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right now what we're looking at is seven and a half days that if i we can get seven and a half days i'm more will i'm much more willing to say let's do seven and a half days versus now we're a whole another until march i am yeah if we're just one day this is a short term right now kids are kids are exiting right and left i mean we have pages of kids today that called in just it's not worth it yeah okay okay one last question um if a teacher has to quarantine while we're on distance learning do they have the opportunity to if they're well enough to teach from home sure yes okay yeah okay most definitely so thank you thank you thank you this is an action item so some would like to make a motion i'm not ready i want i would like something else out of this i think so our plan is to finish out the week and then come thursday the teachers will give the kids more instruments give them their homework if they need it because the kids can also access it online they can access that do you think that these next two days is enough yes i think so okay so in reality what we are doing is we are basically extending our winter break by how many days i wouldn't say that that's i wouldn't say that it's extending the break what i would say is that we're going to be at home learning for eight days eight days and actually to to i think someone's point seven and a half seconds for all schools we were half day on that last day for the high school it's the last three days were half days of instruction or actually they were final exams right right and you and cindy you are confident in the fact that you say that the teachers will be ready in two days to give two weeks worth of homework to our children yes especially because when we're this close to the end of the semester everybody's planned because they know what's coming because they know it's near the end okay and so everybody's planned and one of the things that we would really benefit by being able to hand the kids their work on thursday who don't have the ability to interact online if we waited and had packet pickup almost we would have very low percentage of kids parents come for the packets knowing that we could encourage the kids the next few days you got to be here you got to be here because we're handing it to you ensures that we can put it in the hands of almost every kid and we are going to make sure that our teachers are reachable that by parents by children and we're going to do to their point so why they're requirement is that our teachers are actually going to come to work we've got to be on campus they're now they're going to be in their classroom all alone right so it's there's no issue about um you know social distancing because it's ultimate social distancing one person in the classroom right but um they will be available by phone by email and by the google classroom that's expected i think that the younger kids use the classroom dojo and some other communication tools and every classroom can be direct dialed so it's not like they have to go through the school switchboard and it might be you know busy or they're working for somebody transfer every single classroom can be direct dialed okay and and with that that's in closing i want to make sure that our teachers and our staff do everything to help our children succeed to pass absolutely because that's my biggest concern right now because if we these kids are failing if we're not it's not going to do anybody any good and i'm with danny and i'll tell you and all the way along i've been the personally we gotta have the kids in school and that's been my stance all the way along i'll tell you we were in a hundred percent agreement today that we need to be at home learning starting money hundred 100 what about the special needs population we you know part part of the leadership team is nicole dr burdette um it was her request at the special needs kids statement the special needs kids are typically have more medical issues they're more medical medically needy far more vulnerable and that you know being on campus the two um uh two of the corn of the three quarantines that we've had at the high school have been in the center's classroom um just because those kids have more interaction with the adults because of just they they're more hands-on that's just part of the program those kids need help and that's an adult helping them right and they have there's a higher likelihood of issues because of that so dr burdette's recommendation was we keep our at least for the next two weeks what happens in january we'll all have to decide or you guys will decide but at least for the next two weeks her recommendation was that those special needs could stay we have two active cases she texted me when she said can you please share this if it's appropriate we have two active cases in our centers students who've been in our center's classroom at the high school and it's and what john's saying is 100 accurate the kids are extremely vulnerable and so that's and our kids interact not they're not contained in that classroom all day we have kids are in unified kids that have lunch in the mainstream and things like that and we're really seeking to protect all our kids our most vulnerable kids and the other thing is we've had a lot of people call in who've been exposed in the community to something our adults who work with kids and we have no control over people who become afraid about coming to school could call in and say that we have no way of knowing and so the trend everywhere that we're seeing is we have less than a third of the subs available that we typically have and the trend everywhere has been that staff hasn't been coming we've been lucky compared to other districts i i'm just gonna tell you i'm not gonna i am gonna vote to keep our kids in school so that's gonna be my vote okay but i'm gonna tell you right now because i'm pretty sure i don't know how everybody else is out but come january these kids are all back in school and i don't care what the numbers are this has gone on way too long and i will fight to the nail to make sure that these kids are back so this says education is too is i know that this is important everybody but the recovery rate you just heard her say what it was on children and adults so i'm going to let this be i think i spoke my piece today but i'm going to let you know that i will fight you so now come january first so the kids will be back in school well gosh i hope the numbers are there [Laughter] good luck and i think the majority of us are in agreement with all your comments annie because we all want the kids back in school but we also want our teachers and staff to be healthy and safe so this is an action item so could someone make a motion please it says the motion would be to move to this is learn it to just move you guys make what you think should happen i'll make a motion to move to distance learning for the remainder of this semester starting starting monday december 27th thank you to be reevaluated come our next board meeting okay motion on the floor all in favor aye aye aye opposed aye okay thank you i am 10a just so you know i'm going to be sending out a connected to um families and staff tonight to let them know what's going on so we have we have families that need to make arrangements since that's the case and so that information will go out tonight um matt's here and he is our public information officer he'll get stuff information out so we will have that information out as soon as possible so people can make plans that the administrators are available as well and that we encourage you to reach out to us if you need help with anything and what's your phone number silly because my phone number my phone's blowing up what's yours don't call me item board calendar and for 2021 and so um there is a request that we change our board meeting dates for the second week the reason is um really for budgeting purposes we have five months in which we have either a budget revision a proposed budget an adopted budget um annual financial report something's happening that's due on the 15th by moving to the second week that gives us an extra week um to get the data and the information going hence that's why we have a meeting next week um on the 8th because we needed that extra time so the request is to do it the second week penny and i were talking this morning we initially had thought about the second tuesday uh the town council meets on the second tuesday so um really i think it would be better served for everyone if we did on the second monday of the of the month that would give us an extra four days of uh three days of work in order to get that budget properly done and budget documents taken care of and so that would start in january there is a calendar highlighted in yellow all you have to do is move one day to the left to let you know when those days um our new meeting days would be so our next meeting after the special meeting on tuesday would be january 11th any discussion do you need a motion please i'll make a motion to approve the one of my approval 21 that i'll make a motion to approve of the date and time set for the 2021 in january 2022 tina valley unified school district board meeting if you could just mention the second monday of the month at 5 pm second monday of the month at 5pm all in favor thank you item 10b um i have to tell you i am so sad that robert is leaving because we got on the board together robert and now you're leaving me and i don't know i think you're really smart because you're going and i'm here for another four years robert robert has been a member of the china valley school board district board for the past four years representing the business community as a father and a business owner here in chino valley having his support to make education a priority has been invaluable thank you for always stepping up to the plate whether it was the dish up thanksgiving dinner support athletics or participating meetings we thank you for all your help over the years and thank you for always putting our kiddos first i didn't shoot it it has been difficult bittersweet thank you so much for your services great to work with you and uh i'm not i am going to start getting chiropractic adjustments shortly but i will continue to see you but um thank you very much welcome thank you you never know what happened okay item um 10c um squaring in of new board members mr crater thank you for coming thank you cover coming in i'm sorry you had to wait no problem madam president members ladies and gentlemen good evening it is always a pleasure to be with you um sorry to have all of this fall at the same time that you're dealing with all of the other issues but certainly want to thank dr bowen for all of his work on the board and we want to welcome three newly elected board members of course mrs mortensen will be staying on the board um mr altoona will be returning to the board after some time away and of course mr fogel i think you know is a long time educator and staff member in the area so i'm going to need to do a little paperwork with them at the end of the meeting their terms begin january 1st of 2021 and they go through december 31st of 2024 that sounds like a long time so it'll go by really quick so mr superintendent folks in the media where would you like us to be so that everybody is comfortable with something yeah we can just go right then right here that that works fine with me so if the three of you would come on down and distance as much as you can i'll back up a little bit here so i'm not right in front of you and what's important is pictures of them now right there with annie around that little horseshoe would be good would you like to join them or no no i'm i'm fine where i'm at i just need everybody to be ready if we can't slide that out of the way for a moment folks are you ready you raise your right hand and repeat after me i and state your name all right that's fine do you solemnly swear do you swear that i will support the constitution and that will support the constitution of the united states of america or the united states of america and the constitution and laws and the concentration of laws of the state of arizona bearing true faith and allegiance to the same amen allegiance to the same defending them against all enemies defending them against all things foreign and domestic foreign and that i will faithfully and impartially and i will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties discharge the duties of a governing board member of a government board member for the chino valley unified school district unified school district for the best of my ability to the best of my ability
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good evening we're going to have this meeting called to order dr foley roll call please president kaler members of the board please let the record show that four members are present mr witovich is not able to join us this evening thank you very much we're going to have a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance through the flat of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with justice 2.1 i move that we approve the agenda second any questions president keller yes um i just want to make it clear that our meeting tonight and our discussion tonight is not we're not voting on if we're keeping schools open or closed right now and i know based on a lot of emails we received that people believe that we are meeting tonight to have a vote whether we're going to keep our schools opened or closed that is not what tonight's discussion is or our vote is our discussion and any voting items is to further our mitigation plan so i just wanted to kind of make that clarification with the agenda tonight thank you very much all those in favor aye aye aye motion carries 4-0 board comments mr glover uh well i just if if if you've written written to me you've probably got some variation of this response but i'm telling everybody and i just think we have to spread these the messages of the things that we all must do if we want to keep our schools open so i'm just going to be a broken record so wear a mask properly wash your hands avoid large gatherings get tested stay at home if you have any symptoms stay at home if you think you have covered and are awaiting test results and then carefully consider your holiday plans thank you thank you mr glover wonderful reminders we are going to move anybody else go ahead oh i'm so sorry mrs wilson i just want to thank everybody who sent emails i have read them all i may not have responded but i just want to say thank you i have read your concerns and i'm listening president keller yes mrs reese the same i we we received a lot of emails and even if you didn't get a response because there are so many i too read them and took all the information into consideration on how people are feeling and thinking and regarding covid and some other items so i too received lots of emails yes and also just to piggyback on both of you if dr foley or any administrators are left off of an email that is sent to me i make sure that those get forwarded on to the right personnel because sometimes it's just sent to the board and it really helps when i send them off to dr foley or any of our other cabinet members so again yes lots of emails and we do read every one of them it's my morning coffee routine we're going to move on to request to speak and i have a little blurb here before we get started we value input from our constituents the time has been set aside for anyone from the audience who wishes to address the board please remember this is not an appropriate venue to evaluate discuss or criticize district personnel policy keb provides a process for complaints about personnel speakers should be aware that false statements about individuals may result in civil liability members of the board may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda therefore pursuant to ars 38-431-i'm sorry period 0-1-h action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration and a decision at a later date and we are going to limit our response as always to three minutes so first i have kristin gomez i'm sorry i just got them as is good evening my name is kristen wilson i'm actually a special education teacher resource teacher at bridges elementary and i just wanted to come up and first thank you all for everything that you're doing for us i know this is a year of difficulty for everyone and i also wanted to just thank you again for reading my email as a teacher for the district as well as a mother i have three children that attend schools here in the district one of them is a special needs student and i know that we're not discussing or voting tonight but as a mom i can't tell you how much i appreciate the fact that you all gave him the opportunity to go to school because online teaching for him is a huge struggle like many special education kids it's very difficult for him and without even though the the staff tried with aid support online or you know the the extra support that the teachers were trying to give him it was awful and for the first time in my life having an autistic child i thought i was going to have to do something for his mental stability because he needs to have in person he needs to have that connection with a person even his peers he needed he he has become very much um i mean he's my loving warren but he he has to have the connection and without that connection he struggles and so even though they tried to support online when we had to go online back in march his behavior turned to a point that was very scary and troublesome because he had made such strides in our program through higley with special ed and so i bring that to your attention because i know you have a lot on your plate i know that there's a lot at stake here but i also know as a teacher we are doing everything we can on our property and we are working hard and we are cleaning and we are disinfecting and we make sure that those kids follow the rules they all want to be on campus they love being back on campus we have seen such a huge change in kids and this is gen ed and sped kids alone like all of them like they want to do better they want to work hard they want to do their work they have missed being in school and they've missed not only their peers but they've missed the teachers they've missed the engagement that they get to have with those teachers the learning and we're taking a situation and we're doing the best we all can it's not going to be perfect but i will tell you that these kids deserve us they deserve our community standing up and following the rules of wearing a mask and washing our hands and staying six feet apart and not traveling during the holidays to keep them where they deserve to be because in 20 years that's who's going to be running our country and if they went for two years without an education that's what worries me so thank you for everything you all are doing i appreciate it from the bottom of my heart as an educator and as a parent thank you so much next up i have julie hancock good evening ugly board dr foley my name is julie hancock i am a parent of five children that have been raised in the district my youngest my baby is now a senior um and i am also an employee i um i teach at bossman early childhood development center i want to thank you for your efforts to keep in keeping our schools safe and open during the past four months as a special education teacher preschool teacher i can tell you that our staff is working tirelessly to clean and sanitize the classroom the playground and the whole building our three to five-year-olds are doing a phenomenal job of wearing masks i am telling you that some of our special needs kids at times struggle to even keep their shoes on but these kids are wearing their masks we are social distancing as best we can and for children in this age group um the parents are keeping children home like i've never seen before um they are doing so because they support us teachers and they want their children to continue to have in-person learning opportunities i want to thank you for your efforts to keep our schools open even as cases rise i feel fortunate that i'm working in higley and not at the charter school down the road from us that is closed because they don't have staffing to keep it open i'm grateful that our mitigation guidelines allow us to keep teaching and that although most of us hate wearing masks that they are allowing us to keep teaching in person even if someone in our class tests positive my purpose in speaking today is to ask you to continue to keep our classrooms open for in-person learning even if you're not voting on it tonight just please keep this in your heart and in your thoughts i have taught virtually i can tell you that even though we teachers did everything we could to make our lessons engaging and appropriate our special needs students struggled my three to five-year-olds are not able to gain an appropriate education through a screen all of my students have speech delays and have other developmental disabilities they need one-on-one attention from a caring teacher they need their peers to model appropriate behavior they need speech and language therapy occupational therapy which is hands-on and very difficult to do virtually they need eye contact and physical feedback that comes from in-person learning i can tell you these things i can tell you these things because i've taught them i've experienced them and they are not appropriate for our special needs students no matter what age federal law states that we must provide a free and appropriate education and this is not done so in a virtual learning environment we spent last three we spent the last quarter online with these kids in three weeks of this school year online before we went in person i've seen dramatic increases in their behavior and in their development they are happy to be in person the teachers are happy to be back the parents are happy that they're back and children thrive in a happy environment if our cases continue to rise and we have to shut down i'm asking you to please remember our most vulnerable students our special needs students who need consistency and a face-to-face contact our younger our youngest learners can't excel on an online platform thank you thank you very much [Music] next i have rebecca shaver speak right here thank you um first off i want to say thank you so much for letting parents participate in this meeting and to be here i really appreciate it um i would like to read dr redfield's most recent statements regarding schools he is the director of the cdc he said schools are among the safest places that american children can be amid surging cases of corona virus across the country school closures are an emotional response to rising infection rates data does not support the notion that closing schools reduces coronavirus transmission children are not major vectors of coronavirus and are less likely to become infected with coronavirus or spread it compared to adults infections detected in schools did not necessarily originate there but simply reflect the spread of coronavirus in the wider community and dr fauci just this past sunday said keep the schools open if you look at the data the spread among children and from children is not very big at all with the constant narrative of follow the science science data and experts are all in favor of keeping schools open even when cases are on the rise closing higley schools won't stop community spread as long as adults can enjoy themselves at a bar and go to the movies and have dinner at a restaurant with their peers children should be able to learn in a classroom with or without a virus in the community the sole purpose of our education system is for educating children it should not be used to profit off of children it should not be an employment protection program and it should not be a political entity so i asked this board to continue what you've all been doing already which is keep our schools open and i really appreciate the board members that have voted to open our higley schools and i so appreciate the staff members and the teachers that are coming every day showing up every day for our kids to keep our schools open for children and families that truly mean it so i really appreciate it so thank you next we have heather mays did i say that correctly um first off i just want to say thank you for allowing us to be here tonight and speak to you guys i appreciate the opportunity to do that and i want to say thank you to all of you on the board along with teachers and staff who work tirelessly every day and put in hard work and effort that is keeping our kids in school um and keeping our key our kids needs at the forefront of the agenda my daughter who is in middle school at cooley has attended the higley school district schools for the last five years she's always been a good student and excelled with good grades this year as she began her school year remotely her grades were shocking to us as we looked over them and saw d d c f was very concerning to us as parents after a long stretch of a's and b's from our daughter um thanks to the leaders of our district and um teachers our daughter was able to return to in-school learning and um along with other students at cooley and i'm happy to report that her grades are once again almost all a's so we're very happy to see that and um just a very strong reminder to us that the in-person learning is so incredibly effective for her and that she really struggled with the online even when she didn't have the ability to verbalize that to us it was very apparent in her grades and that we could see that i'm also the mother of a of a special needs fourth grader um they're getting a lot of support tonight it sounds like which i'm so happy about but i'm the mother of a special needs fourth grader and this has been especially eye-opening for us as to just how crucial daily in-person learning is for him we're incredibly grateful for the teachers who day in and day out love our kids and want to see them succeed just like we do on a number of occasions while sitting next to my son while um he's having online instructional zoom calls and sitting next to him assisting him um there has been a number of times where he's gotten so frustrated or overwhelmed with the inability to navigate the computer that he has gotten up and shut the laptop before i even have a chance to stop him or help assist him and what he's struggling with we've learned that online schooling is completely ineffective for our son as i'm sure is the case with many other students who are challenged or have an iep that requires specialized learning assistance as a parent i do not have the adequate training or resources to progress my kids education the same way our teachers do and again i'm just so grateful for the opportunity for them to be in person and to be in school learning and say thank you for that and thank you to all of our teachers who are working so hard every day to keep our kids in school thank you thank you next i have jennifer zauer members of the board and dr foley i know i shared this with you via email but i feel it's important to share with the community as well so over the course of the pandemic i have learned of the importance of speaking up and sharing concerns sometimes it brings change sometimes people think the concerns you raise are crazy and sometimes the only positive is that you know you said something rather than staying silent and wishing you had spoken up like many in our community i've been trying to understand how community numbers can be so high while school dashboard numbers are so low in my desire to understand the discrepancy i searched for an explanation and while searching i read that not all positive cases in the district are reported on the dashboard i reached out to the district nurse to confirm how numbers are reported and learn that if a student is outside of their exposure period which is i understand it is two days before an onset of symptoms or two days before a positive test if asymptomatic and they test positive their result will not count on the dashboard this means there is an entire bucket if you will of kids and teachers who are positive and currently enrolled in in-person school who do not show up without including this bucket we don't have a realistic picture of what is happening this is concerning so i'm asking you as a district and governing board to consider three things that are really related to your proposed school closure things you have in your powerpoint for tonight one please include all staff and students with positive covid tests on your dashboard if you have to add a separate column for that missing bucket to indicate they were not active then do that but don't withhold a set of crucial data teachers cannot withhold the subset of student scores in order to make their test scores look better so we shouldn't withhold a subset of test results to keep our numbers on the dashboard low please use more than just the husd cova dashboard which relies on parents to self-report to make decisions about keeping schools open instead use a combination of the dashboard and the arizona department of health services covid dashboard which includes all positive tests it doesn't discriminate based on when someone tested positive neighboring districts like gilbert are doing this please stay true to your words from when you voted to open schools in august if only if numbers continued in the right direction both the arizona department of health dashboard and the higley dashboard are trending in the wrong direction in fact there was a 100 increase in the number of acted cases on the husd dashboard from monday to tuesday the families teachers and staff in this district trusted you to open because you said you would watch the numbers to make sure they were going the right way please don't take away this trust when i first started teaching 20 years ago my mentor shared an analogy with me that i still share today with my college students when teaching students we want to be the doctor and perform well checks or assessments so that you can diagnose concerns when they are small and easily treatable if you miss these checkups and don't intervene then you end up in the emergency room because things have spun out of control our district is getting a checkup every week right now with the benchmarks from the arizona department of health services the emergency lights are flashing and it's time to intervene i know there isn't an easy answer or one that makes everybody happy i'm sure you've had as many sleepless nights wondering if you made the right choice as i've had wondering if i've made the right choice as a mom but i know that i will sleep easier tonight knowing that i at least shared my thoughts with you thank you thank you so much president taylor yes can i just comment real quick on yes thank you for coming up and speaking with us and i read your email and i've seen some of your comments the same type of comments and multiple emails but i just want to clarify just something real quick is when we voted to open our schools and we said we were going to watch the numbers that was prior to our opening when we had our discussion of opening our schools we also did indicate we were not going to be using the maricopa county dashboard any longer after our schools opened that once our schools opened then we would work with the county on when and if and when we would need to close and like i said i've heard multiple emails where people have referred that our dashboard for maricopa county is continuing to rise and that we're choosing to ignore that and that we said we would watch those numbers and we did say we would watch those numbers we had a two-week period from the time we were voting until we were opening schools and so we we did say we were going to watch that to make sure they were trending correctly prior to and that we would pull an emergency meeting if we needed to change the decision we had made so i totally hear what you're saying and i've heard that comment multiple times in our community and so i just i felt the need to clarify that that we did say we were going to watch those numbers prior to opening and then we also indicated once we do open we would no longer use that dashboard on determining the direction of our schools so i just i want to clarify that so people understand that we we're not doing something that we said we would do um and so this board has has done what we said we were going to do and we did watch those when we decided to open to make sure they were still trending down because when we were making that decision we were on that cusp of our numbers turning green and so we felt they were headed in that direction we made that vote expecting them to turn green but we did say we would watch those to see if that changed prior to our opening date so i just want to clarify but i i hear what you're saying and i'm sure we'll have some discussion on our dashboard tonight as well so i appreciate your input there thank you thank you next up we have jen larson i just want to start by saying how much we appreciate all that you guys have done and especially from the moment you guys decided to get our kids back in school and the efforts that have been made and i looked at the dashboard today as i'm sure many people look at the dashboard often and what you have done is a success because our numbers there's over 13 000 people on the dashboard that are included between staff and students and there are currently 16 active cases and i understand that those numbers may not reflect right this moment but that is still a testament to your success and what you're doing and how you're doing it because as we've all learned very quickly throughout this whole process numbers are not all they seem to be and they are not extremely accurate i heard um one researcher say yesterday that up to 50 of positive cases or positive results could actually be negative so we have to be very careful i i will cite it and actually send it to you guys if you would like that um so we have to be very careful basing so much information on these numbers and and also i don't want to get off track but i have kids i've had kids at higley school district for 10 years now love hillary school district the teachers are amazing at anything i say is no reflection on those teachers that want to be there with our children i think that is a good majority of them and i appreciate them so much and i appreciate your guys's work um and i know that this is a vote you guys are voted in for this position and so we are your constituents and i hope that you guys do listen to us and the one point that i really want to make is every single parent that is dropping off their kids at school right now which is in the thousands agrees with what you're doing the parents that have their children in online school currently are the ones that maybe don't agree with what you're doing with in person and i am sure that you know that the greater majority of parents are happy with the choices that you've made and the way you're handling this and they show that by dropping their student off giving you that ability to take care of their student so um also yeah i just want to appreciate the courage that you guys have had in doing what you've done as far as experts go and listening to so much misinformation and so much information it's overwhelming i try and stay up-to-date i'm sure you guys try to stay up to date um i think no matter what the cdc needs to trump whatever arizona guidelines are the cdc is not perfect but they are the standard and because someone has come up with some other arbitrary number that they think we should be following that should not supersede the cdc uh there's also thousands of experts experts epidemiologists child psychologists i could go on and on and i'd be happy to send you any information i'm sure you get plenty that all agree that children should be in school they are not super spreaders their infection rate is extremely low as you can see from the dashboard and as far as concerns about asymptomatic spreading the cdc says that that is extremely rare so when you add the rarity of children passing it on top of asymptoma asymptomatic children i think we're very safe but anyway i just want to say i appreciate so much what you guys are doing and especially thank you for allowing us to be here as parents and as members of the community to share how we feel thank you i have two more i wasn't sure if they're here kristin apodaca i say that right all right senor apodaca i think was my spanish teacher so maybe that's where it came back okay so yes hi my name is kristen apodaca and i first want to just say thank you for the opportunity to be able to be here and speak tonight i have four children in the district i have one in high school who also played football this season i have one in middle school and two in elementary i've had the opportunity to experience the way things are being handled at all three and i've been very impressed with all the precautions taken every day and how well the staff and students do with following all the guidelines at school like okay the previous shutdown and experience of virtual learning for my children was what was not one i would ever like to happen again one of my children is on an iep and being back was not i'm sorry being back to in person school has been a night and day experience from when he was doing virtual learning he needs the one-on-one help academically as well as being able to be in community with his peers for his mental health my daughter also struggled with depression during virtual learning i understand there are many who do well with the virtual platform but there are equally if not more that do not i have serious concerns for our children if we shut the schools back down again there are studies coming out about how high the failure rate is amongst the students on the virtual platform there are also studies showing how high the mental health issues like depression anxiety suicidal thoughts and attempts are with the amount of isolation the kids experience our mental health industry is overwhelmed right now it is almost impossible to get an appointment because providers are so full they are not taking new patients or their availability is months out i know as a district i heard you say that you want to look to the experts or to the science to help guide you in your decisions dr fauci on november 29th said and i quote we should not be shutting our schools down if there was a choice we should shut down the bars and keep schools open not shut down the schools and keep the bars open i sincerely hope you take his recommendation seriously my biggest question tonight is what is the end goal how many times will we open and close the schools of course if we shut down the schools and even the state cases will go down and when they open up again we will they will go up because logically that's how it works i have watched the dashboards for all three schools my children attend over the last few months and they have all been low in cases especially when you compare the amount of cases versus the amount of students and staff in the school the dashboard has also shown that each case documented was off equally a case resolved ziggly has done a great job of letting parents know if there was a case and if their child was exposed i know there's a lot of pressure on the board tonight from parents and groups who think the best answer is to shut down i truly hope this board puts all children and only the children first and chooses to keep the schools open while also continuing to offer the option to those who want their children to go back to the online platform i think higley has a huge opportunity right now to be a leader and show others that our district puts the children first and has done a great job of implementing guidelines and we should praise our teachers and students for how well they have followed them in the classroom thank you thank you very much and did sarah sullinger did i say that correct it's karen oh cara i'm so sorry it looked like it right yes cara so sorry my friend wrote it down for me i wrote it wrong blame the friend that's right that's her fault uh thank you for this opportunity to speak um first i just want to say thank you for the job you've done when i know you volunteered this job you didn't plan on a major pandemic so thanks for sticking with it for our kiddos i have a friend on the aotoki board and i know that she's definitely had it had it rough so um thanks to the teachers staff who spent countless hours trying to change everything familiar to accommodate so many situations my name is kara i'm a mom to five kids three go to chaparral elementary but before we went to gateway points we've been with the higley unified school district for six years we love it we have had friends that go to charter schools and a huge advocate for public school my mom's a high school math teacher so she's in her last year of teaching so i have major respect for school teachers um sorry i'm like such an emotional person in general i don't know what the future holds but um the kids being in school has been the best for them mentally physically emotionally i'm a stay-at-home mom but i also work two two part-time jobs in the spring when the class slide was a little bit lower or the class load was a little bit lighter were able to trudge along with homeschool but this fall was a different story we started school at 8am finished about 5pm every night managing three kids was rough lots of tears lots of falling behind to spend hours catching up lots of googling researching to learn how to teach my children pretty much retaking fourth and sixth grade um first grade was a little bit easier since they've been back in school their grades have gone up they've had more time to just be a kid without the heavy burden of at home school putting on them they've had less kind of less of a workload i think they've gotten it more done in school anxiety has decreased my 11 year old son who is very depressed has been very bad very happy back at school there was a few weeks back in the fall before we opened up the i was kind of looking for a different option for school just because i i knew that there wasn't a perfect option out there but i just was very desperate um so i was just searching for anything normal but stuck it out and i'm happy i did [Music] my work suffered i felt like i was a newborn again in the fall i felt like even just like showering was hard eating during the day because my kids had different lunch schedules and just trying to work with all three of them trying to find zoom eating spots in my house trying to shuffle the different computer situation because not all of them had word or whatever they needed for school um lots of anxiety lots of agitation um i also have two twin four-year-olds at home so that was hard to juggle i chose all these kids so i'm not complaining about the amount of kids i have i'm just saying it was very stressful a very tearful few months um with coveted cases being loaded low in our district um and reports i've read that schools aren't really the super spreaders i just really hope we can keep schools open functioning how they are currently i'm fortunate to stay at home but i know that there's not very many people that are as fortunate as i am to help their kids um so i hope you take that into consideration so anyway talk too long thank you thank you you have a built-in math tutor for your high schoolers coming up thank you all for speaking tonight thank you for being here i know it's not easy to get up here and speak so i appreciate each and every one of you for coming and taking the time and you can share with your friends that are we do social distance our board room we have masks and i think everybody feels fairly safe in this environment so we welcome people to come and speak at our board meetings one thing that came to mind when everybody was speaking is i remember when dr foley in the spring she was invited by a family to come and see them see a mama teach and a daddy teach class and you spent time in a home watching them i think it was five children that they were juggling online so you had first you can i heard you i saw dr foley's head kind of shaking with some of you mom was out there because she did go and see first hand what that online learning in a home looked like so i appreciated that in you okay we're going to move on yes go ahead um well i appreciate everyone who's spoken and acknowledged the work of our staff and i just wanted to call some attention to that and you know when you consider the issue of closing a school which we are not talking about uh directly tonight just keep in mind you know our staff it's not just the kids it's the kids that are in contact with our staff and i i worry about them i think we all worry about uh the safety of our staff but it's also the brothers and sisters of the children who go to our schools and the parents and the grandparents so we worry about all of these things yeah it's primarily about the kids it's kids first i've never said anything different but but these teachers are really very stressed and we should acknowledge that and factor that into it and then when you have a classroom when you have you know even 10 kids in quarantine these teachers are committed and they're doing their best all day long teaching and then they feel obligated to go home and try to reach out to those kids who are in quarantine and it's just it's a lot [Music] we're talking about other places that have had success europe enacted really strong public and private mitigation but they preserved schooling so it's really not me you should be talking to it's our governor that you should write to and talk to and ask him to close those close some of these businesses so that we can preserve school that will help as well um but i mean you're welcome to be it's a right to me or to be angry with me too but i can only do so much um you know the people that i'm angry with is uh i you know i ran into the store and i knew exactly where i was going in and out ba-ba-ba but i saw a guy and he had a he had on a shirt uh that said you're an american act like it but he was wearing his mask inside this door on his chin and i just thought dude this is these are the people that need to get it um because i i mean i we shouldn't be fighting with one another we should be telling those people to get with it man because you're ruining it for everybody um you know and can i tell the mask police story i said okay so a group of uh parents visited our school and uh were in the stands and they weren't adhering to the mask protocols and they were asked politely i think and then by security and instead of adhering to that so that we could all be safe and and sports could continue for our kids they decided to chant mass police go away these are the people we have to be angry with these are the people who are ruining it for all of us so you might not like some of my reactions to some of the decisions i have to make but it's a result of the actions of some very selfish people so anyway i all right that's enough [Laughter] go ahead mrs wilson uh i hate following mr glover i'm not going to lie uh he makes it very difficult i just want to thank all the parents who got up and spoke i know it's not ever easy to get up and be a public comment i enjoy that we have public comment and we've had it since september 8th or 9th i think was our first board meeting back the 9th and i just appreciate all of you coming and putting yourselves out there because it's never easy we do it time and time again and for you guys to do it it's a big deal so thank you and thank you for all your emails i think every single one of you i may have seen an email from so thank you that i got a pre view of it so thank you so much um yes i did i was going to say that mr ducey is more worried about outside restaurant venues today than our schools but i digress and i won't go any further so we're going to move on to our mitigation plan and dr foley and her entire cabinet i think is going to be presenting tonight president kaler members of the board yes tonight we're going to be talking through an additional mitigation plan to kind of more formally put out there what would be a plant if we were to have rising cases on campus um but before we start that we want to start tonight the district cabinet administration and i want to start with a thank you we want to kind of start with this extended thank you to our entire highland community for their grace their flexibility for their perseverance their pa their passion and our ongoing dedication during these constantly changing and challenging times to our students we want you to know that we are proud of you we want you to just keep focusing on your learning and keep making choices that help keep you and your in and those around you safe to our employees wow we are amazed by the colleagues that we work with um collectively as a profession we collectively have never worked so hard um we are adapting fast we are working on every level to make sure that what we do is is in the best interest of our students um and again i think you can be proud that at every level of our organization we have colleagues doing what is best for their students and working hard to keep their students and each other safe i think we've demonstrated again that higley is one of the best places to be our professionals are amazing our support staff are some of the best and we're grateful for them and what they're doing for our students we also appreciate our families and community members i mean we are truly blessed to live in a place and to work in a place where we have such an involved community and so for those of you who have reached out to us who have emailed us who have called us with comments questions and concerns we want to thank you we want you to know that we um that we hear you that we're listening to you and why we may not always be able to give you the answer you're wanting to hear that we're listening and we're trying to respond to you with what we're able to do the cabinet and i want to thank our governing board the amount of hours the amount of time the dedication you've shown during this time with us um is important and we appreciate you um please know that your leadership team has spent hours and hours and we continue to spend hours and hours navigating the constant covet management as it shifts and changes and new information comes out and unique needs come out please know that your team is approaching this with integrity that they're doing this with their whole hearts with our passion with our with every fiber of our being with the whole hope that what we do is right for our students in higley so please know that we are we are an amazing place um and we've got amazing people and i want us to start with thanking this collective community for what we're doing and how we're doing it together so um with that we kind of would like to start an update tonight with our recommendation for our mitigation plan so we're going to start this with a conversation of so what do we know um and what are what are what are our more formalized plans and so obviously we know um that the our when we look at the public health and maricopa dashboards it's continuing to trend in the wrong direction yes today governor ducey and cara crist are are warning us that it's going to continue to trend in the wrong direction it's important to remember that the data that's released each week is not two-week lag time and so again this is this is important for us to know again we also have our own dashboard i'm going to talk a little bit more about the dashboard here in a while but one of the things that's important to know is that our dashboard is updated daily monday through friday and that we are being governed by directive and direction on our metrics that we report that is in alignment with the health department i think it's also important to know one of the things this question that has come up often is well how do you know if parents don't tell you one of the good one of the good things is again every one of our students that's enrolled is also through ade connect which is aligned to a school district the health department works with the state department to inform every positive test is aligned back to a school so if you don't tell us we will know and find out anyhow again the lag time might be there but again we will find out and have an opportunity to to be aware of that so again dr foley i'm just going to interrupt real quick and and that's so important that when our students are waiting for a test result that they don't come to school when they're we had our nurse this week alone i know called out two students we have to stop that and and we have said it over and over and over again stay at home and it's okay to stay at home so i i don't know how else we can say it in any other way but i just had with that this important thing to remember and again one of the things that we had outlined before is that uh if we had rising cases or if the health department had any concern at all we would always respond and close on a side by side but we also wanted to to clarify for a community to more formally present this to you for us to discuss what that would look like in the event we should have cases rise on campus and so that's what we're going to kind of talk through tonight so what else do we know i'm sorry can i ask a quick question about the dashboard i know there was discussion that we've had several students email teachers saying hey i'm going to be out because i have kovid and this and that and we have had when the teacher receives that we've had people follow up with the parents to find out you know hey this is what's happened they're not here you know do they have this and on some occasions it's been no they've never even been tested or on other occasions it's been yes they do what shows up on the dashboard i mean so we have people self-reporting and so what what numbers show up on the dashboard okay in three slides i'm gonna get there and go into that so if you give me two slides more i will go into a little more detail on that i'll put up the dashboard and we'll talk about it you're welcome um so when we look at um when we look at our own data on our dashboard one of the things is there's a story behind each and every one of these and one of the things that's important to know is that we follow and and the our district nurse jillian has never also worked so hard the woman works literally around the clock i know because she and i are on the phone all hours of every day um talking through what we've learned and what she's finding out or what we what where what we know and what we're finding is that we are seeing little evidence of spread on campus most of these when we look at adult cases and student cases happen um with with exposure or activities outside of school and again we are looking at each and every one of those cases what we're finding is that our mitigation strategies work and we have to stay vigilant with them and you know those this this requires this is where we've this is where we've done well face mask wearing your face coverings it is it is the difference between um primary and secondary exposure it works um sanitation works staying home when you are sick when one of the things families are doing is it is a good thing if you have symptoms and you're not staying and you're not well and you haven't been at school that's a good thing because it's not allowing for exposure to happen on at school on campus so it's not a matter of not having the illness it's a matter of not being on campus to allow active cases to spread which is really important so hence there is a there is a tracking of each and every case what we also know is that we want to have options for families next slide please what we've learned i mean we've talked with our families we talk with our students we talk with our leaders we've talked with our teachers we our students i'll tell you most students learn better in person and that's not to say that when when we were forced by executive order to close you don't have a a choice one of the things you'll hear me say tonight is we have our district mitigation plan but it can thou be overruled by uh an executive order or maricopa county shutting you down and they have and they will but when you have the ability to make a decision at the local level what we know is that our students learn better when they are able to do it in person we want to be able to offer that for families as long as we're able to safely do so we also know that the social emotional is really hard to replicate through a screen there is there is so much we are social beings and creatures to to be able to connect with each other um even socially distanced and through a mask um is far superior than through a screen and social emotional learning is hard to replicate and it's not that we are not doing that in the online setting it is that for most students it doesn't have the same impact without and those are what we know when we look at other professional perspectives and i'm going to start at the bottom because a couple weeks ago there was a news there was a news press conference with cara crist and kathy hoffman who were talking about yes they're concerned about rising numbers in coveted cases but they're equally concerned about rising cases in arizona in in suicide in in mental health issues um we also talked about the fact you heard them saying that when schools close this is detrimental and again every community every situation is different but we have to make the decisions we have to make decisions for our local community and again you heard parents tonight reference doctor i always want to call him redford but it's redfield he said again that when we are saying to you that um sometimes there's concern when we say well this the higley dashboard doesn't mirror or trend the community dashboard are you hiding something what are you doing it doesn't make sense one of the things we're seeing is higley's not alone in this again we're following the guidance that we're required for tracking our numbers have to match the health department and one of the things we do a little different than other districts and is we update our our dashboard daily so if you're updating it weekly it may never hit the active column it may hit the resolved column when you're doing it daily you're going to see movement because every case is a little different depending upon when you were supposed to first had symptoms and tracking it back with exposure and again that comes direction not from jillian um our district nurse making that up or or one of the district administrators we're following the direction from the state health department so switching to the dashboard for just a second there we go so what hits the dashboard so first of all this is updated daily for monday through friday and it again it has and we're updating not only the cases that might have been reported but if there were new students or individuals or staff members on any location that is also pulled from our student information system so that we can truly monitor at the site again if there are positive cases that require communication because there was exposure on campus every day there is a letter or that would go to those either primary or secondary depending upon the exposure sometimes you again depending upon when the case was reported whether it was self-reported or it came from the state you will find that um if the the case may stay longer in the active but each case is tracked individually by their dates on their own and so people can say well why did it go on one day and off the next it's supposed to be there for 10 days depends on the case depends upon when that person had its symptoms and so one of the things that we have had jillian do is is she's been doing a little road show where she's gone around to our schools or or has it scheduled to do so in the next few weeks to help answer questions to our our employees about what goes on or why does it go on we had you know questions concerns about what about if a student again their when they showed symptoms they hadn't been on campus for a while they they don't go on obviously we tracked them but it's not posted in here as a column we've had conversation about potentially adding that column although that column would not change our percentage of positivity because again they're cases but they are not active or or on campus at this point so again jillian works tirelessly with the health department on on reporting that and again um this how we're recording each and every case what are the scenarios um is part of that presentation we've kind of done in the road show and if at some point you'd like us to come back and do the road show for the community and for the board we will do that because it would it would help to have the examples so you can see scenario one if if a student got sick on this day with with and or showed symptoms or tested and was last on campus which when who is communicated with or not but please know that every active case that is on campus where there would be need for communication for exposure are tracked on that on that dashboard whether in the active cases or in the resolved cases and communication goes out so dr foley just clarification there the example that comes to my mind is if someone was tested and confirmed positive let's say over our fall break correct that's not going to go in our confirmed active cases because they weren't on campus for two weeks so if what if it came within correct that fall break time frame so that's not going to show and jillian would have that data and information but it would not go on this that right now this is tracking our protocol for those who need to be communicated because of exposure or on campus during that time frame and again jillian did not make up those time frames she's following the exact dates that she's working with the health officials on and oftentimes i will tell you our our employees and our families are very good at reaching out and providing information and sometimes they haven't been but we still have the information and so again one of the things i will encourage you to do is if you have if any community member teacher family member has concern about are they hiding the district the district has no desire to not do this right there is no reason to hide this this is meant to be a tool that we use for us to monitor what's happening on a campus and is there need for concern if you have concern or wondering please call please call and reach out to your site administration reach out to jillian the nurse reach out to us and email so that we can listen to your concern and talk you through it now you may not like the what we're doing or how we're doing it but know that we're following exactly with the guidance from the state department on how to track that our numbers have to match theirs and every single case and every single scenario jillian has need tight and documented as thoroughly and completely as possible thank you dr foley for just reiterating what parents and families and our community members can do in the situation where they do i think there is a lot of things going on the rumor mill and that is not always helpful so please go to your principles go to your teachers and have those conversations and teachers go to your principals that is their first you know line of communication and we're there is absolutely no end game for us to try to change this dashboard in any way shape or form we want to be as transparent doing it a daily update as possible is anything perfect today i always go back to that there's nothing perfect in education right now but everybody's trying to do the best we possibly can and again if there is somebody out there that we've missed for some reason please bring it to us bring it to the attention of your principles right away and it will be addressed and it will be looked into further the one thing we have we have been very careful to say is that um it's important to know that actually higley does more on the communication than the health department would like our secondary notification where we let you know that there was a case if you're not a primary exposure is more communication than they're comfortable with sending but we feel that it's important so one of the things that we're doing above and beyond is the daily update which means it's real time monday through friday cases are moving based on the individual scenarios behind there and two that that additional notification we do is above and beyond what was actually encouraged to do because one of the things that's important is again we've talked about hipaa and for you know hipaa ferpa ada violations if a parent were to call what the nurse could not tell you would be who the person was what was their symptoms that that would be personal information but again um if there is question and concern about that we should we please reach out and again going to those when we're not putting it on the board it's still being tracked because it would not impact our percentage of positivity in alignment with the direction we've been given from the health department so again we are not wanting to not do it right and dr foley yes um and just going back to hipaa law we do not know the names of the students so when you email us sometimes you guys will tell us more than what we even know up here so we do not know the names of the students we do not know who's infected who's not it's kept from us as well so just going back to hipaa it's very much a separate thing we just know a number just like you guys thank you and dr foley just wanted to go real quick back to president taylor nothing's perfect we have had some failure and communication and i know that's been out there in the community there has been some failure in communication it was not on purpose it was not malicious and once it was brought to our attention it was resolved and if there continues to be you know if there's something that a teacher a parent feels they should have been communicated and weren't they need to reach out to their site administrators you were saying it's not we're not doing anything malicious we have no purpose of doing that um there there was a failure and we were able to track it down and change it and hopefully going forward that that has been fixed so um i appreciate recognizing that we've had this and that we've addressed it we fixed it um nothing's going to be perfect but hopefully um if things do happen that it's brought to our attention so that we can correct it um so we were talking about these cases so these come from the health department these numbers well or self-rep the health department confirmation they confirm that or self-reported but obviously we we even move quickly when we've seen a parent provide a positive test she may still be waiting on the confirmation but starts the notification process so that again it is as quick as possible but it is confirmed yes so only the confirmed cases go on the dashboard though we don't although we have a parent notification we start that communication process but it doesn't it'll hit every time there's a communication that every time a communication goes out the dashboard will reflect okay so this could reflect self-reported as well because she's in the process of confirming it with the state because she'll get the formal documentation that says positive case and you always have to confirm what the state but we'll start the process of the notification and hitting it the dashboard so even if the state department is a few hours delayed the letter won't stop that day which is different than when we started because initially when we started this process we were fully waiting until we got it from the county and we weren't really taking the health or the self-reported and so now we've updated and changed to where we are now doing the self reported self reported with the with the verification of a test result allows us to to trigger that quickly and so quite honestly most times these things are happening by self-reporting anyhow i mean most people are coming forward and saying i have concern what does this mean i will tell you that um jillian has worked really really hard but she has also spent a lot of time counseling parents and families and community members on so what now what and what does this mean and i'm concerned about these what about this and she's been wonderful to help with that and find additional information so dr foley um did i just read today too that the cdc now says 7 to 10 days quarantine instead of 14.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
