um that's typically been just for preschool which is really wonderful because we've had access to it all the time and that's also been something in the afternoons that we've often had the afternoon pickup outside and it would be something we could look at also having the morning drop off the outside when weather permits and that would give a little more time for parents to to help their children acclimate right another good question are we looking to start the school year in person in early september or phase in a phase in by starting out virtually so it's an interesting question particularly as last night i received an email and lee i don't know why i thought it last night or this morning so i don't know when you got it um but the state has now given us the ability to have 10 extra days for teacher professional development at the beginning of the year and so the start date the school committees vote on a schedule but the kind of expected start date both across the state is now expected to be september 16th um and that's um i think uh a really good um i think it's a good thing i'll be honest with you i think that you know we want our teachers to be our staff to be well are well situated to be entered able to enter a covet environment uh feel safe being in a covered environment we have purchased ppe or personal protective equipment for all staff members and actually for preschool it's a little more intensive because the idea of staying six feet away doesn't mesh with preschool staff just with young kids so it gives us time to do trainings for staff about that trainings for how teaching might be a bit different in a in person environment and um so i think you know while the school committees need to vote i think very likely september 16th uh would be the start date um based on the professional development that we'd be able to offer staff this would be in the first phase in terms of the pelham preschool it would you know again early childhood education in general would be in the first phase of this and preschool certainly central to early childhood education as well as kindergarten first grade so it'd be right there with with those two grade levels and i think as we're waiting for other questions to perhaps come in you know one thing that will follow this um live stream will be just a quick follow-up asking for families if they choose to make a commitment for pelham preschool again to be virtual or virtual in person and be able to support that we understand that some families will want to do that and we understand if people are unable right we're not this isn't a sell today or sale it's really trying to share accurate information about that because our goal is we really want to get back to folks by the end of next week is our goal because we know for some families if we're not able to put on the program that creates a real challenge and some families will need to know that one way or the other and we really need to know let the staff know again the staff will all have positions in one of the districts that i work for but but we want to make sure that staff have enough time to be placed and to know what they're planning on doing so that they can think about what their fall looks like as well so i would guess that likely tomorrow if not tomorrow then thursday you should getting a very quick thing it'll probably come from principal whiting jones and just asking an indication of where your family is we'll probably ask for it back in about a week we want to give people a little bit of time but i know the pelham school committee is likely going to meet towards the end of next week uh and uh with that data will drive the decision that they'll make so i'm going to give it a little time if there are other questions that come in and if there's not i'm going to post my email address and i'll also um [Applause] as a comment and i don't know if uh principal wedding jones if you can do the same uh i think it'll allow you i'm sorry we don't use this feature of this tool very often and that way if there are follow-up questions that people would like to ask confidentially that people can have that opportunity to do to do so because i know one of the benefits of this is all the questions are public and then yet some people may have um questions that opportunity to do so one of the benefits of this is all the questions are public and then yeah some people may okay there we go something something weird was happening on that one so uh lee should probably just be able to do it on the comments feature if you have access to that um if you just write a comment instead of look at them will that allow you to do it or no it didn't but i went into the youtube side and put a comment in which is why there was the echo i apologize about that but it should it looks like it just popped up in the comments oh okay i was just gonna do it for you but there you go i see it uh and carol is not working in the summer so i want to be conscious of her inbox that's why i didn't ask her necessarily but certainly if you have a question for carol uh if you send it to lee or myself we'll get in touch with her i just want to protect carol's summer vacation as well as well as i can because she's not a 12th month employee likely and myself if there aren't other questions uh then i just look under the youtube piece because i think sometimes i can um see if things come up i do not see other questions so i want to thank everyone for coming for all the parent parents guardians please look out we'll try to get it out tomorrow principal jones whitening jones is very quick she might get it out today for all i know but just a very quick survey and it's really just going to ask where are you with this is this something that you can commit to supporting the program all year whether it's virtual in-person or if you're not and again we understand that different families will have different answers to that question and we'll see how many commitments we can get and we'll communicate out to all the families next week by the end of next week what the decision is so that families can use that for their planning but we thank you very much for joining us i want to particularly thank carol for spending uh some of her morning summer morning with her so again she's not officially part of her job she but her willingness to do this is greatly appreciated uh and thank you very much lee for joining us as well and again you'll be on the lookout for an email if within the next 24 to 48 hours uh we'll probably ask for a timeline to get it back by probably a week from today uh which i think is the fourth something like that and we'll go from there and we'll communicate by the end of next week what the final decision is but again we appreciate your interest and engagement in pelham preschool we hope you have a wonderful day okay thank you and thank you mike for moderating thanks
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
