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so 13 yeah so we currently project 32 of those 45 we will be able to phase out through retirement and vacancy can we get that number further down well we it is i would project yes because um we still have a few more months left in the year and uh you know each year like you see in the agenda tonight there's another retirement or two as we move along um so yes i do anticipate that number one and and i thank you dr smith do the retirements that are coming in tonight do they reflect into that 13 or they added on they're already counted they're already accounted for okay i just okay i wanted to make sure and i would add and the reason i'm chuckling there is uh the if i was able to say if particular retirements would impact that 45 number it might lead people to try to connect dots on which actual positions we're talking about and i don't really want to get it i don't know i don't i don't want more i don't want to get there it's preliminary um but i just wanted to know in terms in terms of numbers uh now you you did say in your jesus trying to do this on my phone i have your budget presentation on my phone i apologize uh you did say in your um in your presentation you showed what you were trying to avoid not not doing and something that's near and dear to me and something i i personally always fear uh i always fear school districts seem to be very cavalier when it comes to their their programs they they say they turn around and they say that well you know what music's nice but we don't need it all right or they say industrial technology is nice but yeah the kids don't really need that they need math they need english they need science they'll always always go back to the regulars you have here that you're not cutting educational programs so we're talking about those those programs which i feel and i'm just personal to me all right i feel those are incredibly important programs we're we're leaving them we're leaving them dry they're fine so um at the without getting into too many specifics again i don't want you in the specifics yes yes i said the word cutting is accurate um it's impossible to get to the number that we're looking at without potentially trimming from the outside edges yes surgically in a way that absolutely minimizes impact on kids but you cannot um you know those for example those 23 staff positions so the professional staff was 23 positions so out of those 23 um you know it might not be a cutting of a program it might be a slight curtailment of a program there's a chance that a program can reduce the number of kids that can access it um yes speaking yes okay all right no no the reason i am trying to i know and and and i ask i'm looking at this in another at another end so like you know i i was looking at i'm looking at it in the eyes of a of a board member but also in the eyes of in education like i sometimes you can only fill the class so much all right i mean like in in high school if if you want 80 kids to take modern european history ap you might not be able to get all 80 kids into a modern european ap class um all right and then i'll give give one concrete because i i it always pains me if i can't answer a question as fully as i'd like to and so i'm i'm in pain right now about that um but i'll give i just give you the example like take an art program there is no cut to a program like an art program that makes sense where we're cutting a program so okay um i'm going to arrest my questions for now dr smith thank you i i i peppered you with with many questions i appreciate you answering uh mr lanzalata please as far as yours uh thank you mr fitzgerald um dr smith one more question i know we had spoken earlier in the year about reducing the amount of students that are sent out of district in order to save money i don't know if if it was reflected in in your presentation and if it was i apologize but i didn't see that um are we reducing the number of students that are sent out of district in order to save money so in the upcoming year so uh as much as so we work very hard to try to keep as many of our students as we can in district right we have in fact we have programs that help students of ours stay in district that other districts don't have our percentage of out-of-district students is lower than many other districts but we do as every district does has a certain percent of students who who have to be out of district because we just can't provide for their needs in the best way here um the uh the cost sometimes for even a single student like that can be very high and and uh so it could even lead to an increase from one year to the next again in ways that are necessary but um you know might not might not be an increase in the number of students going on a district but it might be an increase in the needs of those students if that makes sense yes i just want to address that i don't want there to be any type of public statement that the board is directing or is asking that you save money by you know addressing students in their ieps or their places i know that wasn't the question but that's how it might be interpreted by some so i want to make sure that that's the question is first and foremost in any decision with regards to student identifiers eligible for special education and related services under the idea is to to have them be taught at their home school to the greatest extent practicable while still allowing them for them to see succeed based on whatever uh abilities that they have but i just didn't because you'd be surprised people will hear that but you ask and they'll say oh you're changing my iep because you're trying to save money and that's not the that's not the idea at all the idea that all i i absolutely appreciate is we can do this here exactly and and it'll have that effect thank you very much and i appreciate you trying uh i appreciate you um clearing that up yes i i'd like to see the the the programs in-house and if they're in-house we would be able to save money and also increase jobs you know for our staff any other board members with questions dr smith the board no longer has questions but i asked if you could stay up there i'm going to move this thing to public comment for agenda items only which i'm going to read a short short thing about that so everyone here understands how we how we're going to operate on this all right this meeting will now be open to the public referencing agenda items only however your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or personnel items or negotiations we'd ask you to see the superintendent after the meeting since we do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to three minutes per person we're going to try to keep us again for this for agenda items so that would be the budget uh if you have something that is not related into anything that we have in an agenda hold that back we have a second round of second round of comment at the end of the meeting all right but the budget is a part of the agenda because it's a part of the presentation we can have um just be aware though that when we get past three minutes uh we may we may cut it down so just just be aware of that okay anybody like to come and speak up i just ask that you please say your name and address and uh thank you debbie van kuren the eushan township education association president here we go again our paris will lose their benefits with all due respect dr smith you are once again trying to pit our professional staff against our paris by saying that you will save 22 teaching positions by taking away the paris benefits some of these powers have more than 20 years of dedicated service to this district what about the children they service do they matter will we lose these dedicated folks as they look for new jobs the etea along with njea already sat down with you and went over the figures that you sent to the state we've shown you that you do not have the deficit that you're suggesting we even pointed out that retirements made up a majority of your loss that you are suggesting we feel it is important for the public to know that this deficit doesn't exist the way you pointed it out on one of the slides you mentioned miscellaneous loss of 1.15 million the community and staff deserve to know what this loss is can you elaborate when i'm done speaking on that 1.15 million i would have had a better statement prepared if we had had this information prior to tonight's meeting the etea encourages the community to look for additional communication from us in njea i am requesting that i be granted another opportunity to speak if necessary due to the way that this meeting is set up we have many etea members at home staying safe who would love to call in with questions and comments but that is not an option you have purposefully silenced the community and staff by not taking calls this evening this needs to be changed for future meetings thank you miss van keren thank you for your comments i would just like to remind everybody that the opportunity of this preliminary budget presentation doesn't exist in almost every other district so this is actually a whole other opportunity for conversation that wouldn't occur most places um so so in terms of like people who want to speak once or twice or however many times tonight there will be additional time at future meetings as well um the uh you know and there's there's there's a lot of other thoughts going through my mind i would just add one more thing which is um we reached out several times to eta for um any amount of money that they would like to meet us part way about towards this reduction as the number very truly is real and the response we got was not one cent hello good evening thank you for your time we do appreciate what you're just uh giving your your name and address sir i'm sorry sure my name is guy purim and addresses to essex court and king's grant so during the course of the meeting i just shouted some some things down that popped into my mind prior to having some questions already prepared two questions and a comment then you can maybe answer the questions after i sit down please what science are the people using making these covet 19 decisions what will stop the walkers who become sick with cold or flu not affect school attendance or be looked at falsely as covet cases because now walkers would be in the elements as well as the extremely poor lightning within king's grant which creates another safety concern so my statement is why is the budget lower when taxes are higher is there not a health care waiver adjustment if your health care costs go up greater than ever certain percentage you could be given an adjustment that you're allowed to raise your budget up to two percent cap is that correct the budgetary cost per pupil number 30 out of 74 is our group kindergarten eighth grade with 751 people or more and astronomy indicates that we're not spending too much money or too little money on educating the children what i've current confirmed at being at this meeting is the constant word of loss we're losing our students in your own words why do you believe we're losing students this is a community that is known as the a rated school community which helps sells the community meaning parents buy homes to start families in this community in this certain current decisions on covert 19 is this not a chance to stop loss stop the loss of children's dedication stop the loss of community stop the loss of our future stop the loss of feeling of fear there is a teacher's oath which i quote i swear to fulfill to do the best of my ability in judgment in this convent i will respect the hard one gains of those educators in those steps i walk and gladly share such knowledge as in mine with those who are to follow so follow your oath so also stated in our conversation number of a face number a face when we don't look at our children faces not as covet numbers there was a lot of talk of elimination if we do not eliminate our fears we will eliminate our children's future use the science not the fear to make choices build the school's budget build up the community build up the kids with these three simple signs or in in this walls as we speak today respect sacrifice determination we cannot proceed to move forward when we're looking back we cannot proceed to be hopeful if we are fearful we all want to educate we all want to do well we all want to prosper and how we do that is building a community that is known for communication education and prosperity people moved to molten which was voted one of the best communities in 2018 to live in but if you're losing schools cutting schools have poor lighting bad roads fear what's the science say the whole united states the curve has gone down why are we stuck down raise up move forward the children want to come back to school the children want it we're creating a behavior of fear and laziness our job as adults parent or non-parent is to demonstrate hope through actions let's use what's on your wall as actions thank you thank you sir there was a lot in your comments i appreciate all of it um and as you were talking i was thinking about how much of it i feel applies to our approach this year and when we talk about the enrollment drop there are so many factors that go into that neighborhood turnover but one thing i can i can say is that there have been families who've actually moved to eve sham this year because of our reopening plan they moved from districts that were all remote and they came here because we were in school for a full day thank you can i can i figure back off that for a second in terms of the drop of population i've lived here a very long time when i moved here in 1984 i was four there were not a lot of communities here and throughout the 90s really the late 80s early 90s we exploded with with new communities and new new developments which brought in a lot of people one of those things about the comment about being a great town one of the things about being a great town after it's built up which we are pretty much built up at this point people don't leave they stay they stay after their kids leave and what we've seen over time is that the the population of town hasn't changed it's grown older but the they're not bringing in as many kids as they did at its height which was about 20 about 20 years ago and it's dropped precipitously it's not uh an eve sham thing cherokee goes through the same problem too and again it's because they're not building any more new neighborhoods we can't have any more i have to go onto somebody else but i just want to i just want to could you answer the covet science question or who's making decisions on the covert piece i'll let you finish but uh yeah let me just finish this yeah yeah just wanted to finish the population question for you um that that has nothing to do with anything that's going on covet related that is something that just has been happening over time in eve sham and a lot of communities just like yves sham it has nothing to do with the quality of the town has nothing to do with the quality of the schools it just happens to be that we're already built out and our population is getting older i'll let you answer the code question yeah yeah so um so the the all new jersey school districts were mandated to develop a reopening plan per the new jersey department of ed guidelines which are if you go to the new department website they have a website it's called the road back has a ton of links the guidance that and it's like a it's like links in a chain what the department of ed used as their guidance was our new jersey department of health what our new jersey department of health uses is the cdc so you know you can trace it all the way back but essentially it's all predicated on the center for communicable diseases guidance and that the key sort of detail and that guidance among many other things one masks right so you know master to be worn at all times when practicable and they um provide a list of exceptions um which uh you know again all on the road back website um and the six foot distancing is another is another key uh detail of that so that that helps hi just uh again state your name and address for the right it's dave demarco um 10 essex court um i guess just the kind of what he was talking about the uh the school's reopening plan right we're on i guess this is a hybrid plan that we're on um when when do we get back to five days a week when did the kids actually go back full time right um i i think you know i mean my my kids uh you know being two days a week and three days at home one of their biggest concerns to me was hey dad you know what um they've gone from a's b's down to c's and i i can't keep up with my homework because it's on the computer out of sight out of mind they're ten years old eight years old they're not used to checking their email every day you know we go into an office we sit at a desk we're expected to do these things my ten and eight year old they're not expected to do that and i don't expect them to do that so that it's not their fault that they're slipping you know what i'm saying when can they expect when can we expect to get our kids back in school full-time i i hear you that you know we're losing some of the budget and i i can only imagine that your budget is use or lose being a part of the federal government that was the way we operated user lose and if we're about to lose well then we we went to human resources and we got re-appropriated where we went uh and networked and we fought hard to the powers that be to get those monies that we were going to lose um i don't know what the you know the the game is here in town if we go to the county or if we go to you know congressman kim or who it is that's not my job you know but it's my job as a concerned parent to let you know that i need to impress upon you that my kids need to get back to school my wife has picked up she's a saint she deserves it better she does but she also deserves to go back to work she's also a school teacher camden city she wants to go back to school she wants to go back to work where do we go you know what i'm saying right so maybe you know you can take from what we're telling you and go through the powers that you guys got and let them know hey you know please help us help them there's not many of us here i'm kind of shocked i'm a little surprised heart there's empty seats right yeah you know but mr demarco i'm so glad you don't mean to get like uppity with you guys i i really do no no i'm so glad you came into it about my kids and yeah trying to you know get them on track you know as i'm sure all of you are too you know i feel like i feel like you speak there there are many parents who might not be here but are having the same thoughts and and uh they're probably at home watching you know yeah yeah and and if i can just you know dialogue for a second with my response because i feel like you've uh you know what you've articulated i feel should be the single most important federal and state goal right and and it's like the backwards design process the goal should be we want all our kids for all all families that want it should be able to have their kids back in school in september five full days a week that should be that should be stated like a man on the moon goal right because the only way you get there is to is to put it out as the goal and work backwards um but so often the guidance lags behind the actual facts on the ground where we're at you know and as vaccinations increase and covert rates go down what is the pathway to get all kids back in school five to three it's not decided by local districts you know what i mean like if you go back to those links in a chain the gentleman who spoke earlier and i was talking about that so those links in the chain go back to the state and the federal level that determines what happens on the ground in local towns like eve sham we absolutely we were desperate to get more kids back in school the only people more desperate than we are our parents you know and um as it stands right now even working within that constraint of the six foot guideline which exists for a good reason adam we currently have 70 of our students are in person and 30 are all remote of the 70 who are in person 48 of those almost half are four days a week or actually on a four day week they're all days a week on a five day week four days a week um and that number increases all the time we continue to work on a classroom by classroom basis seat by seat try to help more kids come back in for all the reasons you're saying i mean is the standard yep yep around yeah you ever heard that anyone ever heard that there's six right there your arms exactly that's exactly right i mean it's just it's common sense yeah so so two students with their arms length it's just you know i mean it's you know keep yourself at arm's length when you tell your kid my two goals keep yourself at arm's length we can do this together the federal government helps really i mean thank you sir anybody else wish to uh wish to come up and speak oh please name and address please corrine helibura 13 olympia drive i'm also a 20-year employee as a paraprofessional and i just like to say i am disappointed that again we're going to have our benefits cut i am the face of one of the persons one of the people who will be losing their benefits i am sad for real because this affects my family and i just ask that you reconsider it and i know there's probably a lot of people out there that are watching that may be in the same boat that i am and we work very hard every day and we work with our special education population and there is no social distancing in preschool it it's not and we've come back and we've worked harder than we've ever worked before trying to keep ourselves and our children safe and i just feel like it's a slap in the face that you would take our benefits away again we don't make a whole lot of money i didn't take this job for the money the new employee hired makes 16 something an hour i've been here for 20 years i make 20 something an hour i make four dollars more than your newest hire we've been the bottom of the barrel for a very long time we were promised and grandfathered in several years ago under another contract to be grandfathered in that if we had been there by a certain amount of time we wouldn't have we wouldn't lose our benefits and i just ask you to honor that because you're going to lose a lot of good people you're going to reduce our hours and therefore we're going to make less money and not have our health insurance either and i just ask any one of you if that happened to you how would you feel i ask you to find another way thank you [Applause] thank you mr celebra and and and you're i'm glad you mentioned that um this year everyone has worked harder than ever under the most challenging circumstances from in most people's careers and on top to layer on top of that the budget situation that we're facing is the worst possible timing and um so um and it's it's only with the most heavy heart that we're at this point um thank you again any other comments john janks 39 carlton avenue i'll stick with the agenda item number 11.4 curriculum and learning okay i don't have a really a budget comment but it echoes some of the comments that have been made already the executive summary for my comments is time to end remote learning you need to start sending the kids in person every day five days a week so let's look at the facts how many new jersey students between the age of 5 and 17 have died from covid19 since the beginning you know the answer i sent you a some information on this okay it's zero zero not one child not one of your students and or for that matter any new jersey student has died from kovid and i guess but we do have a concern about teachers and i can fully understand that okay so and i for two weeks two weeks ago i i asked you these questions okay and so how many teachers since september and the medical community has found a uh not a cure but certainly some some good therapies for kovid how many teachers have new jersey teachers have died since september uh i guess we don't know the answer to that question or are you afraid to answer the question are you afraid to ask the question maybe is it one out of fifty do you mr james do you wish us to google the answer right now i don't understand i mean i i asked you the questions uh you know two weeks ago that's all right i i'd like to reclaim some of my time the study coven 19 and the student learning in the united states the hurt that could last a lifetime was posted on the cdc website last summer what's the date of the study june 2020 they knew back in june that the problems of not going to school were going to hurt the minorities the disadvantaged and those poor people they knew that you've known this the cdc has known this it was on their website and it's just really one of the first of the many studies that are coming out it's the poor the underprivileged the minorities who are being hurt by not going to school and so what new jersey governmental agency has established the policies and procedures that effectively require local board of education that's you guys to discriminate and provide a substandard education to students and that is particularly detrimental to minorities that bastion of equality the new jersey department of education they're depriving poor and minority students of a quality education and i know that you're feel some obligation to follow their policies so here's a multiple choice question if a governmental entity decided to implement a policy that was known to deprive minorities and disadvantaged students of an equal education this could best be described as a progressive b liberal c libertarian d racist this is an ugly ugly topic it is an absolutely oblique ugly topic and assuming that you knew the answer to the top four questions and you were a minority poor disadvantaged single parent with school children what words would you describe the leaders of the state the department of education unfortunately even some of the leaders of the teachers union select as many words that it would apply would you describe them as anti-racist good be it benefactors helpful compassionate honest support for faucet or would your would your words be more like well these people are liars they're discriminatory they're shameful it's a rehab reprehensible uh policy evil bigots you know what painful if you were a white supremacist you could not devise a more evil racist policy than what the new jersey department of education is currently forcing on local school districts lenape on monday mr jenks mr jenks we are we're way past our time and i'm still trying to grasp and i apologize i'm still trying to grasp how this is a part of the agenda uh curriculum and educational math but it has to be a particular item mr jenks that's what i'm trying to understand okay we'll wait i'll finish i'll finish at the public comments that's perfectly fine that's perfectly fine if i can just uh respond to part of that mr jenks there's a lot there and what you shared um the but but just the the the word equity you were talking about you know educational opportunities that word was absolutely embedded at the heart of our plan going back to the summer and if you look at the educational opportunities that we've provided this year full day four days a week for our youngest learners all pre-k all kindergarten all first grade some second grade even now some other grades all in class support all specialized program students all esl students four days a week full day for students who are remote the best possible educational quality through live streaming and through our amazing staff so what we did there was trying to provide the most equitable access to growth and support for all of our students and it came at considerable cost all year long financial and in other ways and if you've been following you know there wasn't always and there still is an agreement about between eta the district between parents and school district and eta about the best path but all along we have all what what we have always said as our as our true north is how to support all kids provide the most equitable opportunities for success for all students and and we to the point where p like i said people have moved to eep sham from other places because they saw what was happening here are there is there anyone else in terms of agenda items only i apologize mr jenks i apologize to you and i i do not we do we have time at the end if you want to make those comments it's perfectly acceptable i have to unfortunately as the as the president i have to keep us restrained in our particular agenda how we do things um is anyone who has anything they would like to speak about agenda items only seeing none i'm going to close the floor all right so that allows us now to move into item six approval of the minutes i need a motion to improve items six one and six two approval of the minutes do i have a motion motion by ms cappello if i have a second seconded by miss everhart any questions or comments pertaining to approval of the minutes seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs cappella yes mrs everhart yes mr fizzicaro yes mr canton yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carriage thank you moving to item seven superintendents report and administrative items i need a motion to prove items seven one through seven seven do i have a motion how's it getting shy on me can i have emotion motion by miss capello seconded by uh mr cantham thank you uh any questions or comments pertain uh before you go into questions comments dr smith you uh want to talk about your uh discussional items thank you thank you i'm glad to have the opportunity to talk about something other than the budget uh which took up a lot of time because it is so important but we also have a number of other important things going on i want to lead off by recognizing the importance of this month as black history month and i want to share one little story so on sunday this coming sunday is the birthday of a woman who was born in philadelphia about 14 miles from here and lived there as an adult and she was celebrated worldwide before she was celebrated here and it was because she was black her name was marion anderson and um there's a museum to her in philadelphia and like a lot of our local history i think it's under-realized and under-recognized and i just wanted to take the opportunity of my superintendent's comments to shine a light on her tonight thank you schools update as i've done each time so this monday march 1st as we plan going back to december we return to our full day schedule and i want to make sure that it's very clear what that means that means we're returning to our regular dismissal times the way we were from september through december our cohorts which are a b a b and r stay the same but we are returning to our full day schedule that we were september through december the uh the goal of as as discussed earlier through some of the public comments um we are continuing to work on our goal of getting as many students back in school for as much time as possible and we recognize the increasing cumulative toll that this year and pandemic has taken on everyone but especially our children um and that is why we are continuing to work with that every day the in that spirit as well i also want to say that when the updated calendar is submitted um in march so we will you know we have uh had three traditional snow days so um you know that was um three days one was in december and two were at the beginning of february and so we'll per our calendar those days get ad made up and added on to the end of the year we've also had four count them four full remote snow days this month which means four days of lost in person so to recognize that in the value of that we will be converting the last two remote learning wednesdays so that's june 9th and june 16th into a cohort a day and a cohort b day respectively to increase the in-person learning and kind of try to mitigate the loss of in-person learning that we experienced as a community through those four or four remote snow days and the value of those remote learning wednesdays is commensurately less in june than it would be in may less in may than in april and so on so june is the most logical month to make that conversion and that's those are my comments thank you dr smith are there any questions or comments from the board all right uh i have one i have one question for you dr smith and uh pertains to the calendar for next year next year's calendar um i see that we have five emergency snow days in there june 22nd 23rd 24th april 22nd 21st um do we have any clarification or any guidance from the state in terms of continuing the remote learning on snow days have they given us anything on that so it remains to be seen what will be possible next year whether whether those full that full remote snow day approach we will continue to be possible i think it's predicated on a lot of other factors that are going to go into what next year in september looks like per se right where we're at with covet and other things so what i would say uh to be continued on that okay all right i i know that that's a i know that's a question it's out there in terms of um and it's not even just never sham it's in several places but i didn't know if there was any guidance placed upon that yeah it's been allowable this year and that may continue on but um you know i think probably when the dust settles on this winter and this year there'll be a kind of collective look back at um you know the pros and cons of those of that type of day and it may be left up to local decision or maybe a statewide determination okay thank you dr smith i appreciate that any other questions or comments all right let's go to roll call please mrs cappello yes this is everhart yes mr fizzakara yes mr canton yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes mission carries thank you we're now going to move to item number eight curriculum and instruction i need a motion to approve items eight one through eight three do i have a motion motion by mr cantham do i have a second second by mr lanzalada thank you gentlemen any um any questions or comments pertain to uh to curriculum and instruction seeing none let's go to a roll call please mrs kapala yes mrs everhart yes mr fizocaro yes mr canton yes mr lanzalata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes commission carries okay moving to item nine finance and operations i need a motion to prove items nine one through 9 18.

do i have a motion motion by mr lanzalata do i have a second second by ms capela any questions or comments pertaining to finance and operations um can i can i ask a question on finance and operations i'm sorry i'm i'm loaded with questions tonight uh the the audit report are we are we allowed to just to just talk about that or ask a question about that okay because i want to clarify something i in terms of we have bowman come in and audit us every year all right and i just want to clarify because from my own edification here um are we in terms of of the conversations that that we've had in terms of of money you know whether we you know money that carries over from year to year to year i know that's kind of been a discrepancy in conversations that we've had uh in particular with with the the njea has bowman found anything there i mean they're they they take a nose like a deep dive into our finances i mean there's there's nothing there no there's nothing a matter of fact the auditor went through our surplus with the finance committee and explained all the uh surplus amounts and where they've been allocated to so they're all gone yes either they were used in the current budget or going to be used in the budget that we're putting in the audit report verifies that correct i just okay i just wanted to put that out there just to verify that just make sure that that there's no question about that thank you very much i have no other questions uh anybody else any more questions all right that being said let's go to a roll call please mrs capella yes this is everhart yes mr fizzakero yes mr canton yes mr lanzalotta yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes motion carries all right moving to number 10 uh personnel i need a motion to prove items 10 1 through 10 10.