at Brookfield just B OE okay it right now okay Ros okay Rosa we're live you can begin all right good evening everyone today is Wednesday December 2nd and I call the regular meeting of the Brookfield Board of Education to order in ordance with executive order 7B suspending sections 1- 1206 1 d225 and 1 d226 of the Connecticut General statutes the public will not be able to attend this meeting in person but will have the ability to view or listen to the meeting in real time by way of the Brookfield Board of Education YouTube channel furthermore such meeting will be recorded or transcribed and posted on the board's website within seven days of the meeting and made available as required by law all speakers taking part in the meeting are reminded that they are to clearly State their names in titles if applicable before speaking on each occasion that they speak individuals wishing to participate in the public comment portion of the meeting May do so by calling the following numbers area code 6099 or area code 301 715 8592 and the meeting ID is 943 2135 so let's stand for the plet I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay we have a full board in attendance tonight so let's start with public comment um so the number that is ending in 815 um you can go ahead and unmute and I'll just remind you to state your name and address for the record and uh you will have three minutes to speak so go ahead the floor is yours my Jackson Shar I'm presenting this with another individual so how would I uh allow them to like join or like present it with them what is it that you're presenting um today we are presenting a BHS boys volleball team uh I think you can you know if you sent the presentation to the board we can view it but is there any comment that you need to make yeah there's comment along with the presentation but well I don't think you'll be able to view it without reviewing it first um okay the public comment is just a place for uh the public to make their comments on anything that the board may have jurisdiction on okay okay um if you could maybe just could he give us a brief synopsis of what his presentation entails certainly would you like to do that yeah um our goal is to establish a boys BHS volleyball program which would include a varsity and JB team by the spring of okay um was that was that it other than your presentation that we will will certainly review that's all for now the rest of the information within the uh the Google Slides okay and could you just state your name and address just for so that we have it on the record my my name is Jackson sharp and my address is three parkw Drive bfield Connecticut great thank you very much um I'm also uh Jackson Sharp partner in this project um I could State my name and address if you'd like yes go ahead uh my name is William Fox and my address is one Dearfield Road Brookfield Connecticut okay those are the only two phone numbers that I see on the line uh is there anybody else just make sure I didn't miss anything okay um so let's move on to the student representative report oh my camera is a little blurry sorry um so hi I'm Tami chenu as the Brookfield High School student representative um so we're are continuing with online learning until January 15th but I do think the transition has gotten a lot easier and students and faculty are adapting well to it and honestly I think that me and other students I've talked to have actually started enjoying online learning more than the hybrid learning because we get to wake up a little later and by going to school it kind of feels the same as if we were at home so we would just prefer to I guess be in our beds and take class um some of my classes and teachers have been doing mood meters and have just been checking in with students before classes start just like how you're doing and what you've done over the breaks and weekends and stuff like that which was which is really nice just like as a general way to d-stress kind of um the first marking period ended on November 11th so we're already a quarter of the way through the school year which is kind of crazy um fall Sports have also ended um across the state there were about 36,000 students involved in Fall sports with 13,000 games and meets and also winter sports have been postponed I believe in until January 19th which means there'll be no practice conditioning or yeah practice or conditioning um on November 11th the class of 2021 we took a senior picture out on the football field um we were in a formation which I couldn't quite tell being inside the formation what it was but um after Logan White had a drone so we also were able to take a couple videos which was really cool and also I have seen my whole grade in one spot so that was really nice um I've also talked to Mr Blanda about some possibilities for senior activities including a possible pep rally which is probably going to be way later in by the end of the school year um either the whole school outside or even just the senior class if possible and I know last year the seniors had an Instagram account for um that just said where everyone was starting to apply and deciding to go to college so I kind of wanted to create one for our grade soon because some seniors have already started making their decisions and class of 2021 t-shirts have also gone into production um a deadline for senior applications passed on November 1st which was most Ed deadlines which was also when I applied to the University of Pennsylvania so fingers crossed um the human rights Club finalized and sent out a Google form for English classes in order to take the temperature of the school basically asking about the students experiences in the high school or if they've witnessed or been victim to discrimination of any kind and we've already been started getting responses which is really great and the BHS faculty attended a full day diversity and inclusion training with the Cooperative educational servic in Trumble on November 3rd and I know Mr bland is also working on some new school climate training for staff and students and that would be all thank you thank you Pandy any questions all right thank you all right so um let's move on to written correspondence okay Laura Orban wrote regarding Health Data Eileen cook wrote regarding the decision-mak process regarding the school learning model Elena Lopez Amy Frost Sarah coffee Sharice Payne and other concerned parents wrote regarding the school learning model Josh flowers wrote regarding the new school name the Bea executive board wrote regarding the school learning model and Heather Buckley and Chris deia wrote regarding the extended school closure thank you okay on to approval of board minutes I'll move that the board approve the minutes below the budget round table from November 4th the regular meeting from November 4th and the special joint meeting with the NBC from November 17th a second thanks Joy all in favor thank you that's the superintendent update thank you Rosa um so welcome everyone I know we have a lot of uh administrators here on the meeting I thank you for attending uh for for those who aren't typically involved uh with the board meetings it's it's greatly appreciated that you're here this evening uh on such an important evening where we present the the next year's budget and I really appreciate you being here so thank you um uh I'll be brief tonight as we have um a good number of our subcommittees to report um for which I'd like to share information on that and so that's that will take up a good chunk of time uh this evening and then certainly I'll be presenting the budget for next year so I'll keep my comments brief I do want to thank um all the folks that were involved on um developing our annual all hazards security and safety plan um I know the uh security former SEC formerly formal security task force uh had been involved with that as well and um our principles and their teams at each school as well as Lisa gramling and Dan Caldwell and all the other folks involved uh really did just a great job it's it's a 150 plus page document uh everything from where our boilers are located to fire drills uh to communication processes um and we also obviously involve the fire marshal the police chief um and emergency responders and all kinds of folks in town to keep our facilities and our our faculty staff and our students safe and so I really thank everyone for that it's also a very valuable document in that the state of Connecticut the Grants Department um at actually personally gave us a call to make sure that that was handed in on time because that's involved with one of the the the check offs for the reimbursement grant for the new school project which we know is over $16 million so these are very important documents to complete complete well uh to ensure the functionality of our school system but also in compliance and uh making sure that we receive the funds due to us so I want to thank everyone involved with that it was a big undertaking this fall and uh we just submitted that to the state earlier this week um the next one I'll be very brief on because it's going to be a whisk Ander Spotlight at the next board meeting um but I had the pleasure of being in uh Mr Figaroa and Miss show show shots um arts for Connecticut um resident in artist program that's been going on over the last few weeks with the seventh grades this happened to be with the seventh grade students and it was just absolutely amazing um I didn't get to see their artwork but I got to hear the kids and and the teachers and the Poetry they produced um it was absolutely amazing so I really want to give a shout out to the the seventh grade classes and to Mr Renda Dr Ruby and the teams for for bringing in the program and um it really was amazing and I cannot wait for the board and the public to see the spotlight in a couple of weeks at our December 16th meeting so um just so impressed and so proud so I want to just let everybody know that and then finally I'll just be brief um it's no secret everybody saw the letter today um working with Dr Sullivan and with Dr D us we had to make the very difficult decision to move to to continue with remote learning for the next few weeks uh into the winter uh recess and then uh for the 14-day period after the winter recess um because of covid uh cases positive cases outbreaks and staffing issues that come along with the quarantine protocols um so um we don't take that decision lightly um as everyone knows uh I actually put in writing that I was thrilled earlier in November when we were thinking we're going to get the kids in 100% and uh like all of us on this this meeting we want our kids in 100% not even just in the hybrid fashion um but we have to think about safety in the health of our kids and we have to think about safety in the health of staff and also that we could effectively efficiently and adequately uh supervise students and instruct students when they are in the building so um we've shared the information on that I don't know if anybody has any questions uh regarding the decision-making process or anything about moving to remote learning but those were uh the three items I wanted to discuss in my superintendent report and I wanted to end with the co update um just to make sure I can answer any questions of the board and that's all I have Rosa thank you John I I I just wanted to make one comment about that um as far as I know we're the first district in our area to have made that decision to stay remote till the end of till the middle of January and um I just wanted to thank you for your leadership and your decision making you know sometimes it's easy to make that decision when everybody else is making the same decision but um to step out in front and make that decision now and give parents you know time to plan I think was really the right thing to do so thank you for that thank you Deb and uh I'd be remiss if I didn't thank um this team that's on the call and this board uh the team put a lot of thought into the decision-making process and what we could do going forward during the during the early part of this week and um uh two of our neighboring districts we're not the only one in the state that had to make this longer term decision um but certainly in our area um if you don't you take Danberry out of the mix they've had difficulty since the beginning of of the school year um but two of the other towns are moving from our area are moving into this direction as well I believe they've announced this evening uh as well so um as we know the the the health metrics are are quite High and the staffing issues are significant um but thank you very much for those comments yeah thank you Debbie that it was very well said and I couldn't agree more um any other questions okay uh let's move on to committee reports up first is facilities can you hear me okay because my internet's been spotty okay all right so we reviewed the school do reports uh one important thing to mention is that there have been an abundant amount of HVAC work orders um many complaints from staff members about temperature in the classrooms but it's important for all the board members to know that we have some very archaic equipment especially with our unit ventilators so maintenance is constant and replac equipment is a priority custodial Staffing update although it's updated just of as of tonight but Green Life custodial is still working with us we've have made some progress on filling positions and transfers at the high school uh we filled the position but now we need a night position at the middle school night position has been filled internally however we need another night position filled at Huckleberry two need to be filled although we um heard tonight that those positions have been filled so there will be updates at our next meeting regarding that for at WS the water testing uh we receive the Water Analysis we want to be very transparent but know that this is not an emergency if it were health risk the water would be shut off the Middle School exceeded the acceptable lead level two out of 11 samp showed this the state will be supplying us with an administrative order and they will direct us to what we have to do but we have until June 2021 to remedy or take corrective action we'll be doing two rounds of follow-up tests and we'll submit it to the state and wait for review emails will be sent to parents to make them aware as well as all of this is posted under the facilities on our district website so in closing we will look into this further we are not going to jump into any water treatment system our focus is to identify the problem even if there is a problem um our miscellaneous discussion Dr BR updated the committee on the status of the boys locker room project and we discussed the mice situation at the high school we have increased our Pest Control they come out weekly we have set more traps we are sealing up openings and we have increased the frequency of our monitoring our largest occurrences of droppings and sightings have occurred in the home and career rooms and our life skill rooms and we're also addressing uh food in the classrooms so if anybody has any questions that's it thank you anyone have any questions for Joy all right thank you uh now we have the new school naming committee H everyone so last week sorry two week AG uh we had our meeting uh on Tuesday uh we had a really really great presentation by put together by Deb Deb should get a uh definitely special mention for that little PowerPoint you gave a nice history on the school or sorry on the schools and on the town of Brookfield uh which I think everyone uh at the committee learned something new including myself uh at that meeting we also discussed uh the architecture sorry if you hear my kids scream in the background they're they're uncontrollable animals uh we we discussed the architecture of the new school building being that it has a lot of resemblance to uh maybe the still River Point out by Mr Josh Fields sorry Josh flowers and uh that was it was productive it wasn't really any we we were were considering in the past and then we all discussed uh what we're going forward uh we brainstormed a few names we put a Google sheet together by Brenda uh which will be done by the end of the week after a short little assembly again referencing Deb's great presentation of the history of Brookfield and the history of the town so our next board meeting we should have three to five names uh open for public debate we're going to uh discuss maybe another Google sheet with those three to five names and get public input on those names so Mike Ju Just to to share a little bit more with the people on the call the the Google sheet is to collect ideas from all the students in all the classrooms in Center School and Huckleberry and then the teachers will funnel that to the principles and the principles will provide uh three to five recommendations to our committee at our next meeting and when is your next meeting again I think it's December 8th Tuesday yeah 8th Tuesday the 8th yep and um has there been any way other than you know in during these meetings to reach out to a more broader general public I know at some point we'll probably have to do that at the board level um but I was just curious if um you know there was any anyway other than the representatives on the committee that the Public's been involved well the public was involved in meetings before with the NBC uh Colette stro brought a list of names that the uh that public has um put together it was a it was a short list they're mostly sent around Candlewood in some way um but there yeah there was a already a kind of a short public form at the NBC meetings that was collected okay uh one thing I haven't actually heard of um what is the makeup of the committee in terms of you know how many parents how many you know which administrators yes so we have two PTO representes one from Huckleberry one from whiner we have uh two principles whis I'm sorry not whis Center yes uh so Huckleberry and Center school PTO presidents uh Brenda and Jen Peralta we have Mary Rose diamond and Melissa liscano from uh principles so that's our administrative pool we have our uh committee me not committee our community members Colette Strom and Eve uh which is a nice benefit because they were you know a big part of making the school project happen in uh as former board members and now as community members uh we have two teachers we have Kate ZaZa and we have Kim Rachel Kim yes Katie and Kim I knew we begin with a k um as our as our teacher represent and one's from Center School one's from Huckleberry and I feel like I'm missing well Deb and I and I feel like I'm missing somebody I think that's everyone no that's it yeah that's that is everybody all right that's that's a pretty good pretty good the the board policy had a set guidelines on how on how the committee should be made up and we pulled from each one of those categories but we doubled it because it was this involved uh Huckleberry and cental school so we got representes from those schools on the committee yeah that's important I and I think I I probably should have make this pretty clear the goal of the of the committee is to uh really represent the student interest and really make this a a student run and driven process uh within the school well with within the two schools to name as they come together good and just to uh remind the public of the board does have a policy on naming uh school facilities and um if anybody's listening and wants to you know either write the board or write the committee um you know one of the the names um one of the stipulations for the name has to be that the school facility is named for the location in town in which it's located so it has to have some sort of geographical reference to where it's located um and so and obviously has to have significance to the students so um yeah we're looking forward to um to hearing those names and you think you'll have those prepared at our next meeting right yes well three we have three to five uh one thing to add on that is also we can't use a name that's already been used even if it's on another building even if it's in a neighboring District right right like yeah we can't yeah okay we can't have Great Plain Elementary right okay um one more thing that we Mike and I have been tossing around this week um maybe as a way of getting additional public involvement is the possibility of reviewing the list of names that the kids come up with and then possibly doing a you know like a Survey Monkey kind of thing out to the community for the community to vote on their choices from what the students recommend so it would still be student driven but um members of the community could possibly you know could weigh in and cast their vote for which one is their favorite so we're we're talking about that possibility okay all right so um we've got a lot to accomplish in the next couple meetings because we definitely want to have a name for this building before groundbreaking so so all right so we look forward to uh your next update at our next meeting any other questions for Mike all right thank you h on to finance um okay so we had a very uh brief up State tonight uh we did a couple of things at this month's finance committee meeting uh one we reviewed the financials um they're not dramatically different from before but we had a little bit of additional spending in the special ed area um not for outplacement which we've all been tracking but for in school uh support uh we talked about that for quite a while actually um and then but overall our current Outlook is is that we would overspend our budget by about $200,000 of which $250,000 is the spending on covid related items so we've actually underrun on other parts of the budget so that's an area that's we we actually reviewed that with the board of Finance they stand by their commitment to cover the covid costs so we're in actually pretty good shape All Things Considered and had a very positive reception from the board of Finance when we met them um the uh second thing we reviewed was the formats for the budget and uh if you remember last year there was a lot of noise about uh budget formats and uh um Mr post and the town controller uh Marsha Marian have spent had spent a lot of time coming up with a set of formats that would work for the uh for the town to be able to absorb our budget proposal as well as fit into how we're doing things and there was consensus from our Board of Finance member and from Mrs Marian that the formats are exactly what um is needed so it was a very positive energy meeting and we as a committee had a chance to flip through them and we had a couple of small suggestions but nothing significant um so that's what uh Ken is putting into the details of the budget books and the budget process uh which hopefully will mean our process with the board of finance will go much more smoothly this year than it has La did than it did last year which was the goal of that and other than that um it was a relatively uneventful meeting okay any questions for Bob all right thank you up next is policy okay uh policy committee policy and Communications committee met on Wednesday November 18th and um not surprisingly we are still dealing with um covid and pandemic related policies we went over about seven policies that are either new or uh need to be updated and um you'll be seeing those at our next meeting all of them are policies that are related to or somehow connected with the face mask policy that we recently approved um they're all related to viruses and pandemics and communicable diseases so it was a fascinating meeting but um you know has to be done so in our next meeting you'll be getting quite a few to review um we also John also talked to us about uh the possibility of um having cab hiring cab to um update all of our policies or assist in the updating of all our policies so um we were interested in finding out more about that and John will be um contacting the representative from cab to see if he can come to our next uh committee meeting and tell us more about that um so we can understand the cost implications and exactly what they provide um and then other than that in terms of communications we just talked about um John's ongoing covid Communications I I forget what letter we're up to now update o or p r r um and also the new John to talked to us about the new covid dashboard that um was unveiled shortly after our meeting that keeps track of how many students and staff in each of the schools are um infected or under quarantine so that's about it and and Deb I'd like to just uh thank our entire nursing team uh and Miss laforgia as well our nursing coordinator for for making the uh the dashboard happen tracking everything so accurately and then updating that toward the end of each week when the state department updates their numbers and uh and together put you know making sure everything's driving so thanks to the nursing team for that thank you D yes thank you that's it for policy all right thanks up next is K okay so um we've been sort of continuing our work this year to receive some curricul ulum updates from different parts of the organization to help us better understand sort of where they are and their needs and how things have developed so uh to that end we had a presentation by kemin Holly who's our uh K to2 curriculum specialist for World Language and Esau and really um learned a lot of detailed information about our esol program for those listening that's um you know our English language Learners program um and uh just some of the highlevel summary is we have a approximately a hundred students that are English language Learners um in the district and the highest uh concentration of those students are at um Huckleberry Hill School um and those almost 100 students are serviced by one uh full-time teacher um with the assistance of two um tutors um so there's a a lot of great work being done on behalf of the students but it's with a very very uh barebones staff so that's something to think about um when we um talk about some you know budget uh implications um and our needs instructionally to support all of our Learners um something to think about um even with that barebone sta we've had impressive results in their um last links achievement results that's sort of like an uh you know tests that the students will take to demonstrate their proficiency uh or their improvements in the English language so the students have done quite well uh and that's something we're really proud of um but again it's just um we want really want to be mindful of are we kind of putting our budget and our support um in places that the students um you know all of our students really need uh in Brookfield um we also had a presentation U by Mark Banda the principal of the high school about a program called Ingenuity uh which is a online type of a program um that can be used for credit recovery you know when a student hasn't passed a course um maybe enrichment or even test prep um so that's something that uh Mark has uh looked into um and he is we gave him um the go-ahead to um I think I'm remembering it's it was like a pilot type thing where he's going to take a look and investigate that um and then lastly um Deb FAS uh our curriculum one of our curriculum leaders um talk to us about The Curriculum maps that they've been working on for quite a few years um and she took us through Rubicon Atlas which is the uh program we use to um house our curriculum um and that's going to be uh available on the website um so if parents um other interested folks are interested in sort of digging in and looking at our uh curriculum they can see the fruits of all of that uh labor and all the resources that we have uh devoted to uh or of our curriculum work I think that's I think that covers it um Joy Mike if I missed anything please jump in that The Curriculum maps are are available now online the uh morina they're going to send something out to the parents notifying them there is is a letter that's online and I we haven't sent anything home to parents at this point because we figured they're getting so much email right now about um everything else we're gonna wait until uh and and John is really careful about not bombarding people with too many emails so we're going to wait for a lull to send it out I don't think people are going to be running to look at it but I just wanted you to know that it was there but we have cover letter Moren if they parents wanted to find it where should they look on the website um it's on um if you go to the administration page and you go to uh assistant superintendent it's um on the left hand side of the page under I think it says Curriculum maps oh that would make sense Eric is gonna show us okay there we go it's it's about here it's about halfway down um it will be moved up to the top um so we do want to make it one of the first things that you see when you get to the page um the the web page is having an issue with me moving it but um eventually you would go to uh District administration main page of the assistant superintendent and it will be the first link at the top here okay thank you Eric and uh that's my report Rosa great any questions for Jen right thank you uh up next is equity and inclusion okay um Dr Burell Dr Ruby Jen Le and I had two meetings last month on the 16th and the 30th we reviewed the committee's purpose and goals following up from our board retreat on October 22nd we align the committee Vision with the board's Equity statement and Dr burill and Dr Ruby prioritize the committee objectives in alignment with District plans we've categorized the objectives into four categories which are each under a different purview there's the committee there's curriculum professional development and policy and we also completed the quite difficult task of selecting the committee members Dr Ruby and Dr burill initiated a rubric design that Jen and I agreed on and we use that the criteria from that to select we had over 30 quality applicants who submitted really thoughtful essays which I wish we could have included everyone but ultimately we ended up choosing a core Committee of 16 in addition to us right now it's comprised of four students four staff members and eight community members and to the applicants who weren't chosen we asked if they would like us to keep their applications on file as we anticipate forming subcommittees down the line and maybe reaching out beyond the core membership and we finalize by setting the committee's regular meeting time is the second Thursday of the month at 4:30 p.m.
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secretary for tonight made by kathy thank you bye jill okay sorry cara [Laughter] i'm happy too thank you so this one i think you can do by a voice vote suppose voice i have the votes uh kate sure joseph britton aye rachel chaleski aye kate caneva aye gladys cooper yes uh lauren hi joe da silva aye cathy molinero hi sorry catherine hodgdon hi hi uh rich gianelli hi kathy molinaro hi uh al russo ah amy spolino hi i think i got everybody there thank you carol thank you for your assistance tonight you are voting 100 okay at this point uh do we want sander to go through the rules um so sandy would walk us through seizures so just for those of you that haven't done this before i think everybody has but just to recap um we're voting on three offices tonight they can um the slate of candidates for chairperson vice chairperson and secretary um and so um as i started to mention earlier because the bylaws require a written individually identifiable vote sandy is going to walk through how we intend to navigate that world virtually and the one thing i'll say which i know she'll say as she gives her um walking through the instructions is only board members can vote so dr sal only board members can vote otherwise you're going to screw this all up when we get all these people voting who do you work okay sandy take it away okay do are there nominations yep so yeah actually first we should do the nominations and then you can walk through the voting uh at this point um i will ask a nomination from the floor for the office or chairperson i'd like to make a nomination mr richard ginelli i'd like to nominate miss gladys cooper for chairperson second this is kate house stuck in that this is el russo is there any other nominations yes this is al russo i would like to place the name of amy spolino for the position of chairperson i would like to second that katherine hodgson for amy motion so careful um so now uh we're going to vote andy okay okay so what i'm going to do everybody is give me one sec okay if you excuse the misspelling but if you check your chat at this time you will see a link to a google form to vote for the chairperson please click on that link at this time only board members only board members please i'll make sure once you are in that link you will see the annual board meeting chairperson please enter your email address you will then scroll down and select either miss cooper or mrs bellino and then you will scroll down a bit more and hit submit so the email has to be the school email yes oh okay so i never i need to put it in so what is it i just think of that too yeah so it's it's your last it's your last name starting with so it's the first four initials of your last the first four letters of your last name so so so you so m-o-l-i-n and then k okay and then it's always at danbury.k12.ct k12 k12 oh oh oh oh oh dot k12 yep dot ct i just put it in the chat if you want to just copy it from there oh yeah that's a good idea gene no that's we're all i'm getting it too yeah okay ct that's it dot u s dot u s o just the first four letters sandy sandy did i do did you receive mine okay uh so it's actually your first five letters of your last name with five not four yeah but don't worry about it guys because i i could tell by how you're submitting it sorry and it's okay the answers are coming in i have um did you get mine sandy because i did not put dot u.s i did yes okay uh i believe i have everybody give me one second oh good okay hold on i'm impressed you guys go so we really didn't have to do the whole email either as long as it took it with your first name last name okay or even though correct let me tally this up please do um do you want to do like we've done in the past where i say one for so and so one for no i think just a total okay so one two three four five six we have six for miss cooper uh three four five and five for miss bellino okay okay so that was chairperson i am getting out of that and now um and now at this uh i think everybody else needs to do the nomination right thank you [Music] please exit out of that google form i apologize when you already submitted i've gotten everybody everybody's votes so exit out of that google form you should be able to come back to the meeting i see everybody still can you see us no yeah no no okay there okay here i am did you get back in there's an accident i didn't see the x on the forum i just okay that's okay so the meeting i d you're still here everybody's still in the meeting we are okay do we have to come out every time we nominate you probably just can't see um if you cro close every other tab that you have except the zoom meeting and you'll see us all again so amy you're probably looking at just a screen with other things on it i mean zoom at the top right you want to get back into zoom and you can see your screen because we can still see you in the meeting wasn't it okay because i have joined a meeting in front of me i'll just join but no click no click at the bottom of your screen you should have a good zoom icon oh you're right yeah little blue one thank you i'm your girl sorry you guys yeah that's okay that's okay here we go here i am we have google genius status when everyone gets a little badge all right are we all back up is everybody back on looks like we are yes okay okay excellent so oh yes go ahead cooper so now i will ask uh for a nomination for the office of uh vice chair i need a motion i would like to nominate kate canetta for the position of vice chair i second it made by joe seconded by kathy are there any other nomination yes this is amy spelino i would not like to nominate catherine hodgkin for vice chair i'll second this is rachel by amy seconded by rachel seconded by rachel okay okay okay now we will vote okay okay back to the google phone so at this time i have put in the chat the uh google form for the vice chair so please click on that google chat board members only and we are going to do the same thing you are going to enter your email mine says chairperson right go to the other link go down further okay there's a second link well let me go back you want to scroll down uh i titled it to vice chair in the chat it's the word just popped up it's a little delayed all right there's we are learning all right i see it now this is awesome this is great this is better than shrimp gosh well they're shrimping in this cafeteria shrimp all right same procedure as we did chair you're going to enter your email you will scroll down and select either mrs conetto or miss hodgkin and then you will scroll down again and hit submit and when you are done submitting you want to exit out of just your google form and then come back into the meeting well done man yeah mine's not changing from person look at the other link in the chat there's a second link in the chat that says vice chair i can't even get out of this i can't even get out of the thing where it says let me submit this again can always remind me of your parents asking how you work the vcr i had to ask my kids how to work that i don't know what it was we couldn't figure out how to make the tv turn on andy did you get my response uh yes i did i believe we have just one missing mr russo how are you doing on yours uh not mr russo i got yours mr ginelli how are you doing on yours i know you just said you you had an issue no worry this is awesome yeah sandy thank you so much you've done a wonderful job explaining everything thanks everyone our kids use that two three times a week okay we are in and i have one one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven that's hopefully all you're getting and uh that will be rod fraud no not joe biden [Laughter] it's everywhere it's everywhere [Music] so that will be uh six votes for miss canada and five for miss hodgkin okay let's get back to i need a motion madam chair if i may i'm sorry okay i need a motion uh from the floor for the office of secretary madam chair i rise to make a motion i nominate kathy molinaro to be secretary motion made by joe de silva did i hear a second i'll second it richard gennelly uh janelle seconded are there any other nominations this is lauren and i nominate rachel chaleski and i will second it this is amy spolino amy second you got to give me some more fingers okay okay now you want to go to the procedure again yep so at this time you will go back into your chat you might have to scroll a little bit you want to see the link uh you'll see secretary and then link you will want to click on that link and once again it's going to be the same procedure you will put in your email you will select either miss molinero or mrs celesti and then you will scroll down and hit submit does it take a while for it to come out or what it might take a second on your chat i think there's a little delay oh i see it now yeah the hamsters are running as fast as they can in there it's okay mr janely give it a minute it'll it'll pop up on there for you i just put it in again just okay so push it okay sure it might be everybody's internet connection too right it's awesome how fast it's popping up in our individual chats yeah all right my brain hurts after all these discussions you forget who you're voting for [Laughter] oh god this is funny okay at this time i everybody has submitted their votes and that is six votes for miss molinaro and five for miss celesti thank you okay so those votes will be retained in written form sandy's got the sheets there that summarize it for the purposes of foia and um that's the end of the voting process or is this firm how do you hear what you're saying i hear you say you want a recount [Laughter] who's paying for that all right i personally would like to thank kim sandy and kara um because um you know this is something new to us oh and to have done this tonight and it was very very exciting and learned how to to do it and saying it was a good walk through and karen was a good walker so i really appreciate this because it's something new that i learned tonight and hopefully this will not be the last time we'll be doing this i would like to thank everyone i would like to uh all the names that were submitted again uh we have a lot to do as uh board members i look forward to continue working with everyone and we'll continue working together and uh i just hope we continue to express our um concern or interest about certain things and uh just do what we need to do for all the children and our staff here in danbury school system again i thank you i hope everyone have a safe and wonderful holiday but we have a special workshop on the 9th and those that are planning to attend uh please attend you don't have to stay the whole workshop but uh thank you for all the time that we put in this summer trying to keep families and students informed as to what was going on in the district uh again i look forward to working with everyone again thank you so very much congratulations gladys thank you [Music] could we not forget our obligation to kathy okay that we need to take care of as individual board members uh she's not sending us an iou we just take care of it and do the right thing thank you okay i'll make a motion to adjourn second promotion made by joe seconded by kate to adjourn to me thank you all and i'll see you soon tomorrow and i'll see some of you on the night thank you everybody congratulations good night thank you congratulations thank you thank you see andy thank you so much
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[Music] for for good evening everyone it is 5:30 on our DOT how's everyone doing tonight all right all right so so that we're respectful of everyone's time we're going to get started um boss is there someone can we do the introduction for the translator for those that may need it sure um oh Miss V you're here are you our translator for tonight well you know what let me you'll do a much better job than I so why don't you go ahead and uh and announce that and and make that available she is already in oh she's already in the room okay um okay [Music] thank you okay so first welcome everyone tonight this is our second meeting meeting um I hope you all did receive the email with the PowerPoint presentation so that way you can follow along with us so I will get started so here um our objective tonight um this evening is to revisit the why behind the um reorganization and for everyone to gain an understanding of the model at this time we do not want to get stuck on the who what when or why um that will take place at a later meeting but right now we want everyone to gain an understanding of the model how the model was implemented um the possible Pro um programmatic drawbacks and benefits the support staff for the proposed model and any potential budgetary impacts for the model we will commit a later session at a later time so that we can have input on pros and cons opinions objectives and maybe another model implementation that someone wants to throw out but right now we're going to focus on our objective today and understanding model one so here let's just start back with the why behind the reorganization as we discussed in our first meeting during the 023 school year we only had 20% of our facilities unoccupied districtwide fast forward to today in our current school year we have over 50% of our facilities unoccupied districtwide and that Trend continues over the next four subsequent years so here as we shared in our last meeting this is all of our elementary schools going across the top down to the right it gives you their projected enrollment for each year as well as the current open seats as well as the percentage of current open seats based off the current projection of enrollment this is actually the same thing for our Middle School having Center Foothill and slaon same thing capacity projected enrollment number of open seats and the percentage of open seats same thing following suit with our two High School Gladstone and isua high school capacity projection number of open seats and percentage of open seats now we as we continue this journey and move forward and looking in depth of model one we want to remember our goal we want to focus on gting the understanding of the model at this time we don't want to get focused on the who the what the why again we're going to address that at a later meeting right now we want to focus on understanding the model how the model is going to be implemented over the next five years the possible um programmatic drawbacks and benefits the support staff that will be implemented to support the new model the project the model and any potential budgetary impacts listed that are tied to this model now we are going to unveil model one the all Lev model so under the alll model we would have one traditional Elementary tk5 one traditional Middle School 6 through eight four tk8 and two traditional high schools here is a graph or a chart that shows you how we would implement the plan so under this model we would have six schools that would eventually close so under the um for I'm sorry for the 2122 school year there will be no new enrollment to those schools that will be listed to be closed so that'll be school 1 2 3 4 5 and six so for the 22 2122 school year they will have grades 1 through six going moving forward to the 22 to 23 school year TK and grades two will transition to one of the new schools under the model proposed model and grades 3 through six will remain at the current homeschool and this will continue in that trajectory until we um fast forward to physical year 2526 where we will have fifth grade will be the last grade the transition to the new schools and the home school will maintain the sixth grade class so they can graduate from their home school if that's their preference then looking at it in the same way of how the new schools will be implemented um during the 2122 school year school one would have TK 6 School two will have seven and eight school three TK through 8 school 4 TK through 7 School five TK um TK Kinder plus 7th and eth school 6 TK Kinder plus 78 you go to the 222 school year this is when the first transition of TK and 2 would start going to the new schools so school one would have tk6 school 2 would have 78 school three we have tk8 school 4 tk8 School 5 tk2 7th and e8th school six the exact same thing and what's interesting about school two School two has a seventh and eighth because that would be the traditional Middle School going to um school year 23 24 you would have tk6 School 2 again 78 tk8 tk8 now you'll have tk3 and grade 7 and8 for the remaining fifth and sixth school going to school year 2425 the exact same format where you'll have the TK 6 7th 8th tk8 tk8 but now you will have TK4 um and grade seven and8 at school five and six and then in the 25 26 school year will be the last year of the five your implementation plan you'll have tk6 7 8th 7 tk8 tk8 now tk5 7 and8 if the enrollment supports so let's just say a a family says you know what I just want to jump and I want to go right into it in the 2222 school year and I don't want to wait until the third graders are moving to the new school if the enrollment would support the class size based off our current class size and um we can support it with the teacher that option will be on the table so here this is giving us an overall look if we were saying okay what would our grades tk8 look like for zza Unified School District under model one we would have one Traditional tk5 School we would have one traditional Middle School grades 6 through 8 and we would have four tk8 schools Tasha yes can you go back two slides two one right here uh no the next one sorry uh just to point out um right now this is a fiveyear plan right so what you don't see is 2627 so if you toggle really quick to the next slide and then we're going to come right back to this one when you look look at this slide right here you say to yourself wait a minute there's a tk5 and there's a 68 when I go back up you see that there is no tk5 and no 68 that's because this Five-Year Plan doesn't get us to the sixth year if we were to continue this in 2627 new school one that's when it becomes a tk5 new school 2 that's when it becomes a six eight and then school three and School 4 that's when they become legitimate full-blown tk8 so because it's a 5-year plan that's why you see that so you kind of have to stretch your imagination to that six column to actually see the grand finale if you will yes and just to um reiterate the reason why um we did over five years is so that way the students that are currently at those home schools there will be no immediate impact they can choose to say hey I'm at my school I want to graduate from there if their school is currently a tk6 they would have that option all right and so now we are going to turn it over to Dr Mitchell hello everyone so um we are going to take a look at uh this model and what programs might look like at each of the schools within this model so when you take a look at it you can see all of the six schools and some programmatic elements uh one of the things would be um special education there would be uh we would continue to offer a Continuum of special education services throughout the sites we would continue to offer preschool at all of our tk5 tk8 sites uh not at the 68 um the uh we are we host the a visually impaired program for our selpa and so that program would be at the um T at a tk8 site School six and then also in terms of dual immersion um currently we have uh two schools that uh have a dual immersion program we would continue to have that one would be at the tk5 and one would be at the tk8 then additionally beyond the core curricular program there are other programs to consider as well um one of the um one of the um possible options here would be at the 68 Middle School uh they would offer they would continue to offer uh what's what's usually referred to as a year-long um traditional elective course and typically these are um they're vapa Visual and Performing Art stem art media arts um we have Spanish Avid and so they would uh this school would continue to offer these year-long elective courses these elective courses for the middle school is dependent upon student enrollment as well as interest as well uh taking a look at what would electives look like in a TK 5 and the tk8 model so uh in this proposed model although they don't typically have these traditional bip period uh elective uh classes this model proposes that all students would have an opportunity to participate in elective type activities um including Visual and Performing Arts so band and Vo um in addition students would have an opportunity to participate in stem activities which could include coding um robotics maker space and so in this uh in this model um students could have an opportunity to participate in kind of a wheel where they'd have an opportunity to try all the different um you know elective activities another option to that in this proposed model might be that a school has perhaps has kind of what they call a magnet which is a specialty Focus for example like art or stem so that's what that would look like for a tk5 um and tk8 in terms of elective um activities or offerings um our students uh in all uh all of these different offerings in this model still have an opportunity to participate in uh Parks and Recreation through our city they have lots of different um activities after school um so students could participate in that um in terms of after school sports uh in the 68 and the tk8 uh is an opportunity for students to participate in Afterschool Sports uh think together would still be offered at all of our sites uh before care school in all of our sites except for the Middle School um and then the last one would be um P mediation and this is something that we have uh we started last year um peer mediation restorative practices um is something that we will be um engaged in a partnership with um the Western Justice Center um and that's going to be for all of our sites so we would continue to do that as well so with any model there's always going to be potential programmatic drawbacks and um uh programmatic um um you know potentials right and so let's talk a little bit about um some of the possible potential programmatic drawbacks with this particular model this particular model does not address declining enrollment at high schools and so when we have declining enrollment at the high schools that could uh that could um you know be a result in the loss or reduction of electives or programs you don't have as many teachers and there might be fewer opportunities for um for sports or activities or or clubs right due to that declining enrollment also um smaller sixth through eth grade student cohorts at the tk8 model uh these are uh self-contained classes uh so typically you have uh one teacher who a multiple subject teacher who is teaching uh that particular class which is a grade level and again that particular mod model with the tk8 does not have the traditional um electives like a 68 does and uh this uh a potential programmatic drawback could be smaller staff teams Elementary uh uh the elementary model does require uh fewer PE minutes uh self-contained 8th grade students would transition directly to high school another potential uh programmatic drawback is Clos cling sites that could may have already had some modernization and then um the last thing to think about too might be that with the different models there could be some possible confusion on the student enrollment process and because there are different options where do people go how do you you know how do you register um so those could be some potential programmatic drawbacks now there are some potential programmatic benefits one would be parent choice you have the traditional Elementary the tk8 a traditional 68 Middle School when another one is when you have larger elementary schools that could mean fewer combination classes another one is in a tk8 school uh the students are there for all of those grade levels and then change schools at high school and so you have less uh you have consistency in a learning location so you don't have students essentially move um two more times when they get to when they get to high school or change schools a larger enrollment at a 68 school does create more opportunity for additional elective options and programs for students increasing student population at a school site does increase collaboration for uh programs for teachers for staff for professional learning communities um for um parent learning networks parent groups um so that's a that could be a potential programmatic benefit as well um another one would be an opportunity for this idea of this elective wheel at a tk6 or a tk8 um where students get an opportunity to try different things uh and maybe rotate through or again it could be that magnet specialty Focus like arts for example another programmatic benefit class sizes would remain the same um and then another one might be the fact that this is a fiveyear gradual transition hello everyone I um hope everyone's doing well I am going to talk about the um piece that um the committee wanted to um go deeper into their um have analysis of the different models that involve support St um as we talk about support staff um in the next slides it's important to understand that these uh projections describe uh reductions and or eliminations of positions these are not easy decisions to arrive at and we take them with all great seriousness uh we understand that some of these decisions cannot be made unilaterally um and will require negotiations um the side before you aims to establish a staffing formula for support staff to create an equitable floor and I will be referring to this um throughout the next couple of slides uh one of the positions that you see um and we'll discuss as well is a new position on position of social welfare s SW professional that uh we believe that in these days and times is very very needed um so um that's something that we could we could um uh you'll be seeing in in the next couple slides um you so we're we're trying to establish a floor so um when it comes to sites as we move into this new model sites with seventh and eighth grade students um they will all have at least 0 five of a um of a um assistant principal that 0 five means that U that uh T that uh principle will be uh shared at a separate site so that's what that uh 05 means um and then um if at the point of the increase uh enrollment the site um experiences an increase in enrollment that exceeds 750 students um then that will grow to one full-time assistant principal I want to make sure that we have a shared understanding of what that enrollment date actually um is that we're looking at that that enrollment date is will be the uh CED enrollment date that is a uh defined day in the calendar that's actually the first Wednesday of October where the uh we establish the enrollment for that school um and that is what we will be using for the subsequent year to determine if we are exceeding the these numbers to uh require additional Staffing uh moving on to counselors um every site with the seventh and eighth grade uh will have at least a05 counselor um and again if the enrollment on ced's date exceeds 750 that number will go that will go up to a full-time counselor and like I stated earlier um the social work position which is new um similarly every uh seventh and eighth grade site will have at least a a 05 social worker um and if the enrollment increases to 750 students or more on cge day of the year before that will go to a full-time social worker uh Community lay Aon is another uh support staff position we looked at um the the schools that we will be talking about in the next couple slides have to do with tk8 uh configurations um and so the uh at a base all the sites will have at least a 4-Hour Community delay on position and similarly if the enrollment on ceds date the year before uh exceed 750 then they will increase to uh by two hours to a sixh hour uh Community delay on I want to make sure that that's that's clear um and then for Library AIDS the floor will be all sites in the tk8 configuration will have a 4our library Aid um and then that that will increase to six hours um if the enrollment exceeds 750 uh for uh School clerk the base will be all Sites will have an8 hour position um and if the enrollment increases they um may have an additional person not to exceed 4 hours so that the site does not exceed more than 1.5 of this support service um Tasha so you'll see in this first uh uh year of implementation the 2122 uh it will be a status quo um that as it applies to support staff meaning that there will not be any um increases or reductions even as we start in the first year of the implementation um this is um this so for I I I know that we um have seventh and eighth grade positions I'm sorry sth and eighth grade middle schools with a full-time counselor position that would be that would remain the status quo in this year Natasha yes and the One budgetary impact that we realized is that for schools five and six if they currently do not have a Kinder class we would have to monitorize to make sure they have the proper restrooms and classrooms set up to um support a kindergarten classroom including the playground thank you um so I'm G I'm going to be talking about the top half of the um table that you see here with the schools one two um uh four five three and six um you those are going to be the schools that I'll refer to as were as they will be phasing out um you will not see any changes in and Staffing uh for this um school year however if you look below um the new schools that are are listed below will have um a a change in um and Staffing um in alignment with uh the Staffing formula that I shared earlier uh wherein um there will be a uh reduction of a 05 counselor at the school two at school five and at school six um and the 0.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