not video maureen we hear you i ca but for some reason i can't get the video to uh there's no i don't see any button to do video uh i'll text you separately we can we can fix that we hear you i don't see any button to do video we can look at that we are live though so mary rose whenever you're ready [Music] all right good evening everyone my name is mary rose diamond i'm the very proud principal of center school and we're so glad that you could join us today i'm going to introduce the other administrators and staff that we have with us on our uh as part of our team um eric conklin our director of technology gina weigonick who is ours director of special education melissa baldwin who is our pre-k to five specialist supervisor ken post who is our director of finance and business um dr burrill obviously our school superintendent um anna laforgia who is our nursing supervisor um dr maureen ruby who is our assistant superintendent and then we're also honored and appreciative to have dr sullivan with us here as well who is our advisor i think from the brookfield health department so um we again are so glad to have you uh here today um just as a reminder you can continue to submit questions via the google form that was shared by dr brill in his email um last week and if there's time tonight we will try to get to some of the questions if there's not time that we will be developing a shared faq um that will go out and be shared with everybody okay so i'm going to just quickly share my screen and if i hopefully the technology will um will work here give me one second so that you can see what we're looking at okay uh so here we go on the other one too all right so our agenda for tonight um it is really um to answer the question that came in for us uh from her school and for the district in general through the q a so um as you can see our structure that our administration and our team is in our in the zoom meeting um and then anyone who is interested in participating from the community or from the community um can access via the live stream a youtube link again that was shared um last week um and you can again as i mentioned submit additional questions via the forum that was shared as well so um all of that was was emailed to uh families last week um we're going to do a brief review of the process so we will um respond and address to um excuse me address and answer district level questions and then we'll do the same for school level questions as they came up um our purpose again this evening is to provide uh parents and guardians with answers to the specific questions that came up about our school reopening plans um and our goal is to make sure that we're being uh coherent and consistent in creating the understanding of our current status of our district reopening plan um and that make sure that we understand that the plan is dependent upon health trends executive orders and making sure that we can procure the additional furniture and supply that will be needed in order to um to deliver our instructions so that's again our purpose and our goal for today at this time i'm going to turn it over to dr burrill and he's going to address the district level questions and start that process mrs diamond thank you so much um and i just need to express how thankful and appreciative i am uh for your leadership and our district staff and uh administrative uh work that's been going on to develop our reopening plan over the uh the course of this summer and thank the reopening uh team of many stakeholders that worked on the plan uh additionally thank your staff that's worked with you at center school um very important years for our pre-k kindergarten and first grade students we take the task very seriously to open safely and provide the best education we can so for parents uh personally we really want you to know how much thought care and intention has gone into the planning to ensure we have not only a healthy and safe environment but the best educational environment we can possibly provide specifically under these pandemic conditions so i wanted to share with you a little bit about our planning process some of you will recall that a couple of weeks ago you filled out a parent survey um at this point about 80 percent of parents reported that they will send their children to school in person and about 20 uh we're suggesting that they might likely keep their kids home in a remote learning model um we will be working to send out a follow-up survey probably at the end of this week if not early next week uh to find out your intentions for the fall in terms of our planning uh the state department of education on june 29th put out a guidance and requirements document uh regarding how we are to plan for reopening school and so we developed a district reopening plan and i really encourage everybody to read it it's a dense document it's about 41 pages long but it's really important there's a lot of protocols and a lot of expectations in there that i think will provide great confidence and perhaps even um prompt you to think of other questions you may have when you go through the document regardless we put the reopening plan together the board of education approved it last week and admitted to the state department of education just recently as mrs diamond talked about we uh sent out the questionnaire and uh are beginning these q and a sessions with parents the board of finance and board of selectmen are collaborating with the board of education uh as mrs diamond said to collaborate and secure the necessary funding to procure uh the ultimate supplies additional furniture and all the things we need to reopen school uh in accordance with state department guidelines and cdc guidelines and so forth so like i said we're going to be putting out another family survey toward the end of the week or the beginning of next week where we will ask for a commitment of your intention for the fall whether you plan to educate your child remotely or send them to school we also have a faculty and staff letter regarding return because we want to make sure our faculty is in the best position to come back and educate your children the schools are finalizing the design of their implementation plans of the district plan and bringing that on to the school level to make sure that that is able to be implemented properly and of course the schools will communicate all the specific procedures and protocols with family and staff next slide please mrs diamond so there's a couple of things that came up we're broadly going to be answering the questions uh that were asked um questions that parents had that seemed to repeat themselves so in the design of the slot not only from the district level but also from the full level we really try to address the broads of the ropes that were submitted thank you for those so the state department of education governor lamont as i said back on june 29th directed all school districts to develop three moons with the following scenarios a 100 in-person school experience where students would be coming to school five days a hybrid may have heard that term a hybrid model plan which would be a 50 50 school model half the students would come in for a few days a week while the other half learn remotely and then vice versa