do i have a motion motioned by mr lanzalotta do i have a second second by mr camper any questions or comments pertaining to personnel mr lanzalata yes very quick thank you mr fiskars wanted to acknowledge uh for ten seven uh nicole mandry and lauren zarilla who received their master's degrees and i think that's fantastic and as you further your education you're only you know helping our our students uh become better you know become better students every single day so thank you mr lancelata any other questions or comments on personnel seeing none let's move to a role called please mrs kapala yes this is everhart yes mr fizocaro yes mr canton yes mr lancelata yes mr megan yes mrs ryan yes mission carries thank you uh moving the policy item number 11 there is nothing in policy so we will move past that all right we're going to move to item 12 this is committee reports uh are there any uh committees or uh liaisons that wish to speak on anything that's going on mr cantham yeah so dr smith gave most of the curriculum updates already so i'll just touch on them briefly the first one we had this month from curriculum was the 2021-2022 calendar we did the second reading which has now been approved just to reiterate that does not have cohorts in its full day the second update is middle school movement so our middle schoolers used to be in their classrooms and the teachers were going to them now uh the middle schoolers are moving about the school and they're going to their teachers which is good for any sorts of normalcy we can give our kids full day as we already said is resuming on march 1st which is monday and as far as student update numbers these stats were already given but around 70 percent of our students are in day half of those are in day four days a week so cohort a b and then the remaining third students are still remote and that process to get more kids in school is still being done at the building level thanks thank you mr lanzalotta yes i've uh two things first for uh the mrc their lrc holds a sports unity program and it's it's a really great program that gets kids with special needs participating in community sports events and basically how it works is each child is is paired up with a buddy and the sports unity football season is starting on march 14th it's going to be a six week season and they're looking for buddies to be paired up with the special education students and the students the kids must be 12 to 18 years old and registration begins at the beginning of march so anyone that isn't you know interested it's a great great great opportunity for our students the second is that the community relations committee met with dion which is an organization you know within marlton and i just like to thank dion the members of dion for meeting with us we spoke about the diversity within the community within the school on equity within our school district and how to improve it you know every day and year after year so i thank you for your suggestions and your recommendations and we will continue to work with you in the future mr lanzalata i just want to say i'm i'm thankful for the community outreach committee uh making some of these uh these meetings happen uh it's good to have those conversations and and understand what how people are thinking and going forward so nice job to your committee on that dr smith you too any other yes mr everhart i just wanted to say that uh anisha and myself have been appointed as co-representatives on behalf of the eastman township school district board members for the sos committee so that's that consortium of people in the surrounding counties that are trying to get some answers to the funding formula and to finding out how we can get more money back to our district so i was on that actually with the prior administrative with the prior superintendent and the prior board so i'm going to continue with that and we have anish as a new board member so we're going to represent eve shim's desire to get some better money back to the district so thank you for that appointment dr smith any other uh committee committee reports miss ryan it's so nice to see you yes absolutely um we have a couple things the policy committee will be meeting march 16th the first time in this new 10-year new term for board members so i'm looking forward to that and also um the eastern education foundation golf outing this date has been set for june 7th save the day and it's going to be held at little mill thank you miss ryan i appreciate that any other mr cantham sorry yeah i just wanted to to echo what miss everhart said about the sos thank you for the the opportunity but um like dr smith said earlier i think it's it's challenging because anytime we fight for money we have to take it from another district right but at the end of the day we're here to represent eve shaman and that's our singular goal so i look forward to continuing that fight thank you all right we're going to move on to committee from committee reports and move to old business there is no old business i'll move past that to new business there's no new business all right at this point in time we're opening uh the meeting back up to public comment this is for any item of interest uh this meeting will now be open to the public referencing any items of interest however your questions or comments pertain to litigation student or personnel items or negotiations we'd ask you to see the superintendent after the meeting since you do not discuss these matters in public please limit your comments to three minutes per person we are again we want to try to give everybody a chance to talk if you could do that good evening state your name and address please good evening shout out 31 normandy road so like i said my name is shelter touri i'm a resident of malta and my child is anticipated to start kindergarten um in the following school year i just want to say thank you to the board for the time that you give to provide your service to our education community so i'm actually here to represent the group that jeff and uh jeff had spoken on about dion dion d-e-o-n diversity and equal opportunity network we're here as advocates we are made up of residents parents and alumni of evsham township school district and lenape regional high school district we share a vision across leadership and members of our group improving equity combating racial disparities in eve shem we need to recognize that demographics have evolved according to the nj department of education demographics in 2019 to 2020 students are 74 white your teachers are 96 white similarly to cherokee high school which is where they will be leaving middle school and going to you have 96 percent of teachers are white and you have 79 percent student body white statistically schools across the country disproportionately impose disciplines infractions and expulsions on black students over their white counterparts equally representation of black latinx students in advanced placement courses should be examined along with the core reading list within this school district both of which are now a part of the newly signed and updated amistad law this legislation need to be implemented more so than it ever has been despite it being signed in 2002 we also believe that indigenous tribal history in the middle school is most relevant given that the local high school that they graduate to is actually named after indigenous tribes we look to eliminate cultural appropriation of indigenous tribal customs portrayal given that research indicates these indigenous children are actually traumatized by seeing such imagery and have a higher rate of mental health issues and low self-esteem we are also looking to create a more create more education on local black history right here in eastern for example we have the underground railroads right here and in terms of indigenous history we have just come to find that savage field is indeed an indigenous burial ground dion aims to aims for greater success by involving the people most affected by this problem that being the bypoc community by plot meaning black indigenous and people of color dion also recognizes the importance of intersectionality as it contributes to many facets of identity and the impacts of complex factors of privilege and discrimination at the current time dion is amplifying the identity of race specifically voices of black indigenous and people of color students and parents of this district are awakened to the collective of unconscious and racial disparities and gaps in our system right here in yfsham township as part of any successful community-led advocacy group we intend to grow and it's important to understand and recognize the differences in organizational structure operations responsibilities and a wide range of stakeholders we don't want to just present issues and concerns and problems to the board to the superintendent to principals and teachers we would like to tackle them together we want to move in a direction that we all want to be at by establishing ongoing communication trust respect and we hope that we can resolve any issues as it emerges so we do look forward to working collaboratively together with all stakeholders not just as i mentioned the board and superintendent we also want to be speaking with school principals teaching staff along with any other interested parties to continue to strive to make eve shame a place of excellence that i've heard people get up here and talk about tonight for our children in this town in terms of just some some of the things that i've heard tonight um dropping things like minorities those figures and white supremacy it's interesting that um dr smith you mentioned that these programs are indeed open so it's concerning that these minorities kind of get thrown out there just sort of used against just as like a carrot it's not fair it's inappropriate and it shouldn't be done i also again want to thank um the board and the members that we've met with i do want to highlight i ask the board for the first time in eastern township's history you have a ban of color on the board i'm sorry to drop you in a niche i know you do not like the attention i am asking what did you guys do to acknowledge that and celebrate the fact that he is actually part of our history right here being the first person of color thank you thank you i just i feel like i end up commenting after every con but it's because the comments are very substantive and and uh you know are encouraging of discussion i just missed tori um you know i really appreciated our opportunities uh this month to me including last night to talk about curriculum personnel student discipline implicit bias training and many other topics that we want to continue to dialogue about and work on as our district seeks to improve because no matter how excellent any organization considers itself there is always a better you know and and we will continue to work towards that together and walk together towards that so thank you very much evening just state your name and address please indiara motto five tied water um i just wanted to make a comment about the um contribute to the covet discussion a little bit while it is true that there have been zero um pediatric vets in new jersey which i think we've been very fortunate to see there is a particular post covet syndrome that is only seen in kids about even as far as two to three months out and these weren't necessarily kids who were hospitalized with velvet there's just that's a positive you might just even have a vague history that they were around people with covet about two to three months before they get extremely sick so the syndrome is called miss c and the c it's multi-system inflammatory syndrome the sea is foreseen only in children we don't see it in adults it's have been since the start of over 88 kids hospitalized very sick and yes again none of them have died but this post syndrome is very dangerous so now we are discharging these kids we've sent them all home however not the usual way that you discharge a child from the hospital you don't send them bouncing out the door and say back to full activity now there's actual cardiac damage where now you have to write things like cannot go back to gym cannot until cleared by a cardiologist it is very new very different and again 88 kids in new jersey and just 22 from just december to now i think it's in my opinion it's okay to continue with a reopening plan that exercises a little bit of caution and follows the new jersey department of health and cdc guidelines thank you thank you very much any other questions or comments mr jenks we know it's you you don't have to state your name again i'm back all right i mean i appreciate everything you guys are doing and i understand it's difficult okay but i mean part of the irony here is black history month and and and we got people that are worried about uh you know implicit bias or something like this this is not implicit bias this is bias we all know that the minorities the kids who don't have who don't have a good start to begin with are going to be hurt worse than anybody else and and i'm not going to be quiet somebody has to speak for those who can't speak for themselves who can't be here tonight maybe it's the mother up on on winona trail okay who can't afford a babysitter so she can come here or maybe another uh parent up there on winona trail has to uh do a second shift work and tells her 13 year old you know uh babysit tonight for my for your you know your brother and sister they're not going to be here they're not going to be heard why does it take somebody like me to to tell you what everybody else knows i've got i've got a son i've got a son who and his wife who by the way are working at home okay they're so concerned about their children their two daughters education they hired an au pair a living living person inside to help their children learn and and get a good education how many of those winona trail families are going to hire an au pair it's not happening somebody has to speak for those who don't you can and here's the fix you have the ability to do what lenape regional district is doing on monday march 1st anybody who wants to go to school five days a week in person can attend i was told that by one of the girls today who who waited on me and said that yes i'm gonna go because i can go five days a week in person she's a senior can i can i just add to that real quick go ahead because i'm gonna be experiencing that on monday myself teaching there um it's not anybody they're going to cap it off uh they they're still going to have a cohort they're instead of having cohort a and b right they're going to have cohort one you know cohort a b and then cohort c so in a classroom you're still not going to have more than 15 kids in a classroom now i teach five different classes that average roughly about 30 kids so i'm going to see probably on average i'm going to probably see on average about 12 i would say no i'm going to go less probably 10 kids in person the rest will still be online it isn't this it isn't a blanket everybody if they want to come in they can come in there's there's going to be limitations on on top of that on top of that if if your class overflows past 15 it goes to if it goes i think over three then that class gets moved into another location that can accommodate that but not but it might accommodate that but it may not accommodate the the the uh the technology or needs that those kids may have so it's not a blanket anybody can come in i just want to want to clarify that thank you thank you i appreciate that no no problem anytime and it was the anecdotal so and then again i may or may not perfectly fine and she that that girl who might have uh waited on you is probably extraordinarily excited about that and there are kids that are very excited to get back into that life um and then there's some that that are they're they're set where they want to be there but that's one of your regions and can i just a personal question joe can i ask you when the kids come back who choose to come back who are those kids are those the kids who are the dnf students no we i taught at lenape for 11 years well we all know the students you know approach let me let me let me let me just answer that real quick and i know you're getting d's and f's get special help the the kids that are most troubled are the kids that that the school district was targeting first to try to bring them back in full time because we wanted to reach out to those kids to make sure that those kids didn't fall behind so we we began that practice of bringing those kids full time i have i would say i would have about five kids in in five total five kids in five classes there that fall within that range uh and those kids have been coming in five days a week i want to say since by no i'll say november 1st i would i would make that argument that's and that's again it's anecdotal to my story uh but that's that's what i've seen so they've they have targeted those kids initially over there i just wanted to add that in there for you and so why don't we do the same so just um we act we are um so we have 48 of our kids who are coming in person or in four days a week how do you identify those 48 well and i'll get to that in a moment but let me also share another detail so the there are 46 percent of the students in the lenape district are full remote 30 of our students are full remote so that makes up a big difference if half of your roughly half of your student body is full remote that means you only have to get the other half in we have 70 percent of our students in person so 70 percent in what two or three days 30 remote of that 70 half of them are in every day that we offer in person learning okay okay of the 70 50 are in five days a week 50 of 70 is 35 so 35 percent of the students are in person learning five days a week is that correct correct okay correct just just wanted to make sure i had the numbers right yep and and uh to the piece about how we identified is the students who needed it most so we're like our youngest learners our students in our special education programs i understand those guys and so on and so forth and we work through um very thoughtfully to try to provide the resource of in-person instruction to students who need it most all year long then we continue to as do many districts i would also add that um and i and i i really uh i do feel a little discomfort when we talk about district of district because each con just because you know i do think different importance 600 districts in the state i understand each district has its own unique context that has you know a comet trail of of many conversations going back for years that have that are all part of the present what i can say for us is that our days are full days right our days are full days and um a district that might be in five days a week but is in for shortened days if you added up the instructional minutes of in person you know that's another way to look at it right um the uh and when it comes to uh i'm so you know we have a a very um happy constellation of circumstances right now that is exactly as we hoped and planned it would be so we you know when we set the state of march first for our return to full day back in december we anticipated two things the weather would be cooperating and a decrease in coveted cases in the region would be cooperating we have both those things right now so um you know i don't know any of the rest of you felt it today but i felt just the first whisper of spring today okay didn't we all then we all it's fantastic right and that not just on the psychological effect but it enables outdoor eating because when we were a full day in december temperatures were lower than they were today you know so so it definitely is auspicious and uh and the the decrease of covid within our region right now has returned us to where we were in october mid-october in fact so um which we were full bore full day no problems you know so uh so that's really good you know and uh and i just that's another variable as you peel back the layers of each district and what they do there are so many variables right so it just strikes me though but go ahead i was going to say uh we're we're starting to move move quite a bit into this i apologize um is do you have anything you want to close out with i think you can find the room and ensure that the kids are six feet apart or the kids don't need to be six feet apart joe you need to be six feet apart from the kids and and let the kids and the parents decide whether or not they want to send the kids to school the kids can be right next to each other they in general now not for every single person in new jersey but in general the kids don't have the problem that the adults have thank you thank you mr jenks hi state your name and address please hello my name is audra gillen 33 rockingham drive i am also a paraprofessional at eshem schools and i will also be affected by the january 2022 removal of benefits i'm very sad and disheartened by this news and i'm asking you to find another way the paraprofessionals play a very important role in the children's lives and this year especially have had an even greater impact on the students and their learning and their success so taking away my benefits is not a solution for the current budget issue and there's got to be another way thank you thank you anybody else with a comment or anything else please come on up good evening state your name and address please my name is erica i live in the knightsbridge development what's your last name i'm sorry soyper thank you hi i just wanted to thank dr smith and i wanted to read a letter because i know so many people are so narrowly focused on the chaos we're living in right now with pandemics and politics that um just going back to basics i i have a concern about overuse of technology in the classroom and i just think that a lot of people don't see how you know even before covet which has just really turbo charged it every aspect of our society is kind of getting digitized from our shopping to our doctor's visits to our school and our work i just wanted to read a letter that i wrote to dr smith who kind of brought up a relevant point he mentioned the book walden by thoreau which and dr smith is so smart and we're very fortunate to have him he really can pick apart complicated material and break it down into a digestible format from an educator's perspective but he had brought that up because it was relevant how that novel spoke to the complex relationship we as humans have with technology as it pertained to the original industrial revolution and i think now we're going through a new sort of industrial revolution where we're seeing all sorts of new technologies impact our lives in ways that i think it's just going to exponentially increase for our children and our children's children so i just wanted to read a response that i wrote to dr smith dr smith i'm writing to express my sincere gratitude for your kind words and thoughtful reflection your message is a tremendous source of comfort for a mother watching her young children caught up in a world that is changing so rapidly with so much uncertainty your allusion to walden brought me to tears it highlights the true complexity of man's relationship with technology and inevitable progress it reminds me that throughout history humans have struggled with a double-edged sword of technological innovation that societal benefits often come with a cost i am watching a seismic shift impact nearly every aspect of our society from the way we work and learn to the way we shop and see our doctors telehealth amazon zoom and google classroom are moving us away from the physical into the virtual realm and as a mother that scares me it's hard to stay positive and not envision a cold mechanized world where every outcome is predicated on data analytics where the human element becomes increasingly redundant when i was a kid quantum computing artificial intelligence and synthetic biology were the stuff of science fiction but i'm beginning to suspect they will influence the future for my children and i feel overwhelmed realizing there are others like you that appreciate this conundrum that recognize what's at stake if these issues are not addressed brings me great comfort your sincerity and intelligence are true gifts and i feel very fortunate that you are the superintendent of our district you are a parent so you recognize the importance of human connection you know that children need the physical to hug hold hands and to look into other human eyes for guidance and reassurance this is essential for their development and emotional well-being you understand as an educator that learning has a social element that is lost through the filter of a screen you give me hope hope that your kindness and good spirit can navigate the path ahead that you can use your influence and eloquence to promote awareness that you can advocate for our children and ride the rails in the right direction it is no doubt a difficult task and you are only one person in one town but i picture thoreau as you stroll by walden pond i imagine on occasion he would toss a single stone into the water it would land in the pond piercing the surface and after the initial splash he would stand by the water's edge and watch the ripples propagate towards the horizon thank you this is soifer thank you for coming tonight i it's it's it's very it's a gift actually it's a gift to me that you came because to correspond you know by email and then that you came in person to share that i really deeply appreciate it um i i so often feel like there are we live in this time where answers are more and more elusive and even we think we have them somewhat in hand it just turns out to be another set of questions and whatever that means the one thing that gives me solidity and a sense of reassurance is that we all together are working on them together and uh and so you coming here tonight to me embodies that thank you so much any other questions or comments seeing none we're going to close that portion of the meeting uh we do not need uh sorry uh do we have any board member announcements mr thumb this is the most i've ever spoken at a board meeting oh uh so so most of the the board members know i also am the liaison for the human rights advisory council uh with the mayor and council as well as a member of community outreach so um i just wanted to thank uh mrs torre and dr amato for from dion today for coming and sharing their thoughts and the continued meetings we've been having with them thank you anybody else seeing none we're going to close board announcements there is no second executive session uh so i need a motion to adjourn with the note that we will be meeting on march 11th here correct march 11th here in uh demacia at 7 pm uh do i have a motion to adjourn please someone just give me a motion ah mr lanzalata do i have a second second by by miss everhart um all in favor all right have a wonderful night [Music] so [Music] she [Music] you