so tomorrow jillian has a meeting they at the arizona department of health is having a meeting with all of the local nurses to talk about so what does this mean so yes the cdc just announced that they're looking at shortening the more that they learn about covid and how it is transmitted and how it spreads they're looking at the fact that again that quarantine could probably be a shorter period and so they're looking at making recommendations instead of a 14 day to a 7 to 10 day so or 7 to 9 or 7 to 10 days so that guidance is coming so she has a meeting tomorrow with the health department which of course i think one of the other things is when we started this year we started our presentations to you with caution tape under construction one of the things we're finding is that we are operating with the guidance and directions we're given and then as direction and guidance evolves or changes or as we learn more we morph with the most recent guidance so obviously as that is formalized and they're going to have their meeting tomorrow it may impact when a health department puts you under quarantine the amount of days you have to be out and again one of the things we'll say is that health department or executive order trump a district plan so we've had parents reach out when when there has been a primary exposure and they have been directed to quarantine and the parent says but i just got the my student just had a negative test here the um unfortunately the order from the health department requires so many days because they view they view that that test is too soon to to demonstrate or to show truly that you have not been exposed and potentially could be harboring the virus so again the guidance here is looking at at narrowing down that window instead of a 14 day but again that's being formalized and guidance will come and as soon as we get that direction we'll communicate that out to our health offices who bless their hearts today we're already emailing and texting jillian so what does that mean she's like wait till our meeting tomorrow we'll get guidance and we'll update it so i think what's important to remember is that we will continue to update what we are doing with the guidance that we are given or directed to do please give our regards to mrs fulton and her team i know that it's countless hours and i know that we're used to male emails that might be a little harsh but she sure hasn't as a district nurse um endured the anger or the you know the upsetness of a parent and so this is new for her i'm sure so please give her our regards that we appreciate her time and energy well i appreciate your acknowledging that president kaler members of the board because they're she is a member of the team who approaches this with integrity and all she's doing to be wants to do it right with upfront and cautious careful thoughtful and and we we value and appreciate that in her um and what she does with her team so let's moving ahead um i want to talk about the proposal kind of in a nutshell and then we're going to kind of walk through the details of this but one of the things what we're wanting to do is to formalize so so if there happens to be a scenario in which and this is where having a dashboard that is updated daily is helpful is if there happens to be a scenario where you are seeing an increase in cases that are sustaining for a few days that's concerning because what that says to us all of a sudden is that there is a change here and how this is happening you've noticed on the dashboard things come on things come off and again those aren't jillian just deciding to play numbers here that is based on each and individual case based upon the exposure the window and tracking it by that campus so if a school said we're going to propose that if a school were to see um three consecutive days where the percentage of positive or active cases met or exceeded the recommended percentages which we're going to talk about here in a minute we should be concerned to be perfectly honest with you if that's happening we may have already been told by the arizona department of health got a problem shut down um or what we want to also say is or if we as a district are seeing trends that for instance if if our recommended percentages for a school said and i'll use i'm going to use the early childhood center for a second said six because that was two percent of the population if they were five five five we're not going to say you're not bad enough we have to wait until there's one more of you who has coveted before we would trigger this it would say to us if we're seeing for three consecutive days monday through wednesday or tuesday through thursday that we're seeing these numbers are rising unsustaining it says to us we need to probably take a look at that or the health department says because of these exposure this is this is a little bit different trend or or how there was there was for an ins if there was an issue where there was no mass there was primary exposure we'd need to quarantine that again could change the dynamics every case and scenario is a little different it would transition us for to a one week of remote learning because the the concern is is there are too many cases on the campus that are active that cause us to want to make sure that we that we do a mitigation strategy that would slow the spread because we have a rise in active cases next slide so our proposal would be is that if we had a site and we were looking at a side-by-side mitigation strategy if we had a school where we saw that those were trending and sustaining and heading in the wrong direction prior to or prior to a directive to shut down we would propose that the next week and this would be made on a week-to-week basis that the next week we would transition the learning model for that campus for one week to a remote learning for everyone on that campus the purpose of that would be to slow the spread and the numbers of positivity down what would happen would be again that by thursday night by five o'clock we would notify families and staff in employees that said come next week we are transitioning this school to uh remote learning that gives that doesn't give a whole lot of time but it allows you to know that because of the cases sustaining school would still happen that friday but the following week we would transition to a to a remote learning the entire school would go through some deeper significant deeper sanitization and we'll talk about what that would be in just a second and again the whole school would shift for that one week and we'll talk about why only one week in just a second but again i want to stress that this would be our mitigation plan unless the edhs said you need if if a directive comes this it trump it overrules it trumps our plan it says if an adhs comes in and says nope because of a primary exposure we're going to send you into a quarantine now those quarantined days may be fewer in the next few days than they might have been but in instead of it being a one week it could be seven days it could be ten days and it could start tomorrow depending upon the directive we would never ignore a directive from the health department or an executive order so again that's a caveat to that so next slide dr foley really quick before we go on on this slide so i just have a few questions i guess here that if they're if we're in a remote environment can you please clarify for me that that will cease any and all outside activities because you know when when we first started kind of having the discussion of a further mitigation plan one of my questions was is there a way that we can slowly start backing things off like many of our speakers have said dr kara krista said many people have said that we know that this spread is not happening within our schools the majority of it whether it's outside family activity um getting together things like that we do still have some activities going on i know it's very difficult for parents i too have a senior and i would love to have my child have a typical senior year and that's just not possible given our circumstances but i think we need to make sure we're prioritizing our classroom education and i'm going to say classroom education because there is value to additional things that we do on our campuses and and what our kids get involved in but we need to prioritize our classroom education and so for remote all those things we'll cease correct vice president race members of the board correct we're going to talk about that in just a second about what happens on the campus but yes when the campus is closed everything at that school stops there will be no outside activities clubs sports events of any kind that happen on that campus if if the campus closes the campus closes for the period of the week one of the things that we would also say is an additional mitigation strategy for if we had an administration the district would work with our site administration if we had if we were getting if we were approaching and sustaining numbers not meeting that threshold but rising we would encourage events that were happening or performances or are outside things to be postponed delayed cancelled again this is this is why we wanted to formalize this so that we can begin again implementing this as an additional tool in our toolbox for decision making on events and other things but when we trigger a shutdown everything for that week closes down one of the other things i wanted to stress too is that um bullet two this would be made on a week by week basis so let we make the call for a week that if because numbers were rising this week we need to this we're rising and sustaining we need to trigger to a full remote learning if cases continue to come in and i know there are people asking well but how will you know school is closed but again remember if if if if if in doubt don't delay we will know eventually because those cases continue to come if if this case is the next week sustained we're not going to we're going to make the call the next thursday to say based on the fact that cases have sustained and are continuing to rise on our active cases we will continue this week it'll be made on a week-to-week basis but our hope would be that again by the time you wrap around two weekends and a whole week that we are minimizing the amount of loss of instructional time and we're almost at a quarantine uh nine days so we'll highlight that here in just a minute and see what it looks like on a calendar but essentially it is it is providing an opportunity for slowing the spread again means mitigation strategies are working by minimizing the amount of time that we would be out of school so next slide when we ask when we say well what what what should our proposed percentage of positivity be our our recommendation and again you've seen you've seen other districts put out similar percentages that they're that they're considering for their mitigation plan and again they're yielding different outcomes every district is looking at what works for them but when we as our administrative team looked at this we actually feel that these are good good good good working threshold numbers to to apply and because we're talking about increased and sustained numbers let's take a look at what this looks like next slide so this looks like our dashboard if you will because what you've got is the schools the population or size the taking that threshold that we just showed before and again some may ask well why are the percentages different the percentages are different because the number of students on that group or campus again make it so that it would be about the threshold that we would begin to say there is concern here so again looking at the first one cooley early childhood center what if we saw that we were sustaining a monday tuesday wednesday close to six we need to look at we're we're not we're we're concerned about the amount and number of active cases in that in that environment that would lead us to say we may need an additional mitigation strategy to slow the spread so next slide and again this is just it's showing it a little bit differently with looking at again these were pulled off the dashboard yesterday not today because they wanted the presentation to be posted 24 hours in advance but looking at what were considered active cases on the dashboard compared to that threshold as of yesterday the active versus the required cases and i want to stress again that it would not be that we have to have the five you have to have six for those three days if we are looking like we are there or we're sustaining and we're not dropping off or we're going to continue to be we're going to err on the side of caution here but that would be a more formal way for people to know that this is what we would do if we were concerned about the number of cases on that campus okay hello uh president kaler members of the board cabinet and community and especially all of the people that are here this evening we appreciate it so you might be asking why is it one week and dr foley elaborated but it does give students a nine day break from each other being on the campus and then it allows that time for the spread to slow or stop however we will want parents to continue to let us know if they get a positive case and like dr foley said the health department will continue to update us there will be a complete in-depth sanitation and disinfection of the entire school site that's happening daily but dr fowler and his team will go in and really hit the site hard the other thing that we want to emphasize is this approach will lessen the impact academically on our students so they're going to continue to learn remotely but we as we've discussed before we believe in person is the way to go next slide um sorry mrs responds um if i guess go back maybe to the calendar there i know we picked a january example during our christmas break are we still going to be tracking numbers while we're gone so that if for any reason a certain school during christmas time had an increase they would get notification perhaps on that thirst i mean we're not technically working but we are working non-stop 24 7.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
our inaugural meeting is set for January 14th and the four of us are going to meet one more time on January 5th just to discuss plans for the first meeting and to set an agenda so we're looking forward to starting this very big undertaking it is thank you that's that was a good any questions for Amy all right look forward to hearing more about that in January okay um on to the consent agenda I'll move that the board approve the items on the consent agenda new hires resignations terminations retirement and the October 2020 financials second thank you Joy um any discussion on this uh yes Rosa um I had a couple of things I wanted to share uh before I I I talk to the consent agenda I just wanted to take the opportunity to highlight the leadership of the board and all the work that's going into um our strategic coherence plan and our district work and all of these different reports from subcommittees it just demonstrates the collaborative work of this board of our teacher leaders of our administrative team uh and in the very thoughtful process we have for all aspects of the organization and um Rosa thank you for your leadership and uh everyone else for their leadership and their commitment it's uh it's incredible and I I don't want it to be lost as we just move on to another agenda item it really we need to stop reflect and say wow it was really impressive just to watch and be a part of uh observing it so thank you all um in terms of consent agenda um I want to um let everyone know that um uh you'll see a name Jamal Adams uh he is a gentleman who we met through Green Life the supplemental uh custodial service and he is now going to be working for us full-time so that was an interesting piece that was uh you know exciting you know when you have opportunities and and you're able to recruit and so forth um Ronnie Meltzer one of our par educator who's been with us for 22 years at the high school is retiring and moving on um we just wish her well and thank her thank her for all her years of uh uh service um we unfortunately had uh two um of our longtime employees uh pass in the last month uh Mr Dave Warren who was a longtime custodian at the high school and then most recently at Huckleberry Hill um we send our condolences to his family we're going to miss him greatly he was incredibly loved and gave a lot of his life to Brookville public schools and um similarly um uh Linda Hillyard the longtime secretary from Brookfield High School um passed away um in uh mid November and um we uh just have missed her since she retired in 2016 and uh she was just beloved and uh we have nothing but fond memories and again want to send our condolences to her family and just um think about her for a moment uh as part of this so I want to just put those out there for everybody thank you for the time Ros thank you um any other discussion on these okay so let's vote all those in favor all right thank you that's unanimous uh on to new business and first we have the board subcommittees I will move that the board discuss and approve its subcommittee structure and other board representation Magnet School bef Education Connection Brookfield cares arbac NBC from January to June 2021 do I have a second second thanks Joy did everybody get a chance to look at these I don't know if you can pull them up quickly Eric just so anyone else listening can maybe see it um you know typically around this time we kind of we approve the January through June committee members ship and makeup but um typically we don't change um unless there's you know something that's um maybe extenuating circumstances that aren't allowing you to go to committee meetings or um some other fit issue so does anybody have any adjustments that they feel need to be made Ros I just I told Lisa um they have to swap my name for um for Jens for the bef okay okay um so oh good Eric's GNA share it so is your name down here I can't see it no it's still Jen's I think yeah yeah so I'll be doing the book field Education Foundation representative okay um so I will move to amend the motion so that uh the board approve the subcommittee structure as edited tonight with Joy Greenstein as the Brookfield Education Foundation representative and J leaden the representative for uh the youth commission are you swapping no I'm still on the youth commission okay okay so with joy Greenstein as the representative for the bef I'll second correct all right um any other discussion on this okay so all those in favor of the amended motion hi hi hi thanks everyone I think that was unanimous yes all right um so the motion is unanimous thanks um we can move move on to the superintendent 2021 2022 budget proposal all right thanks Rosa um Eric's actually going to pull up the um PowerPoint slides for this evening and what I'd like to to start with is um while the while the title slide is up is similar to my comments at at the beginning of the uh cons consent agenda after the committee reports um much of what we're going to go through in the PowerPoint this evening which um I'm saving you all it's very brief and ver very uh simplified um and really having taken the input and the work we've done with the finance committee uh has helped that and certainly with with the uh with the leadership team um all of the the you you'll just see a a stream of coherence um in in alignment with everything we're doing um and many of the things we've worked over worked on over the last few months uh obviously beginning In The Summertime with New Year um but you'll you'll see that Common Thread all the way through um and uh I'm really I'm really excited for this presentation um I'm excited about uh the the the uh the work that we look to that we're proposing and and look to bring forward uh that is really very student centered um and it comes in at a very responsible figure uh for our taxpayers as well so just really excited about that and I can't continue on without making the statement that I I make annually at this time which is that the budget is a financial statement of our values and beliefs about educating um our our students our most precious assets uh here in Brookfield so um with that uh let's MO move to the first uh the next slide here so uh as you can see in some of the pictures here uh this definitely represents uh things that are going on uh this year uh we see uh still a lot of community effort a lot of action and a lot of other things happening but a lot of maske wearing as well and uh certainly The Matrix of people on Zoom meetings um our our mission in this district is to Inspire Challenge and prepare our students to live meaningful and productive lives um and the board will recall having uh at this time last year uh developed um and moved forward on adopting uh an updated um portrait of the graduate which includes critical and creative thinking uh having our students become excellent communicators collaborators and change makers and uh we are working uh in all aspects uh Dr Ruby and the cape committee were just reporting on uh the teaching and learning work that's going on just just a small part of it that's going on and um all that work leads to those four big ideas from the portrait of The Graduate and certainly um specifically at the high school through the NES uh work that principal Banda and his team continue to work on um they're all they're working in that uh direction as well so this just this this is not a slide that is a placeholder it's very meaningful to us and it's our goal all the time and it's out in the Forefront of all the work that we do next slide please thought it was important this year and this is a slide I I haven't included and I have one at the end called next steps uh just to remind the board of all the work that goes in uh and remind and inform the public frankly of all the work that goes in this is um right from the adopted calendar uh for the budget calendar that our um board uh adopts uh just last month at the beginning of uh October uh actually two months ago now at the beginning of October um so it's important for people to see that tonight while December 2nd is still feels early to be talking about the 2122 school year and and planning for the resources uh to to make that year uh productive for our students um there's a lot of work that goes into it and just to get to this presentation this evening uh and all the backup uh materials that you received uh yesterday and today there's initial discussion and planning that starts in midep um our ad our school administrators and department head seek input from the the people and the the Educators in their departments um the administrative uh team at each building level develops their budget they bring that forward uh and have a a discussion with central office administration which is uh Ken post and Dr Ruby and myself um we then have a public budget Round Table the board hosts that that was just last month and we invite the public to suggest questions etc for what they'd like to see uh in the education system and then the superintendent and finance director um kind of organize and submit a status quo budget uh which you received the board received last week status quo simply means um the cost of doing business uh inflationary and contractual uh cost increases um and and uh if we were to continue doing business uh exactly as we do it in current year and then uh tonight the superintendent presents the budget proposal to the board so there there's a lot of steps and it takes almost 3 months just to get to this evening um and so it's important to share that so I go to the next slide please each year the board uh works with Administration and adopts what we call Budget assumptions and priorities we adopted those early in October and that provides guidance for budget development process um at the bottom of this slide is a link so when the public uh when this is posted on our website the public can take a look look at those uh assumptions and priorities and uh those lead into kind of summary area uh five major goals for the budget um and that is uh providing the necessary resources to ensure that we're meeting the needs of our students in alignment with uh the mandates and and and all the laws that we are obligated to um abide by also um maintaining our class siiz guidelines and of course we'll adjust just Staffing patterns accordingly um and if we achieve efficiencies we certainly would work to do that um providing for our rigorous relevant curriculum and using best practices and instruction assessment and learning uh that really uh is is the the nervous system of the entire District that's what our core job is it's the teaching and learning of our students and so um we're we're excited about what's going on in that particular area this year additionally the the backbone of technology and uh a digital world and having the necessary infrastructure ructure to make things happen uh look forward to sharing that with you on a couple slides from now and then all of the enhancements uh to our program that we want to ensure we're continuing to improve you know the old ad adage if you don't move forward you fall behind and we want to make sure that we're constantly moving forward improving not only our processes and our efficiencies but really improving experiences and opportunities for our students so I'm going to summarize over the next five slides a go a goal slide and then what we're going to be doing accordingly with the budget so Eric if you can move to the next one please and before I go on to the the first goal I wanted to um share with everybody exactly uh what is going on let me just minimize something here um exactly what is going on in terms of the dollar figures I think it's very important to share with people not only at the end of the presentation but at the beginning um so in our current operating budget for 2020 2021 uh from last year we had a 3% increase uh and that budget that we are operating in right now is $ 45,400 th000 the proposed budget uh for the coming year the status quo increase and this includes like I said earlier contractual in inflationary cost increases um is a 2.7% increase or $1.2 million we also have Investments these are investments we've been working to um ensure we have implemented over the last few years as well as some new ideas that we want to bring forward um that we're really excited about for our students um and that represents 1.26% or uh 5 $572,000 the total increase proposal um is $1.7 million over last year's budget or a 3.9% increase which is 47,2 next slide please now we'll get into our goals specifically what this budget is trying to accomplish so in terms of providing the necessary resources um it it's incredibly important to remind uh everyone that um we are are in in a strong position um with our special education budget many of you will recall that last year that was a major increase and um it it contributed to limiting some of the other things we were looking to do um but we had to meet those obligations this year our special education budget is nearly flat I think it's a just a just about a $122,000 increase over the current year so I have to thank um Mr post and uh Mrs wgon and the team for really managing that budget well and that's that's also a credit to our finance committee who we've been working uh monthly to to Really uh monitor our costs there um but still provide students with uh with uh incredible opportunities so what are we looking for in gold number one um making sure we remain in alignment with state and federal law and provide necessary resources uh the first thing is we do need uh you will recall from the enrollment report um our um case load for the speech and language teacher uh the existing teacher at the high school is extremely large and we have obligations to make sure we're meeting the proper hours of all our students and giving them every uh bit of attention that they need um and so that uh we address that by looking to increase Staffing there uh for a .5 or half FTE speech and language teacher we've also for the last couple of years um Jen talked earlier about our our tsol uh English language learner program and our our tsol teacher and our uh uh elll tutors um we really need uh and we we've talked about this the last couple of years an additional uh teacher uh to be brought forward to support our students and this would be another District level teacher um uh to address the needs there uh what's nice about this investment this year um we've worked with Miss Holly and what the plan is is uh not to have the two tutors going forward and actually bring in a teacher instead so there's actually a limited impact on the budget by bringing in a new teaching position because we would not be bringing forward the tutoring positions uh in next year's budget if the teacher position is approved um the one thing that's important is just a brief story um and some of you have heard this before the uh um tutors get such great experience and such tremendous professional learning opportunities in Brookfield that they actually work on becoming certified t-a teachers during their tenure with us and then they leave us so we spend a lot of time and resources training our tutors who then become teachers in other districts and so we don't want to continue that cycle we want to invest in uh a team that's going to be able to stay here um and really do some do further uh in in greater things for our students so that's um bringing in another t-all teacher is a is a proposal in addition to that last year we'd asked for a math interventionist at the high school this is u a need we've addressed reading needs at the high school we really need to address the math needs especially in the times we're in now we're going to need that next year so I'm proposing a math interventionist in addition to that uh some more math support uh for Center school and that would be in the form of a part-time math tutor and then finally there's been a need for a while and it was actually um it almost made the proposal in last year's budget and then um in looking at all the different needs and priorities I had to pull from that but what we'd like to do uh in the coming year which would be for the coming summer of 20 uh 21 is to uh have a regular education opportunity summer school for our Center School and Huckleberry students um and those would be kids who would be in need of an intervention and additional Support over the summer and so um we put that into the budget okay let's go to goal two this is a very brief slide tonight this has to do with uh staying within class siiz guidelines and uh moving our staffing patterns to reflect uh enrollment changes and what you can see here is very simply uh our enrollment patterns really are only shifting for the most part at Huckleberry where we will need one less fourth grade section but one additional um grade two section so we'll be working on the Staffing patterns there with those sections but net it is not asking for any new elementary teachers that's goal number two we can go on to goal number three so this has to do with our teaching and learning um and uh there are uh several uh exciting opportunities here and things the board uh has been talking about for quite a while um so for professional development we're we want to invest in technology integration training uh while that's ongoing we need to continue to uh invest in that area for our teachers and our admins uh our pair of professionals there is so much technology being used and we've been accelerated uh uh in large part due to the pandemic over the last eight months and so the need is even more urgent to continue investing in that area we're also investing um while we don't have uh the actual professional learning all planned out for equity and inclusion need to be ready for that so we've built in budgetary uh resources um for Equity inclusion training for staff you already heard that Mr band is working toward some of that at the high school there's a lot of good work uh ongoing and we look forward to the committee's work which will help with Direction setting for the equity inclusion professional learning um literacy we had to hold on some literacy uh training uh this year and we reallocated that towards some technology software that we really needed uh again due to uh our hybrid and remote learning uh models and so we need to bring back that uh professional learning for literacy uh for next year our social and emotional learning needs for our students in trauma and informed instruction we need to invest in that area and then of course um curriculum development um it's critical that we continue um to to invest in that area as we uh as the cape committee started to talk about earlier tonight in addition to that uh under this uh goal number three in terms of equity and inclusion one of the things we've uh worked on for a number of years is trying to really bolster the the classroom libraries uh prek to 8 and um that has been an area that when push comes to shove in the stress of trying to make a budget work as uh the spring unfolds and uh we're getting uh uh down to the nitty-gritty of trying to fine- tune a budget this has been an area that we have um uh reduced in the budget and so we really wanted to push forward with uh bolstering our classroom Library specifically in the area of equity and inclusion uh again you it's a common theme going uh through the presentation this evening uh with materials that are written about uh and by individuals with diverse backgrounds it's a really important part of the equity inclusion and inclusion work so those are investment areas there go on to goal number four all right this our technology goal not only infrastructure but our digital environment for our students so in addition to the investment we've made uh from the summertime and just recently received the the orders on Chromebooks we have an additional three uh 300 CH Chromebooks to continue to work toward one to one for our kindergarten to grade seven students uh we will not have enough Chromebooks to consider ourselves fully one: one next year even with the purchase of the 300 um but we are getting closer and we want to continue to work toward that go um we're really excited about this um in addition 15 presentation St stations we want to round out the upgrades at the high school and finish off the high school project to update all of the classrooms with the presentation stations and we need 15 more this along with the literac CPD the presentation stations funds from these areas and we discussed this with finance committee this uh earlier this year were were in the budget but we reallocated for some other software that I'm going to mention in just a second and so we didn't get the presentation stations that we originally B budgeted for because we had other urgencies we had to address uh in in large part due to the pandemic in addition we want to upgrade our internet for obviously more reliability and and bandwidth with the continued um uh uh work with student and and staff work with personal devices um so Eric's got uh some great plans for that uh in addition to that there are two status quo areas that I've kind of mentioned before and I just wanted to briefly explain so uh in lie of the uh literacy PD that was in the budget for this current year uh in addition to the 15 presentation stations that were in the budget for this year we actually didn't spend the money on those two items and we we purchased uh talking points Lexia ISL newa and invested further in our spatial temporal maap um uh platform and so those are um already purchased and already in the budget software items but I wanted to address them because they are newer and so they are part of the status quo and I just want to be very transparent with that in addition to that our single sign on technology called class link we've been implementing that this year and that's um that's another budget investment it's currently in the status quo budget and so we're going to continue working on that it takes time to implement that but what's really nice about that is that is where uh our our our students can go and staff can go and have one area where they sign on and all of their technology needs are met in one space they don't have to go to different areas to look for the the signon so it's very not only efficient but convenient um and really makes a lot of sense for us um so we're going to continue with that that's technology so goal number five our last goal and this is the enhancements to our existing programs um and uh being responsive to changing needs we're really excited about this uh proposal this is to introduce a um new technology teacher position at the high school currently we only have one technology teacher at Brookfield High School and um we just like uh those of you who are watching board activities uh five or six years ago or those of you who may have been on the board five or six years ago will recall that we had one business teacher and we couldn't offer the courses we wanted to offer so we added a business teacher and it's it's been incredible for us in that department similarly in techn ology in our stem Department there are uh course offerings um that are ex that exist in the program of studies mainly sequential type courses that we're not able to offer because we just don't have the staff we only have one teacher um and and we just don't have the staff to run those courses and kids do request those courses uh some examples are architecture uh and design uh Advanced video production as you can see there and and computerated drafting uh in our in our robotics uh one of our robotics classes they're often requested and we're not able to run them because we just don't have the staff so we want to bring in another technology teacher so we can continue to build our stem program and offer more courses to our students and these are courses that already exist in addition to that um and this is while it's an investment and an enhancement it's actually not a large expense we want to bring into the high school several new programs in both our humanities and stem departments um introduction to Human Rights introduction to programming forensic science and actually an emergency medical technician or em uh class so we're really excited about those uh options for students uh and enhancement we talked about from last year is bringing a girls Cross Country Coach uh over to whiskin ear U this not only will ensure equity which is Inc critically important um I think there's 60 or 70 kids who are interested in Cross Country maybe more um at uh whiskin ear and we want to make sure we have the proper supervision uh and training for those students so we want to bring that forward as we brought back uh brought forward last year in addition over the last two years Mr Renda has proposed an art club for after school for her students and also an allies of diversity club we want to bring those two clubs forward um these are long-standing requests um and obviously uh this will support student leadership in the area uh of equity inclusion and give tremendous opportunities for kids uh in extracurricular Arts opportunity and then finally and I think this will make our public comment students very happy um Coming forward from the athletic department Department uh we want to bring a full uh boys volleyball program forward that has been something that's been discussed uh with a lot of boys bringing that to both Mr Banda and Mr Baldin over the last few years and in addition to that uh we had some public discussion last year about gymnastics and bringing that forward uh there's major student interest for both uh Sports and if we add these two sports to our programs Brookville High School actually have a full complement of all c c offered Sports so these are the enhancements um I'm proposing to the board uh in the 2122 budget next slide please so enrollment uh back in October the board received enrollment reports so this is just a a visual display of enrollment um the light blue bar chart is the uh current enrollment by school as you can see there and you can see on the very right side in the light blue we currently have 30 students who are in outplay situations as we track all of our students and in the dark blue is projections for next year as you can see and while we have increases in some areas we have some slight decreases in um the middle and the high school and then at the bottom of the chart I put there you could take a look in the current year on the left hand side uh you can see the number of students we have enrolled this is all as of October 1 so again things fluctuate um as of October one 2564 students that's about 75 less uh than uh last year that was not our uh a projection that we'd have that many less having said that that has a lot to do with the pandemic uh and there's a major um uh disenrollment right now or lack of registration in the kindergarten area which has been repeatedly reported to the board over the last few months as we Mrs Diamond her came do an incredible job tracking that um and you could see for next year we're projecting an increase of 72 students so relatively stable uh enrollment uh projected for next year and you can see our student special students with special needs numbers uh year to date down 22 and as we analyze things Mrs wgon and her team are seeing that we likely will have a plus 16 for next year but again that was a snapshot of uh during October and we continue to monitor um the situation there on the right hand side uh it's important to monitor our English language learner students in on October 1 uh we had 89 students uh you'll remember we talked about the extension by the state uh for continuing to submit uh the numbers of English language learner students through later in the fall uh as of right now formally we have 89 students that qualify in that area um and that's down year-to date uh by 26 students and we'll continue to monitor that and can report back to the board in addition to that our um pre and reduced lunch number of students 5 41 students remains relatively stable so that's enrollment um snapshot October 1 and projections for next year and we'll go to the next slide which has to do with class size average um oh boy that's a little off there Eric you can see that at the bottom um the um as we take a look for 2122 we have our projected class size sections uh and you can see if the uh square is in white that means we are um within our uh target range um for grade for kindergarten grade 1 and grade two we're slightly uh over for grade three four and six and in 5 seven and eight we are right where we need to be so we're keeping a close eye on that and um we're we're satisfied with with the numbers um based on the class sections that we'll have and the Staffing that we are prepared to uh have going forward all right next slide so to bring it all the way back around this is the same slide I talked about early in the presentation uh you could see that the proposed budget for 2122 um is 47,2 35,000 and that is a total of a 3.96% increase over last year's budget or almost $1.8 million increase um um and so uh it moving forward uh it is a under 4% increase and you can see that the status quo if we were to keep everything the same um we would have a 2.7% increase because we have to take into account um the contractual obligations and the inflationary costs all right and I go to the next slide all right while not part of the operating budget it's important just to share with everyone the Capital plan this the board also looked at this over the course of the fall and the finance committee I mean the facilities committee excuse me um did a really nice job we had a lot of work to do here um the many of the projects that are on this year one just as a reminder for everybody were put forward at this time uh last year brought through the budget process and approved in the spring of 2020 by our Board of Finance um and that was was the the board of Finance approving everything uh including the operating budgets of the Town per the governor's executive order because of the pandemic we didn't actually have a referendum the issue we have with capital and can explain this uh a couple of meetings ago is that the um executive order didn't cover projects that need to be bonded and in our town Charter any that needs to be bonded must go to a town referendum so these year one projects while there's been some modifications are actually projects that we talked through last year but are not formally approved so need to go through the formal process come this spring with referendum so just as a reminder not only for the board but for the public who's listening to the presentation um and as you can see we've got a number of projects here I I won't bore you with going through all the projects but the there is some you know exciting and needed things that have to happen um roof project at the high school right at the top top there it's the number one priority and also to bring a new AC unit on top when you repair a roof you or put a new roof on that's also the time if a if a ventilation unit needs to be replaced you want to do that at that time so you're not poking holes in the roof or anything like that you can seal it properly the original electric service from 1970 needs to be replaced at whis skiner um 50 years I think we' we've got our money is worth out of that electric service that's for sure uh clearly plumbing and fixtures at the high school need to be updated um the HVAC system uh management system needs to be replaced at the middle school again that's very old uh similar to the original uh the uh locker room project there's been a lot of talk about kind of taking a look at design funding again and maybe working with techon or another firm to get a another estimate um so that has been discussed and then we had a long discussion and we brought it to Mr Dunn as well and he uh he was in agreement with the board that if we'd like to put it in year one we certainly could which would be the entire cost to renovate the boy locker room because of the long-standing need for that in addition to that the evening at the seminar room at whiskin needs to be replaced um there's ceiling on windows and doors and security film uh that needs to be updated and repaired um our library uh uh High School library air conditioning is absolutely inconsistent uh you can never it's just not reliable so that needs to be replaced um a lot of Paving and concrete work in the front of the high school and around the corner and toward the back and a little bit in the front at the middle school um so that's always Paving work that needs to be updated and then finally we need a um a new maintenance vehic I say new maintenance vehicle for us it would be new would not necessarily uh things don't have to be brand new but it would be nice to get a new maintenance vehicle because we're in uh things are falling apart and we need need some help in that area so those are By Priority the capital projects um going forward next slide please all right so what are the next steps in the budget development process we started with how we got to this evening so what are the next step um on December 7th which is next Monday we actually have a special Board of uh uh Board of Education Finance subcommittee meeting to review this budget um we're going to go through that with a fine tooth com as a matter of fact we also have another finance committee meeting on December 14th prior to the next full board meeting where we discuss and continue to deliberate on uh the budget we come back from the winter recess um we have formal dates of January 6 and January 20th uh for board meetings and also public hearing on the schedule um but anytime in January the board certainly can call additional special meetings to discuss the budget so we have the rest of December and January uh for deliberation the Board needs to adopt the budget um by um by January 29th so that that's a Friday so it could be submitted uh by Town Charter to Mr dun and then in February the Boe traditionally since I've been here it's been very nice that we've done this we've had meetings of not only the first selectman uh and the board of Selectmen but also with the board of Finance we put a joint meeting together where we present the adopted board budget that's in February those dates are not established just yet so those are the kind of immediate next steps over the next two months um next slide and that's it Eric thank you for work walking me through those slides tonight and thank uh thank you board for your attention and we're up for questions or discussion or Clarity anything you'd like to discuss anybody want to ask any questions I know um John you did a good job I was GNA just um remind everybody that we do have um the rest of this month um one meeting this month and two meetings in January um to go through this but it's never too early to dive in if there's any questions um or comments about the proposal I just had a quick question about the class size average page does the fourth grade reflect um when we take away that class or so that number will go up even more no that we take away that section no that that's with taking that section away okay so so it's it's the sections I was big picture just sharing the reallocation of sections by grade but the sections Ken do you have the actual number um it's escaping me right now um for Joy maybe we could leave the presentation up in case there's any sure SL you want to go back to and and that particular class size average slide I apologize I don't know what happened it um the target numbers are just a little out of line alignment there and that blue bar John I figured it out and fixed it so I'm posting I'm going to reshare it with it correct ly formatted okay thank you there you go so the 20.4 is when you take the section away correct correct okay and as you can see at Huckleberry the target is 20 U now you can see it much easier on the bottom there the target is 20 students per section with a range of 19 to 21 so so so I'm clear the we're within the range we're just a above the target correct Bob did I did I misspeak when I presented that well I think it's important for us to re really digest the fact that we set a range right and we can be in the low end of the range on the high end of the range we know we have a Target in the middle sometimes the difference is pragmatics within a two student range so um these are the red implied to me that it was above the top end of the range and that worries me I actually think I'd like to see the color coding on this chart in a way that says it's yellow if it's in the range and red if it's above the range right you don't have any Reds here Point you're within the range on every class we are yeah I that's a good idea Bob but I do think it's important to kind of highlight somehow the classes that are above Target and not just that's why I I say you need to color them but I would would color them necessarily red right you could color them in a yellow or an or or a some different color so y we could put a little I could put a little key there that's something we can make that adjustment tomorrow that's very easy to do I just I I I was I was reacting that we were building a PL a budget that was putting us above above our ranges even and that now that I see it formatted it makes me feel more comfortable great thank you for that Eric quick good quick turnaround hey John one thing I didn't didn't jump out in your presentation is you have about a go back to your summary dollars I think it's a half a million dollars of Investments and then you go through Page after page of what those Investments are or almost 600,000 of Investments do do you have the breakdown of where that 572 is relative to your initiatives on the other Pages we have that in the backup materials I didn't put it in the presentation for this evening so that's in the books that we were picking up yes okay and and also um we made sure if you weren't able to pick up the books today we have that electronically to the board and again this all just came forward today Bob so um it's been hard for people on the first night to be able to familiarize themselves oh yeah I picked up my book today because I know how I'm going to spend my weekend and uh but everything you know after this evening everything's going to be posted for the public as well okay I think that's really important to talk about the invest you talk about Investments