Reader

e e e call the um January meeting to order please and thank you for attending um we're going to start um welcoming everyone thank you for being here and thank you for practicing social soci distancing we really appreciate it you'll stand for the pledge Mr F will you Le Us in the pledge please certainly I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with libery and justice for all at this time we would entertain a motion please to adopt the agend I'll make a motion to adopt the agenda all in favor I thank you at this time we're going to do a call to the public as a reminder and we have uh several people who want to speak we are going to ask them to help in alphabetical order just as a reminder on personal attacks on board members or staff Personnel or other persons in attendance or absence um who dress a board are discouraged so um we'll start with Catherine Andrews please thank you GL are you gonna limit time or we yes high limit thank you my [Music] name she just heard she's number one does not win you a prize this is M that long I think it should be think it's think you should be left yeah I'm just I'm just Ching or you can use the other I think there's another timer there isn't there oh yeah oh electronic one yeah oh we didn't even know about that one you want to make like 2 minutes or something somebody and somebody else can work it for it okay all right Cindy's the timekeeper I will be the timekeeper hi everyone my name is Catherine Andrews just just one moment um just as a reminder um we do have a two-minute timer or time limit I'll be the timer okay okay all right thank you Kathy um can I take this off I can speak do you mind no go ahead okay I'm parent of a fourth grader at at Del Rio and I'm here to kind of present some some numbers and urge you to open the schools according to the Chino Valley School District covid-19 cumulative totals as of January 6 this year there have been a total of 14 students who have tested positive out of a total of 2,218 students that's 0.63% the humble Unified School District has had 47 students test positive out of 6,4 students at a 0.78% positivity rate they have gone back to school as of today how can you continue to keep the children out of school the children need to be in school they need to be taught distance learning is not helping any of the kids the kids that were a students are now failing my son has struggled and is supposed to have occupational and speech therapy as well as his regular studies he hasn't had a class with them for months how are they supposed to learn the packets are poorly prepared lack of instruction for both the kids and the parents or caregivers to be able to assist them putting the burden of educating our children on the shoulders of the parents is not acceptable we work full-time we don't have someone standing by to take care of our kids we can't work from home so we have to juggle them from one location to another the teachers are being paid to teach but they're not the students aren't getting it isn't being a teacher an essential occupation I'm not sure if any of you work if any of you run your own businesses do your employees have to show up and do their job if they don't I'm sure they would lose their job in my opinion the kids aren't getting what they are supposed to be getting according to the County Community Health Services they recommend no public Gatherings of more than 50 people classrooms are much smaller than that the kids are separated at least if if you can't do anything else please at least give the parents the option what are the kids going to do in their future the the students are struggling I don't know I don't have a high school kid but I feel extremely sorry for them that they are losing out on their education and everything that goes along with their high school years please for the sake of our children's health their future their overall well-being and peace of mind please put them back in school thank you thank you okay [Music] um tra dubler I think it's Trav dubler if I can I can't read it very well [Laughter] pardon me no all right Joshua Easton is that okay I think hello hi there y you're on a three minute time limit okay thank you hi my name is Josh W before our schools were locked down I was an A and B student enjoying going to school learning and making new friends every year now I am failing most of my classes miss the routine of going to school and missing my friends I even miss my teachers I never really understood what feeling depressed was but I do now I'm worried that I'll never be able to make up all the time that I've missed many of us are not self-starters at this CR critical point in our education we need motivation and the actual teaching that goes on in person we can't just read an email or a lesson and get what I'm I can't just read an email or a lesson and get what I'm supposed to learn from it also parents who work all day are now expected to come home and spend several hours trying to help their kids with their studies many do not have the technical ability or the specific knowledge that um is required to do this both parents and children are suffering the small fraction of students and teachers that have gotten Co does not see enough reason to lock down the schools and cause hundreds of students to fail I hope that you guys will consider this meaning as the decision about my future and many kids Futures are made thank you for listening thank you Joshua thank you okay marily Easton hello hello hi good evening you are on a three minute timer just hello my name is Marilyn Eon and I have a child in 8th grade I am here to ask why um sorry why are we shutting down [Music] schools and turning our backs on what matters what matters is our kids educate education and future by looking at the um Co numbers um we have less than 1% that have Co positive in the Chino Valley School District um why is 65% of positive Co preventing the remaining 99.35% of students and staff from going to school I understand you were trying to do your part to keep from threading the virus however I think closing the school is pretty extreme um look at the grocery stores Costco Walmart restaurants they're not closed again why are schools closed Co isn't going anywhere and we need to figure out how in school can function for the years to come why are teachers not considered essential because to be quite honest they are very essential they are the future of our children um in fact to not long ago this community and people at the State of Arizona supported the teachers when they marched red for red for Ed my understanding as red for Ed campaign was to demand the governor and legislative representatives to make education a priority I'm asking you today to to stick to your motto on education being a priority and supporting us um I will close by saying this please open the schools for the parents and students that do not feel comfortable attending school then they have the option to not to do online schooling give our students the option to go to school in school with teachers thanks thank you you thank you Corey HT Corey huitt thank you hi Cory hi you are on a three minute timer just so you know okay thank you dear Mr SCH and board members my name is Corey huitt I am a Chino valy High School senior as well as the FFA president for the China Valley FFA chapter and I have been a student in the chin Valley school district for 13 years I understand that we are discussing whether or not we will be allowed to return into in-person learning on January 19th now I know that I could review the co survival and death rates to show how slim the chances of dying from it are however you guys know those numbers and you see them all the time and are very well aware of what they are so instead I will be sharing with you guys how it has affected myself and my peers going to distance learning I've been a straight student honors student for some time now I am also involved in many other extracurricular activities and I have held the same job at Perkinsville meet processing since I was a sophomore not only is online extremely difficult for myself but what's even more difficult is getting pulled out of school getting put back in going hybrid going distance learning and Etc I can tell you from the Viewpoint of a student that has a routine down of learning as well as being in college courses I struggle it is very difficult to complete tasks for these classes that are supposed to be taught in person I am struggling learning Spanish by reading my notes and writing them down when they're supposed to be be taught to me and have interaction with anyone can copy stuff down onto a piece of paper but at that point it is no longer learning it is busy work so that we can still earn our credits so I've asked myself what's going to happen to the kids who get jobs later on in life and have no social interaction who really never felt like they got what they needed out of school and the answer is they won't they are going to struggle finding a place in the world because employers look for more than just a resident they look for social interactions and life skills which none of these kids are going to have if we continue to be scared of a virus and going to lock down mod in the short and amazing three years I have had an in-person learning at Cho Valley High School there have been two specific teachers who taught me so much more than what lies in a book and that would be Mr holder and Mr Hicks Mr holder has taught me life skills Common Sense how to handle situations and how to become the leader that I am today he taught me that through agriculture as hard as anyone tries you cannot teach Agriculture and CTE credits over a screen they are skills that need to be learned in a classroom or even on the farm I am the successful person I am today because Mr holder has had such a big impact on my life as well as so many other successful students and graduates that stuck with this elective it is not just agriculture that is this is just as my story first suit may be band HOSA National Honor Society soccer football volleyball wrestling and weth the list goes on and on but the list cannot go on if we continue online what is going to happen is kids are going to become lazy undriven hopeless and ultimately a robot that sits on the computer all day and writes down useless words that will go into a notebook never to be seen again I feel for the kids who get their meals only at school who get cared for only at school who feel like school is are only Safe Haven School is and Escape for for so many kids to stay fed and cared for and by putting Us online you are taking away that normaly for every single child that goes to the Tino Valley School District it is jeopardizing the learning and the future for all of us and we don't get a say some may succeed online but I can tell you from the Viewpoint of a leader and a student majority of us need to go back in school this is not just about me and if it was I could tell you how saddened I am that I will not get to experience most things past class has got and then I will never have closure I will never get back what has been ripped away from me as a senior those are things I can't change but you guys can change it for future classes who hopefully will never have to go through what the classes that 2020 and 2021 went through there may be many problems that are in the way of us going back to school and as much as I hate to say it I could give you answers to those problems but only new problems will keep occurring and it is a never ending cycle but the community cares about our students and I think that there are no excuses for pulling us out of school there are still schools open and I hope and pray that by the end of the day we can be one of those schools not because it's what I want but because it's the right thing to do I never thought we'd be so scared of dying that we would be willing to give up living thank you for your time I greatly appreciate it and I hope that what I presented will be taken into deep consideration thank you thank you so much thank you okay Joanie it Rob m for [Music] hi guys hello nice to see everybody again I've been here since the very beginning you guys know that maybe you've been the only parents that started complaining but now we have a lot of problems and uh I'll tell you what it's up to you guys to make sure these kids get an education you the 16 17 18 year olds right now are screwed because the schools keep closing down they have got to open these schools up you know I don't know what else to say to you guys I've been in here since every time now we've got tons of parents coming because there's kids are failing you guys have to do something you have to stand up and do something if you need wash stations in between some of the um classes so the kids are making sure they wash their hands call some companies and get them brought in do something proactive are the classes getting clean and sanitized after the kids come in you know I just there's a lot of things that we could do but these schools need to open how you like to be a 17 or 18 year old kid and no Sports okay the schools are closed and you know darn well when they lose a Mas they borrow one from their friend you know no dance is nothing your school years are Ru you guys have the opportunity to open this school up and do what's right for this school and I really hope you do because I have been here since day one saying don't do this this is good there's all kinds of problems I trying to give you guys statistics and then you're like where did you get those statistics and I was like oh you know it's up to you guys to find these things and and I don't feel like SCH ever told you the right things he has it so I really hope you guys do it you know because you these kids lives are getting destroyed because of this and you guys need to so accountable when we go back to school when we were getting ready back to school and they couldn't get the he didn't know what to do he had to get the teachers together he did he wasn't even prepared for it now we've been down another 20 days you know so I don't know what else to say I mean I just have just come here and come here and come here and begged and asked and now the the parents are just Fric because nothing is getting done if sh can't do this job fire him you guys HED him he came in here and told you guys all kinds of things I had to come in and give you the statistics when the kids were failing in October he didn't do it matter of fact the day before he went in line and said oh how good the kids were doing in school the day before and then I had to come and give you guys the statistics so please open the school for the thank you thank you Melissa rason there one more one not I'm glad you're senen your chosen spokesman which just wise yeah hello hello so I don't have anything prepared but just out there I mean we know this is a virus and it's not going away at all this is the 19th string of Co um my other thing was I wanted to bring up that we've had we have board members that have businesses in town they haven't closed down I know one is a doctor's office they haven't clothed down they weren't wearing masks but our kids can't go to school it's absolutely ridiculous you guys need to make the change if our businesses in town stay open and make money our kids can learn so just now Governor duy has said we will not be funding empty seats or allowing schools to remain in Perpetual state of closure children still need to learn even in a pandemic take it for what it's thre thank you thank Youk you Kimberly shac I think Kimberly shac [Music] hi hello thank you for having us today I'll be um pretty short I spent eight hours working today and then I spent three hours listening to my son yell about math so I didn't write a speech um I think what's really important is that we get schools open have kids come if their parents are comfortable have teachers teach if they're comfortable doing that and I think we need to have options for those that aren't comfortable being in person so I don't see this as an issue that's difficult to solve I think there's options that can work for all the families but right now the families that are comfortable with having their kids in school are not being given that option and that's the option that we need so thank you all right thank you okay at this time um we would like to observe a moment of silence for um Sher Brown and for Ben Wallace both who are who just passed away in the last month thank you at this time we are um on item six the Chino Val Unified School District board and board President and Vice President election would accept a nomination please for board president and I would not like to nominate Cindy Thomas are there any other nominations wait what are we doing nomination for board president oh okay do you need a second sure I'll second it okay all in favor I I I thank you I'm only honored and I only take it if you will be my vice president so I nominate Penny as my vice president well that case I'll second that one all right I'll take all in favor chairs thank you I told you I was moving that way oh now congratulations yeah that's what I was told thanks [Music] yeah the name tags that was um that was good huh was quick she was quick she was quick today yeah on my left now all right so give me a moment please everyone let me see where we are at congratulations oh thank you actually let me thank you a couple of meetings from now all right item 7 a Mr sha super endent report please a very short superintendent report today um a lot of it will be discussed during the last agenda item on um instruction however the only thing I wanted to kind of update you all on is the 100th day U comparison we're getting close to our 100 day so this is just a a preliminary number um but right now from last year to this year we are down 133 ADM that's not students because it's actually more students than that some of our students are only counted as half but right now we are down 133 ADM today compared to last year's 100th day that's it for my report unless there's any questions or comments so 133 ADM seems like a very large number it is significant it's probably over 5% for us okay can and what's our average would you say on a normal well if you look at last year's it was 20 22 something I believe okay do we know if most of those kids are staying home not just not coming back to our district um we do we know where they've gone we don't necessarily have a good idea of where they're going um you know some of them are the Kinders and they just didn't show up um and it seems I did say that the decrease has spread fairly evenly amongst um the the schools so it's not um other than kindergarten which seemed like a significant um decrease it's it's fairly spread out amongst the different grade levels any questions yes John can you gauge whether or not that number has been increasing as the school year has moved on or I recall has been fairly stable um since the beginning I think the last last month we were at 125 um but it's it's been somewhat stable through the so far to date what's your prediction as far as what do you do you see our number going down more or do you see what do you what do you the 100th day we're we're pretty close to it it's in I think end of February is our 100th day so any any significant changes from now on wouldn't have a significant change to that number so um if we lost kids now it wouldn't change it a whole lot just because we're so far into the year so I think it's going to be close to that when we do reach our 100th day at the end of February Statewide well yeah and I think that we talked about um earlier I think there was 12 over 50,000 50,000 well it was like 1,200 kids in Yavapai County that have just not enrolled that were enroll enrolled in school last year and are not enrolled now um and then as Cindy said Statewide there's 50,000 children that were were enrolled in school last year and are not enrolled now so this is not unique to Ching Val schools um we're probably in the middle of the pack as far as that the percentage loss um and I think that that I saw and I just this is rough numbers I thought there was something like a 25% increase in h school registrations um at the County Schools office that's just something thought I know it was significant increase but don't quote me on the 25% but it was a significant increase in home school enrollments last year compared this year or this year over last year all right thank you uh moving on to item 7b1 our financial reports Rebecca is this your last financial report with us it is oh my goodness all right make it a good one well so um we got our 40-day adjustment number for the distance learning um that's just over $432,000 so I went ahead and included that in the calculation for our financial reports so we could really see where we're at I've already done the journal entries to move expenditures from M to our enrollment stabilization Grant so um so this number as of right now until we get get the 100 day adjustment um is pretty accurate so we're at 84% left in our m&o um which is like 126,000 I believe 123,000 now when I looked at the last three years um and I averaged it out we're usually about 1.56% left right now so we're only a little bit less than we usually are so so uh we're actually we're doing good right now um our capital is at 11.24% and adjacent ways at 60% and the adjacent ways won't change now because we got our final billing on that so so that's where we're at any questions comments from the board PR normal all right thank you we moving on then to item 7 B to Rebecca again Student Activity report okay so we actually have two CU we missed one the previous month so for November so the December 1st report um the big ticket items as far as Revenue was the cougar cards they still did the fundraising for the cougar cards um and they split it up accordingly to each um applicable uh program um the higher encumbrances were the high school student council that was um typical POs to Yeet D'Angelo for year round purchases that she has to do for student counsel so that's the November one and then December um ending January 4th um n no Revenue um but the boys basketball at the high school they ordered uniforms and then uh the High School cross country also ordered uniforms um in the hopes that they would play um but that's pretty much all that was going on Student Activity have any questions comments from thank you moving on to our consent agenda item 8 a through K we'll need a motion to approve our consent agend agenda this evening I move to approve the uh consent agenda as stated second all in favor I thank you and okay our Personnel report Mr scha we have five resignations we have one um employee who passed away so that um that was a termination one certified change six classified changes two new classified staff two extra duties and we are adding uh Rebecca on time sheet to help out whoever replaces her so she she will be available and has offered to do that on her um time off so that we're thankful for that the other thing I want to mention is we also found a health aid for territorial so that will free up our district nurse to address covid needs of of staff and students um at some point uh the the the health aid is starting on the 25th so we have a couple weeks but we're excited about that to have some some additional help for Katherine burner our district nurse who's been doing a lot of contact tracing and such and working with families and staff members to to make sure that they're quarantined and isolating properly and that they're safe how is the recruitment going for the position that's going to be very hard to fill yeah um I I'll be sharing probably something with you in individually in the next week or so we um it has been posted to indeed it's been posted to asbo which is the school business officials website um in addition to our own we have a few candidates but there's um potentially some internal candidates that may pop up that we'd like to look at as well so um I'll have something um to you probably end of next week U end of this week or next week sometime very well wonderful this is an action item so we will need a motion motion to approve tonight's Personnel report along with the supplement some I have a first anyone with a second don't need a second on motion sorry that's right thank you all right so all in favor I I I'll use you next time okay think it no other groups I'm involved in sorry all right item 9B um is that correct yes yeah item 9B um to extend the deadline for employees to utilize remaining leave balances under the family's first Corona virus act through March 31st 2021 Mr so the FFC was passed as part of the car's act um last year early in in the pandemic and what the car's act there is three Provisions that really impacted us one is that we need to provide paid Le so um for anyone that has to be quarantined or is positive for covid-19 and that is uh two weeks or eight eight days of paid leave um the second provision was that if someone has to take care of somebody that has Co we have to pay for that as well for two weeks and the last provision was that if anyone had kids that weren't in school we had to pay for them to do 12 weeks if they weren't in school we had to pay them and it was a fraction of it was like 2/3 or or half of their salary it wasn't the entire salary for them to stay home to take care of their children that expired December 31st so we had we had um employees that took took care of or took um advantage of all three um of all three parts of that um it is limited you only get two weeks um for the first and second part or 12 weeks for the third part um a maximum in the whole F schal year for us it's a it's actually kind of a subset of um ffma which is um I'm sorry uh s let's see family medical leac FM all these acronyms Family Medical Leave Act it's the subset of that which is limited to 12 12 weeks what we're asking for and what came out of the new Act was that before we didn't have a choice we had to provide that in the new um act that came out right right after Christmas between Christmas and New Year's it is now voluntary we do not have to offer that and what we're asking to offer is the two weeks for to pay for quarantine or if um a an employee is actually sick themselves we'd like that to be continued however if they've already used their quarantine or those if they've already used those two weeks this fiscal year which is from July one they are no longer eligible for that um so they only get two weeks that's what the law says and we'd like to extend just those two weeks for employees if they are need to be quarantined or isolated because they are positive um there are some things um that we can do um if someone is isolated or or is quarantined actually because of exposure at school I can assign them to administrative leave to home and i' I'd like do that if a employee is exposed at school that's kind of you know that's our responsibility as an employee here to help take care of them but the FSC applies whether it's in school or not so um we' just like to extend that one provision of the FFC so that we can help our employees out and that only goes until the end of March right now is what the law says that it would go through questions comments John what's the funding source for this extension our M we have to pay for out of our own M there out of our own now what the government did is provided a tax credit for employers that to do this so if an employer did it they were able to get a tax credit on their corporate or business taxes we don't pay taxes so we don't get that credit so it actually comes out of M out of our normal funds to do this there is no reimbursement for this for um for public entities I I was noticing from Rebecca's uh report which as you all know I do actually read uh um we're pretty close uh with the encumbrances and everything that we have you feel comfortable that the amount that uh this may encumber we could we're okay with I I believe so it's a short period of time so it's only between now and and um March 31st we've had a lot of uh staff take advantage of it so I think it's important we do want to help them out it is just one of the three portions and so I think that it's something that we can do for our employees during this time thanks anything else anyone I Penny do you I mean like what you know I do I don't have to but I do you do okay all right I was just curious I'm just curious about so if someone is off because they've been exposed and then while they're out because they while they're quarantined they contracted Co then does that extend this to four weeks no they only get eight work days period okay so for as an example if if there was somebody that um was exposed over Christmas and they missed two days like the the first two days back they'd still have six days left in their Bank to use at a later date if they were exposed or contracted it later um if they contracted covid and it went beyond two weeks anything beyond those two weeks they'd still have to use their personal lead for okay so the max they could use is two weeks and it could be multiple instances that they would use that okay all right this is an action item I'm going to be looking for just one motion for approval of item 9B I'll make a motion to approve to extend a deadline for employees to use utilize remaining leave balances where the employee is unable to work because the employee is quarantined and or experienced covid-19 symptoms and seeking a medical diagnosis under the family's first Corona virus act through March 31st 2021 all in favor all that's effective today then pardon me it's effective today it's actually effective January 1st so it's retro go that yeah okay agenda item 10 a request that the Arizona Department of Education recalculate the district's state aid for fiscal for fiscal years 2017 to 20121 per ARS 15915 B Rebecca or Mr scha or somebody okay so the tax appeal that trans Western pipeline held against the assessor's office um has finally been settled for fiscal years 2017 to 21 um the the total amount that affects us is $190,000 so what we have to do in order to recoup that we have to file an 15 915 letter to the state requesting that they recalculate our state aid so we don't lose the money um and the only way it would affect our budget is if um trans Western actually paid and then they won and then we have to pay them back if it fects our cash I don't think any of our cash is affective because I think they stopped paying when um they filed the law suit but um the state will the ad will let us know and if there is any cash taken from us then um there's a spot on the budget that will put that amount our budget will increase it's like a wash so but in order to recoup the money we need to um we need to file for uh the request for ad to recalculate for us okay Madam president if I may just to kind of give the new board members a little bit of background about transwestern um transwestern is the pipe the natural gas pipeline actually goes along the 40 so it's in saligman ashort Chino Valley Humbolt mayor goes on down to Chino or down to a phoenix and you can kind of see where it the path of it there's times on the on the interstate and Highway you can actually see where the path of the the pipeline is um they uh felt like they were being overcharge for property taxes and that their property taxes are actually calculated at the state level by the Department of Revenue um normal property taxes are done at the county level but certain utilities typically like APS and things like that are are calculated at the um at the estate level so they filed a claim um we collected the property taxes on that on those that value that was overestimated and now we have to pay that back now what happens is if it's um that actual amount that gets paid back gets put on to the property taxes of the remain of everyone else so um it doesn't impact our our budget really it impacts our tax rate but it doesn't really impact our budget but it's all has to do with that pipeline that natural gas pipeline that was put in what five 10 years AG yeah 5 10 years ago or so John this is similar to the Drake appeal that happened five or so um it is similar to Drake um which also has appealed their valuation except Drake is um done by the state or I'm sorry the county that's done by the county assessor um but it is it is a similar issue where they feel like they were over assessed as well any other questions no well it is an action item and if it turns out it would be a good thing for us so need a motion please to approve item Tim a I'll move to approve the request that the Arizona Department of Education recalculate the district's state aid for fiscal years 2017 through 2021 all in favor I I thank you all right 11a list of qualified evaluators for school year 2020 to 2021 Mr scha this is something that's done annually typically in the summer we were a little busy in the summer and kind of overlooked this so it's something that we we just are catching up on this is a list of those staff members uh typically administrators in the district that are allowed to um to evaluate teachers and so this is just a formality that's done annually and this is the list of qualified evaluators okay questions comments no again an action item we'll need a motion please I'll make a motion to approve the list of qualified evaluators for the 2020 and 2021 school year great all in favor we have received another um is it the very last one never mind all right so we're going to go on to the topic of the evening item 11b our Co instruction model and obviously this is going to be an action item but before that I would really encourage some healthy conversation about it and come up with some good plans so Mr scha if you want to go first I first just want to share the data that we have first is The Benchmark sheet that's this one right here this was um I actually updated it with some data um this afternoon from the County's the County Arizona Department of Health Services sorry the Arizona Department of Health Services website we are um in the red or the substantial risk range for all three benchmarks that would be the number of cases along with percent positivity and like illnesses I can estimate what the next two benchmarks can are going to be for cases and percent positivity but it cannot for Co like illnesses and we will continue into the to the red and you can see that the cases are somewhat plateauing which means which is a good thing they're not going up um our percent positivity is has gone up will probably likely go up next week and then come down again but just it's interesting because that January 3rd per positivity has a significant increase in tests so they're testing a lot more people which may be the reason why it's going down the percent positivity no way for me to estimate what the covid like illness is at the hospit it's it's the percent hospitalizations and things like that so I don't have that ability to do that the data is not on the the department of health services website and some I know this this is a point that Cindy you make every time this is data that is the the benchmarks are determined by the department of health services this is not data that we put together this is data that the department of health services decided these benchmarks and what the level should be and right now based on this these this information the department of health services says that um all actually all 15 counties in the state should be so but that's not the case that that is that's it's a recommendation I guess is a better way to put it they recommend that and some districts have chosen not to and you know there was times that we didn't right you know we had um areas in the red and we chose to do um the um hybrid or the all in person so absolutely these are just recommendations any questions on any questions on the benchmark bench marks so far the next sheet this is a this is just a summary of information that looks like this that comes from um the Gite County Community Health Services the the county health department and daily they put up their blue screen that has the data on number of cases and and things like that so you can see that in the last month for Chino this is just the last month's data in the last month the number of cases in Chino Valley has doubled um the prior month was around 200 so it had doubled the prior month so in the last two months the number of cases have gone up not quite but almost four times the number of cases the in palen hasn't quite doubled but it's gone from 133 to 2115 you can see overall cases haven't quite doubled in y by County 700 to or 7700 to almost 1,400 something that I put together is a Quad City daily average so for the Quad Cities you can kind of see how in the Quad Cities and that would include mayor Humbolt um Presa Valley Dewey Tino Valley paen and ccet those are the sums that I picked off for those so over the weekend for example on average over the last three days there's been about 121 cases in the Quad City area and then it has Arizona and um information any questions about the this summary sheet and the next two sheets or the next two uh documents are really just kind of summaries of what a hybrid and these are things that you approved already um at a fire meeting but what hybrid would look like and what distance learning would look like for the district so hybrid would be U well you know we were all in person for a while so that's we take safety measures I know one of the speakers talked about are we cleaning I can tell you we're cleaning like heck um we have a cleaning solution that the teachers can use between periods um or when a classroom leaves and comes back it gets cleaned um we also on a daily I won't say daily we have also have um staff that use Foggers and classrooms get fogged um regularly it's like every other day or every third day that each classroom gets fogged um so we are you know we have hand sanitizing stations in each classroom and in public areas um these are things that that you know we're doing a fantastic job in cleaning and what's interesting is we have no flu um we really we have no flu cases amongst even our kids and I think that's an indication of of the cleanliness that's going on and um you know or that everything's being tested as co could be well but we don't even amongst even the kids you know we're not having you know if it's if it's we don't have any flu like symptoms for even kids um that we had last year we had a ton of kids out because of the flu and we don't have the that this year and we're thinking we don't have any proof but we're thinking it's because of how you know we're just everyone's wearing a mask things are cleaner this just um we're doing what we need to do to kind of keep um staff and kids hey um and someone mentioned one of the speakers mentioned um about kids we don't have a lot of kids getting testing positive we have a lot of kids that are um in quarantine because maybe a a family member was positive a parent and then they have to stay home because of that but we don't have you know there there are not a lot of kids our issue are adults the reason we went into two weeks of distance learning right before Christmas is we had 50 adults 50 staff members that were either positive quarantine last week we had 12 just so you uh to kind of give you a reference um we had 12 staff members and most of those were actually positive cases because they weren't around each other here but there was a few quarantined but you for the most part they were it was positive cases but we had 12 staff members out last week um we have one staff member that is out that we were able to find a sub for um it was diff a long-term sub and we found a person um but it's Subs are there's a lot of Subs that don't necessarily want to work right now just because of um what's going on with with um the pandemic um I sent out an email to you all you all should have got it about vaccinations today um the vaccination date is the 27th of January for Chino Valley Schools it is going to be because of the number of of doses that they're going to need for us we have to go to the county school's office to get it done and so one of the things that we'll be working over on over the next couple weeks with with District leadership team is the logistics on that you know do we put five or 10 people on a bus and just have a bus route and get them there or people could drive on their own or maybe we have the high school show up first since they don't start till 8:30 so there's some things some Logistics that we want to work on on what we do on that Wednesday to get staff to the county school offices that want to take the um the vaccine and then there's a the date four weeks later and I don't know what that exact dat is like the 24th or something like that whatever that Wednesday is that they would um we are scheduled for the second dose we it is the madna vaccine which requires a 28 day um delay before the second dose is given do you have an idea of how many of Staff members are wanting to take advantage of getting the vaccine right we took a survey about 2/3 okay and U there's and so I have reserved about 175 uh doses right now is what I reserve okay I believe okay okay so this is an action item there is not anything written for Action requested which means we're going to make the decision I'd like to actually go around each board member and um have some healthy and respectful conversation with each other rather than just sparring back and forth so I think I'm going to start with you Peter and then we'll go this way I I think personally nobody is going to dispute the benefit of in-person learning that there's not even a question about that my concern now as it always has been is with the staff and I I'm I'm a little delighted and surprised from what John says that our infection rate and uh State home rate is down from the last report uh I'm still I'm still concerned about the numbers Cho poen DEA county is far worse in the state of Arizona I don't know what we did wrong but something went wrong in in in this County we can't afford to lose teachers or or staff on the other hand if we extend the stay-at-home distance learning too long there's no question that the students will be permanently disadvantaged I don't know how you say it nicely um so at this point with the vaccines coming up at the end of the month uh and there is the good news is that the Articles I've seen is that you have a they are effective immediately at least with within a week of up to % Effectiveness is I think the articles that I've read so I would like to personally to see us stay with the distance learning until the end of the month when we can get our staff vaccinated that then I think it at that point I'd love to go back to the the hybrid model and get kids back on campus that's yeah I I really feel for um for all these students and we all we all feel the same way about um their mental health their education their lack of Education the fact that um it these packets don't seem to be working you know as well as as we need to by the same token if we bring everybody back and we don't have enough staff to teach them then we're in another pickle so I kind of agree that we need to get the vaccine and I I've heard I've actually seen 50% I don't know have you seen any numbers on I think it's it's all over the place but I also know that a flu vaccine that's 50% is actually a pretty good flu vaccine so you know if we can get 50% I think that's a pretty good start and there's You Know It Go up to 90 I think 94% once the second dose is is Mna yeah for Mna MH and I also have always been an advocate of letting the parents decide what they want to do with their children but you know because ultimately it's their choice if they're going to send their child or not they we just have to provide the options so and well I think we all know where I come from because I've been pretty adamant about it I guess one of the things that I'd like to bring to everybody's attention is what doug Governor Doug Ducey came out and said today is that um schools that have closed because of the pandemic must end virtual learning and return students to the classroom or lose money we will not be funding empty seats or allowing schools to remain in Perpetual state of closure children still need to learn even in a pandemic I think it's heartbreaking that a little boy came up here just a little bit ago and is begging to go back to school I think that that right there should tell all of us right now that these kids are begging to go back to school again I have three kids that are in the district I'm what I am firsthand seeing that this is this virtual learning is not working and they're distant learning and it's not the teachers's fault they're doing the best that they can too but we've got to get these kids back in school I ran into a lady that works for the crisis Department of of um our whole County and she said that they've had the most calls for children that they've ever had and this should be a wakeup call to all of us these kids need to be back in school teachers are essential we need our teachers to teach I say get them back in school full-time we'll deal with it if we have to make it work to find substitutes then we make it work but these kids need to be back in school not only for mental health but for their education which is the biggest thing that we can offer them so I say as soon as possible we get these kids back in school I I understand about the the vaccine and everything I just saw on the news that people teachers can sign up and go get it down in the valley if they want to as quick as Wednesday so I say I'm let's look at our options if we can get if people want to get the shot earlier that they have the option to drive to Phoenix to go get it I I just really think that these children need to be back in school these parents are having a hard time children are having a hard time they I was getting my hair done and had two teachers come up to me that I don't even know and literally were in tears telling me how sorry that they were that they didn't even get to enjoy their kids and get to um do their stuff with them that they do for Christmas and stuff like that that all of a sudden it was just goodbye you know and I I just really think these kids need to be back in school I say we'll figure it out you we talking about substitutes let's figure it out that's all I have to say so I say go I say we go back to fulltime and cross the bridges when we get there thank you Mike I don't think there's a question that um the best place for the highest level of learning is in the classroom and in person um I also believe that we need to make that decision to get our students s back in the classroom as soon as possible um I'm just not convinced that as soon as possible as tomorrow or next week or two weeks from now um I'm cons uh concerned about the uh continued spread of the virus um and it's at extremely high rates at this point in time it seems that that is the wrong time um to bring our students back back and risk um greater spread um Peter to your point about the the number of students that or excuse me number of Faculty who have reported the co is number is 12 prior to Christmas it was 50 um but we need to consider they're not in school and are not close right they're you know doing their distance um distance teaching um if we go to in person now um I'm afraid those numbers might approach then again right the the kinds of numbers we saw before Christmas um so I I guess some my position is that um I an agreement that we need to get students back in the classroom as soon as possible uh this is not the uh right time to do that thank you okay my turn um obviously yes I agree back in classroom as soon as possible and to what the governor said about Perpetual closing of our schools I don't think any of us are looking to perpetually close our schools forever we are looking at uh bringing our children back in a safe manner not a timely or not a rushing man manner um I I like what everyone has said about the vaccine and that maybe we we we wait until then and and then look at that um Mr scha I know that you gave us the staff survey for the instructional models yes could we could we address that and talk about that real quick absolutely and I think if you if you look at it what what it's clear is that K5 um has tends to want to be in the hybrid model um there's still a significant number that want distance learning at 6040 basically between the two it was 6832 at the at Territorial and 6040 at Del real um but for the most part the K5 um we had a quick discussion prior to the meeting um with with uh myself and Julie Bryson and BR CX and one of the things that we talked about was at the K5 level you have cohorts which means you have a class that teacher sees hybrid 15 kids and they're with that those same 15 kids all day if you are in hybrid at a high school they see about a hundred kids a day and so uh part part of the concern and and so you can see at Heritage and and um the high school it's a significant High number that more want distance or they were also given the the option of iners but for example at Heritage that's really those 30 it's 27% that are want hybrid but that's really what the caveat that the the benchmarks are showing what they need to to show is is what I'm understanding and so a lot of those would be distance learning with the benchmarks the way they are um but again at the high school they are seeing six times the number of kids or more than at the elementary school during hybrid and so there's just a greater chance of that of that um one person infecting multiple people and so if you recall at one point our the DT recommendation was high school being distance learning and K5 being the hybrid for that very reason it's easier to keep those younger kiddos um safer just because of that cohorting and if something does happen in a class it's 15 kids in a teacher that we have to quarantine not all the contact tracing that we have associated with um what happens at the high school with the mixing of kids and there's contact tracing during lunch that you it's almost virtually impossible to try to um do so that was you know that I think really is one reason that the results came out the way they they did so we're I have a question so um was Territorial and Del Rio were they not given the option of in person that is correct okay why I'll ask the I'll ask the principles personally I just felt like our next step instead of bringing everyone back the next step would be hybrid okay I just honestly I would have liked to have heard what the other I would like to have heard what the younger what the what the teachers had to say about being an inperson I mean I I really would have so you do you guys have just off off without numbers do you have a feeling for what those would be and I did talk to staff ahead of time and they all supported because of the numbers being in the r coming back in a not all not all I have but the majority supported hybrid because they can contact tra of and we can spread them out they they in their classrooms at their desk so it's okay that they don't have their masks on they were comfortable with that I still had um a few that weren't comfortable with that some are teaching online so I could accommodate that but that's where they were all at we so I when I actually did the actual survey and have the hard numbers I just did hybrid and distance learning because those are the two I didn't jump all the way to the top because we had talked about it in a St meeting and they a lot were against it at that point so I was looking for what's the most beneficial of this okay I I think personally one of the things that I fear honestly and I've seen it just from social media and talking to friends is there's a lot of parents that are wanting to pull their kids from our district and start them just with an online based school and I can honestly as a parent I can see where somebody wants to do that and the reason why is because I think and it's not our teachers in our District's fault they're just they're doing the best that they can but with an on online school that's basically that is strictly online that's what they that's what they specialize in and I'm I mean we saw our numbers already down our ADM at 133 I see it going lower if we don't get our kids back in school sooner I see parents pulling their kids to get them in an online based school because that's the route that's the route that they're going to take obviously with sports being cancelled and stuff like that all of that takes an effect so I think it's really I think we really need to take into consideration that some of these kids that we l that we could possibly lose we could lose forever now with the high school aren't we already Contracting with an online program we're using uity Okay 12 yeah yeah I'm sorry yeah Julie and I our students have if the teacher I mean sorry parents have decided they want to stay online and they know they aren't going to come back um anytime soon due to health reasons or other reasons um they are um signed up for uity which is I think that with that I think that there's a lot of kids a lot of parents that have multiple kids in multiple grades right so if they went to one I talk to a a parent specifically if she goes to a certain online school online based then she can get all of her kids they're all in the same program is aoi available for the lower ggs no we have the reason we chose a genuity k our 6 through 12 was we had the subject teachers doing their normal classes and online so it was it was too much for them and so we switched to uity 6 through 12 because K5 we actually have dedicated to online teachers so that's what they so each grade level has a teacher that teaches online kids and that's all they do they don't have any inperson kids and so that the reason that's the reason why we chose that and I know the answer to this but I'm get ask it anyways I'm looking back at principles parents have been informed of uity obviously and have we had many take advantage of it yeah currently at Heritage Middle School we have 29 students on it okay and I think we have about 45 at the high school okay 45 to 50 in that number range yes inde I'd like to clarify um uity does offer K5 but they are not accepting K5 enrollment so we can't contract with them for that because it's full I see just so we know okay okay are there any other options out there for a K5 learning we teach we teach it yeah but and I agree with that and my online classes aren't full I mean there there's 14 in kindergarten there's 22 I believe in first grade and 21 in second grade that have chosen to go strictly online and they have a dedicated teacher to them nothing has changed okay so let me make sure that I'm understanding their online is not the same as the other kids doing online work no okay it's one teacher instructing those kiddos that have chosen to go online they don't come to school at all I see for whatever reason I mean so if a parent does have three or four kids in different learning areas they're still going to have to do something with their online kids any way if that's what they chose engenuity follows our calendar all right I'm just trying to make sure we have all the options out there that we can and another thing that I just want to make sure that you know I know everybody the last me we had the county health director on the phone and we and I asked her what the recovery rate from a kindergarten to a senior was and she said 100% so I just want to make sure that that's known too I'm sort of interested in turning the discussion towards a different subject um this evening I've heard what would consider some fairly alarming statements and comments by very sincere um parents and students about the quality of their education that they're receiving and statements about how they feel about the long-term effects of these um I feel like I would like to open up that discussion a little bit more and maybe invite our professionals to come comment on those those subjects uh that is given the assumption is that um the quality of the education and the distance learning model uh is not as good as in person that's a given but I'd like to hear some comments about the quality of the distance learning they are receiving uh and what the long-term effects of that might be on the future development uh of uh of these students given that also I think we will be returning to in person learning before the end of the year so I I agree with that I think that we that we should hear I don't know that do you guys have some introspective any wordss on that Cindy I'm looking at you maybe our teachers are trained to teach kids in classrooms that's been their training and they would tell you to a fault if they wanted to teach online school they would already be teaching online school and I think every administrator in the room we've heard John say it a lot of times is that kids learn best and teachers teach best when there are students present in the classroom and so to you know Mike made the point that we do our very best job when we do what we were trained to do and so that is that's the truth do better when they're there and part of hard part is you heard um our young lady Cory huitt who spoke um she's a very involved high school student um she spoke to the fact that she's been working for 3 years with her at Perkinsville meet but we have a lot of students who are taking advantage of the time that they don't have to be in school to have a job to help you know themselves to help out their families and school does get pushed to second place and that's not something that our staff can control so some the quality of learning is also incumbent on the students and the level of the student too so there you know you can say there are a million facets to it there are a million facets to it but you've heard consistently from all the administrators in the room that we know that kids do better in okay so that I I think we all that the that's the underlying assumption is any learning taking place of course in distance and the the the quality of learning that's taking place during the interum when we are in distance learning um can anybody comment about uh what might be the effect of that development of that in long term well one year 2 years 3 years I I would like to I mean I have a kid that I a junior and he's a super smart kid he's probably I'm not going to lie my smartest kid so far and he went into high he came into High School a grade ahead in math he took a high school course in junior high he's always got good grades A's and B's we I I we're D's we're getting we're lucky for getting I'm getting a d with him right now and it's not the teacher's fault it's not I mean yeah he's struggling because he's he's an in-person learner he learns best when he's being taught by a teacher I also have seen and heard from I've heard from other people about kids even you know these packets and they're sharing their answers with other kids because nobody's monitoring what you know they all have cell phones or whatever ever as even as a parent it's hard for me to monitor what my kid's learning with a packet or what they're getting from their friend right that's already done the packet or heard from somebody else so I'm telling you that our educa what they're learning is very minimal that's my opinion what one thing that that we learned in the LA this week or late last week was the amount that we're going to get in the second cares money the with their client tester to and Cindy and I were having a conversation this afternoon on what that money should be used for one of the things was a very robust summer school program um you know hopefully to Mr fogle's Point hopefully by summer we're we can we can offer in you know inperson instruction we know that there's going to be kids that are we know kids are struggling and we'd like to be able to for those parents that want um to provide some some help and some um additional instruction to those families that want it over the summer and we have the funds to do that and so that's one of the the items that um is going to be a discussion in the next couple weeks in DLT is what does what what can we do and we have plenty of funds to do this what kind of summer school program can we offer to help K12 um and um you know hopefully we'll have staff if we don't we'll we'll bring in staff we'll do whatever we can to do that and we'll have the the resources to do that okay we will have the resources yes through using U the the cares money that was just awarded to the district got yeah so I think we've had some really good discussion um now we need add one more item yes we do have somebody that still wants to speak y got it so um part of what happened yesterday was the AIA cancelled winter sports okay so actually hopefully he's getting them um there's been a request from the wrestling club which is not a school organization it's an outside organization that trains our wrestling team during non season dur when when we're out of season you come up and so um one thing that we had a we had a meeting um the three coaches and Cindy and and and Mr campelli the athletic director today um there's been a request to be able to use the facilities as a club sport in order to maintain and keep going on the using uh keep training for wrestling it's through USA Wrestling they provide their own insurance it's an outside organization to use our facility and it's something that we normally do and offer but it's something that the request has been made by the by the wrestling club to do that and I wanted to run that past you as part of it because school-based that Athletics have now been canceled by the AAA this is a non-school-based athletic um organization that wants to just use our facility and so I want to run that past you the one thing also that was mentioned that we wanted to make clear is when the AIA um canell the the um Athletics and I'll read it to you what they what they wrote it's um the smack which I find interesting which is the sports medicine advisory Council recommended that hospital capacity be considered an important factor when considering the winter season this week 93% of all intensive care units beds and 92% of all impatient beds are use leaving concerned that injured students may be unable to receive needed care due to lack of beds or available or available medical professionals that was the main reason why the AIA canceled um there's also a concern about cases but it's not necessarily cases amongst kids it's just cases in the community but that was their concern so I wanted to give um Allan an opportunity to kind of talk about the the request president I have a point of order here yes I um what is the relevancy of the this presentation with item 11b I'm not following that it will be part of our discussion regarding our Co instruction my guess is depending on what we decide as far as school instruction goes will also make a determination regarding Athletics part of the the part of the the instructional plan and if you look at the if you look at um the I'm pulling it up scenario two scenario two it talks about right now Athletics will follow AIA guidance and so it's a the assumption is under scenario 3 that that um at one time it was it was no no Athletics is what it should should be and so as part of this model instructional model it has to Athletics as well and that's why it's part of the discussion so it is a it's it's a request that has nothing to do with this the district's curriculum correct the instructional model deals with everything that happens as part of the school because there's things on here like um it's C how CTE is handled how field trips are handled how Athletics are handled um instruction the facility and building procedures are all part of the at home learning scenario in case we decide tonight to go to hybrid we need to make a decision also on on who is allowed to use our facilities and who is not so or if we CH choose to stay all in um online distance learning Peter did you have something before oh just a real quick question and and I hate to bring this everything up John what would be our liability if we did proove this and one of either the coaches or the uh kids in the club does come down with with the virus does the district have any liability the as part of the facility use agreement this is not just with the with athletic clubs it's with all organizations that use our facility right they have to have their own insurance and they uh USA my understanding is USA Wrestling provides them their insurance coverage for those cases so they have their own insurance that would be um it actually lists us I believe as a secondary insured in those cases and and the insurance I went through a very bad experience last spring with a hotel that said the virus is not considered a health emergency um is the virus covered under our policy we we actually have addition we are additionally insured for our policy we actually pay extra to cover for any kind of Co related expense or Co related suits super great yeah we have extra insurance that we've purchased strictly for that reason all right so I believe just because my kids have wrest and I tell when you become an AIA or I'm sorry when you become a USA wrestler you pay so like when a club it's a club so like when I sign my kids up to have a USA Wrestling card but I just like to add that it uh even though it is Club it it's still when we say it's separate from high school it's it's how our basketball team keeps their guys on the court in the offseason it's how our wrestling team keeps our guys on the m in the out season it's it's still I mean it's it's run by us High School coaches and uh it you know I know some of you guys coached I know some of you guys have you know sibling or kids that play sports and husbands that coach and so you guys know the value of sports um I've been coaching the soccer team this whole year with zero uh Co cases zero injuries did I've been coaching wrestling since September either out of my garage here at the school we allowed to other places around them and we haven't had any issues we're following all the all the co regulations um so I'm just asking you so that we aren't cut off at the knes for sports and I'm not just talking wrestling I'm talking all those Sports I'm here representing all the sports um that those sports that are affiliated with the school as long as it's through a club that we get some consideration to be able to keep moving forward with practices we talked about how we're concerned about bus drivers and teachers you know not having numbers we've got the numbers to coach and we're more than willing to be here the coach we give our time you know for free and and it's something we love because we see the benefits that come from it so I just hope you guys would look at it in a little different light and not just you know with the brush say hey nothing's going to happen at the school I hope you guys would look at it and say hey this is something that benefits our students directly and uh and it's going to benefit our uh Sports down the road too we're you know not having a junior high season we're we're in trouble trying to produce athletes and kick out athletes and so it's it uh I think we should be looking a little different than another group coming here and ask fa ask well that's to my question um am I correct that we have a procedure for outside groups to uh request the use of facilities yes um why in this situation aren't we using that board being asked to to uh include that in a discussion about um a CO instruction model because we have made a practice of not allowing any outside organizations to use our facilities and this would be an exception for just athletic based athletic Associated clubs I understand yeah and I actually appreciate it being in this this format so that there is complete transparency all right thank you the other thing I'd like to add to it is is uh we've already received invites from other schools that are doing this I I I don't know how other schools are doing it but I think if it's a possibility that we be one of the towns that would know being a a town that supports our athletes and small town I think we'd be one that would be supporting I don't know how school down in Phoenix and the other places are are comfortable doing it I don't know why we be any different uh and just reiterate the numbers we had got zero cases zero injuries and so we worried about the AIA is truly worried about sending kids to the hospital I can't ask the hospital thank you appreciate it thank you okay so several things to consider um before we move on to the curriculum instruction I do have a couple of questions on the athletic part of it he said he was here representing all sports that include Club baseball and if there's Club basketball and everyone else that they would be given equal opportunity if that's what the board chooses to do yes just checking um the liability question for sure is is a big one with with me in particular uh I use my place of business as an example I think most people know who I work for um my building is closed one of my buildings is completely closed and it is usually rented every night we're not allowing rentals so I I just want to throw that out there that there are other places that are not allowing things either so but you do what is it that you do for work just clar I work for the town of Chino Valley and I run several divisions and one of them happens to be the senior center so right um we have had to not allow other people do things for the senior C so but I just want to put that out there and Miss Thomas why why was that decision made uh it was made by our Administration by our town leaders due to co numbers oh so you've eliminated the use of your facility because of covid related issues but it's it's I don't think it's Apples to Apples I think I'm simply using it as an example that there are other organizations that also have challenges trying to allow and I just wanted to make sure that if it's something we decide that it is a one for all you know if we're allowing wrestling we're allowing anyone else or CL basketball as long as there are some liability practices put into place but that's on the sports end we need to get back to the curriculum end of this so I get I from what I'm gathering we're not going to do we're going to gradually go into this so it going back in person full-time is kind of out of the question from what I'm gathering from everybody I don't know the answer to that I so I mean if we can if we then at least we can go between the two scenarios that we need to do so do how do how do we do that do we so we're going to need some sort of emotion uh some sort of motion out there but I think that besides just emotion we need a plan I agree I I totally agree need some sort of plan and again it's not written down that's for us so now's the brainstorming and put something together can we can I um kind of to that point um one of the requests and I think that that even the parents were concern you know some of the parents um mention this the going the back and the forth is is not I don't think it's conducive to anybody's success and so what I'd like to to recommend is that we if if you whatever you choose whatever model that you choose did it go through at least and I'm trying to think of the date I think it's the 16th which is the day after um president day and the reason I picked that is that is a week and a couple days or week and a day after the next work meeting so whatever decision right February and so whatever happens whatever decision is made let's make it go I think that would be 5 weeks out and that way um everyone knows what's happening over the next 5 weeks and and families can make plans things like that um if you want to go longer I think that would be fine as well um that gets us to like I said the middle of February um are there would be another I think four weeks after that to the middle of March before the um quarter is over and we reach spring break so while I agree that we need to do it incrementally I'm very very hesitant putting a date out there and that's just me personally and look at what happened to us in October when we had a date out there and well I guess I guess when I say when I say a date um it could be indefinite to be re-evaluated at the next board meeting I guess is is what I'm looking at well and I also think one of the things that we have going for us too is the fact that you know the vaccine's now available and the teachers are going to be able to get the vaccine and not only that other people are able to get the vaccine too so think we need to take that into consideration as well that hopefully within you know say February 16th things are looking up and our numbers are down you know so we don't necessarily need a date as long as it's to be re-evaluated at the next board meeting I think is at the next board this is kind of a working motion then let kind of work through this um we're looking at the possibility of continuing distance learning or distance learning initially initially okay or to be reconsidered at at the at the February board meeting or to be reevaluated at the February board meeting wait what about hybrid and at that time do we consider the hybrid at wait wait wait we're not considering hybrid right now I don't know the answer to that I'm not the one putting this together you guys are I think we need to consider hybrid right now that's this is my opinion I think that we should get these kids if we're in two days they said that um you know a lot of the teachers I say we go through K12 at least get these kids back in two days a week and then with the vaccine coming available in two weeks I say we I say we do the hybrid again I'm just shooting things out here opinions I one of the reasons why I think we should do the hybrid I'm going tell this is my opinion is these kids need as we've talked the inperson instruction is what these kids are benefiting from the most of we've already gone missed out on how many weeks four compar we are in our fourth we're in our fourth week I don't want anybody's child espe in including my own getting any further behind than they they already are I think if we do hybrid it gives these kids a chance to get a little bit caught up with hopes that come our next board meeting our numbers are down and we can go back to full person instru instruction I think some people back there are chomping it so please please you know we all want the kids back I'm just a little concerned with even going to hybrid at the secondary level the amount of kids that my staff still sees per day right in in settings that their concern too and that's why they put about continuing with distance learning that's why the majority at the high school pick that because they um they're concerned about that it's a it's very different to have only 15 to 20 kids in your classroom that you're with all day you become a family that's I mean it it would be 15 maybe even 12 in some of the elementary levels but when you have kids continually in middle school and high school kids they're a different breed which is why we love them but they are out on that campus we try to socially distance them it doesn't always work and when you put them in there in a closed classroom with 20 Even in our hybrid classes there was 25 kids we're not supposed to be gathering in that large of amount in in that tight of quarters additionally middle schoolers and high schoolers if they can get on a video game they can figure out Google Classroom you guys they can do it on their own at the elementary levels they are they are learning to read they still need a lot of support but when they get to middle school and high school they they are reading to learn they can do this yes it's hard we understand that but right now at the at the middle school our teachers are on for every single period giving instruction at the beginning they're live instruction they're right there get on the class minutes 60 Minutes they can be there with their teachers the if they need a hard copy of a packet we can give them that or you can print it it's all right there there for them they are capable of doing it we understand it's hard we are doing we are working so hard to try to make this right for everybody in this community and and it's everybody has to step up administrators teachers parents kids we all we're all in this together and it's not any different in Prescot in Phoenix we're all here together and until we start fighting each other and start working together we're going to continue to be here and the worst thing that's happened is going back back and forth between all of these different instructional models the kids don't know what's going on the parents don't know what's going on we pulled our equipment because we needed it because we were all in inperson instruction well now we have to get it back out because we're not but we needed it with us while we were here so it's the back and forth that is really messing with us so we can do this back to hybrid do we need to um take back all of the the electronics that given out we would likely just keep them distributed as is for the remainder of the Year probably yes until yeah the idea is we probably collect them in May um in addition we probably give out any additional devices that we had um to high school kids that if we did decide to stay in in a virtual or distance learning just so that it's just a little bit more intensive for those high school kids um because we want them and and middle school kids we want them online when the teacher's online and so you can't really share um which is right now it's one device for every two students and the the amount of packets that are being picked up have really gone down at the high school and you asked Julie at the middle school so um um I I started off with 25 packets and I only had to make for two classes and those were freshman classes and I think it's because the kids wanted to actually see the work too M um so they don't have printers at home um so if you know if they don't have a printer at home and um um so I think the amount of pack you know because I know just getting a packet and doing is not the good thing for any of our kids but having that direct instruction to go along with it and the teachers being available so just to let you know um we're not seeing the amount of at least at our end seen the amount of packets picked up by parents at the middle and high school level so with that being said so I wonder if I could follow up a little bit so so that is to say that hybrid model might reverse that Trend reverse Trend the one that you just stated that where people are not picking up packets anymore no we're saying our online right now is being successful where we have less students needing packets because we've passed sell um laptops Chromebooks now I understand thank you okay thank you but but that's not the case for the elementary school we're we're sending out hundreds of packages so and is that I mean something to consider also doing K5 hybrid in the high school and middle school a different learning plan that might be something to consider as well I I agree uh K K5 um hybrid but I'm not sure when to start that if it needs to be started before or after the VAC vaccine John what what is your what do you um I mean it's a tough this this is a tough call it is um you know I'm I'm a science guy I believe in in in the numbers um it is tough the the other thing is that the teachers um recognize that they you know they're willing to to most of the teachers I'll say most not all are willing to to be there um those are the kids that I cons I really worry about the most are the you know a kindergartner has no idea how to how to work on a Chromebook no no idea um for for the most part um or at least how to learn on a Chromebook we'll say they probably know more more how to use a Chromebook than most of of us but um how to learn on a Chromebook properly and um those it's the younger kids that I worry about the most I'm I'm torn between the distance learning and the hybrid K5 I think 612 we need to go distance um but I am torn at the K5 level well I am a kindergartener and I'm going to tell you that we're doing the best we can but I know that his teacher does he he needs the he was just getting to where he was doing really good you know and so I I agree I mean of course I think we all should be back in school so I know everyone else does too but I'm going to say that we put k35 back at hybrid as soon as we can that's what I'm GNA that's going to be my vote right now k35 goes back whatever we decide if we need to keep 6 through 12 at distant learning until our next board meeting once the once the vaccine ad has been administrated to the people who choose to have it I don't I I'm I'm not exactly thrilled with it but I understand where everybody's coming from you know we're trying to make the best decision and protect our teachers by giving them the VAC letting them get the vaccine before we get them back to the hybrid but I think that the k35 needs to start back in hybrid as soon as we can so another question to principal K5 hibrid and into syan joural so if we have the influx of absences with teachers like we did before Christmas since it's a hybrid model would we be able to possibly accommodate more kids in the classroom or do something because I I think you know Laura you said it best changing the instructional model all the time and that's the one thing that really worries me that we go back soon and we have to do it all over again right but the vast majority of ry's teachers have had Co so can send them all the territory decision made um we actually talked about that um how that could kind of look today I was just talking to some people what if we came back hyrid somebody got sick would you be willing to take 12 to 15 additional kids in could I disperse those and they we actually came up some really good ideas we could utilize the library at that point and a teacher take two classes but they only have 25 kids instead of 50 kids that they're trying we could utilize the gym if we needed to um with the social distancing we didn't see in the hybrid model they are self quarantined pretty much with their class so we didn't see any of these numbers like we're seeing when we came back all in person it was hard to quarantine that it was shutting down a whole class it was you know lots of different things but when we had the hybrid we didn't have this so what had it not hit Chino Valley yet I don't know I'm not a a health expert but we didn't see these numbers I wasn't dealing with these type of things but like they've said my staff for the most part is ready to come back hybrid because they see how bad we're struggling it's hard to teach a kid through a computer um kindergarteners it's hard to keep their focus for five minutes in a classroom and then you put them online and it's really hard to keep their focus um so they're ready to come back hybrid as soon as possible that we would make that um and we'll do the best we can what they're really asking for is consistency consistency the back and forth is killing it's killing our parents as well two weeks um the two weeks off and on but they're ready and our um student support lab today alone grew to 20 kids and we have probably seven or eight more starting tomorrow in student support So parents are back at work and they've got to get their kids back and they're sending them so we'd rather be teaching them if if that's the option but in a hybrid model so we can still social distance would your teachers be ready to do hybrid as early as um the Tuesday after Martin we've that's how we've always we've always talked about after the night after the board meeting we'll know tonight what next week looks like yes they're ready to go back if if that's what we decide with safety measures as much as possible still masking washing and doing all of that so we we think that we'll have busing we should be able to bus um again we don't have you know busing is not required except for special special need students if we had to we would you know change routes to accommodate what we have um the other thing is without the middle school kids if we just went distance learn uh distance learning 6 through 12 um a lot of those kids on the buses at least for the um it's actually a K8 run and so it would significantly reduce the the um bus loads as well because we're not putting the the um middle school kids on but it' still be the same number of routes yes we wouldn't change routes that's we want to keep things the same you know as is and I wanted to add something I got an email last week from Stan gagoski who works for the county schools office and he's um his it's under his oaces that the vaccination clinic is our clinics are taking place so according to and uh substitutes actually have an opportunity to get vaccinated tomorrow and so um and it's January 12th from 8 to 7 and January 29th from 88 to 7 um for vac uh substitute teachers to get their first dose of vaccine so um um hopefully um we would have a um our substitutes would get vaccinated and be more willing to um sub but that's still you know I think that's what uh still to be seen all right so here's what I'm going to suggest I'm going to suggest that starting January 19th which would be the day after Martin Luther King day that we go to hybd learning for K through K through 5 6 through 12 stays at distant learning and we revisit this on the next board meeting in hopes that we can come back we'll we'll just see see what the numbers are by that that time it gives people the chance gives teachers the chance to have the vaccine that's my prop can we add preschool preschool preschool as well preschool is naturally on a hybrid program they only have half the kids in at any one time anyway so they're always on hybrid no matter what okay would you like to make that as a motion yeah can we can we add something about about Club Athletics if it's okay I'd actually like to do that separately okay I mean yeah neither here nor there but I think that there needs to be some more discussion it sounds like okay all right so I'm going to make a motion that starting January 19th K through five will go to the hybrid including preschool prek through five will go to hybrid schedule 6 through 12 12 will continue to do the distance learning and the next board meeting in February we'll revisit this in hopes that our numbers are down and we could get the kids back at school all right um so there is a motion on the floor I am going to ask for a roll call for this one please so Peter yeah I vote Yes Penny yes Mike yes Annie yeah and I'm also a yes ad president yes one thing and I think this is a great solution uh and and thank you very much for suggesting the combination the one thing that concerns me and John I I think we need to really emphasize this over the the time of our staff getting the vacc vaccinations I'm disturbed by the low percentage of people that said they're interested in having the vaccine uh I think your number was like only what 70% of our staff about 2/3 yeah yeah said they would and that bothers me terribly because all the scien has said that if you don't get it up to the 80% range you're not going to get the herd immunity which will wipe out the the the virus and of all the professions anywhere that should be 100% vaccinated it's our Educators and our support staff I don't know what can be done to encourage those people but I would like to know when we meet next month what that percentage actually was because that's going to tell us a lot about how how successful this district is going to be and our people wiping out this virus may we include people who've already had Co because certainly some people have expressed that they won't receive the vaccine because they've already had Co well and there again if you read the articles there's no science that says how long that immunity lasts but yes the c i I'd like to know everybody whether they've had it or or not and I would hope that 2third that many of the people maybe some of them just didn't an answer or just were on the border of it and they'll see their their peers getting the the vaccination and maybe those numbers will go out and that that survey was done kind of between Thanksgiving and Christmas and so things things changed I think significantly um after the survey was taken which might change some Minds right I I just want to emphasize that John because we're not going to be successful who cares about the rest of the world but this District this town is not going to be successful until we can get that vaccination rate up as high as we possibly can and you know you saw the numbers we all saw the numbers y my county is 50% worse in the state of Arizona we've done something wrong here we finally approached cokano County we're now higher than Coconino County which astonished me all right let's move on to sports real quick and and take into consideration what was asked of us um this is a tough one for me I I I think it is for for everyone I think if we're not having our students on campus I think for for many people it's a catch 22 then why are we allowing other people on our campus I but at the same time I kids need to kids need to be doing something so I I don't know discussion please I guess one of the things that you know we're looking at it you know when it comes to school as versus Sports is you know we're concerned about our teaching you know that was one of our biggest things in the staff of our of of our district with sports we have these coaches and if they're willing to come in and they're willing to have their own insurance I'm going to say I'm for these kids need something they need to be able to and if they're this is their out then I say I I say let him do it anyone else you're making that a motion I I guess I guess I am but again I want to make I want to make even though Alan was the only one that spoke I think it's really really important that that it's offered or at least be known to other that it's available to all the other sports they have their a club and they have their own insurance that make yeah and if we're doing that are we opening up some sort of can of worms because we are now allowing so many other sports and so many other activities um then I think that we maybe limit the days or have you know something like that you know we know where the wrestling room we know where the wrestlers are they're in the wrestling room there's nobody else that uses that room I don't know about you know Club volleyball basketball all that kind of stuff I don't know where they go I don't even know if anybody's going to take advantage of it any insight from anyone please I I I have a I need a point of clarification um am I correct John that I heard earlier you said right as of this moment we are not letting outside groups contract to be in our facilities is that correct correct whether it be no churches no you know athletic clubs um the chamber requested to use it they they were not the only thing that we have on the books right now is the town is going to be using our facility in March for a a active shooter drill which really impacts the school district so I'm hoping that things will be settled down by March but I booked that but that's the only thing on the books that we've had since July 1 so if we uh if we are to agree to let uh allow certain sports teams who approach us to do this are we then going to say and may have to make a decision on any group that now from here on uh wants to make uh use our facilities I'm asking the board that I mean we need to we need to think about that this is I I have a uh some trouble with by the way I appreciate that uh you decided to make two different motions separate motions on this I would could not have uh supported the first uh the original motion if the sports was involved in that so um I appreciate that um so I I pose that question I agree with both consistent which I know I can't um I do believe that for all yeah yeah I agree but at the same at the same time can it be limited to athletic clubs and not athletic clubs only athletic clubs only and you know if if that's what the consideration is if if you don't want anyone campus I support that too how many outside organizations generally use the facilities it Ken those joh yeah Sports very few of our Sports have their own insurance true wrestling does and there's a volleyball does baseball baseball does baseball does not oh basketball doesn't it's only very few that have a club with their own insurance so they would have to do the other ones you are insured told that so that makes a difference too yeah yeah that does very few what about other outside organizations churches gr they all have their own but how many use them how many use the facilities would you say Girl Scouts it's it's hard to say It's kind as nobody nobody's Gathering right now that's the truth so are we encouraging Gathering then if we say okay they're going to do it somewhere else you know the the the the group that probably CCT if I'm wrong the outside organization other than Athletics is probably the chamber that uses it the most right right and they haven't been yeah and that's just you know um job fairs um I think they were trying to do some kind of Christmas event that we had to tell them no um and then I think it would be churchy yeah and the Karen maybe you know the sports that do have the outside Insurance do we know about what they're not MERS are how many okay well is there 50 kids I'm I'm guessing no right now I would not even say that there's 50 wrest did Allan say something about like 15 kids is what expected for the wrestling club he didn't say it here he said it earlier in the meeting with earlier today but you they can purchase outside Insurance correct purch service it's not you have to yeah just um insurance but it's got to be specifically covering Co though because not our policies and typically typically the amateur like for example USA Wrestling is the amateur organization that covers wrestling USA Basketball has their own I think it's you know um so there's different athletic organizations that are out in the public that typically will provide Insurance related to um club events if they just want to join okay like Alan said that you have to pay a fee to join sure how often do they meet every day every day all right so in practicality we're we're we're thinking about a saying yes to essentially one sport group you said basketball has volleyball volleball and wrestling up the top of my head have their own insurance doesn't mean others couldn't get it but yeah just my opinion just what it's worth no organization uses our facilities without coverage right now right yeah yeah so whatever the motion is I would hope we to include the requirement for insurance which also covers Co well I think that's already part of the existing policy that's our policy that we have but but I'm talking about the groups that do not have it and need to get insurance specifically in order to use our facility so we make a motion I I'm just shooting this out here because what for whatever so we can get this meeting over with allow Club groups with their own insurance to use with to have use of the facility and for the time being do we limit it to athletic groups only probably want athletic clubs athletic clubs okay I I I got to play devil's advocate here what if it's an adult league High School Athletic youth atics youth athletic High School athletics youth Athletics probably would be the one thing to say so allow Youth Athletic Club groups to to use the facility so long as they have