[Music] oh [Music] [Applause] is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes over there [Music] yes welcome into olympia ice center the season finale takes place today between the spartans of east long meadow and the lancers of longmeadow high school starting line will be the dobeck line for the spartans and opposite of him will be the higgins line pelogi sends it in scrum in the sideboard and higgins comes away with it working it over to leary now cology intercepts bank pass to do back doback we're gonna hear about that one after the game that was a topic of discussion but devin dobeck alongside mike moynihan mike happy to have you back on board hello devon how are you absolutely phenomenal my friend how about yourself i'm doing well i'm doing really good in this moment though oh and nero gets an early shot there comes out to the point caloji clean shot on rin tool easy save for him and now lancers pick it off it's going to be hammett the other way in front and unable to bury that is the cosmo now calogi trying to clear the zone it's gloved down by fischer second leading scorer tied with haynes on the spartan offense nero the leading scorer on the forecheck now getting away from him it's maderos longmeadow coming off a 4-2 win against the minichog falcons just to put in perspective how their season success has been they could be categorized as league champs i believe with no western mass there's a lot of black uniforms out there right now a few too many they're dead mike coming back from florida you missed a few games but how was that uh it was good glad to be back though absolutely and spartan's last game of the season happy to have you on board is absolutely entering the zone it's flipped in now arnold spoons it over to picked off pad save by sherwood great play there by arnold picking up the guy in front tying one up out to the point a wrist shot by croto and i believe she would might have been on net might not now does sherwood have a new helmet colin sherwood yes i don't believe so he likes the all-white really i've never noticed that yup he rocks with the all white colby law arguably the best map mask on the team beautiful yeah he has a nice irish one though i respect that a lot too so there's some good masks on this team and fischer takes a dirty hit no call from the official now higgins in the neutral zone getting worked on by fischer i like that by fischer there great play as you said and now lancers get it back that'll be in the queue well flesh will send it back in on rin tool shots are three to two in favor of eastland metal early spoke to coach reed pre-game and he said we are going to see a whole different guy behind the bench today a much more cool calm and collected guy we'll see how that holds we'll see how that plays out he's already seems like he's taken it down to one knee so maybe a little way to uh cope with that still a lot of hockey game left though dev hopefully he can turn around here but flash your wrist shot it's redirected by hanes and hayden spins one on that side of the cage now out to the point la flesh recuperates sends it back down to cune zone time has been progressively better throughout the season i love how they're using the points here devin spreading out the ice they weren't doing that in the earlier games as much as they are in these first couple minutes so if they could keep that up i would be a happy camper absolutely and connor rintual comes up with a big glove save there with 11 47 to go in period one a lot of upside for the spartans team and coach reed definitely on that bandwagon uh only losing cj keloji and john kuhn who unfortunately isn't playing but cj obviously the best defenseman arguably in western mass we'll see how they can rebound but they're going to be getting some incomers and i think they're only going to get better i couldn't agree more dev and sent in and around guidry will carry on his backhand trying to work it up to the top to croto and that one finds its way in the back of the net croto makes a one-nothing lancers i think it was just a screen on sheer wood and unfortunately that'll do it yeah sure sherwood couldn't really do much about that he didn't really have any angle to see it so you know this first shift here is going to be key trying to get spartans back in the game and trying to get momentum right back where they had it go back now ties it up now the flash that one goes up and out of the bench and we'll get a face off with 1107 to go spartans coming off a three to one victory against the agawam brownies in which chris sherwood and tom garvey each nodded their first goal of their high school career now with flash able to keep the zone gets one on rintoul and haynes swinging it in front not on the same wavelength with other people yeah i would like to see haynes carry that puck a little more rather than just blindly pass it but good defense here in the defensive zone devin and cloji carrying it out of the zone and he'll dump it way out of play another face off with 10 32 to go in the first period if you're just joining us you're watching spartan taki live on elk out with devin dobeck and mike moynihan lancers with a one goal lead thanks to robert croto [Applause] fisher now sherwood collecting the loose puck trying to find nero in front puck free in the slot lancers will try and go the other way travis arnold gets beat on the bank pass and shot i think it went off the side of the cage but a nice move to get in by de cosmo now in front sure would force make another save in tight onto cosmo good shift for ted the cosmo [Music] sherwood loses the draw to higgins o'brien to arnold looking for fisher now spartans able to clear their zone but lancers ship it back in puck squirts out to the neutral zone and fisher will dump it to get a chain nifty move from the lancers there and now carrying will be baker baker all the way around the goal swinging it in front and it goes right to luke haines luke kane's trying to find the legs to get there he's worked on by the goal scorer croto now la flesh shoots it back in dobeck lays it over to kane's trying to work it in front for q and unfortunately not enough strength or truck control to do that the other way now mikael kylian guidry entering the zone for longmeadow spins away from haines cole guidry croto touches it over now to mikaelian now guidry a shot on goal he rings it off the post spartan's got to be really careful with him no matter where he is on the ice try to have as many people on him as possible he's dangerous yeah you're just going to seem like very shifty and skilled with the puck arguably the best offensive defenseman in western mass he fires a wrist shot there and yeah don't let his size confuse you he is a great hockey player now behind the goal looking in front loose puck croto couldn't get that one on net shots 5-4 longmeadow spartans just got to get nice here got the puck out got a change guidry takes a hit from kaloji who we've seen playing much more physical hockey the past couple games and haynes will do just that getting the clear and it won't be an icing so spartans filled out there lancers shrinking something started again and add to their lead keen in and over nero's stick now entering the zone is maderos and we're going to get a whistle believe it'll be an offside [Music] mike what have you liked or not like that you've seen from me selling metal thus far on this one spartans came out really really strong before they let up that first goal and you know that first goal wasn't too big of a deal um so i would love to see them just be able to get back to that momentum that they had and just establishing their forecheck like they had before um yeah you know obviously they can do it since they they started off the game that way so with 7 21 to go the spartans trail one to zero aiden fisher collects and he'll try and skate in but coming away with it is pat leary in a row able to retain zone gets to fischer shot on rin tool and steered away nice little play though from the spartans yeah great look there lancers the other way now keenan over to french what a save and rin or rather sherwood comes up huge for east long meadow big save from colin sherwood early fighting to keep his team in it teddy kun fresh out of this box haynes dumps it in gets knocked over the bench a little bit now luke mchugh haynes able to keep it and now dobeck with room gets it over to arnold back down to dobeck dobeck can't hang on to it loose puck and lancers win it that's brendan mcgear arnold sends it back in spartans forced to reset due to delayed offside with six minutes to go in the first damn it entering the zone hanes turns it over croto arnold trying to shield him to the outside frodo behind the net now gets it up to guidry guidry sending it back in spartan's gotta tie up guys better in front too they're standing right next to the guy which is all right but if they could tie him up and take him completely out of play coach reid would be very happy now higgins trying to sauce it over and i heard a king but i think sherwood came up with the save there arnold gets spun around guidry now arnold in a puck battle with higgins the long metal captain [Music] rintool stops it and it's gained by maderos queuing intercepts now guidry and flush the flesh dances through a few men but guidry says i'll take that and tries to start something for the lancers frodo wrapping it around the flesh now in front there was a lancer waiting in the slot spartans get bailed out as number 20 for longmeadow adam lowe unable to get a good stick on that one shot 7-5 in favor of longmeadow now walking in in a shot i believe that hit the shaft of sherwood's stick nevertheless he stays strong for east longmeadow now mchugh swim moves over chris sherwood behind the goal low sends it back chris sherwood trying to clear the zone he gives it right back to mchugh he'll get it again and he gets hit hard on the play by mike island free puck but the spartans are gassed comes all the way down to rintoul gives it up to leary nicu finding a second win entering the zone the queue fires one save sherwood now fisher touching it to nero nero loses it on the sideboard tom garvey gets tipped over and now the other way for the lancers don't have a 19 on my roster so apologies to him arnold now working on low [Applause] adam lowe can't hang on to it dobak turns it over in his own zone higgins up to mcgear and cology throws another big hit something we've seen a lot of now in front spartans need to find a way to change kun gets his stick tied up haynes trying to find another gear to make something happen croto working over to higgins higgins spinning away from the pressure and now haynes away with it tries to get it to kun kun too strong and higgins and haynes get tied up wow they're gonna get hands for that i don't agree with that not sure i agree with that call but never the last spartans go to the penalty killed one minute and 23 seconds to go period one and they trail by a goal you know although haynes did get a penalty there he's been flying this entire game which i love to see so um it's a quick game out there devin and yeah spartans are doing a good job keeping up here out to the point mchugh sending it back down to baker and now guidry croto caloji croto will come away with that failed clearing attempt the flesh pins a man into the boards guidry can't get a shot away good stick check by nero now dev something that i just noticed with the lancers power play here they're going to try to have the offside defenseman slide on down back door to get a pass across ice barns after we really did see that with mccue dropping down i'm sure coach reed went over that a lot in practice but spartans they're wingers and defensemen have to be having some really good communication there picking up that guy 45 and a half seconds ago and a minute 23 left on the haines minor for hooking [Music] go back wins the face-off guidry and baker order croto mchugh the queue firing one away it was blocked down in front by caloji loose puck shoots out under 30 seconds to go baker now higgins baker again and baker buries one shawn baker makes a two-nothing long meadow on the power play so spartans trail by a paranoid 22.1 seconds left and just a great shot by baker there not much sherwood could do it was in tight yeah just really good execution on their power play there sherwood will take the draw opposite of him was french now in a row row making a move and he fires one save rental arnold gives it right away to medeiros and time expires period one the shots on goal nine for a long meadow and six for the lancers or long nine for long metal six for the spartans rather rin tool has been perfect to six of six and net on the other end of things colin sherwood seven of nine and mike after that first period of action what do you expect to see in the second period or what is coach reid saying to his guys right now well when they are in their in the offensive zone they're not getting a ton of pressure causing a whole lot of turnovers and then obviously with those turnovers they would get a lot more time with possession there so i think just they're running around a little bit too much so they just got to calm down and then when they get the puck in the in the offensive zone so and they gotta just obviously calm down take control of the situation um they were doing that earlier in the game which was working out really well for them so um you know just not get intimidated by this longmeadow team and then um settle it down use the points and find the open man yeah i agree with you and as you said spartans came out strong and firing on all cylinders in the first five minutes i believe they had like five shots on goal in the first five minutes it was a pretty good flurry that rin tool had to handle and from then on it was all along meadow after that first goal so spartans got to find a way to rebound and get back in this game cut the lead in half i would also like to see in the defensive zone now i would like to see a little bit better of a breakout seems like spartans are getting the puck out fairly consistently but it always just seems like to be a little flurry just barely across the blue line if they could set up a good breakout catch the guy on the wing and then have him touch it to the center or something like that and then establish a good forecheck from the defensive zone i think that would be really key oh here we go the second period about set to get underway and it's go back and higgins higgins over to mchugh he spins it over to mcgee mcgear putting on the brakes good for check from teddy kun there and he tries to work it out unfortunately la flesh not quite there cology around his own goal trying to break it out he sends it over to the flesh where flesh can't get it over to kun the other way higgins and now haynes spartans potential three on two developing luke haynes will enter the zone makes a nice little move there retaining possession cune in front oh don't know how that one didn't find its way back in the net great job there by haynes just keeping the wheels moving the entire time that was very good stuff there that's what the spartans have to do just continuously move their feet and apply pressure definitely another probably the best chance the spartans have had all day yeah i mean even this icing too just putting pressure on their defenseman i mean he just iced it down down the rank there was really no one that that defenseman had in the vicinity of where that puck was going so you know just causing people to get a little nervous with the puck can always result in something good for the spartans [Music] sherwood will take the draw opposite of the second lancer scorer baker [Music] this guy has had a phenomenal i never record he came we came prepared he came with everything in the last game of the season yeah definitely going to miss i got to find out his name i know he's got a phenomenal voice he really does i wish you would use it more doesn't announce the goal i think the microphone or the aux can work i don't think the two at the same time so i think that's what the because he has to like switch chords so i think that might be why he's not been announcing the goals and penalties and stuff like we've seen in years past something i think changed and now nero loose puck bats at it and scruming the boards baker trying to clear the zone now croto over to the speedy guidry guidry's thing deflects up and off the ceiling great play by garvey hannah there on defense oh brian that was o'brien i was gonna say i was confused as to why my apologies kyle garvey hannah will be out the remainder of the season he missed the aguam game and he will now miss this game due to contact tracing incidences and for the safety of his own team taking a leave of absence which i think is a wise move but miss him on the penalty kill absolutely yeah little soccer play made there by uh leary this first line here that the dolbeck line has done a great job of working as a unit it seems like they're supporting each other no matter where they are on the ice a shot and a save sure would on the pad o'brien cune trying to get there leary sends it off to referees skates now loose puck in front french trying to make something occur now haynes he's got someone he had cune going across ice potential breakaway would have been there but cuen out of gas and he lays a big hit on leary now in front nero shot way wide hero with a nice little move there to dance by lancer trying to find someone in front lancer's doing a great job of keeping everybody out of the slot and now breakaway developing that'll be another higgins and he doesn't get it on net and that one rings off the pipe now out to the point mchugh able to keep the zone and send it back on in nero goes through his skates now the flesh over to christopher john keloji who lays a big hit in the end boards now nero poking it trying to win the race against croto can't get it to fisher but nevertheless a good chance for east long meadow now here's something i haven't seen coach reid having a seat that's interesting how about that and cology shot his last high school hockey game hopefully he can get one kane's wraparound won't go reed not a fan of the wraparound at all if you ask him no although luke haynes does have two goals on the wraparound that that will not change his mind no it will not no shots are 10 8 in favor of long meadow only difference is lon meadows rin tool has been perfect in net whereas sherwood has cracked twice which might even argue weren't even his fault tough goals he doesn't let in too many easy ones no i definitely wouldn't say that either of those were his fault mcgear over to higgins back to de cosmo go back trying to chop it away caught in the skates of garvey dough back into the neutral zone hello kerry leary shields him away from the middle of the ice and puck shoots right back to the cosmo a little hit from arnold there o'brien and the corner board staples higgins loose puck in front spartans get bailed out and narrow will just flip it right in on rin tool that's a good change there now guidry he makes a deep move on o'brien tries to go top what a move by i mean i'll just go to show you how good he is and how careful we have to be of him leary sending it down to guidry baker guidry again out to the point leary larry's past shot not nothing doing there baker staying with it he gets himself into the middle and luckily he couldn't retain possession because he had the whole back door wide open o'brien his partner's got to get nice here or something like that just to regroup here under nine minutes to go loose puck in front shots 12-9 in favor of the lancers [Music] what i will say to evan in this period it seems like the lancers haven't really although they are in the in their offensive zone our defensive zone a lot more it doesn't seem like they're as dominant as they had been in the first period yeah i will say the spartans are keeping the shot totals relatively close just a three three shot margin they're doing a good job of making sure that someone's on the player with the puck every time and not letting them get too close to the net keenan the flesh pokes it away higgins can't hang on to that one and it comes all the way back down to rintoul who will paddle it over to croto eight minutes to go in the second croto mchugh tapping it to gabe higgins go back back to nero nero shot off the glass lancers will be forced to clear one out higgins will four check calogy and now loose puck in front luckily no opportunity there negated by the spartan back check with nero can't get it out of the zone fisher now free puck mcu and that one goes back into the wall sherwood out to the point and maderos now trying to spin away from the row maderos gets it back free puck fisher just trying to get it out of the zone he's unable to six and a half to go a lot of longmeadow zone time that offsides is huge for the spartans there yeah they're able to get a stoppage on a long meadow air i would like to see shorter shifts from the spartans obviously running two lines is really tough so obviously shorter shifts conserves a lot more energy higgins wins the draw now cune over to haynes kuhn lancers trying to start a rush of their own the other way it's higgins stick handling pass duo back how about these moves from simon higgins walks in shot save that would have been a highlight reel goal that was pretty some nifty stick work from simon higgins and now luke haynes a breakaway developing great lancer back check though a shot comes in on rintool and pretty much easily steered aside mcgear able to recover and negate much of a breakaway shot comes in by o'brien off a lancer puck is free haynes out of gas now higgins in the middle of the ice arnold with a hit there and dobeck can't hit the glass and we'll get a face off with 506 to go yeah you know dev with these two guys um out there gertie and um and um sorry what's the name of that adrian which number anyways i totally forgot any uh seems like the spartans or sorry the the lancers are having a lot of good opportunities by just dangling around our defenseman rather than going for the puck or do you have to really focus on taking the body and just hitting him right in the chest and kind of taking away his ability to just dangle around people some great insight there shock comes in on sherwood from the kylian and another pop comes up and out of play higgins higgins how could i forget again it's like sean higgins we do miss sean higgins 4 39 to go in the second the score has not changed since the first break knock on wood but also not knock on wood if the spartans are looking to score and shot i think that one off the mask of sherwood i would assume that hurts no it can't feel great like guidry finding mcq with a lot of room he buries it luke mchugh with all the time in the world and he just picks top or right on colin sherwood yeah that was a similar situation to what we were talking about on their power play the spartans really have to be careful of people back door they were struggling with that earlier in some of their earlier games not picking up guys there so hopefully they're more more aware of that now after they were able to score on one of those and apologies to the lancers i missed the goaltender change dimitri beach now in net connor rintul taking a seat i'm sure that's just because he's trying to get some minutes last game of the year and longmeadows had their way with the spartans all season so dimitri beach in net see how he fares if he can play up to rin tools level now kuhn trying to drop it back down to dobeck gobek away with it trying to dance in loose puck is batted into the neutral zone arnold trying to find teddy kun nomaderos o'brien trying to lay a hit on higgins kun sends one in [Music] puck skips away and now haynes trying to work it back to dobeck and o'brien lays another hit on higgins but maybe a defensive breakdown in the process and now walking in luckily the pass out of the reach of keenan now gabe higgins in the zone for the lancers trying to work away from o'brien teddy swings it into the neutral zone haynes can't get it back to dolby nero out of the bench and he gets run into now fisher over to kaloji two and a half to go in the second lancers walking in i also don't have a number five on my roster so apologies to him loose puck in front i think sherwood came up big there but you gotta wonder how that one didn't find its way in lancers up to 18 shots [Music] the flush can't get the poke check to work out nero will flip it in vern icing spartans oh no ice [Music] minute 47 to go spartans trill by one two three goals calogy the flesh now dobeck is going to have a power play coming up here and teddy q and i believe he had another post post have not been his friend another one comes in off the post how are they saying that's a touch-up yeah i don't know i wouldn't have called that but maybe they saw something we didn't now deb you said that the power play was very good last game though it was fantastic in the last two contests with westfield and aguam as de cosmo will go to the box for hooking dolbeck wins the draw with higgins cology over to arnold arnold kuhn now go back can't get it to arnold lancers on the shorthand caloji able to come back and lay a hit just a great play by cj there [Music] cuen over to haynes haynes shot on goal save rental or beach rather and beach comes up again with a glove save spartans get a few chances there under a minute to go in the period will take the draw stay tuned for our second intermission report mike and i will break down what we've seen in the first two periods of action here at olympia eye center in the season finale guidry shot deflects up and out of play you know letting the the lancers have offensive time is kind of unacceptable on the power play we have one extra guy out there which means we can always have two people on the puck the lancers really should never be able to establish any sort of momentum in our offensive zone here so arnold can't work it to do back comes in on beach and beach will cover 25 seconds and change to go more than enough time to have something big happen here for this party and 58 seconds on the decosmo penalty lancers win the draw and puck is cleared away arnold's shielding guidry away but guidry wins and takes arnold's stick away with him and he'll just hold out the clock trying to kill some more time as we have three seconds to go two and one and that'll do it for the second period of action spartans trail by three goals one goal for the lancers in the second period 32 seconds left on the spartan power play when we come back mike second period what'd you think as opposed to the first period so just as with the first they do have spurts of time where they're dominating in play and they have a ton of momentum but then there are other times where it seems like they're a little bit lackadaisical either in the offensive or the defensive zone now i that could definitely be just to the point that they are running two lines and people are tired um so using this intermission here to regain any sort of energy is going to be key um but yeah i don't know i mean the spartans obviously have a lot of chances so if they can put something together for an extended period of time in the in the third period three goals is nothing but the way that they're that they've been able to play during spurts of these spurts of this game well 15 more minutes to go in the spartan season that will cap off the 2021 year we are excited for a third period but yeah spartans just got to find a way i mean they have 13 shots as opposed to the lancer 18 so you know they haven't been having too bad of a production night on offense but you know they just got to find ways to get in the back of the net they've hit a few posts and that's just what's going to happen but 15 more minutes left for the captain cj calogy mike why don't you talk about cj being a former teammate with him he made second team all western mass last season coach reed had some positive praise for him saying he was he should be in the eddie shore uh defenseman of the year western mass whatever award voting nothing but parades for cj calogy as he's got 15 more minutes in his high school career yeah i mean absolutely cj is obviously one of the best players in western masses here so um it's great to see him become such a great leader that he has been on this team i mean just watching this game he really makes no mistakes at all really so um you know he's a great teammate and makes people bet makes people around him a lot better so you know i love that he was able to take the team under his wing this year yep cj calogy committed to umass as a walk-on for football he's going to be the kicker so i'm looking forward to going to school then for another three four five years we'll see wherever the wind blows me but anyway here we go third period of action coming up you're watching spartans hockey live on elk stay tuned you [Music] 15 minutes to go in cj calogy's spartan career you're watching spartan hockey live on lcat devin dobeck alongside mike moynihan spartans trail three to nothing another goalie change for the lancers not on my roster because he's also number one and we already saw number one dimitri beach so i don't know it's a different jersey though it's an older jersey fires one in and i don't know what should we call the goalie mike tendy steve steve steve all right i like that and arnold turns it over higgins sends one in front shot in a save sherwood and arnold takes down higgins don't know how there wasn't a penalty there now higgins away with the puck trying to find a cosmo the senior and zone is freed and now dobeck chipping it up to kun mchugh behind his own goal and gobek sends it back in now loose puck cology with space and time and a save by steve good positioning there by steve that is awesome that is saved by steve cloju wants one bad man yeah i would also like him to get one that would i would i might cry i'm not kidding i would probably cry that would just be so perfect in the third period of his last game of his high school career his first of the season that would be pretty incredible you would cry huh i i would get i would well up i'll tell you that because that would just be incredible but anyways very similar guidry over to croto now in a row trying to get it to fisher la flesh keeping the zone for the spartans fisher turning it back in you know dancing away is guidry [Music] kylan in front guidry on the forehand looking loose puck sherwood makes a save 12 48 to go in the third period here at olympia eye center go back opposite french mcgear gobek and mcgear get tangled up in the boards o'brien trying to get over to haines go back longmeadow will have to recuperate to avoid the offside french over to mchugh now mcgear over to higgins mcgear again haynes will intercept puck is free now on the cue touching it by arnold two on one for the lancers mchugh it gets deflected on sherwood and he's forced to make another save on a rebound great pass by teddy higgins o'brien [Music] now calogy sending one in on steve who steers it into the sideboard would giving it back to nero in front for fisher unfortunately fisher not quite in the same area that the puck was spartan's gotta have more support on the puck two guys there and now in a battle are low and caloji caloji will win and carry by is a speed demon he's got long strides and look at him he's he knows this is it he's he's leaving this all on the ice he doesn't care what the score is there's a hit from kaloji go back unable to stay on his feet and kewn will send it back in to steve steve will put his hand over it and we'll get a whistle apologies if you're just joining us to the longmeadow goaltender he is not on my miaa roster the only goalies i have listed are rental and beach so apologies to steve and his family and cue not will be handled easily by steve what are the chances that his name is really steve and we just would be that was pretty impressive i would be that would be something that would make me smile and now arnold a little leg check and i believe there's a pad loose that's not something you see every day no i couldn't tell you what type of pad that is awkward collision [Music] travis likes those types of hits so not surprising that he went for that he does like the open ice neutral zone hit 9 51 to go puck comes back to the long meadow end spartans down three goals tell you cj does not want to come off the ice no he's gonna be a tired individual after the end of the game and guidry is gonna be a fast break mckaylan coming in on sherwood backhander and sherwood snares it away we'll get a whistle 22 shots for the lancers as opposed to 15 for the [Music] spartans the flesh trying to get it back to christopher john now sherwood another christopher mcgear breaking it out to guidry i would be horrified to know what would happen as we get a shot from baker if guidry was a forward i would be horrified to know how how many points he would have i believe he was on us on the same line as um jack baron and spencer robbins if anyone listening remembers those two individuals frightening to play against so that's a crazy good line i'm not quite sure what happened here devon did you see haynes flow to his feet and i think mcgear is going to go for interference spartan power play will go back to work with just under nine minutes in the final period of play based off one by east long meadow arnold sending it down dobeck over to kuhn arnold again arnold will load up and get one on steve who makes a save that was a blast though yeah i would like to see a little bit more of passing rather than shots from the point with no one in front really you know although that was a good shot nothing really will ever come of that so either spartans have to get a lot of people in front for a shot from the point or just continue passing and trying to find the open guy down low now clojie fans at that one stays with it haynes back down in front now in front again a lot of in fronts there closing in on eight minutes to go and 75 seconds on the mcgear penalty for interference he'll hold and go back to cune teddy kun with some speed his shot is deflected and off the wall lancers are able to clear alan nero entering the zone makes a do meet deke move kuloji in front nobody there fisher tapping it back to arnold back down to fisher fischer goes through his legs and moderos we'll get it out of there over nero's head mcgear set to get out of the box and just another five seconds under seven minutes to play in this one and now luke haynes trying to win the race and steve bats it away i believe the spartans got away with too many men on the ice there may be right now medeiros haynes seems to be pretty gassed out there now o'brien over to kune kun can't work it to dobeck under six minutes to play still three nothing long meadow go back trying to win the race now croto dumps it in no icing mchugh arnold runs into i forget 21 to cosmo now with flesh higgins intercepts and blows a tire in the process gets back to his feet puts one in front just out of the reach of de cosmo a kylian or rather croto sends it in higgins trying to leave the pressure alleviate rather and arnold throws a hit arguably interference that wasn't interference i don't know what arnold's doing out the cosmo going at it here we go um arnold and decosmo will have matching miners we'll still play five on five but yeah arnold threw a few hits on the cosmo de cosmo didn't like it two got tangled up and here we are we'll stick to five on five shots 22-16 in favor of the lancers loose puck the gear in the neutral zone sends it back in and chris sherwood with a little hit there we saw that chris and now calogia off his skate i think cj's playing forward right now oh yeah they're trying to get him one and chris sherwood wang another hit how about this physical play from chris sherwood i like it a lot devin i'm loving it very unsuspecting but he's got some girth to him and some places you know so loose puck in front now baker there's guy wide open in front spartans really gotta pick them up i know i say that a lot but and guidry dropping it back down to baker in front guidry now kaloshi this is fantastic this is like zadino he fires one on steve who makes a save [Music] 336 to go and you know this game could be close i spartan said that the shot totals are not much different mike not at all nope don't spend a lot of time on the offensive zone yeah touching it to o'brien his shot is blocked the flash trying to beat french to the puck shot is fanned at now o'brien haynes trying to move past proto he's taken down i just got like a burst of heat i don't know where that came from i would like to experience that and now teddy trying to get it over to haynes blue kane's potential breakaway book great back check by croto loose puck in front and we get our friend cj calogy back out there higgins walking in gets it over to french french shot wide and dobak laying a little hit there the flesh goes down hard with french now cology gets his pocket picked by higgins and dobak goes into the boards hard with higgins the play there by sherwood just hitting it so it's not nice next whistle we will see the cosmo and arnold out of the box two minutes to play deidre over to mchugh mchugh trying to find guidry again and now higgins with a move he gets was shot away at sherwood and sherwood will cover we'll keep an eye out on arnold and decosmo out there for this shift i would be shocked if that was the end of their course i think it will be i think it will be i don't know arnold seemed to back off and the cosmos seemed to be the one with a little fire so i think if anyone were to initiate it it would be the cosmo under a minute and a half to go now guidry walks in big blockers wow how about that he's got 22 saves on the afternoon [Music] throwback wins it back to o'brien looking to get it to cune kyung touches it to doveck dobeck turns it over well actually arnold there not necessarily a turnover now dobak trying to fly in with the cosmo the cosmo buries gobek and he goes down hard i don't know how that's not a penalty they were just both going in hard dobeck visibly in some pain if you're to cosmo you should probably go over there see what's going on you know i did not see what happened there devin did you they were both going in very fast and dolek was in front of de cosmo and they couldn't put on the brakes and the cosmo hit dobeck in a very awkward place and his head went head first into the boards so it was a scary situation and going through concussion protocol [Applause] [Music] 62 seconds ago cj's taking the phase off that's fantastic that was fantastic believe it or not he didn't win he did not that's okay he's still having a great time spawns have held the lancers scoreless this period something to note [Applause] now to the point mccue guidry he's thrown in 30 seconds remaining with flesh and here we go two on one cology and kyung ji walks in this is the net i thought there was a lot of room on steve's left shoulder wow that would have been phenomenal i'm sure steve had an idea that there was no chance that cj was passing that so maybe made that a little bit easier for steve but still fun to watch [Applause] it's tied up guidry away with it he misses the net i think and then on the rebound higgins buries one four nothing long meadow and i believe this is longmeadow's last game and if that is the case then we will have to say goodbye to cole guidry richard joseph michael french simon higgins who just scored luke mcq christian hamlet and ted decosmo all will be playing their final game in the black and white i think unless there's another game [Applause] eq trying to scale the clock one more hit from cology and that'll do it lancers come away with a four-nothing victory at olympia ice center over the spartans spartans finish this season with a loss against one of their rivals but you know what mike uh all around spartan season you know it was a fun one to watch a young group that we had here and you know it is what it is they're gonna only get better next year as we said they're losing cj calogy and john kuhn but cj of course huge part of the defense what do you think about the spartans for next season mike yeah we were talking to coach reed earlier um he said that you know although we are losing cj colonel who's a huge piece of this team uh we are getting a couple new freshmen coming up um you know the the core of this team is getting a lot or they're getting older obviously and um you know don't forget that they came here as as eighth graders too so you know this is their fourth season planning the spartan uniform hopefully they can take advantage of that and you know i have a lot of confidence in this team although they were young this year they're only going to get better and they're only going to get older stronger faster so i have a lot of confidence for this team in the future and spartans and lancers will shake hands cology will say take his final skate off of rank one here at olympia ice center i'm looking forward to next season seeing what spartans do absolutely but only time will tell spartans final here four nothing um not sure if this will be my last game calling here at olympic center but if it is thank you to all the viewers at home thank you for all the positive support i really appreciate everything you've done helping me on my career path i'm excited to announce i'll be working with the valley blue sox this summer doing play-by-play and it's all thanks to the positive support and drive that you guys have given me so thank you to all the viewers at home very excited and that will wrap this one up mike any final thoughts or words thank you all thanks for having us um well once again the final four or nothing on behalf of all of us jamie on the camera mike moynihan and myself devin dobeck the voice of the spartans we'll see you next time

and you are all set okay i'll call to order this meeting of the pelin school committee at 401 we'll start with roll call attendance ron ron menino here sarah best i did hear that but your volume maybe is really low for me i'm not sure if it was i don't know if you like issues um but i did that counts as being present uh margaret uh stance or present brenda brenda present and hall present all right um all right next up is approving the minutes uh we actually do have january 14th minutes which i purposely decided to wait until our next longer meeting so we'll hold off on that for now i did not receive any public comment so we can get straight into new and continuing business school choice hearing um so that well so yeah my can you t i i get it wrong i tried last year to explain it and you just had to take over so i'm just going to let you start all good so school choice hearing is an opportunity for members of the public to weigh in on what their feelings are on school choice given that this agenda was posted and there was no public comments of it i'll just use the hearing to express my viewpoint which will come as a surprise to no one that i would recommend that pelham continue to be a school choice district and that we actively engage uh the broader community and maybe even spend a little bit of resources time energy and funds to try to get the word out both about that school choice seats are open and also about the vote that you took uh two weeks ago about um pushing forward with in person in the fall so that's going to be my recommendation given that there are no public comments i'd recommend that chair hall move to the next item on the agenda so you can discuss the recommendation okay great any questions or comments before we move on to school choice vote okay um all right well i also support continuing school choice i know we've had a lot of conversations on this committee um so i will take a motion to continue using a school choice program for the next school year so moved second all right moved by menino seconded by stancer any further discussion okay um we will start with a roll call vote uh run kenny i margaret miss dancer i brenda brenda i and hall i all right the motion passes unanimously yes mike go ahead not to extend this uh expedited meeting but i think what we'll do i think lee offered some feedback sasha put together a draft of a school choice flyer um i think lee uh sasha told me earlier you offered some feedback we'll get that finished this week we'll put in the gazette and the um bulletin so that people are aware of that and then i know that principal whitney jones or i'm going to say lee in this informal setting has gotten inquiries as has members of the committee who have been in touch individually so now that this vote has taken place we can try to get that flyer out in all sorts of ways including the pelham press and other things so that um pelham families and staff can share that widely on social media and other places i think that would be our communication plan but i'm open to any feedback uh about that okay great yeah sarah best can you hear me yeah okay um so i i don't know if the ski pro program is on or it's not ski anymore was it let's talk um so maybe we want to include that on there because that is a pretty fantastic program that not upon many other schools have so good to oh maybe not in on the flyer yeah yeah okay got it okay yeah we'll see what we can do i think the space limitations make it a challenge to include all the wonderful things but i know we have a bloated point list and maybe we could think about how to put um some indication that it's a well-rounded curriculum and that we you know are interested in students well-being or something along those lines perhaps but yeah um it's just not as it's not as uh you know we say the let's talk curriculum and then people say what's let's talk and right so we're trying to figure out how to how to message the school pelham is without making people wonder what we're talking about innovative social justice and equity curriculum can be the anti-racist curriculum since that's really like newer language that might resonate with some of our our local towns who don't have that kind of curriculum that's great that's a great idea thank you thanks for both of those um and i i mean i know this committee currently in the past has been very supportive of school choice obviously i mean i guess either lee or mike from your perspective do you need more from the committee other than a unanimous vote like is this enough to get you going i think it's all we need yep yeah all right any questions anything else okay i'm going for the record you guys know right like is that obvious okay but i'm doing it i will take a motion to adjourn tick-tock second no i didn't i didn't i i didn't make any i'll second that all right uh roll call vote run menino i nervous kenny i margaret dancer i brenda eye and holla this meeting is adjourned at 407.