but without dollars and cents it's not a it doesn't hit at home very well right I think we have to talk about what the investment amounts are not just what the investment items are and not bury them into the backup yeah and and and other years they they've been right out front and it's it's across as uh feedback been that it's been confusing so I was trying to simplify this year um more than happy to to bring those forward in a more clear way at our next meeting and certainly to discuss process well let's let's plan to dig around on it a little bit in the finance committee meeting that was uh um and thank you for sending out the status quo budget in advance that helped a lot great you're welcome I had another comment on this particular slide um I think last year we was the first year that we really articulated um the increase that are due to contractual and inflationary Investments but then we also had enrollment and special education um and even though you're saying enrollment and special education are relatively flat I think it might be important just to show any sort of increase or their flatness um just to at least is just my thought just to kind of keep it consistent with um the past and so like year after year we can sort of always go back to sort of the same kind of slide and communication and sort of see maybe year toe those changes sure and that was something I'm I'm glad you brought it up Rosa we we debated back and forth do we do we leave a zero for enrollment and a $112,000 increase for special ed as a uh outlier type of a driver um and so we settled on this presentation version tonight but um uh duy noted and we could certainly work on that was that a was that a breakdown last year on the in Investments or was that a breakdown on the status quo it was it was a breakdown um we had we had four areas we had the status quo then we broke it down by out Investments and then we broke it down by uh enrollment because remember there was a time where we were working on adding three sections to Center school but it was all on the investment section is what we had broken down yeah and then there was and then Bob uh there was the um the outlier which was that major expense in special education well because if you remember last year we did have some significant Investments but they were Investments that we really had to do due to enrollment increases so we were trying I think to get away from using that term status quo and instead breaking it down into well these are these are contractual and inflationary costs but we also have these other new costs that are new but there are things that we have to do to meet enrollment but I would I would argue you that like going through John's uh lists of Investments there were some of those that um were I'll call them not special education but special needs like I'll put Tesa you know t-a in that category I'll put speech and language in that category I mean there were a number of items on your meet the needs section John that I would categorize into that special the special needs of our students all right and uh I don't think we have much new investment for enrollment per se this year which is good but um but I do think you that's why I'm interested in what the breakdown of the spending on those special items are because if the bulk of the I have a very different reaction to a budget that says I'm going to spend 572 more and that's on real needs because we have students who have those needs versus I've got a an exciting new program right and we had some of both of those in there um and I think it's really important that we tell the story about what are we talking about investing and not just lump it into one bucket here I agree with Rosa completely yeah and I think that's actually at at this meeting last year is what we did was sort of go through some of those Investments and say hey wait a minute no actually this is more enrollment related or this is more special education related and I think we put them into some different buckets when we created these groups so I think it was in the second meeting in December so we ought to make that a comeback at the next meeting is let's let's let's categorize the Investments and uh and update these charts and then we'll also have a report out from the finance committee so great thanks for the input now one question I had was last year when we went through the budget uh Mr Baldwin did a whole presentation on the rank ordering of the needs of the education program the the I'm sorry the sports programs that we have like yeah remember you had the top 10 and if I remember uh the gymnastics was relative they certainly weren't the top of that list um they were well down do we have an update of the rank ordered uh Sports Investments um I'd like to see where volleyball and um boys volleyball and the gymnastics program fit and how we've dealt with the items from last year that were ranked above them sure we we can do that the one uh we we had to make some choices and I certainly could have Mr Balden be ready for our next meeting with that um was the uh strength and conditioning coach and we had some we we went back and forth on that if we would bring that forward this year um or we would introduce the the actual team sports so we definitely could bring that forward as part of the comeback for next meeting well it was so useful last here to see that rank ordering I don't know about the rest of the board but for me I could absorb it and see why we were making what decisions we were making in the context of a priorities list so and I'll I'll compliment you Mr Baldwin on that piece of work I'd like to start from that basis and then as a board you know see how see how we address last year's priorities list and see what this year's priorities list looks like and how is it changed yeah I agree great feedback thank you other board members and and as a a point of context for the board um and for the public Brookfield is probably if not the first one of the first 10 school districts in the um in the state that presents the budget this early so it it's it's a function of our process and it's uh something uh we changed a few years ago instead of presenting it at the second December meeting we present it at the first December meeting this gives us plenty of time to do exactly what we're doing here questioning wondering needing to see things in in a different way and it gives us that opportunity for the board to start to digest this so for board members who might not have you just received these materials today and you just saw this presentation for the first time tonight even though there in pieces we've been working on things throughout uh the summer and the fall as we built tonight's Crescendo um it's okay if you don't have a question because you need to sit with the numbers you need to look at the presentation you need to think because this is part of our process going forward so I just wanted to put that out there to everyone okay so I don't want to cut anybody off if there is a a question or anything um if there isn't we uh we can move on okay all right thank you everyone thank you Dr BR okay um and of course if there's any questions in the meantime before our next meeting um for either Dr Brill or Ken post um we can start that process as well yeah Rose if I may it probably would would help us you know we we have a finance committee meeting um gosh just in in four days next Monday um we have another finance committee on the meeting on the 14th prior to the December 16th uh second board meeting of the month but if there are any board members who have questions um feel free to submit them to Ken and to me and if you do that uh by December 11th which is next Friday that' be very helpful to give us time to prepare anything you might be interested in learning about um like Bob asked tonight you know asking Mr baldwi to be prepared with a brief couple of slides to share with us people need time to prepare so we want to make sure we can answer every question uh in is in a in a thorough fashion so um the the further notice we have the better thank you okay um so we can move on to Old business uh the new school building project um I don't have any uh updates other than um what the the naming committee um has already shared which is sort of the big news it's really exciting to be at this point where we're uh contemplating a name for this building it's been so many years in the works um but uh there's no other updates than that just to remind the public on November 17th um the project has officially moved into Construction documents phase so um as we get into the nuts and bolts of the project um you know I just wanted to remind the public that uh the MBC is the point of contact for process um whereas the Board of Ed is the point of contact for programmatic um things so um it might be helpful to um direct questions um to the MBC and um I don't know if anybody has any questions about uh the new school project our our recent um transition into that phase Rosa I just had one um One update um Laurel uh some of you have met Laurel who those of you who come to the NBC meetings Laurel from om um she's organizing the the construction management I guess of the project best way to describe it um on December 16th right now we have a tenative date uh for December 16th 10 a.m.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
five social worker will now appear at those same sites um as as we're as it's reflected on the on this site right um on the slide the um tk8 uh currently um the the they will only I'm sorry that in that 22 23 year they will be getting a point five of an of a social worker and so in for school three since that is adding to the current FTE that's why we're projecting at least a $70,000 increase for um salary and benefits for that position all right so this is uh where we start getting um into some some more detailed level position so I'm going to try to go through this um in pieces um so previously in each of the phase uh each of the years that you saw earlier that I've been discussing um each of those schools in the phase out schools one two three four five and six schools above uh they all had going into this year a full-time resource teacher um but beginning in the 23 24 school year um at the schools being phased out with fourth and fifth grade students um at their sites uh you will now see three uh resource teachers sharing these six pools um the uh positions of health assistant um and also um the library AIDS uh Position will also be reduced by a hour uh by uh 1.5 hours of of work for that day for for each of those schools Below on the 20 23 2024 um you'll see that the um the resource teachers will be um added to schools five and six and the uh I the health assistants will be um um will be at each of the schools in the new schools below so they'll see them on one 2 3 uh four uh five and six um the library AIDS uh there there will also be um uh there there's going to be a a reduction in library AIDS um and and you'll see that uh for uh School two school three and school I'm sorry School uh two School five and school six um how however um there will be an increase in in the library uh AIDS hours in school number three and school number four and then lastly uh there's a school clerk position that's also uh listed here uh the school clerk positions will be reduced in schools one two five and six in accordance to the Staffing formula that I shared earlier Mr Latasha um the uh 2425 year um there will not be any staffing changes uh so the Staffing changes that I described in the previous slide will continue through um through the 2425 school year and then finally the 25 26 year uh the uh Point uh 17 FTE reduction of the resource teacher is essentially uh reducing the number of uh resource teachers to two that will service the um six schools for the one grade level of sixth grade um and then both the um the health assistant and library assistant positions will be reduced to one hour at these sites okay okay so now before we move on to the next slide of identifying the three models we wanted to make sure we understand model one we've shown you what the model was we've shown you how the model would be implemented over the next five years um we discussed the potential programmatic drawbacks potential programmatic benefits um proposed support um staff as well as those changes that would have budgetary impact so here is a listing of all three models that we would essentially be discussing again we presented model one today which is one traditional Elementary School tk5 one traditional middle 6 through 8 four tk8 and two Traditional High School model two that we will discuss at our next meeting will have I'm sorry we'll have tk8 and high school it will have five tk8 and two Traditional High School model three would be a all model level 2.0 which would have five traditional elementary schools tk5 two traditional middle schools grades 6 through 8 one traditional TK and two Traditional High School and it's important to note that all of the models model one two or three can also be considered with only having one Traditional High School so before I go to the next slide to identify goals of our next meeting um we can open up for questions but with understanding that our goal tonight is to gain an understanding of the model the six pieces that we agreed upon which was the model type how the model will be implemented the program um possible programmatic um drawbacks possible um programmatic benefits support staff and any potential budgetary impact those were the six pieces that we agreed upon and so now in order to make sure you understand model one are there any questions based on what we presented tonight that that was identified in the six pieces yes I do I think as part of some of the uh drawbacks to this model you need to point out that you'd be losing a teachers whose expertise in in a particular subject area you are now going to have uh one eighth grade teacher teach five subject areas whereas the kids are now used to specialized teachers for those particular subjects I okay I would add that as a drawback okay thank you why are they changing it back to 68 model when we've just put the sixth graders back at the elementary level well this is just a model and this is just an opportunity to have a traditional Elementary with a traditional middle do you want us to put our name in the chat or do you want us to type our question in the chat or should we just kind of talk out I'm a little um I will leave that up to the team because I personally can't see the chat right now since I'm sharing my screen so I would need assistance on that and I'm sorry okay uh question I want clarification on two things um one um with these uh model one for TK through eight schools I think I I heard the assumption is that all of the classes are going to be self-contained and so in doing that the children that are in seventh and eighth grade will not switch at all they will stay with one teacher all day in a self-contained classroom that's in the current tk8 model correct in the current tk8 model okay because I want to make sure that parents understand what that means too that there will be no switching of of classes in the sense of in the traditional sense that we have now but we do have a traditional middle school if that's a desire you can go to the traditional no I hear you but I'm saying in the TK through eight they're going to be self-contained seventh eth grade class so I wanted to clarify make sure I understand the second thing is can we Nuance that Meg though please um just because right now it sounds super black and white so yes in the TKA model these are self-contained teachers that does not forbid or stop uh teachers as they do now in our elementary schools right they do it now there's no TK there's no tk8 at some of elementary schools and teachers uh do take it upon themselves uh to team up to switch hey I'll teach Math and Science you teach language arts and social studies so I wouldn't I wouldn't go as far as saying black and white like if it's a TK there will be no switching but well I know but they're switching at elementary schools now where teachers and everything too but the teacher of record who gives the grades is going to be the teacher they're going to be in a self-contained and assigned and so if the teacher chooses to switch and whatever that's an if so there is no guarantee correct but I want to I want to reiterate then what um Edna said and and the reason I'm saying that and and I have heard him say this publicly so I'm not being inappropriate mentioning his name but Mr Usery who has been a math and science teacher at the TK through eight or who previously at Senator was a math teacher this year for the first time at at lington has had to have a self-contained class because they have not been enough students in order for them to do the switching and stuff and he's a Math and Science Guy and that's what he's taught for the last 30 years of his career and now all of a sudden he's thrown into doing all the subjects that really does do a disservice to the students H having that kind of um credentialing issue or whatever else so I just I want to make that clear and can can I address the credentialing issue because there is a there is a a provision and education code that allows for uh a teacher with a multiple subject credential to teach in a uh core setting so that would mean that if uh Mr Ortega is the um math and science teacher he could have uh different grade uh different classes of just those same students so it would be a cohort of students that um Mr Ora would have for um both math and science and then he could have another cohort of students for get math and science and that does not require a science credential a single scence single subject science credential teacher do that with a multiple subject credential um and I have been a part of two other uh K schools and as a as a assistant principal and principal where I have we or we have had teachers teach and what what the a parent would say oh that's that's a middle school because they're switching classes but the teachers were multiple subject teachers I understand that and we've done that at sixth grade and they've done it at sixth seventh and eth grade at slon Ellington I'm sorry um but in this model of TK through a it it is having self-contained classrooms and so I just wanted to point out that it is a humongous switch for those teachers especially two where they've been teaching like you said to me math and science and now as a self-contained they are going to be expected to be teaching all the subjects where they haven't been doing that for the last however many years because they've been you know doing their single subject I wanted to point that out question positive just to say Meg just another positive that this is a fiveyear implementation plan so it would not be they'll be self-contained instantly the next physical year again and I want to make sure we're being focused on the model not so much in the weeds of the model but just the model we identify that yes this will have self contain classrooms um Dr Mitchell identified that and we also noted it here so I I think I don't want to keep staying on that one Target and um I have a second question and it's about the elective wheel I'd like somebody to clarify what the intent of that is going to be or the commitment to that is going to be because the way it has existed in at Ellington now um the elective wheel is entirely up to what the teachers are either qualified to teach or are willing to teach and so it's not the same as electives say at another you know at a traditional middle school so can you clarify what that means please or what the intent of that that is going to mean sure I'd be happy to do that um so so the intent of this particular model is to give um is to have the the tk5 and the tk8 students an opportunity for a broadc course of studies and so giving having an opportunity for students to um participate in uh different choices but still I'm asking because I think that this is a important distinction between doing parents choosing between a tk8 and say a traditional middle school knowing that when we say the elective wheel it doesn't mean the same kind of electives that are offered at the traditional middle school like you know a class of choir like where you said like Latasha it was very clear um on your example that the traditional Middle School 6th through 8th grade was going to have a year-long elective designated that a child could choose I just want to I just want to point that out and so parents understand that that's not the same thing so anyway Dana Dana Dana when you say broadc course of study you are still saying however that they're in a self-contained classroom and their teacher will be responsible for providing the broad course course of study for all of the eighth grade students in their classroom yes that is correct yes and so y all right can I just throw my two cents in about the elective wheel so the elective wheel at Ellington has fallen apart because we only have one seventh grade teacher and one eighth grade teacher so at the beginning of this school year my daughter who's in seventh grade had the opportunity to do yearbook because we had two seventh grade teacher or two eighth grade teachers and one and a half seventh grade teachers anyways long story short now there's Mr Ester and there's Miss Gino so my daughter doesn't have an elective anymore and they put her in in remedial English and my daughter's an advanced student so that whole opportunity to do an elective fell apart and my concern is if we have a self-contained teacher only teaching 8th grade and that's all they're teaching is that elective wheel actually going to be viable let me take that one Dana or you have it well I mean I could what I can respond to is that this is it it's a model and so there would Lesly to your point there would certainly be some details even to um to Jens Point as well there would certainly be some details that we would need to work out but in this model the the idea would be that the students would have these opportunities but again there's there would be a lot of details to be able to you know to put into place we have a couple of people waiting that have put their names in the chat so um Margie I believe was next with two questions okay hi um I had a question about the counseling services for the seventh and eighth graders and um when I'm looking at this and seeing a halftime counselor outside of the social worker which is not a counselor um I you know the recommendation is 250 students per one school counselor how can you um justify having upwards to 749 students per one halftime counselor that seems like a triple the work for the um and no extra time and for the same pay so that's a a concern in a disservice to our students Marie can you clarify where you get 749 kids well because it says at 750 enrollment you can have one full-time counselor so I'm assuming it's 7 up to 749 it's a halftime counselor okay I see what you're I see your logic there and I I guess for me what I don't want us to do is get caught into to that level of the weeds um but I do think that's a great Point um to identify to ensure and that was one of the commitments that we said before that anything that we Implement we're going to make sure it's in one that we can sustain it it's not just going to be one and done we could do it this year and then next year we're having this conversation again um but two we're going to also have to make sure that every model that we're put in place including Staffing is in line based off current contract language or based off current contact or whatever we currently have in place and as Jorge started in the beginning that some of the things that we're putting in place will require negotiations so it's not this is a proposal but we can't say it would happen because we have other parties and entities that we have to get in agreement with okay and then I have a question about the Arts um our school district is um having a very difficult time keeping middle school and um choir or not choir but ban teachers that because their programs have been um decimated due to the sixth grade going back to elementary school and these uh the middle school band teachers specifically um were having to cover multiple elementary schools what will the Arts look like because we are already seeing the impact of going into the high school programs you know you would expect to have a proportional decrease in the participation and activities at the high school but it is much less than what we would expect it to be um just because the skill level of the kids coming from um our K8 school as um well as because the reduced classes at the middle school going into High School U music programs U choir also um is having some reduced um participation because they weren't in choir in middle school because the um or a K8 because the numbers were reduced so that's another issue about programmatic concerns besides the content concerns because you know as well as us because we talk to people at teach at K8 schools uh you know the priority in content is language arts and math it is not the sciences and the history it is you know two subjects overriding so they um students are missing out on some major skills once they get to the high school so there's that feeder issue moving into the high schools and I think those are one of the things that um would tie into once we come to an agreement on or consens of on one or two models and then we could dig into deeper on exactly what do we want offer to each school um like Dana uh Dr Mitchell stated before it could be that we're going to choose to have a magnet school we could choose to have a school that have a specialy class and then we can have those type of conversations and then we can also poll all of our parents and say hey these are the models we're looking at what type of programs do you think your students and your Sal will be interested in your peers to take um take part in so those are I think that's a conver ation that will come in once we determine a model and then we talk about those specialy programs and what we actually Envision and what we're going to offer but right now we're just looking at the model of saying if we had one traditional tk5 one traditional 68 four tk8 and two traditional Middle based on our six pieces are there any other pieces that we need to add to help you all understand this model and the intent of this model we have additional questions in the chat as well from Jenny and then Patricia next okay thank you okay um as I'm an elementary school teacher so um I've spent a lot of time thinking about the TK through 8 model and I um there are some things that I would definitely expect to have addressed and one of them is that even our very largest elementary schools are not large and so um one of the reasons I know that some parents have been interested in the tk8 is because they would like to not have middle schoolers move to a high school like a 7 through 12 model but by the same token I really would like to have um very well-developed responses to how you plan on modifying um any Elementary campus uh in order to accommodate an age span of four to 14 years old on one campus and one option we have is to expand a middle school to make it Acom accommodate the younger grade levels versus is making an elementary school accommodate the older grade levels but I see four tk8 five tk8 and so we don't have that many Elementary uh we don't have that many middle schools to modify so some of those would have to go to elementary campuses and there isn't enough space there isn't enough bathroom space especially because the two largest um schools that you seem to be referring to um also have additional programs with their own physical modifications that are required like sped uh life skills or VI and so I'm wondering how you're going to really make sure mean developmental developmentally should a should a first grader be using the same bathroom as an eighth grader should they have the same um PE facilities should they be on the playground or in the in the lunchroom at the same time how are you going to take care of all of that and so that everybody's children are being able to have an appropriate and developmentally appropriate experence that is a honest concern and that is one of the reasons why it would be a phase in approach um and it would take it will take some monitorization it will take some changes it will take some um possibly some construction it will be taking I know for sure like in one of the slides we show that um if it was at a school that currently does not have a Kinder we would have to equip that site for that and that would be a Kinder restroom and a classroom and making sure they have their own facility to play in so we are taking that in consideration okay but it's still first through first through eighth grade using the bathrooms yes throughout the campus thank you Patricia Sanchez who's next good evening um thank you for the presentation I just have a couple of uh questions um and one of them is in your information you provided with the low enrollment and what it'll look like within x amount of years um is there anything that we may be able to provide that shows how much of that percentage is interdistrict transfers um because if we do look at these models has it been considered what is tangible to our community to maintain our students and not have such a high rate of interdistrict transfers or students just not even being approved but not show up first day and we don't know where they go and um it's only because if we do choose a model it looks like it's a five-year plan and what if we can take uh uh some kind of like um not control but some kind of understanding being able to maintain our enrollment if it comes from that interdistrict side uh that this these models eventually if we do choose one that it will maintain M it and we don't have to come back and do this again because it also affects our community as well as our district and then finally um do we have any statistics that show that any of these models are currently uh happening throughout our um our County and if they are successful and how is it uh being implemented or like what uh what Jen said in regard to the restroom or I mean even lunches breaks recess all those information uh I think we would want to know and the community would want to know um in regard within the slide as well to support it support the model okay thank you next is Melissa Wilson Perkins um I I think my question sort of leads on from what the previous uh um people were saying just um all of the three models proposed uh sort of have five elementary school um education campuses what um level of of enrollment projected enrollment for 2425 are we are we looking for um are we looking that these three these five campuses be at you know 80% or 100% um my son's at Hodge were um hge has about 27% open seats and it still feels very full um you know we still have like four different like lunch times and uh you know three different Christmas uh well now that we've retained our sixth graders there' be like probably three different Christmas um holiday um um uh performances in the um in our very small um Cafe CA the cafeteria plus gymnasium so it's called caesium I guess uh what is the all three of the models include um just five elementary school sites what is our um projected percentage of um enrollment at those sites and our goal for all our size for capacity is nothing less than 75% anything less than 75% is costing more to operate that campus versus if the school was at 75% or more uh thank you and then the other thing was um how can just just for this one model um for model one so it's one traditional Elementary feeding into one Middle School would that be at 75% that one Elementary could 75% uh fill uh one of our thousand plus um capacity middle schools can I can you ask that question a different way so I can understand it I'm sorry um so we we would uh most children would be um contained at their Elementary School site uh till till 8th grade we only have one Elementary School that ends at fifth grade and yet still in model one we retain uh one middle school so that one Middle School thus would mostly be fed by obviously some parents might opt for it but mostly by the elementary school that phased out at fifth grade does that keep us at 75% in that Middle School yes next in the chat we had Meg and then Edna I appreciate did you Natasha giving the 75% um kind of data qualifier there about attendance and stuff because that makes a differ um I know you said that we're getting into the weeds of some of these you know specifics about program or or not but I think it's really important that we're transparent with with the community with the parents with with the employees about about what these specifics mean because if a parent you know comes in with an attitude of I prefer this model but they don't know what that includes I think that that's unfair to them because then they're get it's kind of like um the mom that was talking about how her child started with yearbook and then couldn't because of changes in stopping and whatever I think it's important that they understand the difference between having a TK through eight as as envisioned by the district what that's going to look like because we've never said self-contained classes for example so I just think we need to lay that out I I don't think it's we I think it's important that we're transparent about it but but you said that we were really looking at the models with the the six different um pieces of information and trying to make sure we all understood the only budgetary number we got was the $7,000 which was what it would cost in I think it was like school three once you add that extra counselor I think was what you said so are there no but but as we've gone through this I've heard you say well potentially we're going to have to make um modernization and modifications and things like that what we didn't see those budgetary costs of what those different models would how that would impact right and we did not show that because that would that would for me mean that we've already determined on what schools are the six that will close and right now we're just determining the model of the option and then once we agree on the model then we can say Okay based on the model these are the schools that we feel can make this model work and this is what we would need to do to make it happen I understand that because of the specifics of size and things like that and the needs for modification but the reason I asked that question originally in our last meeting is that I know for some people um they may look at model um I'm going to just go with model two and just not knowing what that means yet that only is going to have seven schools but if you choose model 3 or if the group looks and says model 3 is the best choice that one has 10 schools and so therefore are we not making enough changes in order to be fiscally responsible with our taxpaying payers money you know what I mean that's what that's why I asked that question because if it's significantly different whereby we're not going to be able to offer the electives to the kids or whatever because we chose a more expensive model that's why I asked that question last time and what I can I hope this answers so again each model is designed for capacity so even when identify the schools to make the model work is going to be based off capacity it would not be based off this program we want to offer we're going to start with capacity because that's the focus of our reorganization because we currently are not we have 50% of our facility that's being unoccupied so we want to now condense our school so that way we can maximize capacity and we can offer more but first we have that we want to make sure everyone understands the three type of models that we're envisioning and then once we have a consensus have that ation okay you guys is there any other changes to the models vice versa have that conversation and then if we say you know what we're willing to and I'm just saying we're willing to just swallow model one and three and so then what we would do is we will take that back and say okay in order to make model one or three work what schools what can we implement this and maximize capacity then we will come back to the group and say okay guys for model one these are the schools we'll be maximizing capacity we can show you what that percentage is and this is what it would take to make that happen then we also say okay and these are the programs that we will have under model one these will be the specific schools that they will be offered on then for model three the exact same thing in order to make model 3 work these are the schools that we would do it so that we were maximizing capacity here are the programs this is what we'll be implementing and this is how it would happen Okay so what I'm hearing you say is we are going to get those numbers yes of of multiple models that we we narrow it down to to still make a further educated choice about the fiscal impact it is my intention that once we have a consensus of the model that we all are agreeing if we come to an agreement of what model we would like us to move forward in and then that's what we're going to dig in deeper and identify the schools that will um work best for this program the schools that would help us maximize and meet our 75% um um occupancy um threshold and also meet the facility needs as well as the programs that we want to offer do we have to do a 7-Eleven committee again before that no in order to choose those schools no even though our 7-Eleven committee because we're going to be closing some right so we don't we don't no at all okay thank you can I ask a clarifying question uh because I want to make sure that we're capturing right the the intent here um when you were referring to um you know making sure that that we're transparent like you know tk8 is going to be self-contained were you referring to the Past compared to now or are you referring to like what what was that in reference to I want to make sure that we're not missing a beat somewhere because in our slides we call it out in this we called it out on this presentation right we no you did you did you did once in the slide it was very clear it wasn't very clear I I I noticed it I'm not saying it wasn't clear I shouldn't can you go back Natasha yes I can I noticed it because as a teacher I I know what that means and I just don't know if parents really know what that means you know one more back because so are you saying that right here we okay right here it says self I'm pointing like you can see it for goodness sake I'm sorry um it says self-contained eighth grade transitioning directly to high school that is an inference that they're going no go go two bull three bullets up South contained classes no traditional electives self-contained classes no traditional electives got it okay yeah no I was reading below and you're right it's absolutely there I just it it that is a shift though from our past this year is the first year at Ellington that they've had self-contained sixth seventh and eth grade you know you know compared to the way it was before and and so that's new for the parents at Ellington this year and then we need to make sure parents who've been advocating for a TK through 8 understand that that's how it's going to be moving forward but it says it right there you're absolutely right so my my my bad I just wanted to double Che I own it sorry thank you for pointing that out no problem Leica any other questions in the chat yes we have uh Edna next then Margie after all right Miss Etna okay hi uh so this model offers many choices but I did happen to notice that the uh those for those kids that are in the dual immersion program and I'm at the high school so I'm not quite sure how popular that dual immersion program is for those parents in essence they really don't have any other option other than to go to a K8 in order to continue in that dual immersion program and so they'd have to weigh the benefits with all the drawbacks um and is that something that has been considered that they don't have really any option so you refering to the sixth at the once we get to sixth grade yeah right so the kids in elementary school are in the Dual emersion program but then when they transferred they'd have to continue in a tk8 right in order to continue in that program there'd be no there'd be no Junior High option for them and so they'd lose those electives they'd lose those PE minutes they'd lose all the other benefits that would they would go along with attending a traditional um Junior High right yeah and I just want to be super duper careful and we push ourselves to do this also um Miss Roger so this is not about you this is about us right we want to be we we want to be super careful that what's a benefit to somebody is a drawback to somebody else and what's a drawback to somebody is a benefit to somebody else so we're trying to put everything out there as much as possible but to your point yes right now the way the model is designed signed if you are dual immersion Elementary only once you get to sixth grade you will have to decide you want to continue in the program then you go to the tk8 to continue in the program or do you want to go to a 68 and get a 68 experience but the program would not be there again that's right now remember this process could change things right this process can say well wait a minute why don't we take the duel Merion 678 and move it to the traditional 678 so now the the the parents that are in the tk8 program they can go tk12 3 4 5 and then at fifth grade decide do I want to stay at this tk8 and drop dual immersion or do I want to continue with dual immersion and go to the traditional middle school so there's it's it's alive it's flexible it's malleable malleable this is only the first intent once we get to the point point where we are moving away from understanding the the the model and moving to now recommendations suggestions ideas um that is definitely something that again this is man malleable it's not a subit okay think Miss Margie was next um I'd like to back up to the capacity question or issue that was raised um Latasha you said that the goal is to have 75% capacity we're losing money you know from um the Ada my question is then both of the high the high school at both high schools with the exception of Gladstone which will is projected to be 49% of capacity um next year next school year but then after that both high schools are projected to be at 50% um or below capacity um why if that's if you're looking for that 75% then why are there two traditional high schools at every model and so we also put at the bottom that each model can also include one Traditional High School okay Diana Roos is next in the chat Miss Diana can we go back to the slide on the models please oh yes ma'am so I have two questions the first question um and excuse my ignorance if I missed this but how did we um come about to these three models um and then are these the only three models we're looking at so to answer the last question first so these are three models that we committed to bringing but we also stated that after we present the three models we're open to say hey maybe we want part of model one and part of model two and then that's what we're going to come up or someone may throw out a model four that just is a light bulb moment for all of us and then we're just going to have to start all over because that's what we're committed to but we committed to Bringing three models to the program I mean to the committee and the three models were designed based off of capacity only okay thank you for that clarification you're welcome and there's no more questions in the chat but there is a comment from Melissa and she says di could be a possible K8 Magnet Academy all right we were talking about um dual immersion parents as a as a two um I have two children in the dual immersion here um in the school district I'm just thinking there's there's a lot of drawbacks with the the k through eight to make it a magnet or an academy whether it's arts or language or or science that it allows parents to to feel better about maybe missing some of those Middle School opportunities um knowing that there that that there there's concentrated studies with um a path they'd already set their children on also I know at Hodge we have um two grades um per for dual immersion um I'm not sure what it is at the other at um is it Valleydale uh that um perhaps consolidating resources at a single School site would also perhaps we would lose um people coming from a local site but we would consolidate um resources good point thank you all right so our goal for our next meeting we will be reviewing model 2 and just to reiterate model 2 we'll be talking about a TK High School model will be five TKS and two traditional high schools and again we're had the same six pieces we're going to present the model how the model will be implemented the um possible prog uh programmatic drawbacks the possible programmatic benefits um support staff as well as any budgetary imp um impacts that we have that we can foresee at this time and I will do the same and we will have a commitment to sending you guys a PDF of the presentation prior so I hope that was helpful um and I appreciate that recommendation of the question that came up last time so thank you Natasha if I may can I remind everyone um if we already told them I'm not even sure but uh if we did just a reminder uh that uh these meetings are are being recorded um so that people can go back and view these meetings if they so wish to do so uh they are also live uh so people can be watching this uh in in in YouTube or in zoom in a live Manner and then number three we have dedicated a web page uh to the school reorganization um and so that web page has a summary of each meeting the video for each meeting and the handouts for each meeting so that that is that is something that we will continue to commit to uh so as soon as we can we'll summarize this meeting meeting number two we'll upload the video we'll upload the handouts and we'll archive meeting number one and then we'll just continue to do that so that people can have access uh to um to that um to answer me's question after we go through our three models and we finish that that's when we're going to have a discussion on any recommendations to models after we have a clear understanding of all the three models um my question kind of had a part two and I can't type fast enough to ask you I'm sorry but um you had said before that um once we had looked at all the models and then we could give our input um but then you were going to go back and decide which schools that potentially could affect and you would come back and give us the budgetary you know assessment but if we're only meeting three more times and next time we do model two and the third time we do model three then when are we going to have the opportunity to give our suggestions I really like for example I really liked and I don't remember if it was lesie Jones I can't remember I'm sorry um who gave the suggestion about you know having a magnet dual immersion school or having you know Performing Arts K8 school and having that be a focus and the shining star of our district kind of thing well maybe it was Mrs Perkin Miss Perkins I'm sorry but in any case I mean are we going to have enough time for that to give that input with four me and um boss let me know if I'm over speaking but um I'm saying yes we will and if that means that we might have to add another meeting um or that just means that maybe we finish model 3 sooner and then the second half of that meeting is committed to that but yes we will have that time it will not be one of those like oh Mick sorry that was meeting four that won't happen yeah I agree I think that this is not about trying to finish in the in the meetings that we have scheduled um and and we definitely want to give it uh the the correct amount of time all right with that I want to thank everyone um stay safe stay healthy and then until our next meeting we will see you guys thank you
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
um so that they wouldn't come back that first week in general that is a possibility for a site correct definitely i wanted to make sure because um actually my daughter asked me that question today she goes does this still count during christmas break and i said absolutely but i will double check yes because it's a two-week break so a lot of things can happen when we're gone for two weeks or when we come back and i think it's really important that parents keep vigilant about making sure if your kid has symptoms do not come to school it's okay it's much better for everybody not to do that so i think that our communication process about all of this is key so families know what to do all right so we've already talked about this it's a temporary return to remote learning it's for a one week period monday through friday determined the week before we would send notice to parents and staff no later than 5 pm on the preceding thursday but when i spoke with my principals we talked about how important it is if we determine that sooner to get the message out as soon as possible because it impacts so many people in so many ways so the model would shift to remote learning for one week we'll have additional cleaning sanitation disinfection administrators and teachers or other employees would be allowed back on campus either 24 hours or on the next school day so if we close down on friday and his team gets in there and it's good to go they could potentially come back on monday should they desire so some teachers are going to pick i want to teach out in my classroom rather than from home president kayla are members of the board vice president reece hopefully this slide will help clarify the question that you had earlier but when we do close a campus down all activities on that campus are closed and this goes honestly for all organizations so when you look at athletics that means we would not be allowing practices anything like that for that nine day period so i know even our sports practice on saturdays that would not be allowed for them to come back in sometimes the questions asked could they go find a different place to practice because of the spread and the group of kids the answer would be no we are saying for nine days you are stopping what is happening on your um with that group activities the same way clubs will not be allowed to meet on campus uh same thing not off of campus either they will be closed for the nine uh the nine days if there were supposed to be a performance or event if we could postpone it we would postpone it but if it's not able to be postponed we would cancel that event facilities rentals and working with community education facilities we would have to close for facility rentals as well and so i know there are organizations that are used to using our facilities on a weekly basis for all of the year we would have to be in contact with them and let them know that our facility was not available for that time period because we don't want anyone on our campus the learning will be remote and i think we need to jump on this there's this idea of remote versus online that was the huge question back there if you're an online student this does not affect you at all your online classes are going to stay the same way this is only for our in-person students who will now switch to remote for those five school days nine days total but for the five school days originally we had support services on campus we will not be offering those support services on campus for that week there's a waiver that we will be submitting as was outlined in the executive order to the ade because once again our goal is not to have our kids congregate and be on campus we want to reduce that spread this also goes to kids club on that particular campus kids club will not be available on that as well this just goes back to again we don't want to close our schools it impacts our community in such a great way the last time our schools were closed everything closed and so parents were home i think about again even mr um to mr glover's comments is we have to all work together to keep our schools open because this time the parents are working again and they don't have that luxury of staying home because everything's still open so i always think that in my head right now is that i know that if if we reach those levels it's just really impactful in so many ways and so again we need all hands on deck to keep our schools open members of the board that's a lovely transition because one of the things we want to clarify about this plan again is that this is a mitigation strategy this is different than what happened under executive order that that that had us go into school closure and again it was very different you couldn't go to a restaurant you couldn't go to your favorite hangout things are open now and so this is a mitigation strategy if we find that we have concern about the number of rising cases that are sustaining that tells us that we need to look at that more carefully this is would be our safety it's a mitigation plan again it would be our dashboard that our higley dashboard that would trigger that and again and i just want to reiterate that if at any point though the edhs because of the way the camp the numbers were rising or the way they can the the cases were spread if we were directed to close they would determine our return date and we would follow that and we would follow that immediately so again this would be our own mitigation plan in the event of we weren't directed to do something different next slide hey attendance continues to be very important even if we're on a remote learning league so we've had practice with this most of our families understand this unless they're new to our district that students will be accounted for daily and that's because we're using canvas but parents can also telephone email communicate through microsoft teams or google meets teachers can also see student participation through assignment completion and sometimes our parents communicate through writing so all of that is perfectly fine and acceptable only one of those is necessary for us to know a student is present doctor doctor mr watson-hauser already talked about this when he said our online students are not impacted by this they continue with attendance and their assignments and their classes as they are currently doing one thing we would like to add sometimes parents want to change modalities and switch they will we will not be allowing people if they were online if we ever go remote to switch over to go back to remote we're gonna you're gonna need to stay in whatever modality you are already in because hopefully this is a one week thing then we go back to in person next slide please all right elementary we will be looking at using canvas as we have and continue to do with our students this is a unique thing because elementary students most of them are not one-to-one they're not like secondary taking devices back and forth we're right in the middle of testing season and should this happen we're going to accommodate students without technology by providing printed materials textbooks workbooks etc a lot of our families do have technology so we're blessed the other thing that i want you to recognize is this will resemble what our online kids are currently doing we know that live time with teachers is essential however we don't want our kids sitting in front of the computer for six hours straight so you'll see that there will be small group opportunities there will be time for special services breaks lunch and of course specials so those vary a little bit based on primary self-contained or intermediate which those kids are departmentalized in diets or triads secondary schools we're actually looking at a different model than we did before if you remember before we had two days kind of in the mornings then we had a wednesday off and then two days but we really feel like to maintain the acute epidemic academic momentum of what we've been doing in person that we need them to be active and engaged with us more than we did before so what we're asking is that they will follow their daily schedule but the only exception would be lunch since everyone has the opportunity to be lunch everyone would basically have an a lunch so they go to first second and third hour have lunch then go to fourth fifth and sixth hour we're asking and requiring the teachers to have a teams meeting when i met with the administration we felt that 35 minutes was an appropriate amount of time to have an open teams meeting required for every single class we picked 35 because that gives them about 25 to a half an hour in between classes because we know that sometimes there's screen fatigue although i feel like sometimes with teens they have a lot of screens anyway and i doubt they get as fatigued as we do but there is that opportunity for them to have breaks as well but you know what we found is that the engagement when we're remote is not nearly what it is when we're in person and we have to find a way to keep that up and requiring expecting more during this one week closure is really important for us and so we're looking to do them following meeting with every class every day and doing it for at least a 35-minute teams meeting food service sorry um if for any reason this would occur during finals how would finals be addressed in our especially our secondary if we would continue to follow the finals schedule uh how it is with the half days and the finals put in there and then we would be looking at a way that they do finals remotely that's not ideal but if that's something that we would have to do i think it's important to finish up the semester and get that finished and not push it back to when they came back from break thank you do most of our teachers plan um a week or two two weeks how how how do our teachers plan is it a one-week plan a two-week plan i always think about like if they were going to close they kind of have their lessons planned for the next week for sure but do they go further that really depends on the teacher okay okay food services food services will still be open and we'll be able to provide on our campuses they can't eat on campus but they can drive through through curbside pickfish for breakfast and lunches good evening president kayla members of the board my fellow colleagues as well as our higley community impact on employees so we certainly know this is going to be disruptive to our students our community but also our employees and we've tried to think strategically and thoughtfully about how we would not only continue the momentum as we talked about because we have to in terms of our employees in their instructional models but also looking at what we have to do at the site to be able to maintain what we need to do and keep them ready when they come back so in terms of our administrators our front office employees facilities maintenance grounds and custodial after that 24 hour period shutdown where all those additional campus-wide sanitation and disinfecting protocols will occur we are expecting those groups of employees to come back to work continue to wear masks in physical distance and the reason for that is because we still have to operate although our students are not physically on campus they are still going to be learning remotely and all of those same factors as ms schritzer's and mr lotzenheiser has mentioned in regards to attendance etc has to be addressed and people have to be available for that our certified teachers and our other certified again after the 24 hour disinfection cleaning and protocols they can either come back to work and as ms richards mentioned earlier work in their classrooms we found that in the fall term when we first started remotely a number of teachers felt it was better to actually work out of their classroom due to connectivity issues with internet as well as sometimes depending on their home situation it was better to be less distracted so we'll allow them that option and or they may work remotely and if they work remotely we'll continue the work log it has to be submitted to their site administrator as we always have for any remote work whether it's been in the fall or if it's continued in certain circumstances in regards to quarantining right now with certain employees and situations depending on the