later in the week and then finally a remote learning model not necessarily like what was done in the spring really um dr ruby will get into what we envision it looking like going forward and then the main thing everybody really needs to know tonight is that our brookfield plan addresses all three scenarios our goal is to have 100 percent of students in school 100 of the time our intention is to meet that 100 100 goal so a big question came up about the remote learning and so forth what choices do parents get to make for the opening of school parents will choose between the 100 in-person model because right now under the health scenario and circumstances we have in brookfield and in connecticut right now that's the goal we're going for the 100 model that you will choose to send your child to school or you will elect for 100 remote learning okay in the 100 all-in model that the board of education and districts are providing there is that remote option but there's not a hybrid option in that and there was some confusion in that so we wanted to make that clear tonight we're prepared however to transition to a hybrid or full district remote learning as conditions warrant so by designing all three plans we are ready for all three conditions next slide all right so i'm going to turn it over to dr ruby right now to answer the questions that came up about remote learning there was a good number of questions thank you dr burrell so um we had questions as as dr bulger said about remote learning and the remote learning that we are able to offer as a choice as he just explained is what the state is terming a temporary option that they're giving parents the opportunity to select and the district will honor the parent option for as long as the connecticut state department of education allows that to happen and when this will end is uh to be determined by the state department of education and the office of the governor so parents will be um able to inform the district this was a question that came up how do i let the school know that i would like to have my child engage in remote learning parents are going to be able to inform the district of their individual student attendance choice through the completion of a survey as dr bill said you're going to be getting a survey either later this week or very early next week where every parent is going to be asked to identify for each one of their children what they're choosing because you may make different selections for different children based on their age or their very specific um conditions or situations relevant to each one of your children so that's another thing that has been asked do all my children need to have the same the same choice so to be clear you could choose to send your second grader and fourth grader in 100 of the time and you might choose for whatever personal reason you have to keep your um your 10th grader in a remote learning mode we also had questions about transitioning can parents choose to transition from remote learning to in-school learning and the answer to that is yes um parent we're going to be asking that parents give the school a two-week minimum written notice or of their intention to return to school so if you've elected through this survey that you'll be receiving very shortly to have your child be remote be at home and situation changes and you decide that you would like your child to fully participate that's not a problem but as you can imagine we need to make sure that we have everything set up to receive your child into the classroom and keep things um safe and and maintain social distancing and make sure that we have all the supplies that we need for your child so we will need to know in advance and where we would have you send in we will get information on how to do this a written um notice of your intention to return your child to the classroom 100 of the time and then that your those students will return to school on the first school day of the month following your notification so if you were to decide on september 17th that you wanted your child transition back that first school day of october would be the day that your child would be coming back um you can also choose to transition the other way you could decide initially that you want your child to be in school and then for personal reasons you make the decision that you would like your child to be in remote learning again written notification will be required and that can be done at any time because as you can understand we don't have to make the adjustments for your child being in your home that's the an adjustment that you would make so that there's no um like time delay on that and so now we can go to the next slide so we've had several questions from um parents of students across the district asking about the model for this um the remote learning and the remote learning will be a synchronous model dr burl just alluded to the fact that the remote learning would be different than it was during the spring when we were suddenly thrown into you know having to teach um students while they were at home and so this synchronous model means that the students who are at home will be accessing live instruction delivered by their teachers right along with their peers in their classroom and so the school day questions we've had questions like what will the school day look like for remote learners um the timing will be exactly the same as the in-school model and during the synchronous models students are not going to be like glued to the screen for the entire school day because there will be times when there will be they'll be online um listening to their teacher um and engaging through the remote opportunity with the lesson that their their in-school peers are engaging in but there will be also times when they'll be working on assignments just like they would be in their classroom um they'll you know there'll be lunch breaks there'll be uh other when students go out to recess your remote student will not be you know glued online um and so you know that's something that you really need to appreciate that we are not going to have students sitting down from you know 8 45 until the end of school just continuously glued to the screen um the attendance is mandatory this it we are required to have students in grades one through um 12 be in school and so we will be taking attendance with the um students who are in the remote learning situation all right thank you back over to you uh dr burrell thanks dr ruby so there was a number of questions on face coverings and masks so i wanted to review a few facts um and procedures that we have here in accordance with our state guidelines so the first thing is that parents and guardians are responsible for for providing cloth face covering or mask for their children as i indicated last week in my presentation for the board of education of course we will have extras for those times when there is a just in case somebody forgets something or there's an accident or something like that we've prepared for that all students must wear a cloth face covering our mask in