I just wanted to go over special education and E Services during this time all special education services such as fed resource which are our special education teachers our speech our otpt and our English language learner Services have continued through the digital writing instruction they will also continue for students who are on kelbert platform we've also continued having IEP meetings and 504 meetings per the dates and deadlines that we need to have them inactive students and behavior inactive students those are students who have not logged in since we started back on January 4th we have a list that's being compiled they have been emailed and called by teachers they have been emailed called by myself as well and Mr Le in has touch Bas as well and we've also sent text messages to all those parents as well there are some more that have been added to the list that we need to continue to follow up with teachers have already touched face or try to but we can't haven't touched Bas with all of them we've also done some home visits in fact this evening we're going to be doing one to drop off a kajit for internet access for a student uh we were waiting around Mr lean was here last week due to some behavioral issues that had occurred on the digital platform that that we were dealing with and then Mr Le then jumped in so we could get hold of the parents which we weren't able to initially but then we were and we were able to get a conference call with them on Friday and get things [Music] going Benchmark number two testing dates map Benchmark testing number two will take place January 25th through February 5th and we're going to have the map growth professional trainings online which if you would like to take part I will make sure to get you the invitations for that February 3rd from 1: to 3 p.m.

video is not and your audio do uh all right we move back into open session can everybody stand for the pledge of allegiance please 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 all right can i please have a motion to remove 11c from the agenda as it's not ready to present second joe and tiffany uh all in favor as emotions read say aye aye any opposed eyes have it uh accomplishment recognition item six for student of the month an employee all right we will start with our student of the month this month we have [Applause] okay i'm going to welcome abby sofsky i almost i almost pronounced it wrong it is our student month this month so here's your little uh collector be careful uh appreciate all that you've done this month i'm going to have dr king is going to talk a little bit about why you were nominated for this month oh yeah sorry okay all right so this was a collective nomination we want to recognize abby for her just leadership and participation in all the student-led focus groups also with her leadership and participation on the assessment for the assessment for learning task force she is a tremendous asset for all of the great work that she's been doing to help us ensure that we are helping students and meeting the needs of students and finding their strengths and watching them grow and so it like my first memory of her she's just making me laugh the entire meeting i mean like she was a go-getter she i love her opinions and so if you're looking for a leader and you're looking for honest feedback awesome thank you all right abby we're going to get a picture here but i want to uh with mr lyons and i i'm standing right here but i want to recognize the fact that there are 1700 kids in big hollow and we select one per month for this award so you should be very proud and so is your mom awesome thank you congratulations i watched you on the presentation you did a great job then our next awards for employee of the month and michelle kelman would you come forward michelle thank you and you were nominated by your colleagues and i have two of them here that want to share a little bit about why you were nominated so and i know that uh mr janus also uh has talked very highly of the work you've done for the staff this this fall and uh so miss weiskopf and miss adams would you want to share anything in here i'll give you a um of december we all um to do the math testing and michelle handled all the organizations i mean all i ended up so we appreciate awesome thank you for uh coming tonight and sharing that because it means a lot coming from the colleagues who recommended her so michelle congratulations and thanks for the work you do let's get a picture here yeah and i am gonna ask you to share anything too so someone want to come on this one here actually me and kevin will be here you want to share michelle i'm so thankful they have such a great team to work with i mean they're amazing and awesome awesome too thank you thank you for coming [Applause] and you're welcome to stick around but don't feel like you have to item seven board member code of conduct review mr chamuska mike this guy is dead anybody's mic i'll read it all right go ahead julia i will represent all school district constituents honestly and equally and refuse to surrender my responsibilities to special entrance interests or partisan political groups thank you anybody have any questions on the consent agenda can i please have a motion to approve the consent agenda second julia and lauren did we have any public comment uh superintendent's report it's a gold okay uh monthly board policy review exhibit seven is some policies that we pull we just do remember we just do this monthly we pull five in a row and just pull them in order and over a period of time we will have gone through all board policies so um some of them you see also in our board policy updates from press but any questions on exhibit 7 policies if not we'll go to item b is exhibit eight which is the second reading no changes from last month so we would just need a motion if everybody's good to approve uh press plus policy issue 102 on second reading they have any questions can i please have a motion to approve press plus two board policy update on the second reading motion second doug and vivian all in favor of the motion say aye aye any opposed eyes have it all right item c i don't have any prepared comments i just want to tell you we are we are ready for kids uh today was a good day for me to see so many staff on campus it was another step back to some normalcy and uh this is the the uh it's not gonna be easy next few months are really gonna be hard months but uh uh our our teams have worked really hard to get to this point i feel like we're ready to go uh it's gonna be the if you followed the data at all that the copa data in the area has uh um you know it's done a sharp decline from where it was back in the peak and i would say early november uh it was pretty high up there and it's on a sharp decline down and then we've now received a little bit of a christmas uh bump kind of a leveling off so the next week or so be interesting to see if we start seeing the continued decline so we were down as low as 28 to 29 as an instance rate which 14 is the good target but seeing it drop from 80 to 28.29 so fast was a really good sign so we're now probably at 30 i think 34 33 34 so we bumped up a little bit kind of the the holiday bump we think but see so the so the data looks good the uh the my going into this my probably the thing i concerned with i'm concerned with the most is uh is our capacity to keep staff in the buildings to do the work so that's that's going to cause us some bumps i think at times in in a lot of areas even you know uh transportation is one of them we we have enough drivers to cover our routes but we it's barely so we have too many quarantine situations and it's gonna that's gonna cause a problem so there's gonna be little things here and there that's gonna be we have to work through them but uh we are definitely ready for kids and uh excited for it to happen but i just wanna give you this chance to ask me any questions you might have as we have kids coming back next tuesday did we have a lot of people sign up for the bus for transportation uh yes but not as many as i was hoping so we still have buses that have plenty of room on them okay so so they're going to be they're finalizing that tonight and tomorrow morning so i think i think derek's still working on tonight but getting those out tomorrow but i know that we only had last i knew i think we had two middle school buses last week that they said we're close to full beyond that we have we have room and i've tried to encourage parents to sign up for the busing because it would help us with traffic flow here if we can get more kids on the bus communication from transportation has been great everybody's been sending out emails and i think we'd get at least one a day oh good so good um what about supply lists if those been sent out like what kids should and should not bring yeah um i'm gonna have to defer i'm gonna have to defer to our principles on that one i'm not sure [Music] there's actually been a couple of questions through fourth grade thank you i can't i don't i can't speak for middle school i've i haven't seen uh all the things that have gone out and what about the self-certified notepads did that get sent out or uh those are yes okay because i think some families eighth grade families didn't get it i i'm not saying it's me so we will give uh we'll give people pads that first day we'll just give them out when they okay so yeah so if they didn't get them though they could okay i'll just okay yeah all right so more to come with that uh i guess one thing i want to add to that is vaccination update uh i would anticipate within the next uh three weeks the teachers should be getting their first round of vaccinations and it right now it looks like we're going to be going to which i'm working with a group of superintendents and the lake county health department and to we're working with setting up a pod at an educator's pod at round lake high school so uh we will the the schools that are joining this pod are going to be responsible for hiring the staff to manage the health department will send over the vaccines and probably one position to be on site but we'll have to we'll have to staff the rest of it and it's not as easy of a process as like giving a flu shot because you gotta there's a lot of record keeping because they because we gotta have these people come back three weeks later do it again um and they've gotta get the shot they gotta wait 15 minutes before they leave and they've got somebody's got to monitor them make sure everything's okay so it's a process but um i'm hoping in the next three weeks we get it scheduled and then it'll be three to four weeks after that we get the second one scheduled and does that apply to out-of-state teachers too anybody who works here yep and teachers and staff anybody who works here okay okay so item d is the audit report it's uh sorry if it's so late this year usually we do this in probably september october but after they did our initial audit they realized that they had to do what's called a single audit if you uh if as a district you receive more than 750 000 in federal money they have to do a single audit we went over that number by 5 000 so they had to come back and do another what's called a single audit where they audit the federal money so they did that in november early december and uh that's tagged on to the end of this audit report i guess the page i'm gonna turn focus on for you is uh and i apologize i don't have the page number on the document i've got it's page eight of the audit report is what i was of the actual audit report itself so it's it's you'll see some tables there there's a page six seven and eight where the top of the page says statement of revenue received expenditures dispersed and that's page eight statement of revenue received expenditures dispersed on that page uh the one i want to point you to is the bottom three rows and i and if you haven't got there yet i'll talk i'll read through these numbers but basically what i want to point out to you is that for fiscal year 2020 the education fund showed a deficit of 596.