needs beyond that in terms of our classified particularly our paraprofessionals our health aides and our kids and kids club employees related to our paraprofessional specific there are certain situations in which worked successfully back in the spring as well as in the fall where utilizing those paraprofessionals in that virtual classroom is the first option so we would want to look at that if not we would look at an alternative assignment for example because we could never not have enough people helping in situations of sanitation and disinfecting duties we certainly have employees who would still have applicable to them as of right now continue the ffcra that goes until december 31st we've not heard anything in terms of whether or not that will be extended as of right now but if they have time and they have not had to utilize any hours in related to that paid sick time that would be available to them in lieu of any general leave if we need help at other sites you know we have been active in terms of our hiring and what we've been doing all across all positions in the district but we are still short in certain areas at certain sites and we can always utilize the systems in crossing guards lunch aids again other custodial type duties at some of the other sites so we would look at that as an option too and again other disinfecting and sanitation type methods they could take their general leave or they could look at unpaid time um so we have lots of options for everybody and we'll certainly work with them and continue to work with them as we have since all of this started back in march and work with their needs and the best serve theirs as well as ours the best we can questions comments concerns dr foley i know we've talked about hybrid it's a word that gets thrown around a lot do you want to explain maybe why we didn't go that route just for our community to hear or maybe it's better for mrs martin's because i know she also had that conversation with our teachers but i just thought i'd pose it to you and you can maybe pass it out as you see fit thank you board member wilson and governor board absolutely so one of the things when we started back at the beginning of this we actually had like a covid or our team that looked at all different kinds of scenarios looked at all kinds of different schedules one of the things that initially came out of those conversations was um i mean we looked at all all different kinds of schedules there was concern about the hybrid schedule being that the hybrid schedule there was a lot of concern that there was a very hard as a teacher to plan in person as well as online for students who are not there when students are not there on those days they work independently and and again the teacher they can you know call the teacher before or school or after school but during the day the teacher would not be available so that was one of the feedback that we got initially from our task teams looking at schedules going that is not something that we wanted to recommend it was either we were either going to be in person or online so again could we implement a hybrid schedule we could but we've also asked we've asked administrators we've asked teachers talk with us about how do you feel about a hybrid for the one or two who said yeah i'd be interested in doing a hybrid now remember in a hybrid the teacher comes every single day it's the students who come they come two days in and usually a wednesday out and again that's what our initial schedules kind of looked like that we played around with the thought was that makes it really hard because you're trying to do both remote and in person and it slows down the amount of academic content that you cover so from an academic perspective the task team said not our preferred schedule so we've asked people tell us about you want to look at a hybrid a kind of schedule for the like i said the one or two say yeah i'm interested we've had substantially more that said for the very same reasons that came out in our initial test team so it's not that high that higley didn't put together a hybrid model we looked at several different schedules it was the recommendation of our task teams that we originally composed this summer when we began looking through what could what it could would should might or or potentials for us as we navigated through school closure look like when we reopened so again if any of my other team members want to add additional that's where we were with hybrid i would just say that when i've talked to a lot of parents they were worried about it and trying to make sure they had child care every other day or whatever model we put in place so i i understand that doesn't represent everybody but in some of my conversations they communicated that as well the other potential issue for our teachers is if they're working every day and they have kids in our schools and their kids are two days a week where do their kids go and mrs richards i'll piggyback on that that um again parents are working and so and i and i'm concerned that if for me personally looking at a hybrid option just big picture is that the kids on the days they're in school they're in school in a clean environment with a mask on and on the days that they're not in school they're at the parks and fat cats and other places and skate parks and and there's not those kind of so then you were exposing teachers to a student one day every day there you kind of know you know we're in a groove together right now and then oh tomorrow i don't know where you're going to be or what you're doing and then the next day you're back in my classroom and so i i too kind of wrestled with hybrid this summer and i those kind of thoughts kept coming back into my head president killer members of the board again it is a structured schedule it works it is a potential option there are some districts that are using it and there are those who love it or hate it there are advantages to smaller groups then again that's one of the things but when our task teams and again one of the things that we've tried really hard to do is again build our plan and run it through our leaders and our teachers and our members of our task force and get feedback that was not the one that they wanted us to consider at that time for many reasons so again that was the feedback we received and i too heard that from teachers i just wanted our community to hear it because a lot of our community had been asking well why haven't we considered a hybrid and i just wanted to make it very clear that our teachers were at least clear for us we heard from teachers that they did not want to do a hybrid seeing different kids in and out of the classroom they would be exposed the same as what they are right now so i not that i was suggesting a hybrid i want to make sure that's very clear i just wanted it to be known that we did consider it um it wasn't mr glover is gonna be not allowed to be very it was something we did discuss in the summer and that's what we had came to and we had i think talked about it again um again a few weeks ago and i just want to make it very clear i was not for it i just want the teachers to know i'm not for it i don't want you to have to do that but i did want our community to know we have considered it so thank you mr glover i'm president so um so now people have numbers and they have some certainty and i think that will give some people a level of comfort what i hope people did not take away from looking at our dashboard and i want to be clear is that you can relax now [Music] we have got to keep our our foot on the gas pedal here you know when i hear people saying like kids don't get coveted or they're not carriers kids do get it a million more than a million american kids have gotten it they can transmit and it's dangerous to suggest otherwise you know i i learned the term nasal load because i learned that little kids can carry huge amounts of uh nasal load you didn't you didn't learn that when they were two in your house no i did not i did not know that one um but these are not magical numbers you know this is a result of hard work you know our numbers are low uh compared to the outside community because of her the herculean efforts of our staff and i would say some responsible parenting and a massive investment in things like um like air filters and and cleaning cleaning supplies so if we want to stay open you know we just we cannot be complacent or cavalier about these numbers um they're serious and there are triggers now um but it's this tonight i think is a call to the community that and you know we're fighting well we have to admit we're fighting uh the clock for time here until a vaccine gets here which would probably be i'm hearing april may-ish maybe if we're lucky so it yeah it's going to be a long year and i would continue to encourage our teachers to be flexible and understanding as they have been and to continue to do that as we persevere and uh you know i'll just i'll finish my comments by saying if we want to stay open we all have to do the right things and encourage one another to do the right things we know what works thank you mr glover i just again i hats off to our teachers because i know um as much as the roller coasters that we've ridden um every day is it has been challenging especially when they do have a class that has been several kids are missing because of a quarantine and then trying to watch over them and their current class and we love our teachers and we're so grateful for them and that is across the board in our district and so just hats off to our teachers and know that we we eat drink and think about this all day long every day it doesn't it doesn't leave us so yes and i agree mr glover we we have to stay vigilant this is not a time to relax um on a lighter note i did i did see a meme the other day that just made me chuckle a little was that moms were afraid to send their kids or let their kids come home for christmas break that they would never get to go back and because that happened last time with spring break and so i was kind of giggling a little bit but it is true and it could happen and we need to stay vigilant so this is three i just i too want you guys have worked so hard at this and i want to thank the focus of the entire test team to keep our schools open and we receive a lot of emails and some say you know you guys say this is a tough decision but it's really not just close them and then it's a really easy decision and so thank you for putting our students first and coming up with a concrete plan something that we can look at something for our staff to measure something for people to know what's happening in our schools we've said it earlier we're not seeing the spread within our campuses and so it is hard when we look at that dashboard every thursday when we get our daily numbers it is difficult to see and say why are we still sending our children to school look at how much we're growing here and our campuses because of our teachers because of our administrators our custodial staff because of our students they are keeping those numbers low on campus and i have to tell you i have again well i wasn't able to respond to everybody there are emails the way our emails come in i it shows you when you have emails from that person and it will list them out i have emails from people who in the summer were sending emails do not open you're being irresponsible if we send our kids back to school do not do this it's not safe and now receiving an email we have to keep our kids in school it is the safest place for them to be and we need them to be there academically we need to be for them to be there mentally socially emotionally and so they need to be there i have received emails from teachers who again emailed me in the summer do not open it's not safe you shouldn't do this now who are also emailing going we cannot go back to a remote environment we need to be in person what i've seen from these kids and how they've worked and that they want to be there this virus is real it's going to be here for a long time and hopefully vaccines will help but you guys have done an amazing job from an administrative standpoint i feel working with our staff if people are afraid they they have their own reasons for being afraid and you know thank you miss martens for helping navigate for our staff what they can do what their options are we want every single one of our staff members and students to be safe and to feel comfortable and we're doing everything we can to keep our students and staff safe but if they're not comfortable that conversation needs to happen and thank you for giving so many options and really working on what we can do to try and help make a staff member feel safe here and comfortable so you i know have put in countless numbers of hours working with our staff and and it's so appreciative and so like mr glover said earlier our theaters need to close our bars need to close those need to close b i'm not saying they need to close right now don't let's not take my words out of context but those need to close before our schools do we need to prioritize our students and their education and um so i i love the plan thank you for taking the time to do it i have to tell you while i love the plan i'm not thrilled of thinking of our kids going back to a remote situation it was not conducive to their learning it was not healthy for parents and you know i mean a lot of guys say happy wife happy life boy you know you have moms and dads who may still be working from home who are trying to do their jobs to provide for their families and we go back into that remote environment and they're trying to be educators and they're trying to get through their work day that they can't change their schedule and they have conference calls and trying to help their kids so the thought of going back to a remote situation is not great for me but understanding why we would need to do it and that you have a plan when we would need to do it and we will not close our entire district unless we're told to do so um i know that was one of the concerns that people have said for that we would make these decisions district-wide that they will be site specific um so that thank you i know you guys are working hard and i appreciate the thoughtfulness and um the time it took to create this to really make sure that this is what we need to do and how to do it so um i think it's i think it's important that people understand we like mr glover's been up here so many times we have to do our part our communities have stopped doing some of their part our grocery stores don't wipe down the carts like they did at the beginning of this and in the summer they have the little wipes for you but they're not doing that people are getting lazy and using the chin diaper instead of a mask and you know i i'm not a fan of masks either they drive me crazy but i wear them in public i wear them when i'm at work i it's important so we do need everybody to do their part and no matter what your feelings are for your own child whether you believe it's real not real whether you believe in masks that they help not help we need to think of someone else and we need to think of our students and if you have an online student and they're doing great i'm glad and anything we can do to help you one of the questions we had on our board packet was could we see our online lists and what i noticed is we have classes online for one student class is online for one student because a student for whatever reason chose to be online which is the beauty of the choice and that teacher made it happen that teacher made sure that the student could get the class that they wanted as an elective to teach it online so we have done a lot and we just need people to continue don't have huge parties please talk to your kids know where they are please don't support them going to large events it's it just puts everybody in jeopardy so i guess i took mr glover's little soapbox and um i i just we need to do our part we need to keep our kids in school i appreciate the plan that really focuses on not a knee-jerk reaction because our community numbers are climbing but what's really happening in our schools so thank you yes thank you dr foley and team i know people were upset with us for waiting until december 2nd to roll this out but it wasn't just a one-and-done this was a comprehensive mitigation plan once again created from scratch and um precise to higley which i appreciate and that we just didn't kind of piecemeal something together but we we did talk to our stakeholders and that was really important so thank you for all the work any other comments or questions i do have the online classes we did ask for them and i was pretty impressed with all like vice president reece said all the classes that we're offering it's amazing honestly because i wasn't sure i'm like okay we are hearing that you know some classes are not being offered i looked there is a lot to be offered um it's pages and pages of you know regular english honors english ap english all the things um so if you're not comfortable it's okay not to be comfortable and to send your kid into this environment this is an okay environment too i just i stressed it when we went back in the fall and i'll say it again your choice is the choice you need to make we are not judging you i'm not judging you i would assume no one up here is judging you if you feel like you need to send your child for any reason to the online environment and i don't feel like they should be judged to go in person either that decision is purely based on your family and what you need at that time and if this is the option great if the other option is the option great let's not judge each other on that let's come together and just agree that you're educating your child the best way you see fit at this time so thank you for this because this is really amazing on how many classes we are offering and thank you to the teachers who are picking up seventh seven fifths then all the things to make this possible because i know there's a lot of teachers who teach one class because they're in school in the in the in person for the other five so thank you i think we have some staff members right now that are teaching in person doing a six-fifth online and also getting their master's degrees or other things they're going to stu their students themselves and so again teachers are to me are some of the most amazing people on earth and i um support them and adore them so with that i moved at the governing board i'm gonna move on to 6.1 i move that the governing board approves the district's coven 19 mitigation plan in the event there are increased percentages of covet 19 cases on a school campus second all those in favor motion carries 4-0 i move that we adjourn second all those in favor i have a good evening i
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where biders will be coming in to walk through the school walk through the grounds um and uh you know they'll need technology and Mr Caldwell and custodians to open up every nook and cranny so they can really look at the building because there's a demolition part of the building as well that they'll be biding on uh and so that's now on the schedule and looks like will occur on December 16th so that's the update that just occurred yesterday oh I actually have another update that I just got um from Mr czecho he said that the state project today um at the follow-up PCR meeting with uh the office of State conru Construction Grants and um the &r so um the state has approved the project so that's good news Okay um I guess that's it so we can uh move on to three main points I know suggestion the budget proposal and the name the new school name yeah I I was thinking um maybe John's uh covid update or superintendent update about covid uh the budget and then maybe the new school update including the naming committee and the state approval of the project yep I agree sounds good agreed all right uh upcoming events hi all schools have an early release this Friday December 4th for professional development at Center School and at Huckleberry throughout this week students will be learning about the history of Brookfield and brainstorming names for the new school as part of the new school project there is a PTO meeting at Center on Tuesday December 15th at 7 pm and a PTO meeting at Huckleberry on Friday December 18th at 9:30 a.m.
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at whiner Middle School Winter Wonderland Wednesdays started today with a western ho down December 9th is WMS takes a holiday vacation dress like you're going on a summer vacation on the 16th is Dream a Little Dream cozy up in your favorite pajamas to support Connecticut Children's Hospital pajama day for kids look for an email sent with a link to help donate money to that great cause and December 23rd is show off your favorite festive holiday attire the tack year or the better and at Brookfield High School we have school pictures on Monday the 7th for cohort a Friday December 11th for cohort B and Wednesday December 9th for cohort C students should have received an email with an appointment time the newly formed Outdoors Club is having its first informational meeting on Monday December 7th at 2:15 p.m. and the drama club is planning a schoolwide virtual winter Cabaret where students students can sing dance act or perform a comedy routine and the date and time on that is to be determined and that's it great all right uh it's not on the agenda but I will move that the board enter into executive session for the purpose of discussing strategy and negotiations as it relates to collective bargaining a second thank you all in favor okay so that concludes our broadcast for tonight so um thanks everybody and I'll see everyone else at our other link thanks everyone bye bye take care
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e e e pm um let's see welcome to the December 3rd 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 covid-19 virus we intend to conduct this meeting similar 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 please call 888 099 or 9723 and enter meeting ID 5952 this information is 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 16 AT&T channel 99 and online at www.a2gov.org CN thank you okay gayen do you want to do the let's do the introductions um first we have the two council members U so let's go and then we have Lily Ferris who should be here I'm gon to assume we lost gayen for a second so council member Griswald would you like to start yeah I'm sorry I just WIP the door um council member yes I'm I'm thrilled to be here I'm very very interested in this area and I look forward to working with you welcome to the commission thank you welcome welcome Kathy council member Lisa dish hey everyone um I'm representing W one and very very excited to be part of a city that is leading the way towards a20 and has been a head of the game in terms of recycling for many years and I'm really really happy to be on this commission where I can help do some of this important work Guided by all of your expertise all right well uh commissioner Lily Ferris hi everyone um today is my first official meeting um and I'm really excited to be working with everyone awesome welcome welcome Lily sorry it took so long no worries okay those are the introductions we see you Steve Canen yeah okay good yeah I'm on my iPhone 5 so if I if I get disconnected I think is Rita there somewhere if I get disconnected um I think I would like to transfer the chair responsibilities to Rita until I can get ready connect then we get okay great so um so gayen will you do the roll call I sure will uh commissioner Graham I'm here commissioner Skinner commissioner Skinner right uh commissioner NM here council member dish here commissioner Slavic commissioner Slavic oh I see her gayen okay I'm here har uh commissioner Apple commissioner Gib Randall council member gwall here commissioner calart here chairman Brown presid council member over pet council member over pet I mean I'm sorry commissioner overp I'm sorry about that commissioner overp commissioner marsky here uh Vice chair Mitchell here commissioner Bunda here and uh commissioner feris yeah all right okay excellent looks like we have a forum yes we do have AUM we have a quorum okay so the um land Heritage statement gayen will you read the land Heritage statement indeed alrighty uh I acknowledge that the land of city of an arbor occupies is the ancestrial traditional and contemporary lands of the anishi nabii including the odwa ewe bod WME and whed out peoples I further acknowledge that our city stands like almost all property in the United States on lands obtained generally in in in uncashable ways from indigenous peoples this taking of this land was formalized by the treaty of Detroit in 1807 knowing where we live work study and recreate does not change the past but a thorough understanding of the ongoing consequences of this past can Empower us in our work to create a future that supports human flourishing and justice for all individuals okay thank you gayen so um let's go to the approval the agenda um is there a motion to approve the agenda moved second Rita John seconds um um um uh I can't see anybody so uh if you uh if you agree to approve the agenda as submitted uh please raise your hand okay um are there any objections any no votes please uh say so verbally okay looks like it was approved the agenda is approved as written um excuse me Steve I I just want to acknowledge that um commissioner overp just joined the meeting as well oh yeah okay yeah okay hi p uh thank you yeah when I come on I come on in the webinar mode and it freaks me out but eventually I guess the webinar mode turns into this so I've never seen that before until I ran into this organization okay all right so so let's move on to the special presentations first we have Andrea aido of the bird center of Washton County um so Andrea you have the floor good evening guys thank you for having me um I am here I'm going to share my screen here with you guys for uh a little presentation I made together to let you know who the bird center of wasar county is okay see here all right sorry when it when I did that it took my part of my screen away to make me make this a full screen for everybody I think if you hit slideshow at the top that might do it see here did it do anything just go over to now go over to from beginning and the L ah up one that one gotcha okay I'm not the best with computers okay so my name again is Andrea audo and I am the clinic director of the bird center of Wasa County uh the bird center Wasing county is a 501c3 nonprofit charity organization that runs off of donations with no state or federal funding uh we're located in a residential neighborhood so we're located actually on Mary Street which is off of Hoover right near the IM building and uh we have been there since 2012 uh the city has given us this building uh in um in agreement that we move out for City elections um this building was built in 1903 and is one of of the oldest buildings around in that area uh we accept uh birds and each year we take in Birds and the number is growing each year and uh just as of this year I've been doing our final numbers and we're just under 1,400 birds in one year so a little bit more about who we are so we take in injured and orphan Birds we commonly see hatchlings and nestlings that have fallen out of the tree um usually in the springtime at the beginning of the year and then we um without the ability to renest them people will bring them into us and uh the fledglings that are usually injured on the off the ground from predators since they have the inability to fly away those are brought to us and then injured birds that might have collided into Windows or sometimes are H hit by cars those birds are brought to us uh the most common reason birds come into our Center the top three would be um a cat cat attacks collisions whether that's a window strike or a car and then Nest or tree destruction we commonly see pesticide issues and um just a lot of different just issues with are caught in like substances um we get a lot of birds that are caught um in in like oils from like car shops around in an arbor so people will bring us those birds we treat all medical cases with uh Veterinary prescribed medication provide oxygen and fluid therapy and per uh provide uh supportive care uh these birds get vitamins when they're young and get live enrichment with diets with insects crickets all that sorts of good stuff and uh give them as much supplements that we can as they would have in the in the wild here's a few photos of an example of birds brought into to us uh again I am the clinic director I'm a licensed rehabilitator federal and state license and I'm also a veterinary technician of uh close to 15 years I do have staff that works with us um I took over um in 200 2017 as the clinic director our founder Carol acof uh was with us and retired and I took over the position after I spent a few years volunteering and then um became you know employed we have staff we get a lot of our staff from the University of Michigan for students there are involved in programs such as uh environmental Sciences that's one of our largest ones that we get students from uh we also get students that are going into conservation biology and also preet students that are going to Michigan State we also depend on our volunteers which are one of our biggest biggest helps so we educate the public a lot that's one of our biggest biggest things so we do that through our social media platforms different brochures handouts and different ways to spread spread our mission and goals we do a lot of public fundraising events and yearly organiz uh yearly events with different organizations um we're involved sometimes uh doing public events with uh creature Conservancy Leslie Nature Center um and even Barn Sanctuary which is right outside of Ann Arbor we speak at different schools we go to wildbirds Unlimited stores and we do uh VAR uh various events with our educational Ambassador which is a blue jay and uh her name is blue so we try to educate the public on who we are and what we do with the help of our bird who is non-releasable uh due to unfortunate human human interactions so uh we have been on a few public radio talk shows and we also uh were on a cable access show in Ann Arbor as well and ways you can help us a lot of people don't know who the bird center is and uh my goal has been for the past three years as the Director is making people more aware of who we are and the benefits at what we do uh the birds basically are our pollinators for our environment and without the birds we would not be here honestly and so they are a huge huge uh importance to us and we like to educate people on social media we do uh mailing lists with different information uh as far as our educational events you can always find information about us on online on our website and then we also have yearly memberships with patreon and different ways obviously to volunteer um we strive on providing education on how to help our native songbirds with planting native you know and doing different things around our environment to make things better so a few examples of what we try to educate the people and you with is how can you help your bird simply at home people always ask us that first so we always say simple steps if you're going to offer seat try to do it year round want to provide a water bath and make sure that your feeders are always clean you can protect your windows with proper blinds or window deterrence as I said one of our main main issues is window collisions so we want to try and protect our Birds keeping your cats indoors um they don't belong in our environment and they can be pretty destructive outside and they can be injured themselves so um for a win for all we keep like to keep the cats inside not to spray any pesticides on our lawn or flowers not only is that bad for just our environment in general but we're also trying to make sure that we're not killing off any of the food that our birds are eating and avoid cutting the trees during the springtime that's when our birds and other Wildlife are going to be in the trees so if you can hold off on your projects the birds would appreciate it um checking your yard before you mow the grass is a common thing that you wouldn't really think to do but there's a lot of birds on the ground and planting native which is a big thing to help the environment and uh for your yard and we try to educate the people on the phone first um if you have found an injured bird give us a call we're going to walk through a series of steps to try to figure out if that bird is actually injured and needing help um or if it's actually supposed to be out there in the wild doing its own thing so we offer um guidance through that and ask for photos and videos of the birds before they're brought into us we ask that you always um take a picture or something and give us a call once you have secluded this bird in a box and don't give it any food or water oftentimes we'll get callers that found a bird outside and they'll say Hey you know this bird needs help and then they go outside and say oh it's gone or we don't know where it is so we always say conf find the bird first and then we can help you from there and then we do need assistance with you bring in the bird to us because excuse me unfortunately as a nonprofit we don't have any staff or any paid transit to go and do pickup so if you're able to help us out with that we do and that's kind of a really Rush speed through chat about who we are and what we do um in the long run so our goal obviously is to rehab and release as many Native song birds as possible um with the aid of you know providing education um with these birds and and help with our our environment so that was me fast I can usually talk and do this whole thing in like an hour so it's really little topics yeah thank you Andrea no that was you're welcome that was an excellent overview and I presume your website what's your website titled it's Bird center.org Okay and then on Facebook we're Bird Center washing off okay great um are there any questions for Andrea I have one this is Rita hi Andrea that was a great presentation and um I just wanted to comment on your last picture those were chimney Swifts right they are I were you the one that talked with Dana about the chimney swift yes I'm so excited um that that you're actually a specialist area you know group in rehabbing chimney Swifts right and they're one of my absolute favorites I fell in love with them when I first started at the center and I now um get all my education on Chimney Swifts from an actual chimney an actual specialist um in California who works with variety of Swift species and um she's given me all the the information on how to take care of them properly and um each year our number is growing most of the time chimney Swifts come into our facility because people have them fall to the bottom of their chimney and don't really want to bother getting them back up and I will say they are one of the hardest Birds to renest only because you have to get into a chimney or climb on a roof and we don't want anybody to hurt themselves so um the numbers are growing and this year we had 25 of them uh come in and um we'll we're definitely going to try and arrange something with you in this spring and uh NE or summer of next year and and get to see them release um we usually go to H I'm completely blinded on on the name of the the the school uh Mac Mac Elementary that's name yeah yeah yeah yep so that's where we typically release the majority of our Swifts because they have one of the largest colony in an arbor and um yeah they're a wonderful species they're incredible to take care of and um I love them yeah and they they do a lot for us in the environment right in terms of of eating insects and um yeah that's they fly non-stop from morning till night that's why you will never see them and they are get up as high as you can possibly think they eat all of our bugs for us and so that's why they're important um and and especially with the pesticides um usually um the cool thing about them I was gon yeah that's what I was I'm like too excited to talk about Swift um this is why they're cool and I'll just say this one fact they can sleep when they fly and that they don't stop in the day they sleep in flight they eat in flight and they fly all the way to the other side of the continent without a problem and they are magnificent little creatures and we are very happy to have them we also specialize in swallow species and hummingbirds so um a lot of from across uh Michigan because there's only honestly about five Songbird rehab or rehab centers that see birds in lower Michigan and uh we're one of the only ones that specializes specifically in s Birds only and with these guys so we get referrals from um Michigan with these guys so we have really good success rate with them and um just continue to hope okay all right are there any more questions for Andrea you'll have to speak up I can't see anybody else what's your an your what's your annual budget annual budget is roughly about 130,000 a year and that's off of donations and we have maybe two to three established grants that we get yearly um and then maybe random ones but typically off of donations um I have another question Andrea just about um release options um when I talked with Dana she had thought that there might be some opportunities for us to coordinate with the the city to coordinate with you in terms of possibly some locations in town that might be city property that would be um good places to release birds so I'm just kind of suggesting that we continue a conversation if if that hasn't been done yet yeah it' be wonderful we usually try to release a lot of our Birds um back to their original site if it's safe I mean commonly these birds are coming in because they're injured in that area but if we can get them back to their original habitat we like to if not we try to release commonly at the Botanical Garden um we release at the ARB we release at Gallup Park um those are usually the main ones that we like just because of the habitats in general yes okay all right any other H questions or comments okay well thank you Andrea thank you guys for having me I appreciate it and keep up all your amazing work that you guys do yeah thank you so much all right have a good evening you too all right bye bye bye okay the next item on the agenda is um Missy staltz office of sustainability and Innovations um department presentation uh with a resolution in support of energy principles um Missy you have the floor thank you so much chair Brown well hi everybody I don't have a slide deck for today because I just want to talk to you following the practice that we put in place in the commissions where we're presenting an idea and then give a month for people to comment and reflect and the idea would be we'd come back in January with this but I want to give a little bit of context as we're moving forward with a20 we have a lot of actions related to energy which makes a lot of sense when you look at our emissions profile so we've been working on our renewable energy strategy and we have a number of Pathways that we have mapped out we've been working with Partners on but overall what guides that are a series of principles and we are presenting those principles to you today in draft format hoping we can have a little discussion and you can follow up with us offline and then in January uh we would love to have formal adoption or support from this body of those principles and the intent is we'll be doing this with a number of different commissions and then going to council um hopefully in February asking for formal support for these principles which will give us really the policy guidance in terms of which actions we actively pursue in our energy Quest and which ones maybe aren't the priority for our community so I'm going to present the principles as we have currently drafted them this comes from best practice research it certainly comes from the development of a20 and the conversations that we had with community members and again these are just draft but um and first introduction of this so don't don't worry I doubt anyone had a chance to look at this but there are six principles and I'm just quickly going to articulate them and very much look forward to any conversation folks have the first of course is a20 is about reducing greenhouse gas emissions so finding solutions that do that and that may seem pretty self-evident but we do want to name that front and center and I do want also want to articulate these aren't in priority order uh so they just happen to be uh listed in this way we can always re rejer them if that feels important the second principle is focusing on enhancing the resilience of our people our community and our natural systems in the work that we do around a renewable energy future and you can see underneath uh in the resolution before you the draft there's further articulation of what we mean by this and so this was one I'll just I'll name thinking about things like micro grids and thinking about uh where we can have redundant power supply and prioritizing emergency service Personnel in terms of microing um or battery storage thinking about um our low-income neighborhoods and what resources they rely on and so as we're thinking about where to deploy first and how to deploy batteries as we're ramping up Battery Technology this would guide our decision making in that Cas the third is making sure our choices are grounded in equity and to the fullest extent possible avoid placing any additional burdens on low-income in minority populations the fourth we want our investments The Proposal is that they would be new Investments and placing fossil fuel-based fuels and this feels important of course from the community conversation we have but you could go to the market today and we could buy wind um we could buy good wind wind in Texas but we could buy wind that was pushing wind Off the Grid so because there's been a legacy of production of wind in that market if we're not careful about how we buy we could be stimulating no displacement of fossil fuels and again um just the addition of Renewables moving Renewables and I don't think what our community is looking for the fifth is about geography we here a clear preference for local so where we can local when not possible Regional and if not possible in this region for a myriad of reasons that to the fullest extent feasible our project should be located in environmental justice communities with environmental justice communities so making sure that it's co-designed co-produced employing uh folks of that Community by that community in this work and I'll say here um I know some people really would like to see all of the Renewables local I will tell you that is not possible we do not have enough land enough rooftops for all local within the borders of an arbor so as we think about maximizing what we can do locally we're going to eventually have to go out as well and so we really want some guidance about what that looks like so we can make decisions that feel right for us and the values we hold and then the six um we talked a lot about scalability and transferability within the planning of a20 and the intent here is finding solutions that don't just work for an arbor but solutions that create a pathway for others to follow so if we're going to do this maybe it's deep policy work do that policy work uh what this is proposing is to do that policy work in a way that allows perhaps everyone in Michigan to be able to follow since we have more capacity um we're kind of at the tip of the spere how do we really be leaders or uh using our University model leaders inv best in terms of creating a pathway that really opens up uh scaling and transferring the solutions we find so these are the ideas we have before you there's a little bit of a description here uh definitely not meant to be overwhelming but to to give staff really that direction that we need as we're looking because I I doubt it'll surprise you a lot of people are interested in working with us in this space and we're actively trying to figure out the best choices for our community based on our community's values so that is all I actually wanted to share I would love to hear any reactions if anyone has any um also happy to set up a side conversation with folks if You' like to add some more clarity [Music] Pat okay yeah thank you missy um so you'll have to speak up again if you have any comments or questions I do Missy P um thanks Missy that was that was really a short and sweet and um packed with good stuff and as you know tomorrow we're going to be having our University of Michigan carbon neutrality meeting where we're going to be talking about some goals and they're going to be go goals that are I think uh following hopefully the same values or principles and the one I question I had was on the equity one uh I think you're right we want to make sure there's no extra burden uh on uh populations that are typically exposed to the extra burden but I think we could expand that to include uh greater benefit for so for example when we go and uh if we do try and purchase power to offset carbon emitted in an arbor uh we'd want to add hopefully um a desire to benefit uh communities uh of color or lowincome that have here to for been uh getting the burden the extra burdens um and I think we could do that as you know and I just wanted to clarify that that's great thank you for that thank you John Steve is it okay if I call people out since I can see them oh yeah that's fine go ahead okay John I see you sure yeah uh let me State my thanks to for putting this together really thoughtful um could you talk a little bit more how you envision the principles guiding the work you see this more as kind of like a a soft approach we'd use these and think about them or something perhaps harder that you know any would need to meet some set of these principles before being supported yeah it's a good question and I would actually uh love to hear your thoughts and how best to apply it I can say it's absolutely a it's already a soft principle it's already kind of in Us in terms of how we're thinking about this the question of rigor I mean how many does something have to pass muster is interesting uh to think about and I'd say the we are faced with a lot of options in terms of how to achieve these goals and we're trying to find ways to prioritize those that will be consistent consistent probably too uh ambitious of a word maximize impact right well yeah we need to analyze the impact of it but we also want to be able to point to it and say we said these were the principles and he the options that align with those principles if it's four out of five if it's well four is six that's fine twoo is there you know I don't know are there three that we're going to say everything unequivocally has to touch these and these feel really good and we want these it has to be these completely open so I would love any thoughts do do you have a reaction um I think I don't think you want to go to the the ends and either way you know that it's so soft that you forget about them and you know they're nothing and then too hard too rigid too hard that you're kind of boxed in but I think something that gives them some weight that allows you to make those hard that support you in making those hard decisions between options that come up so I'm more towards something harder but not that's too confining for you because this is a guide right it's not um you know to help you with your decisions yeah yeah that's great Peck I saw I saw you again do you have an analytical framework for us no I don't think I was I thought I did and then I started thinking and realized I wasn't coming up with anything worth saying we can come back possibly with something John when we come in January with a proposal because I think that's a really good point Bob um these look uh really great and I look forward to um further discussion I just one thing that hit me just at first glance um also on the equity piece um you might want to consider uh a slight rewarding there I the way that the fullest extent possible Clause strikes me as as kind of a a hedge that that we might you know might not live up to that if it's not possible you might want to just consider something like our grounded inequity and avoid and do not Place additional burdens you know something like that great that's really helpful thanks Bob Rita um Miss I love the idea of having some principles and thank you for putting them together um and I think that I you've talked about the local aspect that's one of my preferences for anything that we do to maximize our local um energy production um so I guess that's just a response um and I would love to have some kinds of standards or something that we can use to help make decisions so I think that is introducing measurables of some kind and I don't even know what those are um uh and then back to the local thing I think what would help at least me to um know what next steps we'll be doing is like how much do we need you know or how much do we expect to use you know and and I think that's where I kind of get into the measurable so it's I think you're at a really good point for this time for for introducing these um and thanks for doing that yeah and reader just to respond to so we've actually done the modeling and that's how we know what we we need um so we've done projections excuse me that modeled out if if a20 everything is hit what's the electrical load going to look like how are we going to displace that looking at capacity factors of solar versus wind to figure out because it's it's not one for one because they generate differently right they have different capacity Factor so we have numbers behind them and now we're sort of looking at it and saying okay we have to propose how we're going to achieve that and this is where these principles come in and I'll give an example we're thinking about what if we had an Energy Efficiency benefit what if um and this is an idea that we've been kind of playing with in our head what if we actually uh invested in low-income communities to reduce their energy consumption and effectively that's an energy reduction wreck it's energy that was never created what is that and what if that's in Highland Park and in Flint would that count how would that play So I'm excited about the process ECT of that but I don't want to go down the path of of moving that kind of an initiative forward if it doesn't align with these kinds of principles because that's different right than built really different but also kind of cool to think about and has different values so just to give an example of like the those are kind of the extreme things that I'm holding in my head and figuring out where we want to put that yeah yeah no I've had similar ideas you know and just the question is just how do you do the the implementation and what does it mean in terms of our demand locally you know if we don't have a sense of what it is that we're using that that creates that that requires the energy um we need a feedback loop somehow we as as the community um and I think when it gets less local it's less clear well and that's our greenhouse gas inventory too and the accounting methodology and I would just say I I recognize um this isn't what we're talking about but we have just posted on the website a more detailed analysis of the 2019 inventory if anyone wants to look so we put uh the methods the metrics it's on the website I went up Thanksgiving week I can't believe the world didn't talk about it but there you have it if youd like to take a look council member dish I'm so sorry we missed that I I apologize to you I just wanted to observe that I think some of what you have here our principles and so it's going to be more soft but others are really kind of they're inviable I mean the new investment that displays fossil fuels there is absolutely no point in not making that standard of additionality that right why would we put money into something that's going to happen anyway or that just displaces another renewable off so so that one would probably so what I'm saying is um a must yeah I'm saying that that these are some of these are they're different they're of different there there are oranges and apples here and the Apple might be a baseline that every project must meet because otherwise we're not going to invest in it but others of these might be tradeoffs like you could enhance resilience but it might not be local and what you described like if we can invest in putting solar in another part of the country where it's generating more energy why can't we invest in insulation in other parts of Michigan obviously we do it here first but why not spread our you know our investments around when they can increase Equity so there' be there'd be Arguments for this doesn't do this but it does that whereas there could never be an argument that oh this doesn't displace any fossil fuels but we had a Lobby who thought it would be a good idea whatever you know right um so yeah I mean obviously what I'm saying yeah that's great yeah I appreciate that peek you're on mute PE you'd never know I do Zoom like every minute of the day every day um the uh that raises the issue of costs both to the city and ultimately to taxpayers and to Citizens because some of the costs would be borne uh through regular ation directly by the citizens and some would be born by the city I suppose right and so we have to figure out a way you know how to balance that out um and we're going through this exact same thing at the University of Michigan and uh Missy and I and a number others really pushing hard for Michigan to be compliant with an arbor um that brings up a second issue which is uh at Michigan University of Michigan there's no way to go carbon neutral by 2030 uh with local technological solutions meaning really you know being getting free of fossil fuel and other types of emissions by 2030 so uh we're pushing the idea of uh purchasing uh credits or offsets um using that term loosely um that would allow us to do it earlier uh and at the same time why we're doing the technological fixes so in the end we're carbon neutral but we're disc carb neutral a lot earlier and the reason I bring that up is not just to meet Ann Arbor's goal um but also because ultimately perhaps one of the most important justice issues is the speed with which we do this because um as long as we're doing it uh slowly there are communities in the United States and around the world that are situated near fossil fuel polluting uh locations power plants and their suffering but also climate change itself is uh increasingly affecting uh the world and disproportionately affecting uh some people over others um and so one of the most important things to do is do this fast so that raises a another issue which is should there be a principle of uh speed uh in other words um we could wait until 2029 because we think there's going to be some great technological advance but really what and I know your answer is I mean no we're going to start right away and uh there should be a an extra weight placed on quicker uh for environmental justice reasons but remember we got to somehow balance this out against uh equity and cost and a bunch of other things so I think both the University of Michigan an an arbor have to come up with a what folks here are asking for which is a more of a decision tree or a rubric for decision making which is certainly doable I just can't come up with it off the top of my head yeah p p thanks he he named a lot I see you John um he named a lot of things that that we really are sitting with at the um Commission on carbon neutrality the president's Commission on carbon neutrality and there's this um Kick right that if you start offsetting now that's just less money that you have to invest in on-site but that's not a bad thing because you're reducing emissions and so this is inherently what we're trying to get at in these principles is are we sprinting at local reductions as fast as possible and then we bring offsets in at the tail end with whatever we don't hit do we flip the narrative now and do offsets if I'm going to write an RFP for offsets or building new Renewables what are the things I'm asking for I'm asking for environmental justice am asking for it like what am I I don't right like I I want to make sure that when I go to the community and say we did it here in this way in this place people are like yes we did and so just sharing um sorry John over you I I'd like to support PC's statement and if I may quote uh the former chair of the energy commission Wayne Appleyard the way he put it is that we need to minimize the area under the emissions overtime curve and if you look at for example what the University is doing um not to pick on the University but you can probably say that about a lot of entities in the world as a whole is we've known what we've needed to do um Mary Sue Coleman set a Target and um we're not you know doing anything even close to a linear um reduction to get to the minus 25% by minus by 2025 we're going to be introducing really significant um reductions um here with the central power plant and with the PPA with DTA DTE relatively late in the process and that those are the kinds of things that I think peek is saying we we need to think about and balance it's just as as you both point it out it's one of these things that we have to balance um with a number of different principles um as Lisa's indicated some are sort of black and white and then other ones have to be balanced against each other thanks John um well I don't want oh I'm sorry PE did you wanna okay okay you should talk okay I I was gonna say um just kind of closing out the conversation because I don't want to dominate your time together I know you have other business to do what I heard if I if I S ort of could give it back uh to the group to make sure I got this right is that one there are some things maybe looking at this and saying the these aren't optional so let's kind of lay out like things have to be additional they have to displace fossil fuels those were the two that I in particular heard and then the rest are actual principles and adding to those principles um there was some language around Equity that needs to be cleaned up I love that thank you and then maybe adding a principle of speed um that to the extent so it's sort of held at the same level that it's a factor we have to with as we um I would say if anyone has anything else to let me know certainly now or send me a note too we'll be going to the energy commission next week and getting more feedback um and super excited about bringing these forward uh because this this to us is uh the thing we need consensus or at least some consensus on um or some collaboration around so we can just Sprint uh so thank you all for engaging in this conversation and helping us create it okay yeah well thank you missy it's a great it's a great initiative okay so um let's see uh we've moved on to the portion of the agenda for the first public commentary so I'm going to read a statement um this is an opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes please call 1888 7888 0099 and enter meeting ID 924 oh I'm sorry 953 0253 5952 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 n 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 connection is established hey gayen is there anybody in the queue yet ye yes uh we have a caller 411 okay great so um caller 411 please go ahead state your name and address um chairman Brown can you hear me yes I can I think we all can uh oh very good glad to hear that uh this is James deore and I live at 2771 Maplewood Avenue in Arbor Michigan 48104 I live in the Third Ward um I'm calling you tonight to uh uh um speak in support of a resolution that's before you uh uh in support of the uh uh floodway flood plane management overlay zoning District uh ordinance um I appreciate the work that Jerry Hancock has uh uh put in regards to this issue and I think it's a great uh um um overlay that's a something that's coming before the city I think it's a great idea I glad that D we're moving forward with it and I've had a chance to look at the resolution before you tonight I love the language that's there it's Forward Thinking and uh request the city to do more work I think as all as you know uh the issue of climate change we have greater uncertainty in terms of uh um you know large storm water events uh 1% events 0.