school they have to wear that while they're in the school building in classrooms and on the buses before entering the bus stop though the mask must be um covering the nose and the face and so this is um going forward and of course we talked about mask breaks being built in throughout the day that's very important for people to know students will be at their desks sometimes for mass breaks socially distance in accordance with state uh guidelines students k through eight and their classroom cohorts will also have trifold shields at their desks and students will be provided with further details um and and so will parents as we talk about the the individual school procedures and protocols so that's that's face coverings next a good number of questions which we really appreciated on arrival and dismissal or what do we call parent drop off and pick up so some things we're planning for and be very very clear we don't have the plan fully articulated yet but what we are doing is working as a matter of fact it just was in contact with chief purcell today as a matter of fact we are collaborating with the brookfield police department in our transportation provider all-star transportation to develop a nice cohesive system that works the first thing though i am going to say we're going to ask everybody we're going to need to be patient and flexible and frankly those are going to be themes through this pandemic all of us are going to have to exercise we've done that for the last three or four months and we're going to have to continue that likely for a number of months maybe even for the next year but the transportation the drop off and pick up system that we want to develop at each school and it'll be nuanced at each school of course is obviously to ensure safety of students parents staff and the public it's very important traffic patterns into and out of the school property we will make safe and orderly traffic on public roads surrounding the schools needs to remain safe students are socially distanced and accounted for at entry and dismissal this is especially important for our center school students and our huckleberry students of course all students but our little ones they're wearing masks they're learning the ropes we need to make sure we can really keep an eye on everybody in a safe and orderly way buses and cars of course we want to peacefully co-exist and we will be taking a look at how we can develop a systematic schedule for parent pick up and drop off to not only create order but that allows for parents the the opportunity for dropping off students at multiple schools so we are considering that as well so no please no that's going into the plans that we're developing for each school parent drop off from paypal next slide is done some some questions that i'd like to answer in terms of facility and hygiene that were that continue to come up that are very important for people to know we're planning for with bathrooms there's a continuum of cleaning and this really applies in a lot of ways to all over the building but that continuum is opportunities for full cleaning kind of an intermediate opportunity for cleaning and then you've heard high touch point cleaning where we're doing wipe downs and disinfecting and things like that so we're really focused on the bathroom specifically but there's also desks and this is really important because we're working on a plan in terms of desk cleaning after lunch k through 8 and in between classes at brookfield high school as you can imagine just to quickly say this is will be important for the high school when we meet later on tonight with the high school parents in between classes you can imagine with the number of students in in between classes only a few minutes how could you do that we're working on exploring options for students to have the opportunity to use neutral cleaners that are safe and that we could provide and they can wipe their desks down or something we could share with parents that's a neutral cleaner that they might be able to bring the child might be able to bring in themselves because we want to give people that opportunity to be as clean as possible um desks after lunch uh k-8 that we talked about the students and you'll get this information uh later from mrs diamond uh the students will to be to remain socially distant will be eating in their classrooms rather than in the large gathering of a cafeteria so there's opportunity we need to make sure we're cleaning after lunchtime as well there'll be lots of hand washing breaks and we have hannah hand sanitizer stations uh throughout all the schools and so those will be strategically located as well next slide some key mitigation strategies and responses to some of the questions that came out regarding health and wellness and again if we have time at the end dr sullivan our health director is here so one question was was how do you look at kind of the low to moderate to substantial risk and the first thing is that dr sullivan has shared with us is that right now brookfield is in very good shape we're at 8.6 very low risk anything under one percent is considered low and that's why we're thinking right now brookfield in in many communities in connecticut are positioned well for the 100 opening provided we could get the furniture and the proper staffing and the supplies we need um but for health reasons we are in a very good position moderate is a one to five uh percent uh transmission and then substantial is over five percent so that's kind of how we'll be looking at that with the health department and making judgments about 100 or hybrid or remote and those kinds of things also being monitored by the health department daily is evidence of community transmission by street by neighborhood etc dr sullivan and the team are looking through that data as well the key actions you've heard this over and over again but every time we talk to our medical advisor our public health advisors they talk about social distancing face coverings frequent hand washing and hygiene sneezing into your sleeve there's a term called respiratory etiquette those kinds of actions um the home assessment is very important checking your child making taking a look at all the symptoms temperature taking and of course if you're not feeling well stay home this is this is not a time where we any any of us as adults or children want to be uh heroes and i'm feeling really crummy and i'm gonna go into school anyway we need to be very careful mindful of ourselves and mindful of our friends and neighbors next cohorting that was a relatively new um expectation from the state department of education as they forwarded their june 29 guidance to us and so i want to talk a little bit about that because it's a big question for families so students will be cohorted to the greatest extent possible and simply put cohorting means keeping the same group of students together as much as possible and so k through 8 especially we will be working on keeping that same group of students that classroom group together as much as possible again the principals will explain that