for we should be live all right just have to wait a few more minutes are we there now jul one minute with other the Nam as member pavich here oh thank you okay I have 6:30 are we ready to begin uh yep anybody who's on the call and not presenting uh we just ask everybody to except board members to turn off your cameras and everybody unless you're speaking have your microphone muted with that we can get started thank you can you call the role Mrs nidek please yes Nancy kupka present Mike Davenport here charl Fuller here Dan Nicholas here Terry pavich sorry here thank you Rick panado here Joan Vasquez Drexler present Zoe Boyd here and Sam bu Sam's on his way he just he had promis the link I'm sending it to him right now thank you thank you we have a quorum let's stand for the pledge I pledge allegiance un for which it stands one indivisible all okay we're going to start with student perspectives good even we're happy to have a crew of students joining us virtually tonight I think most of the board is familiar with our operation snowball that is uh conducted at both schools and actually cross town in our usual settings but like everything else they've had to reimagine what that might look like this year when only partially in person or not at all so we've got a few students here that will introduce you themselves and tell you a little bit of what they've done to make it happen this year um Miss Diana Beno our Student Assistance coordinator and one of our sponsors is here with the kids so I'll turn it over to them now thanks Mr Schwarz I'm gonna let the students take over thanks everyone for having us um we do have a couple slides prepared that are part of the presentation I believe so if whoever is controlling the slide deck wouldn't mind putting that on thank you very much and um I have with us tonight a few of our student directors from dgs so I'll let them introduce themselves and take it away hi I'm Mimi and I'm a senior I'm Diana and I'm also a senior I'm Natasha and I'm also a senior I'm tan and I'm also a senior I'm Anna and I'm a senior as well um can we go to the next slide please thank you um so me and Tegan uh we are both in charge of our social media and we have been active on social media and keeping up our students engaged in the program we post updates about our events and reminders to sign up pictures from the events so that students have a platform to view updates about um without having to check their emails so it's right away straight their phones and then if you want to go to the next slide one of the first activ activities that we did was we put together a bunch of Halloween themed goodie bags um full of treats and information about snowball and we delivered them to past and future participants um to spread the news of upcoming events and encourage these students to pass these little spooky surprises on to their friends and then go deliver it to their friends um the directors had a ton of fun delivering these surprising our friends with these cute little gifts um and we really enjoyed seeing it get spread throughout the community so this was our October 24th event which was we made our normal snowball into a 2-hour snowball that was split into two different two-hour events we had about 120 120 students we did a Simon Says activity and a freeze dance as our opening activities then we had a speaker which was Mr Walsh Rock who was an amazing speaker and then instead of doing our normal um um warm fuzzy necklaces and giving like out pieces of string like we would normally do at our snowball we had made um warm fuzzy bracelets and gave the students to string so then there was no like passing between the students and then we also um so then after the speaker we did a little debriefing along with introducing ourselves to our group and then we did some group activities that were being socially distant um the next activity that we did was on December 5th we took on the challeng of creating a zoom snowball event um for this event we provided students with a bag of supplies and a t-shirt that they picked up in a Drive-Thru prior to the event there was a total of 90 dgs students along with 125 DGM students they logged into a scheduled Zoom meeting and had a presentation from M&P presentations these speakers were really good at keeping all of our students involved throughout the whole presentation and engaged then after this we had a small group uh we had our own small group group Zoom meetings where we debriefed the presentation and we also did some crafts together uh such as like creating thankfulness uh holiday reefs and by writing thank you letters to teachers and healthcare workers overall the event was a huge success and many participants enjoyed being able to make new friends and participate in such a cool and different event our most recent um snowball um event that we did was um making these um really uh big uh wooden bow boards that said Tidings of Comfort and Joy and so we basically each director chose two students that they felt especially stood out in their groups and they could use an awesome gift in these rough times and then um directors then delivered these boards along with a goodie bag to the 30 students that we chose and we had such a great time seeing the reaction to the gift and they were really excited to see how much it made their day thanks guys I think that's all we have for you unless anybody has any questions um what did what kind of feedback did you get from the Stu the participating students first of all congratul great great program I mean you guys talk about Grace Under Pressure but what kind of feedback did you get from the students who participated um overall I believe that the feedback that we got um obviously our students are used to our our normal environment of snowball because it is really consistent throughout the years so when people do it they're expecting the same thing over and over again so people are really apprehensive about this new form of snowball but everyone was like very surprised at how successful we were in like creating a similar snowball environment in such a totally different way so our feedback was really great with like the ability and the things that we had to work with cool anybody else well I have to commend you because I think that shows some real adaptability and real proud of all of you thanks thank you well said Thank you thank you so much thanks for coming on you for joining us well done are we ready for our board member questions and comments yep student board member reports I know it's always on and I think Sam's Sam's with us now too okay hi H yeah I can start again um so the past couple weeks since or since I've seen you last um there's been plenty going on School even though we're home we actually came back last week after holiday break which was really exciting for all the students that came um some things that happened the past couple weeks um there was a virtual holiday concert and a winter art show on December 17th and they were both really cool you can still see them on the Fine Arts blog if you want to go check them out um also in Fine Arts seven students from dgs were selected to be all state musicians by Ila and we'll just have to patiently L wait and see what that'll look like this year but congrats to them um some other things going on in activities A Midsummer Night stream and the complete works of William Shakespeare were released reviewing um they both took a really creative spin on remote recording so you can still check those out too and on February 4th there's going to be the black history Play It's called blood at the root and that'll be available to watch then and this year's musical is also High School Musical which will be sometime in the spring and then yeah um culture of the school like I said we we came back after winter break and people seem to really enjoy their time spent in school um we understand we had to go back this week but I I think that was a nice treat coming back um overall people are a little bit overwhelmed right now I think um even as great as the hybrid schedule was it's a challenge for everyone to get into the swing of things coming back after break especially like a new um like a new atmosphere new climate um and with the added pressure of current events I'm sure you guys know but I also um wanted to take a moment to shout out the history and social studies teachers at dgs because um they they worked really hard the night after the Insurrection at the capital happened to compile just a list of information so that we could all have some perspective on what happened and they offered us a place to ask questions and they offered us some emotional support because it was a little difficult to deal with that amongst everything else so so yeah that's pretty much what's been going on and thanks Mike thanks Billy all right so for DG's perspective obviously similar to what Zoe was just saying um big changes with returning to hybrid learning I think that the general mindset seemed to be that you know students were stressed about the new schedule and obviously coming back to school is not ideal after winter break for any student I mean that's an age-old truth but I think that everybody was pretty excited to be back in school I I could see it you know from The Limited part of the face that I could see on people I could see it in their faces I could see it in their eyes when coming into school um I personally had a great time seeing people for the first time in a long while at school even if it's just for for a half day but um you know people are upset that we have to return to remote this week but I don't think that um anyone is blaming the the school board or the district they understand that the requirements that were set and so uh I think a lot lot of people are are just really happy with the hybrid schedule and are definitely anxious to get back as soon as possible as soon as the numbers get better um as far as Student Activities go um similar to what Zoe was mentioning the best of the year's musical was performed on Thursday December 17th right before winter break and I believe we had 19 students at dgn named uh for ilmea All State and as for clubs uh they obviously continue to meet virtually the German club and NHS actually did some community service recently uh on that same Thursday December 17th they went to Feed My Starving Children for two hours uh and did some packing there and NHS has also raised nearly $5,000 for Salvation Army over the last three week or the the last three weekends of December uh doing some of that bell ringing of course and as we all know uh no Sports since the last meeting but uh I was having a conversation with Miss Schwarz before and I was informed that the ihsa is having a meeting soon about that so that should definitely be something to look forward to something to to you know pay attention to with what decisions they make on that um and I was actually having a conversation um with Haley grubich the old student board representative from last year and because I I every every um every month before I give a student report I put out on my Instagram I say let me know if you have questions or comments let me know if there's something you want me to share with the board and I will get back to you and you know she she was interested in the Main Street intersection and what the board um has addressed and hasn't addressed with that uh obviously there's other things that are going on right now there's plenty of pressing matters uh you know covid and and obviously other things like that but she felt personally that speed limit signs the sign changes weren't necessarily working she constantly sees people speeding through that intersection no matter what and she just thought that now would be a good time to plan some changes because uh they can be put into action in the summer once things are rolled out so something that she was just looking uh at was you know painting the intersection because obviously um Beth dunlap's two-year anniversary uh is soon and she feels that no significant changes have been made so that is just something that she brought up and something that she you know maybe wanted to see a little bit more action being taken there but at the same time of course there's other things going on it's just something that I noticed and she noticed that that was being brought up in that in that time frame so again though um the general mindset around dgn definitely uh excited about school anxious to get back and so I think the main the main um emotion right now is just impatience and waiting to get back but but but obviously excited to to get back into the hybrid schedule so Zoe I have a question for you C Sam just answered the question I was going to ask both of you um mentally just from your friends or what you may hear how hard was the fact that now we got one week in and now we had to go back remote after having break and finals and all that because people were probably looking forward to a a different environment and a different experience have you heard anything just incidental or from anybody yeah for sure um well just like the people around me the people in my classes and my teachers um the vibe that I kind of got from them was it was disappointing but not unexpected that this is how things end ended up because um people have actually really valued being able to see the metrics change every day but that also gives us a clue into what next week's going to look like so yeah Rick I would say that while it was pretty disappointing is the vibe that I got um people expected it and they prepared for it yeah I would I would definitely say there's similar um feelings at North from that perspective I think that a lot of people were assuming that after Christmas and after New Year's the numbers would rise uh as people got together over winter break but I think that the main emotion right now apart from disappointment apart from you know wanting to get back is is just um you know trust in in the board and Trust in what the processes because I feel that it was laid out really um really well at that December 14th meeting now we know exactly what the numbers are uh that we want to return at we know where to go if we want to uh see the numbers and the zip codes and what's being um what's being measured in terms of what's getting us back and what specific statistics uh calculate that so I think that despite the disappointment and despite you know the impatience and and all that stuff I think that there's a greater sense of understanding and knowing what the situation is and and how the decisions are being made thank you Sam hey Sam and Zoe this is Dan um on a similar vein of questioning and I know there's been some emails that gone out do you get a sense and I know you can't speak for everybody it's impossible do you get a sense that you and your classmates know um who to reach out to or how to reach out if you need somebody to talk to or if you're looking for some help either academically or socially or mentally has that been articulated enough to you I know there's been several but I want to make sure that everybody feels like they know who to go to if it um if it just becomes too much yeah um for sure so at least my experience and like you said it's really hard to speak for everyone but in all of my classes my teachers have been really good about making themselves a support system and saying that even if they can't provide the support that we need they can direct us to the people that can so in my opinion I personally feel very supported I know where to go and who to go to um so yeah I feel like teachers are doing really good with that and you guys send out emails sometimes too so yeah I I would say that from an academic perspective there's definitely been a big boost recently with the push for paper and and I think a lot of my teachers if not all of them have had at least a five or 10 minute conversation about what paper is how it can apply to the class that the specific class that uh they teach and so I think that from the academic help perspective from the outside that's definitely gotten a big boost recently but in terms of the social emotional well-being um I feel that the average student definitely um is not getting the support that they once got in person of course there's endless things that are are unachievable uh remotely compared to in person but think that the academic support definitely outweighs the mental and and social emotional support right now yeah to kind of expand on what Sam was saying I think part of it too is people don't feel quite as comfortable maybe over the screen like emailing a counselor and trying to you know set up some kind of appointment so I I would agree with Sam there's a lot of academic support but maybe a little more reluctance for social emotional support he have either of you have either of your counselors reach out to you just to check in on you say hey how's it going or what's going on with your classes at all um me personally no but I do schedule meetings with my counselor like whenever I need to to talk about like postsecondary planning and what whatever I need to and when I do email her she reaches out and asks how how I'm doing so than yeah yeah I I would say pretty much exactly the same thing they don't necessarily reach out to us but I had extensive conversations about college with my counselor and so I feel that once the student reaches out there's definitely that that help in that conversation being had thank you thanks for sharing guys I know this isn't the best form to to share these steps of details and I do greatly appreciate you being so open and sharing this with us yeah of course and hidden in the chat that I don't think the public can see uh Ed Ed pointed out that Zoe was very modest in her report because she was one of the students uh that was recognized by All State ilmea so congratulations Zoe thank you and I believe Sam you have some other important news would you like to share that oh sure um well on December 18th which was the Friday uh right after school actually probably about five minutes after school uh I heard back from Northwestern and got admitted into the uh Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences so that was my big break right after school so thank you thank you very much um and just to first of all thank you to congratulations to both of you and thank you for your reports um and just to come back to the question Sam reached about traffic I know I talked with Hank um a little bit at the last meeting but we'll be scheduling an update on some of the traffic changes fairly soon I'm thinking because I know you were talk because he Hank's been talking to the to the Village because there's still some things going on um some changes we've requested so and also I know that the village was in the process of applying for some grants um related to Traffic Safety improvements so I I'll check back in with them now that we're you know in the in the new year and see how things are going did did that light on Spring side is that operational I know it's up is it operational not operational yet but it's getting close okay well thank you for following up on that I appreciate that information anything else so we've moved the public comment section earlier in the agenda uh because last time we went so long um we felt we could we lost some people so we apologize for that so we're going to hold our first reception of visitors now for public comment this is an opportunity for audience members to address the board on any topic pertaining to Community High School District 99 comments are limited to three minutes to provide all visitors an equal opportunity to address the board if you need more time please submit your thoughts and writing to the board secretary Mrs nidc visitors addressing the board need to come to the microphone and state their name their full name the proceedings are being tape recorded for the purpose of producing acurate meeting minutes and they will be they will are live streaming as we speak um I reserve the right to modify these Protocols of circumstances warrant and audience observation of these protocols is appreciated uh we have nobody in nobody in the administrative service center that wishes to address the board which is why I was able to take my mask off and uh we did receive in the uh the online form for the board 17 comments uh all of them are addressing uh concerns related to the metrics and a variety of concerns of whether they're valid whether they should be changed in some way um and an overall encouragement to the board and the administration to uh try to work to get students back uh to School uh as always those comments will be provided in full format to the board and will be made part of the official board minutes thank you um so then we'll move on to the workshop uh and we're going to start with a presentation on supporting our struggling students y we have a a quite a few of our staff members here and I believe Scott is the Master of Ceremonies for this yeah I'm gonna kick it off so I'm I'm honored to introduce our team that we'll be presenting to you so we have um Sarah Corrington who's our associate principal at South she'll probably be waving at you on the screen uh we have David King who's our CS department chair at North and then Aaron lwig our associate principle at North High and then we have Vince Walsh Rock our assistant principal at South High then Hank the next slide or Rod whoever is controlling it so we are going to talk to you a little bit about the system a support that we provide for students and then um go into the supports we're going to that we provide for struggling students and then um talk to you a little bit about the Outreach to all our stakeholders so at this time I'm going to turn it over to Sarah hi good evening thank you so much for giving us the chance to uh speak with you tonight we're obviously going to spend most of our time tonight talking about what our team does when a student struggles how we identify who they are how we decide what we're going to do to develop a plan to support them and when we decide and how we decide when that plan has to be adjusted but I hope you'll see over the course of tonight that student services goes far beyond just intervening in struggle we make a effort to reach out to our students in all facets of their time with us and that's why you see those three circles their academic lives their social emotional lives and their postsecondary planning in each of these areas there's tiered interventions that we can turn to when students need more help and our team will overview many of those tonight we never like to see our students struggle but we know that in struggle we often find strength when given the right support so that's really what our team tries to do we try to find the right support that's going to build our students up so as we maybe intervene on an academic issue we're also building social emotional resilience and that gives us a foundation then for our students well beyond high school and we know we also have students who are doing very well and they come to us incredibly academically sound and I want to make it clear that we are here for the service of all of our students each of our students needs to have somebody that's helping to guide them in their Journey so that they're ready for Life After District 99 and that's one of the goals that um our team has and we're going to talk more as well about what the post-secondary planning U looks like here in District 99 and what those supports are for our students so while we are in the process of identifying students it looks linear here and it's absolutely not um going back on the slide I realized this should have been a circle it's kind of like teaching and learning you do both and it just continues on forever our plans adapt as students grow and our interventions should increase or decrease they should be fluid they should never stay the same you're going to hear from the team all of the different ways that students are brought to our attention for support So this starts even before our freshmen arrive at our door we have great relationships with our Center Schools so we know what we need to do in order to help our students on day one when they are freshman with us and how uh we check in with them and what we need to do to make sure that they are getting everything that they need while they are here so that's one way you're going to hear about the Alpha Team process and how students kind of rise up to our teams but you're also going to hear about what we do as um a team to go out and find our kids we want to find them where they're at we want to make sure that we are getting them what they need not all students advocate for themselves we realize that and we're here to also share many of the plans that we have in place to go and and find our kids to meet their as well so thank you so much for your time and I'm going to turn it over to Erin lewick who is my counterpart at North High thank you Sarah we can go ahead and go to the next slide then um So within our buildings we look at a number of indicators and use different kinds of data to determine early interventions um teachers and CS members are able to monitor students in these areas on the slide using our student management system and each School uses an early warning system that is generated weekly for our problem solving teams to review for possible tier 2 interventions so Sarah mentioned that be tier interventions um next slide so once a student is identified we really try to U utilize that tiered approach um teachers are able to see students and engage with them often and our teachers are great at making those initial and early contacts and also giving the most specific information to the parent so they can support as well um for example if we have a student who typically has no missing assignments and all of a sudden misses a summative assessment or a few assignments the teacher will touch Bas with the student and maybe encourage them to attend office hours so they can have more specific support outside of that class time um if they observe a student struggling with a particular unit or a skill the teacher may suggest attendance to a resource period U that same initial teacher level intervention can include a contact to the parent um and then the parent can help encourage the student to engage in some of those additional supports um our teachers and counselors often collaborate and a lot of times the combined effort between the parent teacher and counselor team is successful in making a positive change especially in the area of academics or in helping a student identify what their social emotional needs are um a lot of the connections to strive and tutoring happen at the this tier 2 level because they have multiple caring adults sending the same message um and supporting them and getting hooked up to their supports um so teachers and counselors also work together to support the emotional needs of students and each school's developed an internal referral form um started in spring kind of because of covid but we probably will explore using it but we found that when we went into a remote learning setting we couldn't recreate those kind of stop in my office and tell me you're concerned about a kid's um process and so we made a referral form because we can't all be together in the building and and we've been able to track data and see some Trends from that which has been really helpful um if there's a need to look at more individualized supports or a student continues to struggle after the teacher and the parent and the counselor have started some interventions then um the Alpha Team or the assist team would convene to discuss the the case and determine appropriate next steps we can go to the next slide so a little bit about our Alpha problem solving team so those are the building uh teams used by CS um and we wanted to share a little bit about the interventions that these teams utilize both before the pandemic and then specifically um because of the current needs that we have so both buildings have a structure for academic groups that supports students to get back on track and stay on track um and this year we specific Al um have provided cohorts at each campus that increases a students time in the building in a socially distanc and safe way and then provide supervised support in getting them connected to their remote classes um that's for students who have really struggled to even get up get logged in some technological concerns um we've been able to use that Cort structure um we also have added an interventionist and then we have student engagement mentors that support students virtually who struggle to keep with their online schedule from home and maybe struggling with attendance we're really seeing a need in the area of executive functioning and just what student Behavior looks like in a remote setting so we've been able to bring in some levels of support there um this these staff along with cs have been connecting with parents um we make that a top priority and occasionally we've done some home visits when our U haven't been able to connect with calls and emails and hasn't been successful um so in both buildings we've we've done some home visits to try to get kids engaged and families engaged um finally the alpha teams also assist in getting students connected with um student support groups and those students support groups have taken place on Zoom primarily given our current restrictions so I will hand it over to Dave King he is the um department chair for counseling and student Support Services in the good evening everybody thank you for having me tonight uh Erin already touched on this a little bit in terms of academic supports but between the both buildings uh we have a variety of resources that are highlighted to be in that tier one intervention so tier one this is going to be support that is provided to all of our students across the board um peer tutoring office hours virtual resources and strive but to be more specific um our peer tutoring provided by our NHS uh leaders in both buildings and other interested students within uh resource periods uh Erin mentioned office hours uh our staff and our our our teachers and CS members are readily available um for office hours Aaron mentioned it's difficult to replicate that that drop in type of of feeling um but I know that our office hours have been used as such specifically within within CS um as as our staff at North and I'm sure at South has offered different uh office hours outside of school time for students to drop in uh ask questions as needed depending on the topic U so those office hours have become uh have been very vital in terms of supporting our students uh virtual resources uh such as strive being that after school uh tutoring uh program provided by our students and teacher leaders in the building um but those virtual resources also being provided during those academic periods throughout the day to where a student can uh be referred to this or not referred if they uh it's it's pushed out through their Google classrooms that students are are members of they can choose um a specific link to that uh to that tutoring session with a certified teacher within any school period of the day so those are just a few of the highlights of our tier one academic interventions uh social emotional supports um obviously this is you know being generated as we speak and and as we've learned throughout first semester um what's important to kind of highlight some more of those tier one intervention um I would I would include depression literacy as one of those tier one interventions um as we've pushed out literature information knowledge I think that it's important for students to um recognize and understand their feelings right to understand what that emotionality is that they're that they're working through um in so many different ways uh in a variety of ways under the current situation setting and and pandemic um and understanding what those feelings are and then providing skills and strategies throughout uh a specific example would be um you know prior to winter break uh pushing out a list of resources for students and families to access over that two- week period to where uh Cs and teachers were not as available as they typically have been uh throughout first semester and so just we had some borom Busters um some different things that families could do to stay engaged um under and stay connected during such a time of disconnection so uh just an example to teaching and learning and providing skills and strategies in a in a very unique way um support groups are typically uh created through um student need as we collect data and learn more and create more opportunities for students to engage with each other um in a variety of ways and then obviously the crisis processing groups that we've provided uh due to the social unrest and the different um different events that have occurred throughout the summer and first semester and obviously supporting those students that um you know have suffered and grieved through the loss of peers and Friends uh first semester as both buildings have have suffered great losses um so just to highlight some of those social emotional supports finally post-second supports uh you know Zoe I don't think I heard necessarily where you're off to uh next fall but you know Sam congratulations uh to be a wild cat you get to stay in some purple from what I hear so that's good um but yeah so our post-secondary supports uh what's being provided our focus at South and discover you College curriculums have gone completely virtual everything that we've provided has been done synchronously and asynchron ly whether through uh through edpuzzles through Google Classroom pushouts through pushing in and and taking um you know a little bit of instructional time from our teachers so that we have that Collective audience uh to provide the same resources that we typically would during a regular school year uh at both campuses we have a College and Career Center uh website that's up and running um being new to the district uh looking at specifically the north site um it's a wealth of information um I was thoroughly impressed uh reviewing it and looking at the different options and resources that are available there um that were there pre-co and and now since we've we've gone this direction just to support our students during this vital time of their uh you know of their High School tenure as they look for post-secondary planning uh faf night is one of those um evening events that we've provided on a regular annual basis um that continued to happen this fall um and we have another event plan coming up uh conquering College costs coming up this Wednesday so those events have gone virtual um and some feedback we've gathered from the event the virtual events um has been that there's been more positive uh parent and student uh uh involvement within it because they you know the comfort of their home they could stay and and be a part of that conversation uh without having to you know leave the home maybe they have child care issues um it's been well attended from my understanding as well so uh just some highlights for the student supports for the post-secondary planning I think I'm G to pass it off to Dr walrock thanks David just really want to thank the board for the opportunity to speak to all of you I've worked in student Support Services in District 99 for over 20 years and have seen Services be supported by the board that entire time and for that I can honestly say amongst other high schools we have some Hallmark Services we're able to offer students and so when the pandemic hit and we had to close down I remember speaking with Aaron uh on March 16th on that Monday after we met with our staff and we went wow what what's going to happen next what what do we need to be thinking about and one of the words that I uh that I came back to was caring and it comes from Dr the's continual annual message to our entire District 9 community that we work in a caring environment comes right out of our district 99 U mission statement and so as we've taken that community of caring out into our communities that's what that's what the that's what happened uh that's how we developed to this particular site that's in front of you this is on the District 99 uh covid response site came remember the exact term of it but uh this was out there within a week of March 16th and then Aaron and I continue to curate resources and push these out to students the parents and the faculty because we knew the level of impairment was going to be significant in all of those groups another really intentional thing that Aaron and I did at both campuses was we flipped our team into full crisis mode uh so that that's a really important thing to know because in crisis mode every activity shuts down everything goes into crisis response and our teams are really attuned to doing risk assessments for students and identifying those students that are struggling in that personal counseling domain in their in their own mental health uh and we continue to do that throughout that semester we also had some seniors that were graduating and had to make their plans their postsecondary plans so we did all of that work as well to make sure students uh got to the places that they wanted to be uh I'm sure sure it's no surprise to all of you in that postsecondary planning there were a lot of questions that students had a lot of students changed their minds about what they what they were going to do because of what was going on in their family the financial resources and their family being being at a loss for them and just really wanted to stay closer to home for for many students that process was was complicated to end the year and then in this year uh we've continued to curate this site and put resources out there and for that purpose we got to hit people in a variety of different ways uh with the services that we offer whether it's individual students or in this prevention mode that we're talking about now and making sure that tier one support is out there for all of our students and so I I I love this piece so we've actually learned some things uh that we may not have learned without this um and the first thing I have a specific example from today I had a parent meeting today with two parents and uh their student and a counselor and a social worker and as I was reflecting that meeting and really how well that meeting went uh and I've heard this from other staff uh at South I'm sure David has heard this at North as well is that I I don't know if we'll have uh a preponderance of in-person parent meetings during the school day anymore we don't need to pull parents out of work for half a day to have a parent meeting uh where they can just hop on a computer and have a really effective meeting in the moment that's really targeted uh for for their students needs so I would imagine we will continue to do that that's been a wonderful benefit of having access to Google meet and and and zoom meeting as far as reflecting on our school days supports obviously this has been a challenge uh we are a relational Department we uh survive on relationships whether it's with our staff our parents our students most importantly our students and so how do we how do we Foster Rel relationship in Virtual spaces uh one of the things that I've learned uh really from the staff itself is they've learned different ways that students communicate we have some students that really will only communicate via chat some students will only communicate with their cameras off some with their cameras on we have some students that will only communicate via email this is really unexpected on how students might communicate but as we've learned what works for students we've been able to differentiate our approach so that our school day supports continue to be offered in a very fluid manner based on what those students needs are and uh both campuses uh reaching out to the whole school Community uh knowing that our staff uh is struggling uh it's it's not surprising our school board struggles uh we all are struggling we all are experiencing a degree of impairment and to the degree that we care for each other and continue to offer that care uh really speaks to the quality of District 99 and both high school student Support Services I have a question and I'm kind of struggling I I'm kind of struggling with how I want to ask it um you know no one person speaks for the board but I think we are all in agreement this is nobody thinks this is ideal to be remote nobody thinks it's ideal to be hybrid we would all like to be back in school but we understand why we're we're not um we hear from parents we have these great resources and thank you all because I know that you guys got this you were always offering great support for our students but you had to kind of just rethink how you were going to do this on the dime like our all of our teachers and all of our staff did from the parents we hear from who say my child doesn't want to go to school my child uh is crying in her room in her room she just doesn't want to go here anymore um they're so disappointed I can't get them motivated what how do those how do those parents access this system if for if by chance their child has not already been identified and what kind of supports do we offer to the parent I guess I I will take the just the first part of that answer I'm sure other people can chime in um I would want any parent to know that they can reach out to the counselor or any CS member that's part of their students Alpha Team um we have counselor usually the easiest I think to identify on the parental interface if they looked at echool but they could also just call up to the school and ask to speak to someone in the counseling office um because we worked with Michelle kagio today and she got she called me because Dave was in my office and we got right with a student situation so I would just tell them to connect with the school and we'll get them exactly what they need um we would do an initial assessment of that student and who they've been connect with already um but if we didn't have a lot of information we would reach out immediately because we don't we don't know the level of concern that's really being expressed there um and we would we would connect with them as soon as possible but I would encourage them counselor but if if they don't have the time to look up all that information call the school and tell them you needed some to talk to someone to your because your student's struggling and they'll get you to the right place I'm sorry I was just gonna chime in really briefly here to uh follow up with Aon was mentioning and Nancy you mentioned um you know whether they're identified yet or not from my perspective in in the counseling office working you know so closely with our CS team it to me that whether we're whether they're identified or not as a student that is is struggling uh that needs to support I want to hear from the parent right that might not be something we've we've had the chance yet to um a lot of times our students will use our services and our support St our support team um you know as a way to to um work through that social emotional component um and the parents might you know not they're not sharing that information back they might not come to their mom and dad and say hey I spoke with my counselor my social worker today um you know and it's really by the by the parent reaching out let's say I was the counselor and the parent reaching out to me um you know looking for support I can support that parent too you know I can say yes I've worked with your son or daughter or thank you for bringing me this information here's what we're going to do next um you know so that just both levels of that support whether it's this is the first where BEC aware of the situation because you know students can keep it together throughout the day a lot of times they can it's when they go home and now they've been home so much right they they don't have that same school outlet that they that's been taken from them that's you know it's it's it's grieving I don't know if Vince mentioned this but our students are grieving because of this loss of this connection you know Sam mentioned you know the activities and the sports and hopefully learning I was a three sport athlete in high school I can't imagine you know my sports being taken away from me um as a High School junior and Senior and that's what's been done and I was involved with different activities throughout in clubs and having that taken away so we don't see necessarily everything that's going on at home um and so I would encourage the parent You know despite the even if they've communicated back and forth continue to call us continue to connect with us and we can continue to support the student but also support the family um through our lens of CES at North and I think I can say that on behalf of South as well I have a question um how many students does each counselor are they assigned in a given year ballpark I can speak to that we average around 270 to 280 uh for case load for counselor okay the same have the counselors been asked to maybe once a month check in with each one of their students that they're assigned to just like hey how you doing or hey how's this working or how's your home life environment going or just some type because at school you could call them in at lunch you could call them in during PE a class passing period and have that one two three five minute conversation with them have those calls have gone out to those students where the student hasn't called The Counselor but the counselor's called the student or the parents I can speak to that thanks Mr pavana for the question I know you asked the students the same question I'm glad that you asked Zoe and Sam that question as well uh you heard in the presentation what tiered intervention looks like and so there are some things that we do for all students one of the things that happened very intentionally at both campuses in March uh in beginning of April was counselors reached out to every one of their students to assess where they were at at that time to identify what those needs were and the needs were significant not just emotional needs we had students with food scarcity needs we had students with housing needs clothing needs uh more needs than we would have anticipated in a normal school year and it really became uh more of a 12 to 14 hour a day job uh in speaking to families when they were available to do that and I I know both campuses um our student Support Services really extended themselves out to make sure all of those needs were being met uh and I'm so thankful that we had the cas STS that we had to be able to do that so yes Mr havo we had uh many students come forward in those check-ins um and we had some students be like hey I'm fine I'm good you know I'm I'm I'm doing okay right now we did the exact same thing at the beginning of this school year we did with our freshman and our sophomore specifically and our transfer students and then we just did it again uh with with all of our students just to see who needs a check in uh where people at uh right now people are really anxious around course selection for next school year uh so that's a lot of the concern right now um but I can safely say that our tier intervention system because the well developed for so long is working and it's happening that's that's one thought and I want to speak one one comment that Nancy made uh Nancy one of the things I I've seen and uh Zoe and Sam might agree with me this time has made it difficult to connect the dots so if I'm a parent home and I'm in isolation with a student who's struggling I may not know where to go even though I might know where to go you I I've seen this where connecting to DOS is challenging so if you have parents that reach out to you please send them to us but Nancy it saddens me that maybe a parent said something to you that we didn't know about I would always want to know about it you know me well enough that I would do anything I can to make sure that student receive the services they and you and you don't know me that well yet but I say the same thing I feel the same way I would I would want to be the first to know so please send them our way we we have we have we have routinely and and I do appreciate the fact that you guys are there I just cannot even imagine and I actually my next question was going to be Rick's question so essentially would you say we have we we touch base sort of routinely with all of our students I'm sure there's a few we don't get and some Nancy it's in a tier one fashion where all students receiving a similar communication we have learned uh Dave and I talked about this too asynchronous uh push out information doesn't do real well and giving feedback it really is about stinker so we've shifted to push in lessons and classes yeah we we were in PE classes today talking the students in that tier one way to identify students that might need additional support this semester I I guess Vince the reason why I'm asking is I'm a teacher and I see 140 kids every day and I have chosen to have 10 15 maybe a 20 second conversation with each student individually when I take attendance hey how's your weekend fast slow you know just about right and you can get you can hear in the tone of their voice what's going on and and I'm doing it for 140 kids every single day and I guess part of me would assume that the counselors during asynchronous learning would maybe blow a phone call out to a parent or that student say hey how's it going maybe once month just to check in whether they got straight A's or whether they're they're they're not doing very well in their classes versus just focusing on the ones that are being flagged as maybe not performing well um and so part of me wonders is that happening I mean yes I lose seven minutes a a period but I just don't I choose not to do Bell work I I I choose to have conversation with the student every day it's a valuable seven minutes absolutely Vince go ahead I'm sorry I didn't me to no it's okay so I me thanks for reasing the question uh obviously a counselor Cas Lo feels a whole lot different than a classroom and so as I look at my case load and I'll go back to the presentation we work in a tiered intervention model so there are things we do at a tier one level for all students and we've done more of that than we ever have before to identify who those students are May Mr panado I wish that time existed to give every student a call to have an individual conversation with him that being said I know a lot of that's happened already and most of your parents we've done more parent work than we've ever done before to identify who has that level of need and that doesn't mean we just work with students that are struggling by any means right because we have those three domains one of them is the post-secondary domain we've still been doing all of our interventions in postsecondary planning whether it's uh F of completion identifying your first secondary pathway uh having career speaker series that's a whole different intervention system that we see a lot of students through uh and so that's how we've continued to function uh to make sure that we are giving the right level of intervention to the students that need it based on their specific needs in those domains and I just to to kind of jump in and Vince and piggyback of of what you're saying uh Rick as you posed that question I was thinking in my head um a little bit i' I've taken some notes you know certainly from from the conversation here and then Sam and Zoe some of the feedback that you've provided um but my work in the counseling office over my time and education you know you mentioned Rick in the classroom in the classroom as the teacher you've you're controlling that environment right you can control that seven minutes in in my environment in the counseling office the students controlling that environment it could be seven minutes for per student it could be 70 minutes per student and so that unpredictability is difficult because if I am going to as a as a clinician or a CS member if I am going to push out that uh communication to all of my students I need to be prepared for the response um you know I think from a teacher's perspective taking that time that's we've been I mean Erin and I can can speak to this at all levels that we have encouraged our staff members to step away from time from curriculum really focus in on the social emotional component of the of the student and really you know wrap that student around but we know and the teachers I I hope know that if it if that emotionality increases they know where to go next and that's that tiered intervention that Vince is talking about is that once we reach past that surface level and what the teacher can support in the classroom which is I mean part of me I was so excited about hybrid because I I mean I don't really know a lot of students yet because I haven't been in the building and so I really thrived on that one week of having I was in the Halls during passing periods and you know trying to to meet students because that's what where I thrive so you know just just to have and I'm hopefully as we continue back into a hybrid model that's that that entry that that service level of social emotional support is going to be supported even more so in the classroom by our wonderful teachers at North and South but then they know all right we've got you know the we got the people over there in c s that are ready to swoop in and support should you know that question of how are you doing today take us a different direction I would just like to add we're learn we are learning so much about how to support our students during this time um we there's some Zoom fatigue is real um and we strugg to get students on a zoom environment and so the times when we are in the building we are capitalizing on the ability to get with students originally we had said okay when we're in the building they need to be in every moment of their class all the time we are not going to pull them we're going to try our hardest we're going to use that resource period and students are so were so tired of being online that they weren't logging in during that resource period And so then we had to go back and problem solve like okay this student the need is so great we need to collaborate with that teacher I need five minutes out of that class because I need to connect with this kid um and so we're we're learning that and feedback has come from students um I've sat with some students on some different like mental health presentations and they said we're just tired and the idea of getting back online after I shut that down is really hard so kind of taking that feedback retooling what's going on because this semester we're planning on still having remote Learners at some I mean at some point to be back fully to normal with everyone in the building I I I would love to say I'm hopeful but I think we have to take what we've learned because although I think we'll be back more hybrid we're still going to have remote Learners and they're still going to have the same needs um and so we're going to need to be able to learn from what we we've learned already um so I just I student feedback has been amazing in regards to that okay thank you yeah and I just wanted to offer my perspective and some clarification that I probably should have given earlier when you asked the question um because even though I did appreciate the question earlier and I won't speak for Sam but I don't think that I personally am a good represent presentation in this respect of the student body for receiving counselor support only because this year in the past few years I haven't um I've been fortunate enough honestly to not really need to utilize my counselor as often for emotional support um so yeah like they said I understand that the system is totally need-based and I would actually prefer that students that need it more than me um receive it before me so I don't personally feel cheated for not getting consistent how are you doing messages just because um I mean another big thing that I hope anybody watching um takes is that a lot of my support comes from home so um the I feel like the best thing people could do for students right now at home is just to be there for their children because that's what's made me fortunate enough to not have to use these systems quite as much and I really appreciate that some of my friends have been able to use the systems here at school yeah Zoe I don't think you could have said expressed it any better um about students like yourself and getting the help from home um it sounds to me like all of you have learned by Leaps and Bounds on how to work with students remotely and you're getting better all the time um I did have one question though um because sometimes we get emails from parents who um it sounds like their students are so seriously struggling mentally are you finding some students falling into that tier three category I would say yes there's there is a marked increase in the level of tier three social emotional needs right now we are um we when we compared hospitalization numbers to last year last year I would say at North we were it felt higher than the year before we're already over where we were um but I would say and I I don't want to speak for events but in March when we looked at each other and we thought wow we're going to be impaired this is not surprising us when we look at the great the you know what we our whole society has been going through and that was before the social unrest that started to occur that was just in response to the pandemic so I would say yes we're seeing more students struggle at a more intense level okay thank you I have a I have a question can you guys hear me no okay um I know someone touched on but in the way of and Zoe made a good point about having the support at home do you guys have any way of just um providing any knowledge to the parents or the people the adults these children the students live with on how to support the kids because it the support may look a little bit different now in a covid situation than it looked prior to this so is there any way or anything that you may be providing them with just based on on our current climate in order to know how to support that student during this time absolutely um we've offered specific um parent nights around executive functioning that was one thing we heard very clearly from our parents and our students is we they were sent home to work remotely and we hadn't taught any skills on how to be a remote student and then parents were trying to support the student being a remote student but that looks different than what it was when you were an in inperson student and so we've done some very specific um nights around executive functioning and then we've talked a little bit about maybe doing more of a workshop format this so you did like um information pushup around that last semester but we've talked about maybe doing a workshop where we are encouraging parents to log on with their kids and maybe we can do a different format so we can do some kind of almost executive functioning boot camp and do it early we've talked about doing it here in January so like getting your student binder your virtual binder together in regards to that um and then Vince and I serve on the grit 2 board and we've been a part of conversations just with that group group around um supporting parents in conversations around anti-racism and social unrest and they're starting a book club um that I know they've pushed out to the community and why that's not a d99 thing I will say that it it represents um great conversations happening in our community and I would just add one more resource um is I've been in contact with a a local agency that's interested in working with the parents of our freshman students and then also parents of our senior students to almost work on parent um circles to be able to group parents together that have students that are transitioning into the building or out of the building because we know that those are unique groups of parents and they have unique needs and sometimes being able to be with other parents who are seeing the same things and feeling the same things sometimes that's some of the best support so we're also looking at trying to get that off the ground here as well so that's another example of that's not something something that we would maybe have thought to do before this year but I think that's something that we could look at long term as well Erin I I I think that idea you and Vince reaching out to parents is a great idea sooner rather than later because you would not believe how many parents are actually in the classroom with the kids they are there sitting at the table listening asking their kids to go do stuff um and and just getting protocol out there that hey your kids in school even though he's at home on the kitchen table there are more parents in that household than than you would think I I was shocked at how many parents are actually sitting there and the reason why I know is because I've gotten so much feedback with the fact that I just ask the kid a question every single day individually when I take attendance instead of doing breakout sessions or Bell work I I I it cost me seven to eight minutes every single day but just that one-on-one conversation over the computer it's it's it's it's it's changed everything because then the next 25 minutes I got their attention I blow through the material I finished two weeks ahead of everybody else in my department just by having that that that personal connection that you don't get by being remote when you're remote you don't get that personal connection unless you work at it rick we've also can I just ask a question I'm sorry are you saying parents are they supporting their students and helping them with their remote learning or they're interfering with their remote learning they're working from home right next to them on a computer or a laptop or they're in the they're in the home environment they are not they are not isolated in their bedroom by themselves so is it is that good or is that bad is my question a little bit of both okay maybe the good parent keeps them focused but the bad parent doesn't realize that they're in school and says hey go do this go do that thank you I'm sorry to interrupt no that's okay I just I I I I think the parents it's it's a shame that we had to wait till second semester to do this but I would say January versus march to to to get something out there to the parents this is proper protocol okay this is the environment we're in because some parents I think there's a there's they're not they're not allowing the student to engage in the classroom at least at the high school level from what I've seen rck we we have been communicating that from and Janice's office have been communicating it to families and to students all year so at least you know we we've established the expectations but we know you know every house is different and there's more or less space in every house and different expectations yeah and we know that we right now while we're in remote are really guests in everybody's home uh as we deliver instructions so but we we have had those conversations and have sent out those kinds of expectations all year long I guess that's the reason why I'm such an advocate for hybrid versus remote um there's so much more to that interpersonal relationship that develops in person yeah and I would actually like to add on to that um I think that on top of the interpersonal relationship that uh Rick was just mentioning uh I think that there's a sense safety and a sense of togetherness that comes with hybrid and obviously you can't go into remote when the the numbers are so high there's obviously a a you have to draw a line in the sand at some point where that uh you have to make an executive decision where it's not safe enough but um I think we should really be doing everything we can to get back into hybrid um I I feel that I I wasn't I feel I didn't Express the reality enough in my board report report I I feel like I I had a bit of a a self-realization moment after I gave that report I think that I need to do better at telling you guys how much students are struggling because I think students really are struggling do too and you know on top of academically socially emotionally um and there's only as great as the CSS uh csss department is um there's only so much they can do to help because it it's a lot of relies on the student coming to that department themselves and so I think that you know the best thing that the board can do is just do everything they can to get back into hybrid but of course there's a point where there's nothing the board can do if the numbers are so bad the cases are so bad that um we can't go back but I also just wanted to ask a question of um that department that is here I was wondering because I actually did a a long form feature article for the newspaper uh the Omega at North right before school got out for break and it was about um racial incidents uh obviously the one that occurred last semester was the big one that everybody heard about but uh there's definitely more subtle ones that occur all the time uh I've talked to a lot of minority students and students of color at North and they're saying that you know stuff like that occurs way more often than you'd expect it just goes unreported and and a lot of times it's the main word that was thrown around was fatiguing uh on top of everything that's going on I feel that it's definitely harder to be a minority student right now uh and so I was just wondering is there a specific subset or subcategory of your social social emotional approach to helping students that deals with you know issues of race uh racial um discrimination marginalization or not racial just any incidence of marginalization is is there a specific subset that that kind of takes care of that yeah I can speak a little bit to that Sam because I work with the arur inclusion councils at both buildings um so there's two things I would say that I think speak to our movement in a positive direction to address exactly what you're talking about in terms of student feedback around non addressed microaggressions is kind of what we had labeled it at on Friday so I met with emoa and the black student union at dgn or well I weeren a dgn I was feeling like I was a dgn we were all virtual um but we met online to talk about an upcoming lesson where student voice will be used to talk about how unaddressed microaggressions have made them feel um and then to try to then link that to our work with the equity inclusion Council on how to empower teachers not to hesitate to address things because they're afraid they're going to do it incorrectly that's some feedback that we've gotten some from some of our forums um so we're going to really Elevate student voice in regards to that and then the equity and inclusion councils that both building have put together a bias incident response plan because what we realized is we needed to very quickly put things into motion when we have an incident that's hurtful in that way occur um and and we were losing time in how quickly we felt like we were getting student supports off the ground because it was taking so long to coordinate things and so we put together a response plan so even um after some of the the things that have occurred we've been able to send out emails and granted their their emails right but they'll go out through through counselor classroom saying we are offering these three processing sessions for students in the next three days if you need to come and connect with other students about what you're feeling please come um and our president of the black student union Quinton Mills was at one today supporting other students and so I I see us moving in a positive direction um and I appreciated the article that you did I feel like we talked about that um last year as well but I I see us moving in a good direction and I also see students being involved in giving supports to other students which is ultimately where I want to be yeah and I'm just Sam I just want to to chime in to a little bit I know Sam you're going to be you know graduating here soon um so our time will be very short together um but you know this coming into as a community member right and someone that's supporting students um and their learning in life and and how they develop into that person you know that we all strive for them to become um you know this is a community uh that you know north south feeder schools that we need to come together um as it as it pertains to equity and inclusion and and providing the same message um you know it's it's important I think to educate and provide that that foundational knowledge for our students before they before they walk in the doors of North and South um you know to to Bas to more or less you know provide that that Foundation of of each other and that togetherness that we celebrate and that we miss so much um and so that's something that I'm very passionate about and hope to move forward once I figure out where all the rooms are at north um uh you know we'll work on that but you know this is certainly something that you know I'm passionate about in terms of supporting certainly our current students but then being an agent of change as we progress forward um into this uh you know into the 2020s if you will thank you sounds like our conversation on this is wrapping up so I I I wanted to uh to hit on the question that Rick asked earlier and provide a little more emphasis um that that how many how many students per counselor ratio that we have um you know 1 to 280 so you know just think about that for a moment um and this group of people really deserve some props for uh a job well done um and then uh understanding that last time I looked into this uh that student ratio student counselor ratio our district um does a better job with that than all the surrounding districts we have more counselors per student than most of the surrounding districts and and so that says something about our commitment as a district right um to these efforts and so uh I think we've seen the you know the result of that in in this presentation tonight uh I love the what have we learned slide I mean just and just thinking about how much better you know this is an awful experience that we're going through right now but the things that we're learning that are going to make it so much better you know going forward uh even when we get past Co so thank you for all the hard work well said Mike well said any other questions or comments i' I'd like to Echo Mike's uh thank you and um gratitude for the support of this department and I know we increased we added some um positions this last year so um that was just very fortuitous that we did this so thank you for all of your work thank you for your continued support thank you for everything you do for our students it is not an easy job we we appreciate each and every one of you yes we appreciate the board as well the board has dedicated additional resources to our CS department and and kind of The Wider support of that department every year in the five years that I've been here um so you know we we've put resources where they they need to be to support our students not just academically but socially emotionally and and post-secondary so um and and I will mirror the boards uh thank you to all of our staff members that joined us this evening so thank you thank you guys uh I believe we're going to move on to an update dat on inperson learning yes um to this is mostly uh just some quick updates on what's happened since we met last and uh just a review of Where the metrics sit uh for uh for now uh as we learn more as as we come back so um just a reminder to to the board and everyone out there what we're looking to to try to have happen is to offer as expansive of instructional programming as we can and and you know we expanded that uh for second semester where our hybrid now has every student coming to school Tuesday through Friday uh for half a day and over the course of that week they see every uh one of their teachers we're trying to make that work within those safety uh strategies and protocols and uh making sure that we offer that at a time where Community transmission makes it unlikely that covid will spread uh when students are at school in this model next slide R so just some changes that have happened uh remember we provided the opportunity to all of our families to reselect if they wanted to whether they were fully remote or in the hybrid model and uh currently as of this morning uh 28% of North students have selected to be fully remote and 45% of our South students have chosen to be fully remote so we have a large number of students at at both campuses that are choosing the fully remote model through spring break uh and just a point of note that's the same as it was uh when we did this in the fall is that our our students of color are far more likely to be change to be choosing the fully remote model uh as you heard we had one week of in-person learning although during that week we did have many choose many that had chosen inperson learning select to stay home for that week whether it was they were traveling uh or mixing with family over break and chose to self- quarantine for that week or were concerned about others that had traveled or had participated in more risky activities than choosing to stay home during that week um we had a lot a higher number than we expected uh choosing to stay home uh for that first week so our numbers were down uh and the reason I point that out is because remember every week we're back we're learning um more and more about the program and the low number of students that we actually had in attendance uh for that first week doesn't make it as typical as we hope that it will be in future uh in the future weeks that we'll actually have more people in the building uh than we did during that first week of school uh We've added additional webcams for our teachers it was fun to walk the hallways and and see what was going on inside of the classrooms many of our teachers are concurrently teaching for some or even all of their class period so they're working with both their in-person and remote students at the same time uh it looked like uh a lot of news rooms as you walked by you know teachers were broadcasting uh to their students and uh we did some professional learning on that first day back uh from break to help uh provide some strategies for teachers uh on how to do that effect effectively uh We've hired an additional nurse at each school as we intended to uh to help with contact tracing but a great idea that came from our athletic directors was uh to add resources from our athletic training uh company since you know we don't have as much Sports going on well none right now because we're in tier three uh but even so we have less particip we're going to have less sporting events going on than we did in the past so we're utilizing uh our athletic trainers as additional resources to help with contact tracing um that's an area that is definitely going to be a challenge for us I believe coming back uh we had more far more uh illness that we were tracking uh that first week than we had at any point during first semester including our hybrid weeks you know the fact that every student's coming back to school on a day right all of our students that have chosen in person are coming in each day um makes it uh a far greater process to track plus parents are more likely I believe to report illness when students are coming into school um so we know that keeping track of illness and that's one of our Key Safety strategies to uh along with this is going to be a great task in the second semester uh we also started out the semester with uh an introduction of staff on paper and as you heard from our students um this is starting to make it out to uh to the larger student body uh We've circulated some general information from Ed and Janice and then over the next couple of uh days and weeks we'll have more specific information for students and for parents um to help them understand the resources that are have been provided there through paper so any any questions on any of those just before I move on because the next couple of things are just real quick review of where we're at all right so uh just to review what we're trying to do here is we're we're trying to develop programs here where were unlikely to spread uh covid at school and we've matched those up based on our experiences from the first semester and what the CDC guidelines are around those metrics so what we're working from next slide R is that we're using uh the factors of community burden which are both the number of cases per 100,000 or positivity rate you'll see once again the metrics we've sat there uh in addition to a third core indicator which is our ability to follow up and contact Trace within 24 hours and then the key mitigation strategies that are down there which are all of our safety strategies that are in place next slide um so I we have set those thresholds both based on as I said our experiences from first semester so first semester when we you know I know everybody knows we were only in that hybrid model for two weeks but it was a key two weeks when uh Community transmission and Community spread was on the rise and started below 5% and ended up above 8% by the end and remember we also had our special ed cohorts and small cohorts in from uh early October uh all the way through Thanksgiving so we learned a lot from students coming in in those settings as well and so the thresholds that we've selected are based you know that 9% number I know there's been a lot of talk about that 9% number um we really felt you know before that number was at five right when this all started and idph created metrics and and Dage County Health Department the number where they were encouraging us to move fully remote was at 5% uh we pushed that through those two weeks of hybrid because we were able to keep people safe in there and and the number had been turned more over to us as a school district and uh during that period of time between 5 to 8 we we saw that we were having difficulties keeping up with contact tracing and Staffing uh was becoming a concern and that's why we've added the contact tracing resources and the nursing resources and we've also changed some some of our staffing throughout the entire building to make sure that we can cover when te teachers are out sick and those kinds of things which has made me comfortable and the administrative team comfortable moving that number to nine right and uh as time goes on and we have we're back in school more often I think those numbers could move up or down based on what our experiences are in the hybrid learning and second semester you know each week is that learning opportunity for us and then there's additional new research coming out that eventually will start to coales and make its way into guidelines and recommendations that we receive from the CDC or other health agencies you know we're starting to see uh there was a major change from the CDC in quarantine periods and exclusionary guidance uh that move that 14-day down to 10 days for us in Dage County um so that allows us to get staff back into the building quicker uh which helps with covering classes when people are on quarantine we're starting to see studies new studies come out on the effectiveness of PPE and the various safety protocols that are out there uh we're starting to see a variety of studies on what happened in different school districts around the country as they opened during different rates of community metrics and how uh that might how opening of schools may or may not have played into uh Rising cases in schools or in the community and uh we're also seeing some specific studies based on high school rates of transmission in the impact in the community and how high schools are different than elementary schools uh I imagine all of the research from this will eventually start to shape uh the recommendations that we're receiving from the variety of of levels above us and then uh there's going to be vaccine and testing implications moving forward that might play uh into uh how we look at those thresholds and what we know about Community spread um so to review uh as I just said our positivity rate right now sits at n you know our threshold sits at 9% or that 125 per 100,000 um a lot of people have asked point to me in the CDC where it says 9% and it doesn't right the CDC gives us some ranges based on the risks of our uh instructional program and our instructional program is pretty robust especially for the Chicago land area in our new uh hybrid model um So within that you know the the CDC points to a range as we discussed last month between eight and 10 and we're comfortable with nine based on what we learned from the first semester and as we learn more we'll come back to the board and the community and talk about what we're learning and where those numbers could move also the ability to follow all of our safety protocols that we have no ongoing outbreaks at school you know that's five or more cases connected back uh and that we're able to follow up on those close cont conts in the 24-hour period which and follow those exclusionary protocols you know those quarantine periods um we should be better staffed to be able to do those things with those resources I just mentioned and then of course adequate staff and students being available is always a factor and as we mentioned last month you know if our whole nursing staff was to have to quarantine we wouldn't be able to to bring students back safely you know and those kinds of things uh if we're able to get subs or or any of those factors all play into to uh keeping a school open and operating and then of course in the cohorts the the key change is that we move from the 9 to the 12% that's also based on our experience from first semester when we started to see illness make its way into classrooms and uh really into into the staff uh in those small cohorts was around 12% so uh once again closely mirrors the CDC guidance uh but is also based on our experience so uh other things that might impact these numbers going forward uh testing we're awaiting uh the response on our Clea waiver so that we could internal testing I would imagine that uh internal testing we're we're actually using our nursing staff uh to administer a test might be used in the future uh with for students without Health Resources that don't have access to testing or to shorten staff for student quaran where we could get a test and get a response back and know are they covid positive or not um this week our team started meeting with external lab companies uh there's other schools in the area uh that are looking at these or have contracted with these uh various companies to look at actually doing some uh either whole scale testing of their entire student body or uh uh statistically uh significant subsamples of their student body to add another metric that could factor into uh their own internal metrics with that there's plus and minuses with that there's still things that we're hearing from idph around this testing um but we're continuing to investigate it and may have more information to bring back to the board before our next meeting on uh January 25th um and then finally vaccines uh this morning or my day really today has been filled with vaccine conversations we've spent about three hours today uh talking about vaccines and I have many more hours this week to discuss this with uh our partner Elementary uh superintendents um as we know uh group 1A is all of the health professionals but school health professionals are part of 1A as well and we're working to get all of them vaccinated many of our nurses have already received their first uh dose of the vaccine and some of our therapists and and other uh folks working in in roles that qualify as school health personnel we are now starting to have conversations with DuPage County about coordinating for the vaccination of all School Employees um those fall in group b and Rod if you go to the next slide you can kind of see some of the statistics that go along with this uh group onea covers about 58,000 people in Dage County and we've received in Dage County about 20 7,000 um vaccines and DuPage county is well ahead of the nation in the fact that of those 27,000 I believe they said as of today somewhere or over 70% of them have actually been uh ended up inside of somebody already so DuPage county is doing a great job getting vaccinations uh out um but you can see that next group is huge you know almost 270,000 people in that uh group 1B and that's where our staff including our teachers and support staff and and everybody else that works here Falls um and that's the work we're going to really be putting together over the next few weeks uh we're working very closely with our partner Elementary districts to put together a plan and a process and uh we'll need to partner with uh a healthc care provider um to uh actually administer the vaccines that's not something we could do with our Health Care staff uh so we're underway looking at the variety of different options that are out there between pharmacies and hospitals medical groups um or uh or um like the healthcare providers that we've used for like flu vaccines in the past so we're looking at what all of those options are and trying to put together a plan here because they believe in two to six weeks uh we'll start moving through group one 1B so that's where a lot of my work is focused uh right now so uh that's kind of the update of where we're at uh with return to school and uh any questions that board members have at this time Hank I have a question for you um next week say we come in under 10 but over nine what would your decision be to stay home at this time based on what we know from first semester uh I would believe that that would be the prudent thing to do nothing is nothing has yet changed in our understanding of how this works for me to recommend to the board that we expand Beyond 9% um that could change in the coming weeks if we're able to come back and learn more or if guidance changes uh from Health agencies what happens if the board did not agree with that number I would like to I would like to I would like to make a resol resolution to ask the board to raise the number from 9% to 10% I think the mental aspect outweighs the health aspect for this demographic of student I think the fact that we're going to be going in going out going in going out based on a Hardline number I I I think we have to do everything in our power to get these kids back in school it's not normal but it's somewhat normal based on remote learning I I I I just want the board to to just know factually that had this been the threshold for first semester if we would have known then what we know now we would have been in session all but three weeks with these metrics in the first semester um so I I think for the majority of second semester if it plays out like first semester our kids will be in school the majority of of second semester and I feel like we can keep them in there safely within the metrics that are in here now based on what we know I do not if I would have felt hold on Rick if I would have felt like 10 per we could set it at 10 percent and that we could have kept Kids Safe based on what we know I would have brought the board 10% but I didn't because nine is where I am confident our administrative team is confident that we can keep kids safe at school I I I I I I think the the mental aspect of this this has been it's going on almost a year where they have not been able to have a normal environment and now this 9% I I don't believe that that needs to be a firm number and I I I can probably rationalize 10.3 but if it dips down to 9.7 or 9.6 next week I say send the kids back to hybrid and I as a board member would like to vote on that um and maybe maybe I'm in the minority but I think as a board member we need to take that responsibility publicly I would agree with you Rick I mean I've I've had issues with these numbers and Hank I'm not blaming you plea we've had discussion last week I'm not putting any blame on on these numbers I believe you're trying to do what you think is in the best interest right of our students uh but I'm with Rick I think that the mental aspects uh of of what's impacting our students is is you know Rick uh the the 10% I you know I would second your motion or your resolution to vote on a motion on 10% but I don't like this number at all I mean this number to me is you're looking at a 14-day number that goes backwards 14 days and has no indication of what's going to happen next week to me I mean so a question for you is the the short amount of time we were in school were we able or did we have any cases that we could have linked back that were transmitted to kids in in our schools you won't know that for seven to 14 days Dan because of the the incubation per first semester oh in first semester we did have transmission and extracurricular activities but not during nothing linked directly back to school for those two weeks of hybrid right so to me I mean our default like I said I'll go with your your your tedrick our default should be the kid should be in school unless there's outbreaks in school as defined by the you know I think you mentioned five cases I don't remember the exact metrics I apologize but if we can tie transmission to school I'm fully in support of keeping the kids out remote and and being safe but if we can't tie any to school if the numberers 9 10 11 12 the kids should be in school if we don't have any cases being transmitted at school the challenge with that Dan and I I can understand that that logic right that um we should assume that school is safe until it's proven that it's not but then the risk of proving that it's not is actually transmission of a a disease that could be deadly to our students and staff at school so that's why when we talk to the health experts they they tell us that we should be setting thresholds where we believe that it is unlikely that outbreak will occur at school and that's the number that I've given the board um I I'm very uncomfortable as the leader of this District picking a number where I feel like there there's a reasonable chance that spread could happen at school um and that's why I brought that 9% which is a very high number in comparison to what the literature says what the DuPage County Health Department says what all of the experts I've talked to for this robust of an instructional program where we have every kid with the opportunity to come to school Tuesday through Friday that's an aggressive program an aggressive stru instructional program program and I've picked a very high number there with the help of the administrative team and everything that we know at nine and I I feel like I said the last time a slippery slope is we pick that number 10 then we're going to be a 10.2 and then people are going to be like well it should be 11 and without any other data to go on I I'm not comfortable saying that that's okay um but we've seen other schools be successful in this environment first not with this instructional program Rick I I don't know another school in our area that has every kid coming back to school every day and seeing every one of their teachers over a 4- day period um if we were doing an instructional program that was much smaller um then maybe but it wouldn't be as valuable you know and that's what we're balancing here Terry I see you waving at me yeah um my my own concern is is that I see coming towards us is that um uh the mutated uh part of the of the the virus that is much more um contagious and it's not any uh from what I've seen or not seen But heard um is that it's not as uh worse in the way of um uh symptoms symptoms but it is highly contagious and the more we have um people together whether they're wearing masks or not it it it seems to me like it will be um transmitted much faster and that could be a problem for not only our students but staff and families involved so uh you know I I I would rather um be more cautious then I don't know maybe I'm wrong hindsight will tell me but I'm with you Hank I I don't know ask Nancy so I you know I uh agree with Terry I um and I don't think we can vote at this meeting but we can take a straw pole we can take a straw pole so I you have to pardon me because I have to click so I don't want to get them confused so when I look at what the um uh uh DuPage County proposes they Define substantial Community transmission as a weekly positive a weekly test positivity rate of greater than eight% and when I look at the CDC they um I just want make sure I pull up the right thing wait um uh they have greater uh highest risk of transmission in schools as greater than 10 per.

408 board of education meeting can i have a roll call please mr bauman here mrs doyle here mrs croner here mr lightfoot present miss morgan here mrs moyer yeah mrs swanson please rise for the pledge of allegiance one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay item 4.1 public comment on behalf of the board of education i welcome you to tonight's meeting due to tighter restrictions for public meetings we are not able to to allow community members to be present this evening in person as stated on the agenda community members were invited to submit their comments by email to the board of education secretary to be read by the board of education president or to request a zoom link to make their comments virtually we value the feedback we receive from our residents and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their public school system thank you comments are limited to five minutes per person and no discussion of personnel matters including names or specific job titles or responses to questions are permitted the board does not participate in discussion during public comment follow-up to your questions or concerns will be addressed by administration through the contact information you provided tonight we'll be alternating uh between myself and mr bauman for our four email public comments and then we have one zoom public comment john demarco i'm a senior at oswego east i would like to speak for high school students when i say this has by far been the worst year i have ever experienced this isn't just because my senior year has been washed away before my eyes nor is it because i am experiencing a delayed season for my sport in which i have committed to compete in college it is because of the stress that comes with this form of learning this is not a healthy environment it doesn't feel right it doesn't feel good we are sitting in front of the computer for six hours a day getting a small break in the afternoon for lunch i sit in the same chair doing the same thing staring at the same screen over and over again for six hours a day at least four days a week then i sit at the same table in the same chair and stare at the same screen for however many hours it takes for me to do homework my eyes hurt my head hurts i have to type a question during class time to maybe get answered or schedule office hours after school to get back on the computer with a teacher to ask a question teachers included with the students nobody is happy here the mental wellness of the majority of students is low and going downhill students who used to once enjoy learning are disliking school not seeing the purpose students who were stellar students are now seeing their grades falling even if just a bit i have experienced this there have been countless studies i'll name a few that show how damaging this way of teaching and schooling is on a young and growing person according to the american psychological association students are today are more stressed than the kids in psychiatric wards from the 1950s today add to that no social contact no school no sports no outlets add kids who find school to be safe place or even the only place they are guaranteed breakfast and lunch all of this due to a pandemic with about a 99 survival rate stress is growing in students and the district is doing nothing to help with these issues another article from north texas daily shows results from a pool of students and how they feel they will fail how stressed they feel and how unmotivated they are these are all issues that online learning exacerbates i'm just a student but this is my opinion masks work let's get back to in-person learning thank you maggie lager hello my name is margaret lager and i am currently a junior at oswego high school i would first like to say thank you to the board of education for taking the time to listen to my concern i would like to start off by introducing myself a little bit i am a straight a student i take honors in ap level classes and i play competitive soccer year round i like school i enjoy going to school and i work very hard in class but this year i have had zero motivation while doing online school there is zero motivation to do homework after already spending six hours on the computer there is zero motivation to pay attention and engage in the material that is being taught to us now take into consideration a kid who has a hard time in person and has zero motivation to go to school in person now that student is most likely failing or not even showing up to class those kids have zero interest and they are not being supported the same way they would be if they were in person additionally it is hard to get help when you don't understand something the last thing i want to do after sitting on the computer for six hours is to get on another google meet to get help with whatever i don't understand honestly i am so tired of sitting on the computer by the end of the day that i would rather just not understand the topic the student fail rate at ohs was significantly higher last semester than in the past i strongly feel like my personal education is being put at a disadvantage by not being in the classroom every day i especially feel like my learning is being put at a disadvantage because other schools in the state and across the country are in person learning every day for example yorkville high school has been in person learning all year and so have many schools across the country this also affects me while i'm applying to colleges and for scholarships i am not learning the same things as kids who are in the classroom so when i go to apply for a scholarship kids who are in person learning have an advantage now not only is learning being put at a disadvantage but so are the students social skills melanie mcallister dear school board thank you for all your hard work and effort i believe the kids need to go back to school asap i have two special needs children and they had to get counseling for anxiety and as a direct result of the remote learning my youngest in second grade is just not motivated to learn any more on a daily basis i beg him to do his in-class work and homework this morning he said mom i hate remote learning is this the type of message we want to send to second graders i hate school the special needs children as a group need to return on their own first to in-person school this should be all the special needs iep children not just the self-contained iep students all the kids with ieps are suffering and they need to go back to in-person school the schedule for hybrid simply doesn't work very well do you have small children my kids are tired and brain fried by 1 45 to 3 30 for live teaching on the remote days three hours in person two days a week is not enough hours to really help the kids and doing homework in the morning doesn't make sense either my kids do better and are much more alert having a structured schedule of live classes in the morning already it feels like such a long day with remote learning on the computer six and a half hours a day plus more homework after that enough is enough people are simply going to move and buy houses in other districts that are around here and this school district will be even more broke or enroll their kids in private school come on school district 308 let's help the kids i care about the kids mental health and social skills too sincerely melanie mcallister rebecca shower our system is definitely broken the fact that my son is a junior has adhd has had a 504 plan since first grade and now failing classes because he cannot go to school in person is ridiculous all my son wants to do is go to school he is quiet sweet boy keeps to himself and doesn't get into trouble teachers tell me they wish he'd speak up more well it's better than hearing he talks too much or he's being disruptive his doctor wants to put him on antidepressants do you know what one of the side effects are of antidepressants suicide i just want my fun loving son back we all want our fun-loving children back a sense of normalcy back in our day to day lives i constantly watch over him making sure he doesn't become another statistic thank you elizabeth palatine she's not on there and the phone call you did email okay okay okay well then we'll move forward and close public comment as the the fifth okay will we see her can you hear me yes hi my name is elizabeth palatine and i am the co-president of the oswego education association well then we'll move forward and close public comment as the fifth okay uh there's a little bit of a lag can you see me can you hear me i still need to turn off your youtube channel hi my name is and i am the co-president of the oswego association elizabeth turn off your youtube channel please i think she's working on it all right can you hear me yes yes thank you so i am elizabeth palatine the co-president of the oswego education association 2020 was like no other year in our lifetime and the new year begins with us continuing to adapt to ever evolving circumstances and events teaching learning and every other aspect of life including in-person board meetings continue to be in flux it projects to be a dark winter but hope for a return to normalcy is on the horizon with a vaccine seemingly within reach teachers in our community have worked hard to innovate connect and educate students in a very different environment working tirelessly to provide the best opportunities for our students all teachers want to be back in person teaching interacting and helping students in the classroom we set up to be welcoming and comforting and some feel that time is soon but others do not the oswego education association supports students returning in person as long as the guidelines set forth by the ibph cdc and an appro and the approved district safety plan can be followed and maintained staff and student safety must remain a priority and following and enforcing these guidelines as more students return is essential the oea believes all learners on-site and remote deserve the chance to benefit from equal educational resources and opportunities all learners need access to the time opportunity and attention they need to make the most of what they are working to become we strongly believe that teachers should be part of the planning for changes to the school day as our highly trained and dedicated teachers bring unique experiences and insight that can help ensure both safety and learning needs are met to the highest degree possible for all learners members of the oea look forward to continuously working with all stakeholders to provide input that will help provide every student the structure safety and opportunity they deserve throughout these challenging times as difficult decisions continue to be made thank you that's the last public comment so now we'll close public comment moving on to item 5.1 board member comments we'll start on tony's end today you have anything you'd like to say of course there is um i think for the first time tonight when we're saying the pledge of allegiance i actually heard that three times you say united you say one nation you say indivisible means everybody together right everybody's going to work on this and solve the problem together so we're in the middle of a time where we have a lot of big things happening in this district as we all know we do not have a lot of money as we all know we have people that really want the kids to return to school full-time and we have people that really want the kids to stay home and learn remotely so tonight we're going to have a lot of discussions and i just want to say that there's different parts of community there's that first part of community that's just you and that second part of community which is your family and it goes up from there like nesting dolls and i teach you know that i teach and i teach second and third graders and i teach about community and we talk about what everybody does in the community to help out um it was very um it is very important to note that when we hear from the community in whatever form that is emails community comments talking to people in the community that we hear everybody we hear these people that are desperate for their kids to go back we hear the emotional and social needs and we know that that's huge and that's very real um but i would be remiss in not saying this at board comments that as a teacher when i look at some of these kids it's not special needs it's not emotional issues for some of the kids they have poor habits they get on zoom they refuse to turn on their camera whether or not that's a problem for their house i don't know but some of them refuse to turn on their cameras uh they're not participating they're not attending and this is what i want to say as a community as families and as people in our community even though we feel compassion for these kids and we feel compassion for everybody in the community and i do we have to address the issue of building habits that will get us through our education education can be very hard to get in different parts of the world and in different circumstances and some people persist and they get it no matter how many things are difficult and what i want to say is that this might not be the last pandemic this might not be the last time that we have to address these issues so we really have to think about how we're going to support a good attitude good activities creating things for our family that make this endurable things for our students that make this endurable things that um the social connections keeping those going in whatever form they can happen but i'm not going to let everybody off the hook because i think that some of the struggle comes from just blame somebody don't work it don't fix it just blame somebody and that really bothers me and so whatever happens tonight i hope that families will take that to heart and look at their own situation and say what could i do to make a better social life for my children what could i do to keep those social connections going what could i do to make sure that they have a good attitude about learning because that's super important and that's something that is going to help us no matter what happens to the school plan so that's what i wanted to say and now i set it and i'm all done friend anything to add or to state i guess not ad but well this is not a a critique tony because i appreciate that's okay comments i just i i think we're straying a little a ways away from the original intent of board member comments i think that the things that that that we're talking about and are important for tonight will be discussed when we get to that subject um obviously we don't have a lot to report on about visits and activities and things that are happening in the district other than i think we're all happy to be back at least learning in some fashion here we got lots on the docket let's go that's my comment okay um brent as you said we haven't been anywhere there's no buildings open to go to no events no music christmas concerts no plays no musicals um which is a little on the depressing side however i will say i just want to acknowledge all the communication that is taking place at least that we're receiving a lot of emails coming through i won't say it's one-sided there's plenty of emails from many different perspectives within the district so there may not be a response to every single one but i want people to know that i do see them i read them i value what you're saying i heard those that came in to greeted us at the board meeting this evening saw you heard you and i again just appreciate the the participation via the communication that's occurring nope nothing for me i think i'll kind of echo matt's comments and i appreciate all the messages mostly via email that we have received and communication from community members it's important that we hear what the community has to say and so i appreciate that and i have other comments but i will reserve those for when we discuss those items tonight so so the only thing i'd like to comment on tonight is is the concept of the fact that we get to have an education and that we get to express ourselves freely as part of our country we saw less than a week ago how divided our country has come be it through whatever means social media or through just a natural polarization or for whatever cause that's not for me to decide but what i have seen is that our community is is pretty representative of that we have a very divided community but i think the thing that i would like to ask for our community to think about and to focus on going forward is that what we all care about is our kids education and that the fact that we have different opinions on what is best for our kids and what our kids need individually is what we're trying to accomplish by creating plans that give parents choices so i would like to just invite our community to take a moment to think about the flip side of what your belief and your your fear or your concern or your situation is and think how that might be different and try to find something that is understandable about it and try to find some ways to make sure that we are able as a community whether we're learning in the building or whether we're learning remotely that as a community we continue to value the education for all of our kids despite what they need and that we continue to value each other as fellow neighbors and members of the same community so that we can when we get through these steps be able to still appreciate each other and celebrate the things that we have like freedom of speech that's all i have to say item 5.2 board committee reports policy and legislative you want me to start well i mean i guess my first question would be do you guys have any particular questions we had a pretty good meeting um a lot of people there got a lot done revisited some stuff um there is oh let's see oh i wrote down um in particular six colon three nope sorry seven colon 100 which was health eye dental exams because i know i just got a meeting or i just got an email from my kids building that said make sure as we start to think about going back to school that you have all of your shots and your shot records turned in and your and i i think with kovitz some of that kind of so just to kind of put that out there again that parents should keep an eye on that and make sure that you have all of your medical and dental and vision and whatever else you need turned in but i think as a general rule it was a good meeting um you guys have any questions i know brent has one is that for the committee conclusions or for when we talk about the information items for consent i think it's information brent would you like to i'll i'll say my questions for 7-3 okay thank you anything to add map no um the the meetings have gone very well we have so many uh the policies that we go through our legislative updates the legal updates that um just normally have to and must occur uh but the dialogue that we've had has been good dialogue uh it's been good conversations everyone's bringing up valid points and um it's just it's a it's a productive committee we did we do have ones the six colon 280 the grading and promotion that um miss patterson kind of led us through the our versi our policy piece of it but we wanted teaching and learning and i i can't remember if i sent you guys an email to look at that one take a look at that yeah okay so i may have to do that that was six 320 or uh it was six two eighty six two eighty oh okay yeah i do have one request i think this is the appropriate time for that this is something actually lori and i had talked about um i think we immediately need a policy that defines the boards or the district's position on impact fees land cash fees etc the the finance committee uh meeting or finance committee has been looking at this i think the legislative and policy committee can start drafting the language and i and i know i was going to give you some ideas and i still will do that does that seem reasonable for you guys in your next meeting to to talk about that and even if we don't have numbers to drop in at least we could point to a policy for the government entities in the district to understand what our current positions are positions as far as not waving for example we we might have we might decide that we want to adopt a policy that says we will not negotiate away impact fees we may adopt some different language in there but the point is if we remember it was a couple years ago another government body made some changes to the fees that were coming into the district they claimed that they had reached out to the district they did they didn't get a response from the board they got um some information but they never gave the board an opportunity to respond before they took action to lower those fees and i'm just saying i think it might be helpful if we had a document that had that information stored so that anybody can access it so i was actually going to address that when we talked about 73 also so just in the interest of keeping things where we want to for committee reports what our board agreements are is that when we go through these information items we'll take a look at which committees we feel should take a look or which committees would like to take a look or ought to take a look at these things so i think that we've got a couple things on here already that we're going to be looking to ask some other committees to do which is good and that's the whole purpose but i think for right now let's let's try to keep moving forward so we can get to our guests that are waiting to speak and to our other work item 5.3 the superintendent's report well good evening board and happy new year i hope that everyone had a nice holiday season and it's good to see everyone this evening at the december 7th board of education meeting i stated that i would be informing the community by january 11th if we would be moving forward with our return to in-person learning plan on january 19th as you know i sent a letter to the community on january 2nd stating that i was happy to say that yes we would be moving forward with such plan and that we're looking forward to welcoming our students back who have chosen in person instruction so as you all know later this evening we have we're going to have a work session regarding our return plan so more to come on this subject in just a little bit also in my letter to the community on january 2nd i shared that we are currently still in a pause regarding sports i was informed that the illinois high school association executive director met with the illinois department of public health director along with the deputy deputy governor on january 6th it's good to hear that the leadership of these organizations are coming together having those conversations the next ihsa board meeting is january 13th and i know that many athletes and parents are awaiting updates and we will continue to communicate that information to the parents as we receive it i was also informed last week that ohs alumni and teacher michael yowie uh will have his first young adult novel published in summer of 2020.