good evening everyone my name is chris davidson i am the principal of the freshman academy here at danbury high school i'm joined by dr roy our deco director i don't know if you can see her or not but when she starts speaking you certainly will and mr salvatrini our athletic director um so what are we here for tonight first of all i want to talk about the freshman academy what is it why is it there how's it different from the rest of danbury high school and how's it different from from the middle school you may be used to i want to talk about registration what do you need to do to get the classes that you want for your 9th grade year i want to talk a little bit about the supports and extensions that are available to our students dr roy is going to talk about the danbury early college opportunity mr salvatrini is going to quickly talk about athletics i have a quick pto plug in there because they asked me and then we're going to talk about what's next in the process and then take some questions at the end throughout the presentation if you take your phone or any device that you may have and you scan that qr code it's on the corner of every one of our slides you can enter a question into our form and we'll answer those questions at the end as we go so the freshman academy what is it our freshman academy was put in place several years ago to help ease the transition from ninth grade or from eighth grade to ninth grade we found that our freshmen really struggled with the res the new responsibilities with the new freedoms that come along with high school so we put some supports in place to help them transition a little more effectively from eighth grade to 9th grade it's a teamed approach so we have eight teams of freshman academy teachers we offer college prep and honors courses in those in those teams our counselors are tied to a team similar to the way they are in middle school our teachers have common planning time with other members of their team and the freshman academy really allows us to to offer some additional supports only to freshmen that the other uh students in denver high school don't have access to um our new freshman academy started in the 1819 school year brand new building in the back of our d building it's actually a really really beautiful place to to be we have 26 new classrooms there six state-of-the-art science labs we have a gym down on the bottom floor with outstanding locker rooms probably the coolest thing literally and figuratively is is the air conditioning because it gets really really hot at danbury high school early in the school year and late in the school year so air-conditioned g-building is outstanding for everyone who gets to enjoy it rg building most ninth graders will spend three out of four of their core classes so maybe they'll have english math science in g building and social studies out out of g building so three quarters of their core classes will be spent in in the new building in one quarter core class outside of the new building so we try to make it equitable so everyone gets to experience that but uh we just didn't have enough room we have you know eight teams or four teachers doesn't equal 26.

goodbye see you tomorrow bye everyone thank you

you can all do the math a little too small so that's what it looks like you can see our science labs with the big science benches it looks a lot different now in covid times but that's what it looks like in a normal school year and i'm going to give this presentation um praying that we have a more normal school year next year so i'll show you all the pictures of what it's supposed to look like so absolutely outstanding views the best views in the in the entire school out the back of g building um we have a really really cool gym in the bottom that we use for wrestling and some other sports too and we can do some some small gatherings down there which are fun just just an awesome space that our freshmen really have enjoyed for the past couple years so credits probably the most important thing to understand going into danbury high school is our credit system so students earn one half credit per class per semester so for english class semester one you earn a half credit for english class semester two you are a half credit um if you pass that class with a 65 or better you earn credit so i want to say you earn credit just by going to the class but you have to actually earn the credit by scoring 65 or better and the way that works is for semester one uh quarter one and quarter two are averaged together and if that average equals 65 or better you get your half credit for that class semester two is the same way the big difference between high school and middle school is if you don't pass you uh you don't get credit and you you don't move on so in middle school if you're in math class in seventh grade and um you know it's tough for you and maybe maybe you don't pass the class you're probably going to be in eighth grade math next year but not at danbury high school if you fail algebra one you have to take algebra one again and if you fail algebra one a second time you'll have to take it a third time which is going to put you in some some real jeopardy of graduating on time so it's immensely important that you understand that these credits all add up to the 25 that we need in order to graduate now from freshman sophomore year you need six credits so when you accumulate six credits after your freshman year you're officially a sophomore so if you don't it doesn't necessarily mean that you know you're left behind without your class but in power school it's not going to show you as a 10th grader um you will need to to get back on track you know in order to accumulate enough credits to graduate in time not to end the world some students you know may have five and a half at the end there but but our goal is six so that you can be matriculated to sophomore year on time so i talked about those 25 credits and it's like a big jigsaw puzzle all those 25 credits have to add up in the right way to get to that 25.

all students at danbury high school must get four english credits so four full years of english english one two three and then english four or an ap class and we have ap lit and ap lang that could supplement or take place of english through your english four you need three and a half social studies credits those must include world studies modern world us history civics and you can put an ap class in there too you need one fine art credit could come from art music or theater arts but you have to earn one credit of fine art in order to graduate you have one elective credit that fits in that humanities could be any one of those humanities courses to satisfy that science technology engineering and math you need throughout your career to embryo you need to get nine stem credits four from math three from science including bio and chem and two stem elective credits i'll talk about the elective credits in a few minutes career and life skills you need a health credit you have to take health or you can't graduate danbury high school you have to take a full credit of pe so two half years of phys ed in order to graduate one career in life skills elective and you need a personal finance um credit as well world language one full year world language we recommend more than that um you can talk to your school counselor or your son or daughter school counselor to talk about different college opportunities but but most colleges like to usually three years of world language we only require one at temporary high school we have a mastery based diploma assessment don't worry too much about that that's embedded in your classes as you go through denver high school so don't think oh my god i never signed up for this mastery based diploma assessment it's embedded in there i promise you will show that you've uh you've shown mastery throughout the year throughout the years at danbury high and you have a student choice for 1.0 to equal that whole 25 that you need so i know that's kind of confusing and and giving all those different criteria make may make you a little scared but here's what you need to know um going into freshman year so you have some choices to make but not a whole ton of choices we have a fairly prescribed um course sequence especially for freshmen but what you do get to decide is whether you're going to take college prep or you're going to take honors level courses now one of the things that we make freshmen do is whatever they choose in english for that level college prep or honors they have to choose in social studies so if you take college prep english you have to take college prep social studies if you take honors english you have to take honor social studies now the same thing is true for math and science if you take honors math you have to take honor science college prep math college prep science you could do college prep and english and social studies and then you could do honors in math and science but in inside those boxes on the screen in the blue box you have to choose the same level for those and in the orange box you have to choose the same level for those i'll talk a little bit about college proponents what the difference is next but um freshmen may be required to take a reading or a math lab for additional supports depending on you know their background and their skills coming into high school we recommend that all freshmen take health and phys ed to kind of get that ball rolling get it out of the way early so you can start taking some more electives as you become an upperclassman and a limited selection of electives which you'll see on our next screen after this um but the big choice really is is college prep versus honors and people always ask what's the difference um college prep is going to prepare you to go to college you will learn all the content that you need to be successful when you go to college if you choose to go so we're preparing you to to be successful in college honors you're going to learn the same things you're going to cover the same content in all your classes but you're going to be asked to do a little more with that content we're going to ask you to to go a little deeper to do more work outside of class the honors level courses are more rigorous and require our students to to really take a little bit more of the ownership of their learning outside of the classroom so those are the two difference two differences between college prep and honors if you're stuck give your middle school counselor a call send us an email if you really want some our opinion and we can help you choose the best one now whatever you choose for college prep and honors right now you don't have to stay there for the entire year so when you come to danbury high and you say wow i totally should have taken should have taken an honors class because this college prep is too easy for me during the first two weeks of school the first 10 days of school you can make schedule changes and move those levels so it's not set in stone so do your best guess right now to decide what's most appropriate for your son or daughter or for you if you're you're an incoming freshman but but it's not set in stone you have you have some wiggle room when you get when you get here in full i could spend two hours just going over what's taught in all those classes but we don't have that much time so if you're curious about what's happening in in english one or you want to know what's going on in um in world studies check out those those other tables that the department heads are doing and they can answer those specific questions and if you you know you don't have time to go there send them an email or send me an email and we can answer those specific questions as we as we go along so the electives so outside of those core classes we offer opportunities for students to take elective classes in rotc we have several art classes they can take these are only available to freshmen there's more when they become sophomores juniors and seniors but this is the freshman elective schedule business courses are out there family consumer science we have a pretty wide selection of music courses you can take full and half year elective choices we have electives in science outside of traditional biology technology education we have some some theater arts classes and our different world languages so what might that look like when you're a freshman so you may request all your classes and you get your schedule in powerschool in august and it looks something like this so it says 1a college prep english 1b world studies 2a you've got bio 2b you have health and pe split between semester 1 and semester 2.

you have your algebra 2 honors 3a you say i take spanish 2 because you're you're pretty good in spanish you're pretty fluent so you went with spanish 2. and during that fourth block you have ap computer science principles so you may say mr davidson what is going on with all these ones twos threes and that one little weird four on the bottom so the way things work at danbury high we do not have a straight a b schedule i wish we did but unfortunately we do not blocks one two and three meet every other day so one a two a three a is going to meet say on monday and one b two b three b is going to meet on tuesday the next day now that fourth block class it's shorter but it meets every day so on an a day you're going to go to 1 a 2 a 3 a and 4 a b on a b day 1 b 2 b 3 b and 4 a b so it's a shortened class it's half the amount of time as a normal block class but it meets every single day so for you people that like to see a nice little chart of what your week would look like those are those same classes in a sample freshman schedule here a days b days you'll see it repeats alternating as we go 8 a b day 8 a b day a day and you'll see that fourth block is is half the time of all the other blocks and there's this weird little thing called flex in the middle i have a slide specifically about flex but flex is a pretty cool thing that we have that we put in place to help our students be more successful than they've already been or to really expand themselves outside of their comfort zone further than they've done in the past so flex is dedicated time we embed it in the middle of the day and on monday every student goes to their mentor flex and they design what they're going to do for the rest of the week and that schedule is individualized so if i have a test coming up on thursday i may schedule to go see the teacher who that you know who's giving the test on wednesday so i feel prepared i have a little extra study session if i miss class on monday or i miss class on last friday i'm going to schedule tuesday to go see a teacher that maybe i missed an assignment in so you have the opportunity as a freshman in flex to schedule your week during that flex time to meet your needs could be interventions could be things that you need help with right things that you didn't feel comfortable about things that you just need a little extra support it may be interventions we have a whole lot of interventions that we embed into flex for for people that maybe they just don't need support that week or maybe they don't need support on thursday so they're going to do an enrichment activity we've done tire change tuesdays where you can go out to the auto shop and learn how to change a tire we've done yoga where we go down and miss lewis runs yoga classes i do a sid exhale um lunch bunch where students are are involved in the decision making through the sodexo company for our school lunch so they get to taste test a whole bunch of different things from different products from different representatives and decide what really works for for our cafeteria so we have a whole bunch of different things that that really fit the needs of our students be it enrichment or interventions everyone has flex so if your freshman tells you i don't have flex they're not telling you the truth everyone has flex every day so remember that parents don't let them pull it over on you because it's not true so how do we choose all these classes that's really the next step in in this battle the first thing you should probably do is check out our course of study guide it's linked right from our from our website we have english spanish and portuguese versions take a look at those courses it'll tell you a little bit about each one maybe what's in there what's available what's the progression in different departments to get an idea as to what you want to want to take as a freshman and beyond registration is super simple if you've been in danbury public schools before you have a powerschool account you log into your powerschool account and just like you've probably done for the past three years you click on class registration inside of class registration we allow you to request classes so you can request an english class i want college prep english one so i click on the little pencil and i choose college prep english one and do the same thing for social studies i do the same thing for math and science make sure because we are semester high school that you're choosing semester one and semester two otherwise it's a lot of cleanup for our counselors and for myself so that makes my life a lot easier if you make sure you check off semester one and semester two click ok for all your core classes you do the same thing for your elective classes but you don't have to choose all of them so you don't have to choose a full year and a half year art rotc business but you can if you want to so whatever you want in your schedule you can make a request for those classes to be built into your schedule when we do it when we do build those scheduling notes and this is really important requests don't equal registrations so if i request american sign language because i really want to take that for for my world language it doesn't mean i'm going to get that it means that i requested it but it doesn't mean that you're going to end up there there's a good chance you will but it's not 100 you know i request it and i'm going to get it so the way it works is we take all those requests and we figure out what courses all of our teachers need to teach we build the schedule and then we load students in there so if there's more requests or if a cert request doesn't fit into your schedule it doesn't fit into your schedule when you won't see it there but we do a decent job of getting everyone's requests um into those schedules if you're confused like i said before and you want some some some help from your school counselor ask them they're usually pretty in tune with with the requirements for college prep and for honors and they can give you you know a good scenario as to what they think you should do again it's your decision we don't force students to take honors or college prep it's a school of choice and if you want to take college prep or honors you sign up for it so you can get people's opinions but but it's your choice in the end of the day if your student receives special education services um still submit your requests but just know when you have your transitional ppt um you'll you'll kind of take a look at those requests and make sure it works out with your iep so um so go ahead and submit what you want it'll help that transition ppt run a little better or maybe at least get an idea as to what you want to take registration closes 319 so we don't have forever but we have a few weeks i imagine most of them get done in the first two excuse me what's available um when students struggle and students do struggle that transition to high school is not always easy we have a lot of supports in place that make our freshman academy kind of that intermediary ground between middle school and high school we have uh intensive reading and math intervention programs to support our students to help build those skills so that they can um build those skills and be ready for sophomore year in reading and math i spoke about flex time we have directed study hall so maybe a regular study hall doesn't work out for you i run directed study halls so probably the last place you want to end up but it's the right place for some kids they need that structure of up with my study also we do that we run after school tutoring program usually two days a week and outside from this year we do provide transportation home so you know you can you can take the bus to an elementary school nearest your house two days a week we run a twilight program so if a freshman were to fail a first semester course and i already spoke about how important it is to matriculate on time and earn all those credits that you can but for some reason it doesn't happen we offer an opportunity for the right situation where a student can retake the first semester course after school during the second semester so while they're taking the second semester in english one they're repeating the first semester so that they can get those six credits and matriculate on time and again we provide transportation for that we have a credit recovery program which is more self-paced it's not taught in a blended style like our twilight program um it's more computerized and students move along at their own pace and that's available in the future and we have a pretty good srbi intervention process to to look at what interventions we can put in place to help students in an individualized capacity as we go so what if i don't need any supports what if i'm doing a great job and i kind of i'm cruising through freshman year well then challenge yourself i always i always challenge our students when i go down and talk to them in middle school i say be more than just a student don't just come here and and learn come here and give back to to the danbury high community be involved in more than just classes and you can do that by taking one of our 23 advanced placement courses 19 of our kids take ap classes um 52 of our minority students which is which is outstanding and 32 percent of those kids who receive free reduced lunch but 19 of our kids take a shot at an ap class and many of them take several the best thing about ap courses aside from exposing students to that that rigorous college type curriculum is if you pass with three four or five you can take that score and you can earn credit in college when you do go there so that's a really good opportunity to save mom and dad some money and also get a head start on college so you can get some of those introductory courses out of the way flex like i said extensions and enrichment opportunities outside of interventions dr roy in a couple seconds going to talk about the early college opportunity we have a whole bunch of honor societies so if you're really interested in art we have the largest art on our society in the state so great opportunity to be with like-minded students that share the same passion as you and really allow you to stretch your stretch yourself accelerated summer courses if you wanted to take geometry over the summers to get it out of the way so you can jump into a higher math class certainly an opportunity over the summer we have a concave upward bound program that we can get some information on a whole lot of athletics that mr savastrini will talk about i think there's just about an activity for everyone at danbury high school between athletics clubs and classes there's something for everyone here it's just going out there and finding it and kind of taking the bulls by the horn taking the bull by the horns um again i challenge kids to be more than just a student i want them to to be kind of ingrained in the danbury high community so that's my challenge to them dr roy a little bit about the deco program good evening everyone uh the danbury early college opportunity is a partnership with naugatuck valley community college and oak branch which is a local industry they do capital management here in danbury and it is a program where students are able to work on a degree in computer science at naugatuck valley community college an associate degree while they're here at the high school so students are duly enrolled beginning their sophomore year at the college and at the high school the backbone of this um program really is to get students ready for the workplace so we have a series of classes called workplace learning where students learn the professional skills needed to be successful in any job that they go to they'll also begin their sophomore year with an intro to computers course at the college to say hey i can do some college level work this is offered to the students at no charge so this opportunity is very unique there are only four programs like this in the state and so i encourage students who would like to learn more about it to apply for our lottery the lottery is posted on the danbury high school website it did open today it is also posted on the danbury early college opportunity website so if you go to the danbury high school homepage scroll down you'll see some blue buttons one of them says deco if you click on that that will open up our website and give you lots of information we are also on um twitter and we are on um instagram and facebook so we have lots of information out there for you but basically the big difference for freshmen is that they would have one of their electives be a workplace learning course and so that would take up one full elective our freshmen also get the opportunity in the past we've been able to pre-covet have students come into the building early and kind of get to do some getting to know you and team building activities we do scavenger hunts we travel around the building get to see the building one of the benefits of the deco program is that i do work with the students throughout their time at the high school so i do work with 9th through 12th graders and then i also keep in touch with many of those who go on to college as well one other benefit of the program is that we do have industry mentors along the way who provide students with you know relevant guidance and advice as they enter their first jobs i think that's about it so for more information you can check out our website again that's my phone number at school welcome to call me if you'd like to speak personally or you can email me anytime thank you thank you dr appreciate it next mr salvation is going to talk a little bit about athletics what you need to do to be ready to hit the ground running or hit the field running whatever it may be with athletics in the fall thank you mr davidson um we we have a we have a very big program and mr davidson mentioned a couple times about adjusting to high school as your freshman academy freshman sports for us is a lot it kind of mirrors that a little bit getting our young people to make the transition from middle school activities youth sports and come into the high school and develop a plan for themselves as athletes at danbury high school generally we look at freshman sports as a opportunity for young people to learn about the high school a lot of kids involved especially freshman year we have somewhere in a normal year we would have upwards of three to 350 to 400 freshmen in in the first year just to get involved with with athletics the tenor of our program is about responsibility this is at the freshman level we we set the foundation for the for their four years responsibility we have character and themselves respecting one another their coaches and their teachers and balancing athletics with academics uh well first first time we'll say publicly to this group uh you need to compete in the classroom before you compete in the athletic field you need to handle yourself as a solid young citizen in a school in the hallways before you compete as a danbury high school athlete so we look to mirror both programs together now the goal of our program is to conduct a wholesome and worthwhile activity which consistent to the uh basic philosophy of denbury public schools that's a that's our goal uh participation in athletics at danbury is a is a privilege it's not a right so it carries the expectation that a student will behave in a responsible manner anytime they wear the the orange and blue in 2000 2021 again this is a little bit of an odd year for us as we're working through the covid but uh normally we will field 62 teams in 25 different sports we have 29 varsity 22 jv 11 freshman teams so for freshmen out there uh this fall we have cheerleading cross-country field hockey football soccer swimming and volleyball plenty of things to choose from plenty to choose from uh parents which most important is physical exams uh it's a requirement denbury public schools that a physical exam is updated in order to participate so the exam must encompass the entire athletic season so as an example if freshman sports begins on september 1 and ends on november 1 the athletic physical must encompass that time or the student athlete will not be eligible to participate so it's important that you start thinking about getting a physical because when we get to the summer time it gets awful tough uh to get physical scheduled on time uh next up we have um we talk a little bit about the family id family idea is where we uh do all our uh permission forms it's all online and parents can go in and register their child for a sport uh family id for the fall will open up on june 1.

so you can't you can't register before that but june 1 through the three weeks in june there while we're in school uh you can register we'll be there to answer questions well all our coaches available to answer questions for you we'll do that even now but for as far as registering for a sport it would be june 1 uh for fall for a fall sport if you use you should use get your familiar with the website you go to the danbury high school website there's an athletic link there and you have everything there in front of you you've got eligibility coaches the forms you need uh general information the hall of fame handbook mission statement everything is there also there's the family id and it's pretty as we only have three or four items listed on on this on my little uh speech here tonight uh but our program is you're you're huge and we really focus in on the medical eligibility right now family id and communication um i will be happy to answer questions i can be contacted by email phone uh everything's up on the website uh my phone number my secretary's phone number we have two full-time trainers that manage the injuries for our athletes so we have a great base program for all the incoming freshmen who would like to get involved compete be good people build character and and develop a program so we can beat richfield every every year in every sport okay so um i wish you good luck if you have any questions please certainly give us a call mr davidson appreciate it we do have some outstanding athletics programs here at danbury high um but like mr salvestrini said you have to get it done in the classroom before you can get it done on the athletic field so focusing on your academics first is something we always preach to our freshmen and sometimes you know they learn a little too late when they come out and that average is just a little below what it needs to be and they can't participate so i don't want that to happen to anybody because it's sad so deborah iptl asked me to to give a little plug for them um they're a outstanding organization that does things to to support us in any way that they can so if that's something you're interested in if you were involved in pto in an elementary school in middle school and you want to reach out to them feel free i'm sure they'd love any support you can give them i know they they have the amazon smile thing so if you frequently shop on amazon a little bit can get kicked back to them through amazon smile stop and shop rewards and they're also constantly selling masks and and magnets so if you contact the pto you can you can take advantage of any of those opportunities so our registration schedule more like check mark when we we spent three wednesdays this month going and speaking to the middle school students to allow them to ask questions i give them a similar presentation but not exactly the same so that they can get a get a feel for what high school is going to be like tonight we had opportunity for parents to join along to online registration opens tonight it's really important to know in a couple weeks we'll do a private school so our non-public schools private parochial schools will get a similar info share they can't go into powerschool and register so we have to do something a little different for them in order to get their course requests when the window closes on 3 19 so when everyone's requested their classes we send them back to our students our counselors take a look at them and we make sure that it's exactly what students wanted to request when we hit june and school's over that's when we figure out what classes we need what every teacher is going to teach we set the caps we build the schedule and then in july we load the students in so once the students all go in there and schedules are finalized we open up power schools so students can see their schedules so you may say why does it take till july i promise you it takes till july there's a whole lot of moving parts with 3 200 kids to fit into all these different sections that teachers teach and we have to make sure it fits in the building and and throughout the process so it's a lot of work so be patient you will get your schedule i promise and what we typically do is we invite incoming freshmen in uh the week before school opens and like i said before i'm giving this presentation thinking that things are going to be a little more back to normal so they may not be the same size tours we typically allow but but i want to do tours because i think it's important for freshmen to get in here and see what the building's like so the first day is not completely overwhelming for them so they say you know what i do remember this hallway and i may not know where my english class is but i know it's somewhere down here and it makes it a little bit easier so that's something we're hopefully going to be able to do so if you have individual questions you want to contact any of the three of us um here's our contact information i'll leave that up now if i wasn't clear before on how to how to ask questions because we have we have a decent amount of questions but um your children asked way more questions than you guys did there was hundreds and hundreds of questions asked in the middle schools and you guys aren't quite there yet so if you take your camera any camera and you scan it over that qr code in the bottom right you'll get the form where you can ask questions so if i didn't if i wasn't clear on that i'm sorry it took me a while to learn how to use those silly qr codes too so questions we do have that came in um my child is attending the fall semester how many students are in a class we build our classes the majority of them for 26.