as they have their presentations mrs diamond certainly will tonight schedules will be developed school schedules that limit contacts families will be cohorted together this is something that was a big question especially when people hear about the hybrid model and perhaps on monday and tuesday there'd be a an a group 50 that goes to school throughout the entire community all four schools and the b group stays home and then at the end of the week there's a couple of days where the b group is in school and the a group stays home we are going to do everything in our power looking at this through parent convenience and really trying to help out the families and uh have families by last name cohorted together so we're working on that we want you to know that it's a very it was a big question that people asked and our it's a big priority for us um and we will communicate to families as as quickly as we can when all that is ready and finalized next slide all right so special education a couple of big pieces very important and this is the only slide tonight on special education because we are really going to direct parents to specifically contact our special education supervisors or mrs wagonic the special education director but i wanted to run through a couple of key points we will be prepared um to understand that there are no waivers uh regarding uh individual disability education act we will provide a free and appropriate education for our special education students in the least restrictive environment our students are eligible for special education and our other special populations will be treated as general education students first giving them every opportunity in the least restrictive environment that we can per the state guidelines the special education supervisors will be working with building principles to maintain the cohorts to the greatest extent possible that was a question that had come up several times any questions pertaining to individual students or programs please address to our two supervisors depending on grade level so for the center school families it would be mrs baldwin she's our pre-k to five special education supervisor or the director of special education for the district and that's mrs wagonic next slide all right i'm going to turn it over to mr conklin our technology director mr conklin please take it away sure thanks dr burrell um our technology team has been very busy um not only through the spring but through the summer and preparation of the of the new school year as well um so i just want to share a couple points um you know regarding technology um really at that at the elementary level um so i will skip bullet number one here which is about regarding the uh the one to one program uh for the higher level grades um and and jump to number two um that we are um you know working we've been able to work with the board of board of ed border selectmen and board of finance to procure um you know up to 750 chromebooks um that will be um distributed around the district and made available um for students to use in in whatever means we we need as as needed um you know when when the students need them during the day um we are also going to begin to fully support a byod program district-wide um byod is bring your own device we have been doing this in conjunction with the one-to-one program at the high school we've done it a little bit of whiskenier and we piloted it with the fourth grade last year um and um we are actually excited to uh bring this option to families uh starting this year and there'll be more information to follow on that um but we are going to allow students to bring in their own devices uh that can be used for education uh during the day a lot more information will follow on that um inside the building one one bullet i did not have a chance to get on here um is that the tech team is is going to be busy this month um upgrading some of our wi-fi infrastructure um to allow for this influx of devices that are needed throughout the day um and and that's the general overview of technology um and as we move forward i'd be happy to answer more questions in detail if they come through uh back to you dr burl all right so we're gonna have before i have one last announcement that i'd like to share before turning it over to mrs diamond and that is just a real strongly encourage our families to read the actual school reopening plan i said that earlier i can't stress it enough i really encourage you to do that it's very important um and and really i thank you for your time this evening to go over the kind of the district big picture uh uh question and responses and i'm now going to turn it over for a great amount of detail from mrs diamond who's going to really take care of and show you how center school is going to work going forward this is diamond please great thank you dr burrell oh all right i'm you all right good all right so i um first wanted to thank our district team for sharing all that information and for all their support and moving through this uh again it is a daunting task um for at the school level not a level on the district level so we really are appreciative of the support we've gotten um from from our district staff so thank you very much um and i also just wanted to take a moment to share a few thoughts with you before jumping into the slides that i prepared for center school um personally some of you may know that i am in the same predicament that you are my daughter is entering kindergarten this fall and my son will be beginning pre-k um and the unknowns are staggering my husband and i are constantly thinking of questions and what ifs um and we've you know where that we you know made the choice to self-isolate for the most part since march um and after all of these months of really being in control of what our exposure is the idea of sending my kids into a school that i don't have control over who they interact with or what they touch is unsettling so i really do understand um i think on a certain level what you're what you're going through particularly with with students at center school i will say though that having been involved with the planning and knowing the incredible staff at center if i could bring my daughter with me to kindergarten kindergarten here in brookfield i absolutely would i'm confident that everyone is pulling out all the stops to take the precautions necessary to keep all of us as safe as possible and i know that the center school staff treat their students as they do their own children when it comes to safety and learning so while it's no doubt that our environment and our instruction are going to look extremely different um we are going to work within those challenges presented and in order to achieve our goal for children and create opportunities for socialization exploration movement and growth all those things that are so essential to our early learners would we intentionally set up our classrooms in this way absolutely not but if this is the way things need to be right now in order to keep everyone as safe and healthy as possible then this is