wow [Music] where be0 you got [Applause] [Music] medical emergency my daughter got her first J on [Music] said it she had a little bit of a lum she felt slightly tired but she's a mom of a 10-month old so good and enough feel tired she was fine she she was giving them are you guys good yes' here it is right [Music] here but yes after that did it go um just oh that all is this an s or it's an S capital S it's Cas S no plus sign [Applause] go back to it yes I'll leave it right so you can try again okay all right well good evening and welcome welcome back everyone to a new year it's great to have uh everyone in attendance and we are going to start out with the pledge so please stand I pledge alce to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you very much you may be seated we will going to start out with oath of office [Music] and Mr Becker and you want to come on up here okay would you rise your right hand please yes I I an Engle har an Engle har do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution I will support the Constitution of the United States of America of the United States of America and the Constitution and the constitution of the state of Indiana of the state of of Indiana and the laws of the United States and the laws of the United States and the state of Indiana and the state of Indiana I will Faith Faithfully execute I will Faithfully execute the duties of my office the duties of my office as a member of this government body as a member of this governing body so help me God so help me God thank you [Applause] [Music] you can also raise your right hand please I will I I Kim Woodward Kim Woodward do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support that I will support the Constitution the Constitution of the United States of America of the United States of America and the Constitution and the constitution of the state of Indiana of the state of Indiana and the laws of the United States and the laws of the United States and the state of Indiana and the the state of Indiana I will Faithfully I will Faithfully execute my duties execute my duties of my office as a member of my office as a member of this governing body of this governing body so help me God so help me guide congratulations thank you thank you Mr Becker well that was very um very overwhelming to be honest and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to serve our community another four years and um really um just a community that is amazing your parents show up it's just that's what makes the community great and so to be able to be sworn in and share and serve for another four years is just a privilege and an honor and I'm grateful for a community that supports um through election and wants to see our school corporation continue to be really the pillar of our community and the pillar of what makes our community so great so it is my honor and I'm just so grateful thank you so much yes I echoed those comments it is very humbling when you run for public office and you're elected um and at first you get over the shock of it like oh my gosh I was elected and then suddenly you uh um feel such um such gratitude for um the confidence and the um uh affirmation that a community places in you I can think of no higher calling honestly than to serve um children and public education in this um seat um and so I thank you for your support um I pledge to you that um I as a board member will continue to be transparent with you U to listen to your concerns and certainly collaborate and uh with you on what is best for students um I often remark I serve at the state level also in on the Indiana School Board Association um and I often remark about how when um many school board members from around the state um ask me where I'm from and I say Avon there's a certain kind of a well jealousy quite honestly that um I serve such an exemplary School Corporation and I'm very proud of that um I feel that um our leadership uh in education has been um astounding and I look forward to serving you and our community another four years thank you I too would like to congratulate Ann and Kim um it's been an honor to serve with them and you were both there when I started this back 3 years ago and guided me on what to do and what not to do so thank you ladies for that and I'd like to also congratulate you both and uh and I've only been board two years you guys are the varsity and I appreciate the leadership you've given us and I'm I'm so glad that you continue we continue to lead us and Mentor us newer board members so thank you thank you and I would like to congratul you both as well and thanks for all your help in answering all my questions I'm a year member myself and I appreciate thank you thank you very much we will move on to um our favorite activity and that's recognizing special Orioles um amongst our community amongst our staff and tonight um I think this goes without saying it's probably everyone's favorite group in that school nurses and the School nurses um from the moment we received the phone call back in March um about all that was coming and all the changes and all the issues that were before us our School nurses have been right there at the table and they um have guided us they have taught us they've educated us on practices they went in and they um received a lot lot of training on their own they revamped their their clinics so that it was useful for the students who were both maybe not feeling so well and the student who just was feeling fine but just needed to see the nurse and um our School nurses just like nurses across the whole country our School nurses are are just pillars for our school corporation and for our students and um my children they're all now have graduated but they can tell you the nurse's name in every building because that's what nurses do they leave an and they influence them and they leave an impact so it is with great honor that tonight I will hand this over to Dr but to honor our our nurses who um really deserve more than honor and we just is just a small gesture from us to say thank you yes thank you Mrs angelheart and you're exactly right when we were talking about who we wanted uh to celebrate as uh as special Orioles to start the second semester it seemed only fitting that we should recognize our School nurses so nurses I'm going to talk about you for just a little bit and then I'll call you up and the board will want to take pictures we'll do that in probably small groups with Mr Carr helping us so that we can uh have social distance but I just wanted to talk a little bit about the impact of our School nurses uh before I introduced them I did want to recognize Dr yavon C pepper who is here the chief nursing officer and Chief Operating Officer from Hendrick regional health and then also our school nursing supervisor um Jennifer Wright who both of them have been just tremendously instrumental in supporting all Hendrick County Schools uh uh during this pandemic but I really appreciate that they are here to support our nurses as well it was in 2015 that the school board approved us partnering with Hendricks Regional Health that our nurses would become Hendricks Regional Health employees that significantly enhanced the training that they received and the support that that they were able to receive being affiliated with such a great hospital as Hendricks Regional Health however little did we know in 2015 just how critical that was going to be and that we were going to be navigating a worldwide health crisis and a pandemic so here's some interesting pieces of data about our School nurses in first semester they supported 336 students who tested positive for Co 3,728 close contacts who were quarantined and and worked with our nurses uh to make sure that they were healthy when they returned to school 27,7 185 clinic visits across the district where 12,412 medications were administered to our students so even as they're navigating a pandemic they're making sure that all of the other typical uh needs are met from our students as they come into the clinic Mrs Wright shared with me that uh we needed sub coverage in our Clinic 71 times and every single time they were covered so throughout the entire first semester we never had a clinic that was not covered with a qualified nurse as M Mrs angelheart talked about part of what they had to do this year was set up separate clinics so that we could make sure if students were covid symptomatic they were in a special uh location so our students have been able to be in person for the majority of first semester and that is the result of a lot of hard work from a lot of people but none um have have worked as hard to keep our students healthy and in person as our School nurses so we are very thankful to call them Orioles and to be able to recognize them tonight so nurses as I call your name if you want to come forward we have a letter for you if you just want to assemble in a socially distant line and then Mr car will we'll call you up here a couple at a time uh that we had a few that were not able to attend because of other commitments and one at the high school who is doing her job right now working through a a positive case at the high school so Amy gtis at Avon High School Angie Hines at White Oak Candace bwick at intermediate East Martha Acres at Cedar Sarah Murphy our nurse coordinator Julie Wade at Pine Tree Stacy Jones at Middle School North Deb Worley at Avon High School Jennifer denbrook at Avon High School Kimber Walters at Middle School South Stacy Edwards at Sycamore Tracy tyen at Intermediate West Connie naby at Maple Amber Walker at Hickory Leanne Jones at River Birch and Jennifer Wright our director of school nursing so Jennifer if you'll come up as well we'll get uh get you your letters and I'm sure the board will want to take uh a few pictures with you as well so board if you'd like to come Kevin how do you want to set this up you guys come on over here with Miss single heart thank you so such an honor to see all right come on over a little bit more great yeah thanks da thank you Stephanie few more um let's do ships sure all right so board members if you just kind of want to come and fill the spaces between if you're a nurse step forward yeah there Perfect all right I'm going to take a picture right here we'll get more ready one more all right thank you thank you so much [Applause] thank you so much thank you thanks for being here everything you do every day conations thank you so much we'll stand behind you two one literally and figuratively yeah thank you everybody thank you two pictures thing what a year to be a nurse thank you for choosing such um an incredible profession but your time was now and thank you for rising to the occasion board members yeah I would also like to Echo that and thank our very capable nurses I can't think of a better partner than HR um to um assist with training and to really make sure that our um clinics were covered with um high quality highly trained nurses um I'm not very proud of this fact but my oldest daughter who is now in uh her early 30s was what I call the frequent flyer in the uh Clinic World um she would go see the nurse about every two or three days um and when I asked her one time I said really you can't be sick I mean why are you going down there and she goes well Mom she just listens to me and she's just so nice plus she has Hershey's bars so um so if you ever you know if you ever think about the impact that you have on children's lives especially those um that I think is kind of an unheralded thing in this pandemic year but those that rely on medication uh that has to be you know monitored and dispensed um just such a great um thing that you do to take that burden off of teachers um and administrators who would have to otherwise be responsible for that um I thank you sincerely for loving our kids for taking care of them and for absolutely being a pillar of um an exemplary nurse in our community thank you Avon schools are very lucky and fortunate to have nurses who care especially this past year um students and staff are lucky to have nurses who are always I can't see always ready for any kind of injury any kind of sickness or making sure the student students receive their daily medication being a teacher a retired teacher I would often forget and the student would come up for me remind me I'd have a big note on my desk or the nurse would beat down and say Mrs Simmons blah blah needs his medicine so thank you ladies for that too uh thank you nurses for a job well done so when we think of historically kind traditionally we think of our First Responders who run into the fire when everybody's running away away from the fire we think of police and firemen um I'm married to a nurse so I've always thought of nurses as people who similarly run into the fire when everybody's running away but this year unfortunately could not have been more start of an example of how all of our nurses in this country were willing to run into Harm's Way so that they can protect the rest of us and so first and foremost for your entire profession for all you do I thank you second you you need a lot of people to say yes we can or we will try instead of no we won't if you're trying to open a school in the middle of a pandemic and first and foremost everybody's concerned is the safety of of the students and it's just incredible that it was it was you all our nursing group who are the first group to say we can open that school and we'll go in there every day and take care of those kids so thank you congratulations and thank you very much I have quite a few nurses in my family and it takes a special person to be a nurse and boy has this pandemic proved exactly that congratulation and best with thank you we're going to move on now to the proposed school start and end times for 2122 and Dr wendam if you'll take it away yes and I do want to say too I know our nurses work very hard so you are welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting but if you need to leave to to get on with uh other things that are going on in your evening feel free to leave as well thank you so uh thank you Mrs anglehart members of the board I wanted to provide an update this evening on our work studying school start and end times as I've shared before uh and I put a a copy of this presentation on your place for you a hard copy uh now that redistricting is completed we started having conversations about planning around our new structure for 2122 when we will have six K4 buildings and one centralized preschool Center and as a result of that planning process it was only logical that we would but also look at school starting and ending times and what changes might need to occur in our new structure as we look at 2122 so tonight I'll provide a brief summary of what we have shared previously as well as a summary of the feedback that we've collected and the recommendations that we have uh moving forward just a reminder of the work that we've done so far we started studying school starting and end times uh in early November with a working group that included representation from each level uh of leadership in our school district we first began discussing this publicly at the end of November at a school board working session and then since that time we've been sharing information in various formats including that we live stream the December school board meeting parents Square Communications about school start and end time social media posts a dedicated page on our website and then a community input session that we held uh just last Wednesday we don't typically live stream our school board meetings but we started that in November with redistricting because we knew our families and our staff were uh very interested in redistricting and some wouldn't feel comfortable coming to a meeting and so we have continued to live stream our November our December and then this meeting just to make sure that our community had various ways to access this information so our first goal as we started studying school start and end times and and we have talked about this with the board previously our first goal was to accomplish weekly collaboration time for teachers teachers and in education e we refer to those as professional learning communities plc's we've talked about that before um we have pockets of plc's happening around the district but not a consistent time or a consistent District structure so this means our teachers are often giving up their prep times or meeting before and after school and what we consistently hear from teachers and principles is that they need more time we wanted to make sure it's not just more time that it's focused time that is around improving academic achievement for our students so what we know is that teachers collaborating with one another is one of the most effective things that we can do to improve academic achievement and that's not surprising our teachers are great teachers with lots of strategies we just need to have a structure in place for them to uh be able to have conversations and collaborate with one another about improving our students who need more academic support that maybe are struggling as well as students who need to be enriched and and and pushed a little bit more than they are so this was the first goal that we had when we started looking at school start and end times we talked about this in the last session so I won't talk about it a whole lot we studied various different options to consider um to get weekly collaboration time for our teachers the we our group eliminated several and spent most of our time focusing on these two options uh one being a weekly delay or early dismissal uh you can see some other districts around us and and similar to us that do that typically that's on a Wednesday with an early release or a late start our group studied that really felt like uh that is an inconvenience for our families that one day a week typically Wednesdays kids would have a different schedule for school start and end times than the other days of the week so we spent most of our time on option number two where we would reduce the instructional day slightly by 5 minutes the impact is the same and we bank that time and our teachers would work a slightly longer day on Wednesdays but for students and for parents the school start and end time is the same every day of the week and we felt like that was important for that cons consistency in both of those options the monthly 1hour delay would be removed because we have built in a structure where every week our teachers are able to collaborate and have those professional learning communities our second goal was to explore other avenues for efficiencies that could be gained by examining school start and end time and we spent a lot of time in our previous meetings talking about three- tier Transportation when I've spoken about this slide Transportation efficiency some have focused on the dollar amount of savings but that was never really the driving factor of our conversations whatever money is saved and we talked about our Aging bus fleet in our previous meeting whatever money is saved we would just turn around and replace older buses our buses that are 12 13 14 15 16 years old so whatever money is saved we would turn right back into purchasing more buses so that was really never the primary factor as much as our concern is over the shortage of bus drivers and as we look at Transportation efficiencies what really was driving that is our concern that we have not had enough bus drivers pre pandemic we don't have enough bus drivers during the pandemic and it's only going to get worse and I'll talk about that a little bit more as well so we wanted to ensure first that our schedule built in collaboration time for teachers and second that we were trying to be as efficient as possible to maximize our bus drivers our transportation department who's here night has been advocating for three- tier transportation for a long time and it was not because of financial savings it was because every day they are navigating the bus driver shortage that we face so that's really what was driving our transportation efficiency conversation so I wanted to spend a little bit of time tonight talking about the bus driver shortage because we talked about it briefly in our previous meeting but I wanted to to kind of help paint the picture for you there is a national shortage of CDL drivers not just school bus drivers but CDL Drivers bus drivers are required to have a CDL license the average age of our bus drivers is 55 each year we average about 18 drivers that retire or resign that's about 15% of our bus drivers of course 2020 has been more challenging with the pandemic and we had 24% of our drivers retire or resign so I want to stop right there because I was really touched by some of the comments and I'm sure you were as well of our community our parents and our staff that interpreted our previous conversations about the transportation efficiencies to mean that bus drivers were going to lose their job that is not the case so I wanted to make that really clear that if we have bus drivers that want to drive for us next year they will be driving for us next year any efficiencies that are gained will be gained through attrition because of this kind of turnover we would be foolish to let bus drivers walk away from us they would get snatched up by another district and the next week we would need them back so we will not be eliminating any of our bus driver employees we will accomplish this through attrition I also wanted to talk about the bus driver requirements because quite honestly I learned uh putting this present presentation together just how significant the bus driver requirements are they have to pass the same test and license that it takes to be a semi- driver it takes about 8 week weeks to complete the training for the CPL license so if you sign up today and I would encourage you all of you to sign up and apply today to be a bus driver it will take about 2 months before you can be on the road driving with students the test requirements include knowledge of break components how air brakes work identification of suspension parts parallel parking on the left and right side and backing the bus to park which of course we would never do but they have to pass it in the test so one of the things our transportation department has said is we have some people who sign up to be a bus driver and walk out after the first week when they realize just how intense the training and the testing requirement is 30 hours of training plus the passage of mandatory driving and written skills tests and effective January 1 of 2022 that increases to a to 100 hours of training to obtain the license and the requirement to pass the written test so that's what we're talking about when we talk about this transportation efficiency the importance of Transportation efficiency and why we need to have this conversation is it's challenging now it's going to be even more challenging in January of 2022 once we have the drivers of course we also know that we have absences so we looked back knowing of course since March we've been in covid-19 uh world so we looked back at what was our absence rate for bus drivers it's not just having enough bus drivers it's having a sub pool of bus drivers and a b so in January of 2020 28% of the school days in January pre pandemic we had 10 or more driver absences that day February we had 89% of our school days where we had 10 or more driver absences so I uh attach two pictures here this is not unique to Avon this is MSD of Washington Township in Indianapolis with their big bus with the sign this is Dan Bill that's uh Mr rollinson sent me this weekend with their big bus advertising for drivers if you've driven down High School Road Wayne Township usually has one at Wayne Township or at High School Road and moris Street this is not unique to Avon one of our neighboring districts has started sending parent Square messages to parents in the morning to say we don't have a driver for your child's bus we're going to need you to get your children to school that's what we're trying to avoid is those kinds of situations and notifying families the day of or the evening before that we simply don't have enough bus drivers Hamilton sou Eastern up in fisers they're moving to a three- tier system next school year they recently were short 25 bus drivers every school district is struggling with this so the challenge is if we do nothing it's highly likely there will time come a time in the near future where we simply don't have the manpower to operate our buses so I certainly understand the frustration of talking about school start and end times and I understand the concerns of our parents saying this doesn't work for our schedule I this is not what's best for our children or for our students why are we doing this now really this conversation about the challenge that we face with bus drivers and the challenge that we Face particularly beginning in 22 2022 is really critical for us so I know folks have latched on to the cost savings piece but I just wanted to say really clearly that's not what's driving this conversation as much as these conversations about the challenge that we Face to have the staff to transport our children to and from school every day in our previous meetings we reviewed research on school start and end times and recommendations from National organizations that that stated that starting secondary schools is later preferably 8:30 or later is what is most supported in research we also review two other options considered by our working group and why those were not recommended I'll go through those real quickly this is our current schedule for start and end times and you can see of course Middle School South and North start at 7:45 and then every 5th 15 or 20 25 minutes we have another group of schools that are starting in our last meeting we talked about this option uh and we went over pros and cons of this option and of course there are pros and cons for every option some people love the options some people hate the options um I'm not going to go through all of those again and in this model the re the main reason that our group did not recommend this model was because it required North and South staying in tier one to start school even earlier at 7:20 and so when the research said so clearly that secondary students should be starting later we did not feel comfortable recommending a model that asked our middle school students to start even earlier same thing with option number two that we talked about at the last meeting um in this option it's the most similar to what we do right now with the middle school starting early and the intermediates starting late but again we we could not recommend a model that it required the middle schools to start even earlier than they do now so the one one that we spent most of our time on and that we have shared is option number three this was our recommended model because it moves the intermediates early uh move the high school later we couldn't quite make it to 8:30 we made it to 8:20 um and also mve the middle schools later by having them be in tier three and then the k4s were spread across all three tiers some of the feedback that we received asked about well how did we decide which elementaries went into each tier and so one thing I added on this slide that we did not share previously was the number of buses in each tier just so you can understand the puzzle pieces that our transportation department pieces together so you can see in each tier they have it structured so that 59 buses are required in each tier so they knew that pine tree would require a certain number of buses and that that could be balanced as we looked across uh this model the other piece I wanted to share and we talked about this before as well it was important to our group that the earliest pickup time in this model right now well in our current structure our earliest pickup time is 6:45 in this model the earliest pickup time would be 6:30 we did not want any children picked up earlier than 6:30 and at the back end we didn't want students dropped off later than 5:00 and in this model we able to do that those were the parameters that we kind of established that we felt like were important as we think about um pick up and drop off we had 1,2 50 survey responses from both our parents and our staff I personally read every comment I appreciate everybody who completed that survey and and I know the board has reviewed those comments as well I know this does not capture every comment but we tried to look at high level kind of what the perception was of those survey responses not surprisingly those in tier 2 tended to be more supportive High School Maple Sycamore everybody likes the tier 2 time that's what everybody uh once is that tier two tier tier two time while those in tier one and tier three generally were less supportive East and West staff were more neutral or positive about being shifted earlier while North and South staff generally were more opposed to moving into that later time our parents that completed the survey again not surprising most that if you were in tier 2 you tended to be more supportive tier one and tier three not as supportive our Middle School parents were fairly evenly split some liked the idea of middle schools going later and some preferred that middle schools stay earlier East West and our elementary parents that were in tier one and tier three tended to be more opposed to the to the proposed changes when we looked at the U individuals who expressed some concern about the model the this proposal um again this certainly doesn't capture everything but tried to capture the big themes not surprising tier one is too early tier three is too late concern about elementary students being in tier one getting on the bus early when it's dark Child Care challenges when they would get home earlier in the day uh in some cases getting home before their older siblings there were also concerns um from our families in tier three the impact on family time or extracurriculars by kids getting home later in the day and then Child Care challenges navigating what to do in the morning time before they would come to school and then the other uh theme that emerged was really the concern about the inequality of k4s because they are spread across all three tiers and of course many of the other comments were specific to our own individual preferences as parents and as family members and as um people who have jobs and and really were specific to what works for our family and of course some people would say that they love the model and then the next comment would say they hate the model and that's just the nature of school start and end times that are so specific um around our preferences and our family needs we asked a couple of questions on the survey where we asked both our parents and our staff to uh evaluate on a scale of 1 to five the first was does it align with research on school start and end times generally pretty neutral our staff tended to agree with that a little bit more than parents but pretty neutral and then same thing with they supporting a model that eliminates the monthly 1-hour delays our staff tended to be a little bit more supportive of that than parents but still generally pretty neutral we held a community input session uh this past week on Wednesday and um again this does not capture every comment the board received a summary of all the comments that were made but uh some of the larger themes some of the positives that were shared was the reduction in the number of drivers that are needed and the cost savings more sleep for our secondary students that aligns with research and there were a couple of comments about you know tier one may work better for some of our younger students who are better in the morning um concerns and questions that were shared again tier one being too early tier three too late Child Care challenges The increased cost for working parents some concerns from our families at Cedar uh for our strive program which is our program for students with more intense disabilities and that because Cedar is the K4 um Pro offers the K4 program for strive that it should not be included in tier one and the difference in start times between k4s being spread across all three tiers also some concerns that were shared at that meeting about uh the feeder schools not being staggered and the transportation challenges that that poses for our families that maybe have to get a child from um Cedar to West and they were starting uh in the same tier so that was a challenge for those families so um before I go on I want to thank our transportation department uh based on the feedback that we collected we uh and that meeting was Wednesday night so Thursday at 7:30 we were meeting in the morning to talk through the feedback talk through the survey results and come up with okay what are we going to do what are we going to do based on that feedbook back and based on that input and so from uh Thursday morning Friday and uh Teresa and I were talking on Saturday when when she came in with one of the transportation colleagues to get us some more information so I really appreciate our transportation department and how hard they work to hear all of this feed fact that we are receiving and to then talk about okay so now what what can we look at what can we do so as a result of that we have two options that we'd like to talk through with you based on that feedback the first is option number four so option number four uh changes a couple of things it shifts Maple to tier one from tier two and moves Cedar to tier two and that was really a result of that feedback because of the strive program now I will say Maple parent parents and maple staff were pretty happy in tier 2 so while we may have just uh made some cedar parents happy we may have just frustrated a whole another group of parents and staff that were pretty content before but that is the nature of any change that we make um the other thing that you'll notice is this pushes back our K4 start time at Tier 1 to 7:30 and that was a result of some feedback Wednesday night uh where some individuals said you know there is just something psychological about starting Elementary before 7 7:30 can we just get to 7:30 and so in this model we did that uh the elementaries would start at 7:30 one of the things I've learned from my friends in transportation is that 5 minutes is an eternity in transportation world and so you can't just absorb 5 minutes if you push tier one back 5 minutes everything else pushes back 5 minutes every change is a tradeoff so in tier two that means tier two starts 5 minutes later which we particularly liked with Avon High School that got the high school a little bit closer to that 8:30 Benchmark the challenge is at tier three with Hickory and River Birch that pushes them back five minutes as well so we did see some some comments and some feedback from families in tier three that were concerned that 920 was too late to start school this pushes it back to 9:25 I will say our transportation team did say that even in this model we would still get students home by 5:00 so as long as there aren't road closures or weather delays or those kinds of things on a normal day we would be able to still hit that parameter of getting our students home by 5:00 the other comment that uh we heard multiple times um Wednesday night particularly was okay we get it we get the challenge of bus drivers we get the chall we get the why behind this but 15 to 20 bus drivers is there anything in the middle is there anything that's still an improvement but less than 15 to 20 and that is option number five so option number five is not as significant as what we have talked about in the previous four models because in option number five we only reduce s to 10 drivers as opposed to the 15 or 20 that we have talked about previously so in option number five you will see that um we shift all of the elementaries into tier 2 or tier three to try to address that concern that 7:20 or 7:30 7:25 is simply too early for elementary students to start school this accomplishes that by shifting all of the k4s into tier 2 or tier three we still get that benefit of Avon High School moving 5 minutes later uh to 8:25 and you still have to shift everything into tier three five minutes is five minutes later as well so does this model uh cause our transportation department to still have some anxiety about what 22 2022 holds yes it does because we we would be we would still need a significant number of drivers however we also understand that we have to balance the operational needs with the needs of our family and of our staff and so this option tries to to find that balance of operational needs and also the input from our families and from our staff so this still means what we need to work very hard if this is the model that we go with to recruit more drivers uh tell all your friends to sign up to be bus drivers all of those kinds of things we still have to be relentless in our pursuit of bus drivers because this is still going to be a very significant uh challenge for us and you can see in this model and that's why I included the number of buses this is not a full three tier system because there are only 40 buses needed in tier one and 68 or 67 in the other two tiers and that's why you need more drivers to operate this because we need more buses in tier 2 and tier three than we did in the previous models so I want to thank our parents I want to thank our staff for their engagement and their input um I hope that everyone who completed a survey or came to a session or emailed us can see that we really did value their input and value the different perspectives that we have heard one of the things um as we were doing our work Thursday and Friday uh I knew that we were we were working towards a couple of additional proposals for the board to consider and it certainly didn't seem uh fair to ask you to make a decision uh on such short notice with these models so my recommendation would be that um the the board take the next couple of weeks to consider these two new options in addition to what you've already got and that we would come back on Monday January 25th uh when you've already got a meeting scheduled and we would ask ask for board action at that time that still allows us to meet our goal of having this decision by the end of January that allows our parents to have plenty of time and our staff to have plenty of time to plan for July end of July for start of school and then we will also be start starting our redistricting process for our staff at the K4 level and that will start at the end of January where our staff will tell us their preferences for where they would like to work and we want to make sure that we have our school start and end times established before we asked our K4 staff to complete that preference process so with that I will U certainly be glad to answer any questions that the the board has I have one on the white those times is that for uh that's not for seedings that's for that's correct yes we don't provide transportation for seedlings for the preschool just for developmental preschool okay yep um you mentioned that in option four Transportation felt that even though the end time would be 410 that students would still be able to get home by 5:00 p.m.

founding fathers believe that education is critical to democracy a chief reason for public education cited by Jefferson and other early leaders was the need to produce citizens who would understand political and social issues participate in Civic life vote wisely protect their freedoms and rights and keep the nation secure from inside and outside threats the role that we have as a school corpor ation plays in the education of our students as to the rights responsibilities and processes of our American democracy is essential our responsibility to provide informative and meaningful civic education seems to be increasingly important as well as our duty to address racism and systemic bias also our responsibility to develop and to Dem and to model for our students the ways in which to manage and to respond to diverse opinions and to disagreements is significant our current work on students developmental assets has a renewed focus and purpose for me and the recent announcement of our serving as a pilot for international efforts to enhance Youth Development is important promising news I often have wondered how history books will depict events in my life how I will answer questions from my grandchildren today thinking about my answer regarding January 6 is tough yet our work in providing meaningful Civics education in striving to address racism and systemic bias and in preparing our students with the strengths and skills the assets to manage disagreements and to respond to adverse experiences is one invaluable response thank you thank you Dr shed if you can stand if you are able uh we'll recite the Pledge of Allegiance IED the AL to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all thank you and again in this kind of interesting meeting as it's the first one of the year and uh I'm starting uh as the person leading it uh from a determination of a quorum standpoint we do have a quorum we have the four school board members who uh have been already sworn into office after their elections and we have three additional ones uh Mr Bryant uh Nikki Wen and Todd Grimes who will have take take Oaths of office here in just a moment so we do have a determination of qu so I will now call this meeting to order all right as we always do we take a quick look at our mission and vision it is on the screen as well as on the uh boards behind me we also have our high expectation objectives to which we try to pay close attention as we do the best that we can uh for our students we'll move to at this time then Oaths of office and Mr Chrisman our Schoolboard attorney if you could help me out with that Mr Manu right I'm not sure Josh will rearrange have a microphone right there Mr Monroe we could have you grab that thank you good okay all right um I'll need Nikki and Todd and Pat to come on up please and Josh is there a particular place you want her to be is this good that camera yeah that camera there Mr mon bring him back toward me y it' be great thank you does that work okay it's kind of like a wedding you have okay if you'd all please raise your right hands and then repeat after me I do solemnly swear Solly swear that I will support that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of Indiana constitution of the state of Indiana and that I will faithfully and I will faithfully impartially impartially and diligently and diligently discharge the duties discharge the duties of the office of the off of Bartholomew Consolidated School Board District U let's see three five and seven School Board okay of the county of Bartholomew Indiana IND according to the law ACC to the and to the best of my ability best of ability okay you're good I welcome back to the board Mr Ry and welcome to the board uh Mr Grimes and Mrs Wen we're looking forward to having you serve in your positions and uh looking forward to um having better 2021 than maybe we had in in 2020 and again doing doing right by our students so appreciate your service to us and uh welcome you to the to the school board all right I'm going to start moving to to forward so that we can get things taken care of in in regards to the election of officers Roberts yes I do have a motion very good Mr St you ready for that I am ready for that uh on the agenda we have a slate of three offices the office of President the office of vice president and the office of secretary I'd like to move that for President we elect Dr shed for vice president Dr Bill and for secretary Mr Bryant thank you okay so we have a motion on the table do we have a second second all right Mrs de dwire has the second so from what I understand the motion is for president Dr shed vice president Dr btz and for secretary Pat Bryant correct that is correct okay so we have the motion and a second for those officers any discussion I'm assuming that each of those individuals are accepting of their role sure are there any additional nominations always do have to allow for somebody to raise their hand if they like to be added to that list to be considered all right seeing no additional volunteers for those positions and having motion the second for the president vice president and secretary that we've had and I'll call the um motion [Music] [Laughter] get the microphone back here beginning November the 9th Monday November the 9th and through Tuesday November the 24th which then took us into Thanksgiving week uh coming out of Thanksgiving week we made the decision to go back IND e learning and so continued that from Monday November 30th and through winter break once we came out of winter break we did make the decision to go to bring some students back 5 days of inperson learning for our elementary students and a hybrid model for our secondary students for those wondering what that means for our secondary students here's a model of of the hybrid so grades 7 through 12 for us our middle schools and our high schools have students coming in in this way that students with the last name of a through K or who's last name begins with the letter A through K are in person on Mondays and Tuesdays and the rest of the students are doing e-learning all of our students the secondary level are doing e-learning on Wednesdays then on Thursday and Friday the second half of the alphabet or students whose last names begin with the letters l through z uh come in person and those a through K are doing e-learning so that's what the hybrid model looks like and in essence what happens is we have half the students in the building and that benefits us from a physical distancing standpoint and we have certainly seen that after getting our students back in school last week and and then of course today um the benefit of a hybrid model is uh we were able to spread our students out appropriately and and I believe we're probably operating at 100% uh efficiency or Effectiveness from a physical distancing standpoint with our with our students I always bring up the most recent um uh chart for you this is a chart of the indicators that we created developed locally before the state had anything in place we put together our own metrics to measure the the community spread of covid-19 and so our most upto-date numbers are up here these reflect um uh yesterday so Sunday January the 10th I'm going to move this out of my way we go so if we look at yesterday's number which is a per capita number of 65.6 that is certainly a high enough number one that we like to see decreasing here sooner rather than later if we take that 3 weeks back and just a reminder that anytime you see this chart which it is on the co9 community task force website it is renewed or updated every Monday and Thursday but it always goes back about 3 weeks I think there are 22 days of data that's on here if we look at that 3 weeks back and we look at the 20th of December so a few days before Christmas the per capita rate was 67.9 uh 3 weeks later after some ups and downs it's a 65.6 so have not went in too bad a direction in terms of of going higher than that if we look at the positive percent positive test rate at on December the 20th we were at 37.4% and then a few days ago and I say it that way because this is a lagging data piece for us we're always catching up uh with the data on the percent positive test rate about 3 to four days behind but at last stre it was 39.3% so it did take up a couple of percent the test turnaround time was at 2.2 then on December the 20th uh just went back up to 2.3 it had been at 1.8 for several days and then from a co hospitalizations co related hospitalizations is it was at 40 at CR on the 20th of December is at 46 on the 10th of January so just um comparing numbers as to what we have now the most updated numbers to what we would have had 3 weeks ago um beginning to get into the the end of the first semester and into the winter break time frame so those are our local indicators and just a reminder that the flowchart of community spread and school closures that we put together at the beginning of the school year so this actually goes back to Monday July 20th uh we talked about spread might mean and what moderate spread might mean and minimal or no spread and that if we got into the red and we are indeed into the red with those three um numbers the test turnaround time the only one staying in in a in a better color green uh that we would have to look at things like an e-learning environment and as you're all well aware we did go to an e-learning environment prior to Thanksgiving after Thanksgiving and and then did do something uh different now and that doing something different now is is hinged upon uh the state also getting involved in keeping track of metrics and they came out with a county color designation right now you can see the arrow pointing to our County uh we're at 2.5 and so we are orange um most counties if we count the number out of 992 there are 92 counties in Indiana we count the number that are red the majority are red so we are I guess fortunate to be in the orange but the entire state of Indiana has a pretty high case rate right now of covid-19 but when in the orange in October we passed uh our school board uh approved this operating model considerations and again the word considerations being important we don't automatically jump to something we're having a lot of conversations digging into the Daya trying to understand the situation um but with orange it says from structal Model Elementary Schools may continue full-time in person option so we coming out of witer break decided to bring our students back for an in-person option at the elementary level um it says middle and high schools may consider a hybrid learning model we decided to go with the hybrid learning model at the secondary schools again very specifically for the sake of getting physical distancing accomplished it is hard to do when we have all of our students in the building particularly at the secondary level and so it was an effort to do that so this again is based upon recommendations from the state of Indiana that the board approved in October so as as we look forward and we think about the data as I've just shared and then we look more internally at bcsc since Monday August the 10th our first student day we've had 420 positive test cases and that's not including today uh this would have been at the end of the week and what was reported publicly on Friday even though I think Kelly that number was 417 on Friday so like right after that we had three other ones that we had to record had to record so we're at 420 250 of those are students 127 are support staff members and by definition that would be employees who are do not require a certification to have their position and then the other 43 are teachers or administrators other certificated individuals in our school corporation so if we put that into another perspective look at the percent because of the number of students we have the large number of students we have in our School Corporation 250 represents about 2% of our students uh from a support staff member standpoint realizing we have about 2,000 staff members overall about 1,200 of those would be support staff that would represent around 11% of our support staff members and then of our teachers or certificated staff uh 43 would represent about 5% of our certified staff members so that's sometimes a question that comes is what percent would that be um and again we have a lot of people that are in our organization about 13,500 people and so out of that 13,500 we have 420 positive test cases since August the 10th we saw an interesting thing happen in that as we started school August the 10th and we got through the first eight weeks of of school we only had 29 positive test cases going into fall break so I felt really good about that obviously had been able to keep our students in school in the buildings we came out of fall break and we got to the end of the month Friday October 30th uh we had 82 cases by that time so went from 29 to 82 since October 30th we're now at 338 we've had 338 positive test cases since then that's an average per week of 34 fortunately that average per week has actually dropped from 37 right before Christmas so over the last few weeks the the the numbers of cases coming in um have dropped a little bit and so at least there's some some movement we hope in a positive direction as we go through the next couple of weeks but I say that recognizing that when a break a lot of people were together and and we might have more cases that will pop up um our simple math simple analysis of the data that we've had if we go back to Memorial Day Weekend July 4th weekend Labor Day weekend the beginning of fall break the beginning of Thanksgiving break and now the beginning of winter break if we extrapolate out positive test cases we have seen between 35 and 37 days we get to kind of a a peak or a high number coming out of those breaks when people have a chance to be together if that would hold true for winter break and looking at when we started winter break back on December the 22nd it' be around January 27th so that's still a couple of weeks out from from us maybe feeling like we've gotten on the outside or in in the best place with positive test cases so we'll continue to monitor that and pay close attention to what's going on both within our community as a whole and within our school corporation so as we look at over the next couple of weeks the things that we have to think about are all right what do we do from a from the inst structional model standpoint you know with with our our red numbers locally with our metrics the the orange color designation we have from the county uh will continue to look at um whether our students could should be in school and and we we believe that right now we're we're very much okay with our elementary students being here and things going going okay there our secondary students are the ones in a hybrid model again because of physical distancing reasons so when might we able to when might we be able to bring back our secondary students into the buildings for 5 days of inperson instruction the first determination of that will be at the end of this week we had indicated that we would at least for two weeks get into this model see what happens coming out of winter break and so we'll have some conversations this week with our local medical professionals talk with our Teachers Association review all the information that we have and then come up with a determination and so we would plan to do that by the end of the day uh on on Thursday January the 14th and then if we decide that we need to stay with the hybrid model which our numbers right now would indicate to me that it's likely we would do that and again saying that gosh we still may have a couple of weeks where numbers are are going to be at least where they are now if not ticking up a little bit then our next opportunity to review putting it two weeks out would be Thursday January the 28th if on Thursday the Janu if on Thursday January 28th we said that we need to bring students or can bring students back into the building that ends up being Monday February the 1st so as we look out right now we will look at information this week have conversations make a decision communicate that out and then if we stay with the hybrid two weeks from then we will do that again and uh Monday February the 1st would be the next opportunity really for our students to come back to inperson instruction full-time at the secondary level Dr Roberts if I may so then are we going to this information will be kind of pushed out just so parents can have a couple weeks to start thinking that you know they need to be prepared in the event that we flip that switch to bring all the kids back they indeed Will C yes yeah um so right now with our with our secondary students um they're in the building two out of five days right and so all of a sudden that switches to five out of five days just making sure that's the case we do think it's easier to go to that and can kind of pivot from what we're doing to that versus going the other way of of of e-learning and going back where everybody's at home all day all the time but but yeah we will be openly communicating thank thank you for that question thank you uh from an extra cricketer standpoint that continues to be a question okay school when we were e-learning we decided to allow for extra cricketers but we we did tighten some things down knowing that we did to have them but we're not going to a red County nor are we going to host a team from a red County and we stuck with that all through winter break all through the beginning of January as we have gotten students back now and reevaluated that situation we have done some uh We've made some changes for example we have reopened our facilities to begin being allowed to be used by external groups approved external groups they are groups that use us all the time they are familiar with our our facilities but we we shut them down first semester just said we're not having anybody else in here we've started to allow that to occur again again on a very controlled basis elementary basketball league resumes we had shut down elementary basketball we had allowed secondary schools to to continue but elementary basketball league I think right now we probably have a basketball game going on at Richards and Schmidt are those two teams playing I think so that is is going going at it again and then uh regardless of the county designation meaning regardless of that red designation we have said that we're going to make sure our athletes have the opportunity to compete for a conference or sectional regional semi-state state championship that we're not going to if if a county is hosting a tournament that's in a red County which means schools schools are coming in from a variety of counties that we're going to to allow our students kids to continue to participate in those and then any other situation outside of conference or ihsaa tournament would be on a a caseby case basis based upon the circumstances based upon what we know so for example we might have a game scheduled in a red County next week that's not conference it's not ihsaa and and that that County just went from Orange to red and they're red because they have 15% last week they were at 14.7% do we say that because we flipped the switch to red in 15 that we're not playing uh this week we're not being as automatic with that decision as we were November and December with the Red County designation we will Analyze That situation determine the appropriateness of going ahead and and competing in that event and then and then moving that forward so we are making allowances for our extra cricketers to to uh continue and hopefully to be able to complete this winter season uh successfully we had great luck during the fall we didn't have to make any really any tough decisions we've had to make a lot of them here in the winter time including having teams quarantined for extended periods of time and or not being able to play some relatively important games based upon the circumstances based as as we've as we tried to move forward through this Dr Robert yes can I ask for clarification because I just got an email about this before I came in today are you saying so one way of reading this sentence is only Championship events a different way of reading it is any event that is conference or tournament related so like a conference game yes versus a conference Championship game great clarification clarification question Dr shed um it would be a conference game too so if there's a Tuesday night conference game scheduled for girls basketball next week we would we would allow that game to to continue um have to review of the circumstances and situation but we'll allow that game to continue the interestingly enough with winter sports the conference turn the basically all sports I guess three out of five three out of four um are tournament related in that wrestling swimming and gymnastics um are are more of a tournament or or a day a meet a match and then basketball girls and boys are the individual games where you accumulate the games and you see who has the best record so it's really basketball we talk about when we look at that individual situation or individual game but similar to allowing Columbus East for example this past weekend on a Saturday uh did go down to Madison which is in Jefferson County which just turned red uh they went down won the conference Championship um if if our girls basketball team from East would have to go to Madison and play a game uh for a conference game we would also allow that occur hey Dr Robert yes I have a question more on the first um bullet you looked at Community metrics but I know Staffing of support staff and certified staff was a major player in our decisions earlier in the year how do we monitor that and would that be a consideration for moving forward in either of those circumstan great question Nikki appreciate that let me see if I through in my packet here we are blessed to have Kelly Thompson if you not met Kelly Kelly is right here as our director of health services and Kelly and her team the nurses in each of our buildings monitor that information for us so we are maintaining a spreadsheet of of Staff members and students who are who are have first tested positive and therefore aren't here um who are symptomatic and therefore aren't here and uh and or are close contact and therefore aren't here and and looking at those as unique numbers your close contact or your symptomatic or your your a positive test we then accumulate that number to see what we have and so um and and I'm not going I'm not going to be citing numbers I get them wrong but we were in the hundreds the high hundreds in the at the beginning of November when we made the decision to go to e-learning because we had a lot of students out and then um about 225 I think staff members out at that time um since that time and being in e-learning obviously we we've reduced and and and gotten that lower uh right now uh staff members we'd be looking at about 56 that are out of the building for one of those three reasons um so manageable um and and again based upon the sheer number is one thing right and then the job that those numbers do are are another thing and so if if those 56 are in a lot of positions that maybe could work from home office positions other things that could do that then that can be manageable if 56 teachers or heaven forbid 56 bus drivers um then that begins to be a real challenge because the operational piece of that but right now uh looking at the numbers we had and we had a quick meeting this afternoon just to catch up with where we are Staffing coming from last week to this week in pretty good shape in terms of who is out and how can we cover that or manage that to remain operational thank you you're welcome anything to add to that Kelly or Teresa okay Mr St to kind of follow up on Miss weldon's question do we have I'm assuming that we have but let us know if we don't have access to the right uh PPE sanitizing equipment so that the staff members that are responsible for external groups using our facility are able to make it ready for the external group and then also make it ready for school the next day yeah we will certainly reach out for help as we need that but Dr bosan is is uh on top of that and I I I believe in very good shape um in in regards to the groups coming in making sure they have what their need and the time that we need to turn it around and be clean for the next day we appreciate that question Mr St I the pp piece I would only add is that we continue to work on a on a way to get in 95 masks for some of our most vulnerable situations um teachers or other staff members that are that are working with um um situations that may put them in a again a more precarious situation I guess as as a way to put that that's not easy to come come by um with the numbers that we have and the my understanding of the 95 masks and how you have to replace those every so often as well so still working on that puzzle U to make sure we can protect people as well as possible thank you all right I going to jump to then the third thing so looking at ances we're making for extra cricketers adjustments that have come up and then this snow day one so so I pose this interesting scenario to you um I think most people who know me recognize that I prefer in-person days to e-learning days and and I say that knowing that we recently passed a three-year calendar where we decided after surveying the community and doing all kinds of other work that we would not have two weeks of spring break NE next year next school year uh in the past this year included we've had a two weeks of spring break the first week is to be used for makeup days so we decided in the future that we're not going to do that that the first five days uh that we would have of snow days we'd make them up through e learning and then we look at making up other days in person at the end of the school year and we have a gap to do that that's not true this year's calendar we have a week a spring break week an extra one to make up days and right now there are three days sitting there but as we think about and I talked to Dr Bosman for example about the possibility of a snow day around the corner uh which we're now firmly entrenched in January that could happen at any time um what would we do because we have a hybrid model going on the secondary schools where half of the students are home already doing e-learning so that number approaches 3,000 kids that are already at home if we would decide tomorrow it's a snow day and we're not going to run our buses so does it beho us and also knowing that on Wednesdays all secondary students are at home so now we're at approaching 6,000 kids doesn't beho us to say that given the circumstances given the instructional models that we are going to do e-learning on a snow day and not use the first week of spring break to make up those days and I could say that we only do that while we're in hybrid but because we may be in hybrid for a few more weeks and then all of a sudden we're into February then all of a sudden we're trying to make a different decision in confusing uh parents uh in our in our community I would recommend that we make one determination and we stay with that determination throughout the remainder of this year so I I throw that up for for an open conversation it is a calendar piece and I had not talked to you this prior to this Dr sh but it may be something that based upon just the dialogue and the will of the the uh the board that we could put this as an approval item under my items and and change the calendar and just if if going with this recommendation wipe the the first week of spring break it will start on Wednesday March the 10th I think is that date and and that we would be doing e-learning for our our snow days so I pose that uh for your consideration and conversation if you're interested in that being an approved item because it is a calendar one um and you do approve the calendar we could move that as an approval item all right when it comes time so there comments or questions that colleagues have about that opportunity so so I'm going to translate that spring break would automatically be a 10day break or whatever that it's eight days because we're already using the Monday and Tuesday oh I think I'm counting okay yeah yeah yes that's correct so are there comments thoughts that my colleagues have about that I have a quick question um Dr Roberts is there a limit on the number of e-learning days that can be used for snow days does the state have a limit on that they do not okay no over the last six years probably that has continued to evolve and and become a lot more open and and now that is that is the case so good question but we we appreciate the question also looking forward it really doesn't well I guess it still could impact this year a little bit um for the next three years of calendar we had said five we would make up e-learning then after that we'd make them up physically and and um could entertain the same idea or concept here in that I I I e-learning days we we we've we've become quite Adept I think at utilizing that time engaging students delivering rigorous instruction it's just better when we have our kids in front of us and so we can do that so I I I hate to lean on just an e-learning day anytime with with a with a with no limit so maybe look at five again even this year since we've looked at the calendar for the next three years in that same way reflecting on how many emails we got when we even toyed with the idea of playing with fall break and families wanting to make plans there's a and just giving you know all the stresses and challenges of this school year my initial impression is that everyone would just be so much happier just say what it is and it be what it is and we'll just go that way so if we just say specifically it's going to be uh you know eight school day a 10day spring break period yeah I have a feeling a whole lot of people would be so much happier yeah I I would guess that's probably true too and and going back to the original thought of of why we' even proposed this because I think me and my team are on the same page and preferring in-person instruction um but given the fact that we have 3,000 students at home on on a given day that we call snow day already preparing to do e-learning and and then we say oh by the way you're not going to do any learning today I know you're home um we're just going to call this a snow day and you have to come back on Wednesday March the 10th seems a little interesting um and so we take take advantage I don't know if that's the right way to State it but given that circumstance stand um we we do e-learning for all and and uh we don't uh make up those days on those three but uh I would say that we we look at five as that is a possibility of e-learning days and then we we may have to add some days onto the end of the year but given our situation is that we would have Spring break start on Wednesday March the 10th I don't have a counter in front of me but I believe that's the that's the the date and um that's when spring break would start And to clarify though if we do call a snow day it's all the elementaries are at home when they're not at home right now that that's correct right so really the difference is that if we call snow day everybody's already is going to be at home period right so buses aren't running we're not having school everybody's at home we're not serving lunch we're not doing any of that uh so they're home um if if we adopt this idea and and say that it's going to be learning the differen is you're at home but now you're required to engage in school and um there are a few things we'll have to make sure and work out I know Dr hack we've had conversation already about are the machines at home um because our kids aren't necessarily taking home their devices every day at the elementary level so uh we do watch the forecast obviously with great interest uh all throughout the winter and and uh we'll be working to maybe send those devices home a little more often and regular than than we have been doing but um that's one of those things but given that uh we do have procedures in place for allowing for credit so if somebody did not take their device home Andor couldn't access the internet or all the other things that just happened when you're working through and with technology we have three days I believe uh that we extend beyond the actual day itself to turn in any work that was assigned and and still get credit for it so if a student isn't able to complete work that day or even the next day they are given uh an appropriate amount of time to get the work done and and completed Mr stenard did you have a question well it's kind of related to what Dr Roberts was talking about thank you the um in October November December we put a lot of infrastructure in place to support e-learning and I guess my question had to do with whether on a dime we can make all of that or most of it hopefully available again for a for a snow day Mr Williams would you care to respond to that I trust Mr Williams and his team that they can do that as Nick is grabbing a microphone um you know as you said Mr ster we we certainly put a lot of effort into both the infrastructure of our school system as well as than what people would be able to do at home including um delivering hundreds of hotpots uh to homes that did not have internet access and I believe those hotpots are probably still in place in those homes but yeah so the the devices at elementary don't always go home every night as as we stated the hot spots we have not collected just anticipating some you know we don't know what's going to happen in terms of type of schooling or weather related so those are still out um so and then we can shift staff based on on what needs there are to help with a help center things like that so the the support that we have given for E learning is is a little bit more manageable the way we have it set up currently thank you we have a so I'm gonna back up just a little bit because I'm trying to understand the rationale behind why we're doing this I guess um so if let's say on Friday we call it a snow day and okay it's a snow day everybody stays home then then they would do do e-learning that day so we don't I guess I'm trying to so we don't have to make it up later is that what the rationale is or yeah so so right now um based upon this year's calendar and our setting aside makeup days contrary to next year's calendar we're not setting aside those makeup days in in the in spring break uh we would have students on that Friday that you reference if we called no school this Friday everybody stays at home and everybody comes back on Wednesday March the 10th or or does whatever right because I don't know what the instructional model will look like right even on March 10th but they would do something on March 10th to get that day back given that we've been bouncing back and forth uh between in person and e-learning and on Friday even we have around 3,000 students that are home doing e-learning that we would just say everybody's at home and everybody's doing e-learning versus making them uh come back or or participate in the day of instruction on March the 10th okay so we just go ahead and use the day um and we came off of what I don't about 30 days of e-learning or so U prior to winter break and and and again have our secondary students doing that three days a week now and it seemed in our conversation as a cabinet that given that scenario why would we not go ahead and just do e learning um the the the biggest challenge is on Friday do we get did we get devices home with elementary students um to make sure that we could be as as engaging as we possibly can be with those elementary students so since they're doing the ear learning theoretically on Friday let's say a snow days Friday they'll do the e-learning then they wouldn't do the e-learning because we don't have built-in days this year is that what you're saying but next year we do no so we we have built-in days on we have two weeks of spring break this week this year two of the days have been used already Monday and Tuesday because we shifted the beginning of the school year back by two days so we had to make up those days so that's it's Monday and Tuesday of that week right now Wednesday Thursday Friday March 10th 11th and 12th we do not have school it's it's spring break unless we have to make up a day maybe we'll get no snow this year I always pray that that is going to be the case but um if we do and we have a snow day right now without any other decision we would call the snow day everybody stays home would be in school on March the 10th given this scenario what we're indicating is that instead of doing that um we would just take advantage of our e-learning that we've gotten in place uh take advantage of of all the work that Nick and his team have done and and and call a school day okay got it I just I I'm going to just you know coming from the perspective of remembering how snow days were as a student that's a good point yes I I I appreciate that we have a snow day oh we have to do e-learning darn but I think it's a I think it's a you know I totally get it it's a we had a conversation about that a couple of us I think too and I get that thank you for bringing that up and you know maybe we have to say you know get out and take an hour or two and throw snowball at each other or something like that and make sure that we understand that there is some fun PE is a part of the curriculum isn't it so going out sledding for a little bit or or or throwing a snowball at somebody as long as it's a soft one and doesn't hurt the other person um Can can be okay uh and we just might have to encourage some of that activity during the day and and realize and you know it our staff did a tremendous job uh first semester in bouncing back and forth between instructional models and and being as engaging and rigorous as they they could be given the circumstances to keep moving our kids forward uh that experience has given us um faith belief that if we do an e-learning day that it will be done well and our kids will benefit from it it it it it's the one thing um our experience that has shifted me from always having to make up a day to being able to do e-learning so yeah my recommendation given the circumstances and particularly given that such a large number of kids are already at home on the day we call a snow day it seemed like we would just say let's let's do you learning and that's what we're going to do this this winter even though that was not our initial plan thank you you're welcome other comments observations for consideration I mean the one observation I have is that school corporations who have already been doing this this is not like new don't talk about snow days anymore it's just we're announcing an e-learning day so what those of us who are used to all of that are just going to have to modify and we just don't use that term because we've had fog days in this community we've had flood days in this community so they're not just they never were just no and what I pledge to you as a board is it's not going to change our decision-making process we are going to call snow day because we have a learning available that that we will continue to to work very hard to get our kids here because whether they're home doing e-learning or not uh the environment that we provide here the safe secure warm in in the wintertime um environment as well as meals breakfast lunch before and after school care uh a host of services uh that we have when we have a day in session so we will be making the decision on a snow day wanting them to be here and then the decision if we have to call one to go to e-learning would be the the result so if I understood what you are asking us if you would like to add that on our agenda as what would be 8 H penil in as as an h under my request for approval and it would be what is uh here utilize learning days for up to five snow days this school year right and um yeah and so we'll put that on there and as we go through the meeting if you all have additional questions or concerns we can raise it at that time all right yes thank you aesome all right you done I am can can I ask a related question just because of all that we dealt with last semester could you speak a little bit to how um Staffing particularly at the elementary level and what percentage of our Learners are doing bridge and how's that balance of our staffing can um so second can hear just make sure I have everything in front of me um so heading into winter break and and hoping to be able to get back to inperson instruction we worried wondered about if we went to inperson instruction how many families would make the decision to go back to bridge or an online option uh because we had because of how well things went first nine weeks as we got through fall break we had a lot of students come back into the buildings from our remote options hundreds uh we went from about 28% of our um students being in an online option prior to fall break to 177% after so that that difference in terms of at least getting um to about 83% of our students being back in the buildings in person but we wondered again given the numbers and circumstances what would happen so we did a survey of of Elementary parents uh had almost 100% participation got those numbers ready to go were prepared to hire a a a decent number of elementary teachers if we had to to provide uh the remote option and and ended up not having to do much there because the and this may be wrong Laura but the the delta or the net change uh of students in a remote option at the elementary I'll cite that one first uh was about about 65 uh plus 65 and so we we went from a number that we had prior to winner break the number that we had coming out of fall break and starting this uh semester even with the numbers the per capita numbers and everything that we've seen we had a plus 65 move to to um a remote option and that's out of about 700 that that based upon what decision they' made at the beginning of the school year um we thought we might have that same population that same group say it's the decision I made at the beginning of the year because of the numbers now it's the same decision I'm going to make for second semester that didn't happen a plus 65 at the high school level when we think about CVP and Bridge the couple of options that they they continue to use uh we had give and take we had students coming back we had students going to that we're looking at maybe a plus 20 uh going into the the remote option is the numbers it looks like at the secondary level it's a little bit different animal because our teachers are are kind of handling both models um at the elementary level we had assigned teachers to remote assigned teachers to in person so just again differently we handled those differently so not an not a significant increase to the number of students going into remote and therefore no large decisions that we had to make from a from a staffing standpoint okay so we we're in good shape with Staffing as we motor through um this quarter okay how's our how's our bus driver situation yeah it it I know there was a need for that there is Dr bson it continues to be one and it it it is an area that is challenging for us um however there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel Dr bosan was here I think he would he would State this we we have maybe as many people in training at this moment than we've had since I've been here um so I don't know what the past look like but in terms of number of people getting trained to drive a bus and getting that license and stepping into position the most right now and I would credit many people I start naming people but I know Missy and Josh and and Brett and others who put together uh an ad um to look for substitute teachers and bus drivers prior to winter break and we got that out in a lot of different places we had a lot of responses we had about 120 responses for substitute teachers and and uh um a large number of responses for bus drivers I think we have nine that are in training right now a number like that in terms of being becoming a bus driver so anyway uh we're not where we want to be yet but I we're moving in the right direction in terms of having having bench strength in terms of our of our buses awesome all right we'll move on then we will okay public comments and we do not have anybody Dr part of our Organization for starting a new calendar year is to go through our how the first thing is reorganization of our business services and I'll turn to Mr Phillips to [Music] elaborate uh good evening Dr shed these are just uh normal annual appointments uh for the calendar year these will come under approvals later um happy to answer any questions you might have about them all right good thank you uh let's let's do go ahead and call those to say the way we've got the agenda set up is we're going to vote on each of these sections as they are presented all right yeah so do you just ask for a motion for numbers three a through D I think would cover all right so do I have a motion from my colleagues to approve items a or three a through D the reorganization or the appointments related to our business services as they're presented on our agenda so move thank you Mr Bryant is there a second second thank you Miss aof wire any particular questions about these ra all those uh approve approving uh 3 a through D is presented to us if you'll signify by saying I I I any opposed Tada there you go Mr Phillips um the next thing on our agenda is the establishment of our board meetings remuneration and required notices um our remuneration is set by law no news there um designation of our newspaper is the Republic and then we have gone ahead and set our school board meeting dates and locations for the next to July 31st 2022 oh my goodness all right so um I'm going to propose these anyone to offer a motion for approval of 4 a through c as has been presented to us so moved thank you Dr bills is there a second second thank you Miss tof wire there any particular questions about these items I do have one question just about the locations sure um January 25th looks like starting January 25th we'll be going back into the schools again is that correct it should not be correct okay just just from the paper you gave so I wanted to make sure I I yes and I see the one you're looking at so we need to make adjustment the one you have in front is the uh Reflections it should also mirror what we have but yeah one thank you Dr bills appreciate you bringing that bring that up but yes we are going to remain um in this room through this school year and hopefully next school year can get back into the individual buildings and start rotating through okay thanks you're welcome thanks for asking that who knows what I would have done to my calendar and where I would have showed up I'm glad Dr BS mentioned that because on the reflection sheet that I gave you that has when you do Reflections we have not adjusted the the locations on that that sheet so it was just a reminder as to when you have Reflections we'll get those locations changed all right awesome so with that clarification um all those who approve for a for a through c as presented to us if you'll signify by saying I I and those opposed there you go we've got that done if I may make a comment just real quick Dr shed I know I talked with a couple of you that that some of those strategic plan sessions may may be a challenge sometimes and I think we run into that every year that 9:00 time frame may or may not work as long as we have the ability to from a Time standpoint notify publicly uh our stakeholders when how where and so forth we're going to meet we can make those adjustments so Todd for example a 9:00 meeting for your position may be awfully tough to make right uh given given when those dates are um so we'll look at those strategic planning sessions maybe in particular particular as we get closer to those dates and make any necessary modifications to to date time uh to try to accommodate as many of you as we possibly can all right thank you for that so next on our list is um approval of board appointments our bcsc health trusts district and Facilities diversity Leadership Council and our business Advisory Group so I will um entertain a motion to approve items 5 a through d as they are presented to us move thank you Mr Bryan is there a second second thank you Miss day Hof wire are there any particular questions about these proposed Representatives all right so um those who approve of 5 a through D is presented to us if you'd signify by saying I I I any opposed all right we got four down next I am not reading all of these but we have a through o and so for those of you who are watching or wondering what on Earth we're doing um our board members are liaison to a variety of um District school corporation and Community advisory boards there are a through o of them and we have proposed our um colleagues to be Representatives so I'll ask for a motion for approval of our members on 6 a through o as they're presented before you so Mo thank you Miss Welden is there a second second second thank you MRE um so are there any questions is anybody not excited about what they're being asked to do Dr shed yes M it was I that made the motion oh thank you you're welcome and Dr bills made this withk wielding listening skills mask is a talent all right thank you for that clarification welcome so um those in favor of the um board Representatives on items 6 a through o those in agreement with those presentations if you'd signify by saying I I any opposed yay we got that done um the next item on our list is the recommendations of closures of conflict of interest Mr Monroe would you like to elaborate on this particular item yes am I on you are on all right under Indiana Law public servants are required to disclose conflicts of interest U anyone who deres a financial benefit from their position in our situation Dr bills is required to file one because of her employment in I Tech and I Tech drives some income from bcsc from some students uh we have a number of staff that whose spouses work for bcsc that includes Dr Roberts Laura hack Brett Boseman George Van Horn and Bill Jensen and we also have a a dependent Chad Phillips and so all of those persons are required to sign and file a disclosure of a conflict of interest copy will be um kept here at the administration building and also a copy IS F the clerk of cours thank you very much and I know we and our board packets received more detail information so if I may I'll entertain a motion for approval of the recommendations for public disclosures of conflict of interest as presented to us by our board attorney move thank you Mr Bryant is there a second second thank you Mr Grimes are there particular questions of Mr Monroe that you have all right all those in favor of those recommendations if you'd signify by saying I I any opposed there you go Mr Monroe we got that done next on our list are um our requests for Dr Roberts they are presented to us as 8 a through G and we have added and H which relates to the calendar revision we spoke about earlier so Dr Roberts if you'd like to elaborate yeah for pretty simple tonight but we do have again the minutes of the regular school board meeting from December 14th our our last meeting the only meeting we had in December supplemental contracts a couple of book studies that we have going on in the in the school corporation and and people who are involved in those no request for field trips or professional leaves this time uh a a small list of school fundraisers uh claims and payroll uh we do have a couple of sets of of claims uh dated one set dated December 1st through December 31st that approached $38 million uh that report did include a repayment of tax anticipation warrants as well as our semiannual debt payments so those comeing around in in June and December and then additionally we have a set from today January the 11th or dated today that approaches about $313,000 from a payroll standpoint we did have two sets for you dated December 18th and January 1st that total is about $5.4 million and within those payrolls we did have on the 18th um the dates of November 23rd through December the 4th so was a regular payroll but on January 1st we had the dates of December 7th through December 18th regular payroll but also um an increase because of the referendum pay that became available so again thank you to our to our community for the support of that referendum those referendum dollars have now started to become a part of of the staff salaries uh for all employees of our school corporation and then lastly these are goes this goes back to all the reorganization stuff you've been doing tonight is that we do have appointments of Dr Roy good as our school physician and then uh Mr Chris Chris Monroe as your school board attorney so I ask for that additionally I do have then that letter H that we talked about during the covid-19 conversation which is to allow for I'm just going to back space to that language You' like e-learning days for up to five snow days this school year and that is based upon the rationale we provided at that time all right and that will be included in the minutes as to yes spring break has changed okay we have sherry on here and she will record that and make sure that that is in the minutes and we will communicate it this week besides any minutes and so forth if you approve this uh we'll communicate that this week through all of our um social media platforms websites Etc all right thank you than you so I'll entertain a motion for approval of 8 a through H as Dr Roberts has presented them to us so moved thank you Miss de hofire is there a second second thank you Miss Welden any particular questions that individuals have about these items all right so if you'll show your approval of 8 a through H as presented to us by signif by saying I I thank you is there anyone opposed yay we got those done Dr Roberts I think we are now through all the reorganization stuff with those FG included in there Dr shed so right yeah so now I'll turn to miss heiney resources recommendations thank you Dr shed at your places this evening you had an addition to the human resource recommendations that you received in your Friday packet um so I am requesting approval of both this addition and the human resource recommendations as presented all right thank you very much um I'll entertain a motion for approval of these recommendations so move thank you Miss de Hof dwire is there a second second second thank you Mr Grimes are there any particular questions individuals have of missing all right um those who approve the recommendations as presented if you signify by saying I I I any opposed we got that done Miss hiny thank you right so next on our agenda are the what and offer accommodations that you'd like to share are there any ACC commendations all right any school board member reports yes Mr Stenner kind of a a hybrid but I want to make sure to U commend everybody associated with uh Council for Youth Development and the exciting new project that uh the Republic reported on this week that they'll be undertaking in 2021 excellent excellent thank you very much any other Commendation part part board member report yes there you go both there there you go thank you all right we also have cabinet reports on the agenda and Mr Phillips it's all up to you good evening these are just a couple of brief reports that are required this is our uh once a semester extracurricular account reporting each building maintains extracurricular accounts um mainly just to collect money from students and families and then turn around and spend those those funds right back on those students and families through field trips and uh extracurricular things like Athletics um this just goes through the the uh July 1 through December 31 uh activity starting balance revenues expenditures and ending balance just uh you know there's nothing exciting about these reports at all but it it is interesting the things that change in a year like this the revenues compared to to a couple of years ago when you look back at the last couple years are down a million dollars now so are the expenditures so the balances are basically exactly the same as they were um two years ago but um it is interesting how much reduced flow of activity happens during a time when there are no field trips and there are no trips and there's restrictions on concessions and how many kids are or how many people are in athletic events so it's been a interesting comparison there I'll I'll say too uh while we're on this page I appreciate the attention to accuracy at Johnson Center that's right that's right just write that off they're not heavy users of the extracurricular account that's probably all interest there on something where the four cents came from so that the next uh requirement is in the month of July we're required to have a board of Finance report you as the the Board of Trustees also serve as the school district's Board of finance and then the officers for the were required to appoint um through this process there's not approval required on your part but um a president and secretary for the board of finance and we're required to review the investment tools um that we're allowed to use as per our own bcse policy um those are up there on the screen for you to review and then we we go over uh where we invested money during the last calendar year during 2020 and what the results of that were um you can see it this is our money market sweep account just our bank account um and at the beginning of the year it was earning a decent rate at least and then as you all saw if you invest in any sort of uh investment that's tied to rates um you know the FED fund rate or anything like that you can see that it dropped to nearly nothing and I can also confirm that we uh you can extend that through December we did get that notification this week so um the last basically three quarters of the year we earned 1500s of 1% on the money that we had in the bank we did not buy treasuries this year for the first time since I've since I've been in the office the uh yield on those was just so low it didn't it was not worthwhile to invest in a treasury um and then the bulk of our funds we actually put in a trust Indiana account the treasury uh for the state of Indiana actually runs an investment account that all municipalities can put their extra funds into and they go out and get a better the best rate they can anyway in the market and during the course of 2020 the return on those Investments were very close to what we get in our um our sweep account at First Financial Bank our our money market account and you can see the results of that low rate compared to the prior few years when we um we brought in nearly half a million dollars total in investment um in interest during 2017 and then 2019 was a was an outstanding year um we're down to about where we were oh somewhere between 2010 and 2011 so um this is the reason also that we don't rely heavily on interest income and budget for it for any sort of permanent expense like staff um so salaries are benefits because it just is subject to such fluctuations in the market before I move on to the next topic are there any questions about the Investments that uh we used in 2020 okay this is the second year for this last requirement here um the distressed unit appeals board um has been around for a long time but in the last two years um as a result of two districts in Indiana that got into some some pretty serious Financial uh trouble and the legislature had to bail them out I think one of the districts multiple times had to receive additional State funding uh we all as the legislature acted on that every District gets to do um jump through a whole bunch of extra hoops and and submit a bunch of extra reports um and you can go to that website now and see every District in the state of Indiana and see the fiscal indicators that the legislature um tasked the doab with uh creating um those were new last year and they revised them over break this year uh late December is when they came out and the data that they revised has some serious issues I've been in I've been in touch with the the folks at the distress unit appeals board and had those discussions with them about how the uh funds are being recorded so they're working on making some some adjustments there um but it's important to note that the indicators are lagging what they updated in December was all going all the way back to 2019 so the final 2019 numbers are what you can view at the end of December um it's also important to note that it's really difficult to capture the complexity that's in a district in just a half a dozen or so um numerical indicators it's it's really difficult to capture that which is why the the director of the program tell will tell you if you ask her she takes into account every piece of data that there is when she tries to identify districts um and then the the the final part of this and this is what's important for you all is that if we ever were to be identified as a distressed unit by the doab they would reach out to us Dr Roberts and myself first um The Board second and it's confidential and it's it's a yearslong process before they ever call you out in public and tell you that you're a distressed unit appeal a distressed unit um in the public sphere um basically you have to refuse to cooperate with them and not follow any of their recommendations before they will publicly shame you if you will um most importantly and last they're looking through the indicators I have no concern about bcs's fiscal Health any questions about the duab fiscal indicators no I mean I certainly appreciate the good news are there particular questions individuals have I just love saying it's acronym I think do you're not the only one do have sounds like it should be part of a song I'm sure Dr Roberts would sing it for us all yeah I think every time Chad mentions that acronym there's somebody starting to sing something all right before we end our meetings we always offer each of uh the board members to offer any comments any observations that they'd like to share before we end the meeting so I'll turn so I won't do this every time but since it's new I'll just ask each of you Mr Grimes or is there anything you'd like to add well I maybe have a question that might have been appropriate earlier um having just going back to the hybrid recently um H have you noticed any positive cases coming back at the secondary level and the number of kids being knocked out through contact tracing or is it still is the hybrid still too new here to really yeah have a noticeable difference we haven't seen anything Todd I don't I don't believe Kelly um but probably still too new to to make a judgment on whether that's good or bad or because of of the hybrid uh the other thing I would add is is even with all of the students in the building uh prior to to November when we went to e- learning and and whether it be Elementary or secondary the the number of of close contacts who then became an actual positive case was was almost zero so so very few cases that we could track to say because of this positive case close contact because of a school class close contact identified close contact at school classroom cafeteria team or something like that and say now this is a positive case the number was was was negligible um and that's prior to hybrid but again in one week we've not seen yet any data that uh that we would have but we'll continue to monitor that we believing that um we should have basically none because if you go into one of our buildings now our secondary schools if we would have a positive case I'm not sure we would have any close contacts there may be somebody based on somehow something's working but at least when they go into a classroom and and get after it there should be very very few close contacts for any one individual at this moment bill is that a a proper characterization of that okay Kelly anything to add to that okay thanks to all right thank you for asking we're trying very hard to stay healthy and on top of that Miss Welden uh first of all I'd like to say thank you to several people in the room the preparation that's given to board members ahead of these meetings is really is really pretty good I felt like I had lots of information thank you Nick for technology um everybody here has just been very very helpful and I appreciate that very much I will ask a lot of questions because I have lot of them one of them that I should have asked is what you say when there's em motion and so I understand it's so move is that right yeah okay I I I'm going to mark that one down okay so so if I if I am maybe not doing something right along some of these procedures please everyone feel like they can guide me with a heavy hand um I want to learn quickly okay um I'm I'm just grateful to be part of this team and and thank you all for having me wonderful thank you so much thank you me did she take Mr Cloud's place uh-huh I did that's why a lot of questions I'll let him explain that to you okay yes sir yes sir Nikki I think we did praise Mr Cole on his way out last month and told him that we appreciated the number of questions he asks so maybe that's coming iig big shoes to Phil I understand that Miss St H twice well welcome Mr Grimes and miss wiing and um this is probably you know from the outside looking in um sometimes being a board member is you know it seems like there you know things run really smoothly and the conversations and stuff but the homework that we get sometimes and the um messages and emails and stuff some and especially a year of referendum or controversy or something a Hot Topic you will get flooded and you know it is sometimes overwhelming because we all have our lives too but we also you know do our best to respond back to everyone and sometimes we you know we never can keep everybody happy but we certainly are their voices because they put us here I will comment I really like these slides so whoever did the slides Josh it's it's uh we continue to to work on that brand uh we we do appreciate Josh and his continued efforts to to make things look a little bit better than they may did before so well especially because the print is a little larger and I left my glasses in the car so I'm sitting here and it works out fabulous but um I will say I'm hopeful as uh you know with the new vaccines coming out and um just an interesting tidbit I know I'm not normally talkative but um my husband and I we got our vaccines for the co he got it Thursday he got fizer I got it Friday I got madna okay he had covid last March I did not have covid yet so the question is depending on what kinds of signs and symptoms so in my head I'm running this little experiment to see you know because we're both pretty healthy um he had a headache yesterday and not feeling well I have felt great so far so um we both finished our second doses in February and uh so I encourage everybody that can and feel comfortable with it you know it was very fast and furious with CR did a fabulous job the girls that gave the injections you know I've given them in the past and you know I looked to her I said you know that's probably the best injection I had in a long time so I'm hopeful that this would kind of curve this spread of Co and we can put this behind us as in close the history book on our pandemic and hopefully we can move forward in a more positive PA so thank you appreciate you sharing that M Mrs D if I could just comment real quick because that did um Spar of thought uh Kelly and her team are doing a a great job of putting processes in place to be ready for when they say that teachers or or School staff members can be vaccinated so once that Supply is available we will have we we do have a plan in place and of course we can take advantage of the many nurses that we have in the school corporation uh to help administer that here so we're looking forward to those doses coming to to us at some point in time awesome yeah yes thank you Mr Stenner well just say U quickly one more reason to be thankful that we continue to be able to have nurses in each of our buildings yes absolutely wonderful uh my input and review this evening I wanted to comment on on um how meaningful it was personally for me to hear three board members take the oath of office and at that time to remember U the oath that I've taken that all of us have taken uh to the service it just seems especially meaningful and I also wanted to say thank you to U our three board officers for the willingness to serve us as elected officers this year thank you thank you thank you very much Dr bills uh welcome uh Mr Grimes and Mr Mr felden I'm glad you're with us and um welcome to the board as I said earlier if there's anything we can do to help you or answer questions everybody on the board is very I'm willing to do that so I'm glad you're here and and welcome and I also wanted to ask a question because maybe it's me and I'm oblivious to things but have we always had red name tags as we're in the process of making things look better Dr Bill I will credit Sherry with um realizing that we had I think had blue placards for quite some time and and that really doesn't align with uh with our Corporation color scheme and and even the um skirts that are on the table are are new to from a neutral black so yeah little little doctoring of that so thanks to Sher Chrisman for her work to tidy things up hey thanks y Got a Good Eye Dr very good eye I am not usually really so Mr Brian there is a uh young lady Columbus North that's recently had a heart transplant um I just like for every I take a moment tonight and say a prayer for that young lady being 16 years old and having a heart transplant you know I I just just don't understand it but uh if you would say a little of prayer from her and to our new members welcome enjoy uh didn't mean anything about the car well thing yes he really did thank you you're welcome thank you thank you and again thank you both Mr Grimes and Miss wien you'll see that we do have fun and we also get lots of homework um and I appreciate um the trust that you have in my leadership and also in working with Dr bills and and Mr Bryant I will just also add it's always interesting to realize everything that we that we do as a board and all that we would have committees that are a20 I can't even count that but I was also struck that and just a continuous reminder as to the work and the role of a school corporation that we will have students that we are willingly giving six meals a day when they are off and not at school and the number of students that rely on the school corporation for their food um I appreciate our ability to do that our willingness to do that I know part of it is related to Federal funding um in this particular situation but I know we do it um as best we can and I appreciate we can manage our finances in such a way to afford that so forever a reminder of what a school corporation does for a community besides what happens literally in a classroom with that said our next meeting 25th it'll be at 6:30 we will be here we will continue to offer Zoom options for those who are uncomfortable being in our space but we do have fun and we do laugh and it's not easy to do on Zoom so just saying but I want everyone to be safe with that said I will call this meeting a journ thank you very much thank you I'm going to stop sharing for those who are online