that's what we put we put a cap of 26 on almost all the the classes that that we load and build in our schedule there's some that that doesn't work because 26 heats can't fit in a particular class like food nutrition they only have 24 seats or a computer class you know doesn't have enough seats for that but the majority of them like i said is 26 so that's our that's our average and that's where most of our classes fall freshman classes might be a little bit smaller depending on how many teams we run and and how many kids are in each team but for the majority of cases 26 is our magic number do you need to have 25 credits each semester or by the end of the year neither actually 25 for your whole career your goal at the end of freshman year is six six at the end of freshman year 25 in order to graduate what grade do you have to get to pass all classes you need to average 65 to get credit obviously we want you to do better than that if if you go through your high school career and you have hundreds across the board that's fantastic but you need a 65 average between the two quarters of the semester to gain credit for that semester a lot of grading questions um if you did down below a 65 for a class but then you get your grade back up do you still get credit yeah so it's whatever your grade is when the quarter closes so if the quarter closes on um january 27th whatever your grade is on that day when it closes that's the grade you're going to get that's going to be averaged with the previous quarter to give you your semester grading if those two average to 65 or better then you get credit um if my child picks college prep but she's able to switch to honors because college prep is not challenging enough absolutely we allow schedule changes in the first two weeks of the semester for a half year course we allowed in the second semester too but the first two weeks in which you were in the class you're allowed to to change your schedule it could be you know i chose this elective and it's not for me it could be i chose the wrong level in one of my core classes but we can make schedule changes so long as as as they work and they fit given your current schedule our counselors will make our their best effort to make it work if you're in algebra one in eighth grade you immediately go to algebra two almost all the time but but not not every time so it's your choice the majority of students in middle school who who take algebra one take algebra two when they come to high school but we've had some that didn't feel ready for elsewhere two so they took algebra one again again you didn't get credits in middle school so uh you you can pretty much take what you want but the vast majority of the time however you know they ended in middle school they take the next class logically and math especially [Music] is it better to take college prep and honors for colleges i don't know i think it's important that you challenge yourself and you do the best you possibly can to whatever level you choose uh in colleges we'll see this student work works hard this student you know puts in a good effort in all the classes that they take and i think that's what colleges are looking for they're not looking for someone who's going to take college prep classes because they're easier or honors classes because they're harder they want someone that you know that's right at the right level and challenges themselves and is a well-rounded student how do i figure out who my child's counselor is excellent question you won't really find out until we release the schedules the way our freshman transition counselors work counselors are assigned to different teams so teams one two and four have missed zondeck teams five six and seven have miss harris and teams three and eight have uh miss rodriguez so you in power school will show who your counselor is but that's how we decide who your counselor is in ninth grade depending on which freshman academy team you're in so we need six credits as a freshman and we need 25 at the end of 12th grade yes nailed it do we need a full year of gym or is it split between two years uh typically we have a freshman take um one semester of pe their freshman year and then another semester sophomore year if you really wanted to you could double up freshman year but we do like um all sophomores to take pe too so that's the traditional thing that we do a half year freshman year and a half of your sophomore year for phys ed what happens if a selected course is not available which gets me back to you we request classes we don't necessarily register for them so if that course is not available for some reason maybe the way that registration works is we take all the requests then when we load students we load seniors first and then juniors and then sophomores and unfortunately freshmen last the reason we do that is because freshmen have three more years after that to get the courses they want and seniors probably need it this year in order to graduate so if a whole bunch of seniors really wanted american sign language and freshmen did too there's a good chance the freshmen may get bumped out of it because we run one section and the seniors fill it up before everyone else we did have some freshmen in this year so there's hope but again the upperclassmen we load them first the freshman after that um selected classes it shows 14 and two additional is that normal um i don't know what that means it could be in the online registration i'm not sure about that one but if you want to send me an email i can i can help you troubleshoot the online registration um because i better take college proper honors again whatever you want to do uh if you take algebra one in middle school does that transfer uh to math credits in high school no because you're gonna take algebra two then you're gonna take geometry then you're gonna go take some more advanced math classes um on your way to the math classes you need in order to graduate timber high so that's where one class you will not get credit you don't come to danbury high with credits from middle school uh will freshman be in the same classes as 11th and 12th graders usually no definitely not in a core class our freshman academy classes um english math science social studies all freshmen it's possible if you take an elective you could have an upperclassman in there absolutely probably not in pe or health but very possible if you took like an acting class or food nutrition it's very possible that you could have a class with an upperclassman as well um will the school have all in class students in the fall semester i sure hope so um i i can't answer that for sure but i think we're we're moving the right direction as you know we're we're increasing wednesdays our students are gonna be coming back so i think that's as part of the the process of moving back to a little more normalcy but my goal and my vision is that we'll be back in in school the way that we used to starting next fall and i hope that happens we have time for about two more questions um what's the ratio student ratio or what's the ratio of student to counselor our counselors have uh mid 200s 250 to 275 i believe is what they average between their teams in the freshman academy i'd love to have more counselors and dr salle's listening that would be awesome get more counselors if a requested class is not available should you be notified and have the option to select something else uh no but we do allow you to choose alternates so when you're registering for classes you'll choose the classes you want to take and then alternate electives say two or three things that you may want to go into if one of your classes is not available and powerschool is smart enough to say oh you know what that class isn't available go choose one from the electives bucket and we'll fill out your schedule if it doesn't work out there we still have time you can meet with counselors before school starts we have opportunities to make schedule changes and like i said in the first two weeks you can also meet with school counselors to get your schedule adjusted so every student we're confident we'll get the schedule you know that they want that fits by the time they show up here at danbury high okay i think that's all our questions and i think that's all our time 6 45 so you can move on to the rest of the agenda thank you all for your time tonight if there's a question i didn't answer or something i said that confused you i apologize please reach out i'll do my best to correct it and get you pointed in the right direction i'm really excited for everyone to to be here in the fall so go out there register for those classes enjoy the last few months of eighth grade and come ready to to be a part of the danbury high community and give back and be more than just a student that's my challenge to all of you so thank you appreciate

paul please thank you mark nancy kupka present mike davenport here dan nicholas here terry pavich here rick pavener here zoe boyd and sam bull thank you we have a quantum stand for the pledge i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all good evening and mark thank you we're going to start with the student perspectives south high good evening well we're excited to have three students here to we put february to bed yesterday but we had a lot going on with our students in february celebrating black history month we had our drama production celebrating black history month we have students to talk about that and our emoji club sponsored several activities throughout the month that they're here to share some of their experiences before i let the kids introduce themselves i want to be remiss if i didn't talk about their sponsors because the amount of time the teachers put in with the kids and as you've learned everything is much harder and takes longer in this environment so excuse me nathaniel haywood tiffany rubin kenny white alice frelon and sheldon davis are the sponsors of the dgs drama and the emoji club and they put in countless hours so i will turn it over to the students now and let them tell you more hello i'm yasmin khan and i am part of the black history play and this was my first year in the black history place so i think that my perspective is a little bit different than omari's and i'm also a senior so thank you for having me and i think the first thing i'll talk about is the most obvious part of the play which was that it was all virtual that was probably the best decision i think mr haywood and mrs rubin could have made because at the at its core black history month is about celebrating it but also about educating other people on black history and also educating ourselves so a big part of it choosing to go all virtual for the play was that we could ensure that we were able to present it to everyone and not be worried about going back hybrid or going virtual and just know that we could present to everybody and i think ultimately there were some obstacles of course but it was a really great opportunity because i personally was able to send the link to other family members and have more people consider the issues that we talk about versus if it were in person which would have is also different but it was a good opportunity for that and in that vein we also decided to go do four short plays by just goodwin instead of opting to do a whole full-length play which is what the black history play has been in previous years and we did that because of course there are lots of props and different scenes that you have in a normal play and for flexibility's sake we decided to go do it in four different scenes so we could work with what every person had and optimize our ability to be creative and present which ended up working quite well personally for me i think that this was just a really great opportunity because i've never been in the black history play to get to deal with very immediate issues that are relevant to lots of people and i think they're relevant to each and every one of us actually and and i think that also it was really the best part for me was being able to work and create with people who wanted to continue a dialogue and further a dialogue about black history because it's something that we really need to do and those discussions that we had were at the start with each play we would always discuss but really that discussion carried through the entire thing as we're trying to understand characters better understand why harry is so mad at sydney for example and that was a big part of it for me because what i realized and what we all we all know that everyone has different perspectives but to step into the shoes of someone and see how people think differently and how that doesn't make them good or bad but how we can address that was a really big thing for me to see and i think something that hopefully other people will continue to want to discuss as well thank you thank you hello i'm omari taylor and besides umoja and dgs drama i'm a part of i'm a captain of the girls track team and i'm a part of change makers so jasmine basically hit on everything but i would like to give a different perspective so i basically i like the four plays we decided to pick it feels very prevalent with all the what is going on around the world for example i was in hashtag matter which was about like black lives matter and all lives matter and how that i can harm or help our society talking about these topics and so that was very important to me for us to have it into our dgs drama and so i've been a part of djs java for a couple of years now and obviously we have reimagined what it means to have a black history month play so for this year it was different from last like last year because well we had both directors miss rubin and mr haywood direct together so that was honestly a great experience because i never had both great directors help with making the production run smoothly so moving on to umoja basically we have a podcast called young voices for unity and for the black history play i mean not for the black history month we basically a lot of the times focus on black history in america but we wanted well black history is everywhere so the topics were african culture versus black american culture and we had seniors andy a gay who is from ghana and sarah nuale who is from uganda or uganda and they gave their perspective on what it was like living in their countries and moving here to america they talked about the differences in the culture the language the food and especially the education which was very different and also the society that they lived in in their countries so that was a very great different perspective and they painted a really great image on the differences between here and in their countries so that was something with the podcast that we did to reimagine black history for the month of february and another thing that we did was basically a social media challenge so we asked people students and staff to take a picture of themselves with the quotes of their favorite black historical figure so for example i did web the boys and then i had one of his quotes next to me and a picture and we actually had a lot of people do this for example the latino student union they had their people take a picture with the quote and like dgs drama also did it as well and then other staff members so that was great and that was just two out of the four ways we as umoja reimagined black history so i'll give it off to cam hi my name is cameron harper and i'm currently a junior here at south i'm the president of emojia but besides emojia i am in class board and national honor society so amari kind of already touched on the two things that we did which was the social media challenge and the young voices for unity podcast but we also hosted a trivia night and a movie night through zoom for the movie night we showed um harriet which was on february 17th and it was pretty good we had a pretty distant turnout and then the following week we played um about eight kahoot games different cahoot games that the cabinet members and the sponsors mr white and miss f we created them on our own so we thought it would be a good way to kind of learn but in a fun way and then the winners of each kahoot game got a gift card of their choice that was emailed to them by mr white or miss f and from the kahoot games they were from numerous categories so it wasn't all just one thing that we were focusing on some of the categories were women sports education entertainment we have one touching on kind of like little known facts things that's not mainly known to the public but yeah that and then the movie tonight along with the podcast and the social media challenge is the four things that emojia decided to host in order to commemorate black history month for this year and yeah do you guys have any questions excellent presentation yeah any questions you said you do i said excellent presentation [Laughter] uh what were the quotes you what quote did you select not it doesn't have to be verbatim like you did like mario dw du bois oh i did a quote by maya angelou i can't remember the specific quote but i will read it to you guys in just one second somewhere i would have to do the same thing so yeah we're not going to test you i mean you just feel like about right oh okay i mean i have it all right so now is the accepted time not tomorrow not some more convenient season w.e.b dubois yes very good and while she's searching the podcast is that downloadable through the dgs website um there is a link i know it is on spotify and i believe apple music apple music okay i'll make sure that i make sure we'll put it on this weekend yeah also we had um three it's three episodes and the first one is like 30 minutes second and 30 minutes and the other one is 24 minutes so it's pretty lengthy but really great content and it's young voices yeah it's young voices for unity so it's the acronym and then yeah it's the acronym basis okay thank you okay i have my quote here right now it says [Music] success is liking yourself liking what you do and liking how you do it by maya angelou very nice nice thank you ladies any other questions did you have one zoe go go ahead hello hello okay um well first of all i watched the plane you guys did a great job and i just wanted to ask did you guys have any favorite moments from rehearsing or shooting or anything particularly memorable um i would say doing act free me and diana boone both spilled water on ourselves so that was that was pretty funny i guess i would say in black flag probably just the part where we get mad at each other and yell it's just fun to be loose and free but it's also pretty a pretty good depiction of how sometimes reality can be [Music] i'll reiterate i normally don't speak after they're done but i reiterate the podcast is great i spend as much time learning listening to that as i've been learning anywhere else during the day the kids perspective is unbelievable so i'll second what about he said and then finally tomorrow he's about us too some of you watched her probably on the village of woodridge's monthly meeting in february she was featured on there i know okay yeah sorry i'm sorry i didn't mean also one of the the first few episodes that were released you can hear both me and amari talk on separate episodes mine is the system versus choices that was the topic for the episode i was on what was you oh um also there will be a next episode and i'm also featured in that as well as well as clinton from north and uh that will be about uh implicit biases and microaggressions which is what our mustang weight lesson was on today i'm sorry which chose what we had a mustang away lesson presented online today in third period and we were also in that but it was touching on microaggressions and implicit bias and we collaborated with black student union and their sponsors from downers grove north as well thank you thank you well done moving on to the student board member questions and comments before uh before they start we have some big news regarding sam this week sam was named as the high school journalist of the year in illinois congratulations and you're you're you're going to study journalism in northwestern correct or what are you studying at northwestern you're studying journalism at northwestern correct or something else yeah i'm going to try to transfer into the madel school of journalism after the first quarter cause uh i heard it was easier to get into the regular school and then transfer in than to apply directly to journalism so i figured i'd do that smart choice well either way i mean political science journalism yeah yeah yeah so the the national competition is i believe march 15th so i once on the off chance that i get national journalists of the year i'll let you guys know definitely all right we're rooting for you we're rooting yes all right but um in terms of what has been going on i mean not much has changed since last week when i last gave a report but um some small things well one small thing one big thing i would say the athenas and for the sports world we're one spot away from making state this past weekend um i believe that south qualified which is really cool um a little bit salty but it's okay and then i think this is super cool the other bsu hosted event uh that i was talking about that happened this past thursday it was i think it was called a black professionals panel and um i just wanted to give a shout out to miss brittany mitchell for i don't know exactly who organized what but i could tell based on the people that were there that uh she knew most of the people that were brought in and she had the connections and she brought people in and she was talking to people and having those conversations and it was super super cool to hear all these different perspectives and voices i got to hear from an ex-marine a doctor a lawyer an insurance agent all those kinds of things and just hearing about you know what they do but also then how their experience has been different uh being a minority uh a person in a minority group while also being in that kind of profession so it was a really eye-opening experience and i would just say that it was kind of disappointing seeing that almost 90 percent of the people i would say there were teachers i think i was one of just a handful of students that came which is really sad because it was a really really cool experience and i just wish that students you know wanted to get that exposure and wanted to have those experiences a little bit more but i think that that came through in the pbis lesson today as they were mentioning north had one too and it was a lesson on microaggressions and biases and stuff like that so i think incorporating into the curriculum is definitely a great way to get all students exposed to it so those are just a couple things that have been happening so really really great week last week so questions thank you okay well another short report over at south but something exciting that happened today i think actually is that four d 99 students earned midwest region scholastic art and writing awards for various creative writing works of theirs they were madeline risque maya hamburg madeline mcgovern and madison smith so very good job to them and then yeah like uh amari and yasmine touched on earlier today we had mustang way and positively north lessons they were about mostly allyship and as they were talking about micro and macro aggressions and you know how everyone at school can be better allies for marginalized groups and i personally really enjoyed the presentation i think that they all did a really good job and since there wasn't much to report i just wanted to bring a little attention to an event a webinar that's going on on wednesday night it's for any families or people in district 99 about ways that students and parents can better communicate right now just in general so i'd encourage anybody remote or hybrid to attend it it sounds really interesting and then finally this past sunday i think we got our first shipment of vaccines which is really exciting [Music] thank you questions for yourself thank you both very good very much school year update doesn't want to click there we go all right so thank you for the segway zoe so vaccinations we ran a community clinic here at south high yesterday we had about 300 people come through during the day that was put together collaboratively through the folks that are listed there it's really the other superintendents in the elementary schools that are my partners along with primarily the village of downers grove and woodridge were the the main planners but then we had volunteers from all of the organizations listed there cotacare was the third party that destroyed that administered the vaccines and dupage county health department provided the vaccines this was after a lot of work we've been advocating for a clinic like this here since december we've done a lot of work over the last six weeks with some starts and stops everybody knows the challenges right now with acquiring vaccines in the end uh over the last last six weeks we've partnered with many other school districts with their clinics to slowly use up spaces and and get staff members through a variety of different clinics and many of our staff are making appointments on their own and getting vaccinated as of the end of the school day today we have 85 percent still vaccinated or scheduled well it rounds out to be 85 14 somewhere in there right so 14 but of that amount remaining uh 5 won't be getting vaccinated because of medical issues or those kinds of things so really we're sitting at about 75 staff members left to be vaccinated so that you know over a six-week period that's you know nearly 800 people vaccinated uh because we all had been working with other organizations and getting staff vaccinated when we originally planned on scheduling this we thought that nearly all of the doses coming in would go to municipal employees or to school personnel but in the end we ended up only needing about 500 or so doses for in school employees or municipal personnel so it switched from us believing we were going to bring in a few hundred seniors to bringing in over 700 seniors to get vaccinated yesterday which changed the dynamics of the clinic a little bit you know especially with online registration and all of those pieces that go with it but uh both the village of downers grove and the village of woodridge along with darien and westmont worked really hard to make sure that those doses went to seniors the majority of them went to i think over the age of 73 or 74 but definitely over the age of 70.

prior to that when classes weren't running in person would not make much sense because the classes that they would need to attend and need support at the time i believe that you were asking no general education students for coming in we do want to continue to provide a lot of support for our 504 students our iep students all of our students and as we are building in student support time increasing the amount of in-person instruction looking at what our wednesdays look like we do need to continue to reach out to the students that our secondary administrators and teams are reaching out to students and families that are struggling and we're attempting to put as much support in place as we can just add just a note to crystal this plan is by no way admitted i don't think by anyone a good or the best plan out there i have a student with an iep a 504 he gets 10 minutes of pull-up time when in school i struggle to find out why it's even a waste of everyone's time for 10 minutes by the time they get together open the books what what are we going to work on what's the problem what's the struggle so i admit there's a lot of fault with it is it perfection by any means no not at all there are a lot of people a lot of kids are getting affected by this so i point that out merely to say that we have kids that are getting screwed out of this as well okay i don't want you to think that our kids get priority or you know this plan works for us as well it's it's affecting absolutely everybody okay thank you i appreciate that all right next question i think we already answered but i will ask it for the record why can't you look at kids performance in class on their master connect report cards and do an assessment comparing this year and last year with how they are doing in school in regard to remote learning with their grades so i think that was asked and answered by mrs swanson i'm going to add on here that part of what this has allowed for us to do when we have town halls is to provide an opportunity to share how this branch of governance works and where the separation is between our administration and our board so generally speaking the the school board wouldn't decide on how to look at data regarding report cards and assessments and compare them because that's what we hired dr sparlin to give him the direction on where as a board we agree to go and he will then assign out to his leadership team the way that that will happen um so i just wanted to kind of point that part out so that it's a moment that we can learn from since we have you here as our audience which we're delighted to have i would also caution using last year's data because remember it was march of last year when everything shut down yeah so even you're yeah it's probably two years old faithful we have talked about this recently was it about two years ago for state assessments yes yeah right because that's part of the issue that with this requirement to have state assessments in grades three three please let me know if i'm missing one they do change but three to eight and science at fifth and eighth and junior year junior year and then what other state assessments levels do they check the sct and the sat sat also so um kindergartners and access for english learners at all levels yeah so right now we have to use in person yeah and we had been talking about when this would happen who would be deciding this would be this be a federal decision would it be sorry would this be a state decision and will there be a waiver process would we qualify for the waiver process at this point what percentage roughly of our 18 000 students do we have that have not yet been in a building that are in group c do you know about that would not it differs it differs by level we have more of our students that have come in at the elementary level than have come in at the high school level and junior high falls in between those two groups so for instance right now at our junior highs we have 61 percent of our students coming in in person so you've got 39 percent that have not the majority of those students have not come in yet for the school year so when we are needing to take the state assessments those students would have the opportunity to come in but i'm guessing that they will choose not to so do we have any idea if and maybe well i'll save that question because it's not actually part of this now i want to go through these um that just made me think of the question okay so the next one is have you considered revamping the summer school program to provide more daily and weekly feedback to parents about how the kids are performing in summer school and perhaps weekly or daily emails as to how the kids are performing i enrolled my kid in summer school once and i didn't get anything brought home until the very last day of summer school we received a report card and it seemed to be more of a daycare program and i got academic help from sylvan tutoring or in individual tutoring so the question here is the question on are we doing a summer school program will that be revamped to provide more feedback to parents and how they're performing yes we're looking at greatly expanding our summer school and to be more academic and less field trip types of things especially at the elementary level expanding it to include close to 2000 students with much of the focus being on reading writing and social emotional skills and math anyone else i think it's a really good time to remind teachers because this is the bane of my existence with my eighth grader what is in the google classroom doesn't always get put in the tyler system and then it's three weeks later and i'm looking at his grades and he did have an arb and all of a sudden he's got a d or an f because he didn't do four assignments but i didn't see those assignments because i can access tyler it's not google i mean i'm sure i could make him no that's the sunday night argument in our house yeah yeah i gotcha so it's a good time to remind our staff that it would be really lovely if they could up those regularly and thank you for those of you who do i appreciate you anyone else want to weigh in there on summer school you just got to introduce yourself at the microphone oh i'm so sorry she had her hand up oh you i'm so sorry i can't see you very far and i'm good sorry i just can't like there's like lights right here and sometimes i am reading and can't see at the same time sorry uh michelle pine uh question was summer school my son has failed last semester this semester so how is he able to catch up over a shortened summer school schedule like i don't understand how this is going to work for him that's why we have here the professionals who can answer that so it will depend on the number of courses or what that would look like we have offered in the past and will continue to offer credit recovery types of courses i don't know if those will meet the specific needs it may be beneficial for you to call me or heather kincaid or even the high school administration so we can talk through about your specific needs okay sounds good thank you i think that brings up a really really good point that i just want to make sure i've put out there on the record which is that all of our administrators they really want our kids to do well not because they get any more money they don't they get they get to have the satisfaction of a job well done when you get to a level of administration like this the fact that we want to still know from your students is a really important thing this isn't it stops at your teacher it stops at your administrator it stops at your building principle this goes all the way to dr sparlin who still checks in with people as well and i just want to make sure that people are aware that the people who know your student best really do want to help and if they're still struggling to find some support to be able to help we have a lot of methods that we can implement for them that our administrators have created to be able to more individually pick out each one but it's really hard for eighteen thousand kids to kind of blanket say what will work for yours would be what works for 18 000 you know yeah that's all i wanted to add anyone else you gotta just come up and say yeah go ahead sorry crystal casper again um i know for a fact that my son is behind he's a freshman are you guys going to test the kids at the end of the school year to see if they need summer school that is also a good question um mrs douglas i believe you first had started looking into that recently sure so we have a committee that we've been putting together to look at that we don't want to take a whole lot of time away from instruction to do the assessments especially with the state coming in so we're trying to find that right balance between looking at assessments to identify those students and taking away instructional time to do that so we have a committee that's looking at those pieces some of it at the secondary level maybe off of grades and teacher and parent recommendations two since you have a high school kid too you need to take a look at the graduation requirements so you need like for instance you need two years of science you need three years of math you need four years of language arts so as you're kind of going through and looking at it and when you're looking at it with maybe his counselor maybe sit down and talk about you know i know that i need to make up a credit of science i know that i need to make up well he doesn't need to make up anything i just know that he's very behind he had to be put into that literacy dynamics class this semester because he's very behind in english and i was just wondering if they're going to test them because i mean these kids have been through so much i don't think sending them to summer school is even an option they need to enjoy the summer go on vacations you know spend time with their family i mean they're just so stressed out right now and i just i don't i think throwing them into summer school is just it shouldn't even be an option but to be honest i am going to say i hope that it doesn't become a requirement um i know that that's one of the considerations at the state level had been that they require mandatory summer school for all students and at our local level that does not feel like that's going to be the best fit for 18 000 kids any more than anything else because for some kids what you're saying absolutely true for other kids their families are sitting somewhere saying oh my gosh we need to have summer school so one of the things that i really liked about how the culture here has changed is to instead of going just from one test which can indicate a bad day or a kid who doesn't test well we're using them have parent recommendations teacher recommendations and assessments to figure out how to address the needs a little bit more specifically um i think that that's pretty much i'm capturing what i've heard you say i'm really just sharing the knowledge that they've earned um but and can i add please um you know in addition to um in addition to looking at you know in our enhanced summer school options for this year to address the concerns and and some of the learning loss that that we're worried about for our kids you know a lot of planning is going in right now to how we start the year strong next year strong for our students knowing that we you know want to take some time to see where kids are at catch them up as best we can and address any deficits that we might see but there is you know a lot of a lot of work and a lot of thought and a lot of planning happening already for of course the beginning of next year i know or for next year i know i heard that come up a number of times that work is being done and there and it looks very different than it has in than it has in years past understanding and acknowledging that we're going to be and our students are going to be potentially in a different place than we would expect them to be how did this been a normal year so that i know is some committee work that is our teaching and learning department is you know actively thinking about that and working on on what that will look like for our students thank you i just have two more in writing and if we have time before nine i'm happy to encourage more folks to come ask questions as long as we're continuing to have answers or be able to say i don't know i think we can get somewhere what is the percentage of kids per class that are struggling crying and running away with remote learning have you considered collecting some data on that because it seems very high so one of the things i'm gonna i'm gonna leave this to dr sparlin for the specifics but one of the things that i can say on this is that considering that students have privacy rights some of this stuff and and sometimes it's how how sick our kids or who transmitted what to who sometimes that's not shared publicly because students do retain privacy rights and we're just not allowed to share it it doesn't mean that it's not known by the people that are required to know it it just means same things like this the crying and running away i i don't know that we would share if students yeah i don't know if you can say how many kids are crying and running yeah because it depends on the day i'm sure some of you who are here know i teach remotely depends on the day one day some kid will cry some days nobody cries everybody's fine so i think that would be very hard data to come up with as a district no matter how hard you tried you'd have to have somebody observing while the teachers trying to teach to count how many kids are crying and or running away so i don't know that that's a statistic we can gather dr sparlin care to comment i was just going to add on the uh the uh percent of students who are struggling with the in the classes i think it's already been said but we obviously track the kids who are not uh obtaining a c or better in class the building administrators are working with their teachers and administration at each of the buildings to track that we know how we compare from this year to last year um are there more kids that have these nets yes there are and uh and we've also put in the different interventions at the different schools to help with uh help identify those kids and then provide the interventions for those students who need it and that's one of the most important pieces i think that i have been listening to also is the piece about the extra student support time and i've heard different teachers at different levels using it in different ways just based on which students need what but i've seen our teachers come up with some pretty spectacular solutions for individual issues um and i know that they're wanting to um but again yeah that's that's what we have to to know to be able to make good decisions anyone else want to jump in on that well you know i think as it's been addressed it would be hard to get very difficult to get hard data concrete data on this but what i hear in the question is that we know kids are struggling we know that this is not easy for for many kids and for some kids it's going okay but we know that there are kids that are struggling we know kids that are not thriving and we know families that you know have these struggles so um again you know i don't know that we have a percentage other than you know monitoring of course and um how students are doing based on assessments mastery connect and their grades and whatnot um but nobody everybody understands that this is not an ideal circumstances for many many students it's a really nice time to plug in person learning say that one more time i cannot hear you it's a really nice time to plug in person learning i've been teaching physics in the classroom and i haven't had anybody go out crying you haven't had anybody had anybody leave crying yet you haven't had anyone crying from high school students try the seven and eight year olds but um i think heather's right and what we have to hold is the fact with all of us here that some students do better on remote some students do the same and some students do worse and it's going to be interesting to see how the data rolls out but you know i don't think any of you guys care about the data in general you care about your own children and your own children's progress and i think you have to look at a package of things for their mental health for their learning and for their relationship with you because all of those things matter and that's what i think you guys are here tonight the people that came to speak are trying to balance and that's that's not going to be easy so it's it's an individual situation is what it is the final email question another question i had is why can't you just have the kids go home for lunch and return to school if that would minimize the whole in-person school lunch reason for not doing a full day of school i actually have had this question myself and i don't know that i would do justice to the answer uh there were several components related to student safety and reduction of in-person time instructional time when in person to do drop-off and pick up in the middle of the day right i don't know if the person is talking about elementary junior high or high school with elementary running the buses to run everybody home for lunch and then run them back would be problematic and we do have lots of people that depend on bus transportation to do that also to just take the hour for some families by the time you got home and then ate and then came back it's problematic very problematic to do that for some of our junior high and high school students where the lunch period could be very short at the most 40 minutes to be able to get everybody out of the building get into their cars get those pieces and then have everybody come back um i think would be problematic okay that's my last emailed one where what i can't quite see what the clock is saying for me on time 8 41 44.