⚗ AI-reconstructed · cite from original above
e e e okay this meeting to order due to the co health health emergency and in order for the Board of Education to conduct its business this board meeting is being held VI a video conference and streamed on YouTube on the district website at www.ebnet.org in addition members of the public May provide comment at this meeting through Zoom by entering the URL meeting ID and password you see before you on the screen upon joining the meeting your part participation will be muted to ensure that there is no disruption to the business being conducted by the Board of Education good evening will the secretary please call the role Mrs Chu here Mr sisar here Mrs guas here Mr Hong here Mrs LAX here Mrs reee here Mr Simmons here Mr Winston here Becker here we have a quarum please rise to salute the flag I pledge allegiance allegiance to the flag flag United States of America America and to the Republic for which it stands one under God indivisible the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies in accordance with provisions of this act the East Bruner board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published at the Board of Education offices written notice was also provided to The Sentinel the New York Star Ledger the home news and Tribune and the municipal clerk of East Brunswick all Board of Education meetings with the exception of executive session discussions or videotape related broadcast it is the policy of the Board of Education that videotape meetings are not edited for any purpose and individuals who speak at the board's public meeting should be aware of these videotaping rules good evening we're gonna start off tonight with our superintendent report Dr figuroa I believe that you are going to stand up for Dr veski sir yes thank you president Becker and good evening everyone Dr veski continues to update the community about positive covid and close contact cases on Tuesdays and Fridays if any student or staff tests positive for covid-19 during our full remote instruction it is imperative they immediately contact their school's nurse to report it this will give us additional critical information that we will use to schedule our return to hybrid instruction at the capacities that we had planned for at the beginning of the section marking period this past November 17 as you recall those plans were postponed because of our increased positive covid cases among staff and among students we continue to monitor changing CDC guidance regarding quarantine periods positive cases we work in conjunction our local experts and the middle sex Department of Health to determine quarantine periods that will contain the spread of covid-19 within the East Bruns Community as the fall Sports season has ended we would like to recognize and thank the high school and Churchill Administration the Board of Education as well as the central office team for their cooperation and understanding of the importance of having students involved in extracurricular activities we would also like to acknowledge the coaches the athletes and their parents for their commitment and teamwork during these challenging times as a reminder December 23rd will be a single session day and schools will be closed December 24th through January 1st schools will resume remote instruction on Monday January 4 thank you thank you sir this brings us to the good of the cause of the public members of the public May provide comment at this meeting through Zoom by entering the URL meeting ID and password provided on the screen in front of you in order to be recognized use the chat feature select the zoom meeting host and enter and send your name to the host you will be recognized to speak when your name is called individuals will be invited to speak in the order in which we have received your request the Board of Education recognizes the value of public comment in order to to permit the fair and orderly expression of such comment the board shall provide a period for public comment at every meeting of the board participants will be limited to 3 minutes is there anyone wishing to speak to the board tonight we have no one in the queue at this moment okay seeing none I close the public portion next up we have a public hearing on the student safety data system Dr figuro is this you also this is me thank you again president Becker no problem on an annual basis school districts are required to report out at public hearing the number of acts of violence vandalism and substance abuse that occurred in the previous school year this report also meets the federal requirements of identifying persistently dangerous schools we report incidents of violence vandalism and substance abuse to the board on a monthly basis at this meeting I'd like to review a summary of the incidents that occurred last school year 2020 total incidents of violence uh which would be fights threats assaults were down from 46 in 201829 to 21 last year vandalism incidents were up from nine in 2018 2019 to 10 L substance abuse incident counts decreased from 36 in 20 8 2019 to 14 in 2019 2020 harassment intimidation and bullying in 201829 there were 121 investigations with 21 confirmed hivs last year there were 86 total HIV investigations throughout our schools with 28 confirmed HIV activities were available in all of our schools during violence Awareness Week to prevent School violence and highlight the importance of school safety in addition our Administration and staff review policies and regulations safety crisis procedures and important topics promoting student safety regularly some examples of the activities uh were sour sources of strength peer and adult mentoring program activities gay straight Alliance safe space budy activities in the elementary schools positive messages school spirit days through the district make a wish letters Mentor programs assembly programs cultural organizations peace pledges cyber bullying programs SSO and East Brunswick Police Department video safety Clips Peacemaker of the week OAS anti-bullying program with focus on class meetings violence prevention week activities and respect week activities I'm happy to report that due to our effective training of Staff the work performed by our director of school security operations Paul NATO and our security team supervisor of student services Danielle block our student assistant Specialists our supervisor of counseling and career Readiness rise salana our school counselors nurses teachers support staff and our administrators we continue to make significant strides in training and understanding what the needs of our students are we have work to do and we have more to do but we appreciate what Dr veski has done his work and also the support of the Board of Education in summary the East Bruner public schools are safe schools but we continue to look for ways to improve our school climate throughout the district we are presently working on ways to care for students in this virtual world and we are still working on additional ways to educate our students and the community on opioid abuse which is a problem in the state and continues to be a growing problem Nationwide we have strong administrators well Tred student assistant Specialists and school counselors caring teachers nurses and support staff wonderful students and supportive parents we continue to look at proactive approaches to addressing safety of our over 8,500 students and our over 1500 staff in our schools uh and just a quick note we most recently sent out a districtwide newsletter a reminder uh an easy guide to accessing our student service offerings and resources so I hope that would be helpful for everyone um thank you yeah I I saw the guide it was wonderful thank you so much for doing that uh is there any members of the public who wish to comment on this presentation and this presentation only there is no one in the queue okay is there any discussion with the board members any questions for Lou I actually had a couple of questions um given the I noticed that in a lot of your presentation you used a year-to-year comparison um not a year to date so much but a year over year so given the fact that the pandemic um has caused the majority of our students not to be in the building for so much of this year uh were the year over-year numbers that you used of your own designed for the purpose of the presentation or are we required by the state to do that comparison and if so so what are they going to do about this year well we we do have to report as I did tonight in this evening however I did take the Liberty to look at um the end of last year when we went out so that really was the primarily April May and June um from the two years ago to last year um it was very similar believe it or not because you have to remember hivs are still happening we're still investigating hivs and that and that includes everything that might surround an HIV there could be um an incident of violence involved in that it could be a number of different things so the that whole portion stays the same uh vandalism actually went up from from two years ago to last year which does include those those months the one area that I noticed that really had um which would make sense big impact was the fights uh last year uh well two years ago actually we had two fights in April three fights in May and five in June so for those three months at the end of 1819 we had 10 physical altercations where we had none last year so that would be the only uh major difference uh being that we started the school year in September and you know we'd have able to have students come into the buildings and uh which is probably unlike many of the a lot of other school districts um some of our numbers maybe couldn't compare to other districts had nobody in their building since last March um but I think the state is really looking at each individual District to see what they're doing about their focus areas so for instance um you know our hibs are um are violence or V any of those areas that may be um an area that we would need to work on the state wants to make sure we have a plan and a program and that we're progressing from year to year thank you so much I um and actually you you you segued beautifully into my second question so I guess the question more is um what this data is used for by the state is it to what effect it has if any I don't think so but on funding grants um programming um in terms of any kind of sanctions um how will they make a determination again this this school year alone from SE PE on will be impossible to compare Apples to Apples because you have not every school will be um in the same situation in terms of remote or hybrid so we'll be reporting data based on what happened with us I just I guess I want to know exactly Lou how and what is this data used for what effect would it have us because the state obviously is going to have to um recalculate well as I said in the beginning of this which is also very important part of why I have to report this out is because it meets the federal mandate on reporting on U required identifying of persistently dangerous schools so what happens is if we're if a school district has continuously had high numbers of of violence and vandalism HIV the state does have the ability to say you need to show us a plan what you're what you're going to do about it and you have to show us some kind of progress okay and if if the school district refuses or doesn't show the progress that is one of the things that the state will look at very heavily in terms of um you know you've heard of uh districts being taken over you've heard of issues of um um additional um monies needed to improve security or police uh so it's important that those areas that you have in your District that may be a concern are are always being addressed on a regular basis so in this particular case with us we have addressed those areas which are very minimal compared to many districts um however we do have numbers of um of incidents that have occurred that some districts may not have because they weren't in school that's where the state has to come in and say you know we have a district like in East Brunswick who has consistently shown progress uh if they have a high number one year they do they do put plans and programs in place to make sure that doesn't continue um so this should have no effect on us but it is part of the requirements that we do have to uh do this report at a public hearing thank you thank you so much for that answer anybody else Heather H are we having any increase in hibs like that are online I feel like with the students spending so much more time online the impact would be there we yes our uh numbers uh as I had mentioned earlier last year's numbers and I'll just I know it's the full year but we have to look at we did have these numbers also from when we came we went out of school to the end of June we had only 86 investigations but 28 confirmed hivs last year which was seven higher than a full year last year in school uh many of those were not only online but also in neighborhoods so what we have to do now based on the law if kids are at home and they are uh you know not in the schools not in the hybrid model but in the remote model and there is an HIV that occurs whether it be online or in the street in front of their house we have to get involved and we have to also do as we always have investigate it and we have to follow up on it um you know we have to meet with parents virtually students are we the focus is primarily on counseling and changing Behavior ra rather than punishment or suspension or detention um but it's still out there so yes we have had a lot more online and um we've also had since students have been home um a number of in your in the area you know in front of the house at the playground incidents that we have had to investigate and many of which we've had to involved Poli thank you ke Dr just a question on that and we've talked about this a couple of times um a as in the past I mean there are some Usual Suspects of uh well a usual group of children we've been told in the past who tend to get picked on maybe a little more than others have the guidance counsels reached out to those kids who are at risk in school and uh would be at risk of course uh through cyber bullying yes absolutely and thank you for asking that Mr Winston um we have not only have they reached out but also we have groups that are still running um so groups a lot of the students we may have identified who maybe um have had inance of being a Target in the past we do keep track of them we do reach out to them periodically we do have many students in groups that that want to be in groups we also take the opportunity for instance during this time of year when we're building schedules for students for next year not only to build that schedule but also to sit down and talk to them about what's happening what's happening outside what's happening in school basically try to get an idea of where they are in life right now so yes we do make sure we that's every one of our student assistant Specialists has a case load of students that they're following up on one way or the other including our yeah so just on that like through sources of strength up at the high school and things like that are they uh helping out with their eyes and ears because I know they're in touch with a lot of students right normally when we're in school there's even more being in touch with the greater population of in school kids but still those students are are also out in the community so they still keep in touch with us we still have our uh sources of strength meetings and and contacts so yes that's a very positive program to help us try to understand what's happening even when we're not in school that sounds really good thank you very much I loved what I just heard I appreciate it thank you Mr anyone else okay seeing none we will close the public hearing thank you so much Lou excellent job okay I'd like to have a motion for items one to three on the board of education agenda sove Jeff move by Jeff second second by Leu is there any discussion okay will the secretary please call the role this is two um yes accept if stain from number two noted Mr sisar yes Mrs guas yes Mr Hong yes Mrs LAX yes Mrs ree yes Mr Simmons yes Mr Winston yes president Becker yes motion carries moving on to our community programs agenda can I please have a motion for items one and two whoa moved by Barbara second by leeu is there any discussion Barbara I just wanted to say thank you to the community programs Department uh they have a lot of virtual offerings for the kids during a time where they can't do a lot of these inperson classes and uh they have things like mad science and uh cooking and cating and uh and coding they have ROBLOX Minecraft they're very in tune with what kids are interested in and it's a productive use of their time and they learning as well as having fun so I just wanted to thank them for their hard work Barbara um do you recall offand just a general sense of um in terms of our enrollment in in in Virtual um uh programs are we seeing a drop off at any of the particular levels like elementary school or middle school well we talk we talked about that um you know in in our different and I can get specific numbers for for next time but basically right a lot of the courses right now they're a bunch at the K through five level um and and there are some at the middle and you know High School is not as as strong an area for us but we're looking to ex I know that the programs and Lou you could uh uh fill in what I don't what I don't see what I don't fill in on but um basically that we're looking to expand uh uh I know that they're working very hard and expanding into different areas so middle school but they have it the eighth grade they're they're moving into that area seventh eth grade and uh so that there's a variety of offerings for everybody thanks Barbara L did you want to add anything or Barbera did a great job okay uh is there any other discussion all those in favor opposed abstain motion carries Mrs Becker Mrs Becker can we back up again because I saw hands raised but we do need a Voice vote so if we could please have a Voice vote on that please okay all those in favor I I I opposed abstain motion carries thank thank you okay and our financial services agenda I'd like to have a motion for items 1 through 14 but first I'd like to know if there's any one of these particular um resolutions that anyone would like separated at okay seeing none then I'd like a motion for items 1 through 14 mov by Jeff second by suzan is there any discussion um Bernie I actually have a question on item number 12 the master collaborative Educational Services agreement it's a mouthful um it's with the um our our shared services agreement with the Ed Services Commission of New Jersey you know we've talked in the past about cost-saving me methods and initiatives that the district district employs to save money and this to me always stood out um could you just give us an idea what some of these shared services are for and for the public sure uh so uh the Educational Services Commission uh provides us uh and other school districts throughout the state uh with opportunities uh for special education self-contained program programs uh to have children attend those programs when uh there is a program that we cannot um uh provide in District um joint transportation services um nursing Services there are Vari uh purchasing is a is a large piece of what they also do a Cooperative purchasing um uh Ventures so um they basically uh provide educational and educational support services to school districts not only in middlex County but throughout the state of New Jersey and um you know there's H power in numbers and so um when there are uh hundreds of school districts that are utilizing the services it helps to um keep uh costs uh contained just going back to Joint transportation services for a minute um in terms of how that works works is it bringing together many school districts for a specific uh transportation company to get a better price is it sharing in-house services like we own our own buses other districts might um so it's not so much with um utilizing our services um for for um the services commission's purposes that's not the case but the educational services commiss commission will uh coordinate school districts that require um transportation services so for example um we may have um a dozen students that uh require transportation to out of District placements and uh so it it may not be beneficial for East brunwick to go to bid for that on our own because we we might have 12 students going to 12 different locations and so we're talking about 12 different buses they'll coordinate on the educational services side and identify those school districts that have students going to the same locations as ours and consolidate uh the transportation needs of multiple school districts so that it keeps the transportation costs down so that's how that would work thank you you're welcome any other questions okay this is a roll call vote will the secretary please call a roll um Mr Hong just a reminder on number 14 you will need yes I got it yep um Mrs Chu yes Mr sisar yes Mrs gu yes Mr Hong yes AB items 14 noted Mrs LAX yes Mrs ree yes Mr Simmons yes Mr Winston yep imper yes motion carries moving on to our HR agenda I'd like a motion to combine items one through three and again is there anything that anyone needs separated it out seeing none can I please have a motion for items one through three move Jeff move by Jeff second second by Susanna Susanna any discussion this is a roll call vote will the secretary please call the rooll Mrs Chu yes Mr sisar yes Mrs gu yes Mr Hong yes Mrs LAX yes Mrs ree yes Mr Simmons yes Mr Winston yes pres backer yes motion C onto our student services agenda can I please have a motion for items one and two so mov Leu move by Leu second second by Jeff is there any discussion um I have a question sure um this is number two the monthly school reports it's just um something I was curious about so I you know so you have students there are three students who who dropped out for non-attendance so I'm wondering with them if students are on remote are we seeing more students dropping for non-attendance like is is it you know if kids aren't just aren't logging in um and these are 11th and 12th graders and I'm just wondering if that's the reason are you seeing any uptick in Dropout because of you know nonattendance uh due to remote um we do have more students uh that we are concerned about that have not um signed on and stayed on and you know uh checked in with teachers as they're supposed to we do have our teachers our counselers our administrators Student Assistance specialist Specialists working with a lot of those students I know Joyce you've been working a lot with with that as well um but uh you know we've we've tried to work it with these stent with every each student individually to try to make a difference so that they can remain on um there are students that um you know have had a bad time during this time because this the remote is not really something that they um are very uh familiar or willing to work with um but we are doing the best as a district to try to work with each student and to uh to assist them whenever we can Joyce do you want to add anything to that from the academic I think the counseling department is doing what they can to keep students engaged um you know we have opportunities in our Flex program um or to accommodate student needs um you know individual circumstances yeah I just hope we can do everything we can if you know kids are getting lost because of the remote situation that we do everything we can to you know to not lose them if if we can but you know I I I um it's a difficult situation for for for some kids so I'm just uh sad to see you know when kids drop out agre okay is there any other discussion questions okay will the secretary please call the role Mrs Chu yes Mr sisar yes was yes Mr Hong yes Mrs LAX yes M ree yes Mr Simmons yes Mr Winston yes Mr yes motion carries moving on to our transportation services agenda can I please have a motion to combines item one and two move by Lori second by Jeff is there any discussion I have a question of course um it's I'm I'm curious for for number two um in the situation where we're providing transportation for a student to um uh to uh in this case in this case to I think it was Princeton or something like that in to another area for special service but I guess my question is if in theoretically right if if if they go remote do we still have the full obligation to pay for the full year of Transportation um and you know in this case I don't know if they went remote or not but I'm just wondering how that obligation works if if you know if they did go remote for a period of time they wouldn't have incurred the cost right so this is something that um there was legislation enacted um in the early days of the pandemic last school year um that establish um basically the rules m or whether can payments continue or not and um if I recall correctly I think um after a modification in the law it's after three contiguous days of closure then um what will happen is uh we would get into a um a negotiations potentially of um what those costs are but this the uh uh provider of service would have to provide documentation to to substantiate its costs so it's quite possible that we would continue to pay for the full amount um if they've uh kept their employees um you know on the payroll uh if they haven't then there's a reduced cost then certainly they wouldn't receive payment but it's quite an arduous process we had been through that uh last school year yeah with literally probably 50 or 60 different contracts with the loss says is that it's only during a states of emergency pandemics and the um the the reimbursement is for their actual costs incurred so what happens like for example in transportation if school buses aren't operating you're not paying for their fuel uh you're not paying for the wear and tear on their trucks it was really meant to uh keep people employed so that they weren't without jobs and they weren't hitting the unemployment system so that's what it's a394 is law that was passed yeah I I recall our discussions on that law at the time and this in this case it's like for one student for one you know it's like a yeah so the same law applies here same law yeah yeah thank you okay any other discussion questions all those in favor I I I opposed abstain motion carries I see we have Anthony with us tonight our student rep glad to see you what's going on doing well president Becker how are you oh great thank you yeah I hope all of you had a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving um today I wanted to talk mainly about the ways that students uh have supported others and have been supported both academically and non-academically and the first thing I wanted to talk about were certain events that are like holiday themed that are still occurring to give back to the community um one of them was organized by Miss mosit moscowitz who um organized her students and collaborated with all of them and eventually created 300 holiday cards and National Honor Society is doing something similar where they're getting their members who uh K to create cards and then send them to uh patients who need them in hackin sack Meridian and then the football team as well also raised over $3,000 for cancer research and those are all events that have happened recently and uh even in the the future there's a toy drive being planned that's supposed to be Drive in so the students can come in drive through ebhs and then drop off toys which is great to give back to children who need toys in this like holiday season um but it's still just nice to see Endeavors and you know certain events and the community being connected despite like the all virtual landscape um and then academically teachers have been supporting teachers or teachers have been supporting students and I've been working hard through that and one of the things that I wanted to talk about was um supplemental instruction and student voice and student perspective has played a large role in this where um there have been surveys that have gone out and there's been a large percentage of the students who responded and then there have been meetings where the students can come and collaborate and the general consensus is that it works but supplemental as itself could be improved and this is mainly due to the fact that there's it's a little awkward to as a student to leave or like leave school and then return an hour later um especially if some classes are uh treat supplemental completely differently um and then there's also time constraints in terms of uh exams that are administered in the supplemental time period because it's only 30 minutes um but I think what underlies everyone's understanding of it is that they are very um useful right teachers can use them in many ways where they can use it for extra help or they can use it for exams and then or they can even make it optional if they just want to give the kids a break and uh have let them work on their homework a little earlier um but it also praises the pro raises the question like is this the most optimal uh format like we could have considered the uh two and two system from like last spring when we first hit the pandemic where there were two courses and then uh lunch and then two courses afterward and extra help in that sense would be moved to the uh morning before school and one thing that this kind of does is it breaks the monotony of staring at a screen for four hours straight where you know you right now it's the system is you have four straight classes hour in a row um students also get to wake up a little bit later it would be like a small shift in 40 minutes but I'm sure no student would decline that opportunity and then it also would prepare us a little bit more for a model block schedule where uh if the school chose to implement that if we return to physical either this year or next year where um it isn't going to be all of your classes and then you go home and eat lunch you go to school eat lunch in the middle and then to finish off the school and then you return home um but then one of the concerns with that is that you know now you're asking students to spend a lot more time in each class right some students are struggling to make the jump from 40 minutes to over an hour with the virtual setup and then you are asking them also with this 2 and two to raise that up by another 20 minutes some students may not pay attention and then maybe the quality of education as well since it's in a larger time frame with decrease so um that's that both of them like there is no need necessarily to change supplemental Works um and there is really no wrong option because both of them are working systems uh I just really wanted to share the student perspective and like the main points of the student perspective on each of the respective uh formats of learning and that's all I add for today thank you that was a great report and I'm so glad you shared with us the um wonderful generosity of our students really um making a commitment to the community and and really doing something about it thank you for bringing that to us thank you are there any committee reports information items good to the clause for the board Barbara have the student services committee report uh we met on virtually on November the 19th and uh it kind of uh piggybacks on things that Susanna was mentioning some of our other board members Heather about uh uh talking about reaching out to the students during the virtual environment and we had reports from uh Luis Sultana from Daniel balock from Kelly Bond um talking about uh V virtual and hybrid Counseling Services during the uh hybrid time and and now during the virtual period and we saw some really amazing uh online offerings where right that you and you saw Vicki as well right the presentation was great and un believable and you had made the excellent suggestion to put it online so people could see it so folks can look at it online and um you know they different virtual guidance counselor offices um there's college readiness there's uh there's a zenen so they can figure out uh strategies to deal with anxiety and other issues uh make can make virtual appointments with their counselors uh then there was talk about how in the special education Arena that uh there have been benefits to the virtual IEP meetings and continuation of their counseling and social skill groups and virtual speech sessions and then uh from the health standpoint uh Daniel bleac talked about the nursing department and the protocols that they were using during the hybrid environment and all the great efforts that they've put in that area so again that that presentation there's a whole slideshow that folks can see online and uh it tells a lot of the different i i i there is pretty a wide range of offerings really that they have been doing to try to reach out to kids and to parents who and that like Lou said Dr Figo mentioned uh the email to all the parents so they're aware of all these offerings so through a newsletter and there's something for everyone there really to find out about if if you're if you're having issues if you need someone to talk to or you just need help at school there's there's something there for everybody thank you thank you Barbara anyone else Mark Mark go to the cause um in my personal opinion I'd like to list some qualities of a leader a leader encourages discussion in a public setting has dialogue with the public when appropriate and gives guidance to all to attain what is Right a leader addresses ethical issues and does the proper thing every time a leader defends students staff parents and board members necessary put their own opinion and fight for decision made by the entire group a leader of a board of nine should first have discussions with the entire grp of input from all instead of relying on a consensus of five that was achieved before the discussion before any vote a leader doesn't have to have all the ansers but they should make sure that all the ideas are heard first and foremost president of any board could be a leader with all this mind I possess those qualities and I would like to announce for pres this at the January reorganization meeting thank you thank you Mark anyone else Jeff I have a question uh and I don't know if actually if discussion even happens here but maybe Vicky you can give me Clarity on that I've had a lot of community outreach to me regarding the SATs coming this Saturday and we're one of the few districts in this area especially that are bringing the students in uh uh for testing for a lifechanging exam wearing masks for four hours in a crowded classroom under very stressful conditions uh environmentally right now so I'm just curious on the rationale you I know we were Pioneers uh when uh the original uh hybrid uh came to be and I'm just wondering is that the same approach we're taking on this one uh I I've been uh contacted by many in the community uh with great concerns and really being backed into Corner uh in that respect and uh I don't know if anybody VI uh president Becker or even if it's appropriate that anybody speaks to this but I'm really curious on the thought process I don't recall this coming at any point to the board uh it just seems to happen I do know sarraille is not doing it Monroe and many many other of our neighboring towns but it seems like we're open for business and I was wondering why we're comfortable with that decision where so many districts are not once again so normally at this point I would turn to Dr veski to share with has his thought process um Dr figuro Dr boy could you perhaps join uh jump been there please just bringing up some very uh valid points certainly um so in conversations with Dr veski uh we wanted to provide options for students many colleges will still need this test and we will follow the social distancing uh requirements and don't expect it to be a a crowded venue but I've come to find out though there are no seats available I think that was announced this morning morning on the announcements that uh it's a Full Slate so I guess I'm curious if it's not going to be a crowded venue I what can you speak to how many students will be coming into our closed school and uh What uh safety Protocols are going to exist where I I guess none really do at this point since we're closed uh I just find it very confusing why we would close our district and then open it for SATs it I I I'm just not seeing the logic maybe you could help me with that um it is uh a voluntary opportunity for students to come in and again all social distancing protocols will be in place um in consultation with the High School administration um felt that providing this option for students uh was uh reasonable at this time based on what though Dr B I I he I hear that but based based on what I mean this we're talking about the same school with the same Administration and this that's had issues with student athletes it it again then why don't why don't you provide the why don't you provide the community with the Comfort level and explain the format and structure that uh we believe is going to keep their children safe uh we already know they won't be comfortable so we could eliminate that and SATs in response to something you just said are always voluntary uh not just now but always um I we're open oh and also how many kids from other districts are going to be coming in because all those districts are closed can I hear some specifics around that yeah I can definitely get that information and get that back to you as soon as possible oh the the test is uh the day after tomorrow Dr buly I'm not sure where what value that would come in if there was some intervention it should take place at this point am I allowed to add to the discussion as a student no I'm not no um is there any reason why he can Matt you're you're he gave his report this is a board now talking about what's going with the testing what I can tell you what I've heard in other districts and I'm not an SAT expert whatsoever um the other districts are having the SAT this weekend because there's some aspect of this sat I don't know if it's untimed or open um that's different than when they do it later in the year and so that's why a lot of districts I've heard are doing it this weekend I don't I I couldn't speak I haven't taken the sat in uh maybe about 40 years um but that's what I've heard at other board meetings um what the law mandates so for all parents um everyone will have to wear masks they have to be socially distanced um they have to you all the every desk has to be sanitized before uh they're sitting down at them um so we have to take all the appropriate protocols that the CDC and the New Jersey Department of Health have put into place uh regarding social distancing mask wearing Etc um and the uh you know the the the limits on on schools schools are not ordered closed Statewide the governor has not ordered that many many schools are operational it just comes down to to infection rates Etc um I know you guys your school is closed to January 11th operating remotely uh but it's not prohibited to have SATs under the law um that's presently in place with the governor's exe various executive orders uh as we sit here right now so parents can make the decision ultimately and board member Winston is correct it's it's a voluntary decision that that parents and students can make but I do know that there's a lot of students um have a lot of anxiety just because they're trying to get their SAT scores up for applications for colleges and many of the college applications uh close very soon so that's just my anecdotal information that I've heard from other boards I don't know if Joyce can speak to that about the SAT format but I think that there's something unique about what happens in the December format that's different than any other time um and I don't know if it's I don't know if it's untimed or if it's um there's some there's some aspect of it it's very for yeah and just piggyback on that Mr julan I appreciate that and I do understand that there's no legal mandate um I I do understand that and and and I and I'm very happy with our district that even without a mandate they aired on the side of caution because the reasoning given at the time was the uptick in our area and there was concerns surrounding that I don't know if those concerns have been abated one week after Thanksgiving which has been a uh an extraordinarily big red flag that we're hearing from scientists constantly that it would be this week that we could see the business biggest Spike so I don't know I see a lot of dots connecting together the last one I would want to see connected is bringing our kids into an environment that could create sickness but I but I'll accept your answer at face value then I go back to the other question that I asked explain to me how this is going to work not so much the parameters surrounding the test but specifically around the logistics of uh social distancing how many rooms are going to be used how many students per room how is it being proctored you know all the things that would have to go into spreading out the population to take this test safely that I do want to hear uh right now and tonight and I can't wait for that answer Mr Winston I'm not the appropriate person to ask a question I I oh no no I no I compliment I was complimenting you on what you or commenting on what you had said but I direct my question as it was originally directed back to Dr boy or Dr figuro Who who's ever who's ever put this together I I think the public deserves to know what is that going to look like that they've volunteered their children to enter this environment because of the uh dilemma that they're facing based on needing to get that score up or whatever uh whatever other districts are claiming to be the reason for opening so I'm I'm willing to move on from that but I'm very curious now that we are moving on to that tell me how and what we are doing to administer this test in the safest way possible besides washing desks um there so if you can just allow me to to jump in for a moment and and Mr Winston I can't give you the details on uh that you're asking for but what I can tell you is that uh the test is being offered with uh limited numbers of students in a in a highly socially distanced manner so it's not just a matter of washing desks it is keeping folks distant to be able to take the the test uh it's limited in terms of number of students and I can't give you those details but what I would ask is that since we don't have that information at this time and we didn't know that this question was going to come up uh I would request that we have an opportunity to get that information and send that out to the board there's not a lot we could do even if it was sent uh but I appreciate at least the data would be there but you know since we don't have data at our fingertips you know it's difficult to to respond to the question thank you president Becker can I comment sure um I completely understand Mr Winston's anxiety um these are really difficult times um I'm coming at it from a different perspective the level of anxiety um obviously I do work in a school where I do wear a mask four hours a day um and quite frankly that I thought that was going to be more of a challenge than it actually is you just sort of get used to things um but the anxiety that we're living with where I am is that the SAT is not being offered in very many places um and students are driving huge distances to find testing sites um the anxiety is so high about their future what colleges are going to ask for next year parents making decisions um I truthfully I wouldn't expect Dr figero or Dr bully to know things about the testing sites I believe that's arranged on a building level um and that would come from the principles and the uh Vice principles at the high schools or at the high school I would assume but you know making the same modifications that we made during our hybrid session or perhaps to an IT stream I can't imagine how complex task is at the moment and I totally understand your concerns I just know listening to students and parents talk that having you know here in New Jersey not as many choices as they're used to especially when we have so many students who do go on to fouryear colleges compared to elsewhere in the country where things haven't really changed that much anxiety is high for just a variety of reasons I know people I know in this community and in other communities are grateful for the testing sites that they're finding thank you didn't didn't we also hear from someone um perhaps it was in the student services report I I see you Mark um perhaps it was in the student services report that a lot of colleges were not going to be requiring the SATs um for this reason Jeff yes you remember that too yeah I I could tell you from personal experience uh president Becker that many of the colleges are waving Act and sat requirements this year and kids are going on their academic grades and co-curricular extracurricular essays because of the difficulty the one thing that's that's unique is the lsats uh the law school admissions uh in the mcats they're doing those virtually uh they have time programs Etc um where you they actually have something where you can't like Take Your Eye Off of it looking at at notes um I'm not aware that the SATs have done that um so right now the the the standardized testing programs for acts and SATs um are still done in an in-person format um so but you are correct many many colleges that have traditionally taken both are now saying they're optional but some people believe that if they've got okay grades but they're fantastic tax takers that could make the difference of getting into a top rate school so they want to do it or get their you know SATs I never had that problem uh you know my SATs were not not so Stellar but that a lot of kids you know take them over and over again to keep getting them up and out will they be um will they be temperature oh I'm sorry I'm sorry go that's okay you could finish Jeff and then Mark Mark had his hand raised before go ahead Jeff yeah this is just the last question I have on my time is uh will the students be safety protocol on the way in temperatures checked and we be signing a s a symptom waiver uh that's become uh all too common so what what I can tell you is that uh we will have our normal protocols in place um Security will be uh at the doors temps checked the standard questions asked so the same protocols that we follow now on a day-to-day basis and have followed will be the same ones that are uh that will be in place for the test and Mr Winston if I could clarify we do have 30 staff expected to come into Proctor 245 students expected to sit for the exam uh from other districts as well as Mrs guat said because we are a site a site for the College Board a testing site and we will be using um approximately 30 classrooms so that would be about nine students per room maximum except for the larger spaces like the gym and the cafeteria and the library which you know obviously are bigger places and can hold more students socially distanced thank you just Mr Winston also if I may just also reate what Mr dilana said um those protocols that we would have normally for instance temp checks ask the question there you know have the questions asked also make sure that they remain six foot apart those will be in place for anything that we would be doing anyway um and I also confirmed during this uh this meeting that that would also be the case for this weekend I'm glad we were able to get the information thank you I'm done with that thank you Mark just a quick question are there any other activities being planned during the closure bringing students in not that I'm aware of there uh U Mr sisar there had been pictures Middle School pictures that were originally scheduled that have now been cancelled told later on in the year I believe January or February at some point to be rescheduled for that right thank you Barbara and again this is just uh just personal experience I know for the uh sat in the past at the high school they have um they try to put them out the kids outside they line them out so any with there's a large group of kids um you know when they're first checked in all that's done out doors so that that that congregate grouping is not in the building and then they're sent to their particular classroom so that's just from you know like I said you guys said it would be the high school folks who would know best but this is just from personal experience okay anyone else seeing none we do have a need for a closed session whereas the Board of Education must discuss matters which are not appropriate for discussion in a public meeting those matters are as follows those items listed in tonight's agenda the length of the closed session is estimated to be one hour after which a public meeting of the board shall Rec convene an action will not be taken can I please have a motion to go into close session so move move Jeff second Lori any discussion all those in favor I I opposed abstain motion carries board members just want to tell remind you to please log out and log into the Clos session everyone else good evening and thank you for joining us night e
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good afternoon everyone uh now is the time set for the regular board meeting of the arizona state schools for the deaf and the blind um i'd like to call the meeting to order and proceed with the roll call um uh sue k are you able to do the roll call if i can find all my buttons certainly i believe so um david nigro present mark sims present dean howard president mike gordon president shelly herbold linda bove lynn davison present mike manley i'm here and myself did i miss anybody i hope not i think that's everyone thank you uh we can move on uh to item 1.02 uh the caller the public call the public on agendized items um i understand that we have had no uh emails um that have been received at the public comment email address uh by the specified time this is the format we've taken the last few meetings as we do this via zoom so seeing seeing no comments we can go to 1.03 information item executive team reports yes you all have the written reports from it hr and operations so if you have any questions about the written report now is the time to ask it didn't seem to be any questions yeah that there don't there's not seem to be any questions um thank you and if there are no questions regarding um that item we can move on to 1.04 the information item assistant superintendent report uh dr rex good afternoon president nigro and board members my report was sent from all my areas for your review but today we have actual people to give you an opportunity to receive current updates from our schools the statewide early learning program our statewide itinerant services and both our deaf and blind programming as well as human resources each group has been asked to give an update the most current progress and current state of supporting our students and staff i will introduce each person and then they will give their report after their report you're welcome to ask questions before we move to the next group beginning with our schools i'm going to turn it over to mrs kelly creasy and mrs courtney fritz for their section of their report hello good afternoon just making sure we're doing a sound check everyone can hear me okay looks like the interpreters are signing so hopefully that means everyone else can can hear me um so good afternoon uh board president nigro superintendent annette reichman assistant superintendent dr christian rex and all of you board members um we are coming to you again with a joint report um because it really is just basically the same the same information whether we're talking about the phoenix campus or the tooth on campus kelly and i continue to meet daily at 8 00 a.m i think long ago we thought for sure by december we wouldn't be meeting every day at eight but we still are meeting there's a dare here and there that we they will cancel for um various reasons but really we have something to talk about almost every day and it's really just been a huge benefit to collaborate with each other talk about things that are happening on on my campus talk about things that are happening on kelly's campus and make sure that we're in alignment and just have a checks and balances system so with that we're we're joint presenting and we'll take turns um this week both campuses returned from our one week thanksgiving break which was last week that was a change in the school calendar once everything had to shift so we didn't have an actual fall break but took the the week of thanksgiving off so we are all back in person uh this week after tomorrow we will have two weeks left until the winter break our goal is still to remain in person for the next two weeks up until winter break um i know that everybody unsure on this call has been looking at the data looking at the benchmarks as are we every week the benchmarks from today did show once again an increase uh the the school benchmarks or guidelines are still showing an overall hybrid status but in in addition to those benchmarks because as we know they are delayed we are looking at real-time data as well we continue to meet with the asdb agency team on fridays to debrief discuss that data and make any decisions that might be necessary but at this time we are continuing to remain in person up until at least winter break we have not made a decision at to what january might look like at this time so with that it is our version of hybrid learning which means we're still on a four day week schedule tuesday through friday and offering both in-person and online options whether that's a family choice or if that's necessary because of medical reasons and or necessary because of covered exposures so that is what we are doing on both campuses at this time good afternoon um as many of you know the aia postponed all winter sports until january and so at this time both campuses are providing after school strength and conditioning activities for high school students again our small size is what makes this able to happen as our student athlete population is very small compared to a traditional high school both campuses are aiming to participate in competitive sports in january and at this time aia has slotted a competition to begin january 5th and we are going to continue to monitor the aia requirements along with the county requirements okay and hopping back a little bit to our hybrid i know that we previously provided numbers as to how many students were doing the online option and we wanted to once again provide you an update on those numbers on the pdsc campus i currently have 58 students that have remained online and on the tucson campus kelly has 21.