good evening everyone i'd like to call this meeting of the dartmouth school committee to order for a monday january 11 2021. would you please stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands well happy new year everyone i hope you all had a wonderful time uh away from the dartmouth public schools to some extent uh with your families or at least your immediate families and everyone had some time to uh just re-energize just a reminder if you do have a cell phone on you to please silence it and i'm just going to continue reading my little disclosure as i have in the past per governor baker's audit suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law chapter 30a section 20. the public will not be allowed to physically access this school committee meeting members of the public can access the meeting via live stream at youtube.com forward slash dhs tv media in addition the event will be rebroadcast in dc tv channels 9 and 18 on the following days wednesday and thursday at 5 pm friday at 6 a.m saturday at 8 a.m and sunday at 2 p.m the school committee reserves the right to implement additional remote participation procedures and will notify the public of these procedures as soon as practicable and as always you know it never never goes by without me taking the opportunity to thank dartmouth community television mr peratti who in his uh crew wherever they may be this evening and mr galesha who also helps out with these meetings would none of this would be possible without their help and support uh that being said we have a roll call please chris oliver here shannon jenkins here kathleen emerald here mary waite here john nunes yep thank you very much uh at this time we typically allow uh 10 or 15 minutes for anyone anyone wishing to comment on any of tonight's agenda items um if you have not done so yet comments can be made to our recording secretary to my right your left uh kate genther her email address is kathleen genther at a cushion i'm sorry at dartmouthschools.org um once again that's kathleen genther dartmouthschools.org it's my day job there i'm thinking of do we have any public comments this evening not so far okay thank you kate at this time chair will entertain a motion to approve the irregular session minutes of december 21st 2020.

and I am present no an all right well we could go ahead and uh you yes go right ahead Okay so we've taken roll do we have a flag for Pledge yes give me a second all rise to the pledge pledge allegiance fled United States of America one nation and jce okay um so moving on next item is all the we have several informational items having to do with um meetings at the curriculum Council and then also the ulat results and English learner program so might as well begin with um the music executive summary thank you so um as you know the chesher curriculum council is made up of um representative teachers from kindergarten through 12th grade and every five years um we have a schedule whereby a department will do a self evaluation of their curriculum and Technology professional development the standards and they will update their goals and objectives over that fiveyear period of time and set those they do this work independently um within their departments k12 and then they present that information to the cheser curriculum Council the council met in December and heard from three departments one was music the other was library and the other was a program which is our English learner program and so tonight we have an executive summary of the music program and the um library media specialist program for you so you see we have some new faces to our meeting tonight we have with us John cuner who is our P2 department chair we also have D Odell Who currently this year working at DOD Middle School we've got Greg Bell who is at cheser high school and we have Lynn laclair from DD middle school so I will turn it over to John cuner the K12 department chair and he will provide you with um an overview of their presentation good evening everyone I'm GNA present my screen just give me one moment here all right is that coming up yes I just wanted to say John you are not a new face thanks uh I don't know if that's good or bad yeah all right can all of you see my screen I should have said faces new to the Monday night crew is what I should have said we're good John thank you all right thanks so uh I just wanted to uh introduce all of the members of the committee we have uh some were not able to join us this evening uh the CCC music subcommittee members uh are Greg Bell Nicole cgel Lyn lir Jamie Odell Rich sheski myself and our administrative liaison is Dan tardelli uh as you see on the screen mission statement is very important to all of us um as a department and focuses on preparing and inspiring our students for lifelong participation in music and this is how our students feel I'll play a couple of excerpts from this video I love because makes feel happy and calm let me try restarting this one more time hopefully this will work when under class may come in it makes a big difference to them to being adjusted to the school and then also we have a few moments in band where like everything just clicks and you feel connected to the music and to the people and that's really it's an amazing feeling and great feeling to be part of an ensemble like that because it's not just you doing that for yourself it's you contributing to this beautiful either show or concert with this group of people nice John you're on mute yeah I just muted that just to see if we could get a better audio signal was it slightly distorted on your end I'm assuming yes unfortunately we'll see if others will play um our presentation is organized by the artistic processes uh the framework for our national core art standards we will take you on a student Journey from kindergarten Garden through High School in the areas of creating performing connecting and responding for creating musicians conceive and develop new artistic ideas by improvising composing selecting and interpreting music and musical ideas in the early years of the musical classroom students are taught the foundational skills that we build upon each year some of these skills include differentiating between singing and speaking voices pitch relationships dance and creative movement call and response and simple written compositions [Music] chip good job and in the later years of Elementary music classroom students begin to use more staff notation and are introduced to instruments including recorder guitar or ukulele band string instruments and then students continue to improvise and compose simple pieces creating at the middle school here's an example using the program note [Music] flights sorry for that Distortion moving on to the middle school as well for Improv provation couple of excerpts not g to work so I think we're gonna have to move ahead unfortunately um I can share this with you so that uh you can take a look at it at your leisure I'm not sure what the lag is maybe it's because we're all on remotely I'm not sure um but uh let me continue ahead uh we do have a string orchestra performance of Carol of the Bells we'll give it one more try here see if this comes through and it's not and then the CHS vocal Jazz with a performance with a great improvisation which uh again we will share this with you so you can take a look at these videos for connecting musicians experience relationships among artistic ideas personal meaning and external context and being in an ensemble or class promotes leading and Following being a part of a team students connect with both themselves and others in this example we would hear a first grade class at Norton practicing African-American Spirituals music helps our students connect to the other other cultures as well as to community Through performances in their school and audiences outside of the school music involvement helps students to connect with their inner thoughts in this excerpt from the Star Wars theme sixth grade band students imagine what it's what is going on in the movie as they play the theme give this one try if not we'll skip ahead not going to happen tonight here are some Middle School examples of connecting with literature and historical events and also at the middle school examples for Community events the Memorial Day parade and the Veterans Day assembly uh the coral department at Chester High School connected with the drama Department's presentation of antigon in M Munich the Sophie schol story exploring the role people their Agee played during the h cost with pieces like inscription of Hope by Z Randall Stroop and also investigated the role people can play to provide change with songs like hope for resolution which celebrates the partnership of Mandela and D clerk in South Africa programmatic band pieces like inchon that the symphonic band performed Chronicles the battle of the same name from the Korean War giving students the opportunity to explore the emotional significance these events played in human history performances at elim Park and at the public library have allowed students to see how their musical contributions can benefit the community they live in and collaborate with other students like seniors for seniors Club to achieve a common goal responding musicians understand and evaluate how the Arts convey meaning on this slide you can see a response about a student's perception of how practicing at home contributed to his to this band member's experience and also a chart that describes the level at which students feel they are given opportunities to respond middle school and high school students respond and reflect on their own peer performances using Google forms and class discussions the video below shows two students interacting with each other uh giving feedback about the performance that they just gave very thoughtful feedback from our students to each other uh do and CHS students have the opportunity to select music for their winter and spring concerts based off of skill level and curricular goals and here are some exceptional responses for a listening assignment and repertoire selection assignments at the middle school level performing the process of realizing artistic ideas and work through interpretation and and presentation at the elementary level music students are provided with multiple opportunities to perform both in their class and for their school Community they explore performances through song dance and beginner instruments such as recorder and orph instruments and later through Coral Ensemble string and band ensembles and Technology such as smart music I would play this but this is uh this is a video of students performing with smart music in a string on Ensemble and this next slide uh you would have seen um students performing at Norton a first grade concert and you can see um some of the other photos performing at the elementary level continuing on at the middle school we have several ensembles students can participate in at do and here are some of the examples of in-class performances at DOD middle school and that's actually a video of the orchestra in the dod Middle School B Orchestra room and at the community music thrives in community settings here is an example of seventh and 8th grade students carolling at elim Park this past December and at the high school level after a comprehensive music education at the elementary and middle school level this is our goal and let's see if we have any success unfortunately not and then this would have been an excerpt of the CHS marching Ram band which I'm sure many of you have seen and heard before social emotional learning in music uh the following are some of the way social emotional learning takes place in music classes and ensembles and Music Learning involves the use of kinesthetic linguistic spatial inter and intrapersonal musical expressive and mathematical functions all being exercised concurrently and looking back again at the artistic processes of Performing creating responding and connecting we see that the active music making requires students to deploy complex thinking skills to be successful the graphs above show that most of our elementary students are comfortable in their in our classes most students believe that their individual growth as well as their growth as a group matters to us this is taken from our survey results this data represents an average of the two grades who took the same survey for all three of these statements 87 to 90% of students agreed or strongly agreed at the high school level I try my best in music Ensemble classes because music is important to me all agree with 60% strongly agreeing I have used complex thinking skills in my music ensembles and classes all agree with more than 80% agreeing or strongly agreeing and I have opportunities to feel successful in my music Ensemble classes 98.2% agree moving on to our what will be and our five-year goal regarding curriculum standards and uni guides the curriculum document will be fully aligned with the national core art standards by 2023 organized in a shared Google Drive drive with all grade levels strands and courses represented including units lessons resources assessments and exemplars all containing a complex thinking component social emotional learning strategy and a CPS performance standard under text resources and Technology we recommend continuing the process of replacing School instruments remedy acoustical treatments in rehearsal spaces to address unsafe High decibel levels expand online resources replacing textbooks and investing in a computer lab at Treasure high school for use by students enrolled in general music and Performing ensembles with regards to instructional strategies expand opportunities for elementary course to meet during the school day meet quarterly as a full music department faculty to accomplish specific goals expand small group instructions so that all instrumentalists have access to small group lessons grades 5 through 12 expand interdisciplinary connections and expand opportunities for adaptive music instruction especially at the high school level for assessments we will develop and refine our K12 common assessments corresponding with all of our curricular units develop formalized processes to analyze and act on the assessment data provide opportunities for feedback use electronic resources to assist in continuous ly revise common assessments to improve student outcomes regarding professional learning again meet as a K12 Department quarterly effectively utilize plc's to drive positive change provide professional development opportunities related to our curricular goals as well as integrating technology fostering creativity and Independent Learning as well as increased complex thinking and social emotional learning and finally some additional considerations installing music computer lab at CHS which was previously mentioned revising Ensemble expectations to be gender non-specific and inclusive Implement adaptive and unified music programs at all levels work with facilities Department to update rehearsal and learning spaces with attention to acoustical treatments and enhanced technology as mentioned previously as well at this point if you have any questions I'd be happy to take those as well as I know Greg is on the call and Lynn and Jamie as well Ann has a question so take it away thanks uh first of all I wish the links had worked and um I'm hopeful that you will send that around to us because um I really would like to listen to all of the all of the pieces that you had in there my question is were you using the notation programs um before all of the remote prior to all of the remote learning that we're doing yes uh we were we were using smart music at the middle school um and at the high school to a limited degree but uh now we've we've um gone even more um in into that program U at the high school level than we have before um strings are now using it on a regular basis um really the Middle School um Lynn and Jamie I'll let you speak to that well I Ann I think you specifically talked about notation software and um note flight which is what you saw a presentation from Lind class from um is actually a composition software that is used starting in elementary school I know that um at least three of the elementary schools use it um starting as early as fourth grade to be honest with you and they've been uh using that for almost four years now I think this would be the fourth year that they would be using note flight um and Lynn's been using it much longer than that um I know that smart music has been used at the middle school for this is going on 11 years am I right Lynn at least at least 11 yeah thank you Tony do you had a question yeah I just want to say thank you Je team it's it's an awesome presentation I always look forward to seeing the videos every year I Echo an sentiment I definitely want to see the links and um be more happy to share on social media we always love to see the positive vibes coming from our our future musicians um John you you had listed in one of the slides a music Lab at the high school and I'm sure Ann's probably thinking this too and and I both on SMC and as you know the mization committee is looking at all our schools and future plans and expansion Etc would you if in a perfect world would you also expand some type of music lab to the other schools Middle School maybe elementary schools because that might be something that you know as that plan moves forward and we get into the actual programming what comes out of it might be something to consider for a future yeah absolutely absolutely if there is uh space uh available and oh was that a premium absolutely and um yeah how we looked at it at the high school was uh for students in not only Theory classes but also Ensemble classes to learn more about music theory and notation and and composition improvisation and so on by having that lab environment and perhaps uh it being manned by um our faculty uh when when we're able to do that similar to what other departments are doing at the high school that's great well again thank you John I appreciate the the uh the showcasing again it's always one of my favorite parts of the school year thanks and do do you have another question your I don't know if your hands still up nope I forgot to lower it there thank you and you all covered my questions I was going to ask about you know how this would fit in with the modernization have they reached out to you have you been able to provide them feedback is it um you know especially bringing some of these Labs down to the lower levels I have not spoken to this specifically uh this was uh as a result of our our review process um and uh we're just now looking at this uh for for an eventual fiveyear implementation if it's possible to do that so okay that would be our next steps yeah I was just gonna say I do commend you it's um quite an uh a robust program and um I just am impressed with the the fact that you're engaging these kids in composition in performance so early and um it's get them over their fears get them over their hurdles and and get them producing I think it's wonderful so thank you do you all have any questions for us could I um build off of the question or off of what both faith and Tony were saying about those uh music labs are are they big space Hogs or are can they be relatively small spaces yeah it might even be possible to have it in an existing space that's um already set up um for another department um if there is a classroom available that we could share that space which is what we've what we've done in the past um we just would have to have enough time um allocated to that for students to be able to come down um you I think we're talking probably um a half a dozen to a dozen at the most um stations Greg I don't know what you think about that probably a dozen at the most um and um you know some of this can be accomplished with Chromebooks right now in the meantime but um there are a lot of um programs out there especially with sound editing and music technology and when we get into notation software that we really have to have that installed on on a desktop that's not something that can be done all over the web um exclusively as you heard uh tonight with with our recordings I probably should have uploaded those YouTube in advance we would have been able to play those so thank you um well I think we've we've covered that thank you you guys for the presentation and we look forward to um getting your um you're sending out the links so that I I listened in on the meeting where you guys presented I don't know if you knew that I was in the background so I heard them and they more in their glory and they were very very good so um thanks thank you um next up is the um Library uh executive summary great thank you very much I'll take that and John I might need to have you stop presenting so I can all right can you see the um presentation yes of course my you may just want to present screen in your in your side deck present that screen there's a bar over my hold on just a second sure there we go is that better okay great um I'm pleased to share on behalf of our library media specialist uh a summary of their five-year evaluation um it's a relatively small department so the subcommittee is the entire department so from the elementary schools carollyn maab Barbara gay Wier Kim Grabowski Karen Zed off and Jennifer istus uh Kristen Shanley at the middle school and Ann wellp at the high school uh as you take a look at the mission statement that uh our library media specialist crafted updated mission statement uh I want you to notice that it really is the intersection of our Chester strategic goals complex thinking social emotional learning are embedded in here our chesher performance standards and our American Association of school librarian standards which we'll talk a little bit more about as we move along so they tried to embed as as much as that overlap uh among those important strategic initiatives in their mission statement uh it's important to note that uh our we have a K12 Library um curriculum library classes are for our k for all students are for kindergart through fifth grade they meet 45 minutes once every 4day rotation on a typical year we also have uh a research uh class primarily for grade seven our sixth grade students take Spanish where this previously was slotted for library and our eighth grade students don't have a dedicated um don't have a dedicated researcher or Library class um although those are classes we still serve as our library media Specialists to a tremendous amount uh to support teachers with their classroom collections uh research questions circulating books um they they all are responsible for coordinating our summer reading programs and providing spaces for our school community activities we'll share just a little bit about that with you as we go forward our our CCC process has both a look backward over the previous five years what was uh as well as a look forward to what will be and when we looked back at some of the goals over the past five years a lot of it really had to do with aligning the curriculum to uh the common cor State Standards at the time making sure there was good vertical alignment meaning what students did in fourth grade built naturally on what they did in third grade and so on and so forth um and really also uh looking for students to uh own their own learner own their own learning personaliz learning through some authentic research so that was um a good portion of the what was and and some accommodations and things that they achieved during that time uh were to write units that were fully align to the Common Core State Standards uh and including rubrics and assessments that match those at the elementary level um getting the middle school and high school C curriculum coordinated all in one spot on Google Drive and again having those align to um Common Core State Standards additionally I want to point out in some of the research findings from the group one of the things that was um came out as a theme in each of the categories where they assessed was the importance of uh the Librarians Library meting Specialists having time to collaborate with one another as a department which can be challenging on our schedules and again a relatively small department and also with um the teachers and each the buildings the the things that they found to be really ful for students outside of um outside of Library classes specifically really take a high amount of collaboration so where that happened they they really felt like they made strides uh in addition to that being a small Department the opportunities to have professional development really specific to what's happening in terms of best practice for library media specialist was important to some of the work that they were doing so on their Reflections on what was those were some of the themes that that uh came out as as we look forward to uh what will be one of the things that happened over uh the five years of this evaluation cycle was American School American Association for school librarians aasl which is a mouthful for me to get out each time uh updated their standards and um one of the things that our library media specialist found valuable I see high value in relative to the stand standards is um they really contain a strong overlap not only for important things that are part of Common Core State Standards but things that are important to our ngss standards our social studies framework and all the kinds of 21st century skills that you'll see in our tester performance standards so one of the things that will will be highlighted in our curriculum review process is really um aligning some of the work to these standards because they represent a really good crossover of some of the big ticket items that are going to be important for our students across the content areas so this really um moving forward is going to become an important frame for us and this is just another another lens on that and I'll point out two quick examples uh of where this overlap happens using evidence uh you if you look for using evidence you will find that as a really important part of our Common Core state standard you'll definitely see that in our science standards and our social studies standards it also is embedded in our performance standards so if we're referencing back and our library media instruction and the collaboration that they're doing with teachers focuses on provide having opportunities for stud for students to use evidence in meaningful ways and provide evidence you can see that that cuts through um and overlaps quite a few standards similar similarly um the there's a whole category on collaboration collaboration is a key part of our performance standards so this really does provide a good anchor for us and our library Mia specials for shaping out their curriculum and the next iterations of the curriculum over the next five years uh in fact these are some samples of some of the goals that they'll be tending to in different categories and the categories again are related to curriculum it's related to teaching and learning it's Rel to assessment it's related to resources and these are some uh select goals from each of those categories all that relate all that relate to the shift to the aasl standards again you'll see that theme towards the bottom here of the collaboration with the Librarians and the grade level colleagues being a really important part of their work going forward outside of those uh aasl standards uh some of the work that they continue to see being valuable and important to their uh curriculum writing work oh one is one is this is not a bad time to stop and note that um they have spent a good deal of time working on digital citizenship which was very important pre pandemic it's been extremely important during this time where we have just made such a shift to using online resources and venues like Google meet to interact um that actually has span kind of the end of the previous CCC it's was included in this CCC cycle but honestly we've done a good deal of the curriculum work on that end already um but again you'll see on what will be the value of the library un Specialists uh collaborating with one another and collaborating with teachers to look for those spots to integrate their curriculum uh is really important one of the challenges that you'll see coming up is um there are spots like the sixth grade um where we don't have a library class like 8th grade where we don't have a library class like high school where the that instruction happens in collaboration primarily with the social studies and English departments but it all takes the library media Specialists collaborating with teachers and finding those opportunities um to to make that integration happen that's part of the work that will be upcoming some of the challenges that they have to overcome uh in addition to that um again that that finding that time to collaborate they found Great Value and good work when they've had those opportunities and we'll be seeking out ways for them to do that on a more regular basis on an increasing basis over the next five years and I'll leave you with just a few um few pictures that I think represent some of the shifts that are already happening along this run already represent some of the shifts to uh new standards um and I want you to think about the library as as we go through these as primarily a quiet place where you might do reading and as you look at these pictures from the high school the middle school and Elementary School consider really the changes in our library program over the past five years and will certainly continue over the next five years really to be the shift from a quiet place where reading may happen that'll still be there but also to an active hub for learning and that's really the shifts that you're making in this example you see some um Gatherings of of high school monthly salons and that's um part of the library being a hub for other school-based community activities at the middle school level you'll see both um some book clubs and some maker space work that opportunity in those standards to create build design thinking are all embedded in those new standards already happening at Dot and also at our elementary level um again those those ideas of collaborating problem solving using the design thinking process and the library simply looks looks like a different place that it may have 15 or 20 years ago and I Contin I think that it'll continue to do so and really be uh when our programs are working at their best a really active hub for learning it's a brief summary of the presentation that our library meia Specialists gave um back towards the end of November or beginning of December and I'll take any questions you have anyone have anything so um I'm gonna ask the modernization question Kevin and I don't know if you feel comfortable asking this or not it clearly the modern library is or the library of old has changed in um and you you hit that hit on that um what are you hearing about space requirements um equipment needs um all of that that should um you know and how will it affect or uh be incorporated into that modernization plan yeah so in terms of the modernization work um you know that's I think I think if you were to ask me kind of what's going to be important going forward for these spaces first of all our library media centers are serving multiple purposes yes they have classes of 25 students there at a time for some core instructions so the space needs to um be able to accommodate that setup you see that the active learning and collaboration for students is important so the ability for students to be meeting in groups um with a lot of materials is going to be important you'll also see the library as a place where um community and events are happening School community events are happening so if you took think to the uh High School uh salons monthly salons those are larger groups of students so a space that's flexible enough to be able to um move from a setup that's going to accommodate a class that needs to collaborate to a a larger um group that flexibility space is going to be important um one of the things that was certainly part of the report that I didn't necessarily highlight uh tonight was the ongoing evolution of Technology the library media specialist role in helping be a point of contact to help teachers uh learn that technology help students learn that technology so a place that can adapt to that evolving technology uh as it comes is is also I would say important those are all kind of anchors into how our library media centers are used so you need to have that flexibility of the space and ability to kind of adapt over time and it needs to be big enough to to be the Hub The Learning Hub that um it's intended to be I have another one if unless you guys have Ann or Tony go ahead Ann yeah I'm just wondering and I'm thinking out loud here but along with what you were saying Faith about um the school modernization and and when we go to um modernize some of these school buildings if not all of them over the years um do we know if libraries in newer Schools are they uh sort of central to the building if you were building a new school would the library be sort of the heart yeah the heart and anybody can answer it doesn't have to be Kevin well I'm not sure which of the buildings are who saw some of the modernized buildings on the tours but I'm just thinking of Berlin high school and how that is a really central part to the rest of the school and there's a lot of meeting spaces off of there and a virtual reality room off of there and it it really is the heart I'm not sure if physically it's in the center um but it it definitely is the Hub that's just one school that that comes to mind right away as you know sort of being the lifeblood to the rest of the building well I was gonna say Ann and your to your point um you know you think of what a library is to a town and how um it's not just a place to read quietly all the time it's not the place to go get shushed or anything else anymore it very much becomes the community center so um is that a similar thing that we need to consider as we're building these these and renovating our schools I don't know I don't know if the school library is a different animal from yeah for from a programmatic standpoint a good Library Media Center in my mind should be um should be an active Hub of the school it really should be a few a few years ago we went um we were going to redo the the high school library as best as we could um before Ann got in there and we um went to visit some schools around different states even Massachusetts Rhode Island and it's exactly what you were talking about kind of the vision that we wanted to see moving forward for the library and we did the best we could with the space we had but that's exactly what it should be that whether it's in the center or not kind of the Hub of everything so um some practical questions um first of all so Kevin just so I make sure I understand this by going with the aasl standards over the Connecticut common core standards we are essentially ramping up our game s yeah I I would say they're more comprehensive inclusive I think the common cor state standards were 100% appropriate to Anchor um the program in before because there's a lot of shifts that happened when they shifted to the Common Core this these standards really capitalize on the overlap of all our big sets of standards and the skills that we want students to do so um ramping up our game might be one way to say it I might also characteriz is really capitalizing on on the intersection of all those things yeah and and would say what's happening in our programs currently is is reflective a lot of what's what's captured in those standards so um certainly some of the shifts that have already happened in the library uh media programming already aligned to this and it's it's a certainly a more natural fit and I think they did a really good job on this update of being conscious of all those things so there they're pretty well written from that standpoint okay and then and one last one what have we lost by I know Marlin you've expressed concern about um the just the loss of the instruction time in the Middle School um especially you know they go K through five with Library instruction and then it almost completely drops off in six and then they pick it's an elective but um what do we lose by doing by that and how do we fix it if it's a if you feel it is a substantial loss for the kids and their in their Library instruction I think some of what came out in in the research findings some spots are pretty concrete like digital citizenship um you know we've got a spot for that on the curriculum K5 there's not a defined spot for who's teaching that in in sixth grade so so that's something that we have to work on in some of the bigger picture items on on what we lose you know a lot the answer is the work that um library media Specialists are are talking about doing and have done with integrating their work and collaborating with a social studies teacher because the overlap between those those skill set and that curriculum are pretty um pretty significant same thing with science same thing with English um but we don't necessarily have the structures well set up for that collaboration overlap that's those are some of the hurdles that we have to jump over the next five years so you know all marene speak to kind of loss of program but we kind of know that to get at at these skills it's going to take the collaboration and the integration of this work rather than a separate class um finding the ways to do that is the challenge that's ahead of this group given schedules and FTE and you know things like you know you're aware of of the elective schedules that at the middle school those are just hard things to to kind of navigate and overcome but it's worthwhile to do okay thanks I don't know if you want to add on to that at all or I think you said it perfectly great okay um well thank you that was good um so um item C is the grade six old set results yeah and I I think I'm on I think I'm on deck for the next few so so I'm going to give a update on um the fall administration of our olat the Otis linen School ability test um if you've been on this committee for a little while you've seen these updates um one in the fall for sixth grade one in the spring for third grade uh just a background this assessment really measures um analytic and thinking skills aligned to academic success we use this primarily right now to support uh decisions around individual students needs for either increased rigor and enrichment or additional learning support uh if you were to look at this background statement from a few years ago you would see that there were a few more things listed it was um a primary uh consideration for things like math placement at dot for for gifted and talented identification um and while this assessment uh still is used in those areas they've kind has shifted from being a primary measure for um those considerations to a secondary measure for those considerations so um you know we'll talk about that a little bit it certainly has been used over time uh to provide a different lens with which to consider students and and their performance as a whole um so I'll come back to that towards the end of this uh and I guess I'm not presenting the whole thing sorry about that this is a fiveyear kind of running tally of the results and you can see that for the last three years um our olad score has has remained consistent at uh 98 and this is uh the the type of scale where 100 is considered a nationally normed average plus or minus kind of 15 percentage points so um for the last three years our allat score for sixth grade has been 98 that's either been the 47th or 48th percentile nationally um you know I know questions came up last year in terms of why that shift from just over 100 to just under 100 and I don't know if we have a solid answer for that because our our student performance overall um really has gone up over time and this isn't relative to our curriculum this is kind of the um ability on these thinking skills that are assessed through through this assessment one note for this year this is a an assessment that does not have uh an option for remote Administration so this is inperson Administration only we did offer um a safe from a health standpoint space for any of our remote students to come in to take this assessment uh it was not required for for them to do so we did not have um very many if any students take us up on that so the number of students tested is actually lower than than our total sixth graded enrollment um primarily due to remote students who did not take the assessment and or a few cases of students who were um in a quarantine during the testing period we had about a two week window for for this assessment so again um as a measure to indicate kind of what are are bringing to the table in terms of aptitude relative these to these analytical skills and it's broken down both verbal and nonverbal and there's not a significant difference between those two scores um when you break it down we've had pretty consistent performance over the last couple years um one note for sixth grade this is the breakdown by quartile in an ideally perfectly normal curve you would see 25% in all of these uh for sixth grade historically we have have not had um that even distribution we tend to get that in third grade but not in sixth grade uh and uh this year the uh students in the highest percentile that has been about 12 to 13 to 14% over the last few years that did dip down to nine I don't have a grand answer for why that's the case I do suspect some of it had to do with just the scenario that we're in right now and um in terms of of covid and testing and you know it's not too difficult to have one or two test questions not answered correctly for for a scored to dip a little bit so um I don't have a grand answer the analysis doesn't show anything that that gives us a real big hint of why um that's not an even split um it's not vastly different than it has been the last few years but that highest core tile did go down a little bit so in terms of moving forward uh on this uh assessment it is one um because we have um over the time that this assessment has been administered really developed a lot of different lenses and assessments and ways to uh consider how students are performing and where they are it is one that will continue review um its its use and administration over time not anything that that either Marl and I are willing to make a definitive statement on tonight but um as we have other ways to really have a good understanding of where students are and different lenses to which with which to view their performance and knowing that we have used this a little bit less over the years it is something that we'll consider whether we continue to minister in future years but that's uh the report as it stands do I have any questions okay um thank you um and then uh last but not least an overview of the English learner program yes so the overview of the English learner program from a CCC standpoint I think we're going to do next month this is on here just to give a little bit of update uh relative to uh the last links uh testing that's the state uh assessment that we give to our engos Corners that window opens on January 4th as it does each year it's usually January through beginning of March window uh this year uh it is January through the end of March uh March 31st they essentially added a month to be able to minister this assessment um and if you recall it assesses four areas listening speaking reading and writing um of note for this year there are procedures as there will be for other state administered um assessments for this to be done uh remotely so we are not beginning with our um on a typical year um we do not start right at the beginning of the window we usually have enough time to assess our students if we begin towards the end of January we're usually done um by the time we get to kind of president day uh this year um we are going to start a little bit earlier than we normally do because we know that um with students moving in and out on the situation we just want to make sure we have enough time to assess all the students um after the first couple weeks of iners administration we will start um doing the online admin Administration which uh is essentially a one-on-one Administration in a Google meet like this with some procedures to make sure that the test Administration is is secure so um that the people who will be uh administering that assessments kind of a range of people um are rams Pat Castle Chris at the elementary level um some of our literacy support tutors at the elementary level and uh High School level as well um as they get uh as they get into this you know we're going to keep an eye on on how that remote Administration goes because I think it will also give us some insight into some of our other state assessments that will be coming up like the ngss and ASPC but that testing Windows opened uh it's one month longer than it typically would be and um we'll begin sometime this week we did the training for all those people last week I know that's why I was braying it those soon we did the training so that everybody's up to speed on all the protocols for ministering both in person and remotely so just a brief update on the last links testing for our e students great thank you any questions or feedback on that okay well that brings us to the end of our agenda so um thank you every body for being here and um do I have a motion to close motion to adjourn the meeting um second I'll second that all right all in favor hi hi

to order them for january 11th 2021 um and with that vin can you do the roll call please yes the planning committee members mr martelly president mrs hallen here mr white okay mr white's not here and we do have other board members with us you do have a quorum mr martelly thank you all right let's uh stand for the pledge of allegiance oh here's tim oh okay just one second here you should see the flag okay ready i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states one nation under god all right item two on the agenda this evening is there any communication received from the audience then no i have no communication from audience okay moving along to i am number three 2021 22 capital expenditure plan and budget um then you're going to share your screen i believe yes i will share my screen in uh in just a second i did want to welcome everybody obviously this is the uh pass that the planning committee and the board members that are on the call have at looking at the capital budget for the next five years the capital budget doesn't need to be approved with the operating budget so we are starting with the planning committee as we always do and the planning committee eventually will make a recommendation for the to the full board and i just wanted to also explain that the capital budget we really look at two pieces one is the overall five-year plan which you'll you'll see in just a couple of minutes and to the extent that's approved by the board and the town council that will be the five-year plan that we use we update it every year the second and and probably the more important piece is the one-year expenditure plan so eventually when the plane is approved even though a five-year plan is approved funding for the plan is only for the items that are in that first year of the of the plan that we'll be presenting as a start this evening so uh with that said um as long as there are no questions what i'm going to do is i'll start with the overview um and because i'm going to be presenting i'll do my best to keep my eye on if there are any questions but you know certainly feel free to interrupt as i as i grabber on here i'll try and do this as as quickly as i can i did provide to the uh you know to the board members um and everyone actually that's on this call including rich clavette and dan bombero the summary and the detail pages as well okay so with that preamble okay and somebody just let me know when you see the screen got it it's working okay excellent so if you look at the uh first here the pie chart on the left um this represents the capital request for the next five years that are being you know recommended at this time you know from superintendent solon uh and myself as a chief operating officer and you could see this total is 37 million 728 500.

said go down your computer and uh correct that would be an eye for both okay we all vote on our computers oh those are past 16 right do i do the need [Music] or changes or additions to the consent agenda i'm being heard i make a motion to accept the consent agenda as presented [Music] a yes from the phone and a 6-0 pass approval we'll move on to written concerns there's a list of students that score 90 or higher on language math reading and the science math major of academic progress assessments they're going to be recognized at their respective buildings we just wanted to let you know and so you can see the list of students and their excellent achievements so they're listed below and this is based off of which test the nature of academic progress math testing practice and our administrators and staff they feel like the math tests are probably the best assessments that we give because they have you can show progress they are given multiple times throughout the year a lot of different it's not just a one-shot deal like a state assessment if you will so again lots of good lots of good student scores there and improvements and these are all the things we hand out usually at a basketball game but this year we're just going to be at the buildings yes and last year we decided to do them in the buildings we were going to do it at the end of the year [Music] each building will set up a time to recognize the students all right then concerns of usd 244 patrons [Music] okay written items most of them are on there we also put um 21st century students made all the cards that were at your okay we'll move on to food service uh anna hess wanted to uh extend a special thank you to uh the people at the god storehouse starly hatch and jay hale for the use of their walk-in freezer during our transition from our freezer to our high school when we uh put in a new unit there over christmas break we had to have a place to put some food it's a vine storehouse came to the rescue for us and we greatly appreciate starlie and jay and the people about storehouse so she wanted to note you know their their service to us and then there's also did you send them a thank you yes go ahead and cut you off no no that's okay all right maintenance director report and then margarita solano wanted to thank again uh about storehouse people but he also wanted to thank alan schneider and the burlington electrical department they helped us put the freezer rooftop compressor unit that project was a quite vital reveal but alan and his crew at the city again they uh they were terrific to work with and we wanted to thank them and then also like i say margarita want to thank starley and jay at storehouse as well so is this going to be something we're going to have uh listed from now on a food service and maintenance reports they just they they wanted to know if those uh those those couple of events um so i don't think it's a bad thing to have give them the opportunity to tell us stuff every month i sure could extend the opportunity to them if they would like to just have open it up to them and say look if you got stuff to tell us put it in there okay and i mean if they don't have anything or i mean i mean i think that'd be good i mean all those people have kind of important jobs in our system sure and letting doug tell us about everything because he does maintenance ground maintenance and all that grass water and transportation it's not like they have to but we should open it up to them okay all right move on to elementary school and barla is with us via starley she's gone yeah she's got her own chair is she the only one up early she is uh mr reed mr white pins are at the high school band pokeball and i think that's anybody [Music] um no questions we move on to the middle school oh i just wanted to say darla i thought your elf on the shelf visit was really awesome all yeah now we'll move on does anybody have any questions at all for middle school pretty short short time around yeah nothing to be popped up since we're over all right we'll move on to the high school which you know where they're at you have any questions second and they might be here it depends on how long the meeting goes so they're wrapping up with the concert so they may join us and if you do you can if you have questions they don't show up but if you guys have something we'll come back to it or we can make sure we get addressed but if nobody has anything we'll just move on we sure can alright special education nothing new other than i'm sure my positions have changed obviously we have a retirement that is going to pop up tonight and then it's kind of that time of year with a little bit of fair turnover but we are getting these filled back so um got two more last week we hired two last weeks so we're starting to get back we're not very bad maybe two to three right now so that's really not too bad at all all right all right move on to technology [Music] questions all right we'll move on to superintendents before well january is board of education uh month so again i want to thank all of you for your service i do have some certificates for you guys we'll forgo the handshake and i'll just hand out the certificate again being a board member is challenging in the best of times let alone throw in a pandemic like we had to deal with and uh you know it's a it's quite a challenge quite an obstacle uh you know to deal with um just unheard of you know again the things that we had to deal with here in the last nine to ten months so uh again i want to thank all of you for your service to the community i greatly appreciate what you do for us and i i greatly appreciate your leadership of working together uh on the great things that are happening in usd 244.