unit school district 308 public forum can i have a roll call please mr bauman here mrs doyle here mrs croner here mr lightfoot present miss morgan here mrs moyer here mrs swanson here please rise 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 one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all we'll move first with item 2.1 public comment on behalf of the board of education i would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting we value the feedback we receive from our residents and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their public school system individuals interested in speaking to the board this evening are asked to have completed a comment card and presented it to the secretary to the board there are two opportunities for members of the public to engage with the board of education this evening the first will be during this public comment which is similar to the public comment portion of every regular school board meeting where board members do not respond to the comments made by members of the public the second opportunity will be during the public forum at which time members of the board of education will respond to your questions if you have signed up to speak during public comment when the secretary calls your name i ask that you come to the microphone state your name for the public record and provide your feedback please note that comments will be limited to three minutes per person and i think for a maximum of 60 minutes no discussion of personnel matters including names or specific job titles or responses to questions are permitted we will alternate comments submitted in person and by email if we do not get to your public comment within the time allotted you are invited to share your comment in writing for the school board to read after the meeting thank you first one is the email audrey stoupel i am a mother of two elementary students and a nurse upon hearing the proposed phase 3 plans for our district i am very disheartened and appalled at the lack of care for our children's education in the district keeping this same elementary half day school plan and even to add another morning of in-school instruction on wednesdays is not enough there is no reason to keep these children home as all of the school district staff members that want to be vaccinated have been therefore it is not a safety concern for the teachers and staff having these children in school for a full day secondly there has not been a spike in child to child cases since reopening and in fact a decrease in the number of coveted cases wide as a nurse i am not worried about my children getting covered by going to school as they mask wash hands and socially distance as recommended and able to if parents are concerned for their children's possible covet exposure from attending they can choose the remote by choice learning option however as you have seen in rolling out the phase two plan almost 70 percent of parents want their children in the classroom that does not mean part-time it is a clear sign that the parents of this district want their children in school all day it is embarrassing and disappointing to have our children have less than three hours of instruction per day then one to two specials in the afternoon with very little class work for home we have done our part the teachers have done theirs now it is your turn to do what is right these children deserve this there is no health reason to keep these children home for half of the day many districts surrounding us and across the state are full day with lunch and they have not had worrisome issues as they are in elementary school they already have their desks spaced out and can eat in the classroom if it is a larger class and cannot keep six feet distance between the desks then utilize the multi-purpose rooms or cafeteria to space those children out so figure it out is it possible and needs to be done as for the remote by choice children it is their choice to be home and no longer a code risk to be at school therefore if they need to have a change in teachers or add a remote by choice only teacher to finish the year then that needs to be done or figured out and not have the rest of the sixty to seventy percent of children suffer because as you stated previously for phase two rollout you don't want children to switch teachers from who they started the year with that is a ridiculous excuse and these children are resilient and the plan and schedule has changed already so many times this year they will recover what will be more difficult to recover is the learning loss occurring what will be worse if having the majority of children behind because you are not willing to figure it out because you don't want to spend the money to get these kids back in the classroom full-time we are all ready as you can see by the parents surveys of choosing in-school instruction so i am pleading to amend the phase three to add time for elementary school as well and allow the parents to choose from there what is also disappointing is you don't want to spend the money and resources now but you are willing to plan an entire school curriculum for summer school with federal funds for those students affected by pandemic learning laws so you would use five hundred thousand dollars for summer school through a grant but won't help prevent learning loss by bringing children back full time as a taxpayer in one of the highest tax zip codes in the state i am so disheartened by your lack of care to get these children the education they need and deserve as a mother i am sad i have to supplement their education for what the district is lacking due to limited time for instruction thankfully their teachers are great in the short time they have with them i cannot imagine how junior high and high school parents feel learning advanced concepts remotely and or in 30-minute increments at the high school level as a health care worker i am frustrated that you as a board are looking at the evidence and trusting the science with the vaccine when you see test scores plummet next year children way behind and outreach teachers and parents you would have wished you sent them back sooner again we have all done our part you do yours sincerely audrey stoppel michelle klein hi while there are many children doing fantastic there are also many children in our district that are struggling with remote learning including mine imagine coming out of a two week long mental health hospital stay a few days before the pandemic lockdown started last month no visitors because of covet newly put on meds and regulating meds learning new ways to manage and just normal social life skills in normal school and then bam that is my eighth grade son he is currently failing five classes again this semester he is that black screen to his teachers my youngest daughter is in second grade in the 2019 2020 school year i was witnessing her finally thriving and slowly watched that deteriorate through online learning she struggles with doing assignments on the computer so she is constantly shutting down losing interest and motivation i am thankful that we have phase 2 option with more days i am now seeing her reading and proofing at least she almost became just another black screen early data from a landmark national institute of health nih study that began in 2018 indicates that children who spent more than two hours a day on screentime activities scored lower and lower on language and thinking tests and some children with more than seven hours a day of screen time experience thinning of the brain's cortex in the area of the brain related to critical thinking and reasoning there are epileptic children in our district having increased seizures during class due to all the screen time seizures can cause death and we're all well aware of that while i understand that even though the teachers are doing their best and constantly trying to create an engaging and interactive learning environment there's a lack of social interaction and in-person connection i'm lucky enough that i am able to stay home i can only imagine the struggle of others that are not as fortunate we know many have even had to withdraw from the district to make it work so they can still pay the bills it's damaging to an already struggling relationship between parents and children it's heartbreaking to watch your child children become a show of who they once were the fact that school has been closed for almost a year with no plan in place to reopen is a huge huge concern there needs to be a common ground where those that want to stay with remote learning should but those children that are failing falling behind the black screen kids can physically attend school where they will be able to once again excel these children are struggling and slipping through the cracks and deserve a better option with some more out of the box thinking and support from our district leaders parents teachers and even students i know there are better choices to be made for all who are struggling thank you for giving my family a platform to have a voice carrie doran gotti is the next email and crystal casper is the next in person that could go to the microphone i have done a significant amount of research from back in october where the board discussed the metrics for the phase plan i am questioning how we as a district can be so far away from the path you all laid out back then our rolling average is currently four point seven two percent with which actually from your phase metrics gets us to phase four our district continues to fall on the easily accessible cobit excuses to hide the actual reason for keeping our children behind almost every other district in the state in quotes mismanagement of financial responsibilities we as a district are supposed to be the advocates for our children the metrics that were set by the board are only useful if they are executed on we have now offered vaccinations for every teacher in our district for the safety of staff and students there is a reason the state decided to prioritize the teachers that reason was to get our children back into the buildings how do you warrant the lack of progression how do you warrant offering 10 hours of in-person instruction as enough when your entire district has been offered vaccinations how do you warrant keeping a two day a week schedule when you when your dashboard clearly shows a .002 percent covet positivity rate how do you warrant any of this we are in no way championing championing the fight for our children and their educational and emotional growth i am disheartened and alarmed at the lack of actionable passion to get our children back in the buildings as a district your financial problems are coming at the cost of educational development pull up your documents you made to support and defend your actions and plans back in october and explain how anyone on the board cannot approve five days a week instruction there is no information or data that warrants or defends the lack of in-person time we are currently at the documents are hidden so far into the notes i'm sure it can be hard to find however as a parent that is concerned about the support that our children are seeing from the district i had to take the time to dig to find it after i did find the documents it just validated that the board is not following the phases that were set up poor planning and financial issues are at the root of the decision making and that is an injustice to each and every child as well as parent in this district i would love to hear someone explain and defend a different rationale for the lack of in-person time i truly hope that a vote can be decided on that support the children and the evident needs of an in-person time thank you for your time and consideration terry strickland hi my name is crystal casper i'm the parent of a child the freshman at oswego east and i am here for five days a week in person um this is mostly aimed at for faith dolphus and the admin not really the board but so during the last board meeting on february 22nd admin recommended plan b for high school which is two full days and includes eating at school only sixty percent on average are doing in person so this decreases the population of the school and should allow for more kids in person some classes right now have only a handful of kids my son has he is the only child in his class that is a waste of teachers time just it's a complete waste under the current plan high school kids are in a study room for their lunch period if plan b is approved they'll be eating lunch at school why can't they just eat in these rooms they can bring their sack lunch and there's no need for you to open the cafeteria and then here's a couple little statistics for you the who and the american academy of pediatrics along with many other medical professionals have changed their stance to say that three feet is safe so why can't we combine a and b and allow more in person as of february 25th 2.5 million vaccines have been administered in illinois that's one in 20.

seen and it's um kind of fitting for tonight because as we parents influence our children uh the school our community i just think uh you know to hear her her thoughts on what uh it you know it is for her so this papers um what makes me multi-cultural by elizabeth dwyer when i think of multi-culturalism i think of someone that has a different background than your typical american i do not have much of a culture background but when i think about my family we are unique we all look like your typical american but we each have a story which makes us who we are we have learned to grow and accept everyone for who they are and who they want to become i always thought you had to look different to have a culture i was wrong my parents have taken my brother and i on some amazing trip we have learned i'm reading off my email we have learned more about other countries cultures by going to their country then learning it in a book i am not typical multicultural person but i like to think i can learn and grow to learn more about other cultures my family is unique in many ways my brother has down syndrome he is my best friend and he has taught me so much about accepting people the way they are and not judging we are only 15 months apart so everyone always thinks we're twins but sadly we're not through him i've learned not to judge or put limits on people i remember in middle school we had to watch a video about an african girl who had an african girl coming to a school in the united states and people ask her what her tribal music sounded like and she played some beyonce i myself was shocked too because we were led to believe people from africa had instrument tribal music we also thought they were poor and they did not have any water but after that video i remembered what people always thought about special needs kids the stereotypes never fit my brother mostly because we raised him to be a normal kid we put him in normal classes he had a ta and his schoolwork was modified but he still completed high school not with a ged or a certificate of completion but with a core 40 school diploma and he is the first down syndrome student that i know in our school district to receive receive one having a brother with special needs let me see into the special needs culture instead of the typical normal culture and i am forever grateful and proud what i have learned my brother is not the only reason my family is unique my second cousin troy is gay and he teaches special education he is 54 and when he came out to his family he was about 30 years old his family was not the nicest and most accepting my mom was his best friend and he told her first but she always knew since they were kids his mother knew all along and she was very accepting but his dad was disappointed back then it was not accepting and it was frowned upon especially when his parents were growing up troy was runner-up for the florida state educator of the year award his parents came down to watch him receive his award and that's when troy told them he then moved to california and has lived there ever since he is happy and is dating his dad died a couple years ago and before he went his dad made peace with troy about him being gay we all love troy like no other and would not trade him for the world my family may not be your typical cultural family but we have an open mind on all cultures we know all about special education and about the lg lbgtqia community my parents raised my brother and i to accept all and to be kind it's hard to learn about a culture through books or even just google and doing our own research the best way to learn is through experiences my parents have taken us on some awesome trips to different countries we have been to dominican republic jamaica mexico and the cayman islands a week or two before we always study their cultures as a family then when we get there we learn even more and we see it firsthand many countries live in poverty and others live wealthy depending on what side of the country you go to we learn about their government and about some of the usual unusual laws that they enforce going into a different country is always a little nerve-wracking because they typically do not speak english and you never want to offend them on their land we were always told we are guests and we must treat them with respect and kindness my dad always felt uneasy going but my mom always loved to love pushing us outside our comfort zones sometimes it would bite us in the butt but other times it would be so worth it in the end of our trip my family isn't your typical culture family but we can learn and accept anyone for who they are we love to meet new people and learn about them and their story it's always us to be more educated and understanding at the end of the day thank you thank you so much for sharing that with us kathy we do appreciate learning more and i'm i know that class that she's taking so good for her um if those who are able if you'd like to stand and join us for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance under god indivisible with liberty and justice for the world all right we are all here as board members that makes it an official forum and i'll call this meeting to order we have posted on our screen that everyone can see our mission and vision that which leads and directs the decisions that we make here each evening and listed behind us and also on the screen are our high expectations which also kind of guide our decision making as we go forward so i'm going to hurry because this is one of the better parts so um we have the opportunity to uh award a new member to our education hall of fame so i'm going to turn to dr roberts and miss dayhof dwyer for this excitement very good dr shed thank you it will be the best part i think of our evening although we do have some students to celebrate a little bit later as well um susan scott assistant principal columbus north high school is going to receive an award tonight so this is our 2021 education hall of fame award presentation this is a very prestigious award perhaps the most prestigious award for bcsc and we do provide two plaques to the winner one for susan to do whatever she chooses and the other one to place in a bcsc facility unfortunately due to the many restrictions that have been caused by covet 19 this year we did have to dial back a little bit and we're not able to have our typical recognition reception before tonight's school board meeting however we have been able to put together a video susan that includes some key people helping us celebrate this special event and susan's legacy to bcsc so to recognize susan and to get things started we will hear from first hear from a school board member kathy dayhof dwyer kathy chairs our selection committee for this and so uh miss daltoya are you still on the on the call yes i am all right kathy take it over thank you thank you dr robert fellow board members cabinet and community i am honored to have the opportunity to serve on the education hall of fame committee again this year each year it never gets easier and i am thankful for the caliber members that serve with me they are larry perkinson jenny detmer al degner and patricia divaldi thank you for your assistance this year i have the pleasure in awarding this year's recipient to another one of my high school teachers who taught my british masters class at columbus north high school excuse me every senior was required to take this course and many dreaded it however i was always a poor challenge and hope for the best to be or not to be that is the question spoken by hamlet from hamlet by william shakespeare we often think about people who come into our lives and how one day that may change our lives in certain ways we were required to memorize hamlet's soliloquy and for our final test write it out we studied writers that we as teenagers felt we would never use this information in real life william shakespeare a very talented and interesting writer what is the purpose of this we have goodness whether his nobler in the mind does to suffer the slings in arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a speed of troubles and by opposing in them i certainly took pride in working very hard to memorize to recite hamlet soliloquy for my final to die to sleep no more and by a sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to i fell in love with shakespeare in all his writings back then miss spinky gave me a new interest and the youth youth useless hamlet soliloquy oh pray tell very useful and challenging my family to recite it i win every time mrs scott your fellow colleagues and friends wrote amazing letters of recommendations for you i am very happy i had one of the best english teachers while i attended columbus north high school if i may i will share just a few quotes from several a heart for helping people has high expectations for herself and others susan's recognition of the variable variability of students in her conscious commitment to the teaching and learning of all students a gifted facilitator a pioneer for went for female administrators susan creates a positive dynamic learning environment for students lastly in education we strive to be student centered and there is no one who embodies this principle better than our education hall of fame recipient for this year this is susan finke scott congratulations [Laughter] as soon as we're going to have you come up in just a second to say a few words before we do that we do have a video for you [Laughter] when larry perkinson is put in charge of something susan yeah normally this room would be packed by now no it would be overflowing it never fails that it's standing room only on the evening that the bartholomew consolidated school corporation announces and awards its education hall of fame but that just can't happen now during this pandemic tonight we're going to celebrate our 43rd hall of fame inductee it's an honor for me to acknowledge my friend and colleague the columbus north assistant principal susan finke scott as this year's recipient susan your family and all the people that you've worked with over the years and helped extend their congratulations and a lot of thank yous you ought to just for a moment close your eyes and imagine who might like to be here with you mr scott and and i because i know that we've got at least to be kind 40 years of work in education and we've seen lots of changes and what a great thing that can be sometimes tough at the moment but a great thing new facilities an emphasis on diversity and how do we honor that chances to add technology each and every moment we can and yet as good as changes are as difficult as there are there are some changes that we just don't want and one of those is that we don't ever want to have a moment when we don't have people working with our kids who've lost sight of why we're here and it's to do what's best for them and that's why susan's here to get this award mrs scott i i'm going to tell you a couple of things i want to acknowledge two things this evening yet one is that you have memorized more articles on education than anyone i've ever known it's hard to tell you something about it let's say i would say i really like that teaching strategy it's hard to say that to you without you telling me whether it was based on piaget or bloom or sesame street you know you know and you love explaining it as much as anyone i've ever met the other thing that i'd like to add and this won't surprise anyone here is that i made a mistake i once told mrs scott that her room was in a terrible location when anyone came into the main office she was the only one they could see i said to her how are you getting any work done with everyone and i mean everyone coming into your room well i was wrong her availability her open door invitation was exactly what made her service so impactful it allowed her to mentor to listen to see with those special eyes that you develop over the years and to respond with the needs of others she was sitting right where she was supposed to be susan on a personal level i want you to know that i ran into some difficulties thinking about what to say so i used a lifeline and i phoned a friend i called your brother john and i said john did susan like playing teacher when she was little he didn't hesitate a bit he said to me no i don't remember that but she liked being a dean and your sister cindy seemed to find that that was the right answer your dad however added from a little girl on all she wanted to do was take care of people just like the tv series of old and your youth father finky knows best he knows that you made a difference if the crowd were here in this room tonight if they could pack it up fill the hallways they'd be smiling and telling stories and sharing compliments about mrs scott's contributions that's an important enough part of any celebration that we've decided to bring those voices to this meeting let's enjoy hearing from a few of the many who have appreciated the efforts of susan finke scott thank you susan hi i'm mimi bingham and i'm honored to be here to talk to you about my friend susan finke scott when i think of susan i think of one word that pops in my mind is warrior and being the true english teacher i thought of looking it up and i found three definitions one a fighter a soldier two showing bravery and three a yoga position so the first one about a fighter and a soldier susan fights for the underdog she fights for the neediest student in the school she fights and is in your corner for the teacher the staff member who is in crisis this is the person you want in your corner this is the person you want fighting for you fighting for your cause the second definition is one of being brave and susan is definitely brave because she embraces every new curriculum method coming down from the indiana state department she embraces it to the point that she then shows us the staff and we somehow are persuaded to embrace this new curriculum the third thing is the yoga position and you may think um that's sort of strange but if you look at the warrior position in yoga you will know that the arms are reaching out and that is definitely susan she reaches out with a generous heart and a kind kind personality you want susan in your corner and i am honored to have nominated susan for this hall of fame award i am pleased to speak in support of one of the most extraordinary educators that i have ever known susan finke scott as i have worked in multiple school corporations in multiple states i've had the opportunity to work with many wonderful educators susan is without question among the best of the best susan began her teaching career at hauser junior senior high school in 1974 after five years of teaching latin and english she came to bcsc in august of 1979 here she taught 10 years as an english teacher before becoming a dean she was a dean for four years and then became an assistant principal a role she has served in for 28 years she has been at bcsc for 42 years and been an educator for 47 years i cannot tell you the number of times in the course of a conversation with a counselor a teacher or a dean i've heard her say but tell me about the student or quit thinking about it this way and think about how it impacts or is good for the child she has determined that our youth are our future and spends her time finding ways to allow students every opportunity to succeed in her current work she has gone above and beyond in leading both bcsc and community members in work around developmental assets and developmental relationships listen to what those who have worked with her have to say about her influence as an educator true champion for at-risk kids north high school staff development leader she works tirelessly to figure it out each year susan improved the quality of my life i always knew that when i went to her that i would get good and honest advice she just listened which is what i needed susan has been a teacher a dean and an assistant principal whose life work has been to improve and enhance the lives of those around her yet as she has done this she has never lost her educational anchor the child being born raised and educated in bertholme county susan finke scott has devoted her life to educating the local young people but education is not her passion people are when she was a teacher at hauser she took time before prom to teach the students how to behave at a formal dinner she set the table with all the fancy forks and knives and taught them how to use the silverware and what etiquette was required so when they went to prom they were comfortable in a new situation susan looks beyond the curriculum to see what students really need their emotional needs their physical needs their social needs and their academic needs at cnhs susan has a heart for the at-risk student she is an advocate for them in the community working with law enforcement the courts and other agencies she sees the student as a whole person because she understands the local culture keeping up with the curriculum susan proves that she's a lifelong learner because she reads the books that are read in the literature classes at the high school and as an administrator susan still loves teaching she just teaches staff now and spends hours learning new methods and innovations that she then translates to professional development to help both students and teachers susan understands her staff as people too she provides the encouragement and support that teachers need especially during times of change and stress susan's ties to the community has served her well in bcsc well hello susan i've only known you now for what 30 years and i must admit it's been a very delightful uh experience both in a professional and personal uh way uh you and i have went through some things together that's the best way i can put it i was i was always impressed with you even back in 91 when i first met you about i thought your curiosity and your and your ability to want to learn new things and see what's out there no sky i was always impressed by that you and i were always friendly rivals at east and north and of course obviously east was always better as we both know and i'm sure you'll have a rejoinder to that one but you and i worked very well together and it was kind of nice the way we kind of bridged that golf there for a while when there was probably what i'd call probably an intense rivalry and you and i were certainly able to work together on a lot of common projects so i was always impressed with that i was always impressed with your ability to work with a variety of kids and a variety of teachers and staff and it always made me feel good to know that there was somebody at north that i could call and talk with about various um positive pieces that you at the two schools could collaborate on so i always put it together as you and i were good collaborators and uh i think that's always a good piece and obviously you've collaborated well everywhere else you're going into the hall of fame so you must be doing something right but i would say that basically uh it's been a really great opportunity to work and of course you've helped me to grow in a lot of my areas and give me different perspectives on things and i remember the old days when we used to make we on our friendly rivalries we would make bets on a variety of different educational things and for some reason i was lost i'm not quite sure how that happened and i finally got tired of buying you dinner all the time you know and having you sit there and being polite but smug knowing once again you won and so if i got to the point where i just decided that you know rather than just being with this friendly rivalry let's just continue to work on a friendly collaboration piece and so uh i came over as they say and uh you and i worked on several different uh projects together several presentations and of course i always liked our presentation approach you did all the work and i did all the talking so that always worked out really well made me look good and i think you felt good about it and so i don't know what else to say but i do remember you would put together all those slides and you get everything and you'd say what do you think and i'd say i think that's just fine and smile and then away we'd go and we did two or three of those deals and it went well it went well for us and i always thought we were a great team working on those kinds of things so that was always a good thing um i remember when i retired from uh bcsc back in the in 2014 and the summer that uh how that had kind of your reaction to it i was quite i was quite moved by that in the sense of you know i knew you're going to miss me you know so that made me feel good but once again like a bad penny we just keep turning up so once again when the counseling counts uh opportunity presented itself and i was uh fortunate enough to be moved into the position of project manager on that uh one of the first people i thought about was you and i thought about you because you have a way to get things done and i was always impressed by that no matter what the circumstances might be so we got your counseling counts and gave you basically the whole piece on the development of assets for secondary school kids and where you went and you were a committee of one sometimes and lots of times then you collaborated with other members in the school corporation and so as we look at the success that counseling council has had and it continues to have you are a vital part of that and uh once again it shows again about you know it's you know somebody says what is counseling counsel i said it's a system of people and you're one of those people and you're one of the kind of people that make things go for us in such a way that we continue to uh do good things even despite the environment that we're all laboring in and but yet you still seem to be able to get things done and so uh i really look forward to that continuing no matter what our circumstances are over the next few years and i'm still going to be counting on you so it's kind of like a lot of things you just never go away just always kind of it's like i'm like the virus i'm still around somewhere i'm in a new strain you know so watch out i'll be chasing you down so uh good luck and congratulations and very much congratulations on the the nomination uh for the hall of fame it's well deserved and i just want you to know that it's all because of me thank you susan and i were colleagues for over 30 years and as you might expect in in three plus decades we had lots of conversations on different topics some of them were those terse the situation demands and immediate resolution conversations but also in that time we had a chance to have the conversations that friends have long winding conversations that include some difficult ideas to process as well as much laughter from our many conversations i'll always remember a couple things one is that susan loves she's a connoisseur of literature and poetry and she was always on a mission to get students to love it also but also to love the relevance it had to their lives the other topic i always remember is another one of her missions susan has always had our neediest students at heart the kids that have the most difficult time in school and in life and she's always been a strong advocate for finding ways to make their world better as long time educators sometimes we also talked about retirement and susan's contention was that once an educator retires their influence is only felt for three more years the amount of time it takes for the last group of students to work their way through a building and i learned a long time ago not to argue with susan on many things so i'll add an amendment to this i think actually you know an educator's legacy doesn't just last for three years it's not with the students the legacy is actually with the educators that remain behind and have learned the lesson so on this really special occasion that honors susan's years of excellence as an educator i'd like to challenge the other educators to to take up the same mission that susan has one teach students to love your subject matter and also to see the relevance to their own lives and the other is recognize and let's take care of our neediest kids susan supports others by believing in them finding and building on strengths and recognizing areas for growth she is consistent with honest feedback and ideas for improvement i had the privilege of working with susan north for 26 years and from day one she was extremely supportive she has continued to inspire me to be better and is still a go-to person for me in my new role i've been extremely fortunate to be able to call susan a mentor colleague and a friend and i can't think of anyone who is more deserving of this honor okay so if you could come up to the microphone there i'm just going to read this plaque that we are providing to susan i'll have susan say a few words and i'll step up and and present the product to her the plaque is the 2021 education hall of fame award presented to susan scott pioneer for women administrators humble compassionate with a heart for helping lifetime learner ever ready to tackle and teach new pedagogy consummate educator and friend great mentor believed rules are tools not change her intelligence is book smart idea smart and people smart congratulations susan thank you well that's pretty overwhelming [Laughter] but tonight i really feel blessed and thankful and i'm really blessed and thankful for having a supportive family over here who taught me the value of education and work ethic and how to improve and i'm blessed and thankful for all of the students i've had for their parents educators i've worked with for the school board members i've worked with some of you for a long time community members who've interacted with me great relationships and 47 years of great relationships my job has been many things but it's never never been dull i'm lucky i've always found challenge and change and joy in everything i've done teachers both formal and informal and my friends my family have offered great support and wonderful models for me and since this award was announced a lot of people have made contact and celebrated with me and that's been a joyful thing as well i heard from students i had my first 10 years of teaching you heard one tonight and there's a lot of them are now grandparents and some of them great grandparents and that's really fun for me because when they come in it's great to see how they've contributed to the world but maybe my favorite note that i received was from my first grade teacher miss stridelmeier and that's pretty special i think so we're still friends all these years later and yes i can see some of you doing math in your heads right now [Music] if a person works in the same place long enough they become a historian of that place by default and so that's kind of how i feel tonight co-workers have asked me lots of questions uh recently nick did as as a matter of fact and so one of the things i love about education is the change every year new students walk through the door and they're frightened and excited and four years later they walk out with pride and belonging when i started teaching there were no computers and now we can't think about education without them we took attendance by hand we did grades on machines with paper tapes and we walked down the hall to talk to people instead of sending an email or text or zoom meeting technology was a film strip and a hand crank copy machine teachers were divided into two camps those that used the smoking lounge and those that didn't i taught at cnhs for six period day a seven period day then eight and now a block schedule and one of my first jobs as a new administrator was to find the substitute teachers every morning so i became very adept at using the phone while brushing my teeth i was here before the first istep test and yes there was a time when there were no high-stakes tests and i promise you students still learned i've always worked with wonderful administrators david clarke and john green being among the very best caring and thoughtful and talented mr ho is also here from school tonight and he shares my interest in students who need special support i'm thankful he's here over the years i've been blessed to participate in many firsts and work with great leaders and partners who allowed me to learn from them and you can still see a lot of my mentors and partners in this room some of the educators are gone now though and i'm in debt to each of them so let me share just a few examples phil weissmuth invited me to help write the first bcse crisis plan if you can believe that doug moore who is the co-chair of the original senior project committee debbie thomas we worked on the first esl program at north female mentors like shirley leister i'm so happy she could be here tonight she was my english department head and when we were named to the national center of excellence when she was the leader i was also mentored by dr sue pifer i would have i helped her write curriculum in the summers and then we'd go to her pool afterwards and she would talk to me and help me make learning a lot of fun glenn keller edna house jim powell jim majors all coached me on how to work with students and families in crisis leroy nelson made me chairman of the first community-based and teacher-led school improvement committee mike popper trusted me to be the interim principal columbus north for a few months and larry perkinson who shares with me not only my love of literature but also love for the service of this community and many many many more too many to mention in case you haven't noticed from my list i love working with partners and teams especially those who share my passion for students most recently my passion has been with counseling counts a team led by bill jensen and doug moore and they've been doing great work so many changes and challenges in bcsc we've looked at all kinds of ways to improve i was here when we looked at site-based management from the bottom up then we did baldrige from the top down and now we're doing a stakeholder engagement wheel and i think we're getting closer brain research moved us from teaching from the gut to teaching through the science iboe iep l-e-p m-e-u-d-l-p-i-s-s-e-l-b-a-d-r some days i'm just glad there are only 26 letters in the alphabet as a result i've probably read more articles and attended and presented more workshops than most of you can even imagine i've always loved it that my job paid me to learn and to learn and study how other people learn i cannot even guess the number of wonderful teachers i've worked with people that were young in their practice and experienced material teachers who were talented helping them to stretch and share they shared their professional victories and their personal challenges and their sharing was the power of the work and the students during my career i have played many roles in student activities and play is the opera operative word coach cheerleaders chaperoned trips to europe and student government conventions coached a speech team directed plays refereed volleyball sponsored student government chaperone winter dances and proms 43 proms by my count and supervised literally hundreds of ball games and cross country and track and swimming meets all joyful work i joyfully rolled down in the hills in jennings county after the cross country team won the sectional and i was thrown into a pool and i in that a natatorium in indianapolis by the men's swimming team when they went state by the way i hadn't brought a change of clothes and it was january and during this challenging year i'm proud to help set up the advisory system and thrilled we're again openly and clearly addressing not just academic needs for children but the whole child i have led senior parades through the halls of cnhs had held graduation practice and picnics for literally thousands of children and this year a new task daily greeting hundreds of students as they walk in the door to take their temperatures challenging ever changing joyful educators do these kinds of tests every day and i have played hard and well and i think i've learned just a few things people can only meet high expectations if first you set high expectations and then support them as they journey to meet them if you risk enough mistakes are inevitable and they're great opportunities to improve each student deserves a team of caring adults who see their potential instead of their flaws and their opportunities instead of their limitations even strong resilient people need kindness and support from time to time we all get a turn at a struggle and finally i believe schools should not only be judged by their high performers but just as much by how they treat and support the most vulnerable members of their school community so i'm proud to call bcsc home and proud of our educators and the work they do tonight i feel blessed and thankful to have been a part of bcsc all these years and invited here for this honor so from the bottom of my heart i thank you all for the opportunity [Laughter] yes here we come go looks great [Laughter] i know you can't tell but we are all beaming behind these masks for you but congratulations susan can we just take a breath sure and just appreciate i'm standing as we're waiting for everything to kick back on fire back up thanks to so many people who made this a special night thank you congratulations susan you're at the legacy you're i've left with bcsc with all of your work the thousands literally thousands of students staff members community members you've impacted thank you thanks to to josh for his work on the video and pulling a bunch of people together perk for your organization everybody who is in the video i just again appreciate everybody's effort and those who are here tonight i will indicate to those who have come for susan's presentation we still have quite a few things to cover you are more than free uh to to to stay or to exit at this point in time if you if you would like certainly certainly up to you as what you wish to do at this point in time but thank you for being here this evening congratulations again susan congratulations congratulations okay i'm going to jump into the cove 19.