what we'll do um we are fortunate as i said to have an exceptionally dedicated and talented team of educators who are using already their creativity to best serve their students and ensure that they are working in a developmentally appropriate way within the safety parameters provided and required so all of these plans though are contingent upon each one of us the adults and the students being aware of those around us and truly following our central expectations be safe be kind and be responsible and that's going to be at the core of our work with students um as we help them acclimate to our new environment so i'm just going to jump into some of the questions that we've received that are specific to center school um please know again we are actively working on the details of implementing the plan at the school level with our school implementation team um and also with with all staff kind of giving us feedback and questions and ideas and in particular there are questions sent about two areas that we are really trying to have some good discussions around that's arrival and dismissal plans as dr barrilla described earlier and also procedures and monitoring around the bathroom so um you know i'm not going to go into a lot of beach on those tonight because again they are they're kind of in the in the works but we're aware of the challenges um and we'll we'll definitely be um addressing those as we move forward okay so there were a number of questions absolutely understandably about the developmental appropriateness of our social distancing expectations and what things are going to look like in a more sterile environment as some people were describing it so as i mentioned earlier we really are fortunate that the teachers and staff who choose to work at center school have that innate early childhood perspective they are experts at teaching our youngest learners and so while um while we might be doing things a little bit differently what we're going to be focusing on will be will be the same um so we're taking all that experience that our staff has and we're applying it to our new environment as i mentioned earlier everything we do is going to be couched in our schoolwide expectations of be safe be kind and be responsible they are applicable um to any pretty much any situation that we could we could come up with um we will be explicitly teaching um at pretty much all of our procedures our instruction our academic instruction as well as our kind of just our daily uh day-to-day kinds of things using kid-friendly language and examples students will have an opportunity to practice and teachers and staff will be giving feedback just as we always do we're just applying as i said those strategies to different kinds of procedures there will be lots of visual supports everywhere um we're very fortunate our art teacher actually is creating some of our posters that we're going to be having available um we're having discussions with staff um about where you know where the placement of those things should be um and we're really again trying to work together in that way um we are again going to be using a lot of movement and an active response strategy so those students will be at their desks they'll be up and moving um you know at their desk as much as possible and yes there will still be play it's going to look different it's going to feel different but there will still be play in our elementary school um at our pre-k and one grade because again that is how students learn at that at this age so we're working on all that and what it will look like um we'll also be addressing safety topics so our school nurse mrs o'connor is again fantastic and has already put together um a slideshow um and is working on um you know we're working on how we're going to develop that and integrate that into our instruction um discuss masks so how to remove and handle masks when we're not wearing them hand washing what does social distances look like and feel like and sound like to a three-year-old four-year-old up through seven-year-old how we cover our sneeze so again going into all those things that we have always taught but putting more emphasis on them as we move forward in this environment um we're also working on uh how we're going to teach students and provide those opportunities for social interactions and self-awareness so our school psychologist dr glazer has already begun working on a document to share with families uh we're hoping to partner with our pto and do a couple of sessions before school starts um in terms of how to speak with your children about these kinds of things um but in the school in terms of that that idea of social interaction um we're gonna be discussing how to say hello from a distance um how we can still share from afar so again maybe not physically sharing things but what sharing means and what that looks like um again that theme of kindness and and being uh kind and respectful of others um and our feelings will be using our ruler um our ruler curriculum for those of you who are new to center school might not be aware we'll be sharing more information about this but rulers the idea of wrecking you know being able to recognize your own emotions and how you're feeling um and then you know making choices about how you want to move forward with those feelings um and so at center school we spent a lot of time developing those vocabulary words around feelings so that'll be a big part of our our work with students as well and then mindfulness and self-regulation um those of you again who are returning from last year know that we were trying to put some emphasis on mindfulness and helping kids be present and really think about how they're feeling and how their bodies feel is so that will also be part of our uh our process as we move forward um and then as dr royal mentioned we will be taking math breaks throughout the day um teachers and staff will observe their students in play by ear um in terms of when breaks are needed but there will be certainly ample breaks allowed throughout the day and we will be teaching kids about what that looks like and what's appropriate um for our maths break there are a number of questions about what will a typical day look like for center school and so when i started thinking about those questions um i i really started to think about what's what's going to be the same and what's going to be different so um it definitely will look different than what's been in the past but also should be familiar for our returning students and for those who have attended school elsewhere in the past so um as i mentioned earlier we'll be adjusting how we do things not necessarily what we do so if you take a look at the you know the same column on the left um we'll we'll be looking at um you know the connection so at the heart of everything we do are the connections that we build with and among our students so this is a constant whether we're all seated in desks we're gathered on the rug or we're at home learning so it's really a critical component of engagement and it's something that we're all giving great attention