this is the c1 schedule which is your budget so we look at that number and it walks you through all of your revenues based on where you anticipated it goes through all of your expenses and it gets you to the end which is your fund balance picture which you know we say fund balance doesn't always just mean available it's all of the buckets so in your fund balance picture you have a million 142 202 which is designated as capital reserve that's the money set aside for future capital you're having another million dollars in your maintenance reserve that's used to help offset your maintenance budget so future years you have an additional 250 000 in an emergency reserve that emergency reserve is established and actually this year the governor is allowed to use that for additional covet expenses if you have them for which you don't have funding you have about forty thousand dollars that's earmarked and being used in the budget that you're currently in that's about forty seven thousand dollars and then that leaves you with what we refer to as your free balance and your access surplus your free balance which the state allows you to hold is six hundred and forty seven thousand three hundred and thirty thirty dollars leaving you with four hundred and eighty two thousand seven hundred and forty what i mean is labeled as excess surplus that's the number you're gonna use to build your 21 budget your 21 your 21 22 budget that's your starting point so then a few other financial highlights is the district received and spends about 2.5 million dollars of federal and state grant funds in your fund 20 grant fund accounting that's separate from your skating and then in food service this one is a newer one that we're trying to highlight your fund balance and your food service is about 740 000 which is actually approximately 150 decrease from where it was last year primarily food services really took the brunt of covid in that obviously your students weren't in school your lunches weren't being supplied you didn't have anybody buying full-priced lunching we're only supplying um free meals once the school's shut down parents are sending them in when they're coming in so this is really an area where we're seeing large decreases in fund balance and if the food service ends up running a deficit you will have to utilize general fund dollars to keep it afloat which we've seen numerous districts actually having to send money over from their general operating budget to keep the food service fund afloat so you still have some surplus but you're really depleting it quickly so it is something we monitor then additionally there's a second report that's the amr which is your management report and that's our report to the board with the recommendations that you have we have um three recommendations in the report this year two that i would dub is going hand in hand they kind of go together even though they're labeled as two separate ones they are the first one is that the world number of reclassifications between line items within your own budget and between the general fund and the special revenue budget if we do see this happen when there is a change in personnel within your business office everybody sort of does things not sure what the person prior to them did versus the person that they're doing work now you had some new younger staff in that office and then as a result that kind of ties you to the second recommendation which then you have an outside treasurer who does your reconciliations he's independent of it and when those adjustments occur and everything isn't communicated in the end you end up with a lot of reconciling items on the bankruptcy so we sort of see these two go together so we just recommend that not only do all those reconciling items get resolved quickly and in a timely manner but we try to make sure that we limit the numbers of transactions that are changed and then the third other recommendation relates to your preschool education program the state requires that any transfers from once they approve your budget for preschool they require this normally the county approves your transfers the state put a level of oversight in that grant saying we need to review any transfers and approve them that transfer approval was not obtained for transfers that district made within those programs and as in prior years one of the things we always like to include in the report are what we refer to as our suggestions to management which are things that are not an issue for the district however we've seen them as either problems in other districts or areas that are coming up new to make people aware of one of them is a new standard last year when i told you we had this new standard that would change the way the reporting showed a little bit for your student activity funds due to coven they extended the deadline and it's actually going to be in place for your school year and then the other one is really more of an informational suggestion in that in this covenant environment that we've all been operating in since march everybody's working remotely data's being transferred remotely who's on in the office who's working from home so we're really making sure that routinely make sure you're checking the procedures and your policies and your securities to make sure your data is protected and that everything is being operational either the way it was designed in your internal control procedures manual or if you're changing the way actions are being done say you used to approve vouchers manually now you're approving them electronically make sure your policies reflect that same change so that you're not you're not in violation of your own policy purely because you're you sort of were improvising when we all went out to cove and we all went and kind of just made it that we were you know flying by the seat of our pants so we just want to make sure that everybody is take a step back look at what you're doing make sure that it's come it's what the district intends to do and has documented that's their plans so once again i'd like to say it was a wonderful opportunity to work for the district and i'm available for any questions anyone might have it's a lot of information throughout your blood so with the money that the government's giving us for school is that going under the school uh the revenue for the cafeteria budget or is that going to like a brand because it's definitely like grant money that the [Music] yeah because that money runs through your enterprises when they put everybody into the everybody can have a free lunch and so it kind of really is again you're still supplying the lunch but you're only getting a partial reimbursement from the state for everyone i just wanted to make sure that it wasn't under like the grant section any other questions anybody online thank you very much for your time and everybody stay safe so we have no committee meetings at this time so we are open to the public agenda items only apparently we have no questions so we are to approval of minutes can i get an emotion or approval of minutes so was that a motion motion from mr fazio a second second from mrs stevens discussion abstain mr validator yes this is unclear with abstain and mr father yes okay so you're up to personal resolutions district and high school resolved superintendent recommends for our approval the resolutions at that line in personal resolutions under district in high school we have 6.2 through 6.13 6.13 can i get a motion motion motion miss defazio can i get a second second second mr vader discussion just out of curiosity i mean there's two resignations on tonight's things and you know um are we finding that people are people moving to different positions are there positions open now that a lot of people may have retired is there more mobility going on i mean um yeah there's there's definitely more mobility going on i think people right now um they're bigger resignations people reside at the beginning of the year there's big year uh resignations coming out with cove and everything else going on so there are openings out there and i think people um are moving in and unfortunately in our particular situation um we have people who are moving we're getting paid more money to go to other districts that we just can't compete with with some of the salaries right now all right because i was wondering you know i would assume that uh i know in new york there was a ton of president you know people that resigned uh i thought that might shake a lot of people to different positions okay and again some so there's some positions out there that are that are more in need than others and you know people are willing to pay more for those positions right now okay any other questions or comments yeah yes on six seven on the teacher observation replacing miss meyer with mr steele from rutgers six seven student announcement observation is she currently a basketball coach that's i just want to make sure it's not a conflict of interest i don't believe sadly she's a student um through rutgers graduate school i believe she's a volunteer okay will she be in discussion with him when it comes to women's basketball with mr steele no okay we make sure that happens absolutely thank you okay any other questions not a question but everybody will say a little prayer that winter sports happen absolutely fingers crossed i'm so excited that they started today for all the kids i know that they've been do we have confirmation that they're gonna um stream the games yes excellent yeah we're gonna be on the same youtube no uh i believe that we um tom there's a proprietary camera that they've been selling to the schools um mr steele has more info on that uh he could go into the more details of how it's gonna be set up and uh i'm sure we will let you guys all know when we uh post it on the website for the link yeah and i know this is going to be through huddle yeah yeah huddle that's the one yeah we're doing it through huddle so i know we we've been working on the uh the cabling and everything else that happened to make sure this this occurs so i know it's also high resolution so it's like a 4k um screen uh camera so you do it at like aau it's better than nothing yes there's martinez yes yes is morris yes stevens yes mezzo zuma yes yes mr tom selling yes yes personal resolutions middle and elementary resolve the superintendent recommends for approval resolutions as outlined in personnel resolutions under middle and elementary school 7.2 through 7.6 6.

yeah 2010's the general election then served 11 12 13 14. yes so my granddaughter did her mom she's awesome put her in barbie keybridge school district this year online yeah so my sister my daughter listened in today while she was doing her online deal so it started off with the teacher yelling at the kids there were 27 kids in the class and it started off with her yelling at him and within a minute of her beginning to yell at everybody 24 the kids logged out wow and only only six of them stayed on and then some came back later and um but she said she stayed there the whole day and listened to what was going on and the majority of the day the teacher just ranted at him on about issues at grade level and there's a lot of research about frontal lobe and learning and when you're embarrassed or angry or scared and sometimes people use all three of those strategies to help shut down that frontal lobe that stops learning i understand frustration some days it doesn't help the learning

is Session 1 and then February 17th from 1 to 3 p.m. will be session are there any questions one question how many inactive students do we have right now we have 19 inactive students but so far we have 13 after we've touched base with with the parents are they dnf students no not all of them what percentage would you say are I would say about 50% 50% of them are D students and the others are because they're having issues probably with internet or they're just not logging in so we're trying to get there's some that are not staying with their Guardians so parents have contacted us they're with a different family member at this time that um so we're going back and forth with the teachers and with the parents trying to get a hold of of the people that they are with that's about three of those 13 yeah it's not an easy process so Monday when we first started I had to email Steve because if we couldn't find the link to sign on so we had to call one of the friends and in the sixth grade they're all in different places so part of my problem as a parent is we're used to it now but it's not consistent as to where you click to go sign on or get your lessons or upload and share and all that the Google meeting in the Google Classroom yeah they're all different some are you got to scroll down and go back to like it says August that's where the live link is like well why would I click there and the other one's up at the top but then most of those never worked so it's it's it is confusing thank you so who do we have monitoring access I Monitor and I've gone in so when parents have called that they couldn't either Steve gets a hold Mir to Albert and I and we go in because we all have access to their Google classrooms so those parents that were calling and having needing more help with it we were copying and pasting the Google links for the meetings mostly it was for six seventh and eighth grade students that were having issues finding but um a lot of them were the same as they had been prior to us going back to digital would it have been possible for the teacher to send the link and many of them many of them did send the links and they sent emails to the them know some did not thank you thank you appreciate it okay moving on now I will move that we approve the consent agenda motion a second second second any discussion yes um so is it to be implied that um this um the two teachers are going to be retiring this and no that um that's been in our governing board um policy of any unused sickly pay has to be submitted to the board for potential if they are to Fe or retire but it's no it's not an official retirement so you don't think they're going to retire uh not no not that we have been made aware of that's why yes that's always my initial reaction thank you is this the program for um Builder Club fundraising no this is this is our um C for Washington DC so do they have some for us to sell yes we can get something to sell definitely okay we love anybody that wants to sell so we'll make sure we get some to miss thank you any further discussion I question okay all right let's go Miss K yes Miss Allen yes Mr oy yes I approve and Mr mcken yes pass thank you business see any on there new business Monica Molina is Executive Administrative Assistant so we are very happy to report that Miss Molina is going to be joining our team again officially um and you see her um her part there again originally we had hired her under a salar position because of the substitute phone meeting to be used and board meetings the prior admin assistant would um usually not be available on Fridays because of the overtime they had worked during board meetings and we really felt like we needed somebody that could um be more available to us when needed and with I'm having to carry the district cell phone and and answer it in the evenings and on the weekends 247 um that was our rationale for having that person be on salary speaker Nancy called for the res um it really is hard to justify to Auditors that we have a classified person on salary so we thought since we were going to be resubmitting Mon's name that we might as well clean it up now um so she will be hourly and her hourly hour hourly salary is just divided by the salary that she was making before but it did translate to seven cents less per hour how many hours is that it's a 40 Hour Week position is it a 9 month or 12 month 12 and so typically what'll happen is reflect the hours of classified employees so for the board meeting if she's here two or three hours then she that um and we do have ourselves on an automated U System now which has limited the amount of work that the person still has to do but we need to still talk about the last minute people who call in because obviously there's no time to submit it for Subs to pick up and so it does still take time so that's something as a leadership team we're going to be meeing with Monica on um in her absence Miss Eva did learn how to do it as well and Miss Jenna um so I think there's a way where we could maybe spread the workout um so that it just doesn't become fall on one person every week every night and as far as the salary position goes versus an hourly there are three criteria that the IRS requires for somebody to be on salary position the third one is eluding me I do not remember what it is but all three of these criteria have to be met the first one is the salary has to be over $45,000 a year the second piece is they have to actually supervise somebody and since those criteria are not met she does not qualify as a salary position although we do have um the expectation that Miss Molina as the admin assistant Executive Admin assistant does supervise Miss Eva and Miss Jenna in the front and kind of the daily operations of the office is what she has been in charge of also thank you I'll a motion please second any further discussion I'm so happy to see you back you look great well thank you I feel much much better thank you I'm glad to be here just like day J okay Miss Allen yes Miss K yes Mr asley yes Mr Ry yes Mr mck absolutely motion passes welcome back thank you very much sir glad to have you back okay 11b Mr Steve m is transportation director background okay so um you'll see there in the rationale in order to remove some of the Met responsibilities that um Mr Nathan has had um over the years reassigning Mr Lane as a director of transportation is a logical First Step um Mr Lane was already incorporating the duties of Mr Nathan into his routine Mr Lane has also fixed the audit issues within the transportation department and has been transparent with his actions Mr Lane should be compensated for the work that he has already done in transportation as well as these additional duties that he has already been doing and receive a salary that is in line with the position and the duties to which he has been assigned so if you remember when we did um propose the position as transportation coordinator we knew that our audit findings were needing a lot of attention in the transportation area which is why we initially had Mr laan U we had to add him as the transportation director because we needed somebody who knew the job who could help us meet the audit findings and expectations and he was the one um that worked well with transportation and knew it and he knows the ins and out of it because he's also been a driver and been in charge of purchasing and maintenance with Transportation so I just want to say um thank you to Mr naan because of his work with Mr Lane and with Mr dzo Sanchez in terms of their collaboration and their efforts to fix the audit findings and get systems in place that have helped us to correct the audit findings and working with Mr Schubert um I'm happy to say that we are at this point where we can now turn the Baton completely over to Mr um so that poor Mr Nathan can continue to do um the things all the other things that are on his job description and when we talk about director of student services and you know a kind of a AP position who takes on student services and discipline and Athletics um he's also taken on custodial issues which is not added on his job description that we do need to add we made that change a couple months because with um the intensity of our mitigation plan and having to really ensure the cleanliness of our school Mr Nathan has been thre Center and working with the custodians and making sure that um you know they're being diligent about their rounds and and supervising because we really needed someone who was boots on the ground in the past that person had been someone in HR or in Mr Schubert's Place who really is about every single day to see the ins and outs of what's being done or not being done so we appreciate that and uh we really do want Mr Nathan in his um role as student services I when we look at the dnf report and we look at some of these comparisons for him to get a couple of things off his plate so he can really help with um in student relations in terms of what our next steps will be and just thank you so much because we couldn't be at this point without you right now and um and Mr n just for your Forward Thinking and for your organization and Mr n also came in as a team player and has taken on a lot of additional things and helped us with our school closure with our lunches with our deliveries working well with with Food Service as well so I can't say enough about how proud I am of our established team because has stepped up and everybody continues to wear multiple hats so thank you thank you entertain a motion Please Mr St is transportation director so move second discussion just a clarification in the rationale says that Mr Lane should be compensated for the work that he has already done in transportation as well as the addition he has already uh been doing but looking at the par it appears that the compensation is only on the going forward basis that his salary is being increased on a going forward basis not for payment for whatever duties he may have been accomplishing in the past is that correct yes thank you yes and is that is this going to add to the administrative positions of the school so it it will but and I will have Mr schuber add um in terms of where we are with our Auditors and us being a small rule of school um this is a perfect example of we were notified by the Auditors that we're no longer going to be considered small school status we're in the medium Ro because of the number of students that we serve so it's actually going to look very different in the charts and the graphs that are reported in our school in terms of administrative cost and allocations and and just to clarify it's not our auditor it's the auditor General's office that is moving us from a small school to a medium school so now our administrative cost will look more in bline with the rest of the schools that are similar size of so what was the cut off because we're at what 560 the the auditor general just they just move you because of the size have we spoken with our um have we spoken with our legislators no we haven't so we're currently with preschool at 6:41 but I think you're talking smaller schools you're talking you know student population it's 400 and less is when you're talking smaller schools um depending on where we are with our student counts they they they try to keep you with the like siiz School District the auditor General's office as their District spending reports go so they try to keep you with so a school our size is now I had the list I forgot it I believe now we're we're similar to to a King district is one of the schools that we're compared to versus some of the smaller um reservation districts that we are currently or have in the past yes we're now a small suburban or small R we are now a medium R medium R and if you'd like I can go ahead and send you the uh the link to the auditor general page that has all the schools that we would be compared with I would have likeed to have received that thank you forther discussion okay just one other question so what will be our what will be our administrative cost per student I honestly I haven't calculated I we can add it I can add it to my rep put it un discussion are we talking the added cost for Mr L the added cost of us being medium school well the medium siiz school is just something that the aut General Uses to compare us to other similar size that have the same generalities you know it's it's a rural School District versus an urban School District it's got x amount of kids versus you know so there's a range of students that keep you within these and does a larger School District anticipate higher administrative costs yes for like per student because when you're talking a larger School District if you take the largest three districts in the state with Tucson FL staff and Mesa their administrative costs are are huge just because of the sheer size you know when you have 58 School that's 58 principles and then you add in you know another 15 high schools within there there's an extra you know three Vice principles per school so your administrative cost is going up when you're at the larger schools and so the fact that we'll be mixed in with medium schools which are expected to have higher administrative costs will kind of show our metric to be equal to even though we are 600 students AB question okay all right Mr yes Mr yes M SK yes Miss Allen yes and Mr M yes congratulations Mr Lane C revised job descriptions for student services directory and transportation directory so this is to provide to you just the redline copies so you can see what we eliminated from the job descriptions and what we the Kean copies of what was added and like I mentioned for director um of student services on the clean copy we do need to add the custodial responsibilities to Mr um leens so we will do that and just submit a second version of the clean copy for this for meeting with that and I believe there was one area where it still said Transportation on his that will remove as well same section okay is this your standard job description yes when was here so that was prior to Stacy in um reworking them and realigning them so they all looked similar okay motion please r job descrition for student servic direct approve second discussion okay Miss Allen yes Miss K I say I and Mr oy yes Mr M yes motion to approve first reading of board policy GC oh good time yes and this is if you notice what was redlined was um the maximum rate of 85 per day for our substitutes and 75 so we've had to change them to match our current sub rates is there aop just the first read okay so that's where we will be and adding um so now it's $85 Under The Substitute rate the maximum what do we pay now 100 so right now so the way it was was we were paying out sickly at a maximum of $85 per day and then we and um we actually had classified staff in at $75 P so we're changing it to the current substitute teacher rate so that it's not a hard dollar sign so if our sub rate moves up in the future this would automatically move up with it right because the sub rate is higher than that it's 100 yes yes the current sub rate $100 $120 and then the classified staff would just be $10 under whatever the daily rate for a substitute teacher will be that's what we're moving into so that there are no hard numbers and as times go and we increase our rates or if we decrease our rates our policy follows that and this is the part of the policy on that first paragraph where it says an employee um must have been employed by the district fulltime at at or 10mth employee for a period of five consecutive years and this is where and must notify the district in writing of intent to resign or retire before January 15th of the year of resignation retirement in order to be eligible for si le reimbursement so this statement has caused a lot of problems I think since it's in first read um I'd like to kind of get your input and I'll look into what how it's worded for other districts because we''ve had cases where members have had either houses move and relocate um in March or April and they notify us of the resignation but because they didn't submit for this actual um six day reimbursement before January 15th they lost money I think that's discussion because I agree with you I remember when that happened a couple times and it not really fair right and and so I just think January 15th is very early and if that's what happens it causes everybody to say oh well I better put it in because if something does transpire and and I understand that a lot of it is for budgeting reasons is what we were told before that it was very hard to budget but I don't know how one thing I can say is in my experience the so was a business manager up in Navajo County prior to coming to and we were actually trying and a lot of the districts in Navajo County we're moving toward a more stricter payouts of si le so this is kind of in line with what Navajo County in the schools there were trying to move fors so and I agree with the amount of pay I'm just not sure what we could do about that January 15th date well if they if if they ended up let's say found out that they were going to have a military move or something like that in may they could still indicate this and just not receive the reimbursement until the following year no they wouldn't be able to have it if they don't give it by the 15th that's what I mean I I would fight that if it was me I agree we did no I mean I would fight it and say I'm notifying you now prior to January 15th next year expecting the pay off then in October even though I'm terminating my pay now I'm ter terminating my position and I think they'd win well we had that and they lost by we fought well was the board of the attorney it was a similar type thing and we felt sorry for him but we had a stick of of policy so I think that's why this is coming up but this this portion here period of five consecutive years so if there's a gap year there where they on is that because it's no it's because it's a budgeting issue so I get for the existing teachers that I think I'm going to retire they got to get their notice and all that for budgeting issues but if you have somebody that's like let's just stick with a military thing that come April hey I can't make it back next year and they've been here however however many years they've got some type of of sickly left they lose it there's something called I don't get ackly myself that's beside the point so that's why I really think that we can just look at this and kind of see how else we can word it um whether it be that there's you know a special maybe an additional paragraph that says special cases may be reviewed that makes sense um you know by the Govern or um at the board's disc something could there be like a step down like if you notify on February 15th they get 80% of their SI March 15% so for me the easiest way to resolve this issue because this is a very strict policy the way it's written if it was me and I was on the board I think I would just suggest period after years after five years and delete the rest yeah because they C that yes and they kind of count on that I know they all do I I mean because there are scenarios in which and you bring up you know the military family um and it's just not a military family somebody's working for the mines and they're getting transferred to to Phoenix office you know so there's and what I'm trying to do is trying to help the board trying to get out of a position where they could be seen as showing favoritism towards one employee versus another right so Greg what is common for Arizona this policy is all over the place okay okay where I came from it was uh 25% of your daily rate and no less than $20 hour and as long as you had worked for the district for one full year you were eligible for a cly pay off so that's just an example of the district that I have come from well I would suggest we put it on for next month's agenda or discussion or whatever the right form is yeah this is there's no action today no this is the first next mon will be the second read I think the second read and I I I like where you're going because it isn't they recruited and just because you missed a date and something happens like you said it could be subjected well you gave Mary one you didn't give Sue one correct we did run into that year or two ago and because it has um a cap on the days I think in terms of budgeting and KN who our employees who have more than five years and if we paid them all out you know 120 days what would that look like what would that do our budget that's bugged me ever since we had that problem a couple years ago thank you so good so if you like to submit some verbage or plans and we'll also get a draft to you in terms of what we're looking at prior to putting it on for second couple of different drafts that we can look at a couple questions do we have um are we keeping good track of the amount of accumulated leave that's there at all times so that we can anticipate it in budgeting we actually have a do a report every year that's part of our audit our annual audit it's called accumulated absences okay and it's basically taking our most liberal policy which in this case would be our SI L policy and what it would cost to pay out every single employee and we have to hold back that amount of money in case you know if 80 you know 80 employees decided they were going to quit and they all gave their notice by the 15th and they all wanted their their cly pay out that we can actually afford the pay okay so this is an unfunded liability that you're budgeting for yes this is a contingency line in the budget for better terminology and and secondarily isn't the district SLE policy subject to beat and confer and Union negotiations it is and this is what it is uh uh and has been negotiated and signed off by the union okay but we've had conversations of we know we need to bring it back it's usually in terms of raises that usually get put in the back burner but how could we make how could we a policy that falls under meet and confirm because it doesn't it a lot of districts don't even have meeting confirmed so it would be going through this process with policies so this could be something that we could work on and and it would be great I think if we took it to our teachers who are typically on mut confer to help them look at it um but the main thing that we wanted to address on the policy was the rate right now but now as we're talking about this date again on the 15th to be done yes there's more work to be done any further questions discuss okay report back to school 2021 second semester right so I just kind of put together some information um in terms of the meeting that we had with um our superintendent and Pim count Health officials and I I hope you all had a chance to read it and like I mentioned today um after this meeting it came out on Friday where um Dr Garcia and py Health Department stated that they don't feel that we should it's not safe to return to school which is why um Mr drene Sal sent out that that he was until the end of the month so um just wanted to to have a discussion and see where you know where your thoughts are what we're thinking um I did speak to him this evening and he said that his plan was to phas in on February 1 Elementary for a week phase in Middle School the following week and then High School the third week of February um that's their plan um so again just open to discussion you saw what we presented earlier scroll down a little bit I did put here um you know our continued recommendation we have been working hard to follow our mitigation plan um teachers have not contracted Co to their students and when we need the peopleon health and they have these conversations there have it been any cases where teachers have contacted students in the classroom um uh the adults are continue to contract Co via outside school social settings or teachers or staff working in close proximity to each other where grade level teachers met for a lunch together and then they all Ed up testing positive but it hasn't been student to teacher um we again we never implemented a hybrid model class sizes are small enough and classrooms are large enough to allow to social distancing um and the requirement that everyone wear a mask at all times is still um what we are doing in our plan our current class sizes you can see here and second grade was updated today so I just wanted to note that in those three classes there are 23 students in marsi and fernandz and 22 in Miss shac so they're still under 25 um even with the additional our Middle School classrooms are doubled with students staying in one room so it's two classrooms opened up um and the teachers are rotating and the students are staying in place again the vaccination information we um do have a lot of our staff members who have are on a registry waiting for the first vaccine and like I mentioned it's also open to board members as well um the has a 80% efficacy and the second vaccine 28 Days Later provides 93 to 95% efficacy and as we know nothing will ever be 100% we do have how many teachers did I say in the other report three already had right and then there were 40 some who were on the list who wanted to be so some teachers are feeling that once they get the vaccine they feel that they would be safer um they would feel safer coming back toool in the responses of the teachers who have said they don't feel it safe to do so now um we're working with UCC and our nurse morine has been amazing and very proactive in setting up testing for us we are going to have another testing on Wednesday it's scheduled right now for 8 to 10 we were trying to change it to 12 to 2 because of teachers who are teaching virtual to allow them to come um at they from their classroom well it's still it's still 8 to 10 yes it's not 8 to 12 but said she was still waiting this afternoon to hear from UCC apparently they only have seven employees working there right now due to people being out so worst case scenario we will have 8 to 10 still scheduled for Wednesday and again you're welcome to come um to be tested as well you we have had a number of Staff members who have had Co who have recuperated thankfully um with our food service and with our preschool and um our admin person but I think um you know of course people who have already had Co will be on the second or third wave of getting the vaccine so that we can allow people um who have not vaccinated first as a priority and obviously our priority as soon as the vaccine is available will be for our teachers and our pars that are Frontline every day with the students um so we are going to be working with UCC with Pima County Health and with our local Green Valley Fire Department so I think between those three Avenues we're going to be able to get our staff members vaccinated sooner than later so that's just just kind of want to hear what so what's your recommendation going back before we discuss that well I really as of today like I said I'm compiling the data um from the teachers I hear them it's just a tough decision you know we we know all the teachers agree that virtual learning digital learning is not optimal all the teachers are in agreement that inperson learning is the best route to go um but we're also still in that quandry of ensuring the safety of our staff um and our students we know that you know we have a lot of teachers in the last three weeks who have been more affected by loss of family members relatives um Tucson Phoenix Mexico so you know it really has H home you know before you know I felt like we were kind of desensitized because it hadn't really affected the the people that it has now so it's just a tough decision because you really don't know how any one person is going to react to the virus when they get it you know and I really do think that now it's not a matter of um if you get it it's when you get it I've been saying so back to my question is is we're schedu go back after next week Ser is already suspended till February what do you want to do well I want to have a discussion with you and I so okay thank you so you want to just start here and go down yeah I think I to go down in here because this is something that okay I thought that such a [Music] the authority to decision but I'm not decision without without coll effort and I really do feel so much changes in a week I even think what we say today it's day to hour to hour yeah may or may not you know be P for us for next I think I can speak for all of us God love you and oh my God it's so hard but um so as We Know said hey let's um take another two weeks um and they published the numbers on Friday the infection rate um I don't know if you guys got this or not but um the infection rate is um per 100, 551 where anything over 100 is bad test positivity rate on January 7 was 19.9 anything over 10% is bad remember we were looking at the yellow and red and all those little lines should we reopen should we not and then the hospitalization rate isn't as bad or at least mathematically is 15.2 versus anything over 10 so that just was what seren posted and they had a death with one of their security guards that used to run track here health old man you know I mean um so that said and then we have the Friday memo that came out from the um P County Health Department where they recommend that we stay virtual instruction for the next couple weeks and I get the virtual instruction I live it every day it sucks that's a minor I could say a lot worse and the extremes that we have to do to get my sixth grader that goes here and and I think it's much better than it was now that we're but to ask a kid to sit in front of a computer for and Kelly has a kindergarten so she'll comment on that how that is you know for an hour five hours a day for five classes you try that we've all done the zoom stuff you know and they and the teachers God bless them they're really doing well they are busting their butts and some days obviously are better than others than in the classroom um but to go outside the box of saying well we're continental and we have smaller classes and we hav any problems and to go back after another week when s is not and the health department is recommending we don't I probably have a problem with that um but I understand the other reasoning too because we're I don't know how many teachers are going to get tested um and I won't talk to much longer I'm sorry guys um are going to get tested Wednesday I'm going to come in and get tested um just is because it's a benefit in um well anything can happen and I don't know how many are going to get tested but the other thing if let's just say would they all get the vaccine so let's say everybody are the vaccine probably needs to get staggered and I'll tell you why is apparently and you guys probably know better than me when you get that second shot is when you get sick for a couple days so if we vaccinate majority of the staff that's willing to get it you're looking at a a massive sick day sick days possibly um when that second one comes but I'm sure there's plans for that Serita is kind of a little bit ahead of us on that and maybe you know you get half year and half I don't know I just wanted to make sure I brought that out because it's it's a crazy subject and I sympathize with all you guys and appreciate every minute of work and effort that you guys did there's not right or wrong answers it's all so subjective which is is crazy so I'll quit talking and we do have you know the staff concerns of of not knowing enough about the vaccination to to want to get vaccinated right now um you know that's going to always be voluntary we can't mandate so um it is for because we know that that second vaccination will probably spark um spike a fever for two days so we are looking at staggering yeah when um the vaccinations are available and where they get them but it will be within those three systems of the fire department and UCC and P County it'll it'll look more like we have 30 vaccinations so tell us what you want and then it'll be or 15 oh I got to come in Mass here say okay it is no that's not well that makes we're not anticipating that that's the way it's going to be okay cool what do you think of how many teachers will come and get tested Wednesday so um that was the I think a lot of our teachers will come or there so many of our teachers have already been tested throughout these two weeks because of exposure or um so I think definitely um most of them are planning to come with the intention that that was our quarantine for two weeks let's be tested let's make sure that we're all safe to come back before we come in contact with kids again so Marine has that list but I can send it out to you to let you know but a lot of them are still waiting for the time but I think everybody is doing what needs to be done in terms of being for staying safe and you know but but again the asymptomatic people you know it's just we we just don't know yeah us and breath thank you I think no matter of what we decide to do it's going to be bad you just need to pick what's going to be the least bad oos to doing like hybrid classes or something creative there in the middle like um maybe only letting kids with 504 I and and apps come back to keep the classro smaller um I don't know how to do that without doubling the work for the teachers though it's we are putting ourselves out not not do digital so if we do have a lot of cases break out I think respond that I'm not I believe calina calina they are in yes and uh alar Valley they're they started they went back on the fourth hybrid um but they're also still in the discussion of are they going to just go back virtual for these next two weeks they have a board meeting this week as well push has like 10 kids in class there's a lot of Charter and private schools that do have kids going full time we we are still the only School in tea County that has all kids coming back every day five days a week the schools that are in um going to school are in hbd and Mrs glas and I have had a lot of conversations with um you know friends in terms of what hybrid looks like and we have the same some teachers are like oh my gosh please no and others say yes it's a good idea so it's the same um it it's the same controversy you know it's more work for teachers again I've talked to some friends who have they're in hybrid and maybe they have 12 kids that are supposed to be there you have you know three to five kids who are out because of either quarantine or sick for whatever reason normal absences and they're teaching to six or seven kids in the class and then repeating it again to six to seven so it's better to just have all 14 in the class at the same time you know when you look at our Kinder classes we have one with 20 one with 14 and one with 21 so we did a h those kids and we had 10 kids in the classroom three out or four and then you're having a teacher teach a whole day's lesson to six kids so and then having to repeat it again for the next cohort so either way it's very difficult but good points well I think you know where I am on this issue I've stated it before um I frankly publicly proudly state that Continental is the only School in pea County that has inass instruction five days a week I think it's something to be proud of it's a testament to our staff that put together the continuity of operations plan it's a testament to our teachers and and I proudly state that um I think the stats are the stats uh are going through the roof that doesn't necessarily mean that there it's happening in schools and I think the statistics show that it's not happening in this SCH I think what the statistics do prove is that the damage we are doing to our kids academically emotionally and and and mental healthwise is causing far more damage than the risk that they are have to to this virus and the us does not transmit according to the experts from student to teacher I think you've stated that you've done the research on that and I think it's incredibly important that we go back to class on the 19th of January if we wait till the 1st of February we're going to be having the same discussion because the cases are not going to go down until this vaccination campaign starts moving forward and so we're going to be dealing with the same level of sta that uh in in two more weeks than what we're talking about now I absolutely recommend that we go back to class for all the teachers um that we have had in on that situation on the 19th of January well I I was very excited to see several of our teachers out in Social environments recently so I know that there must not be a great great deal of concern about them going to work because they're out and about actively engaged in activities that they could just as well have been here the only difference is they with the population that could likely be asymptomatic or whatever so I know I I I really believe that some of our teachers who were concerned um I know they're out and about so I think that that concern has been lifted the only way to manage this is a datadriven approach if you're trying to figure out how to make a a decision I I think that's what you need to do and so if you begin by looking at uh the statistics you've already stated that none of our teachers got the co virus as a result of being in a classroom so they're not we're not passing the virus from the children to the teachers I think what Mr erery said regarding the emotional academic social and behavioral uh well-being of children is probably what we should be holding in the utmost of consideration in this decision so if we look at this from a datadriven approach and not using data statistics that we can't apply to this district and to the people that will be at this school so I'm not saying P countywide I'm saying look at the dat here I think that's uh that's the key that's how you do it I share Mr ol's concern and as you may or may not know superintendent I had the opportunity to uh interview uh superintendent Williams on the radio and I took great pleasure in saying to him and to everybody who was listening uh that Continental is open five days a week and we are doing our job and I called out the names of each one of you uh and the fine job that you've done and I'm going to continue to stand by that thank you um of course this is very tough I I share I share their desire I think we got to be back in the classroom but on the other hand I also have a very good friend lost his wife 48 hours ago a g that I've known for 25 years so um it hits hard and I'm sure it's every this room I I I understand the concern I do have faith however I have incredible faith in the CP plan that would develop in the school I have faith that we have the distancing we need I have faith that we have um the the right protocol in place day in and day out I have faith that that everything on this campus is being done in line with that plan I think it works and I think we ought to be very proud of that the only issue I have is that once this once the lights go off here in the afternoon we can do absolutely nothing to control what happens with parents family friends we can do absolutely nothing about that I suppose that's called life there's nothing we can do um but I I I agree I don't want to be here in a month having the same discussion I know I I don't think any of us it's a tough call but I I do have faith in the plan that we developed I have faith that we can we can continue to do it safely I think the testing that happens this week I think is absolutely critical that everybody that's going to be on campus should be tested that was the whole point of this if I recall the two we window that we were that we gave every that we pushed it back and we scheduled that testing specifically for that reason so I please if you're going to be on this campus be tested on the 13th and I think that might paint a picture that would be helpful in making that decision if everyone's clean everyone's ready to go I I'm not sure I I see many barriers if there's if it's a different discussion if that's not the case then um I I guess we well we may have no choice but to push back a week or because have the people to to run the the operation and that's always been what our discussion has been as long as we have the healthy staff um to be able to teach the students in the classroom and the staff to be able to help with the supervision and our parent Pros you know we can operate as long as we have happy staff but you're right and if you know we have a lot of teachers test positive on Wednesday then obviously we'll have to look at um continue creative ways to ensure that the classes and kids are covered we've also um discussed um I think one of the concerns primarily where large larger groups of students gather is lunchtime so we've had some conversations that of course will solidify in terms of do we send half of the middle school kids to lunch in the cafeteria one day and keep them in their class or do we how do we kind of separate these 23 in the Kinder class because that's usually when they'll be together during lunch time um to add more areas maybe for them to eat or how do we want to work that but that's something that we have talked about in new of going hybrid how do we separate kids to be in smaller groups than what they are right now if I may add that is critical if you're not following the CP plan to a TV then this all goes out the window as far as I'm concerned that was the point of it and in my opinion I think it works and if you remember right before Christmas break we had a cafeteria where everyone was gone but everybody pitched in whoever could pitch in did they did their part and I think that's what Continental is about you make it work you have to get a little creative and you put on some gloves and go to work um I I truly truly hope that one else gets sick and certainly no moral harm to anyone here but it may be a while it may be 6 months but I think there's at some point we have to move forward and we have to trust the plan we have in place works and we have roughly four months it shows us that it does now like I said there are if something happens with the testing to show otherwise then that might be a different discussion um but I absolutely will support whatever says what if the if the faculty of the school simply are not comfortable coming back and we cannot get enough people to make it happen iose and I think our teachers are very appreciative of the um opportunity to voice their opinions and to let us know what they're thinking and I say you know we value your opinion want to hear from you because we are trying to make an informed decision and um I tell them my job is to also represent them to the board and if they don't let you know what they're thinking it's hard for me to let you know where they stand but our teachers again are very they're feeling like we are yes or no we want to keep people safe we know we want to have our kids in school and 90% of our staff you know our leadership appreciates our board and the direction and will do right by students always so I think um our kid you know our teachers whatever decision we make they're going to put their best foot forward and they're going to do their job which is what they've been doing despite some of you know their concerns or things that have happened so I think again our teachers and they're in the front lines so they um are the ones who have to be diligent the mitigation plan about keeping students safe keeping you know their their mask on students mask on and I think our parents appreciate that too but I I just I have to add again I have to stress that it's more than the coup plant here at school you have to be you have to be very strict with with what you do outside of the school because it's all an extension of what happens here whether that's going to Walmart or restaurant or whatever you do that's critical and so we have to have that discipline uh to make this work and we can continue to message that out to our parents like please you know we've tried to say don't go to birthday parties don't have birthday parties things need to look different um so that we can ensure the safety of the students and staff so what do you do with the teacher that says I I or a family member has a compromised Community system and I do not feel comfortable com so we'll continue to address those on a Case by case but I also do understand that the co funds um are running out in terms of St of in terms of uh staff members quarantining and we were going to we need to research that because from what I understand is the funds are depleting and moving forward if a person needs to quarantine or not come to school it's not going to be a paid expense it's going to be out of their own personal either leave without pay or but they would lose their job right now there has not been any um cases when people have had to quarantine they haven't had to use their own Personnel sbit that has been accumulated but at some point that's going to end and so we do need people back at school so there may be some tough decisions that some stff members to make in terms of taking a leave of absence for the rest of the school year well that's what I meant to be a leave of absence not was your job right because of circumstances out of control right and so with with the appropriate doctors notes and following up with HR and following protocol that may occur where we may be seeing in the next couple I'm sure to be right want to add anything thought thank you all for yourist support your feedback and um I know all of us want to be back at school that's we're all we all know that being here and on site is important and it's the most effective for our students and for all of us and um thank you I thank you for your thank you to the teachers who given their feedback and answer you superintendent ref your emails whatever whatever is decided we're going to go forth and we're going to do it as best as we can do it that's very much appreciate I'll take so I I considered it in evit ability that everybody in this room will at one point come down with this virus and in my opinion of that is that we cannot live in fear of this virus if it's something that's going to happen it's going to happen we've seen what happened when we came back from the Thanksgiving break with the number of cases that we that we had via student we've taken the appropriate measures to try and to at least contain that by taking this two weeks during the reports we've seen the number of students with D's and Fs and and the most horrible thing about that was the number of kids that we've had to send off for additional mental health issues my alsoo humble opinion is that these kids need to be back here on the not just for their mental health but for their education right now is the groundwork that we are learing for the rest of their lives and in order to have that solid foundation they need to be here they are losing out on not just their education but they're missing out on developing interpersonal skills because you can only talk to somebody over a computer without having that personal interaction for so long completely lost so in my also humble opinion I would like to see everybody here on the oh go um my opinion is there's never going to be a good or a comfortable time to go back to school um during the pandemic and so now is as good as time as any um I work with the students who have a hard time in school um I have a I work with the students who have a hard time in life um I've been busier with the hard time in life more than I ever have you know in the first quarter that we've been back versus like an entire school year of the past previous years um the and some of the information that Miss Rico shared she asked me to provide that for her um a lot of those cases the parents actually came and said we chose the online learning we need to bring them back now tomorrow these kids can't be in their rooms um locked up any longer um and we as a school said this is what we need to do and got them in touch with the resources for the CRC the the mental health aspect of these children right now the research shows that the children are not as susceptible but they are suceptible it's a depression and it's a real monster out there that is not getting the Limelight um and that's what Miss quoss and I have been dealing with and the kids if you talk to the kids when they're here our campus is buzzing with joy and happiness and learning and I feel like I've done more disciplinary stuff over the last couple days trying to K kids to get on their computers and try to log in we don't have those issues because our teachers are great at they do um and they're doing the best they can digital but that's not what they're trained for they're trained to to be there um in person working with our kids and I know there's risk in that um I to watch the P County's numbers I watch the State numbers um and really to me I watch Continentals numbers and we are not trying to run the county we're trying to run a school and the service that we bring to these kids kids you know you talk about how far we've been behind education the students in Arizona are um I honestly feel at the end of this Continental may have actually jumped up already on some of the other kids in the state um because of us going five days a week and I think we need to continue with that Trend um I think it will be um beneficial to our students academically in the long run um who who knows what will happen but so far you look at what the coupe has done um which was built by a team of people but how we've been able to keep our numbers very low um someone was I was talking to about our success and they said at some point we may become a case study just because other schools aren't having that as much success and we're talking to those administrators about what the differences are um and so I think it's in my opinion um yes do I foresee more people getting sick here absolutely um it's a pandemic you can't run from it um and I don't think we should hide from it but we should do the best we can to educate our kiddos and that's what we do best is a public school system and so that's my two cents thank you gent like to I'm not on the education side of things so I don't have a problem coming back to work you tell me to work I'll be here I do have drivers work extremely concerned I have a driver who's on a bus that's bringing 60 kids on that bus every single day because parents don't want to wait in line drop off their kids so I have buses that are fully maxed out right now and today had one driver who said he's not coming back until the pandemic is under control I already have one driver sitting at home waiting for the vaccine to become available and won't come back until his mother has the vaccine as well I'll figure it out if you guys say be here on the 19 you want kids trans transported there be buses moving have drivers of my seven drivers on campus for the elementary portion are ready to go but they do have concerns and they're working through their own concerns but they've all said they're going to come back I mean we'll be back on campus on Thursday to get our buses ready fourth for Tuesday but my drivers have said they're coming back they do all have concerns because they are as I've said before they they're a little small incubator for 30 minutes with these kids some of them for an hour and a half because of the distance they have to go I don't have the distance anymore like we had originally planed we've had to make adjustments on the transportation side for that but our buses are clean our drivers are washing their hands the buses are being disinfected morning and afternoon it is what it is so you guys temperature check correct they go on the bus so we haven't had any problems with that again it's I agree with what saying on these four in the four walls of the fences of of our campus it's not the it's outside once everybody gets picked up you can you watch it you walk out this door Master off and here I go I was at Walmart this morning same thing I see parents like you're saying parents and teachers out I see families that are not wearing mask and they're walking through Walmart like it's no big deal it's outside of these four walls we can only we can only control so much so here I think we do a fantastic job cleaning distancing the and stuff are great but we can only do so much here so from the Transportation side you say be here you be here on Tuesday it's not an easy decision um but I think ultimately we just have to decide what's best for the students uh what we think you know best serves them so it it for me it's it doesn't it doesn't really go either way I think I'm more busy these last week than I have been just dealing with the the online the Cal learning side but uh it just we just have to make a determination of what we think is best for our students I just got confirmation from Mor that Wednesday from 10 to 12:30 so that'll help our teachers Who Um can either take their lunch break a little bit earlier from their classroom so we'll get that out to ensure that they come at that time and there is an assign you just come in uh between 10 and 12:30 and it is a rapid test so we'll have results right away that's confirmed 10 to 12:30 yes confirmed off the press something yeah and I think that that'll be the message mrsas to the teachers we really want to emphasize the importance of everybody that's going to be on campus to come be tested on Wednesday to Ure that to go for Tuesday and that if they have to assign a class or get out of the Google Classroom early to be able to be here definitely I'm sure parents and kids will understand i' appreciate the fact that how many teachers are coming here to teach they everybody except for our virtual the ones for are remaining virtual we have three virtual teachers and oh but the other ones are coming here on campus and doing it from their room no not right now we for these two weeks everybody's home quarantining so we are actually the first ones who have been on campus oh so for some of them it's a good drive to come down yes there's only been a few that I've had to come and let in to get supplies that they had forgotten right but they've not been in contact with one lives in right so she'll come she's used to daging it every day for the last 20 years she's had a break oh I know she'll be happy to so then she misses three hours every day oh yeah well and I think that's probably the least of our worries because I think she she can assign the kids an assignment and log off and they'll be they'll be they've got such a good team they yes yes I I think that they'll be able to figure it out okay so we thank you for everyone's info appreciate yes thank you yep thank you um thanks very much board it's schol events [Music] um we did make a change um originally Earnie dismissal was set for uh the 20th the 20th on that Wednesday but we felt the kids coming back on Tuesday why would we go and dismiss the very next day just back a week okay other than that everything Still Remains the Same and the next board meeting our next board meeting is February 1st at 6 PM February 1 February 1 is it is that a TI we sorry sorry February 8th sorry correction yes February 8 and while we're here looking at at dates folks can you write down some dates for me please of potential uh Retreat dates and if you would please go through these days and um get back to um Miss R about what they work for you the 16th of February the 17th of February 22nd of and March 1 you please uh get back to miss about which days may work for you and any potential discussion items for the retreat time open usually 8 or something like that so if you would just take those dates home chew on for a day or two figure out what works for you apprciate it so because that gives us the chance to get kids in class get them going and then the team that needs to be present for 9:00 and then um we'll do a working lunch and then end by one okay so Tuesday February 16th or Wednesday February 17th Monday February 22nd or Monday March 1st okay governing board information Mr OS you're up I think um thank you all for the great discussion support any wisdom for the rest of us first of all welcome thank you way yes I I just really appreciate how much heart this school has in their kids I you can tell you guys have done app thank you so just by the way if you guys don't know Kelly's had two kids go through both in high school now and now she has a kidy Lear so problem online school is the teenagers um I just you know again I I did get the opportunity to spend 30 minutes on the radio with superintendent Williams over the O over the holidays and um I I think uh he is well aware and to uh to Echo Mr L's point I do believe that they are looking at Continental as a model to use as best practices I I can't remember what he said but he said something thank you um let's have a good good year folks there might be a rocky road but I have faith that everyone in this room will make it happen whatever the decision is made whatever the decision is it'll be the right decision and we move forward do everything we can to get these skids back and um look forward to working with you thanks and I also just to um reiterate that pami Health although they do not recommend iners learning at this time they make it very clear that they're here to support our decision and what we decide to do and they want to make sure that we have the PPE that we need that you know we have whatever we need so they keep reiterating if there's additional supplies and materials that we need at any time that to let them know are they providing yes if we need it we'll get it okay so um you know they've been very supportive and Mr will as well you know we speed dial just have conversations all the time and nobody is going to force us to do anything whatever decision we make whatever we do they're there to support our decision and our students and our families and they have been very good with responding in terms of contact tracing in terms of and through the phone in terms of guiding us and um being there so I do truly feel that we do have a lot support um of people in Green Valley and in Pima County who are um you know here to help us with whatever we need to continue to move forward okay thank you um we will recess to sign