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good evening ladies and gentlemen and we are here live at northside middle school for a middle schools girls basketball matchup we have the away team the madison cubs and our home team the north side spartans we are about 10 minutes away from tip-off so sit back and relax and let's be ready to watch some middle school girls basketball we will be doing both games 7th and 8th grade so feel free to stay tuned for both games alrighty welcome back to the live stream here at northside 5 40 left to go before we are awaiting tip-off here at northside middle school once again we want to thank our sponsors columbus auto group and forest construction as you can see on the screen they do a great job and we want to thank our sponsors those two columbus auto group and forced construction for everything we are able to live stream many games whether it's high school middle school and during the elementary school season we were able to live stream games for them so once again thank you to our sponsors so we can bring the game to you i know for north side this is only their second game of the season as they took on seymour on december 1st so i'm sure these girls for north side are excited to be playing basketball as most of them are this is their first middle school experience i know as a formal middle school everything just it was fun to be a part of and it just gets you ready for the next level going into high school days so once again i was an alum here i went to north side seventh and eighth grade so it's cool to be back here a little bit has changed with the new gym floor and everything since i've been here [Music] so for the roster or the lineup i should say for the 7th grade north side spartans number 12 is morgan jarvis number 20 is addison bortis number 21 is allison kohlhaus 22 is lydia cushman 23 is abby wheatley 24 is gabby spurgeon 25 is natasha armstrong 31 is rachel tinsley is natalia rahm 35 is braylon poole 42 is miley mccallen and 43 is costa day flourish and they are coached by kaylee smith tj jarvis and josh whitley wheatley excuse me so there you have it your seventh grade northside spartans and for the visitors the madison cubs their lineup for tonight is double zero laney alexander number two marsha wells three melee perry number four julia davis number five is kylie montgomery number 10 is melee skinner number 12 is miley mcquery number 20 is kennedy roulette 23 is maggie jester 30 is jalen abbott 31 is addison rourke 34 is braylon governor 40 is abby ferguson and their manager is emma schaefer and their coach is kyle davis so there you have it both teams in action tonight both teams are looking forward to tonight's matchup and if both of these teams stay with it they will end up running into each other probably at the high school level so it's always fun about two minutes here to go until tip off once again like most sporting events nowadays it is a limited crowd running this live stream tonight on camera is zach pierce and i am malachi parks we will be doing the honors for tonight's live stream under a minute away before tip-off i'm sure both of these teams like i've mentioned are ready to go as for north side it is their second game of the season good evening ladies and gentlemen welcome to northside middle school for tonight's contest between the madison junior high school and northside spartans first of all we'd like to thank you all for for following the guidelines that's been mandated by our state and keeping social distance is very important uh we also ask that you all wear your masks uh that's for the safety not necessarily with yourself but for anybody else around you so make sure that you are following those guidelines at the end of the seventh grade game everyone must leave the gym through the doors at the east and the gym east is that way toward the big scoreboard okay and please look around make sure you have everything if you're waiting on your child you must do so in the parking lot once the gym is clear 8th grade fans will be coming in at the end of the game everyone must leave the gym through the east end look around to make sure again that you have everything if you have water bottles um anything that's disposable please take that with you that's for the safety of our hostility it's awesome and other than that there is no concession stand so if you get really dry you'll have to wait till afternoon to go to the local establishments and get yourself some water or a beverage okay at this time ladies and gentlemen we'd like to ask you please rise and face the flag as we give honor to our country and those that are serving their country with the plane of our national anthem [Music] so all right and here's the write-ups and the starters for madison okay number 40 abby ferguson number 34 connor number 30 bill abbott number 23 maggie jester number five carlee montgomery number two masha wells double zero lenin lania alexander and now with starters at gardner 31 addison roark guard number 20 kenny kennedy rallied at center number 12 mainly mcquarrie flat forward number 10 bailey skinner and a guard number four juliana davis and their coach kyle davis and now the north side spartans [Music] [Applause] number 43 cassidy furnish number 23 addie wheatley number 34 natalie rome number 25 natasha armstrong number 24 gabby's virgin 22 lydia cushman number 20 edison and ronklettas and now the starters hatch center number 21 allison class that's forward number 31 rachel tinsley at forward number 35 brandon poole number 42 miley mclennan and the car number 12 morgan jarvis all righty ladies and gentlemen there you have it the starters for each of these teams tonight and the lineups this like north side had a the old bulls theme song going on as they introduce their starters so here we go middle school basketball on our hands tonight here at north side tip off is a few seconds away as north side's in white and blue and madison's an all red with white trim as miley mccullen does the tip for north side and north side wins the tip number 12 has the ball gets it to the left pass it down low to the low block to number 35 back out and out of bounds will take will remain north side basketball number 42 takes the ball out for the spartans looks like the cubs are going with maybe a man a man look here as i just handed off 235 she gets to the left and passes back out to number 12.
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do you have any um idea on any more of the details i don't and i wish i did for you um so but i don't right now all right um i just know i didn't yeah i did know that they were having a meeting today to give more information on it and um and am i correct it's an antigen test and it's almost like a pretest where you would administer it with permission um to someone who is showing covet-like symptoms and if it comes back positive then the um recommendation would then to be to go get the test correct correct to go get that pcr test or that rapid pcr test even if individuals had a negative antigen test that binax now test if they were still displaying those symptoms that we were concerned about then i'm sure nurses are going to be using their clinical judgment their skills those protocols that are going to be put in place that even if someone's symptomatic and test negative then they should be out of the school environment the in-person school environment so yeah okay my next question is also related to testing more okay i think it's the feedback from ben's computer um it's more around any efforts that the town is making to try to get a testing site in hampshire county i know that representative dom has really spearheaded that and has been pushing for it since august so i'm wondering if the town is is reaching out to governor baker as well uh it's right now in hampshire county we well we holyoke community college is the closest really um unless you're affiliated with umass so yeah so that's a great question and one that i'm really encouraged by um i know that the western mass mayors and managers town managers officials had a meeting with secretary setters about how important of an issue it was regarding testing i do know that there's support with joe comerford and also representative dome in terms of this area and i know that i have been working really actively trying to problem solve this and strategize in terms of how can we get increased testing density in this area um partnering with other areas that are already doing testing in the area like umass or cooley but also what's our accessibility and possibilities of maybe getting mobile testing here in amherst and and what would that look like and certainly what are we what are the specially specialty popul populations that we might want to be focused on whether they're students and teachers but i think that there's opportunities for many different ways that we can go for that and and something that i know myself and other regional health department directors have been working on as well excellent um i also know that there was an update late yesterday afternoon from the cdc correct um this was on the vaccine which we're all very happy to hear yeah can you share any information about that so in terms of local boards of health change in the direction that we've been given our directives not so much really the cdc is releasing guidance and advising state departments of health to give further guidance to local boards of health so all the information is really kind of coming down the pipeline to our individual areas of specialty so that way it can be executed in a uniform fashion as well as we can and create equity right the health equity that i know we all is all important to us and um is the town looking to do any um community education around vaccines you know i think that is definitely an area that we can work on as more information comes out and i will take note of that gene krista do you have any questions around the contact racing yeah um last time we met um you you got me thinking a lot about this um clinically positive situation where if we have students who for whatever reason cannot get a covid test but we're assuming they're clinically positive i'm i'm curious about how that plays out in contact tracing um and i'm curious how how a school nurse would discover a student is clinically positive like what kind of a timeline would that look like so we have a i have a student in my class i think they're showing symptoms i send them to the nurse the nurse says go get a test we find out that for whatever reason the family is not going to go get a test how does that information come back to the classroom in order for us to know who has been a close contact if we are going to consider this person uh clinically positive i guess that that's a big bundle of a question but maybe we can untangle that for me well you know we'll do the best that we can krista right in terms of paying untangling that um so i think the primary question there and topic is really how do we sort this out how do we communicate valuable and necessary information back down the pathway but while also respecting confidentiality and and doing it in a professional manner that's respectful of everyone involved and how everyone might be affected by that um the school nurses are going to be doing the school student based contact racing in if they're in the learning area and then they will look at the protocols and policies that were put in place in terms of contact tracing for those rooms for those school rooms and then based off the school department will determine messaging with me in terms of what's the best way to get that message out um if a family wants to test or not the recommendations would be the same in terms of stay home um you know be at home um quarantining or isolating from others not going out into the community and then certainly if you start to feel ill seek medical treatment um where it changes is if that patient or that child or student is that positive case and how it if at that time contact tracing would have to occur um so i know that's not just a challenge in the school arena i know that's also a challenge in the other workforce places as well in terms of how do we really strategize to around those identified possible gaps to create a safe environment for everybody thank you for your thinking on that i appreciate it all right um emma this might not be um too interesting for you maybe it is we want to switch over to the ventilation the the the hvac portion of the show yes my dad would be proud [Laughter] so ben can you give us an update yeah so testing up through phase three has been completed and now we're kind of at the uh the most boring part of that process which is the putting the data into a consumable form and i believe a rough draft has actually was sent it was supposed to have been sent this afternoon to mike from is this from nexus no from from us we we got the uh yeah it went out this afternoon okay right so it should be disseminated sometime next week i believe okay so are you um if i'm hearing you right nexus sent you and rupert the report the um the in engineer speak and then you um translated it into something that was more digestible correct yep yep we put it into human thought yeah okay um so we had requested that a copy of the actual report be sent to us to apea is it possible to get that i believe so yeah it's i think that's in with my little packet yes yes we still have the raw data too all right that would be help really helpful if we could have that um can you give any updates on um um i don't want to put you on the spot but the there were upstairs rooms at crocker farm that there were concerns about is there any information you can share about those that's those were um ach issues correct yep yep and um so all but one of them were basically we brought them up to the above four without assistance but still put a purifier um by without assistance i mean without the additional air purifier and then there was another one a fourth room i believe up there that we put a second air purifier in because it was like we checked checked it once did a calculation checked it another time got did a calculation one was slightly above one was slightly below so we aired on the side of caution thank you um was there any indication in the report as to um the what the reason was for those particular rooms having low achs no that's they haven't figured out why no that's that's kind of like it was sort of left up to our specialist to sort of figure that part but it's basically uh it's basically a mechanical issue initially can you go into a little more detail yeah yes um you know i love this stuff so right right it's compelling it's very compelling i tell people that they don't believe you but uh yes so basically it was like the proper amperage wasn't getting to the motor it's a little more complicated than that right right way to explain it and it went um just to clarify this was the these were the large classrooms upstairs not the smaller rooms that are across the hall from them correct correct yeah okay and do you remember which classroom number it was that was still a little bit iffy no that i was just trying to remember the numbers if i'm looking at them it's to the left okay i don't know if that's helpful it is yeah thanks um let's see and any other updates on ongoing maintenance that you can report on yeah so we've been um we kind of ran into an engineering snag with doing the uh the smaller breakout rooms in the the ilc rooms they were the timeout rooms i believe we call those so we're kind of re-engineering a couple spots to try to make it like the most physically safe so that's about where we're at with that so that that work is kind of continuing daily when do you think that do you have a timeline for those not exactly i have a i have a wish date to be done okay so that's that's helpful what's the wish date prior to the break so by next by next friday we should at least have a a plan we can lay out by next friday but i'm trying to think you know the whole picture in a couple of we'll have the work completely done by then but right right um how many spaces are we talking about that would need to be reconfigured oh the so the ones where it worked there are two two key places that we have to kind of rework things and i believe there's one two three four six total that's what we needed to address so the two key spaces are those at crocker or fort river where are those one is crocker was actually a little better off there but um one wildwood one fort river and that's a lot to do with ceilings ceiling clearance and what we can and can't move up there can you go into a little more detail like i'm just trying to get a sense of exactly this the scope of the work that needs to be done so it actually might come down to getting an entirely new unit which so what we're doing to kind of like to be time expedient is we've pre-ordered we're just assuming that there's no way we can make the units we have work in those two spaces so we've pre-ordered those units and then aside from that we're kind of trying to figure out how like so you need more than just physical clearance you need air space clearance up top too just so that we're not overheating things those sorts of and then in one of them there's a access to power issue and so we have to actually get it powered up safely and so we're not interfering with anything so we're talking about multiple contractors subcontractors i should say coming in or no no this this can actually all be done in-house yeah okay i know um i'm being married to a contractor you never want to ask somebody for a definite end right right right and completion um we want to get an uh kind of an idea of about when we're talking um so you'll have a plan by next end of next week correct and starting of the projects well they're kind of underway at the moment so that it's it's more figuring out the contingency plan and whether or not we need to enact it everywhere we're not everywhere but more than just the two places is this is this kind of like the the book if you give a mouse a cookie so if you start doing one thing then you find out you have to do something else is that happening yep say no more same thing all right um i to follow up on um the nexus report um this was the first time the middle school and half of the high school or more have been tested i'm just curious for an executive summary of how those how those spaces are looking i know we want to see the full the full raw data because gene and i will geek out over that for a very long embarrassingly long amount of time um but we're curious um what what's the what's the feel of those spaces i mean i guess the best assessment that i could give is our impression which was better than anticipated and and more well i'd say both schools were better than anticipated but i was largely shocked by some of the numbers in the middle school so i guess we've done we we've kept up the middle school better than okay so um any remediation that needs to be done in your estimation nothing nothing major at the middle school there are possibly some some issues in areas i guess they'd be they're considered phase three areas in the high school side just are these uh tweaks i mean we're not uh without seeing the report it would be hard to determine um exactly what needs to be done but are we talking about just tweaking to so that we can get the air exchange rates up right or having to do major stuff no it's more tweaking to get the the optimal number rather than like like they would be in in other times they'd be great numbers right you know but that we're looking for perfect right now so right we're looking for between 4.5 and six correct yep um i guess so once we have the report we look at it we understand we digest um we'll need to get nexus back in do you already have a date scheduled for when nexus is going to come back in to look at any of the tweaks that are being done no not yet they no they they're not able to schedule anything right now okay you're having some issues on there and then so this is would not be work that could be in-house no no well so far what we've seen it can all be done right so what um what would you need nexus to do just as far as retesting okay what our final numbers are so there's no date that we can get are we talking like january february it's tough they're uh they're kind of like behind the curve for themselves fairly well in demand in this part of the state fairly well demand and demand everywhere yeah cool it's unfortunate um all right anything else you can share with us ben that's about it oh so we finally we also put all the uh hepa filters into all of our spaces that's the that's really about it as far as in terms of like air and all that kind of stuff excellent um i am continuing to work at the state level on um indoor air quality that's a long that's my long-term the long goal down the road but increasing funding for infrastructure for for buildings um because i don't know i i think i asked way back when what the per uh per pupil spending amount was um for under facilities and maintenance and my my guess is it's it's pretty low um it's usually pretty low for school districts and it's unfortunate because as you know um if you if you spend the time and the money on routine maintenance it saves a lot of money uh in the long term absolutely a lot of the a lot of the work we're doing now could have been done a while ago cheaper that's the nice way that i can yeah um is the electric is the subcontracted electrician still working in the buildings or is that work done no he's a it's another one of those working on an old house situation so we kind of every every corner we go around we find something you find something new he's been working in the kitchen just for anybody that's listening do you know um the dates of when each of the like the building dates of each of our school buildings i think it would be interesting to know that as well as if the blueprints have ever been um fully updated yeah i think so okay i can give you all of that for a second so i know we're geeks sorry emma we're geeks on this stuff the stuff i love so so the middle school in wildwood i did not realize that they broke ground in the same year which is 67 and then 71 is um fort river and then you have all the different phases of the high school like the 60 something odd the 60s were a great time for us here in amherst apparently a lot of growth and then you had the 92 update i believe to the high school and then crocker early 60s and then the 2002 update but yeah those are both of those things came up this week that's the only reason i'm a little geeked about that and then we also four years ago had all of the prints scanned and and uh myself and mr roy clark have been they were they were all scanned in one file so we've been kind of like itemizing every little section you look right right from the physical so that are they completely updated at this point because i know the high school had some um modifications done yeah so the the prints are for the high school i'd say 90 plus percent updated little tweaks here and there that's kind of the minutia we're delving into right now all right and do you know if the town has copies updated copies of the blueprints as well i'm not sure what the the most recent version they have just would be good it would be good to uh and helpful to find out that um i'm speaking more from a safety standpoint you know for um that it's just helpful to have um accurate blueprints of the buildings yeah yeah we've also been going through speaking of safety going through and redoing uh updating floor plans like we you know we had doors that were it's marked one way on a floor plan and marked another way on the door so if we were to call and if there were some emergency and we needed to tell someone where to go they would go to the wrong place so that's the that's where i was going with this making sure that um for our public safety uh officials that they have copies of updated so that they're looking at the same thing that you're looking at right and thank you for saying that publicly because i think half of my staff has thought that we were crazy for the last two three weeks no it's very important it's pretty uh vital to um the health and safety of the public school buildings absolutely all right um i see it's 46 emma again thank you so much for a friday um and for all that you do we're very uh we're very grateful for the work that you put in and then always grateful for all of the time and effort that you put in both as a school committee member and as our assistant facilities director you do an amazing job thank you very much so um have a good weekend everybody you too you too i suppose this is the part i'm supposed to stay on and look for questions to answer um i don't know i don't know what to tell you ben so thank you again all right no problem thank you there were no questions on the youtube side perfect so we can we can end this now then all right welcome thanks have a great weekend
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okay all right i will call a meeting to order at 6 30 and we'll start with roll call attendance ron menino here sarah best uh kenny present brenda brenda present and margaret margaret present and hall present um all right first item on the agenda is to approve the minutes we don't have them yet so we'll just take care of that in january next up is public comment i did not receive any public comment so we can skip that um so we are ahead of schedule and we're up at your update dr morris sure i'll be i'll be quite brief i know miss wedding jones has um more thorough updates in in her part we chatted about that today um i really have just um there we go i'm sorry about that um so just two quick ones one is that uh we had a really successful flu clinic across the district today so it was advertised it was at fort river school which is as you know very close to pelham it was sent to all all families in all the districts and we had 50 students come and get vaccinated today uh it was so successful that we are looking to have another clinic perhaps next week um and perhaps indoors because it's getting a little dark a little cold by the end and if you look at the forecast as as you know i'm not a uh i'm not looking forward to the one to two inches we may get on saturday you know i know many people will rejoice with cold and snow i'm just i'm not that person so um we are looking to perhaps do another one um and we're trying to figure out what site would be the best um so uh but really thanks to robin supernod who's taken over jill consolino's role as the nurse manager nurse leader in the district for organizing that and all the communication that went out um it's not that exceeded our expectations because we know many people already many of the children already got vaccinated through their pediatrician or through other places so um but apparently there were people who said i i want to do this but i couldn't do it this day um and so we're trying to meet demand so thank you it was also facilitated by uh a parent in one of our districts um who was connected to cbs who um was the kind of primary took the lead on it so really important and we're appreciative uh i think the only other one before i can't turn it to lee would be um you know as as you know we pelham's gym uh is uh has been a good spot in terms of ventilation we've had successful um the soccer program that rented it as that's been going smoothly and we have a request for um pretty regular use by amherst recreation which is what people think of as lsse but they've changed their name so i'm trying to try to reiterate that everywhere i go that they're they're now amherst recreation for basketball skills clinics for students in grades three to eight um certainly would be uh pelham students would be eligible not just amherst students but financially for this district it would bring in multiple thousand dollars which would be great pelham students are well represented in the soccer clinic as well i did ask the soccer program not for names but just like any of these kids from pelham because you signed up with your address and there's a unusually large representation from pelham if you compare amherst and pelham students who all received an email inviting them to participate uh you know pelham's roughly 10 percent of that population and they're much more than 10 of the population of students who are participating in it so we're really pleased that not only is it bringing in financial income to the district but also that it's um it's seen as a resource that pelham families are availing themselves of so those are those are my only updates the rest i think go through um before i get to mr mino's question we'll be represented in the agenda items that we have tonight but i think there was a question if that's okay with you ms hall okay yeah go ahead ron i was just wondering why the agenda item on originalization was added to tonight's meeting we'll talk about that when we get to that agenda item how's that okay all right then uh if it's okay with the committee i'll turn it over to lee a talk uh has a much more thorough list of updates from the school okay hi everyone um so i'll start out with the same frame i used last time students staff and families and i'll share that earlier this week i was doing my rounds of the virtual classrooms um it's a little different from walking the halls and popping my head into classrooms but it feels similar in some ways it's starting to feel more and more familiar and i went into four classrooms like right in a row and afterwards i walked out of my office and i said out loud i love elementary school every single class was laughing together they were all doing totally different things the sixth graders were learning about um the phases of the moon and they had all created visual representations with their own explanations the fourth graders were they're learning multiplication and they were making visual arrays um the third graders were labeling continents and oceans and i um on the spot took a breakout group and had to remember where all of the oceans were located to double check their work and the first graders just went on a virtual field trip to the national portrait gallery and they they were able to articulate things that they noticed about artistic choices that adults i know couldn't couldn't do so it was really amazing to just do a little whip around and see such incredible learning happening online um there's also been a lot of collaboration the favorite tool right now is jamboard so our kindergartners created a set of mindful strategies using jamboard and they shared it at our most recent all school meeting right before thanksgiving so they all had added their mindfulness strategy and a picture and i think the favorite one is the shark meditation where you lay on your bed pretend you're a shark and just thrash your body so you can picture a kindergartner demonstrating that um our monthly all-school read is the day you begin by jacqueline woodson and yesterday i went to fifth grade and did a read-aloud of that activity it's all about how sometimes you walk into a room and you feel like you're really different from everybody else so after we read the story we broke out into small groups and we tried to find like 10 things that we all had in common so some of the fifth graders and i like mexican food and fancy things that was those were some of the things we could come up with um and as part of our black history month all year long project the second graders are learning about the montgomery bus boycott and they created really amazing representations of some of the things that they learned so they did a celebration of the end of that unit or the end of that part of the unit right before the thanksgiving break and then the other student update i have is that we are starting up our paw prints student run newsletter after the winter break so check your inboxes starting in january it'll be for fourth fifth and sixth graders and our tech teacher jay sri krishnan is going to be running that with some great help from parent volunteers i'll share a little bit about what our staff have been up to so we've been doing some professional development this month around a universal screening tool for social emotional learning support so we were lucky to receive a grant tied to some of the kobit relief funds we've noticed an increased need around social emotional learning just generally and so we're really taking the same approach we would take if we were noticing that students in our school were struggling with reading or math we're going to do a universal screening to make sure nobody slips through the cracks and provide targeted interventions and supports so our staff have been getting up and running on getting to know what that tool is going to look like and how we can use it to best meet the needs of our students and we're also working on our book study of onward we had i think what folk said was the best staff meeting ever yesterday we had one of our parents um kristen famagetti who is a yoga teacher and reiki practitioner and mindfulness expert come and share some strategies with us about how we can do some relaxation and stress relief and mindfulness with our students and with ourselves yesterday so that was great you may have seen in the pelham press this week that i did include a summary of an incident that happened before the thanksgiving break and so i outlined what happened so essentially a sign was added to the front lawn of the school that was not it was not placed there with permission from myself from the superintendent from any of you from the town of pelham so we did consider it an act of vandalism um and i thought it was a good opportunity to articulate to the community why we have the signs that we do in front of the school so we were very intentional with our pto leadership about putting a black lives matter sign in front of the school at the beginning of the year because we feel like that aligns with our values and our mission this year and our staff felt really strongly that it was important to share that with the community so i outlined that in a letter to the community this week um and it's actually opened up what i think is an important dialogue with staff with students with some families about race in our community i think we've we started having a lot of conversations over the summer um and and they've continued to evolve as the year has gone on so we have a few opportunities to continue that dialogue in december our second grade teacher katie thurston is going to facilitate a discussion of the podcast series nice white parents and so that will be a continuation of our book study group for families and for staff to join us and we're also shifting the format of our community coffees so i received some feedback from families that screens are in hot demand from nine to three in everyone's home so we're shifting from our morning community coffees with the principal to an afternoon tea time in the hope that more families can attend and also trying some smaller groups of people so that families who have children in similar grade levels can come together and connect and then the other parent update is um that we had our first virtual open house in november uh which went off really well it was really different from doing an open house in person but we started out with a live synchronous session just nor dizzy our school counselor led that along with me and then we had asynchronous videos from all of our staff and teachers which was really great so um those are all the updates for me students staff and families i know that was a lot did i create any questions with all of that any questions yeah all right thank you so much um all right next up the fall 2012 yeah we're the last one i can get for fall 2020 update right this is the last meeting of fall for this group um and i think you know lee did a lot of the update of what i would have said uh in terms of the work that's happening i think just to be explicit about it um you know i'm we're i know we're talking about metrics later but we are not close to hitting uh the metrics required for under the memorandum of agreement for return to in-person i think it is worth mentioning here that i have received a phone call from the department of education inquiring about that because pelham as of last week the town by 10 results come out on fridays uh has had fewer than five when it's fewer than five cases the state doesn't release the number uh but the town of pelham has had fewer than five cases throughout the entire pandemic um so they did inquire i think they are looking at towns that are not um back in person who are not in yellow or red or or even the green they're just in the gray which means too few cases so you know i shared the information that this is not a decision that's independent of the bargaining unit and the bargaining unit for the pelham public schools the same as the bargaining unit for the emerson regional public schools they have the same agreement and so it's not governed by pelham specific metrics it's by a much broader set of metrics whether they choose to follow up or not is anyone's guess but i did think i wanted to com or i did want to communicate to the committee that did receive a call specifically about pelham and the lack of in-person education occurring at pelham school this fall that being said i want to emphasize something that lee was indicating before is just the growth that we've seen in our staff members and making the best of distance education i'm not trying to glorify it i'm not trying to get into a debate about that i think if we want to do that we could talk about that a little later when the agenda item is on that but i do want to uh regardless of how one feels about the return to in person uh the the the staff have really risen to the challenge of trying to meet the needs of the pelham school students and then create community even in a virtual setting and just want to share my appreciation for the staff and leave for her leadership on that and that's i'm going to be really brief tonight the chair told me to be blunt and brief tonight so far i think i'm doing okay i mean in context it made sense when you say it like that it sounds bad no i was all in on it as miss kenny said before we've already had another meeting that was pretty actually i had an amherst joint at a regional meeting on tuesday night so i'm good with one brief okay well that's how i roll anyway ron go ahead somewhere in the past we had an exchange of emails talking about enrollment i think you indicated that after the update we had nine net students who did not enroll in pella what is that number now and how is that divided between school choice students and pelham right i want to check in with with lee i don't think there's been a change in enrollment um in the last five weeks since we've met previously has there lee looks like she's frozen sorry no sorry i was trying to unmute okay i've been a change in the past numbers and so what we can do is we can certainly bring back in january um the the enrollment sheet you know by grade level the one you've seen before by grade level with how many school choice students there are but the last time we spoke i believe was 40 or 41 school choice students that were in pelham school and that is unchanged since the last time we chatted well the nine was an improvement from the indigen initially right it was i think we were thinking it was 35 or 36 school choice but when all was said and done it was either 40 or 41 and for some reason i can't remember which of the two that was any other questions okay let's move on to the budget update then sure i'll pass it over to dr slaughter um kind of uh two parts to this one is just closing up fourth quarter of last year and then going over first quarter of the current year um and doug would you like me to do some presenting of that those um slides or those it's not slides the the documents yes if you would and and in the packets page five is quarter four of fiscal 20.
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2% um it's just something we have to really prepare for particularly the as um we deal with climate change andite the fact that growth pressures on the city are continuing and and never continues to develop and grow um the issue of protecting our uh uh flood um fls and the flood Fringe is uh important um for the issues that you have discussed just credential ASE myself I'm a former member of the City Planning Commission and I was that body's representative to S Creek Greenway task force so I'm familiar um with the uh efforts that were um um being discussed this evening as a result of it and something to keep in mind mind too as uh we move forward with this as um even though there are buildings in the flood Fringe um over time uh they become more untenable um it's not something that's a burden upon the city um it's just something that we do um in terms of Forward Thinking and I'm glad that the city is doing this and I don't have anything more in terms of eloquence to say so I'm going to mute my phone and say thank you very much for the opportunity and thank you all right thank thank you James um gayen is there anyone else there are no other hands raised okay well um let's move on to the approval of the minutes then so uh this is an unusual situation we have four we we have a minutes of four previous meetings today due to various technical glitches so um why don't we go in order and start off with September 24th um I think uh given the circumstances here I think um um people have had have reviewed the current minutes that were drafted by Galen so if you have any um suggestions to amend those minutes for September 24th uh please speak up now just read I made I submitted one suggestion for uh modification for the 24th and that is just that we did not approve the flood plane or uh overlay um ordinance that was submitted to us so I would just eliminate that um and and I did send that to gayen yeah that's correct um that certainly is correct okay kayen I I I have a a a comment SL question um as both Steve and gayen know I submitted a number of um minor revisions I would say for the most part um I don't know that we I need to go through all of them Steve I think you acknowledged that um that they need to be made um so I don't know how you want to handle that but um yeah um yeah I think it's it's important that everybody gets a chance to look at them but to me there were all just clarifications and expansions they um they really didn't add anything so um unless somebody objects to that I think uh we'll just have Galen incorporate them and then um and then I guess we can vote to approve them with those amendments and really there were just a few clarifications here and there you know such as what what Rita just suggested it um I know it's very unusual but um this seems to be uh I'm happy to hear any objections okay hearing none I think that's what we'll do Galen is why not um for all all four of these sets of of uh of uh minutes why don't you make those minor Corrections and um then um let's see uh and then um send them back to the Commissioners afterwards but I think uh we can approve them in principle now I don't see any reason to delay this any further um if there are minor Corrections um so is there a motion to approve them with these minor amendments am moved second and this applies then to all of the minutes or just to the 24th we might as well do all four of them that um any objections um um okay if you approve BL your hand or okay I'm going to assume it's uh it's uh I can't see can you see Rita that was unanimous okay thanks everybody all right and thank you gayen so please uh include those amendments and then send them out to all the Commissioners just for a a check okay okay otherwise you can record them as approved okay okay now we pass uh to the agenda old business uh so uh Rita you have the floor um this is the your fight plane management resolution um that you uh submitted last month that underwent some discussion so do you want to uh do you uh do we have uh an amendment to uh I mean do we have uh let's have a discussion but do I have a motion to bring this up we need to have two we need to have a motion I I I saw um commissioner Dish's hand okay seconded okay um I'll I'll approve of uh of this uh of visiting this um resolution please raise your hand any objections say say no verbally okay so let's begin the discussion all right so um I would like to just make a couple of statements beforehand and um uh and thanks for uh accepting this for discussion you all um the goal is to support public health and safety for all with respect to flood risk um and the goal is also to complement the UDC um uh ordinance that has been designed and and presented to us on September 24th it's an overlay district and again the goal will protect the health and safety of the public as well as property um it's based on flood plane mapping and um the the idea that of the of the resolution that I'm bringing is in its complement um that it wouldn't add perme impermeable surfaces in the flood Fringe area is so primarily the um UDC ordinance and I'm hoping that Jerry Hancock who's here um will chime in as needed um the flood French I'm sorry the ordinance that he is presenting uh focuses primarily on the flood way where water would move during the a flood event and so what I've introduced is um protection of existing open areas that do not have structures on them that are in the flood Fringe on the edges of the floodway um it would not um the goal is also to um have Jerry as the expert in our area um be directed to look at making the ordinance that he's worked on so far A little more stringent to provide more protection I do not have the qualifications to um make the suggestions that would be needed and so um the we would be asking Council to direct him as the our local expert um so with that introduction that's that's where I am um okay have may I ask just if if um the commission numbers have had a chance to read what was circulated you had nods okay all right thanks okay uh commissioner dish yeah okay Steve if I call on people because it he can't see them yeah yeah I can't see all right here we go all right did I understand correctly that um commissioner Gib Randle had submitted comments if we could maybe have those before we launch on a discussion since she would have voted on it at Planning Commission and so there might be some help for us there I'd be happy to share those um she sent me an email and I'll quote um from that so you hear it for btim directly from her but I'd like to preface it um with the comment that um as I think most of you know if not all of you Shannon is a practicing landscape architect and so um she would in effect um be interpreting um whatever is finally passed and having to comply with it um and she would be Consulting um with her clients as well as um interfacing with the city so what she has written is quote um in terms of the flood plane I have to slide my um view of all of you over um my concern is that the word Construction in the third resolved Clause is too vague as it could mean regrading a site putting a pathway or building a rain Garden if all excuse me all if which may all of which may be perfectly appropriate in the flood way or flood Fringe I think what we are concerned about our buildings um that's the essence of of her comments that one or two sentences and I think just while I have the floor um I support that I think we need to be be clear so that people like Shannon um so that um any designer that's looking um at um what is what what is finally passed by council is really explicit in terms of what is allowed and what isn't allow thank you thanks John um I think that's a good comment thanks so I would suggest inserting the word building before the word Construction in the resolution uh in which section last resolve last resolve or possibly construction of buildings how about the construction of anything that increases flood risk or decreases you know in any decreases um resilience I I I don't know the language because I'm not really good at writing ordinances but or anything like that but um there are probably a number of things that could be built there besides buildings that would create a a greater flood risk um and that's what we were trying to mitigate here and I just want to say as a climate scientist that precipitation is increasing in this region we're confident will continue doing that as well the intensity of the precipitation this is why we're seeing more flooding in for example Detroit and on farmlands and things like that this is Rec connected no doubt to the high lake levels in The Lakes but it also um is exacerbated by the fact in States like Michigan and communities like ours a lot of the flood infrastructure and planning was designed by by good Engineers for a climate that no longer exists and that uh I hope that we also at some future time as a city really take a closer look at our storm water uh systems with climate change in mind because otherwise we're going to have other surprises this is a very good ordinance or suggestion here because it is being proactive in reducing our risks so the definition of oops sorry I'm I'm sorry no um I think first I guess commissioner P did you want to say anything in addition to close no that's all I just I just think buildings are not the main thing here is let's put some language in that prevents anything that's going to exacerbate flood risk okay like all right um how about uh Chris Graham so the definition currently in the in the code is for building is any structure having a roof supported by columns or walls or intended for shelter housing or enclosure of any individual animal or Process Equipment Goods or materials of any kind when separated by division walls from the ground up without openings each portion of such structure shall be deemed a separate building um okay it I think that if we let me just try this on you all if we um reference buildings and then some some uh definition as opposed to putting that level of detail in this resolution um my goal is really to to get information back to allow Jerry to proceed with some more detailed work which sounds like what you just said Chris to me um well you can use you can use the capital letter building in the language and then it applies that definition immediately so all right thanks all right I see um JN cart yeah could you restate what is the is it the the final resolved paragraph talking about where is the reference to construction um it says resolve middle then can we repurpose the language from the sixth whereas Clause that mentions prohibit new structures oh my goodness re one two three four five six and that probably is building construction there as well actually the the advantage prohibit new structures from being built in floodway areas is that what you're saying John C um I think we probably should use the word buildings because structures and and this is where I'm probably need help from Jerry structures could be like a fence I I agree um and in the ordinance that's proposed we use buildings because that's the intent is to prevent buildings particularly that are going to be occupied by people and there's some other language that gets at um structures and more of a performance uh measure like by not not allowing things that cause a rise and um so I think buildings is the word is the word the term you're looking for and just like Chris said as long as you capitalize it there's already definition in the UDC for that okay all right so in terms of of answering question on John coward then it would be to substitute instead of the word construction prohibit new buildings in the flood Fringe areas um y I don't see him I think he stepped away oh there you are I'm sorry John K did you did that address I can't hear you sorry I was kicked out and then brought back in so I okay after I Ed my suggestion all right um did you want to add anything to it if we if we just put the word buildings in the last resolved clause in substitution for construction that's fine thank you okay all right any other hands comments John mki picking up um I don't have it right in front of me I'm looking at all of you but I think John said the the word structure is used um early in a resolved clause and as was pointed out structure could could also um apply to that we we don't have a problem with so maybe want to use buildings in buildings in there too I agree okay thanks John yep that's the six whereas yes I found that so yep um all right and um I want to call out a couple of things that I would like to change um and if I need to show my screen I can um in talking with Jerry that I would like to substitute in that six whereas instead of um the building code I would like to substitute the words state law so it would be whereas the city of Van Arbor has developed a proposed flood plane management overlay zoning district and regulations and revisions to the unified development code to reflect requirements of the state law that apply to floodway areas and prohibit new buildings now from being built in floodway areas that sound okay okay and one last one that I would like to introduce which is um in the sorry I'm not going to go through the the second last whereas um in review of some of the Housing and Urban Development information um I found some some little wiggle room about development and um instead of the word prohibits I'd like to use the word restricts restricts so it would read the Federal Department of Housing and Urban Development HUD restricts use of funds for construction and flood Fringe areas because of the risk to health and safety okay all right um I'm open for any additional comments and I appreciate these um yeah I'm back now hi Steve hey Rita so um yeah for me the U it looks like I I know there was some concern about uh about um this may be affecting council's um consideration of this um and that there's some deadline coming up early this year so um Jerry can you make any comments about that um yeah as we're going through the process for this ordinance I really didn't have a deadline but all of a one popped up um every five years the community rating system um communities in the community rating system get um get rescored and I didn't I I figured we were about a year out from that but I was informed that that it's coming right up and have now um been scheduled for our for our rescoring for February 18th um so if I don't have the ordinance to together by February 18th I could be delayed by a year to a year and a half from getting the points we expect from the ordinance so I'm hoping that the ordinance moves ahead so that we can can get those points sooner than and later so so what date do you think you need council's approval to to make that deadline um well right now it's scheduled for first reading on this December 7th and second reading on December 21st and then all ordinances take about 10 days to go into effect so wiggle room I really only have one or two meetings at the most to delay it to to meet this new deadline I mean I literally got the meeting got scheduled about a week ago okay and um and my understanding is that that there aren't really that many Parcels affected here that's right actually Steve asked me a few questions that prompted me to do a little more um and analysis in the last day or two with help of our GIS people um and so the the change that's um would be proposed in the third resolve um uh I had guessed that it would maybe affect about 10 parcels and when I went through it um it was eight there are eight Parcels that would um basically would render them unbuildable uh that is the the that that would be the worst possible outcome I would say they the the biggest impact of of changing ordinance um just to give you a a comparison I went I went through and did the same analysis for the ordinance that's proposed and there are three Parcels that are are would be rendered unbuildable by the by the proposed ordinance so we' be adding eight more to that are these all single family properties single family lots no they're not they're they're a mixture be because the ordinance that's proposed uh would would prohibit new bu new buildings in the flood way and the resolution using the word buildings would apply to you know residential or commercial so I looked at both I didn't just looked at look at residential um so yeah total total of three with the current proposal and with the change there will be eight so that just gives you like a perspective of you know we're not talking about a lot of Bill not a lot of parcels in the city that are going to be negatively affected okay all right so I have a question Jerry um in terms of of um implementing this resolution into incorporating it into what you you've done so far how much work is that for you if you've got a council meeting coming up on Monday is is this a doable uh well once the once the ordinance approved well first of all if if I were to in incorporate the change that that's suggested in the third resolve we would have to go back to Planning Commission because it's a different concept got it so it's not it's not just um an additional council meeting that's because it's a different idea okay my preference would be approve what's what's proposed now come up with a revision to that and go back through the process okay okay so in other words so so yeah maybe a better course of action would be to submit a separate resolution on this that would be taken up later I'm trying I'm trying to feel my way here that uh that there really it seems like there might not be enough time right now to go through the Planning Commission and then go and then and then go to the for Council consideration is that correct there is some risk there I have a process question um my understanding is that Council um often gets um resolutions and language that are modified actually then in Council meetings and um my opinion is that it would be a Pity that um the the clarification that we're offering here um couldn't be considered by Council and um modified in council with by by council with our guidance without having to make a rework Loop so to speak going all the way back through Planning Commission I don't know if for example council member Griswald could comment on that but it seems to me we're essentially advising Council to to potentially tweak this without having to go all the way back and make an entire rework that seems reasonable to me based on how Council has functioned I don't know if there are any specific requirements uh because it involves the Planning Commission or you're saying anything that would involve the Planning Commission we would save for a a second resolution at some future date is that correct U that's what I was proposing as an alternative if okay so just minor minor tweaks at Council that that seems realistic to me and um given that we've got a tight deadline I definitely support that okay um council member dish has her hand raised electronically that how do you do that uh you click on participants and it gives you the option um so uh I think I have a a a process question because as I read this um this resolution the order of the resolved Clauses are there's the first one that just says you support the overlay District the second one recommends that