know well good evening everyone I'd like to call this meeting of the dartman school committee to order for uh Monday March 1st 2021 could I have a roll call please Miss ganther Chris Oliver here Shannon Jenkins Kathleen Amaro John noons y Mary wait hereo thank you very much everyone just so my colleagues and the public is aware uh Dr Jenkins could not be with us this evening uh she has another personal matter that she had to deal with so um we wish her well as a reminder Pro Governor Baker's order suspending certain provisions of open meeting launch uh chapter 30A section 20 the public will not be allowed to physically access this school committee meeting members of the public can access this meeting via live stream at youtube.com dhsv media in addition the event will be re be rebroadcast on DCTV channels 9 and 18 on the following days Wednesday and Thursday at 5:00 pm Friday at 6:00 AM Saturday at 800 am and Sunday at 2 pm the school committee reserves the right to implement additional remote participation procedures and will notify the public of these procedures as soon as practice with that uh I want to thank everyone for making the time this evening to car out uh here another Monday night to discuss two important topics uh that are on tonight's agenda uh one being the fy22 P budget presentation as well as uh uh the uh possible return to school in a covid-19 update uh with that if if if it's okay with the committee what I'd like to do is I'd like to flip-flop these two and I'd like to start because we do have our our public our director of Public Health and dmouth with us this evening uh Chris meot and I I know he is uh you know he time is of the essence for him and everything that he does uh right now so if it's okay with everyone else Mr Nunes Mr yeah Mr chairman just real quick on the agenda the approval of the minutes from February 22nd just to get those out of the way sure chair we'll entertain a motion to approve the regular session minutes of February 22nd 2021 I make a motion second motion by Mrs Amaral second by Mrs we on the motion any further discussion chair hearing none all in favor hi hi and if we actually roll call I'm sorry we're remote this evening roll call CH Oliver I will abstain Shannon Jenkins Kathleen Amaral yes Mary wait yes John noones yes perfect thank you Mr Nunes appreciate that as always and unless anyone else has uh anything that they disagree with with flip-flopping these I'd like to turn this over to uh Dr gford uh with a co9 update continue discussion and expanding inperson learning can I just interject Chris do we need to um open up to public comment have Kate uh you know what yes let's my apologies as um I'm getting back into the the remote swing of things here um and I've got a couple of thing I got papers spread out everywhere thank you um so at this time we typically aot 10 minutes for public comment anyone wishing to speak on any of tonight's agenda items can do so by emailing our recording secretary uh Kathleen gther Dartmouth schools.org uh typically what Kathleen will do or what Miss gther will do is she will acknowledge that she received them and she will forward them to to the committee um I know that uh there was a few this today uh Miss ganther have you had any other ones come through since we've started there were four received all were forwarded to the committee I have not received any since about okay thank you so as a reminder we will Circle back around at the end of the meeting if anyone wishes to comment specifically on any of tonight's agenda items uh we'll go back and we'll check in with Miss gther and they will become the U official part of the meeting minutes I don't think I'm missing anything else at this time uh I I miss one meeting I miss one meeting and uh throws throws me for a loop so thank you yes Mrs Amal I just wanted to clarify uh so that people you know uh know that we do get those emails from Kate and while they're part of the record we've been able to review them on our own it's not like we're dismissing them I just wanted to make that clarification for folks in person people can come up and speak remote they're part of the record and we we we access and read them for deliberation so I just wanted to clar that thank thank you uh Mrs Amal it's actually a very good point that yeah yes while uh in person's a little bit different uh when when we are remote yes uh they we do all the committee all five committee members receive anything that our recording secretary Miss gther receives um and I know personally I take the time I read each and every one of them I read them all Mr chairman and I even have them in a folder I have no doubt you still uh print out your papers all I in I don't print them out I have them in a folder okay put in a folder I learned how to put him in a folder I I'm happier to hear that Mr nudes uh Dr gford we're going to turn it over to you at this time okay thank you I know we have a big buildup here but um uh just as a little background to tonight's discussion as you remember um as we started this terrible journey through into covid and pandemic since last year in March um the district as required by desie created three plans and one of them was a full return to school plan so while we um never uh then went into complete detail on that plan knowing that we had to either do remote and hybrid at the time uh that plan is in place and at that time we had our principles uh along with our maintenance Etc do what it was a feasibility study and measure our classrooms uh using the six-foot social distancing requirement at that time and as you recall we made the decision at that time to um not we were not able to bring everyone in of course and went with um the plans that we did the remote and the hybrid since that time as you know um we had already started discussing how we were to start to return more students expand the in-person learning um a few weeks ago even prior to February vacation the administration had meeting we met with our building leadership to discuss the reexamining of our classrooms to really start taking a hard look at what would we need to start to expand iners learning get more and more kids into school that in involved not only me remeasuring classrooms uh but also taking inventory of furniture um I want folks to know that over the last few years our district has shifted to a lot of Collaborative Learning which required us to purchase many um desks and roundtables Etc so students could work collaboratively with that said that minimize the number of individual desks that we have people might think that's a a trivial point but it's a very important point when you're trying to create classrooms and maintain specific distances between students as we have done this entire year with a six- foot distance desks have been placed strategically to make sure that that happened so there were many things that have been going into our planning and our discussions about as we see the virus seem to be uh trending the the positive cases trending downward a little bit and um vaccines coming out Etc that the good time now would be the good time to start moving towards that direction of bringing more and more students back lo and behold last week our commissioner announced unannounced I happened to be watching the Board of Education meeting that morning and um saw her live as he announced that he was shifting gears and asking for a couple of things authorization which he will come forth to the Board of Education with a a specific plan to ask for authorization to take remote and hybrid eventually hybrid learning off the table relative to how districts are able to count um in per or on on Time learning that you know students have so many hours that we have to provide for uh various levels um that count for Learning and um that was like a little surprise out of the bucket like sh there it was but with that said there's also been a shifting to um as far as the transportation goes that for elementary level capacity has been limited the capacity limits have been eliminated as you know we've been using um distance ing on our buses students one student to a seat Etc so with all those shifts anyway we were in uh already in conversation about increasing student capacity in our classroom so we just continued on with that conversation and and there's going to be a lot of I'm sure back and forth questioning as we as we go forward with this um what I would say is that and I'll I'll offer um some dates and and a a draft timeline of what we're looking at of bringing our elementary students back at this time and I know that the commissioner was focusing on Elementary as well not so much middle and high right now in his if I recall they're looking at by April that we would have our elementary level um back into the buildings and then focus on middle and high later on um with that said any movement that we make and of course we have Mr misho here that uh we actually spoke with him again this morning we speak with him constantly but he'll be able to help you out with some questions you might ask the U mitigation strategies that we've been using maske wearing distancing in hallways Etc would remain we would be looking at a minimum of a three-foot distancing in classrooms in order to be able to bring those students in excuse me um we also spoke about contact tracing which I believe with our conversation this morning would remain at looking at that as a six-foot uh distance around folks if if a student was positive or A teacher Etc and also we would we have already asked our principles to take a hard look at how lunches would be served right now as you probably remember we've been serving lunches in the classrooms uh because we've maintained that six foot distance that would have to remain so the principles are looking at this point on how they might be able to um serve lunches whether it's a shifting kind of thing or whatever it might be so those are a couple of the details that again our building level folks are looking at um to try to make this happen with that said our proposal we've looked at a lot of things and unfortunately mcass is still in the in the mix and not that that's driving things that we're doing but we're trying to alleviate scheduling problems that for example if let's say we were able to bring all our elementary students in our three four and five would be taking the mcast our principles would know how to be able to schedule whether it's a hybrid mcast schedule or a full inperson schedule so that's important for them as we move forward on this draft proposal um the other thing I will say that at this point all students that are in Virtual learning at at this point such as our Virtual Academy at the elementary will remain in that in that um model of learning that wouldn't shift even though you know the commission is speaking about no um not getting credit for remote and hybrid that would be of course later on um next year students that were in Virtual would remain in Virtual um so anyway our thinking is at this point as I said we had two options one an earlier in March option but we uh after considering everything including having to purchase order desks um really think about the mcast etc etc hoping that vaccines move forward we would be proposing that on March 29th grades prek and K would begin their full inperson learning followed by April 5th grades 1 three and five followed by April 12th grades 2 and four the reason that we're trying to bring the older students in a little bit earlier than we had thought of before rather than go like prek K1 to right up the the line is once again even though the mcast is the ugly word if it is it is still on the table right now and if we would to still continue with that we would want those guys in school for a a bit before we just say oh by the way just come up to school and now take an mcast test so we wanted them to we wanted the older kids to get in get settled and and all of that and then be able to test currently the mcast dates um at Ela starts in April 5th to May 17th and math would start the window is April 26th through May 28th so that would give us time to be looking at that um I think that's a General overview and again you know I know we all want students back we are concerned about the mental health Etc but we're also concerned about maintaining safety there are a lot of logistics as much as folks might not want to think that there are there are a lot of things that are happening to try to get this happening um I will say I don't want to really talk about middle and high school tonight because I think our more focused on Elementary but at this point in time looking at we don't it as very feasible for middle and high school to shift into full in person at this time uh the purchasing of deaths is like 600 deaths at the middle school to make that happen the spacing is not like the the spacing is much more difficult to get a three to four foot spacing in classrooms I know Mr Kylie can certainly speak to that he went over and measured with the admin again and um there are many reasons at the high school you've you have all spoken about this prior uh cohort mixing um we are in all full synchronous at the high school at this point not to say that there's more that we can't and would be looking to do but right now we just like to focus on our elementary and if there's some way we can get them in school um we'd like to do that so with that thank thank you Dr Gord I appreciate that uh summarization of um trying to bring our students back in I'd like to take this opportunity to First um introduce and welcome uh our Dartmouth Health director Chris mad uh Chris uh I want to take this opportunity I'm sure I can speak on behalf of my colleagues that uh the outstanding job that you and your team have done um over this past year um it it is amazing what you what your department has accomplished um between the vaccination clinics the contact tracing the collaboration I'm sure not only with the dmouth public schools but with the other departments in town uh so on behalf of the do school committee thank you for everything that you've done um we really appreciate that with that being said I'm just wondering if you could uh just give us take this opportunity Mr Misha just to kind of go over what where Dartmouth is right now with numbers and Trends uh how you see it from a health point of view I guess um and kind of what your thoughts are if you have any concerns um and of of course this is our decision but we look to you as the health expert uh for the for the town of Dartmouth um any concerns that you would have as we look to bring more students back thank you Mr Oliver members of the school committee I first want to just uh go on the record and just thank you for the kind words um and again I know I've said it in the past and said it all too often during these clinics it's been a group f none of this would have been possible without all of the tremendous people that have come together work on this to protect the public health of the region first it started with the contact tracing and reopening plans and then it moved into the clinics and um I've worked for the town for 25 years plus now um hit my 25 year mark in December and um never have I seen the town pull together like this before um all sort of pull together with Westport UMass Dartmouth and work singularly with these clinics um to conduct a clinic that was unlike that of any other in Bristol County and for that matter anywhere else in I think our region of the state um with the exception being galette uh we pushed out a040 doses on February 13th out of the dmouth High School in total with our collaborative efforts we pushed out 1140 doses on that day we conducted two clinics on that day a second dose clinic for madna and a first dose for fiser so that wouldn't have been possible without the extraordinary help of everyone and um since I'm before the school committee tonight I just want to make sure that I thank all of those from the dmouth public school system that contributed across all of the various functions of the Dartmouth Public School System including maintenance Personnel the IT department and all of the support staff as well as clinical staff that work these clinics giving up a Saturday to come work nonstop is a hard thing to ask and everyone has been there making this happen everyone has had nothing but positive things to say about how well we have all done so um just want to make sure that the school committee is aware of all of the great contributions from the doou public school system Personnel um really moved by it um you know being on the general government side we never have a chance to work that collaboratively um as one and um for sort with the contact tracing um now seeing it with other staff as well so thank you and um you know you've got great staff so as far as where we stand on March 1st with co9 transmission in Dartmouth um you know was right around this time last year it was here in Massachusetts and then shortly after within I forget the exact day it was um sometime in early March that had ented I believe it was Easton the first town in Bristol County and then it was some time towards late March that it arrived with the first case in Dartmouth we saw the first initial spring Surge and a very delayed response to that surge to come down six eight weeks we actually saw the surge continue to drop as state reopened and then we saw the belly last for a prolonged period of time through July and August and then as we returned indoors we saw the cases start to increase and wasn't until Thanksgiving and Christmas that we saw the fall surge or winter surge Spike and that surge had an interesting response where it dropped off much faster than the initial surge we saw in 2020 as to why I can speculate but we've continued to see a decline in cases over the last couple weeks and one thing that I've always you know noted is I like to see Trends start to evolve um I also I believe I've noted in the past that I think that we can have influences on those trends that send them in the wrong direction so we have seen a very positive response to and I hate to say positive because that's with Co it seems to be a negative um so anyhow I we've contined to see this steady decline um from those holiday High case counts um I don't think that we are out of the woods with this at all where we can you know I worried that we can see somewhat of a ah it's all over no need to worry we can relax um a few weeks ago we had some conversations on those conversations you know I noted concern about Super Bowl and school vacation I don't think Super Bowl so much had the effect I'm still on the fence about school vacation last weekend we didn't see a whole lot of activity in case counts and I don't like to typically look at individual days for case counts because you have to see a trend days can Spike and fall um you really want to look at those 7-Day reporting periods and then look at them several weeks but my phone was very active last night I saw a lot of text messages on it I saw so many text messages in a short time I thought it was going to crash like the mass act site um last Thursday um we are about seven eight days out from school vacation so I still remain concerned um when I saw it as director in 2014 with the town we were facing the measles outbreak and one of my concerns about communicable diseases is that school vacation week is the jackpot is the lottery for a communicable disease because people go off the travel people return to school young families so you have um opportunity where it hits multi-generations or at least different cohorts different school districts different schools different workplaces so I would still like to see what results or hopefully doesn't result from school vacation and as we've seen that can take you know 10 12 15 days um so hopefully you know sometime around the eth or so um we'll start to establish whether what we saw over the weekend was just a fluke or whether it's going to be somewhat of a a response to um maybe some travel okay so very helpful uh Mr mishad and thank you for your kind words as well to the doth Public Schools I have no doubt that um I'm glad happy to hear uh how we accommodated you and your staff and the the residents in Dart so um thank you for that I guess from the committee's point of view um one of the things that we're looking at is like Dr gford said we're looking at a March 29th uh return date correct me if I'm wrong Dr gford but uh for K and after for prek and k um and we're still only one week out from school vacation so I think it's important to note that one way or the other whatever we decide to do it's important to really watch and correct me if I'm run um what you had said is really watch this next week and what the trend is over this next week in Dartmouth and to see if you know to see where our case count is in another another week or so is is that what I'm is that what I'm hearing that would be my recommendation it's you know it's the other concern I have is that um I haven't had with all of our involvement in activity with vaccination clinics um I haven't had a chance to really dissect the amount of testing going on in the area but even I am a little concerned as well with the amount of testing that it's not as broad across the population of Dartmouth as we would think by the number so the last time I checked the dashboard to see where we were in Dartmouth for our 14-day testing I want to say it was somewhere around 4,500 tests but we know UMass Dartmouth is back in session and there are some more CH there are some more students there and they have sports so some of the sports program don't do have a aggressive testing um so with that being said there are more tests being conducted at the University this time around than there was back in the fall semester and they may make up a very significant amount of the overall tests that are showing up in in the weekly dashboard that the state puts out on Wednesday on Thursdays now um we also know that we have a fair amount of surveillance testing going on um at our congregate living fac facilities so that'll further drive down the number of tests occurring throughout Dartmouth within the general population and as such we may not be getting the um the true percent positivity um it could actually be a little bit higher since we're so focusing on these um select locations um some of this is speculation I'd really like to look at it more um but UMass does contri contribute a significant number of those tests so um no that's that's that's really good that's really good information and I I could I could probably get better information uh for you on the exact number um of tests with the most current dashboard that's going to come out and then we can just back that out and know exactly how many tests are truly coming out of Dartmouth um you know I've been by the Wales tooth parking lot at least once in February and the place wasn't completely abandoned and it was open so I I can I can personally speak to that that I was there several times over February vacation and uh the appointments were uh readily available and there was really no waight at all um which which is concerning because there's the lack of testing um so so with that I have a couple of questions if you don't mind Chris um and then I'm going to turn it over to my colleagues just for the help and the they can ask any health related questions um that they may have before we um before we say uh goodbye to you and let you uh let you go back to your your life so couple of questions that I that I have gotten is that uh through emails and through parents in town is that they're hearing like we we know that and I know and everyone on the board knows that um you did a phenomenal job you even spoke about the clinic uh Municipal Clinic you held at Dartmouth High School and I actually several emails that I received talked about well why isn't dmouth doing more of these clinics like and I and of course there maybe some false information maybe some misinformation but they're saying like how oh I get they had me someone mentioned old Rochester Regional or the TR toown or F Haven but just so we just so it's out there this this is at the state level that they diverted vaccines away from the municipal clinics to the mass vaccination sites is that correct that is absolutely correct the uh state has diverted a lot of the vaccine supply to the um Mass vaccination sites and has set up a series of metrics that some of which hasn't even been published yet um as to what they will what they will allow for um clinics or providers to receive vaccine going forward I'm a bit troubled by some of it some of it's very arbitrary and I'm already starting to see some actions um by the state that contravene what they put out as requirements so I'm investigating it I'm asking I'm prodding um I don't take no easily for an answer uh especially in the county which has been most underserved with vaccine distribution and administration we're the lowest ranked in the state low lower ranking than Franklin County which is essentially it's kind of like a No Man's Land of Massachusetts we're lower than Mar's vineyard with a lower pop density lower than Nantucket with a lower density and even with all the chatter out on Cape Cod we're still lower than Cape Cod so wow no that's that's all that's really helpful that's extremely helpful data now now with that some of the things that we as a committee hear quite a bit and as well as not just a committee but Mr Kylie Dr gfed administrators is that when we're making decisions and when the when the Dartmouth Public Schools administration are making decisions we're not looking at there we're we're not looking at science we're not looking at data um and you know I I want to reassure the viewing public and anyone else that may watch the replay of this meeting that that is simply not true um and just with the fact that you're with us this evening speaks volumes in addition to I know for a fact that you you have at least weekly if not um you know multiple times a week uh conference calls with the uh school department Mr mad is that correct I that is correct and um as well as a lot of the staff at the schools uh the nurses uh Administration whether it's principals athletic director um Dr gford Mr Kylie um there there isn't a day that passes without multiple conversations I speak more to the staff B with public schools that I do in the and we we thank you for that but I I knew that was the case but a lot of the times it's important to get that out there and let the let the public know that we really do we're we're not just making arbitrary decisions in the school department we're looking to the experts in the health field especially the local health field as to what is best for Dartmouth and for our students our faculty staff and the residents of Dartmouth so in addition I have two more questions and then I'll turn it over uh to my colleagues right now correct me if I'm wrong we are in phase two group two that's what is eligible right now is for the vaccine distribution is that correct that is correct okay so group three which is not yet eligible and I'm looking at the Mas of site right now um puts Educators um in the group with a number of other categories of workers so based on what we know um right now the way the vaccination site uh the website is running and with 65,000 minute weight I think was the last that I heard they're saying originally they said that educators and and School staff would probably be they would be opening up phase two group three the some sometime in the middle of March do do you think just in your opinion do you think that's really possible um that that that could happen by the middle of March and I don't want to put you on the spot if you don't want if you can't answer it that's fine too well no I can I can just speak to the facts um so if we look back to the uh the phase roll out and when the governor has made the announcements about advancement to the next stages um or categories he always seems to be falling right in line with where those colors met those various lines on the month um have they always been appropriate to the amount of vaccine that we have on hand no um so a week ago Friday the state announced that about 251,000 people over the age of 75 had been vaccinated and they had already made I forget where they were but they were already rolling out the 65 plus and the comorbidities at that point we were depending upon where you were pulling the numbers from um 400,000 plus people in Massachusetts over the age of 75 you were just below 60% a lot of I heard some calls and there was a lot of accolades about the state's success in vaccinating that age group well now that I'm before the school committee um I ask if 60% is Success on a test um I don't believe that it is I think that it's a failure um I think they were a little too aggressive with it in Rolling that out to the 65 plus I still get a lot of calls from 75 and older residents throughout southeast of Massachusetts that are trying to get vaccine access now while competing against a younger age group uh comorbidities doesn't have any age exclusions unless they are under the age of 16 um the fiser has a cut off of 16 the madna 18 so where I'm going at that is based on his track record of seeming to follow that colorcoded timeline in the mid March if he does such again we're still going to be competing against an hundreds of thousands of people that are looking for access to the vaccine so if he puts the teaches into that chaos of the mass vax finder um it's just going to be like winning the lottery or seeking out that concert ticket or that Super Bowl ticket the governor did create a special means for certain um groups to have access or easier access to the vaccine uh most notably and most recently with the affordable housing initiative the most the affordable housing uh population uh such as housing authorities so what he allowed is for Housing Authority managers to find a clinical partner such as a health department Pharmacy so on reach an agreement by which the two would work together to vaccinate that population and I can say that based on my work with um one of these properties that we did that it will make it faster and easier for those residents um but some two weeks in we still have not received the vaccine yet in the overall scheme of things once we do receive the vaccine it still will make it easier for all of those residents um some may have been would have been lucky and been able to find the vaccine sooner but if we look at the whole population at that property they'll be better served with that process so so hopefully the governor recognizes that that is a model that would be best suited for those eligible workforces that he determines most need that type of access to the vaccine he certainly did it with the housing authorities and with the school teachers going back into you know with with gessie and their discussions and chatter about what they would like to see in the springtime ahead um to put them into a workplace that's going to be denser than any other workplace um in terms of people in a singular room and close together and needing those teachers in that setting um this seems to be the only way in which we can get teachers vaccinated um effectively otherwise you all have staff within the doth public school system that may never see access to the vaccine until after um the um close of the school year if this if this frenzy continues um so hopefully um with the efforts of lobbies and associations and school committees um reaching out crying out to desie the governor's office and other elected officials um that something like that can happen without that it's going to be chaos completely agreed and I got one more question but I think it's important to note I think this is a good time segue into and doing some research uh over the weekend this is right off of a PDF from the cdc's operational strategy for K12 schools through phased mitigation this is what they had to say about vaccination for educators vaccination for teachers and staff in in communities as soon as Supply allows teachers in school and this is directly from the CDC teachers and School staff hold jobs critical to the continued functioning of society and our are at potential occupational risk of exposure to SARS covid in in order to support safe School reopening State territorial local and tribal officials should consider giving high priority to teachers in early phases of vaccine distribution access to vaccine vaccination should nevertheless not be considered conditioning for reopening schools for inperson instruction even teachers and staff are if they are vaccinated schools need to continue the mitigation measures for the foreseeable future but they spell it out right in the CDC guidelines that education staff and as well as anyone in the education teachers Early Childhood Community should be prioritized and the state of Massachusetts has fallen far short of that one last question that I got from a parent I know we spoke briefly about this at