the operation maintenance showed a revenue of just over 2.2 remember 1.9 of that was the the property sale so take the 1.9 out and the pro you can o m functioned about 300 000 in the black the debt services 258 000 in the red i'll explain those in a minute transportation 84 000 in the red and you can see uh imrf 13 000 in the black capital projects 342 000 in the red that was we had planned that uh working cash we don't spend anything out of working cash uh tort was uh 18 000 in the red so one thing to remember those funds that uh that we levy taxes in education fund operation maintenance specifically and transportation um we didn't get our last uh if you remember the tax the taxes were delayed so that that kind of messed up the budget a little bit because there was some income we were anticipating we didn't get until this fiscal year so it kind of so some of those numbers would have been positive uh i think education fund for sure and debt services would would have been on the positive side we would have been fairly well balanced at the end but that's why we weren't so it's not that we didn't get them but we didn't get the funds the same at the time we thought we'd get them so that's really all i wanted to point out we had like an estimate of what that is like what is that amount that we don't get or that we didn't get yeah i can i can get that i can get you that i can my general concern is what i don't want to get into is the last column on that it looks like our total expenses are 30.8 million and our total revenue is 30.4 million so i would uh i wouldn't use that number because uh that the super says the on behalf payments that's uh us making payments for the staff to so those aren't actually revenue or expense for the district so you have to take that money off so that's seven seven million four hundred forty eight thousand is like uh it doesn't change the the four hundred thousand difference yes yes you're right you're right so that so you're right we're about 23 million okay um got you i see what you're saying so i wonder what i'm wondering is if that revenue from the state is at 400 000 is it okay yeah i can find out that for you the one that uh the one that the one that we went under a little more than anticipated was capital projects and it was because we added the camera project on that we uh we weren't you know we did it middle of the year we didn't budget for it but other than that but i can give you those exact dollars kevin i'll put that in my notes write this down real quick all right anybody else questions i have a question on like the deficiency the weaknesses yes i was just going to talk about that oh you are okay yeah no we had to go so we've had an issue going on it's not impacting any bottom lines we've had an issue with our liability reporting and last year they had to make a journal entry at the at the audit to to just shift how it was reported where it was and then i thought they had it i'm not involved in that process but uh so i thought it was fixed our prior bookkeeper i thought he had they had it worked out when they came here he said that it's it wasn't so they had to do another journal entry our current bookkeeper uh he says doing it uh correctly and he doesn't anticipate there'll be an issue next year because i really was disappointed that i was in here because i i thought this was fixed and uh and to be honest with you the first thing i said was is it fixed now and he didn't know i said we need somebody to tell us then how to do this so then he kind of went back and he's then he came back to me and said the way it's happening now shouldn't have any problems for next year so i am trusting that i'm hoping that's the case but that's that's what happened there i think the management letter looks good though i mean besides that these used to be pages long one five years ago anybody else have questions all right can i please have a motion to approve the 2019-2020 auto report motion second lauren and viviane yes yes yes yes yes [Laughter] yes yes all right uh item e is an update on volvo annexation this is where i just need some input from the board we're at a kind of a critical point moving forward tomorrow night uh volo uh for the uh is it marl flat am i saying that right the uh forest preserve marl forced reserve they're going to vote on annexing into volo um that's the first step to allow us to annex into volo if we'd like to because now if marl flats votes yes we have con contiguous property with volo and so we would be able to annex if we want to we haven't made any commitments to volo but i did get a call this morning from daley harold asking about why would i would be interested and what's going on here and i talked them through it and i what i shared with him was that uh you know we're currently on a well system we've never had an opportunity for city water a feasible opportunity um that would be responsible for us and volo approached us they're doing the construction up fish lake road and down malador so it's going to be right on the corner over there and asked if we would like to jump into that and i just said we as a board have talked about it we've not made any commitments but long term well i guess one thing we need to think about is the long term of the district right now we're not having any problems with our well if 10 15 years from now they do have a problem with the well and they want to get to the lake michigan water that's across the street the cost to connect is going to be a lot more than what it will be now while they're doing the construction work so while they're going through and doing the construction and tearing everything up this is our opportune time to tap into it but we don't have to so the next step for us and i will bring it to you in february if you'd like me to the next step for us would be to vote to approve to begin the annexation process with volo but i didn't want to bring it to this meetings i want you to i really want to talk about it and not just throw it at you this is a big decision um i'll send uh i just received it i didn't have in the packet because i just received it but it's a proposed agreement for annexation it's kind of a process that we have to go through and some things we'd have to agree upon one of them is if we if we annex into volo we we are agreeing that we will hook up the water supply when we annex so and that uh yeah that we will do that during the construction phase of their project uh they are they have agreed to waive connection fees so which i don't know what that is i didn't ask them how much but i know that our architect said that was very generous so because he asked me about connection fees and i said they're waiving the connection fees um the construction costs i put a document in there it's estimated around 200 000 to connect uh which is i think a number that i it was a much higher number when we talked about connecting to round lake a few years ago we had that uh tested out but that was because it's so far away um so that's what we're going to be faced with so in february we are going to i'm going to have to bring it to you to whether we decide if we want to do it or not so um i'm willing to like this month if our billing grounds committee wants to meet and get more information we can do that i can bring volo in to talk about it there's really no the only benefit to volo for us annexing is that they get a water customer that's going to use a lot of water so we are going to be paying for water there's no obviously no taxes or nothing impacted for us we would be grandfathered in to their uh zoning to their zoning rules so we've grandfathered the end anything with their zoning i know that when we have to do a project on campus if we're zoning through bolo rather than lake county i think it can be easier from what i've heard um to be being in the village but um so anyway that's that's really where we're at with it we don't have any decisions to make but i thought this would be a good chance to bring it up because february if marl flat proves it tomorrow night february i'll be bringing this to you to decide do we want to keep going with this project or not what happens if mario flat says no then it's a no deal okay is the water in the building drinkable if you ask the kids no the kids would say my point to that is what would be the downside of i don't see a lot of downside the down cost other than cost other than cost yes i know but then you can save the environment with plastic bottles because right don't teachers and staff brands plastic bottles and students bring plastic bottles in to drink from if you can't drink the water here i think they do though i mean they do drink the water here yeah they drink it we have the water water bottle fillers yeah they drink it yeah they do drink it i'd be curious what they'd estimate cost of water usage because i know my water bill just doubled because of the company that's taken over water supply in the area over there yeah my earth pretty much is not that bad oh it's agua now that's a good question though i'll find that out because right now we're not paying a water bill right so that's a if that's going to be a significant benefit to them and they should just give us water for free we would still fall under the sheriff correctly county sheriff yeah yeah because volo doesn't have a contract yep they would be responsible think of all the you know pros and cons yeah they would be responsible for me that's what i would like to see i mean i think that i would like to see a list of pros and cons of yeah right of what is good about being unincorporated i know for my house what's good but what what is good for being incorporated as a school good idea i'll bring that to february's meeting then can we be vetted out with the buildings and grounds committee yeah i mean do you anticipate the well drying up anytime soon and i mean i realize we do have a large campus here i don't know i can't imagine that would well or just other yeah other issues yeah i just think with the mate i mean think about what the hard water does to our houses you know i can't imagine what it does to the pipes here yeah like chicken water is hard too yeah i mean it's tough i i think that uh my personal feeling is that in the next 10 15 years probably no issues i think you know very little maintenance or it's uh some day there's probably going to be hey why don't we have like machine water try across the tree i don't know do we have water softeners yeah okay yep and there is costs in maintaining all of that all of that right we've got we have we have water tested all the time because we're on a well and we're public body so we have you know we spend money testing water uh regularly um it's not a zero cost yeah no it's not a zero what's that can you compile those softener you've yeah the sea level what they charge per gallon i mean are they does the village of volo regulate the cost of the water can they decide to raise it more than i mean if whatever whatever they want can they charge basically whatever they want for it yeah i mean all of that information okay yep i can do that all right no action needed there you can see on the spreadsheet they gave me this uh manhard construction the far right column what they've done is just an estimate of the cost to the districts and they folded it into their total project and they did say that we would have an opportunity if we wanted to to pay to pay it back over time so it wouldn't have to be a one lump check if we didn't want it to be so um would we have to do everything that's on the electric fee like subcontract like say the the restoration of lawns on parkway yeah i don't know i've talked to him about that yeah i'm sure we could do some of that on her own and again that's all just estimates but that was their engineers did all that work for us so we didn't have to do it so any other questions i do have a question yeah and this may sound strange no i just don't want to assume are there fire hydrants on the property that's not a dumb question it's a good question they're uh the way i understand it there are fire hydrants i've noticed they're painted yellow on the property and um but there there's nothing feeding those fire hydrants so the they're for looks well because we have our well our well does uh uh we have fire um treat with call them we have well we have pits underneath the middle school here and primary elementary but i've seen the middle school specifically it's where our well fills the pits so if there was was a fire here the fire system draws from there because the well would not be what's that what about the fire department fire department would would have would have to uh that they'd bring tanker trucks oh we have to take a truck that's close that's the way that's the way i understand it because we don't have those there's no water coming to this campus other than it's going to a welcome thing that'll be a good one and put in the fire hydrants they didn't hook up the water to the fire hydrant well so if if it is so well pump's not going to keep up it's not going to keep up yeah so so the uh but i i'll have to kevin i'm gonna have to go because i don't know for sure on the on the the function of those uh hydrants so but the i do know that we have the pits under the school because there's got to be storage tanks because the well can't keep up with the need for the building's fire suppression so because i did talk with the i did talk with our architect and engineer about there is going to be some cost if we shift over because right now the we have a fire pump in here which we spend a lot of money maintaining we have and these are we have these pumps because they have to draw water out of this well tank all that could go once we uh get this but they they said that the the most inexpensive route would be to keep the current well pump and just fill the tanks with the new water supply and then that would be the cheapest but he said the best way to go would be to get rid of the well pump so you know to maintain them anymore and hook up the system to the fresh water supply yeah so rather than filling the yeah absolutely you know um but i i can't i hope i didn't say it wrong with the with the fire hydrants but there's there's to my knowledge there's no there's nothing that's going to be those are there but they're they're painted yellow because it's to make people know that they're not because if they're red they're new right right yeah yeah we wouldn't know that i didn't know that i just thought they painted them also would they be able to use those would they be able to no there's no water coming out oh existing if we get the water yes yes so then they have to paint it red and then there you go that's my understanding so i'm going to need to i'm going to need to i will research this for you a little further because it's not something i wasn't around when that was developed but my understanding was that that that is the case so uh that's another you know another benefit to having the fresh the public city water would be that would be the fire suppression but i did check into the cost of changing the systems because there is going to be some cost there they said like i said the least expensive would be just to fill the pits use the pumps to do it but i'd say make fire hydrants work that was two different issues though the pits would be serving like the sprinkler systems in the building and the fire hydrants would definitely have to work yes i'll check on that is there anything else that we need to know probably the same guy that built the roof [Laughter] yeah so i asked our engineers i said give me give me anything that and the one issue they came up with was the fire suppression so i said give me anything that's not on this list that we're not thinking of because i don't want to be surprised with a bunch of costs and the only thing they could tell me was the fire suppression so i called the company that we do work with and then he's gonna give me options like three options and one of them was to keep the pumps fill the pits and let the pumps draw it out of the pits to do the fire suppression and the other was run it fresh run it in there and just take it do it like we built the building with fresh water with public water so that was so according to our engineers that was the only thing that was missing on this list was the fire suppression by hooking up the fire hydrants wasn't on this one no no no i'm gonna i'll find out what's going on with that so we have to put pipes to the fire hydrants also then so you know the fire hydrants are just you know pipes to any from the hydrants to anywhere i'm gonna assume that that was all built when the campus was built that they put those fire hydrants in planning for possible future water supply that's what i'm assuming i i think so i think that's what sounds i think yeah because that would have been the time to put it in so i'm going to assume that's what happened that's what i've thought always thought happened but uh bob at the time i think the former superintendent they were talking about round lake to get the water okay and but they decided no because of the cost okay but you think things are in place i don't know okay who knows i i think that that's what i think that they when they built the campus they put all the everything in place there but i don't think there's any water going to that you can find that lawn decorations so you got to check yours if you get yellow by your house i assume the yellow is sort of fine that's that's what i've been told like i said this is just uh i need to do some a deeper dive into that though we're lucky that we've never had a fire here i would say yes yes i do think the fire departments are prepared for uh i mean a big fire here would be rough but they i think they're prepared for the uh with the tank the water tank trucks but uh i guess i mean you're right though it's i'm glad we haven't had a fire obviously so uh and if the if this is the if the uh this would be because that because when i talked to our architect i said i think that this uh fire suppression is a another positive for us to switch over if it's going to provide us better security so is there any way to look for grants to help this is there any to help pay for some of this stuff let me check into that too i had told i told volo because i was having this conversation with him at the same time we were talking about uh the impact fees for the new development going on down the road so i because i said if we're going to pay this when are we getting the we're supposed to get 400 000 impact fees for that apartment complex so uh 200 half of it supposed to be up front once they start getting permits to build so i had said that you know we could we could discuss maybe some of that being earmarked to pay for this project then well they've already started because they've leveled all that property yeah so i asked them about i guess they haven't got any permits out for actual construction or something yeah they haven't started digging it was just removal i think yeah i was surprised too joe because i thought if you're doing that groundwork that there'd be some kind of permits out there but yeah so that was kind of what i was thinking lauren was okay any other questions all right i got a lot of information i'll bring back to you in february so all right next up uh dr hechvitz is going to get us started here with just an update on some curriculum work that's been happening and i wanted to keep you all informed along with um slides that are a direct reflection of the powerpoint presentation above thank you so we're not going to spend a whole bunch of time on the just wanted to give a little bit of a background about why we're even doing this presentation to you so we've spoken quite a bit at the last three or four four meetings i believe about curriculum work standards-based grading professional development taking place within the district so we just wanted to sort of illustrate all of that for you and we thought the best way to do that would be just to have some teachers present and explain to you the process that they're going through so we selected two teachers from fourth grade jessica coletto and jenny prasca and so they're going to be walking you through this presentation that they put together for you feel free to stop and ask questions as we go but hopefully you'll you'll get a good idea through the illustration that they're about to present just the entire process starting with priority standard selection which is a process in itself and then going through and taking all of those priority standards and breaking them up creating scaffolded instructions so students that need a little bit more support teachers are able to diagnose maybe where they're they're having trouble and then really essentially is essential to this whole thing too is creating opportunities for students as we've talked before to go above and beyond and demonstrate their learning with a standard so miss coletto did you want to come on up and then mrs prasca is actually on zoom so hopefully she'll be able to take the first half of the presentation and kind of talk to you about the first few slides and then miss coletto's going to jump in at the end one last thing i wanted to mention this pandemic obviously has been a different experience for all of us but what's really what it's really done that we already knew but it's really called to light this this importance of targeting our instruction so when we think about standards from illinois that were mandated to us they're all important they're all you know things that we want our students to be able to learn or be able to do by the end of their grade level but the fact of the matter is there's hundreds of standards that a teacher would be responsible for in any given year at the primary and elementary level and of course there's large handfuls of standards even at middle school for each teacher to cover but with the limited time that we've had with students it's even more important for us to focus that instruction and select the standards that are most important to each grade level and so that's why we had started this work even last year but this the pandemic has really just kind of given us even more uh rationale for carrying through with the work we've just tried to do it in a little bit more of an accelerated manner because of the situation but this is work that we'll be continuing for a couple years and we'll kind of explain why jenny's gonna do the first couple right okay so hopefully you'll be able to hear miss prasca uh rationale for carrying through with the work we just tried to do it in a little bit more of an accelerated manner because of the situation but um this is work that we'll be um continuing for a couple years and we'll kind of explain why yep i'm here can everybody hear me can you hear me okay we're close there's a couple of things i keep hearing dr hutch what you just okay let me know when you're ready yep okay they can all hear me okay i'm here can everybody hear me everyone okay you can hear me how about you turn off your sound really quick there's a couple of things i keep hearing dr hutcher that's what she just said because i'm just trying to get it to switch over um did that help yeah have you closed the stream on your computer yeah that's what i just did i'm sorry i didn't realize that i'm so sorry about that nope nope i you don't need to apologize thank you okay well we can get just kidding yeah we did it earlier those are no i haven't used them you can i mean if jessica just wants to start then hello okay yeah jessica cannon i'm gonna go in the hall you and i are gonna practice will that be a problem it's really quick she might she can probably just okay that sounds lovely okay hi everybody um so basically um we're just going to kind of talk about the process that we've been going with with identifying priority standards um and just making sure that we are focusing on the priorities at each grade level um so we're going to take you through just how we as a grade level have been prioritizing standards and this is what we've done k through eight um the process and then just looking at um in fourth grade what we've done too with some samples for reading and math to make sure that we're emphasizing what we really need to focus on for a grade level to make sure students are successful and how we're looking at those standards to make sure that we're differentiating for students who are at or above grade level standards and also for students who are below so um so the first slide um it just shows a table of what we've used based from the lake county roe they the staff over there has been walking us through just how to prioritize the standards in a way that's going to be across all grade levels consistent because that's one thing that you know over the years has been something that's not been not as consistent as you may know so um we have gone through and used um this process to really streamline it so that we're looking at using the same criteria across the board to make sure that we're prioritizing standards that are going to be um needed to be focused on so um it was actually very interesting during this process because um the roe had compiled at each grade level what standards back in the spring of last year had been prioritized by each grade level and then after the work that was done using this um form what standards were prioritized with the grade levels after the work had been done and it was interesting to see how more streamlined it was across all grade levels from just doing this process some different things to highlight from this thing that we looked at from this form that we looked at we looked at um as a grade level how important is this along multiple subjects so not just reading and math but science and social studies where is that going to come into play we also looked at above and below the grade levels is this a skill that's been introduced before is it something that hasn't been introduced before is it something we need to spend more time on as well as looking at data from assessments like iar map testing and looking at historically how students done in these skills in the past so we really tried to look at all encompassing different factors so that we can make sure that we're prioritizing what skills on the students are going to need for their success okay um so we did this whole process for both reading and for math and as you'll notice you'll see just some um x's across the board for things that we decided for that a standard fell into and then if something received a five for example that was something we felt was really important and then once we did it for all of the standards we went back and looked at what what received fives and then really targeted which ones are going to be the priority because even though everything received a five for example there's multiple standards for vocabulary we really looked at what vocabulary standards were going to be the main focus that we needed for um reading and math and writing so that's kind of the general process of what we did to kind of narrow down to which standards are going to be a priority focus and the other standards are not anything that we're going to forget about but just how can we embed them in other ways and we're not going to maybe spend as much time as we would on some of those key skills okay all right and then okay so then this is going to talk about talking about can you hear me okay is it not working again no but let's you just talk and we're just you just talk loudly they can hear you and they'll figure out this other stuff okay so um as jessica said when we when we found all the priority standards um went through that whole process um are you on slide four now i'm on the slide i'm on the slide that has the ela sample standard okay perfect yep so it uh this is an example of what we did after we pinpointed those priority standards um we came up with learning intentions and then um success criteria for all of the uh priority standards so this was an entire other process um that we worked as a team and went through um it's basically breaking down the standard to what each student had to uh to learn like the actual the main goal of it and then the success criteria is completely breaking it down into pieces that we taught um that we want the kids to know like one step at a time and it's all in um student language so that we could we actually show these to the students and um so that they they have their learning intention and their success criteria so they can tell if they were successful with um with that priority standard so um and then if you can go to the next slide real quick so this is actually something we took one of the priority standards uh 4.2 which is using text evidence um to support a main idea and then we we've talked we did this all at one of our professional uh trainings where we we talked a lot about webb's depth of knowledge um and how the how the students could show the different levels so we created a rubric for just one activity that we did so that the kids could show um if they were meeting the standards the success criteria the learning intentions and everything and then obviously breaking it down uh by the levels i think that's it for ela right jess and again again this is just one standard so um a couple years ago so we have um continuing the process each year we kind of looked at what resources provided and what other district resources have and again looking at our data from the aspen um we used a similar process um as you know for a little bit longer than um um what we want to make sure that the students are learning because sometimes we've found with the eureka assessments they they have a high ceiling which is great to have a challenge but sometimes it's not always then really assessing our priority standards of what we really need to make sure and ensure so we've done a lot of work with that um so again we did the learning intentions and the success criteria and we've done a lot with the vocabulary too so within the success criteria if there's vocabulary that we think the students may not have come into contact with or it's something they really need to understand the concept of that vocabulary we also have been doing work for how can we make sure that the students are going to be able to understand what um the learning targets and the meanings are of it so even if it's student-friendly language it might still have some challenging vocabulary so we've really done a lot of work with trying to look at different ways we can make sure students are really grasping what it is they're supposed to be learning and then this next slide is just an example of something we did last year so last year at one of our cia meetings we really talked about giving students that ownership for how to demonstrate their learning and that's one thing that we talked about with how to differentiate while still having students perform at like that higher level so this is an example of something we've done at the end of a multiplication unit so we have the eureka assessment that we looked at and we kind of targeted what did we want them to get out of the paper pencil assessment but then we also wanted to give an opportunity for students to be more personalized to really show their learning so you'll notice that we have um on this first slide just kind of some directions the students get the opportunity to be the teacher and then they have some choices of what concepts they can choose from and there's some differentiated options in there so students were able to choose what they felt comfortable with and one of the big components within our math standards is the mathematical practices where students really have to explain their thinking so we wanted them to be able to still do that because no matter the student's math level um they still can be able to explain their thinking and be able to kind of show a stronger depth of understanding so um you'll notice that on the next slide it shows that learning criteria again the success criteria and then we really tried to break it down between problem solving steps strategy selection explanation and gave a range of um how students would know how they're doing and again um you know trying to empower them so trying to get to that higher level and by offering an opportunity for students who are at a higher level to kind of showcase what they know and for students who maybe are still struggling with some aspects of the standard to still be able to show what they know with and feel that ownership so that's one thing that we've really been trying to do is how can we have students feel empowered and feel ownership to be able to again show what they know and be proud of what they're doing and again having that understanding of clear understanding of what it is that they're learning so that's something that i know that we're going to work more towards as a developing rubric similar to this but again making sure it aligns to i know the middle school had their adjustments to the standards base so in elementary we've kind of used not exactly the same so we're going towards to become more consistent and again knowing fourth grade they transition to fifth grade really looking at how can we make sure we're using similar language so that it's easy to understand across grade levels that's that thank you so much that was great thank you thank you do you have any questions for us yeah do you guys have the resources you need to do what you're talking about doing um i think so i it's been very valuable to have the cia meetings and the time to collaborate and then the roe has been very helpful i know that just from um even the work we did last year we got a lot of resources that again that the district was providing for us um you know it takes time and i think sometimes it's we don't even know what we do need so i think that you know it's been a process but i think that we're moving in the direction we want to go in and then i feel like again you know as we've kind of worked through it we're like this didn't work this worked better and our you know again we're just communicating with our administrators what we need so i think again it's been a process but once we've kind of figured it out there's been ways to get us michelle could you describe because uh cia meetings not everybody might know what that means yeah michelle describe how those work curriculum instruction and assessment meetings it sounds like really regal and official but it's really just the teams and the principals and i meeting and having these discussions this year we haven't had a chance to have them because of the pandemic and we really didn't feel it was appropriate to ask teachers to you know not provide instruction remotely for their students and instead meet full day like we normally would or half day as teams over zoom but what we have been doing is taking advantage of the early release time it's been so valuable and i think the principals would agree it's just it's been wonderful time and appropriate for this situation at least but yes curriculum instruction and assessment and dr king um and i will be doing many of the work together with the teams moving forward because with the addition of a program called otis that dr king has secured and gotten up and running the parents will be able to see and all of you will be able to see of course data for each student so every single assessment that we have the results are being put into this system so if i wanted to look up john smith in fourth grade and see how he's doing overall all of the desa the sel data will be in there nwea will data will be in there iar imagine math imagine literacy any of those programs so it's going to give you a comprehensive snapshot of how your child is doing um or any student that you know teachers are figuring out how to help um they'll be able to get a big picture view of those students in a very quick amount of time in the past it was very difficult for teachers to gather up all of that data from all of these different websites and sources and you know bring that to a meeting or so this way it's going to streamline the process so i just wanted to give dr king a big shout out for that because this has been um we were just looking at the data today and it's unbelievable how valuable it is i know that dr king sent out an email to families today about otis so i believe they can start logging in and taking a look at their child in the system and it'll be probably a growing process for all of us moving forward because it's a very robust system but hopefully parents have a chance to dig into that and if you have any questions contact us but and that's going to be next month we're going to show the board that setup yeah so it's kind of our plan yeah so i just wanted to tie this back to the research so if you look at the memo i did put some resources on the bottom of the back page all of the work we're doing is directly tied to student achievement marzano and hattie have done a ton of work focused on this student and teacher clarity piece and that's what we're striving to really master here as teachers and educators is how do we make this learning really really clear to students so that they can articulate their goals like ms coletto said so we're excited about where this is going to take us but please be patient because although we're working as diligently and quickly as we can we have we recognize that we have a lot more to do to get to where we want to be um a lot more assessment development a lot more rubric development but i think you'll see moving forward the ability of our teachers to articulate to a parent or to any of you um you know what a number four or number three or number two would look like for any particular standard any other questions thank you very much good work thank you to mrs prasca and miss coletto as well yeah thank you all right uh item g almost done with my report item g is our proposed school calendar for 2122.

I frankly have no opinion believe it or not um about the positivity rate I don't know if eight nine or 10 or 11 or 12 or 13 or 47 is better what I do know is the guidelines from our Public Health experts we're really kind of at the top at nine and so I know there's a lot of literature out there about Transmission in schools yes there is transmission and no there is not really the reason there are guidelines are that we have people who are experts in this area who sift through all that literature and make some recommendations even the American Academy of Pediatrics which is very vocal about kids should be back in school I think we all agree kids should should be as soon as possible back in school I don't think anybody disagrees with that but even the American Academy of pediatri Pediatrics says you should work in areas where there are is substantial transmission you need to work with your uh local public health department to determine when it is safe to open schools so to Terry's point I agree if we're gonna air I think we should air on the side of safety so we can't have a motion tonight then it'll have to be at the next board meeting correct well we'll do a straw count tonight we can do a straw poll tonight well then I'll make the motion in two weeks then well do you want to straw pole it now and see what people say I'd like to interject go ahead uh so uh to speak to the 9% 10% I I don't know what the right number is but I know I have a you know and I I I look at data everybody looks at data yeah um everybody's got an opinion about these things um but we have a superintendent who uh it's his job to uh con you know to to go through these looking at our unique situation and even we as board members don't really see all the layers of the onion here I mean there are just so many so many things happening here and so uh you know as Hank said in our previous meeting I mean we're we're paying him to make the tough tough decisions and and you know so he's he's come up with 9% that's the number and I would just be afraid that if we if we tried to change it to 10 that we'd be having a similar conversation again at you because now the number is 10.2 or something so and then and then the idea you know Dan's Dan's thought too I I've you know about the validity of the number itself and and whether or not that's the metric we should be using um I you know I've had that similar um you know thought and and it it's interesting though I mean I I I shared some of my concerns with a friend who uh you know astutely pointed out to me that yeah it's a flawed number but it's the best we've got I mean we have to no matter what number we pick you know what what metric we decide to use you can make an argument for and against using that as as as a number and and so uh when it comes down to it uh I you know I was advocating before for some sort of a range um you know that that maybe uh maybe it's not the best thing to draw a line in the sand and say well we go over this that's it um but I do think I do see the benefit in that and I think we heard from both Zoe and Sam tonight um the appreciation for having something that that the community can look to and and make some judgment as to what might happen and and prepare for that so that it's not necessarily A oh we're waiting on the edge of you know we're all on the edge of our seats waiting to find out what's what's going to happen you know some predictability is important and and and so the way we've got this set up right now I think does that and no matter what we choose to do there's going to be people that feel we're and they're absolutely convinced that we're doing things the wrong way and and and we're no different than any other community in this and so I you know we I mean we get we get emails from people telling us thank you for what we've decided to do um we saw a metric just a few minutes ago and I could I could scroll back up on my other screen here to to look at that but I mean I I was I mean wow 40 what was it 48% 45% at South uh in quarter three fully remote Learners 28% at North so regardless of whether we decide it's safe for for students to come back in a hybrid model there's 48% of our students at South who've said I I don't care what you what you decide we Mike I think that was a demographic 48% I don't that was not a 48% of the overall population yes it was 4 it was a demographic 48% no it's 45% of our full of our population at South of students right yes I thought it was students of color no no but the that but we were told that a large majority of those students who chose to be fully remote are are represented uh you know as as black and I see that in my district I see that wait wait wait wait wait first of all Mike has the floor then we'll go to Rick then we'll go to Joanne can you bring up the slide so everybody can look at that slide again just so there's no question sorry I'm looking at it right now I think it's the third it's a third slide Mike finish your point please yes so um so my my point being that you know with with nearly half of our students at South I don't care what their what their you know their um gender or race or what I mean 45% of our students at South have decided that hey I'm staying home no matter what happens uh in this third quarter and and 28% of our students in North I mean that's these These are this a large number of students and so um I think that we've struck a good balance here and uh I think Hank's doing the best he can um we're trying to you know he he's bent in you know his his sort of Hey listen 9% is even pushing you know that's what I was hearing from Hank is that 9% is pushing me to the absolute limit that you know I asked before what is the range and Hank said and this was at our last meeting he said well 9% is the top of my range and I I I appreciate that what so I I did want to ask a question um and that is thinking about our vaccines all right going coming forward and I heard I heard some really wonderful news that we're thinking in two to six weeks we could be vaccinating um our our some of our staff um I'm hoping I'm I'm I'm I'm hoping that between now and then that we're looking at how that factor might influence what we're looking at in terms of the positivity rate or or the cases per 100,000 um you know because that that that's now introduced a new variable into into what we're doing it was different from the first semester and and I I know you've you've I mean Hank you're already always one step ahead of me never ask a question so I'm sure this is something your team has started to think about so I'd be interested to hear what your thoughts are on that going forward uh well I I don't have an official thought on it I can tell you Mike that we have weighed had discussions about how that should weigh in that combined with increased testing and those kinds of things uh you know how that might play in what we've asked for though is for uh an opportunity to talk to the Illinois Department of Public Health to better understand how that's supposed to play in to our thinking with with the metrics right now it's just speculation that it it should impact it in some way but I have no official guidance from Health experts as to how it actually should but it sure feels like it should right and um since I have the floor before we go back to Rick I I I do want to point out uh something that I'm sure based on the amount of community members I've heard from when we point to fully remote Learners the the frustration that comes from people that are strongly in support of getting students back under the hybrid model and especially um feel like maybe we're being too conservative with the metrics is that people people that have chosen the fully remote model have been provided a choice and folks that would prefer to be back in the hybrid model they feel like I am forcing a choice upon them and I am because that's what I'm tasked to do here is to take the evidence in front of me and everything that I've learned over the last you know 10 months and uh our experience here that we've had at the school and try to pick something that indicates if if we're healthy or not or we're going to be healthy or not under it and absolutely could I be wrong yes could we look back five years from now and everybody decide that Hank was an idiot absolutely uh my family's done it many times but I can tell you that I I trust in the work that we've done as a team that we've carefully looked at this and considered it this isn't just a dart board thrown or Dart thrown at the dart board right we've we've weighed all of the factors and and tried to come up with something that we trust in will keep people safe and as soon as I feel that that number should either go up or down I will bring that recommendation immediately to the board and the public and say look based on what we've learned this should this should slide one way or another um but to this point based on our very limited experience in that one week I I don't have that evidence yet U and just to be just to clarify something you said um and then you know Rick's got the floor when you say I you mean you in consultation with with my administrative team the health department yes you're not sitting there making some sort of autocratic decision no no but I say lot of people who who understand this involved in it yeah and I say I because ultimately with the board and the superintendent relationship it's I am at the top of that pyramid reporting to the board yeah okay rig okay um Mike I apologize I read that second number wrong but we still have 72% and 52% of our students that want the hybrid that's enough to get you elected president whether you agree or not um that's a majority now I do know that demographic because I teach in that demographic we're struggling to get back to a hybrid model because of the population of my district does not want to go back but I believe and I've heard enough from parents who have kids in the system the mental toll that this is taking on them outweighs the health benefit that this demographic is going to get if they are exposed to covid the mental part we have this has been going on for almost a year it started in March and they got through it and then it was summer and then the fall there was a promise of coming back and then that was yanked out from under them and now we promised oh we'll be back and now the second week back here we are back and forth back and forth and I think we as a school board need to take that decision back and and publicly say what we believe one way or the other majority is the majored nobody promised that we'd be back so just to be clear there was no there was no promise made to anybody that we would definitely be back we the promise was that you know here are the are the the guidelines ahead of time uh this is what we're going to be looking at and if we're you know we're under those numbers we will be back so that was that was the promise um and I I you know the mental health side of this why I mean I I truly appreciate and I think we all do um you know given the amount of time dedicated in this meeting to that topic so to speak uh you know just a little bit ago um and so uh for sure I would just always keep in mind that um you know the decisions that that are being made here uh we always talk about keeping the students safe but keep in mind that you know this is a this is a virus that uh doesn't know any boundaries including you know our you know the bounds of our school buildings and uh you know the decisions that we make potentially impact uh you know the health and and well-being of of my uh you know retired elderly uh neighbors um and and so uh I know what's you know I understand that that that that there are trade-offs here and and that some people are certainly paying a price but you know what's a life worth and and I think in the short term we want to keep people alive and that's um you know that's that's what we're you know that's what we're trying to to do here I think uh you know I I support Hank's um you know Hank's Direction on this and where we are right now I would not support uh moving away from that nor would I support um removing from Hank um his uh his authority to based on all the conversations with the leaders and and uh decision makers uh that he's you know he's collaborating with uh to come up with the you know the right recommendation for us and and and so I don't I nor do I want the authority to decide that we're going to close school on a snow day you know I I mean I I think that that that Hank does a great job with that as well and and this is one of those sorts of things well oh I'm sorry Terry uh Joanna is next and then then you'll have that's okay that's okay yeah but um well pretty much you know I had wanted to say that the demographic we were talking about a lot of those families they are multigenerational and I do feel that when we're making this decision while I care so much about the student body this is about the community at large and I think if people are that concerned you know then they should maybe do better practicing of social distancing not be going out not traveling that would help us all to get back into school a whole lot sooner but I um am very much in agreement that Hank has he's giving us the information that we need and I want to go along with the Fig that Hank has provided for us Terry oh go ahead uh sh we haven't we haven't heard from you yet so I I just want to say there is as we've said before there is no winner in this nowhere you know the fact that we're not in school fulltime aligns with there are no winners right but it sounds like to me we're already being more more liberal in our 9% number and because if we're already being more liberal I don't know who made the point does do we go to 10 do we go to 11 because we're pushing the envelope to get to you know to get to get in the school open so I am with Hank I support that I feel like we're already more liberal based on what Hank reported what what Nancy has said tonight obvious viously I'm praying every day we get back to normal because that's the right answer but I think where Hank is today and what he's presented with the team that he's utilizing to get here this is now the right answer or the right number for now well basically what I was going to say is is I I agree that um we need to keep um we need to keep that that 9% I think that really is a key and I also think that the community um entrusted all of that with Hank to keep them safe too and you know as as uh Mike said this virus has no boundaries none it goes It goes for everybody and and we need to really remember that and and um our students want to get back to school we want them there but we also have to think about their parents their grandparents and their Nextdoor neighbors so I I think conservative is the best way to go that's basically it so we're not taking a vote tonight I understand that and it looks like straw poll is heavily in favor of sticking with Hank's numbers I would just like you know I think we should take a formal vote in two weeks if we're not back in school I look at a couple of things zero cases in our school directly tied to our school when they were in school last semester questionable numbers 8 n 10% what's the right number we don't know and those numbers are people getting vac vaccinated aren't going to be taking tests so those numbers are going to get even more questionable the deteriorating mental health of our students we're here to do what's best for our students and I think many of us are making this decision based on fear and based on unfounded fears of what we what might happen in the future this could happen this doesn't happen to me the only number that matters I reiterate it again is transmitted cases in our school if our kids are in school and nobody's passing it among themselves in school there's no reason we can't be in school and I know we talk about different models but new NE Trier Hinsdale LT weaton long list of other schools that our kids are going to be competing with in the future they're all back we're not whatever model you want to talk about different model not as good as good as ours they're in school our kids aren't so I'll I'll hold any other thoughts or arguments until a couple weeks from now when we can actually take a real vote well I would say this even if we go back to school I think I'm hearing you and Rick are proposing we take a vote which is fine we'll put it on the docket to take a vote are you also requesting that we look at is there a way we can change our model where we might be able to bring more K fewer kid kids in or bringing kid change that model to raise that number so like say if we went back to I mean I even thought this through but if we went back to what we did first semester would that allow us to raise the mod the the numbers so I I don't yeah I don't have the answer to that but the only that I the only thing I would say is I wouldn't be suggesting that because as we just saw 45% of students at South aren't going to go back anyway so if they're already in an AB split you're AB splitting half of the population so that number is only 25% on a daily basis in school which was the first what was the first plan so I'm I'm not to me the kid should be in school let me just comment on that you can't I I know it looks like then it equally distributes throughout the building and that if we're bringing in half of 55% that we have tons more space in the building than we thought but it doesn't equally distribute across classrooms so we have some classrooms last week that were absolutely packed so far as maintaining social distancing right we couldn't have fit any more students in there and we had some that were very small because although it's 55% or are coming in in that group they don't equally distribute between every class and every space right so um it it just it it works differently than just the math would seem to indicate that it should I just I don't want people to walk away thinking that every classroom is empty because of people selecting a large number of people at South selecting to be fully remote it's just not how kids fill into those spaces in the classroom throughout the day right but there are less students in the building because so many have opted out right so it makes things like our passing period um you know a little more comfortable for me than would because I think you guys I think the plan you put together the in school mitigations the The Mask wearing the social distancing the face Shields coming in us well think that's top-notch I think that's a great plan I just want to see that plan giv a chance to work and I want to see that plan giving our kids a chance to be back at school that's so do I Dan desperately I want our students back at school but not desperately enough that I'm G to just trust that it's G to work on a hope and a prayer and and roll dice that CO's not going to make its way amongst our students and staff if we bring students back at these higher numbers you know when I talk to dup page count Health Department like we're well beyond their area of comfort but I'm able to say look based on the things you just mentioned our PP the number of students in school the seriousness in which our community and our students and our staff have taken this the the one passing period uh in each group each day like all of those things make me say like I can sit across from a health professional and say yeah but yeah I know you're saying we shouldn't go above eight but I I feel comfortable going into nine I mean when I talk to people and I say look we're bringing in in our morning session at South High and at North High you know we're bringing in 800 students plus we have another six to 700 staff members you know in in total scattered you know so another 300 in each building so I'm bringing in over a thous people at a time at a time where Community transmission rates are are at 9 to 10% and health expert I talk to some health experts and they think I'm nuts for you know that our whole team not just me that our whole district is nuts to try to do this kind of a plan where where we're at now and my argument is look we we can manage this at the numbers that we've set and the program we've built and keep kids safe and um if I didn't think we could I wouldn't be recommending 9 % um but I I think we have a great instructional program I think we're taking good care of kids remotely um it's not what we want obviously but uh we're making that work the best we can and looking forward to the time when we can return students in this hybrid model and once that's up and running I think we will have the premier hybrid program in the area we just need the numbers to come down and come into a space where we feel like it'll be safe to do that and um I understand the perspective of just bring them back and prove let the numbers prove out if it's safe but I'm not willing to gamble with people's health and possibly even their lives that we can maintain that and keep people safe I believe it I believe it that we're going to keep people safe at these numbers or I wouldn't be bringing recommending that we bring students back where we're at can I can I interject here um uh Dan I gota I have to respond to a couple things you said um first of all uh it's not my impression that I mean I've heard this an awful lot in the media and it's a popular thing to say you know we're acting out of fear we're letting fear dictate you know what we do here and that's not what I'm hearing from anybody uh in the conversation so far and that's certainly not how I've been operating uh we're all doing the best we can based on the facts at hand um as much as those keep changing but you know part of what I hear you advocating for is the fact that hey um let's let's talk about that that that number let's let's say we haven't had any documented Community spread um you know from having students in our hybrid program last semester that the the two weeks that we were in um based on that then we should feel good about going forward now even you know and just toss out the numbers because that's the only thing that we should be looking at and I would say to you that uh if anything since March whatever when this thing started uh you know nothing is stayed the same everything keeps changing um for me to rely on data from a couple we in the first semester to be the thing that that I would rely on or even even other schools experiences you know I don't know that I can just hang my hat on that either and uh the other piece of this is that let's say that it you know sure we've had success with it um I liken it to an intersection you know do I do I put the stop sign up to prevent an accident from happening or do I wait till somebody has a big big crash and then I go oh I guess I have a I should have a stop sign there you know and we're and and and we're trying to figure out right now right um what data we can use um to decide where you know where and when to put that stop sign up and I think we've done a good job with that um I I but I reject outright you the notion that somehow I'm acting out of fear in my decision-making process here um so I'll I'll let you respond so Mike I I could get into specific comments that board members have made at this meeting and others that I I would make the argument they are operating out of fear I don't want to call anybody out I will say you mentioned that you didn't want to rely on two weeks of data from the first semester to make our decisions for us but yet that 14-day number we're relying on all of our decisions for so you're relying on what happened January 2nd to dictate what happens next week for our kids in school it's the same thing there is no relationship between the numbers that we're using and what's going to happen next week it's all a crapshoot so whether we Ed the number I'm suggesting let's see what real numbers what actually happens when they're in school if there's a transmission in school so if they go to school and there's Transmission in school go to remote until it's safe again but going back to what happened January 1st second and third and making the decision that oh I can't send them to school on the 11th or the 12th obviously they wouldn't have been in school today I can't send to school on the 12th because on January 2nd we only had 6,000 people in Illinois take a test and we had a 20 or whatever percent positivity rate because nobody took a test so I just think that we're using a flawed number to make decisions that are greatly impacting our students lives and they've if this was the start of it I would say let's be safe let's be over cautious it's been like this for a year our kids are suffering they're I've seen it I've seen it personally our kids are suffering and I think we have to at this point take a little bit more risk that maybe we would have a year ago or that we did last March to help our kids get through this but Dan we are we are taking more of a risk this is far more of a risk than what we did in the fall right in the fall it was one group for half a day it wasn't two groups coming through the building in a day it wasn't at metric thresholds of what we're looking at now it it was nothing like this in the fall heck in the fall you know we had 70 cases that we had to contact trace this last week when we were in session if we would have had that in the fall I would have told you we were we should have shut school down immediately but we were able to keep up with it because of the resources we've added this is well well beyond the levels that we looked at returning in in the fall we have adapted and changed based on what we have learned and what we know about keeping kids safe it's just I I am not comfortable based on what I know now pushing that Beyond and yes we are looking at 14-day historical average because that's what that's what the health experts say to do is to follow the trends follow the data that's in front of you to look at Trends over a two- week period of time this is all the teachings that they have given us over the course of the year that's why we're using it and I get appreciate like look yeah could the data be flawed is it you're using the past to predict the future yes but that's what we have to do right now because we have nothing better to go to go on than that and I'm not I am not comfortable as the superintendent and we are not comfortable as administrative team saying roll dice bring kids in under conditions that are well beyond what the health professionals have said although I still think safe and then we'll see we'll see if something breaks out then what do I do apologize to kids saying yeah you know the health experts said we thought illness would happen and you got sick and I I'm sorry I didn't listen to the Health Care Professionals but we'll do better next time I I can't go forward with that as a leader and feel in good conscious that I am serving this District or our students or our families well and and I would agree with you with the exception of there are significant and there are other entire states that the kids are in school there are schools in our County that kids are in school so I I understand I mean Hank you and I disagree with this I know that I respect your opinion I understand where you're coming from I respect everybody's opinion on this it's not an easy answer but I think it's time to default the default should be the kids in school because when you look at the numbers they're out this week I believe the numbers today the 14-day average is over 11% most likely that number is not going to go down they're going to be out next week it's not going to go down enough down n so are we going to get the same thing we had last year they were in school for a week now again we're not voting on this I I'll drop it I won't say anything else but I think Now's the Time where we need to default for our kids being in school and that's again my opinion only so I'll just say this I I this comment of operating in fear that's not how I am operating and also I struggle to even understand what that means when we have a Ral PR mic when people are constantly running numbers I struggle to even understand what operating and fear means because it's a world pandemic so I just want to go on record to say that is not how I'm operating so that notion of that could be removed at least from my standpoint um again I'll keep saying there are no winners in this I mean we know what normal looks like most of us enjoy n normal and for the most part and I wholeheartly want to get back to it I would just I would just add to I have said that I am afraid of covid and I am afraid of covid am I afraid I'm Gonna Catch covid not particularly because I'm very careful but what I am afraid of we don't know the long-term impact on uh the health and well-being of adults or children or young adults from this virus that is what I am afraid of that yes are they suffering I absolutely agree it's horrible I agree but there could be really long-term consequences that nobody knows about yet we just don't know and when I when you say you're operating from fear that is the fear I am operating from that we are doing ultimately a larger disservice then we can anticipate I hope I'm wrong if we if if we're not too careful I I I I hope that doesn't come to fruition but that is my fear I don't also like to say just respond about the 14-day you know right now we're in a saw tooth right some days it's higher some days it's lower then it goes back up then it drops down then it comes back up that's why you want to average right over the 14 days when we start seeing a consistent Trend coming down I would anticipate we'll get different guidelines just like we had different guidelines when the trend was going up uh uh precipitously so I agree the numbers are flawed but they are the best numbers we have anybody else Terry did you want to say something you're on mute sorry I keep muting so that you guys don't get the football game in the background but um I agree with you Nancy that um we don't know exactly what's going to happen to the population with um what's happening with Co I mean we just don't know and uh I think being conservative is is the right answer I'm I'm with Hank and um you know there are K students in in our schools that do get Co and and can spread it and don't even realize it uh that's why we test them when they come in you know those kind of things so I think that um uh staying the course is the way to go and Hope hopefully hopefully fingers crossed toes crossed this is we can see the light at the end of the tunnel you know with with vaccines and and uh moving forward hopefully um this is this is this is it so let's let's move on it looks like Zoe had yeah Zoe had something to say I'm sorry I I you know what Hank I have a hard time hearing you so I hear everyone else but for some reason yours is is a lot softer so my children have that same problem too Terry oh no it's called selective deafness Zoe I think Zoe had a comment that she wanted to share my screen is froza yeah no need to apologize you didn't interrupt me but um yeah I'll said in the chat was that I know that what we're addressing is mental health and academics as the biggest issues that we're concerned about right now and I just wanted to bring up the point that most of you are in positions of influence and we have the ability to advocate for and amplify the resources that the counseling team was talking about the you know the emotional and mental supports that we have going at school those are some of the safest ways that we can remotely support our students so I just wanted to bring up that point that we have some control over what happens and how people handle this situation staying home or going to school Melle you're you're uh you are not muted oh it looks like I'm muted y okay it's my screen is frozen so I I can't just making sure you know because it didn't look like you did so no I didn't know any other comment so so to reiterate we're going to put on the next um meeting we're going to put on the agenda that we will re I I would like to take a vote on the metrics that I'm recommending at that time because it might change based on what we learn over the next few weeks right and uh I will go back to the team and talk through it it sounds like at least two board members would like for us to take another at it I'm I'm always willing to do that um and take a look at are we making the right decision is there another recommendation we can have um we'll take a look at it with fres eyes based on what we learned from last week there's always something learn from a week of inperson learning and uh over the next two weeks we'll come back to the board either with the same recommendation or you know it it could change or or things could change we could learn more between now and then so well and I to reiterate and I want to reiterate it is a dynamic process I mean if tomorrow the CDC said these numbers have changed we would act upon that so it's with the best available information we have at the time correct is that Dan Rick or is that does that address your desire yeah I would like to have that discussion in two weeks okay yes we'll put on the agenda yes thank you any more on this okay uh summer school report yep I'm gonna turn this one over to Rob all right good evening everybody uh Tim Tilton is joining us this evening and we have a very length uh two- slide presentation about this past summer with summer school um so uh Tim's going to take it away he's going to explain uh and give us a little bit of a summary of uh summer school this past summer and related to the previous conversation you all had just uh a quick reminder um this time last year as we were lining up teachers and registering students for summer school it was under the assumption that it was going to be in person and then as the pandemic evolved it quick LLY became clear that uh we had an online summer school so uh Tim's going to give us some updates on what happened um during summer school and then he'll pitch it back over to me and then I'll talk through our our recommendations all right thank you rob um thank you everyone for your time tonight I'm happy to report that as Rob mentioned despite the covid-19 moved to remote learning uh that began back in March District 99 was able to offer successful summer school program in 2020 I want to stop before I go any further with the with the rest of the um the details though and give a special note of thanks uh this would not have been possible without the incredible flexibility uh and the hard work of so many of the uh other people throughout the district um from the ASC staff that assisted in instituting a fully online registration process for the first time uh to our Tech staff uh for carrying out Chromebook and classroom supply distribution to our incoming fresh fresman and other new students that hadn't been part of summer school before um to our amazing our amazing summer school teachers that adapted the curriculum to a fully remote learning format in uh in such a short time uh truly this was a great team effort we could not have done it with without everyone working together uh so at this time I would like to give some of the highlights of the program um summer school is comprised of three main three main categories uh the academic program the driver's ed program uh and our credit recovery program um but in general summer school was held completely in a remote environment as Robin mentioned uh we kept the same four day a week schedule uh that we normally uh go by which is Monday through Thursday um teachers use their discretion to schedule like a consistent uh start time uh each day that included at least 90 minutes of a synchronous learning and then they structured the other learning activities uh that would take place during that day between the normal summer school the hours of 8: am to 2m uh as like we we normally would have um in our academic program we serviced almost as many students last year as we did the year before with 250 total students that participated um our consumer education program uh roared back with a huge success this year over 60 students three separate sections uh that um students were proactively able to take this subject to increase their schedule flexibility for the future um our freshman bridge program uh also uh was uh was offered was able to be offered for one semester uh in the summer school uh environment this allowed our incoming freshman certain incoming freshmen um that would benefit from to be prepared for the rigors of math and English at the high school level and also the introduction to Chromebook technology in our district um another program that students proactively took was the keys to academic success that ran this prep all the students who took this in this uh general study skills organizational structure note taking uh reading strategies for any type of curriculum and then also our AP chem prep chemistry prep program was again um quite used we had two full sections this year um where students were coached on the rigor of AP Chemistry that they were enrolled in for the upcoming school year um our next tier the the driver's ed program um serviced 55 students this summer uh we were only only allowed to offer the classroom uh course um for during the summer school time obviously due to not being able to be in person for the behind the wheel uh portion however um that was able to be accommodated later on in the uh later summer and and fall time for students who came forward after they had gotten their permits and then uh our credit recovery program uh this was offered fully remote um and 3 32 students completed total of 36 classes which helped some of them recover their Pace towards graduation uh and actually had eight students uh who were able to graduate that normally would not have that that school year so I would again like to thank all of the contributing members from all the Departments and the uh and the staff at both schools that helped summer school take place in a moment Rob will will uh Rob L will summarize the recommendations for the upcoming school year um but before that happens is there any questions that I can answer all right thanks Tim uh before Tim hops off the stage though um I just would like to publicly thank Tim Tim has it been 11 years is that what you told me last time I think it's 12 actually I did a Rec 12 years okay so this was the 12th year uh that Tim ran our summer school programming and uh Tim really starts with uh around this time of the school year in January uh doing all the planning and Logistics and and uh interacting with different parts of the organization to pull it off and then he's on site for summer school uh for a summertime uh unfortunately Tim has decided that this past summer was going to be his last summer as our coordinator our director for summer school um so we're going to miss Tim uh he's done a fantastic job but I just wanted to take this moment to thank him for uh all 12 years and also through conversations I would just also like to U let you know that Tim has committed to uh mentoring and guiding who the next person will be for summer school so um he won't be the director this upcoming summer but he will be behind the scenes helping out with the next person so thank you very much Tim thank you very much I appreciate it all right so the next logical question for uh off of past summer school is um what's our plan for this upcoming summer and like everything else the answer is we don't know yet um would love to have it uh fully in person but you know similar to conversations you had before we don't know how the health metrics are going to be we don't know vaccination is going to be uh there's a lot of factors that we don't know yet um but it makes it very complicated because uh people would like to know what they're signing up for before they sign up for it so we're administratively talking through that of what potentially summer school could look like and we're leaning towards a model of saying it could be any one of those uh the biggest burden one on families would be to be available in person to come into summer school so that's the default that we're heading towards is that we're going to run it in person unless there's a reason why we can't and we haven't had conversations yet about whether there would be a remote only option or anything like that um you know we're just we're planning for second semester here but we've got to start ramping up what uh the model is going to be for summer school uh recommendations that will come to you at the next board meeting is standard that we do every year is that we recommend the teacher stien and the director stien to increase by CPU uh CPI sorry uh which was 2.3% so I'm recommending that we increase the teacher stipend up to $3,122 per semester and increased the director stien up to $979 uh for both semesters we recently increased the cost for students so we're not recommending an uh increased tuition cost and then also in the attachments is the calendar that is very similar to uh the previous years the only difference with this one is that we're recommending July 5th which is a Monday off in observance of the July 4th holiday so those are recommendations that will come to you for uh the next board meeting but what questions can I answer now I guess I asked this for seven years Gina got it for seven I guess Robin Hank how serious is this District or will I have to be like Scott oconnell and come to every meeting how serious are you about changing the the the the the the motivation of Summer School from recovery to enrichment I saw it on the slide but that's just words on a PowerPoint all I can give you is words Rick but I've said it every year that I've been here that once the master facility plan was done and our facilities were fully available to us in the Summers then we will start immediately expanding our programming including as you saw there I want to offer the opportunity for students to not just make up credit but accelerate and maybe open up spaces in their schedule or to just take an experience that wouldn't be offered to them during the regular school year I guess that's my yeah I guess that's my motivation we every year we have approved in the last three four years some wonderful classes that are almost realistically impossible to get to unless you are truly motivated and are willing to sacrifice something else that maybe a high school student should not have to sacrifice we don't give PE waivers at this school at all um so that Avenue is completely denied for students who want to accelerate and we don't offer summer school at maybe the lower honors level to advance where they could then partake of an AP or an advanced engineering class so we approve these classes but there's almost almost realistically no way to ever get to them and so that's why I I've asked this for seven years I heard air conditioning I heard this I heard that and I guess I'm done in April because I'm not running again but do I have to come back like Scott oconnell and say sit down we're going to have a hearing on this because I've heard this for eight years promise Rick only if you promise you'll come back and celebrate when we actually do it I hope so because I I truly think that's one ball we have dropped over the last couple years um we we we have approved some phenomenal classes at the upper level but it's almost physically impossible to take those classes till you meet the requirements to take them yeah I think in some cases that's true especially in some of the CTE progressions but that's not always true like some of the courses we app the course we approved last week in English was just a senior level English that so it's not always the case Rick but you're right right but I tried for kids and there fouryear plan absolutely I've tried to get you more flexible on the PE waivers and that died a sudden death because I'm going to take a poll next week in my class to see how many kids in my APM class have a PE waiver and I I want to say it it's probably more than Downers Grove North or South has given in the last 10 years period um so some high schools are getting around that by allowing kids an extra opportunity uh not just an e period but actually a PE waiver to get around uh to take an advanced level class and we don't offer that summer school and we don't offer the PE waiver and so here we are one year again okay we're GNA do summer school and really it's just Credit Recovery Rick can I just say um uh you know I I've supported I've supported this notion as well um really since I've almost since I've been on the board and and uh I firmly believe uh that Hank is being honest about this and and that as well if we weren't if we hadn't embarked on this master facility plan a few years ago I I think that this would be something that you know would already have started to come to fruition but uh what we've you know with everything else we've got going on with the master facility plan and the disruption that that that causes um you know I I think that that that's been my understanding of the explanation why we're we've kind of been held holding off on this and you know and to your point Rick looking at those numbers uh in the reporting um while the overall number of students who are taking summer classes has been steadily declining over the last 15 years um the number you know the reason for taking the summer classes um particularly for enrichment purposes has increased um and so uh so I think that that's a good sign that that you know there are stud students that would be interested and and uh I'm hoping that our new improved uh and enlarged facilities are are are going to allow us to to do that in a in a really robust way so um and then the PE waiver thing you know there's history there um we you know we've we used to do a lot more with that um I I too wish we we were um but uh some things happened a few years back that kind of forced us into a corner of being a little more strict about whether or not we do that I I I think you I think you might recall some I do Mike and and I feel bad talking so much tonight I think I'm gonna be Mike junr please take the reins um but I just I guess I just I've seen this for so many years and and you're right the enrichment has worked but it's been for the classes to prepare the students for the class that they would have already taken the APM summer workshop and some of the other ones I'm talking about knocking out a requirement so that you become one year ahead and then that opens up Junior Senior Year to take some of these classes that we have put on the books totally get it I had I had I had a student that uh you know in math a couple of my daughters that you know we I even tried to make that happen you know uh for one of my daughters um coming into the high school um so you know I'm you know so I am on the board for you two years and a couple months that'll be it for me um but uh I promis to not uh to not let this one go Rick how about that thanks Mike oh and Rick please please recognize the fact that I was a band director if anybody knows how tough it is for kids to fit courses into their schedules it's band directors um so trust me I I can appreciate uh the need to offer those I just didn't feel it was responsible to try to grow that program you know last year at North we absolutely had zero space to run a program and very little at South um so uh you'll just have to stay tuned for it but I'm a man of my word Rick we will grow that program thank you can you guys hear me yes yes cherelle go ahead sorry earlier my computer keeps freezing in according to my computer I was on mute but um I want I wanted to yeah I am definitely in support of enrichment and especially if and I don't know if it will help with this but I I've talked about on occasion the cost of college if it especially will get some students an opportunity to take courses they may that may eliminate the um affordability of college because there's less class you know less classes need to be taken but I do have a question when we are ready and we do this because you said we're going to do it um do we have the facilities support I don't mean facility faculty support do we believe we will have the teachers that are willing to teach these classes that will definitely be one of the hurdles that we'll have to cross as we get closer to that okay yeah so yeah because it sounds like we have the students we believe that we have students that will definitely take advantage of this I I and I don't know how we started to put a plan in place but or a conversation with staff to know this is something we're considering so that we get the students that the the teachers that are qualified to teach those hiring courses I I do think though that there are some curricular things that we're learning from this time in the pandemic that will help us in summer related courses because what really drives teachers and even students away from the summer is the idea of having to be trapped inside for part or all of their summer and I think what we're learning is we can be a little more flexible in time and space and how we offer things it's not how we want to run school but we better take some things away from the last year about how we can be more flexible and how we think about how teaching and learning works and where it happens and I think as we look to expand summer school we also have to maybe look at the the flexibility of that and recognize that it's occurring during the time of the year where people want to have a little more flexibility in their day and their time and maybe we should factor that in as we try to grow this program V vacations is always an issue too right so you know these kind of flexibilities are I mean I I I I think there's a lot of Promise here so I'm I'm excited about what the future holds yeah like it's not just vacations it's also athletic camps that uh sometimes are in conflict with it yeah this this isn't going to die Rick I even threatened to put bring out the dreaded parking lot and put it out it's notna lot please I hate the parking lot I know you do I just say any potential hurdles that we will see when we get there if we can start to kind of um road map or look at look at see what that will look like so that when we do get there we are there because we've addressed the hurdles that will come as a result of what we're trying to do good point anything more thank you so much for all of your work Mr Tilton Rob uh let's move on to dis disproportionate discipline data all right I am joined by a couple more of our uh associate principles that have been hanging on for a while now uh to give this presentation uh joined by Kelly zerner and Karen Taylor who are associate principles at the each of the schools and really help run um our student discipline as well as many other aspects of of their jobs they've been really digging into our disproportionate discipline data and our approaches and I've been preparing to share this with you uh this is should be thought of as a continuation of Rob's presentation on our equity and inclusion work and they're going to kind of pick up in this presentation where Rob left off so with that being said I'm going to turn it over to Karen and Kelly can you advance to the next there we go um well as a continuation of Rob's presentation in November and in reference to what Dr W Rock had said earlier in the Cs presentation The District 99 Mission really steers all of our decision making and planning with regard to discipline decisions um and of course we see those four bolded words in the mission state there which of course is led by caring and we appreciate uh the board for recognizing the importance of caring for students I've heard that throughout all of the conversations I've I've ever heard from the board but tonight included um and our discipline focuses center around um building restorative practices through the district which demonstrates care for students through teaching alternative means to resolve conflict rather than simply assigning a consequence and sending students on their way um restorative practices also challenge all of our students to be accountable for their actions through facing those they've impacted and working to try to repair any harm that they've done um these lessons that we that students learn through restorative means are are such that students will carry them throughout their life um to make Positive Choices and be responsible lifelong citizens um and so the in that way the mission really guides us and um we Embrace restorative practices it was about a year ago this time that Kelly and I were before you seeking support to hire additional FTE to better support restorative practices with the hiring of our point6 path facilitators we are very grateful for your support for that um and also grateful that we've hired some really Dynamic people who had to shift gears pretty quickly to um fill roles that they didn't expect to fill this year uh when we changed our instructional delivery our our path facilitators have led the way with interventions this year supporting students through tutoring social emotional um and in revamping some of the ways that we have delivered restorative practice interventions with kids next slide right so work we're doing is embedded in our District's goals as you can see outlined here and it's not a new goal for us our disproportionality and discipline procedures have been something we have continuously worked on for the past few years it's why we implemented after careful research the path program Karen just mentioned at both campuses and it's in its first year the use of five Labs also allows us to track our data in real time which provides longitudal and relational data for us it informs our decisions and allows us to analyze our interventions long term of course this year is unlike any other and attendance does not look quite the same for us so we are carefully reimagining our work and focusing heavily on the level of Engagement from our students in this hybrid remote learning environment next slide so where does this work take place the district 999 discipline committee is composed of our assistant superintendent for student Support Services Scott wazer both associate principles for staff and students Karen and I as well as the seven Deans we meet regularly to work on our initiatives by analyzing our data and finding ways to support our students this work is in cooperation with our mtss which is our multi-tiered systems of support committee so when we're looking at discipline we are not approaching it with a narrow Focus we know discipline and behavior does not stand alone a need that may manifest itself in a classroom disruption in all reality may be a cry for support it could be academic it could be social emotional so we work together to make sure we are providing a wraparound support for each of our students I really like the quote by Maya Angelou because in times like these we're continually working to improve the world in front of us while we prepare for the future as well we're doing the best best we can you basically you do the best you can until you know better and I think that could be appr propo to everything that we discussed tonight and then when we know better we do better next slide before we dive into the data this evening I want to Define some important terms that you'll hear us reference the first is exclusionary discipline exclusionary discipline is any technique that removes students from the school learning environment which includes suspensions and expulsions next slide disproportionate discipline is another term you'll hear from us this evening uh and dis disproportionate discipline means that one group of students is being disciplined or or suspended at a different rate than another group of students in particular this evening we're going to reference a difference in the rate at which white students are suspended from that of students of color and when looking at the data later remember that a factor of one means that all students are suspended at equal rates if it's less than one that would be skewed towards White students being suspended at a greater rate a rate greater than one would be students of color being suspended at a at a rate greater than others next slide annually the district reports exclusionary discipline to the Illinois State Board of Education and Illinois state law requires that ISB identify the top 20% of districts that assign suspensions the top 20% of districts that assign expulsions and also the top 20% of districts that have racial disproportionality in their exclusionary discipline this third metric here is bolded because District 99 has been identified as being within that top 20% of districts that have racial disproportionality and discipline next slide let's take a little bit of a closer look at 2019 2020 data our rate of suspensions and expulsions are in fact very low in fact it's in the bottom 25% across all districts in the state even though High School Districts tend to suspend at higher rates than Elementary and unit districts only 1.7% or 88 unique students out of our total enrollment of 4,858 were suspended at any point in 2020 next slide so here's a closer examination of a breakdown into subcategories for our 2019 2020 suspendable discipline data to achieve like Karen said no disproportionality the number would be at a 1.0 as Karen mentioned previously the goal is to get near 1.0 closest as as we can 1.0 reflects students being suspended done at equal rates regardless of their demographics if the number Falls below the 1.0 as Karen mentioned it would indicate that our white students were suspended at a higher rate that our students of color and conversely anything above a 1.0 would indicate that our students of color are suspended at a greater rate than our white students so the three categories listed have infractions or occurrences would lead to suspensions from school in our handbook for instance for all of our drug and alcohol offenses um 53.8% involves white students while 46.2 involve students of color given the makeup of our students for this category the disproportionality rate was a 13081 which means students of color are suspended at a rate of 1.3 for every one student of the total population next slide so what does our Trends start to show us we continue to be on the state disproportionate discipline data list for being in the top 20% of disproportionate suspensions and expulsions of students of color as compared to all districts across Illinois please remember this includes Elementary districts and unit districts as well but look to see how we have continued to improve in this year area year after year however we still remain on the list if you notice that 2020 extended is just a projection had we been in person for the whole school year so we're going to look a little bit more closely at the past three years so here's one more look larger scale of all suspensions for the past three years the rank indicates how District 99 compares to all other school districts in the state in order to no longer be identified as being in that top 20% of all disproportionate districts we need a ranking at or above 85 so this is not an area where we want to be number one it's best to be at the bottom of this list list much like we are on our overall exclusionary discipline so because we continue to be on the the list as a district that has distri proportionate rates of exclusionary discipline for our students of color it's particularly important to Circle back to our equity and inclusion Mission and the presentation that you heard from Dr Lang in November um when he shared the equity audit with you and the equity and inclusion mission in conjunction with the overall District Mission continues to steer our our discipline decision- making um and particularly centers around um promoting students being able to navigate the school environment while and making Positive Choices in doing so while maintaining their authentic selves we want our students to be who they are and to be respected for who they are while also feeling a sense of belonging to the school Community next slide and and we say that because we know that belonging is kind of the the proactive antidote to predictability um as is the case for teaching and learning predict belonging and predictability play an important role in our planning of disciplinary interventions next slide when students have a sense of belonging to the school Community they feel appreciated they feel validated they feel accepted and and treated fairly within the school environment we know that students are less likely to participate in behaviors that harm a community to which they feel they belong So Pro promoting that sense of belonging is arguably the most important proactive measure we can take to prevent Behavior infractions Uh therefore our work is grounded in restorative practices and starts with the building of inclusive communities at the classroom and building levels restorative practices emphasizes the creation of connection between individuals and strengthening relationships within communities it also requires students to repair any harm that they have committed against their community and their community members are expected to be able to welcome them back as individuals who belong within that community next slide if we effectively create a sense of belonging for our create a sense of community to which all students feel like they belong we decrease the likelihood that we are able to predict discipline outcomes based on student demographics schools should not be able to predict the outcomes of a student based on the student's demographic information with that in mind we build our plan so school districts that have been identified in the top 20% of any of one of the three metrics for three consecutive years are required to draft a plan to respond our response focuses on social emotional and Behavioral Health of our students through restorative practices and Trauma informed approaches so our next steps here's what we've already built into our practice we shifted our interventions to one where we Implement appropriate consequences with an emphasis on repairing the harm as Karen just mentioned the offender has caused within a school or classroom Community this requires the use of interventions supports and traditional consequences the restorative mindset supports the students in their growth so they can learn from their decisions and take accountability a lot of this work is embedded into our path program which provides an alternative to an out of school suspension with a head F focus on accepting responsibility getting the support needed and having followup care path is in its first year but as we all know we're living through a very different landscape however it should be noted that we have implemented path in an Adaptive form for our students and we look forward to its full implementation as soon as possible we'd like to take an a moment to sincerely thank the board and the community for our support of path and for for allowing us this time to share a piece of our world that means so very much in our efforts to support our students thank you any questions for Karen or Kelly or myself yeah I I have a I have a couple um uh first um are I'm very supportive of everything we're doing with this I I think it's we're obviously we're doing I think we're I mean we see the Improvement right in the trend data and um and I you know the path program I'm I'm I'm I've said complimentary things about that in the past as well um uh so couple couple things you know hard truths that I think we need to you know that we're not seeing in the presentation one um I think that uh you know we look look at at the data um and we're seeing you know the disproportionality rate H you know there there's an acknowledgement there's a premise there that that we should be doing better than than what we're doing uh you know otherwise we wouldn't maybe we wouldn't feel the need to to uh you know put this plan together so robustly um so accepting that premise uh you know you know I'll just have to ask the question do we is there an acknowledgement that you know maybe a combination of the fact that there's been um you know that we've been too quick to suspend students of color and and there are white students who shouldn't have been who should have been suspended for something and U in a similar in a similar situation we're not um and I think you know I think maybe acknowledging that that's you know that's been going on is is is important to do that that would actually be the easy answer and that's not the case because we've done an audit of students once they make it into the Dean's office how do they exit with their outcomes and there isn't disproportionate data in those outcomes the the challenge is far greater it's who gets sent to the Dean's office is what is the challenge in District 99 where perhaps you know you see fighting is very disproportionate and it leads me as a school leader to look at that and say okay if two white kids get in a fight in the hall are they sent to class while if two black kids get in the fight in the hall are they sent to the Dean's office and so you know that's just one example a simple example that could lay into this some of this is far more you know hidden in the way that we behave as human beings and the way that we have been conditioned to respond to certain events and that's what our Equity inclusion work is really about is getting to know ourselves as human beings and evaluate the decisions and actions that we're taken and um question ourselves to get better each as individuals within the school district to change these kinds of numbers but the first step to it is owning them and not being afraid that they exist we're not we're not happy they're exist they exist we're we're embarrassed by these numbers um but unless we're able to own them and recognize that this is us or there's no chance at us fixing it thank you for that hey you know really really appreciate that and and uh because we're not you know this isn't just a matter of of well uh we fell into a certain metric so you know here we are doing this and it's much more than that and I and I I felt like that needed to you know that needed to be said and then um and then just a quick question on the on the data itself the trend data uh the 2020 extended number how can we how can we you know am I understand right how can we really say that the 2020 extended number would be the same as we pulled some data off of there that would have made more sense which was the number of incidents is we should have pulled that whole row off but we have projected the number of actual uh infractions but for Simplicity removed it probably should have left that bottom line off so question but we are trending in the right direction correct yes absolutely yeah that that's because even Sam mentioning earlier today about earlier in the meeting about racial I don't want to say it wrong reiterate what you said incorrectly but that that is of a concern to and could potentially have some effect on the type of numbers we're getting I don't know for certain but that absolutely and it's it's that student experience it's that voiced student experience that gets in the way of them of our students really feeling like they belong in the school community and so it's so important that we acknowledge it that we work to address it and denounce it and build out a community where all of our students feel like they belong um and we we know that things like fighting are less likely to happen in this school Community you know when kid kids don't want to harm places they feel like they belong they don't want to um hurt people they have a connection with and um so we we need to really do that work so how does this all marry together with the Deep Equity work um so I think as Hank kind of mentioned before and to answer um um your question Mike about you know is it an easy fix um it's really not when we're looking at our Deep dive you know Karen and I both are pulling infractions and looking at that and doing inventories and what we're trying to uncover is the is there an implicit bias um to drive then our equity and how we approach situations and how we approach um conversations with students and how we move for them to be come um you know have that feeling of belonging and connection so all of this doesn't work in silos like it may have done 20 years ago um and just like how we look at Behavior it's not just a behavior what do they need what's the cry for um so I think what it does for us is it it absolutely works with mtss um and the equity inclusion Council to to make informed decisions for us to really put up that mirror and say how are we meeting the needs of our students and the Deep Equity piece also works on implicit bias and how does my implicit bias impact the way I as an adult interact with a student in the hallway or the classroom or the cafeteria and how you know how is my response um escalating or de-escalating a situation plus we know that uh students are far more likely to get into fights and and be aggressive when they're frustrated ated or they're tired or they're stressed and look students that have to come and not be themselves or have to navigate uh a different world than they live in when they come to our schools naturally you're not going to have as much energy to navigate those stressful situations so it goes back to if we can make them feel more belonging and accepted and they are who they are when they come to our school it it's a little less likely that we're going to end up in one of those negative outcomes all right any other questions thank you Karen Kelly you got a long wait this evening I appreciate you uh putting in the work and presenting this evening it's hard work and we're we're very appreciative of you thank you so much uh the t99 buildout all right we have another group here to present on a a plan around t99 so I'll turn it over to this team yeah I'm going to start uh so thank you Hank um so I'm gonna introduce Lisa Balo uh director of special education uh Carolina shach is our t99 coordinator uh obviously you know Mark stalen our controller and Jim k um our team worked hard to uh put together a proposal for you on looking at the increased numbers at t99 in the near future so I'm going to turn it over I believe uh Lisa is going to start thank you um good evening everybody I'm Lisa Balo um and I've got a couple of the first slides here and then together with me um Carolina sh back our t99 coordinator we also be providing some detail here for you so let's go ahead and just take a look at this graphic um I think it's pretty self-explanatory you can see uh the trend in these projections here really showing in that top uh that Top Line uh our drastic increase and really where we're seeing our students needing the district transition 99 program over the next several years um and so you sort of probably ask right like well where did all of these students come from why such a drastic increase and there's really not necessarily a reason for the DraStic increase in just that you've also seen in the last few years that we've had um significant increases at both north and South in our special education populations and the multi- needs populations where we've added programs and teachers in both of our buildings and those students once they exit out of their 12th grade year um coming into their postsecondary plans as many of our other students are going into their college or trade school postsecondary plans our students are coming into the transition Center at t99 um so you can just see this graphic that really just shows you um in the next four to five years the significant increase that we're going to see um needed in the current building um over there off of Bernard next slide so um again this just sort of encapsulates that that number from 61 to 76 of just from this year to next year um where that increase will occur uh requiring at least just for next year that one additional classroom we currently have five um and one additional teacher to occupy that classroom um and again like I said these are our building programs these are our students coming from our multi- needs building programs into um t99 as grade students so the next part um I'm going to go ahead and have Carolina um talk about the specifics of what we would be looking at on the t99 buildout proposal and I believe everybody saw in the preliminary notes the video that was created just to give everybody a fresh look on if you look at the visual on the right that's where you're coming in um the front door all the way to the large area in the back where is the current um storage which is where the majority of the buildout proposal uh is located so I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Carolina to give you some more details and I'll be back with you shortly thank you Lisa I wanted to thank the board for this opportunity to speak with you so as Lisa said this is the floor plan of t99 it's all in one level and I hope you got a chance to use do the walkthrough video with me so the first circle on the right is one of our classrooms and that classroom was actually an art room so it's significantly smaller than the other four classrooms so one of the proposals is that we create sliding doors to enhance the size of the room so make it larger it would be about the same size as the other current four classrooms and then the same size as the two additional classrooms if we go ahead with the buildout so um we would be able to use those as barn doors and have it open and have an additional space in the multi-purpose room to expand that and then when it becomes a classroom when we get up to that larger number at 100 to close that off and then the teacher would have that as a traditional classroom but still we'd have that option if we do larger events to open it up and then um if you want to hit the next slide so there it is a little closer you see the barn door and then we're going to do we need to add more fridges because our numbers are growing so um we don't have a cafeteria and all the students bring their own lunches or cook their meals so we need to store all those items so we're going to add more fridges um the dishwasher we only have one right now so we're going to get another one um and so the classroom then will be expanded so it'll be 108 square feet which is about what the other ones are 110 and then you can see the bathrooms currently we were we had a line in the bathrooms um last year as people had to wait and it was kind of a struggle because students with special needs sometimes need to be transferred they need assistance they take longer in the bathroom um so we're really excited about the opportunity to have some more bathrooms and doesn't sound very exciting but in our building it's a big deal to get extra bathroom stalls right next slide so this is the warehouse and I showed you in the video that it's basically right now just a big open storage space that we hold miscellaneous items so um we're proposing that we add two additional classrooms and they would be fitted with you know the Smartboard type of technology and um would be pretty similar to what the other classrooms are then we have right now we have two smaller sensory rooms um and we'd like to have a larger sensory room that would be a little more fitted with items that are calming and um more usable for our students and can really get them to sensory level quickly um so we're proposing another sensory room that would be more state-ofthe-art and then like I was just sharing about the bathroom so two more stalls in each bathroom and then the men's would have a urinal so we would get five more uses for stalls and then a storage space because we still have a lot of items to store so that's what we would get from the back of the warehouse that space all right I'm going to turn it back to Lisa thank you so really the benefits to the buildout here obviously as Carolina had mentioned is the expanded learning space of that smaller classroom which can become a a more fully functioning classroom as well as really the bathroom expansion to accommodate the student growth um and probably the biggest piece I would say right uh serving students in our own Community as you all well know as board members the transition program um and the highlight and the purpose of a transition program is for students during their postsecondary education to practice life skills vocational skills in their home Community right uh which is why we have the the t99 program um as somebody who's worked in other districts and has been a part administratively of other transition programs um the t99 program in its curriculum and structure and what's offered and provided uh with the extensive vocational opportunities that we have within our own Community um it is really Second To None um when you compare them to other folks transition programs um that might be part of the problem right as I think we've discussed actually before at another uh board meeting is that um we might be inviting that but good right because how we we treat this population and get them invested into their own community and as independent as possible is the name of the game I mean that is what we are here to do um in Special Services um and so it allows for all of our students who come through North and South when they move into their postsecondary um years to access a very very quality transition program and we just call that the least restrictive environment um and then finally there um there is absolutely a long-term savings um from private school transition program tuition as many of you know um I also um am the case manager for about 75 students that we have districtwide that are out are educated outside of Downers Gro North and downers Gro South and some of those students are in private transition programs because maybe some of their needs cannot be met even at our transition program maybe for some safety concerns and such but we do have a population of students that go through 9th and 12th grade not at North and South but absolutely can benefit from our transition 99 program and so for us to be able to bring back those students into transition 99 which we've been doing a fair amount even in these last four years um we're able to not only provide them that quality transition program in their home Community but at the same time saving those PR private transition dollar next slide so this sort of reiterates a little bit of what I just said as well um but the other piece that I think is important to note as well is um you can see that 1.1 million in private tuition over the next six years so that would be those students that I just mentioned that would be coming back who were privately placed maybe during 9th through 12th grade um who maybe in years past went to a private transition program but now could come back to t99 9 and actually have their needs met in their home community and we would be realizing that Savings in addition um because we have such larger programs at Downers Grove North and South in our multi- needs populations we do need right a place for our students there to go and meet their postsecondary education goals right we do need a a transition program for them um and if we did not have space at t99 to be able to um accommodate those numbers that you saw on that first slide um we would potentially either be looking having to look for private transition programs which which would increase our private transition uh dollars or we would have to be looking at places within our home schools of North and South to provide um classroom spaces um which we we know we could we could probably come up with a class or two but we might not be able to provide that comprehensive program that we obviously are able to provide within the separate facility at transition 99 so now I think um if you go ahead Rod to the next slide um I'm going to have I'm going ahead and turn it over to Mark and or Jim to kind of talk about the financial projection right well I'll pick up um from here the U project costs are very preliminary uh there're 900 $85,000 and this is just building out the the third section of the t99 center so there's no expansion of the footprint it's just building out the back Center back area that we've always expected to to build out if it wasn't going to be for transition 99 there was other programs we thought we could possibly bring back and and the key here were two things one is what Lisa said so clearly is it's it's bringing kids back into their own Community which I you know we're all very proud be to offer that uh but we we can run a more efficient program uh than some of these outside tuition cost programs and so there's the net Savings of bringing bringing them in there's less Transportation costs if they're outside of our area so there there's little things that help there um and the funding source that we recommend using is interest income from the master facility Bond Investments you know we've we've issued some bonds uh interest rates when we're issuing them for us and our cost have been very low and we've been able we we moved up some of the um issuance dates and and issued the bonds earlier than the original projected um program with those so we've had more time with some of them earning interest the money sitting there waiting to be spent on the master facility plan and so uh even though we will be pretty much spending them out over the next year we've all already accumulated over a million dollars in interest um that we we have right now from this program and um also the obviously the million 1.15 million there is available for the master facility Bond program for the building but we we do have a we feel an adequate Reserve there um and we won't we still have some more interest to earn so we'll have some pad to the contingency that you see uh on a monthly basis with the master facility plan um so we won't be using up we believe all the interest and I believe both Jim and I and I think Hank take a look at that $985,000 we feel that's a pretty high estimate it's produced by white um it's it's very paded in terms of questions and we think it'll be significantly lower than than $985,000 when we build it out and just real quick to add Mark if I could so as Mark mentioned the 985 that's really just the concept budget number we're going to bring this back to you in two weeks to kind of move forward with because timeline we're looking at getting this work done for this summer this coming summer to have a prepared uh for the fall for students so the 985 includes all contingencies and white fees and constructions casses somewhere in the range of 700,000 but I think with the competitive market that we're seeing right now we're planning on bid bidding this out February 18th and I think that we'd get aggressive bids and really good pricing so we'll probably be coming back for approval which is a lot lower than 985 that's what I'm predicting but that's a good number to start with uh right now so there any questions I think that's it I I have two questions um will this build out complete that entire is that going to are we going to fill up the entire that entire back area or will there'll still be room back there besides the storage area there'll be a very small storage area back there if you look at the drawing nany but it builds up we have roughly 2500 and some odd change square footage left in that back area uh that's roughly one quarter of the building yeah so we're going to build all that out okay so my second question is you're you're you're modeling that you're gonna you're GNA almost die double right we're going to go up 50 is before we invest a million dollars in building it out is it enough is it there gonna be enough room for us over that period of time I can jump in Nancy and answer that um you know those are obviously those are we looked up Carolina and Lisa did a nice job of looking up every single student that's projected so that's like true student numbers every year though that fluctuates a little bit and so we're in just a an estimate or an estimate of what we might end up at is I would think we're going to end up more around 100 105 students and that would be able to be accommodated in that space and we'll continue to work on um you know programming and things that if that number Trends up or stays right on the on the Target that we'll work on different ideas to to accommodate students but we kind of feel like that we're going to be right at the spot where two additional classrooms and the expans of that other um which wasn't really a classroom to begin with it was more of a work room for the Arts and Crafts and you know that kind of stuff for the micro business um that room will accommodate so okay thank you Scott else I have a quick question um uh Joanne Smith um emailed me while we were having the meeting and um she wanted to know about um you know I turned her on to the straw B gardening and U the kids are really enjoying it and um she got a uh grant for uh teaching them to compost and how to turn it and all that and they've been using that area for that is there going to be an area for them to continue that uh to work with that Grant I would have to Terry I'd have to jump in and look at like all the specific details that are involved in that process but I mean obviously we appreciate it and I think it's been a benefit for the students with the the gardening and and the different activities that they're working on for independent living and just you know life skills so I think we would definitely need to take a look at it I don't know all the details of what that of I don't know if Carolina does but um obviously we'd want to continue anything that we've been already working on but we'd have to look at those I know you know I know she's going to need room for all of that and I I know outside may not be as uh conducive for you know learning as it would be to be inside like they are now so I just wanted to throw that out there something to think about no we definitely will so thank you for that all right I'm pretty confident we'll be able to we have those two storage spaces and um we're going through everything and I personally compost and I keep my compost outside so I think that we could still be able to they could do a quick turn and go outside as long as it's you know 30 degrees or below um I think they'll be room to store her items because I'm a big fan of it too we don't want to lose that component right okay just checking I just wanted to chime in on the uh you know follow up a little bit on your comment Nancy um you know whether or not it's worth doing if you know we need even more space down the road um you know the pre this obviously takes care of the next several years through the you know as projected and you know I I would point so I I submitted a I submitted a bunch of questions about this ahead of time uh about the whole program uh plan and I appreciate staff responding to that so I just point the rest of the board to look at that document so you can see you can see what I had to say but uh but in the short term Nancy um I mean this was a kind of a related question I had and that was and so just to get that out there you know we've it's already been pointed out the in the slide here about 1.1 million in private tuition over the next six years would be avoided um but if we were to not do this just uh I what was responded to me earlier today was that the outplaced increase for the 2122 class only would be $ 2.08 million over four years so you know we're we're about to use some money that we've gotten an interest on the on bond funds so it's not going to this is not going to impact our our our capital budget at all um and uh this saves us for sure much more money than we're about to spend on you know doing this um at least in the short term so even if we got to a point four five years down the road and said oh we still need more this still represents a good you know a smart investment short term you know saves saves US money not suggest I'm not suggesting that it's not worth it I'm just saying if we're gonna if we think we're going to have a bigger need would we want to anticipate building bigger that's my understood it was a good question I just I wanted to elaborate from my point of view and Nancy we are doing that actually we're taking Hank's uh you know philosophy and model and we are already starting to talk about those things for even after the four or five or six years so you know when when we first built t99 there was even some discussion about par possibly offering t99 to uh adjacent school districts so we've needed it so we haven't done that but we actually we have had one student uh that that did attend the transition program from l so we so we so that's something also that if we see the numbers you know if the numbers are a little lower than we expected we can Market out the transition program for that as well thank you anybody else thank you guys what an exciting uh an exciting time can we move on to the t99 update I mean the uh excuse me the master facility Plan update yeah and before I go in I just wanted to thank that whole team you can see uh a lot of folks collaborating together to try to meet the needs of our students creatively so uh Master facility plan uh monthly Financial update um you can see I I emailed the board about two things that are impacting the contingency this month um an anticipated increase in asbest this has been the NeverEnding uh supply of asbest removal throughout this project so we are moving an additional $200,000 out of Contin ency into owner budget costs to uh offset that uh anticipated cost of asbest removal over the summer uh we also have an issue we are investigating around fire alarms and whether or not we'll be grandfathered for uh a change that came in the law that's kind of made it through rul making recently uh Jim is spending a lot of time with white right now to figure out do we need to do this additional fire alarm work or not uh and does it need to be as extensive as what it's being presented as so just to be cautious we're holding $250,000 for that work uh but we hope to come back to the board soon with a much smaller number that would reflect that work particularly only for phase C and not a and b um so more to come on that but the these numbers reflect that uh I'll go back to we have always said that we wanted to be somewhere around $1 million heading into that last summer of work and we still remain above that we still have a lot sitting in contractor contractor allowances especially in Phase C uh that serves as that first group of contingency as we had into that last summer of work and we're finalizing we're getting really close to finalizing that FFN allowance and we'll know exactly where that number is but we uh don't believe that we'll go over that so uh we might have a little bit of contingency coming back from that that figure as well heading into the last summer so that's where we currently sit uh any questions the board members might have all right then I have just a couple of quick photos for you in the next couple of slides of work going on uh that's uh Auditorium uh and Commons work bottom uh the bottom right hand corner is the commons the other two pictures are Auditorium over it south and then the next slide here's some more Commons photos that include uh the bottom leftand corner is uh some of the work going on around the cafeteria if you go down the main hallway right now you'll see we've started to open that part of the building up uh for the the new Commons that be in place next year a lot of kids were surprised as they came back into the building uh last week and saw walls disappearing that they expected to be there uh and then over at North High you could see some of that common space uh that's what most of these pictures are bottom center is that main hallway that leads to the purple gym with new lockers and paint and flooring uh it it's really uh making the front of that building uh in an an old dark hallway look much much better uh a key hallway there at North High and then here's a picture of the North High Commons looking back towards uh what will eventually be the three-story glass window behind what you see in that far back lights that are there is where where the glass will be but you can start to see some of the new Windows come into place in there in the bottom uh right hand corner is that new uh Cafe that will be part of the commons uh starting to take shape so uh work continuing to to go on through the school year just as always was anticipated uh for this final year of the project so that's it for the master facility plan any questions comments okay thank you um now I'm going to ask for a motion to go into close session for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park recreational or educational setting or specific volunteers of the district or legal counsel for the district including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park recreational or educational setting or volunteer of the district or against legal I'm not finished here sorry I gotta I gotta do it okay or against legal council for the district to determine its validity and for litigation when an action against affecting or on behalf of the district has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal or when the district finds that an action is probable or imminent in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting so moved was that was that Charelle or Terry Charelle no Charelle and then Terry Terry seconds R Fuller hi kry pavich hi Rick panado hi Joanna Vasquez Drexler hi Mike Davenport hi and Dan Nicholas hi all right we're gonna go into to close session there's no action following just closing