city council approve the proposed flood plane management overlay zoning district and regulations ordinance so the second resolve Clause says approve this one that has already been drawn up drawn up and then it says and then please request staff or instruct I don't know actually which we actually do to strengthen that um that ordinance so so I'm a little I'm a little Lo I'm a little bit lost exactly about so this is in this ordinance wants Council to approve it and then change it in such a way that actually it has to go back to Planning Commission so um I am not sure if this ordinance completely makes sense to me because I'm not sure if these changes are so extensive that we can approve the ordinance and then ask for this kind of change I'm totally happy to do that but it was something that confused me when I read the ordinance yeah that's kind of where I was coming from so um I think um so Kathy seems to think that uh it's okay to do this within Council during the readings I'm a little sorry here's my hand yeah Chris I'm a little bit bothered about FASTT tracking this um I presume there are private owners of the five additional properties that become unbuildable M and there's economic impact on them and I maybe that's okay maybe that's not okay but it ought to be carefully addressed and yeah it seems like a due process question you know yeah I I think Jerry's suggestion that we um recraft this resolution for our next meeting and then put it in the hopper for a revision a later revision to go through the process and get this one that is on the table done and signed and sealed and delivered to the council promptly would be the best course so what you're saying Chris is that we should keep the first two resolve clause and then um and then put the third for a second yeah I'm sure the council would like to hear from us and that'd be a good way of doing it and then do a new resolution that requests up the up the line that more work be done as possible for staff to do it okay or I guess an alternative would be to say um for the third resolv Clause the environmental commission recommends that city council consider strengthening the flood plane management overlay zoning District to prohibit new construction but that would leave it up to the council's decision and they could choose to defer it or not get the suggestion on the table right away okay um what do what do other people think Carrie has her hand I don't think you have to change the language of the the last resolv seems to say that actually say it again it does seem to say it seems to be approve what you got on the table but please ask for another process to do a minor or maybe it's a little more than minor Amendment seems to be asking that yeah that's quite correct but but we do change construction to building though we do change construction to building okay okay I'm good with that yeah I just meant the last resolved Clause I think it doesn't I don't think you need to tweak it at all except for building um but what about building yeah I meant leave it in are you leave it in yeah yeah but change the building to building construction of building or building I certainly appreciate the the feedback from you all and so yeah let's My Wish for this is to um provide something that helps the city be safer that's where we want to be and if the sequence of events is one that that takes a a little more time I'm okay but I would not want want it to take a lot more time um and that that would be my main concern how long have you been working on this Jerry 2007 yeah 2007 there we go 13 years long enough for maps to change okay well let's see all right so okay we we've had comments about I think the only thing that's still open is this third resolved clause and what I hear are two Alternatives is that we just leave it as it is um but uh there is some concern that it's asking for an action that's related to passing the current flood plane overlay zoning District ordinance so could we go do you mind if we go through them in sequence just can we just say of the three resoles is that okay Council trying to get recognized okay I see that I'm so I'm um I actually uh I definitely agree with Miss Slavic that the way it's written says we want Council to pass the district and then afterwards we want some more modifications yeah we want them to consider instructing more modifications this is how the um short-term rental ordinance was too except that it's delayed in being implemented until that happens and that's not what we're asking for because we don't want to miss this deadline so I'm just wondering I'm not not afraid that this ordinance will slow down the process that Mr Hancock is in but I feel like maybe we need some I don't know if we need advice from planning staff or someone to let us know if if this is feasible I mean can we ask for this change after the district is passed and I yeah absolutely ordinance at any time it can be amended any time right is that correct Kathy Kathy the theoretically it can again unless there's any uh constraints from the master planning process and I I don't think this is related to the master planning process but no that that's all I know about uh maybe Jerry Hancock could comment on it since he works with it every day right you can we can we can make amendments to to code any time the concern was kind of like a Chris brought up I mean you want to go through the the public review process with this Con that Concept in mind so that people know what they're what the impact will be um and since that since I didn't presented that way at any of the meetings up till this this point that so it's really not the question on the table for for Council right now so that's why it seems to me it you'd want it to go back that this concept to go back through the the review process so that the public understands what's proposed okay I see Bob need them I I think uh what Mr Hancock said is exactly right and I I think um we we could maybe uh slightly tweak the third resolved to make that clear because the way it's worded now it's requesting staff to take action which to me implies that maybe the changes would come before Council considers it um but if it read something like environmental commission recommends that city council consider strengthening the flood plate Management overl District then that kind of implies that it's been passed and we're going to go back and look at it again I like that yeah yeah I like that okay is it up to Rita to get the language in Toto here polished and ready to move on if we do you trust me yeah yeah I think that's good okay um wow thank you so you all know I want you to know that uh this the first time I've written one of these so um thank you for um tolerating my stumbles um it's all good it's all good so so Rita um so so Rita normally what we do is we just go through and review the Amendments that have been made and then we will have a motion to approve it as amended uhuh so and I'm I'm uh I'm suppose that these were all considered friendly amendments I agre very friendly we've only clarified things and so the first thing I noted was um you're going to change um any any word that says structure or construction to building correct and then um and then there was a minor uh suggestion about the uh [Music] about the next to the last where us clause about the HUD um yep that one I have yeah prohibits to restricts correct and then um and then there's the U Amendment to the third resolve Clause correct and uh the sixth whereas Clause will include it will reference state law instead of building code and it will include include buildings instead of structures yep okay right so um I believe I have that so um I could um do the word processing behind the scenes and you could all could consider continue and we could come back or we could vote on this how would you like to proceed oh I think in the past we've just voted on the amended we voted to accept the Amendments and then we vote to accept the resolution as amended okay you're getting good well thanks Chris so so uh do we have a motion to accept these amendments to this resolution so move okay Chris do we have a second [Applause] second Slavic raise her hand okay so um so Chris and then let's just say carry so um I'll I'll approve of these amendments as discussed please raise your hand hi um any any dissensions or abstentions okay it passes the Amendments passed unanimously so do I have a motion to vote on the um amended resolution so move second Chris again and Bob Needum so um let's see all who are in favor say uh raise your hands he I see all hands raised okay so the the resolution passes unanimously okay gigantic gold star for Jerry yeah star forry Jerry thank you I think Rita deserves one too so let's um so Rita why don't you distribute the amended document now um just to just so everybody has a plan to look at it later uh like now now um I'm not sure everybody has a chance this really won't take long for me to do so so why don't you just email it to all of us so we have a copy of it as amended and then U we should have like uh maybe 24 not even 24 hours let's just say um if people want to make changes they need to do it by let's say what 10:00 tomorrow morning I think that would be a good practice and respond to I guess respond to me if that's okay yeah and respond to you what's the deadline for the legar for council meeting Monday probably 10 o'clock tomorrow works yeah it probably does I think it's um yep we got to get it in Rita as well yeah to get in Rita what you should do is instruct Galen to to send it once you've heard from people at 10 o'clock tomorrow send it to ask gayen to have to send it to uh through the channel to get it on the council agenda uh okay and just so y'all know I am putting in um red font for changes okay okay let's see do you mind if we move on to uh the next item on the agenda do you mind if we move on to the sorry yes please go ahead oh okay all right well thanks Rita so the next item on the agenda thank you is Kathy Griswald U wants to discuss a resolution um that involves uh um that involves uh Landscaping in the U you know the lawn extensions and um so so Kathy you have the floor okay thank you um I did send out an email earlier today to the environmental commission email list I don't know if that actually goes to the Commissioners um I received it oh okay um and I want to thank uh Rita for talking to me about this and I think I was able to to clarify what my intentions were and I have been concerned about chapter 40 since 1997 since we're talking about how far back things go uh and when council member Haner suggested um a minor revision I thought that might be the time to do some additional work on it however um after reflecting on uh where we stand right now in terms of the a20 plan and the uh Vision zero based Transportation plan that's coming I think that rather than discuss or and ask for an approval of this resolution I recommend that we do not approve this resolution that we send it back to the Transportation Commission that's where it was referred from and they can refer it back to council with a recommendation not to approve and in place of that I would recommend that we um ask Council to form a working group with at least one member of the Transportation Commission and one member of the environmental commission along with staff participation and that we look at chapter 40 to really bring it up to date so it is consistent with our safety and sustainability goals uh chapter 40 makes reference to turf grass and the height of turf grass and we really and Christopher Graham can can add to this uh but I think that we should be educating the community members about other options and um we're not doing that and so um another opportunity is that with uh Vision zero they talk about the six e and two of those e are education and encouragement and so we should look at chapter 40 and see where we can provide more education and more encouragement within this area so again I I think it needs to be updated and I think the focus needs to be safety and sustainability so I'm willing answer questions at this time okay could could you mention what the particular sticking points are in the existing chapter 40 language um yes there is inconsistency right now uh when staff after council member Hanner uh made the recommendation for some changes in um I think it was on private property then a staff member went through and read the ordinance and realized there were inconsistencies regarding um the use of the term lawn extension in one place it was deleted um just wording about in one place it referred to a vegetation 8 feet from the uh the road surface and another one it was 8 feet vertical height from the road surface so a lot of them were minor but I think that this is an opportunity for staff to clean up the language and then to again include more education and encouragement and another area is the site distance triangle and that's the area at um at intersections that allows people to be able to see around the corner not only to see an oncoming vehicle but more importantly to see a pedestrian or a cyclist and right now we're making a reference to some federal standards that are in um a manual that is not available online to the public and costs $2 or $300 and so the only way to even get ref you know to get access to that is to go down to City Hall and look at it and so I think that this uh could be a little more user friendly um another area is a reference to planned natural areas and we are already had one lawsuit because someone had a natural area on the side of their property but someone else complained that it wasn't planned it was a unplanned Natural Area and so the city went to court and we lost because it would be very hard I think to differentiate between a planned Natural Area and an unplanned I have read pardon me oh yeah that's Clause 3 three Co 16 yeah so yeah I mean I have red twig dogwood that have grown I have a a blue spruce tree that just popped up I have many uh red bud trees and so should I differentiate between the ones that that you know just grew naturally versus the ones that I planted I I don't think so so that's another area where we know that the language would not hold up in court and so we need to modify it okay Kathy thanks um um are there any questions for Kathy other than mine oh there are okay Christopher your hands Christoper you're muted this fils up in a resolution I went through Council in August or so to review this ordinance yes okay um and the document that we have here is the amended ordinance or is that the existing ordinance the existing ordinance okay um yes we can work on it we'll talk about a natural features committee meeting on Monday um uh one other concern to add to this I had a client in the last years of her life who had a has had for decades a native plant front yard on a cldis hack um and a neighbor complained about uh nii uh daisies and a blue bell and oh okay called the city's zoning person and the city's zoning person came back out and told this woman to cut the weeds oh yeah I was Furious oh oh she yeah I I think we want to eliminate any like that I I don't think we want to differentiate between a weed and a non- weed I mean well your current ordinance does yes yeah and it's important that the people who are implementing it are trained yes I agree um my client would not let me debate or I would have gotten deep into this with the ordinance enforcing person um um but because she as I say was very weak and getting to the end of her life um but uh this is a it really is a matter of Education not just for the public but for our own staff and how they interpret these things okay that's a good point yeah yeah um so Kathy what's your ask is to get a to do you want the commission to pass a resolution today to um to send it back to or what's your ask here um and John had his hand up I don't know if he has a question first sure thank you um it's clarification maybe something Steve is asking for too your email referenced R20 342 which isn't on the agenda but we were given the chapter 40 and I'm not certain that's just that's not a resolution so I'm trying to understand what action you're you're seeking here you mentioned vote no but I don't see that resolution in our agenda oh okay um it's not there and that resolution was asking um for a change to allow turf grass to be 18 in instead of just 12 in and that's what started this whole process um and so the re it went to the Transportation Commission and then the Transportation Commission referred it to the environmental commission just for a recommendation a general recommendation so I guess my ask would be that the environmental commission and I don't know if it needs to be a a resolution or just a memo item that uh we recommend um a no vote on the minor changes to chapter 40 and we ask for a complete review of chapter 40 with this working group um but I didn't want to complicate things so sorry let me back up for a minute so my thought was just to to return it to the Transportation Commission and then I will bring forward a separate resolution regarding the working group in early 2021 because I I didn't want to try to modify what's on the table right now does that does that make sense John I understand kind of what you're seeking to do but I'm not certain what action we should take as a commission tonight yeah I'm I'm puzzled myself I I appreciate the effort to clean up the language here but I'm not certain what what we need to do tonight um well uh why don't I offer a resolution that the environmental commission just refer the resolution back to the Transportation Commission with a recommendation that it be that Council vote no on any further work on chapter 40 pending review by a working group with that has one volunteer from the environmental commission and one from the Transportation Commission we could add that or I can bring that forward as a resolution in early 2021 but I'm I'm fine with that Stephen well we could um it's a very short resolution okay I'm not sure what more we need than that okay that seems fine to me we could we could just it just takes one where as Clause whereas um there's ambiguities in the existing chapter 40 or be it resolved that uh the environmental commission uh wants to refer it refer any chapter 40 changes back to the Transportation Commission and Council should not vote on it until there's been it's been worked on by the a joint working committee consisting of um a environmental commissioner and a transportation commissioner and then whatever whoever staff people need to be involved oh okay thank you yes I I apologize for not writing up the resolution I just put basic the information in the email so okay I would I would second that resolution um well we need to have a first we need to have a first one first uh does anybody I was counting you but okay okay I'll first it all right I'll I'll write it up I'll write it up later okay thank you you do the same thing as we did with this amended uh we can do the same thing that I proposed with this amended uh um floodway flood plane management overlay District resolution okay okay uh Steve uh yeah this is on the table of the environmental Commission because of a resolution passed by the council asking the environmental commission to address this matter whatever the matter is right Kathy's asking for a different direction and in my view she should be asking the council for a different direction to amend its resolution and ask the Transportation Commission to assign someone in in other words uh Kathy's asking for more Cooperative or collaborative discussion apparently this problem was came from the Transportation f folks to the council and then the council put it in environmental commission's lab in August and so here can I just say it initiated from a council resolution from council member Haner and then I recommended that it go to the Transportation Commission but the council sent it to us yes so you would like it to go so you would you really need to deal with the council and ask them to send it to the Transportation Commission not with us it's not our duty to redirect their request okay yeah I think that's a great point I don't think we have the authority to refer it back to Transportation I I don't like their idea so I hope we are able to get involved but yeah no thanks thanks a lot Chris thanks a lot Chris for that clarification so okay the other way to go here is to let us get involved as the council requested and and we can contact the transportation people and say see what their issue is and and work it through I mean we don't have to go back to the council with it but at the moment that's the instruction from the council is that environmental commission deal [Music] with Okay so let's see let's see what the proper course of action would be it would be that um um so I wish I had the email in front of me I think find it for you Steve okay I think what do you so Chris what do you recommend here um well I don't know what the problem is the the we dealt with this ordinance um not very long ago and and I did read it today and it's it's generally good um I if the only issue the transportation people were was Raising was that the height of plants in the street lawn should be 12 inches maxed and I disagree with that but we can discuss it and of course it depends on where and what the plants are but uh okay well one of the the issues is that uh a commissioner and I don't know who the commissioner was asked some questions of staff and staff provided responses and that information to my knowledge is not online it's only I was given a hard copy of it and staff's recommendation is all vegetation should be 18 inches and that would include anything growing in the lawn extension and I that is not going to be acceptable so I was just trying to um stop this process because it seems to be sequential and bring forward another resolution that would focus on updating chapter 40 to be consistent with our sustainability and safety programs okay all right so it seems like this resolution should be to council okay right to reconsider this what we what are we going to do say no we don't want to do what you asked us to do uh yes that's correct that it it needs a more comprehensive review and who would do that um a member of the Transportation Commission a member of the environmental commission and staff has appropriate with expertise in the new Transportation plan that hasn't been formally adopted yet as well as the 820 plan well then I would suggest going back to the council and asking them to amend the resolution that was passed in August yeah yeah that seems like the like the proper course of action in my limited knowledge Kathy okay okay now but we can um I think I think we're all in general agreement you know with your with your request so um you know Chris is volunteer to bring it up for a discussion in the natural features committee where wherein I think we'll probably find a unteer uh to work with the um Transportation Commission so that's okay I don't I don't see any uh I don't see any U you know any uh any obstacle to this um so so what should we do here should we just um should we send a memo or something like that to city council I feel like we should write something back you know that but and a memo may be sufficient I I don't think and and one of the issues is that we have five new members on city council who don't have a history of this other than maybe Lisa you do because you've looked at it as a member of the environmental commission um yeah so a memo I think would be fine okay it would be extremely helpful to have whatever documentation was presented to the council to trigger this request to study this chapter I'm I okay so Kathy as chair as chair why don't you send me uh the details about what council what what the council resolution States okay and then I will draft a Meo and I will just s around theal commission um for the general comments and then I will forward that okay I did FR I did go and look at the resolution passed in August and it's not helpful to illuminate what is driving this and could I just note that I didn't receive the email so uh Council member's email so oh okay maybe you're not on the I may not yet be on I'll send it to you that's great and I just wanted to make sure that someone puts me on the email okay so given the discussion Kathy what do you think would be appropriate I will send the initial resolution with an explanation of why it was sent to council and it has to do with Al allowing turf grass to grow to 18 Ines instead of just 12 I'll explain that and then I think that as a result of that if you as chair of the environmental Commission can simply send an email to council that that would be sufficient and I don't want to take up a lot of the commission's time this evening Li did you have a your hand this is an aord oh yeah sorry I just while we're on the topic um I also didn't get the email and I think I might also not be yet on the email list I think correct we've we've been working on um updating the list so we'll get on it so by definition tur is is like Michigan Stadium or the soccer Fielder an High School it never would be allowed to get to 12 inches it's not turf grass anymore what are we talking about yeah there's yeah yeah there's a lot of ambiguity here so um all right so let's leave it at this um I think we we will not have an official action but what Kathy will do is send the council resolution to um everybody so they can everybody on the environmental commission so they can look at it and then I will draft an email to council and send that as well and ask for U people to um um suggest amendments or to um or to sign on to it so we have a collective say so we would have a presumably we would have a majority of the Commissioners just signed the memo electronically and then send it to council what do you think Chris I mean John and John msky oh I'm unmuted I think that makes sense yeah yeah okay and just for clarification I'm I'm looking at um at the ordinance right now and it doesn't say turf grass and I'm probably using that term along with a lawn but the the phrase is no vegetation shall be permitted at a height greater than 12 Ines trees bushes and other Woody plants on private property shall be maintained and then they start talking about not blocking a sidewalk so it's the the language itself is is not real clear okay yeah no no there's a lot of ambigu in that and and what frequently happens is one neighbor will report another neighbor because they're upset about something else and then City staff who really don't have expertise in this area will come out and you know and and issue a potential fine if work isn't done yeah yeah it's worth a clarification and some education about this okay thank you so so I'll do that okay so Kathy you first thing is you'll send this Council resolution to the environmental commission yes distribution list and I will look at it and then I will draft an email to council and I will send that draft to the Commissioners and then people can make comments on it and then hopefully we'll get enough people to sign on it and then we'll send it to uh send it to council and how do I send it to councel I'll have to send it through the staff I think there used to be a a switch that worked on the city website that allowed you to communicate with one click of one button to every council member but that's been closed down for quite a while you have to I don't think so there's still still there yeah it's there work okay so so I'll just send the email to the I'll just send the email to the council members okay okay so they'll U so they should be able to understand what the problem is and how we propose to resolve it okay and you'll be on list too okay Kathy yes thank you thanks a lot um any more discussion of this item okay well considering the hour you know um I wanted to um include as new business our annual housekeeping review of um working group purpose and structure the review of our 2020 accomplishments and a discussion of 2021 goals and a discussion of the annual report to council now it's becoming clear to me that we will require to allow sufficient time for this I think considering I'm calling for another special meeting sometime between now and uh the January 28th meeting so I think this would be uh I think this is the way this is the only way this is going to happen with a with a with a robust and complete discussion so um I'm hoping to do that um I would like to everybody else's opinion on that you know we just went through two special meetings on the Gman resolution on the plume resolution so um so I don't want to be burdening everybody with too much work but I think this is an important item housekeeping item that deserves some U some time so I would hope to contain it to of course under two hours I I I I endorse the idea um but I would recommend maybe that we hold it as a working session so we eliminate a lot of the formality of having to go through a bunch of stuff that really isn't all that necessary um and that we just have a good open discussion that would then prepare something that we could then um essentially if it needed approval that we could approve then in a subsequent meeting oh yeah I'm sorry John that's what I meant it would be a working session not an official meeting okay so um if everybody's agreeable any objections when when would that be Stephen well tell you what I'll use that when I'll use that when to meet app to try to see what people's availability is okay and then I'll see when everybody's available and just pick a few dates okay and uh hopefully people will respond soon enough that they don't fill up their calendars in between time okay all right so I will I'm going to table this to the discussion of our housekeeping items here one through four to a working session that I'll schedule um start I'll send out the A2 meet thing tomorrow morning okay and when to need application so um the next item on the agenda are reports from committees um let's see we don't we don't really have committees we have working groups so let's start with natural features hi uh yes here I am am I muted no um we've been working through health issues and holiday issues and uh the complexities of rather significant changes to the UDC um I just printed another batch of really significant step up in that process this afternoon um I'm hoping that we meet and a kind of joint the committee writing the Amendments and the whole natural features committee Monday noon um which is a different time for both of those meetings and maybe we can get some people that haven't uh been able to come to one or the other um I should report that our proposal to seize was accepted um not not that we've been chosen by students to do the work yet but uh that at least it will be in the hopper for their client project Fair um on January 26th and uh Jason Talent myself and I like Lily's picture that's a nice dog uh uh Jason Talent myself uh Tiffany and Molly um the Public Works director um will be on the zoom session with the students that are interested in our proposal and try to get them excited so keep your fingers crossed okay Chris yeah uh there's more on the list but it's getting okay um all right thanks Chris um as far as Solid Waste is concerned we had a meeting um earlier this evening and um um we our goals for next year are going to be continuing the uh con construction and demolition recycling ordinance um I'm uh working on getting putting together a pilot project involving several construction firms here to to just do to a pilot to try to see what works and what doesn't um a major barrier is um having available space on site to do sorting you know at the construction site to do sorting and also the labor you know the construction business is a pretty high-risk low profit um Enterprise in general averaged over everything so uh there'll be a lot of concerns about um extra extra costs that might come on to a construction project so I intend to thoroughly get this through the stakeholders I've identified a number of stakeholders both in um you know in all aspects of the recycling of U construction and demolition waste we have um we have a example template ordinances from the west coast to work with um the city of San Diego in particular has had a construction and demolition ordinance for some 12 years now so um there's a lot to work with and I'm hoping that by the end of next year um we will have like an ordinance proposal for construction and demolition waste recycling um the other item is a zero uh waste planning so that part is going to be led by Lisa dish and so we're looking forward we're building a a team from the community as well as from Commissioners to to try to develop a zero waste plan for the community and so that's uh that's all I have to say for the solid waste working group at this point um so let's see right now we only have those two groups so let's pass on to other commissions Shannon's not here neither is Mike Apple I believe Mike are you here no he has not joined us so um so planning and Parks um how about energy commission John just briefly I didn't get any specific communication from Shannon um about planning um but what I can share is the energy commission did get a document from planning um out laying out um sort of its plans um for uh things going to council as well as for next year and um I could share that um through Steve or gayen with um this group um but what I thought would this group might being interested in is um it indicated that um revisions to the sign ordinance or an update um is I think still targeted for a meeting in December it wasn't specific even though other uh um ordinances were given specific dates specifically the evb Readiness ordinance is supposed to be on the agenda on the 21st um a solar height exemption also on the 21st a solar accessory structure um ordinance revision also on the 21st and then the an arbor lighting ordinance which is a brand new ordinance um is targeted for consideration by Council um now in the first quarter of 21 um the two solar issues are going to be discussed in the energy commission meeting next Tuesday um as far as our last meeting um there really really wasn't anything of uh consequential so I would um just leave it at that okay thank you John may I ask a question yes the an arbor lighting ordinance is that the Dark Skies ordinance yes oh okay great yep and some of the things that are still I think up for consideration is are holiday lighting um and you know to what degree do we allow that and for what duration of time um there was some language in there but I think there's a couple of things like that that planning felt still needs to be worked on um so that that's yes that's this that's the dark sky so to speak and it has obviously then environmental impacts as well as safety impacts like glare and F and things like that as um yeah thank you John um well congratulations on all that that's quite a lot of U quite a lot of as You' gotten through in the energy commission okay crors do some of these came through planning like I mean they had been discussed before in energy but the final resolution like um the height exemption and this accessory structure those were dealt with primarily by by planning so okay credit well thanks Shannon for us as well okay so um Council Council update Kathy uh I don't believe I have any thing maybe uh Lisa does I don't because we haven't met for such a long time and I realize now this group meets monthly but so I guess it's just that the the solar height exemption went through on first reading and it'll come up for a second reading um and uh the and the Transit oriented development um in instruction to planning to work on that was passed and is in as is in the queue with planning now and nothing else is jumping out at me I could be forgetting something significant yeah I have a question for both of you I mean um you know we had two special meetings about the Gil about the fourth consent judgment about the Gilman plume has what's C all done with that so far we are still um so there's going to be another hearing the 11th through the 13th of January in front of the judge and this is a chance for the city to prepare briefs and that is where we are right now is we are taking advice from the attorneys and offering them comment uh for how we would like to see the Judgment changed oh okay all right good so it's in the cities sorry Kathy um yes I just want to say I did receive uh a call from Tom Crawford at the beginning of this meeting and he just wanted to share some confidential information and and let me know that we will be having a closed session um next Monday and then Council received an email regarding that shortly thereafter so there there is work that's continuing to be done um the letter to the EPA uh of of course is being coordinated with the other interveners sure of course and okay um you Steve I just wanted to mention um you all may have heard last night that the wash County Commission passed a resolution in support of of going to the EPA and going to the governor with a letter of concurrence for going to the EPA it's a big big vote Yes okay yeah and I believe the other interveners are considering this as well like sco Township and an orber Township I don't know about the h River wersh Council but yeah okay alrighty any more any more uh any more any more from Council I no okay so um now we devolved to the chair report and I really don't have anything to say um except that uh you know they're in in light of the a20 efforts um couple of my neighbors in my in the block here where I live have put up solar panels on their houses in the last um couple of months however you know that the uh DT the the state law that's been mandating a 1% cap as a minimum as a as a as a minimum 1% cap will be exceeded if not now then within the next month or two so this is something that uh I would urge everybody to contact their representative and the uh you know and the Public Service Commission about getting DTE to either um to uh to voluntarily raise its cap temp temporarily there is a bill in the state legislature to eliminate it entirely in the state senate and um my understanding is that it will come up it might come up for a floor vote during the lame duck session and that there is a fair broad bipartisan consensus on it but the more people hear from their constituents the better so um you know I don't have I don't have that uh Senate bill number in front of me but it's part of the power Michigan forward package you know that was um sponsored by furin and um Yousef rabi so um Consumers Energy is already voluntarily um said that they would raise their minimum from 1% to 2% because they're under the same uh problem but DT has not said anything so far they may not do anything voluntarily and this bill may not pass so um I would urge everybody to consider contacting both the Public Service Commission and your representatives about it to get that cap raised okay okay that's all I have to say um so we move on to report from staff kayen you've been quiet lately okay uh in office of sustainability and Innovations we've had a good you know good run last few weeks um we kicked off our 820 uh ambassadors program the ninee program we have about 23 folks enrolled in that program um they kicked it off with equity on November 18th and yesterday was the introduction to uh sustainability climate change climate action and it's uh intersectionality so we uh got to talk a little bit more about Equity you know following up off our uh first session and uh next week uh we'll be covering electrification so it's been some really really good presentations uh we have a whole list of good speakers lined up uh in a ninee course for our residents or we're empowering residents you know to take charge and learn about carbon neutrality so uh I'll send out the invite if uh anybody wants to come you're welcome to sit in on it okay okay great thanks K and one last thing is next Wednesday at uh 7 pm and we go from 7 to 9: and it meets every Wednesday uh gayen my understanding is you got something like 60 people that indicated that they were interested and so um what people might want to know on this commission and if they're if they get an inquiry um it's it's not that we're discouraging people or anything like that it's just that we I think uh OSI wants to limit participation to a manageable group um and work its way down but for sure we want more more people to step up as as potential volunteers is that correct that is correct uh we did have a potential of 60 uh you know folks who wanted to participate we wanted 15 and ended up taking 23 you know and it's a you know it's wide you know all across the city you know it's dispersed um you know we got folks from different economic uh backgrounds cultures uh and we got a good representation of each ward in the city so you know those would be good folks to go out there and you know be the choir like you guys that's great news that's great news G yeah okay so the next item is action items so reita is going to um distribute that draft to the flood plane management resolution for a final comment or and then by 10 by 10 o'clock tomorrow morning um she will send it to through uh gayen and through the proper Channel to send it the approved amended resolution to council and I'm sending it right now it's out okay um I will um Kathy's going to send out this the council resolution on um chapter 40 code three chapter 40 to all of us and then I will email counsel draft an email to council and um basically requesting that it be sent back to a working group proposed to the trans Transportation environmental commission and uh and I will get that done by noon tomorrow and then um Stephen may I interrupt quickly um C there was also a referral to the disability commission so would it be acceptable to this group to add the disability commission to the working group no of course okay thank you okay sounds good all righty um and then let's see what else was there and then I'm going to set up a working session I'm going to send out an invitation so people can fill in their availability for a working session anytime between well now and uh really the 28th of January so we can decide I'll just decide whether we want to do it instead December or January and then get a little bit more fine-tuned okay maybe January would be better early January any comments about that okay okay so um we'll pass on the items for the next agenda um the one I have noted is um Missy's OSI resolution and supportive energy principles that'll be on the agenda for the next meeting um I was thinking we would focus on solid waste for the January 28th meeting um does anybody have any um items to uh propose for the next Agenda One Two Three okay John mki necessarily for the agenda but I guess um just for lack of a better place to address it um I I would like the commission um or at least um Steve you and gayen to um and with Rita address um how we um deal with um Commissioners who regularly um Miss meetings um without being real specific I think we've had one commissioner that's missed nearly every meeting this year and I know we had a number of uh people who applied for youth commission roles we've had other people in the community I think that would love to serve on a commission like this and um I think it's appropriate that we if if someone is not going to be filling a slot and contributing and having a voice and providing good technical input that we free that then up and recruit somebody else new and I so I I I don't know that we need to deal with that in the meeting but I'd like to see it be addressed I think we have some information in the bylaws about that there is there's three meetings yep just have to follow through and do it y y but um yeah yeah but I've heard that you need a lot of resignation first so um I'll I've been I've been making some inquiries but I will follow up with those and let everybody know offline what's going on okay good okay thank thank you Mr chair okay can I make one just sort of side comment um which is that I really appreciate the um statement of the um land Heritage that we had today um I I I really appreciate it and I hope we continue that for each of our meetings and I have a suggestion that maybe each of us would want to take a turn reading it to kind of personalize it and say those words yeah that's nice that's good yeah that's good yeah I've been debating whether to spend the time to do at every meeting in my you know I've been debating with myself but I think it's short enough that we can we can devote a minute to that okay I've often talked about Indians in an arbor being extraordinary stewards over about 10,000 years of our landscape um prior to the arrival of Europeans um we had multi-age very very large trees widely spaced almost no shrubs and a 300 species count herbaceous Flora on the floor oh yeah we had deer populations in very careful balance um we had an extraordinary Natural Area in our community and we are only barely trying to restore it and the Indians were extraordinarily good stewards yeah they paved Paradise and put up a parking lot there you go so um yeah so um you know and they have a fot memory of the megap funel extinction you know from thousands of years ago so I think that prompted a lot of serious discussion and considerations and probably changed their culture dramatically from when they're the first arrivals Gabby and Lily if they understand that line of lric that uh you inserted they that line yeah yeah sorry it's an old Joanie Mitchell song from the 70s a great one I know it the 70s old oh God I think it's from back then it may be the 60s even but I didn't want to be too radical I think it's 60s yeah probably is okay everybody well thank you our next schedule meeting is January 28th at 7 pm so uh we we uh we have our second opportunity for public commentary um I'm going to read a statement here um this is an opportunity for persons to speak for up to three minutes please call 1888 78899 and enter meeting ID number 5952 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 in order to electronically r raise your hand to indicate your desire to speak please press star9 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 up to a 30 second delay before the connection is established okay [Music] we do have a caller with their hand up great okay why don't we uh put them online alrighty that's going to be caller 464 caller 464 you are now allowed to talk oh hi um sorry my hand was raised from before it's not up anymore thank you though oh all right okay anybody else no okay let's give it a few more seconds okay I think we're past 30 seconds so um all right so I call this meeting adjourned thank you everybody at 9:23 p.m.
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the numbers overall have remained pretty consistent since coming back in person but there has been some fluctuations so when we opened in person we asked families to make the decision from that date which mine was early october kelly's was later into october up until winter break so we're really trying to get them to make a decision so that we could plan accordingly with that being said we know that things change so we have not been so firm on that that we wouldn't let families make a change if there was a valid reason that they were requesting that change so we have had a few students who were online that then requested to come back in person and a few students who were in person that requested to go back fully online but that has been a one-time change throughout this period from october october until uh now so that's an update on the numbers but knowing that the same you know i think the the first time i reported the numbers it was 56 it wasn't just that two more students joined online there was a little bit more movement on both campuses for students changing their programming options in the course of the quarter and to to give you a health and safety update as courtney mentioned we did return to in-person learning after thanksgiving break this week however the tucson campus had to start their thanksgiving break two days early due to a shortage of transportation staff after an identified positive case within that department our families were amazing our staff were amazing as we contacted them on wednesday afternoon and let them know that we were going to be sending students home early that thursday morning that whole plan went seamless a huge thank you to the transportation department to our student health center our dorm staff our teachers and our school secretaries who are able to contact all parents on the tucson campus within a 45-minute period also as you may know there was a recent executive order released about mandating face coverings in all schools that was already a requirement on our campuses for both staff and students and i think courtney and i can both say that our students have been phenomenal in complying with wearing their face coverings it has been a very easy transition for them and has not become a management issue at all they are very compliant so we we're grateful to them we're grateful to their families who are working with them to ensure that they have a clean face covering every day and are coming to school prepared and with that we do want to acknowledge that these times are hard and they're challenging um hopefully we both look extremely rested and just on top of the world and on top of our game and things are just all puppies and rainbows hopefully that's what we look like um but it's hard every day is a challenge and there are new factors and new situations that are are thrown at us daily and that is certainly true at the you know administrative level just as we're we're making decisions and and keeping our ship afloat for lack of a better word um but it's even more so i you know i say more so i don't know it's hard to to compare apples and oranges the reality is that everybody working on campuses right now it's a hard it's a hard time and it's a challenge and what we see from our staff is that they go above and beyond for our students every single day majority of our instructional staff are having to toggle both in-person and digital learning at the same time and that is extremely hard and although we had time at the beginning of the year to do professional development this hasn't been something that that you know teachers learned in graduate school or something that they experienced and they're now in their 25th year of teaching or first-year teachers who didn't expect that number one their student teaching would be interrupted and then their first year of teaching they'd have to figure out how to manage you know dual modes of learning and instruction and this has been a huge undertaking and i think we need to be honest to say and communicate with the board but there are still daily challenges we see our staff growing and learning in many ways that none of us would have ever predicted and they're doing it effectively and they're doing the very best that they can every day but we would be remiss if we didn't acknowledge like i said this is hard and these are challenging days and we do see the impact on staff their the morale their social and emotional well-being and we try our best every day to provide support and think out of the box what can we do to support staff uh what can we do to give them you know a shout out a praise uh hang in there just recognition that that this is hard um we continue to have conversations like i said provide support come up with creative ways to try and keep everyone's spirits high we've done things like a sunshine cart where we roll around with snacks to just have them pick a snack the tucson campus to have a visit from their little annual elves so that they made an appearance this month in december which i think is helping them you know put a smile on their face both campuses are doing 15 days of holiday fun where staff can you know wear um jingle bells and you know christmas traditions from around the world and different kind of dress-up things just to make it fun we've both tried to do um digital e-cards again just bringing a smile to their face uh the the program that we use has one card that says things are bananas which is the k which is true and hopefully it makes everybody chuckle a little bit and know that uh we can do hard things so i guess we're coming to you today with um a request that we really think of formal recognition from the board to staff members of just knowing how hard they're working and every day they're showing up and they're showing up for the kids because that's what they do and hopefully you had an opportunity to read our board report and we wanted this afternoon just to provide you with the latest information and at this time if you have any questions we'd be happy to answer them for you courtney how many students are on campus right now i know you said that 58 are at home but how many are on campus so from k-12 there are about 205 on campus and then with preschool numbers um i'm sure kendra can speak a little bit more from the elp program but preschool are doing two days a week so i think based on their two days we probably have you know approximately 230 students on campus every day with their numbers included and kelly how many so uh between the preschool and the k-12 we probably have about 110 students on campus on a daily basis thank you this is mike manley um have we noticed a higher ratio of students with an md or mdssi label needing on-site services compared to not um so on the tucson campus um actually most of my online students are the mdssi students due to additional health concerns that have moved us in that direction which has made that online component even more challenging so yes unfortunately that's our higher population online at the moment in time and for the pdsc campus it's actually the opposite so we only have about eight students that are mdssi that that remain online uh majority of the online students are from um what we would consider the general education track of deaf and hard of hearing students sorry thank you if there are no other questions for kelly and courtney i want to thank you for your report fantastic information oh i see david talking sorry um yeah uh thank you i just had one other other question i know um you know looking at one thank you for everything that you guys have been doing and um i'm happy to see that uh you know the students have a choice to be on campus um or to be at home and learning online depending on you know of all the variety of factors that go into that decision um you know i know looking at the report from today um you know at least in maricopa county where 372 cases per 100 thousands that's that's three over three times what uh the department of health says is substantial our positivity is uh about 11 and a half percent um and uh the third benchmark is at 7.2 percent very similar numbers in pima um you know what what is that what's our time frame for making other decisions about next semester and and and what are we looking for in this data to to move us one way or the other so um for president negro we meet every friday with our superintendent assistant superintendent and maria and that is one of our topics of conversation for tomorrow so we just got the data today and we'll be taking a deeper look at that tomorrow and that is our day typically to make decisions moving forward so every friday we're meeting and looking at that and planning for what's coming next so i anticipate tomorrow our conversations will be thinking heavily about what we're going to do in the next couple of weeks and then what's going to happen after the christmas break okay great yeah because i mean it seems like we do have the majority of students attending on you know on campus just as those numbers get up there i you know think of concern for the you know the students and and for the staff so thank you for for looking at that are there any more questions for kelly and courtney yeah this is mike gordon um kelly you mentioned you said you said i think 110 students on uh tucson campus how's can you give me the breakdown on that i mean as far as how many are maybe k12 how many did you say they were early intervention or the preschool age or how's that breakdown just so i haven't kendra can probably give you more specifics into exactly how many preschool i was just kind of ballparking so i have 21 students that are um online and so i have uh 90 students that are on campus k-12 okay quite a quite a lot okay thank you hi there i just wanted to tell you that i'm here this is shelley i didn't want to interrupt your conversation but i am here welcome shelly um anyone else have a question mike oh i was just saying hello to shelly all right well if we have no more questions for our principals i'm going to thank them and let them jump off the hot seat and go ahead and go dark and we're going to pull up um next is our director of early learning programs and that would be ms kendra benedict you're up my dear hello good afternoon i think kelly and courtney for their energetic report i appreciate their energy every day and their support of my programs on their campuses so thank you both um good afternoon superintendent reichman assistant superintendent rex board president nigro and members of the board the unique circumstances of the last nine months have required schools everywhere to be more more creative more flexible more willing more collaborative i want to thank you for allowing me the opportunity today to share with you how the early learning program has been exemplifying these characteristics it takes more than a little creativity to educate three and four-year-olds online while at the same time offering in-person options our simonton ptsd and asdb locations are all doing just that as are our foundation for blind children and desert voices partners michael olivier's supervising teacher at pdsd over the preschool reports that he's giving two to three virtual tours of ptsd every week using zoom on an ipad as he walks through the preschool building showing families the classrooms 31 students are currently enrolled in tucson 22 of those are online i'm sorry 22 of those are in person and 9 are online we anticipate six more students transitioning this month putting total enrollment at 37 46 students are currently enrolled in phoenix 34 in person and 12 online we are anticipating 12 more to transition this month in phoenix putting total enrollment at 58.
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42 takes a three and off the mark and rebounded by fighting for it and it's going to be out of bounds and madison gets the ball their first possession of tonight let's see what madison can do number 20. addison bortis takes the ball and number four that is stolen away by north side as they have pushing the ball up the court passed it off to number 35 gets to the right-hand block and layup is off the mark rebounded by number 10 miley skinner and pass it off to four at the baseline and gets their hands loose and they are on the ground and we're gonna have a jump ball possession error remains sue madison 5 25 12 left to go here in the first quarter no score looks like a 2-3 zone look for the spartans and the passes to number four and she puts up a shot off the mark great defense by the spartans number 35 looks to push the ball off the court gets it to number 12.
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