to now you know how are we going to connect with kids um in in this kind of environment and our staff has some really great ideas and thoughts um our classroom schedules are going to continue to include morning meetings movement breaks and also snack and again students will likely remain at their desks for these activities but they will be happening and taking place on a daily basis recess will be happening daily there's another slide later on that we're all going to a little bit more detail about recent but students will have recess every day um our curriculum and resources are going to continue to be the same so um we're going to be using our open court phonics program uh and um early literacy program i will be using our my math uh program we'll be using the units of instruction from teachers college um and using the readers and writers workshop we're using our smithsonian science materials so again for those of you who are new um or uh joining us new to kindergarten or in pre-k these might not have a lot of meaning for you yet but um they're all of the curricular tools that we've been using um for the last several years so those that's not going to change again how we use the might change but the resources that we're using will continue to be the same um in terms of instruction our staff really is keenly aware of the needs of our youngest learners they know the importance of play of breaks of inquiry of providing hands-on activities for kids um and we will be collaborating to share ideas about how to accomplish that all in a socially distant setting but that certainly is our goal again structurally moving forward um students will also be asses assessed you know after our initial period of transition and reconnection and reacclimation to school um teachers will be conducting assessments for all students so um the assessments will be delivered um in a variety of modalities so it could again be one-on-one in a socially distant way um just as we do it typically we do in a class um it'll be could through student uh work so that could be work that is either digital scan we could take a picture um that kind of thing and then also through learning plat platforms um such as open court and mymath so there are also options and opportunities to assess through those platforms so um that will be a you know kind of we'll continue to go through that um in every case those students will be taught exactly what they're expected to do for an assessment so there won't be any guessing or students left to their own devices will make sure that they know what the expectations are for specials classes are going to be scheduled um for the same special for seven to eight weeks and specials will be held in the classroom so for instance a class might have art every day for seven to eight weeks and ms vasino or our teacher would be going into students home room uh to teach her lessons and the purpose behind this is to minimize exposure for students and teachers um so our special teachers will be working with the same four classes every day instead of 18 classes over the course of a week and while this is not necessarily a typical model for elementary school it would not necessarily be ideal it will allow us to deliver our curriculum make sure that students are building skills in all the specials areas and ensure that we again are minimizing exposure and taking um the health and safety component into into account um and then we're also looking at our space and how we can utilize outdoor spaces as much as possible i mentioned that now because our music teacher and pe teacher in particular um will be looking at using our courtyards uh there's a blacktop area behind the building so there's not a lot of space outside at center school but we are looking to maximize whatever we can um in that way and then in terms of technology students are going to learn to use our technology tools um and software to support their learning so they will learn how to log into their chromebooks and enter their passwords to access their online programs um however the use of technology will definitely be purposeful and intentionally planned um so it's going to be supportive of the curriculum it's not going to just be a filler um so you know there were some questions about that i wanted to people put people's minds at ease hopefully about how technology will be used in terms of what will be different um students are going to be remaining in their classrooms for the majority of the day so and you know we're working on our arrival on dismissal procedures as i mentioned they'll be coming into the um into the school following those procedures they'll be going to their classroom they'll check in um and then they will remain there for the majority of the day with the exception of recess um bathroom breaks that kind of thing um we also will have students keeping their belongings with them so um that their their backpacks their jackets any personal belongings will be kept with them at their desks um and we're looking at how to how to best help them organize this would be another you know important organization lesson um so this these uh those steps will be taken so that we can minimize movements throughout the classroom um so that would be helpful as well um each student will have his or her own set of manipulatives and tools so um we began working on this in june putting together individual kits with as you might you know math manipulatives counters open court cards letter cards that kind of thing so we again our para educators who are fantastic they started working on that project in june and got a good start and we now have um several uh brookville high school students um parent volunteers who are helping our curriculum specialist uh with this project to make sure that we're up and running for the beginning of the school year as dr burell mentioned students will be eating lunch in their classrooms so latin their masks will be off during lunch they will have their trifold shield around them as they're eating we will have a lunch monitor assigned to each classroom just as we did in the past but now the lunch monitor will be pushing into the classroom and the lunches will be delivered if anyone buys a hot lunch they'll be delivered from our kitchen to the classroom and students will receive them there so monitors will be equipped with you know the uh the um the ppe that they need in order to again open juice containers or help cut some i mean so there will be social distancing expected but we will be providing as i mentioned are lunch monitors with the um protection they need in order to interact with students a little bit more closely at that time um as as they would in the lunchroom um small group work might happen via technology so it might be that um students are participating in a reading group via zoom even though they're in the classroom and the reading teacher is you know three doors down in a different classroom so again that's going to require some coordination on our part um and it will definitely require us to um to be teaching students what the expectations