the novel is the civil war of amos abernathy in his debut novel so please join me in this exciting accomplishment for one of our very own 308 uh school teachers congratulations to my michael [Applause] and that is my report for this evening thank you item six approval of the consent agenda any questions can i have a motion i make a motion to approve all items under consent including 6.1 minutes from the december 7th 2020 board of education meeting open and closed session 6.2 to acknowledge the foia requests received by the district and 6.3 board policies references and legal updates section 3 general school administration 3 colon 4-0 section 4 operational services 4 colon 1 0 4 colon 5 5 four colon one five zero four colon one seven five section five general personnel five colon three zero five colon one nine zero five colon two seven zero section six instruction six colon one five six colon two zero six colon four zero six colon three two zero section seven students seven colon one four zero and seven colon three two five second mrs moyer aye mr lightfoot aye mrs croner aye mr bowman aye mrs swanson aye mrs doyle aye ms morgan aye motion passes seven zero information uh information uh item 7.1 lincoln prairie subdivision discussion christy thank you so i'll start with some background information before i introduce our guest that will be joining us via zoom in december the district received a letter from mr mr russell whitaker who's an attorney representing pulte homes that letter outlined poltay's proposed plan to develop approximately 500 acres near bednarsec junior high and wolf's crossing elementary schools but i'll leave that to our visitors to describe that uh project to you but included in that letter is a request from paultay for the school district to waive any land cash fees on the age restricted portion of that development um shortly after that the receipt of that letter i had a virtual meeting with representatives from the city of aurora to review that plan in more detail including any uh some potential commercial and retail opportunities along route 30.

could is the same true of option five yes teres is not in her head yes yes okay so students regardless of the fact that the um the end time is changed by 5 minutes from the original recommendation and both both of those scenarios all students would be returned homei barring any unforeseen circumstances traffic accident Etc yep okay thank you on the student start time how many minutes do they get to enter the building and uh get ready to start class 15 minutes 15 okay so the doors would open at um 710 then for 725 that's okay um I had another question which came up repeatedly in the survey results and also in our listening session so if if students in a let's say that in this family there are three students that are at three different schools in the family um and they are car riders once School dismisses how long do parents have to come and pick those students up what is the flex time in arriving to pick that student up um in a car at the end of the day I don't know if I know the answer to that question Transportation anybody know the answer to that question Dustin mik I don't know you time R day about 15 minutes through so about 15 minutes and there's always going to be someone there a little longer it okay so um our car riders dismiss after the bus riders in every school that we know of and then those students proceed down and wait to go out to where the cars are lined up and you say that process takes about 15 minutes or so okay so it would be possible um that a parent that has to go three different places might be the first in line last in line but it sounds pretty feasible even with only 5 minutes of Separation that you could get there in time to pick up those students yeah and and that was our goal and that's part of why in those models we tried to offset the schools that are on the same campus east and west and Cedar and Hickory um to try to Al alleviate some of that traffic congestion to to try to help that once once we release that that flow of traffic should be maybe a little bit Smo than it is now to try to help that as much as we could okay thank you any other um stuff um feedback and um even bus drivers is there bus driver feedback on this um I know transportation is just worked endlessly but I even wonder about the drivers and yeah I um you know drivers would have received the staff survey and and I know I could tell from some of the comments that they were bus drivers um I had before winter break I spent some time at transportation and and had drivers that could just come sign up and and talk with me and a few of them came in and said I hope we do three tier I hope we do three tier not not all of them by any means but I think they're really the ones that know when all of our subs are out when the office staff is out driving buses they know that this is a significant need so you know I I don't know that I can speak for all the drivers but I certainly feel like the ones I had spoken to about it definitely understand that this is this is something we've got to consider yeah it's hard to I I I agree that I I hate the thought of elementary students at the bus stop at you know 7 in the morning but I also know that I want to make sure they have a consistent Transportation so the balance for me is trying to figure out what that looks like um you know my kidss may be out of school but I remember those days it seems like yesterday goes by so quickly but I also know that I do not want our staff to have to text families to say sorry you don't have a bus driver today so it's it's a hard hard Challenge and it's a hard balance but I want the students to have transportation and I want them to be safe so that's what's weighs on our minds um which option gives us both and um which option keeps um students is the most safe of OD know safer is not really a word but um that's what I'm striving to hear and figure out so all the comments from from the parents have been just incredibly valuable um I mean I was telling one parent I said you know I don't have children in every building so I need parents to be my eyes and ears and that's what our community's been over the last couple weeks is our eyes and ears so I'm grateful for every comment and every email and um every idea lots of ideas have come from parents so um I just want to say thank you to our community for all that and I hope too that we hear comments from you parents concerning option four and option five two please all right so I think that's everything on the proposed school start end times thank you very much feel free to stay um for the rest of the meeting um whatever you're comfortable with we are going to move on to election of offic ERS it's in January we always reorganize the board

so moved second the motion by mr nunes a second by uh mrs waite on the motion any other discussion j hearing none all in favor aye aye aye opposed motion passes unanimously thank you for that uh next up under new business fy22 through fy26 capital improvement plan draft i'll turn it over to our assistant superintendent of finance and operations mr james kiley thank you mr oliver so uh you were provided with the draft capital improvement plan for 22 through 26. there are a number of requests that are prioritized for year one of this plan um so just to back up and talk about a little bit year one what that would entail is there would be a meeting of the capital improvement well first of all you would hear it tonight consider the plan you may act tonight on it you don't have to act tonight on it there will be a meeting of the capital improvement planning committee that is made up of town residents and i would present the plan that you have approved to them they will then hear all the other department's requests compile everything make recommendations based on the available funds that the town may have that would then go before the finance committee the select board and then get to town meeting in early june so that's what we're you know we're beginning of january but that's our that's our target for this um so there's a number of things on here and i'll just briefly talk about them and we have them in priority order based on our needs at the moment the hvac upgrades and maintenance that's probably not a surprise to anybody it's we put in a request for three hundred thousand dollars i guess i'd just like to say that the town has been very helpful in funding improvements that we've made through this crisis so they have allocated a significant amount of their cares act money to our building's needs through this not through articles although they did fund a 75 000 article um at the previous town meeting for our benefit uh we have not used any of that yet because we are using their cares act money we have contractors in working we have our maintenance staff buying uh buying equipment and and replacement materials and putting in their own time also to to repair systems so it's a significant undertaking this is really a maintenance request with some upgrades but more focusing on keeping things operationally sound this is not necessarily to say we're going to solve all our problems with this we have a lot of old systems as you know a lot of old buildings and this is not going to solve that but this will help us maintain thank you mr kylie uh really quickly before we continue that funding of the three hundred thousand dollars is that year mark for any specific would a big chunk of that go towards a one one or two buildings or is that spreading the whole thing right across the district spread across the district um to address the glaring needs that arise which you know which happen um we've spent a lot of time at the cushman school and at the high school this year with our vendors working on um you know work working on hvac improvements because those were the areas that were needed um and fortunately the town's been able to support that but we need help everywhere sure and then my last question about the hvac upgrades is i had heard that there were some money coming through with this latest um stimulus package have you heard any more about that nothing specific from the state yet as to how that would be distributed or applied for or based on need yeah i nothing nothing yeah okay thank you so technology hardware so mr galashaw um each year utilizes this uh this funding source this is our sort of annual replacement cost that we have we have an agreement with town hall to provide this this actually does not come out of free cash or borrowing this actually comes out of the operating budget and has been built in now for a number of years mr barnes was able to do that several years ago and continues to do that we're thankful for it um and that you know we just have more and more technology than we've ever had before so this is vital in keeping us operationally you know ready in the in the tech realm so um it continues to be a very important source for us uh technology network upgrades so this is in conjunction with e-rate funding and what we're talking about here is fiber optic cable replacement and network component replacement so this is a project that mr gallashaw has uh has ontap ready to ready to get operational so hopefully we're able to get funding for this in june and move forward and take care of some of the needs we have and update the buildings flooring replacement project um we've had this flooring replacement project going on my entire 10 years that i've been here and it's not stopping anytime soon although we're getting there so what we what we basically focus on is deteriorated flooring and um asbestos containing material uh flooring uh which is our older floors some of which are in great shape most of which are in in good shape those old asbestos floors but um it's this is always an opportunity for us during the summer to abate those buildings and be done with that so we never have to worry about it again and we'd be continuing that process looking at the middle school and a couple of elementary schools particularly to focus on with that grease trap replacement so we have grease traps in our schools and that grease trap prevents fat fats from going directly into a drainage system so in kitchens a grease trap is essentially a tank that's built into the ground and fats go into it and fats are separated from the water so the water fats are contained and then periodically they need to be cleaned out and empty they don't last forever and this is to address those issues and we have had some significant issues with them um they're not designed to be a a lifetime a building life type of piece of equipment you need a mason to do this we need to jackhammer the the three straps out and replace them so we um i have a furniture article here i actually had this on last year we didn't fund it and part of that was because of me and uh when we went to the capital improvement planning committee i was um at at some point last year it became obvious that we did not want more furniture because right now i have furniture that is stacked in all these storage containers so it didn't make sense to do anything with furniture last year um but there's a few things that we've targeted with this furniture money that i think are important one being cafeteria tables and particularly in the dimelo and potter schools which are built into the walls fold out don't function real problems they're constantly breaking you can't get parts for them our maintenance guys can fix anything and they can't fix these well it's just an a constant issue they've been on the principles lists of things we need to address for many years now and i really want to take care of those but the other thing that i'm very concerned about is that i have all this furniture stocked stacked in these storage containers these storage containers are supposed to be watertight i hope they are i think but i'm just concerned that when we start to take things out some of this older furniture that we have in there is not going to fare well between the moving around getting packed getting unpacked and i think we could be in a position where we need to replace a significant amount of furniture just to get up and running if we were to hopefully in the fall be back you know with full classrooms full of furniture so um so i've included that i slid that back from last year into into this year's request parking lot repaving so there's a few schools that that we want to target there's some work at the cushman and the mellow schools and the potter school that we want to target we've done this periodically through the years done some good work on it done most of the the quinn school is in good shape but we need to address some of those other areas so that would be for vehicle areas and pedestrian access areas high school auditorium av and lighting systems this has been on on the list for a long time the uh i mean i thought it was flooded last year of the year yeah yeah yeah so we've talked about it before but but we've never really acted on it um and it's time it's unfortunately you think this is the new building well it was the new it's the newer building but it was built with low bid some of that equipment is low bid it's not great it's not functional it's not the best and we'd like something to reflect our values here and really you know do it right in that auditorium it's a beautiful room and has a lot of potential but you know that's something that's been on the high school's list for some time vehicle replacement so what we're used for vehicles we're we're definitely big on hand-me-downs and um we have hand-me-down if that's a word um the uh the old sped vans to do other things um when they're no longer able to drive you know 30 miles to go somewhere um it makes sense to use them in town well even even so these things are getting old and uh you know i have 135 000 miles and just beat up old vans that are starting to rust and not work well we would be looking at fuel efficient vehicles um try like the ford transit smaller ones that are you know nice fuel efficient vehicles something like that and that would be for our sort of operations we found through this process that we need to be flexible more than ever um and we don't have that much flexibility the way we're working on things right now but we need to be able to move things around quickly with good reliable vehicles so my hope is that you know that would be a consideration it is down towards the bottom of our list though so i understand what that might mean and then into an exterior painting we have a little bit of money left from a previous article for this but we constantly want to keep up with this my my maintenance crew in conjunction with some part-time help that we have in the summer comes in and paints every summer um tries to maintain the buildings and we just want to continue that we want to be sure we can continue that process so that's important for us as well so those are the things that are coming up this year any other questions on any of those i'll turn it over to my community members dr jenkins so i have questions on a few of these um the first the technology hardware which i definitely appreciate the town um doing that for us but that's been 200 as you note for several years has that started to affect our replacement cycle at all yet i mean how long can we continue to stay on the same replacement cycle if that number doesn't increment i i guess i'd be remiss not to not to acknowledge too that the um the town as part of their cares act funding um and mr barnes reached out to me when we were struggling with some things and tried and we we worked out not only would they support us with the hvac but also support us with technology mr galashaw was there was a hard deadline of when we had to have this stuff in and it wasn't easy to get a lot of these technology components because every school district in the country is was searching for them um he was able to get some uh and they is a significant uh investment that the town made from their cares act money now that's a sort of one-time investment but it was big and it definitely has trickle-down effect and that was the intent of it so we'll be good for some time uh but you're right at some point we've increased technology so much is 200 the right number and i don't know but we're thinking i think i can remember being on the finance committee and i haven't been on the finance committee for a long time talking about 000 yeah right it's been that 10 years yeah it's been the same amount yeah 10 years all right so my second question is just sort of more of a comment um on the def with respect to furniture particularly classroom furniture we've seen a really strong appetite for alternative seating for our students and i would hope that as we start to replace um our classroom furniture i know it's not all classroom furniture that we would figure out ways to sort of integrate um that alternative seating um for for all of our students that's just more of a suggestion i'm sure we're doing that but i know teachers are really sort of clamoring for that [Music] and then the other thing i guess i would ask is because our vehicles are so old right and fuel inefficient are there any opportunities for grants have we worked with the interim development director about that i mean oftentimes there can be money for green or more fuel efficient cars and i know mr haddad right that's sort of his role so maybe he could help us either either with the same money get you know electric vehicles or whatever i mean i think it's great to look for those sort of opportunities to save us fuel costs and if the town can help us out with that that might be a great opportunity yeah yeah i'm not sure i know the town the town has helped us out with the green community funding and actually the middle school boiler improvements that we're working on now that were funded last year are being partially funded through that i don't know what other opportunities there might be the only reason why i asked because i don't remember i don't remember mr nunes or someone else remember state they got the bmws they got for really cheap and remember they had to put bumper stickers on them to say this was grant funded we're not buying bmws for the town right so i don't know that we're going to get bmws for us but there might be some opportunities around that right mr news yeah thank you just a follow-up on dr jenkins the bmws and audis and that different municipalities got and everything else was part of a state grant municipalities literally paid pennies on a dollar for those for those vehicles and the state also picked up in some instances the uh the charging stations so i mean i can remember some people sitting there saying well you know things are tough and you guys are driving around and bmws and audis will yeah it was a trickle down from the federal government through the state you know to the municipality so for hybrid cars or electric cars and that type of deal so that's what that was all about just that yeah thank you mr chairman too um you know just a couple of a couple of questions and i like the way everything is and thank you mr kylie for your uh your explanations uh i mean the fact that right now we're taking advantage of free money as i would call it and not having to use you know the 8 875 grand we still got that in the bank is great thank you very much to uh the town for that and also in all seriousness uh you know thanks to the town for the again the technology money um especially with covet i mean you know with all the uh chromebooks that we've had to buy and all the different technologies that we've had to put into place uh we'd really be in trouble trying to trying to come together and and get them going so i i just for one just want to say thank you very much and other than that i agree with everything that's here and even looking forward i know we talked about some of these last year that being the high school track and the athletic fields and and such so i mean i am uh i'm good with i'm good with all of these at the moment thank you anyone else i don't really have anything additional but thank you thank you you just a couple of points here uh as far as the technology goes uh i think 200 once again 200 000 is great um i'd be curious to know maybe through the budget process what is in the operational budget for technology devices and technology hardware how much of that comes out of the operational budget and my guess is that i would assume that it's fairly it's fairly low at the in the operational budget it is compared to this yeah it's it's not anywhere near this amount um but but there is some money still in the operational budget to support because my only concern mr gallashaw and everyone else um is that moving forward since we we've really kind of pivoted here let's face it right everyone we're we're fully re mobile this week we are fully remote and i don't know i don't have the actual number i'm not sure if you have the actual number of how many chromebooks are actually out in the hands of students right right now um fourth four thousand so we have four thousand the district has given out four thousand chromebooks to pretty much i would say that's just about every single student in the district plus all our teachers plus all our teaching staff and i feel like i'm playing um a game of charades here so no so you know that that's that's a lot of devices my only concern moving forward is obviously the upkeep of these devices and the cycle and making sure that we're able to i don't see this going away now now that we're in this you know we're in this uh rhythm here with these devices i don't see us pulling back on that so i would just i would be an advocate to see what we can do to to support that and support this initiative in addition i know this is outside of the capital improvement plan i said it last year and i'll say it again we need to get mr galesha more help and that that comes we'll talk about that at another meeting what's the 78 thousand dollars specifically for for the for the fiber i know it's an e-rate project so i'm assuming it's like 50 whatever you're your will be reimbursed almost half or right around half so it's between the clause that's in each school so you're understood i think that's a great idea and a great use of the money um what else do i have last but not least actually not on this capital plan but i figured i'd bring it up because it was a capital um separate capital idol uh item the stadium mr coyote yeah so in terms of the stadium you know we've not we've got a whole person we are in a holding pattern we've done some good design work um in anticipation of hoping to you know proceed at some point um i i did let mr barnes know because he inquired of me a couple of days ago um if i if he needed to borrow any money and i i told him at this point we were not um proceeding with it in the immediate future so not to be done this summer okay at this point but that does bring up a good point that every year that goes by what we did approve what the what what town meeting did approve is probably not going to be enough by the time we get around to doing it is that a fair assumption there's there's some risk of that there's also risk that if you were to go out to bid right now because of the inflated cost of building materials right now that there's potential that the world sort of settles down a little bit at some point in the hopefully in the next year and um that construction material prices come back to normal and there could be some benefit of that but um really there's so much going on right now uh that it i really didn't think it made sense to move forward in the school department to take that take that on at this point in time and last but not least as you uh have flooring replacement in there for 250.

the reason i wanted to show this pie chart is just so that um everyone can see what the breakdown of that is and you can see the largest chunks are window replacements 11.2 million dollars roughly 30 percent of the 37 million is to replace the windows that are in this district schools most of these are replacements for original windows still single pane um you know which is the case in many of our schools the next 22 8.1 million is 8.17 million is for paving roofing sidewalk and masonry improvements again there's a lot of detail that goes behind this but just follow along for summary purposes improving the district cafeterias many of these are original with only minor modifications 5.57 million i will tell you that the high school is roughly half of that request that's about 15 percent overall is for district cash hvac improvements across the district 3.2 million those hvac improvements take on a little bit uh more of a pressing nature you know as we're going through uh the pandemic and and you know these are there's about 500 000 of additional improvements we're asking for next year which we think are pretty critical to get done and then interior building improvements seven percent and then all the other pieces are a little bit smaller code compliance 2.4 million this is a new request this year fire alarm control systems we have three school buildings that um their fire alarm control systems you know are dated they're still operable but they are not addressable and they they can't be um added on to or improved so it is time you know to to replace you know those three systems and again i'll show you the details of what those schools are district labs this is part of our continuation to make upgrades to many in many cases original lavatories in our school buildings ceiling and floor tiles 800 000 lightning electrical 680 000 and improvements to the athletic complex you know which is primarily stadium seating and improvements to the press box we'd like to make at the high school so that rounds out the five-year request at a very high level in terms of what we're looking for funding wise you see that this total is 5.2 million i will take take us through some more detail in these categories because this is the money that is being requested for the 21 22 fiscal year so very quickly hvac district paving roofing sidewalk masonry improvement of interior building space window replacements at 500 000 lighting electrical calf improvements lav improvements athletic complex floor and ceiling improvements so i'm going to just scroll up and just focus on this car this column here to the right so these are the replace the the priorities that we have for next year so five hundred thousand dollars that's being requested for uh cheshire high school we've been doing these window replacements at the high school on the south side in very small increments and we think it's important to increase the pace of those window improvements so for next year we're asking for 500 000 to continue on in that project the next category here we're asking for 1.17 million uh paving roofing sidewalk masonry so that's a variety of different requests that's that's built in here you know 125 000 is for sidewalks 100 000 is for masonry restoration projects 100 000 to replace the main office roof system at the high school um the big one here is 750 000 that um you know as we pause on this piece you know we can certainly start getting some questions answered 750 000 is for the dodd roof roof of placement above the gym cafeteria and main office um rich i'm going to ask you in a minute to just talk a little bit about that one because that is a large new request and then we're looking for um fifty thousand dollars to start design work on the doolittle roof replacement that roof replacement we're anticipating will cost about three million dollars that's a budget estimate um and and we would like to get going on that project and the last 45 000 in this category is a a request that we had from last year now that that we have the new government freezer installed at highland we do need to replace the roof and roof deck um so i'm gonna just pause that for one second i'm gonna stop sharing my screen i believe adam has a question okay go ahead hi vin um it wasn't a a question uh actually directly on your presentation it's just that the the attachments that we received um at least the ones that i have dated january i know i don't know what date this is uh crap january 11th is is the um package that i shared with the board it was uh january 8th okay so am i using the wrong package there's did you get the printed material delivered to you adam or is this from the email this is from the email is that all wrong and old um it's not wrong just tell me what do you i guess what are you looking at i'm looking at what i did on the 8th versus the 11.