are but we have great confidence that we'll be able to to manage that um we've seen what kids can do and staff can do after our experience with distance learning in the in the spring so we're very confident that we'll be able to get that up and running um in order to make sure this small group work is still happening in a socially distant um way and then lastly classrooms are going to be assigned um specific bathrooms and be scheduled for bathroom break so i'm going to talk about that a little bit more on the next slide that is an area that we're still working on but again we're well into our into our planning for that as well so again as i mentioned classrooms will be assigned specific bathrooms um and classes will be scheduled for several bathroom breaks um over the course of the day um one will definitely coincide with their lunch time um it will be monitored by the lunch monitors so that you know we're still working on that coordination um students will be encouraged to use the bathroom during the schedule of class breaks but obviously especially at pre-k and one um you can't always predict when you're going to use the bathroom and uh so kids are still learning that so we will be they will definitely be able to use them at other times if needed and that's where our planning and um creativity is coming into play in terms of how to manage students who need the bathroom outside of the scheduled times um part of that planning will be will include teaching students what to do if they enter a bathroom and notice that there are already other students in the bathroom kind of what you know what what they should do as a strategy and communication among the adults as well as there will be obviously multiple classes and teachers sending students in the bathroom at the same time so that is something as i said that we are working on and we'll get more information as the plans are in place so for recess um students again as i mentioned are going to have recess daily and it will be approximately 30 minutes just as it always has been at center school recess is going to be outdoors whenever possible with the exception being again not not a change um if there's rain or extreme cold or heat um we do have guidelines in terms of when uh when the weather when when the temperature is inappropriate for kids to be outside that we follow um and as a reminder always students really need to dress appropriately so we want to make sure that um kids have a you know a jacket if it's cool out um and are you know short sleeves if it's hot that kind of thing um during outdoor recess kids will be mask free so they'll be able to remove their masks we're determining where they're going to place them in all of those little details that are part of this process the playground equipment will be closed so there's not a way for us to adequately clean the playground equipment in between students using it for recess time so um they will not be able to use the uh the equipment and students will be expected to socially distance um so we are collaborating to develop some choice activities that they can get engage in you know one example hopscotch you know that's not the great maybe not the most exciting example but those kinds of things that we can have students do outside i'm sure i'm confident that our students will come up with a variety of other games um if they are given the the option and the opportunity to do so of their own making so um we will be working with again with our with our staff on that and then in the case when we cannot go outside if we do need to have indoor recess um students will remain in their classrooms they will have their masks on we likely will do a mask break or two during that time um since that would be kind of uh they would be accustomed to having no mass during recess um and then again we're again collaborating on some choice activity that they can engage in for indoor recess drawing independent games that kind of thing um that we'll be working on as we move forward so that's another area of development for us okay kindergarten so um for those of you who have had kindergartners in the past come through um center school um and or you know have neighbors or that kind of thing have that you know know that typically kindergarten students do come in for half days for the first eight to ten school days of the year and the purpose behind that is really for assessment purpose and that kind of thing um our plan for this year is that kindergarten students are going to attend um half days from tuesday september 8th through friday october 2nd so it's about um it's about four weeks and the reason behind that is our rationale is that we will allow to we will be um have the time then to better support students in acclimating to the school environment um especially since everything will be new to them so there'll be lots of different procedures and that kind of thing that they that they need to learn one second okay um it'll also allow students to build connections with teachers and other staff um so if the smaller they're only you know 10 or 11 kids in the class at a time um teachers will be able to give them more attention um and and they'll be able to get to know that group of peers a little bit a little bit better um as well as other staff who might be coming into the building or exceeding into the classroom at that time it'll let teachers really give uh time to teaching students how to use the technology and how to learn from home so we you know there there's a chance that we might have to go out on remote learning at some point and we want to make sure um one of the lessons that we learned from this distance learning is that we want to make sure that students understand how to use the tools that they have and what you know at home learning looks like and then it'll also give us an opportunity to assess student skills so typically um kindergarten students coming in we've done we've done a spring screening uh we have some information we've done observations at preschools we just have a lot more information on kids and how they learn um and given our you know the situation in the spring we weren't able to gather that information so having kids come in smaller groups will allow us to deploy our special ed staff our reading staff um and our some you know other other specialists in the school psychologists to really take a look at kids in a smaller setting in the classroom um so we know uh better how to differentiate um for their instruction moving forward so students will be assigned to a or b cohorts again we're going to coincide the uh after the morning and afternoon half days for kindergarten with the ab cohorts that would um happen if we were in a hybrid um so that's one less thing that parents have to worry about you just you'll know which cohort you're in and that will be when you attend school your child is in school um so students in the a cohort will attend uh in the morning from 8 30 to 11 and students in the b cohort will attend school in the afternoon um from 12 40 to 25.
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