one of our last meetings but uh one or two parents had asked would pool testing we decideded and I know that Dr GIF and Mr Kylie had this conversation with you Mr mishad would pool testing uh that was offered through the Department of Education help to get our students back in the buildings faster and Dartmouth opted to to not uh consider pool testing and I just I just want everyone to understand what was the rationale behind that so I'll just try to keep it brief you know I looked at pool testing I know that there is a local school that is um doing some form of pool testing and there are a lot of complexities to it it's not as easy as it sounds it puts another burden on staff and stress on staff because what pool testing is just really in summary for those that are listening is you take a cohort you sample you take all of those samples you run it as one if you get a positive hit now what which one of that five 10 or 20 so all pool testing is designed to do is to reduce the cost of testing but there's a human side to it because now you've got a positive pool and what are you going to do with that positive pool and what are you going to do with the staff at the Dartmouth Public Schools or any public school or any private school that you know ordinarily have a full-time job to begin with now they're going to have to be diverted whether that's a school nurse an administrator support staff all of the above are going to have to then say all right all of these kids now have to go home do we do contact tracing with them out of an abundance of caution get them retested it's a nightmare um what about kids that can't come in and get retested is this an exclusive cohort are there other cohorts like buses for example um I can't believe the amount of time that has been spent on watching Bus videos um by Administration and it is it's got a value to watching that it's been very protective of health of the public including you know not just the students but we also have you know drivers on the bus adults so um it sounds good but it really doesn't accomplish anything um I don't you know I've looked at it we've talked about it and I don't see what value it would hold to the dmouth public school systems I see a lot of stress that it would bring to staff and I I as you you well know we've had many conversations um I have a lot of concerns about staff stress I've seen it in the private sector and I've seen it in the public sector and that we have to be very cognizant of that um with the decisions we make thank you thank you Chris I appreciate your time I'm GNA open it up to any of my colleagues that may have questions uh for Mr mad uh Mr Nunes yeah thank you Mr chairman U Chris uh a couple of things number one again uh thank you very much for everything you've done with the clinics both at the high school and uh last week at the Council on agent I was one of the fortunate ones to get into the uh Council on agent last week and boy I'll tell you what it ran like clockwork no issues no problem everybody was very kind courteous you know check in go here go there go there got the shot didn't even realize I had gotten the shot go sit out there for 15 minutes you know the young lady you know going by everybody making sure everybody's okay time to leave got my appointment on the way out same thing with doit high school I thought that would ran absolutely great so again my my thanks to you I know you had to oversee everything and why uh the governor decided to change things from something that was really working well to blow it up that uh other areas is decides you know doesn't get doesn't make sense to me but that's that anyhow uh two questions I have for you Chris uh you know the you know I need your your input on this the uh of course the the uh Commissioner of education is talking about you know bringing everybody back and such but what does that do with you know he's wanted everybody at six now all of a sudden now we can go at three-foot and change everything with the busing you know what does that do you're you're looking for your opinion on that then I have one more question okay so I can answer that question so it definitely will add a lot more complexity to contact tracing because it will increase the number of close contacts not only in the classroom but also on the bus and depending upon where that student may be um it could include for example the bus driver or the teacher um we know that those are U very specialized positions and they're not you know you just can't replace them so you know the loss of those positions can have an impact on the functionality um and I also know that you know at the Town Hall early every morning watching the school buses Loop through it is an older age group that typically drives the buses um which is more at risk and you know if there was transmission um you know a risk of concern there so um I know that's not part of the question but it does definitely concern me um when you put that many people in an enclosed vessel um we've seen so much transmission cars and to essentially with the the transportation requirements that they're proposing um put children in these buses for all intents and purposes as densely um seated as they usually are um that's a pretty even with Windows um open uh it's still a pretty significant um opportunity for transmission risk of transmission thank you and in my last question in you know your opinion and not holding anybody's feet to the fire or anything of this nature but you know if all of a sudden you know the governor sits there and the poers to be say yeah you know what we're going to vaccinate you know all the teachers can get vaccinated and that type of deal would you recommend your thoughts on spreading That vaccine out over a couple of weeks so that you know not everybody's getting that that second shot at the same time so that you know you know there are people that have had minor reactions to it type of deal so that you know per se we didn't have to shut school down because everybody you know all of our faculty and staff and support staff got a a vaccine on a Wednesday and three or four weeks later they go back on a Wednesday and you know all of a sudden Thursday afternoon and Friday they're the weather just because of a potential you know reaction to one of the vaccines that's out there that everybody talks about that is uh definitely a concern there are some concerns around um holding vaccine um the governor has a a race to vaccinate and yes we do want to get vaccines as AR in arms as quickly as possible but should we be doing this on a race by the day or can we achieve the same at the end of the month and step around those issues like you mentioned um and then they also will penalize um sites for holding vaccine um if a fall below a certain metric but on if if they were to roll out something like the Housing Initiative then they wouldn't be that wouldn't be subject to a metric um but what you can also do when you roll out vaccine to a closed group um such as let's say if they said hey you can do the uh the Educators um you can coordinate the um the second dose with maybe either a long weekend um on a Friday afternoon and have the weekend to recover there in the younger population it is common for people to have side effects that make them want to stay in bed the next day um but that seldomly last beyond that day so if you could hold a clinic on a Friday for example uh you'd have the whole you'd have the advantage of the whole weekend and ideally um for a large school district such as um like Dartmouth Public Schools you know my my opinion would be is let's work with the fizer because we can shorten the time between the between the two doses to three weeks versus the four weeks with the madna um and get people that second dose complete the series and um start to move on thank you Mr chairman I'm good thank you Chris appreciate all your help thank you thank you Mr nun Mrs weit hi Chris I just want to Echo um what my colleague said and you know thank you for all the work that you've been doing you've been a tremendous resource for for us um you know my uh colleagues did ask them the same questions I'm concerned about the busing you know I thought that guideline just seems you know the free-for-all status of the elementary school just it's really concerning to me um you know just based on all the hard work we've done and just knowing the the simple work that you know Jim Kylie has put into you know looking at the bus videos I mean I can't even imagine how that's GNA you know play out but um one concern you know I'm disappointed you know in commissioner Riley that we we are not you know really prioritizing vaccinations for our teachers and you know we've talked about that um as we look at the risk if we're bringing in our elementary teachers you know there's been I've read a few studies and I'm you know but I I trust your judgment much more um about younger students not being as much of a risk factor to their Educators as you know our older you know post um say middle school and high school students um what can you talk a little bit about that like what do you see as the risk for Elementary Educators having students in the classroom um is it you know do we see a change at a certain you know roughly puberty what are your concerns there if we're reducing um the you know we're going down to to three feet you know necessarily we're going to have more exposure and kids you know can you talk about that that risk if we cannot get our those Educators vaccinated um by the time that they're returning to school with say the prek on the 29th but even on April 5th the fifth graders who are older um we're talking about some you know 10 11 year olds so so that's a tough question because um you know we got to look at the individual in the classroom um and you know as long as there is a risk to that individual teacher and that's going to be on on you know whatever their age is their profile is you know do they have any morbidities comorbidities um you know that's a concern um so you know getting that vaccine to the teachers you know I wish I was governor I you know I would have put the teachers in Phase One um with all the groups that they opened in Phase One the teachers should have been there um you know I if you've got a teacher that's in their you know their late 60s uh any complications I wouldn't want to create a uh a threshold to say that you know if there was a child in there that was asymptomatic of a certain age that would be fine whereas if the child was a little bit older then that wouldn't be fine uh risk is risk so okay um and you know not knowing the individual you know we just got we have to look at you know how do we protect everyone and all of this and and really bring them bring that set that bar High um the schools have done a tremendous job it been safest place for uh people during the worst of it um but um I do feel as though that commissioner Riley is being you know very aggressive you know especially with that school bus guidance that's you know you know I don't know if he's aware of how old a lot of bus drivers are but um you know that may drive some people back into retirement um you know I think you know again I I think we've covered a lot of it just you know the vaccine is just the key you know just hoping that that guidance can come through and we can prioritize those our teachers because I'm you know I'm I'm very concerned for the added stress you know we're coming to the end of this it's right in front of them um you know we're so close you know I just and we've done you know again and I have to credit all the work that you know Bonnie Jim you know everybody has done to keep our you know staff you know so safe um I guess my other question is uh you know we hear about these new strains that are coming have you had any indication that you know that you know from what I understand we're hearing about you know one in California New York how is that factoring into your thoughts on Dartmouth and you know how that's going to you know what are your thoughts there for how that might change our our reality I guess I don't remember when it was was it a month ago um might have been sometime in January when the UK variant first entered um the Northeast and we were talking about that and there's a lot of concern um I believe that entered our discussions about dart's transition out of the holiday uh schedule and you know so far um you know there's there's at least three other variants that they're now talking about right we have to wait and see um it's just too early to tell and you know the one thing that we've got on our side right now is is that it's March 1 and um hopefully we have a wonderful Springtime and people get outdoors and get out of the indoor and um we can get windows open and get people spread aart again um and use that as a tool as we wait to get vaccinated and get more people vaccinated um and then get to learn more about these vaccines and variants and what all of this means this is the vaccines coming in and how they respond to the variants or the variants respond to the vaccines um that's all going to take months to really um have any data on it to truly know uh there certainly can be some speculation so um you know it's a great question and you know we just we have our internal discussions we had us this morning in the office um myself at the nurse um or a rhyme and um just too early to know okay well thank you for you know trying to answer I really appreciate all your Insight I mean it's incredibly helpful so thank you thank you to my colle thank you Mrs we Mrs Amaral do you have anything to I I really don't have any everybody's asked uh some you know just the range of of questions that I have here on my on my um my notepad uh just you know I thank you Chris uh anything that you anytime that we're unfortunately due to covid it's it's a necessity but you're just a wonderful collaborative partner in this community and and you always and your staff look out for um you know the Greater Community always and it's just such a pleasure to have your expertise at our hands and all the work that you've invested and your team has invested in collaborating with us is so appreciative it's so important um I I don't have any additional questions everyone's touched upon all of them um and you know the it just like personally disgusted you know we're teachers aren't you know this isn't the only population of of people that um were overlooked uh as far as prioritization uh for for the vaccine you know um uh and uh you know caregivers of vulnerable people dis disabled people unpaid caregivers versus paid personal care you know so there's lots of communities that are really stressed out about the um the mishap with the prioritization of this vaccine um but specifically to to not prioritize like you said a a community of a Workforce that you know is so typically densely populated you know um my office I have about um working from home but in my office I have gosh like eight people total but you're talking about teachers with classrooms between 17 and and to 20 mid to high 20s in some cases and not prioritizing them in the planning not putting them first but then asking the board to not give credit for folks that are in remote and Hybrid next year asking for this you know just stating that a couple weeks ago it was sort of unexpected of course everyone wants kids back to school um my daughter's teacher seems to be so at ease with the way in which she's teaching but she's teaching two times double the work triple the work and it's just incredible that we don't give credit to the people and and to hear the commentary in the community that uh oh the teachers the teachers union they don't want to go back to school that is complete bull who wants to do their job two to three times right I mean who wants to sit and do the same thing two days in a row with two different cohorts double the work double the energy double the exhaustion double the stress so to those people that that want to comment about that it just really is disappointing to me um but I'll end with that it's just I I hope that something changes I hope that teachers are able to uh you know be prioritized soon and that um we get this you know past past us but um I just thank you for for your expertise and and spending the time with us uh tonight and always weekly daily like you said um I really don't have any other questions though just those comments thank you Mrs Amaral I appreciate that and uh Mr Misha thank you once again for your time it's truly appreciated uh do you have anything else uh for the committee um you're more than welcome to stick around um to to to continue listening but I'm sure you have other things to do that is all thank you Mr Oliver you thank you very much appreciate everything thank you very much take care have a good night you too thank you so that was indeed uh very helpful uh Dr gford and Mr Kylie thank you for arranging to have uh Mr mishar come in um I think it helped uh clear up a lot of questions that not only the committee has but as well as some of the community members that have reached out to the committee members um with some of those questions so uh with that I guess I guess I'll take the lead here I'll kind of start off with my thoughts and um opinions on this whole thing um and then you know we can open it up to for deliberations um so like Mr mad said I think it's important that um we really look at this next week as far as trends go and what data shows uh for the town of Dartmouth uh you know as well as specifically in the schools um we are looking at Dr gford is proposing right now to the committee a return a full return to school on March 29th for prek and k um couple of things about that um you know my my my first opinion is it makes me nervous um without the vaccinations um but I do know that those are some of our more vulnerable students are are younger our younger ones and I'd love to be able to see um some collaboration on trying to get more of those students back um I know it's it's not an easy task I know the logistics around it uh between even we talk about and I know I think it might forgot if it was who it was but I know I've had this conversation with Mr Kylie uh around desks we know that in the prek and the K levels that there's uh flexible seating we've migrated to flexible seating options and Collaborative Learning tables um and you can't use those right now right um so we I know that the dmouth public schools are are using desks at those levels we've moved them from other grades um so there's Logistics Around furniture um is that a fair assumption Mr Kylie that is Mr Oliver yeah we uh in preparation for half of the kids we had to move desks from all over the district to shuffle around to make this happen so even just with half of the kids we had to we had to do that so it is uh very challenging to think of all the kids um there's you know we're I've gotten a couple of quotes for desks there's a little bit of a lead time uh on those desks so you know we're looking at about a month um to get those desks so there's a lot of shuffling that needs to take place and you know to be able to provide a a learning environment that you know you can keep kids separate and and then you know ideally at some point we want get rid of the desks so we'd like to go back to Collaborative Learning I hope someday in the future so right no fair point and thank you for that Mr Kylie so while I am certainly in favor of of looking to how we can best bring our our PRK and K students back on the 29th I think that's this is just by opinion this is up for deliberation with the committee um that could be a target b but a Target date but that's certainly uh nothing is set in stone as I don't think the past year has nothing has been set in stone this whole this whole past year um some of the other things that I'm concerned about uh is transportation it it it concerns me very much the transportation on school buses to me um and I know you you can talk to one person and they'll say that there's been studies done that limits the exposure and there hasn't been bus transmission on buses um but I I I I personally and doing my own research you know there's another for every study that's out there there's another study that says something different now just keep in mind once again I'm looking at here I'm just pulling up um right off the CDC website you know it seems to me that all of a sudden the uh Department of Elementary and secondary education in Massachusetts um and on Governor we were so careful with with uh they they allowed local districts right they allowed local municipalities local school committees to develop in cooperation or approve in cooperation with the administration three three plans back in August and September that we voted on and we developed these plans we decided to we ultimately ended up with a hybrid plan plan after a brief remote start but it seems to me all of a sudden that because the commissioner Riley is saying we need need to get students back in and now I've heard this come up as well in the community I think it's important to note that there are tens of thousands of students across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and I believe I don't know if it was Chris that Miss Amisha that said that or if it was Dr gford that have not stepped foot in a school building since last March tens of thousands of students and that is simp that is not the case in Dartmouth I'm extremely proud of the job that Dr gford Mr Kylie the entire Administration the Educators in our district without our Educators we would be nowhere let's write down to our custodial staff our secretarial staff our P our our teaching assistants um everyone else if there's someone that I'm missing our bus drivers um and now with Transportation we're just going to throw caution to the wind and they're saying let's keep the windows down a little bit for more air circulation meanwhile the CDC is still recommending a six-foot guidance you know you know right it came right out of President Biden's mouth at a at a town hall meeting a couple of weeks ago that we should not be stacking buses and here is here's the department of Elementary and secondary education saying let's stack them and pack them now uh to me it just it just doesn't make sense so I have concerns around Transportation that's not to say that we it can't be done maybe look at some other different ways um but it's just it's it's another concern bus drivers I know Mr Kylie uh Dr gford and I had a conversation around our you know the concern and just tonight Chris mishad brought up about bus drivers about a fear of more students on the buses and whether or not we'll be you know that'll cause um more fear and anxiety for for bus drivers um so I do agree that we need to look at our starting with our prek andk I think that's a wonderful starting point Dr geord um just a couple of other thoughts before I turn it over to my committee members um I also think that we should be looking at some of our high need students are those students obviously we already are looking at some of our high need students but I'm referring to and um you know I'm sure I see this am all shaking her head you know those students that may have be may be failing class is um maybe having a a real hard time that I'm sure that the parents have reached out to our guidance staff at whether it's the high school the Middle School the elementary schools I think that's another area that we should be looking at in addition to um and I've had several conversations with um High School senior parents I think we really should be looking at a high school senior class and how we can um really really support them and try to make this as memorable of a year as possible and I think we're we're discussing this early enough um that there's some kind of potential out there um to make that happen and I would love i' be be more than happy to to sit down be part of that uh conversation and if I can help in any way um I think I think th those are the three areas um in closing uh I I will say this that I am against a full 100% return to in-person Learning Without teaches being vaccinated uh that's no if ands or buts about it I understand that the governor has went to the not the governor I'm sorry commissioner Riley at the last Board of Education meeting had said that he was going to uh sometime in March in the next week or so ask for the authority to take remote in hybrid learning off the table um to count towards learning and I say until that happens I am in not in support of returning Stu uh te students fully to the classroom I think what we're doing in Dartmouth we're doing a phenomenal job our kids are in school every other day I think I think the model that we have in place is working I'm concerned about disruptions regarding changing the model at this point and I already know that there's there's some people out there that are going to say well I know of teachers that are going to refuse the vaccine they're not or staff members that are going to not going to going to get the vacine well at that point that's on them I understand the vaccine is not 100% foolproof we know this right the science and the data says that both the F and the madna and now the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is even lower I think at what 76% Johnson and Johnson uh but the FIS mourer is not 100% effective we know that we know that if teachers are vaccinated and when any anyone not just teaches but once individuals receive that second vaccination two weeks after their second vaccination we know that their immunity has been built up however according to the latest guidelines that I read is that people still have to quarantine for 14 days after that second vaccination so there's so many unknown still and I think we owe it to our teachers and everyone that works in a public school system not just in dmouth but across the state of Massachusetts because I have friends that are in other states that are Educators and they've already been vaccinated that we can do better um until then I do not support 100% in-person learning I know that Dr gford you had mentioned regarding the Middle School really even struggling to get at three-foot distancing at the middle school um all the students back and then we also know about the high school situation with the cohorts and the mixing of the cohorts which that really when you bring everyone back with the different uh class levels and passing periods that really that really heightens it um so I think we should absolutely look at prek K our more of our vulnerable population as well as um doing some seeing what we can do for the high school seniors um I've taken up enough of uh everyone's time so I'll turn it over to my colleagues so Mrs Wade yes so um just kind of piggybacking on a little bit of what you know um Chris has said and I guess there a little bit of back and forth questions for you Dr gford um you had mentioned too that you've been in convers ations throughout um you know the past month or so talking about adding in those more vulnerable students and taking a look and it sounded like you were talking about that you know in relevance to the middle school and the high school and you know and I'm thinking of you know and I've had talked to staff who said you know hey maybe we can bring in you know the students of the high school who have you know failed two classes for the term or for the semester you know for example I'm sorting a cat is part of this conversation but um anyway so how what what are what are your current thoughts on that have you kind of looked at that as you know um Dr gford what are your thoughts there yeah I I I just wanted to mention something when Mr Oliver was speaking I'm definitely concerned about those students the ones that are not in programs specifically but are still high needs have so um we did meet with the elementary principles prior when we were looking at that and I know they've determined a couple of kids only a few I must say that um were coming in every day the high school did end up extending that accommodation if you will to um some students and they some of the students did take them up on it um what happened was sometimes the student is in class by himself but the student was happy to be there the parent wanted them there um Middle School we're still just really uh reaching out there are more scheduled times with them so we haven't really brought them in but I think especially if we're looking at the possibility of just bringing in our elementary which is again my focus as well as uh our leadership right now um not the middle and high that we will need to focus more on those Stu let's call them the we'll say high needs but not program students right right right so I agree with you um especially if we're going to extend that the middle and high stay out longer okay um I I think I mentioned in the beginning that the middle school was looking at they did send me three plans and after this I know they will be looking at more synchronous or live teaching so we will have more of a schedule for that um I just also wanted to mention I think going back to the whole commissioner thing if you recall we had to submit data for structured learning time for four grade four grade seven and grade 10 we submitted data on to what we were doing for each of those levels and we knew you know no good deed goes unpunished the minute you send data to desie so in my mind and my colleagues mind they were really going after those schools which you mentioned Mr Oliver that really have had remote learning from day one there are districts that haven't had students in person at all so now to make this blanket statement of everybody shift gears as much as we want to we want normality um I think again I'm I'm very pleased with what the district has been doing uh we were just talking to the elementary principles before all this started and they were working on more synchronous learning once again those those teachers you heard Mr Porter and and his colleagues speak about that at the last meeting so um to to Miss Wade's point you know I think we do have to have a bigger conversation about those students that are struggling a little bit more I do want to throw out a point for the high school parents that are listening because I had conversations with high school this morning about a particular student that was struggling had moved but as the senior we usually allow students to remain in the district to finish up the year um and I've also had a conversation with Miss um with Renee our Union president Etc um we really need to encourage High School parents to tell their students to come to school on their days to come to school I'm afraid that some of them are taking the easy way out and too often are just staying home needlessly I just want to throw that plug out there as our teachers are working hard to provide those inclass times students that that synchronous learning was an option for when you're not feeling well Etc but not to take advantage that's just a little plug I was thinking of as you were speaking about that um anyway so yeah we have more work to do but um if we can continue as we just spoke about getting a few students back in starting small that will be fine and then you know and again this is such a big discussion you know and I think all of us like are certainly aware you know of you know many of us parents grandp you know we grandparent you know just that is is challenging I mean you know and we know that kids are easily distracted at home and you know we we are all well aware and we are living this you know and certainly where aware of the realities um you know I guess what you know so many questions here but um I'll I'll try to narrow as we we think about the uh you know inperson learning there I I think what I want parents to understand I kind of get the impression that some of the parents again looking at social media think like we talk about full return it's like back to normal everybody's going in you know we're still doing our group work and everything else you know it seems to me you know as you kind of talked about it's not just the the physical space in the middle school and the high school one of my concerns is that there's certain classes that are simply due to limited materials you're talking about microscopes so for example in Labs space and Labs that will be difficult to run that you've still been able to maintain a high quality of instruction because you know largely because you're able to do it with a small group and you have half the class there um would you mind like talking a little bit about like how that is and do you have any concerns about that as we look at our you know Elementary School that they've been able to bring you know to do some special things because they have half the students that are going to be you know is that going to be more challenging once they have their full students back and now they're still dealing with trying to separate them they have less space I think about you the gym class that we saw when you know Potter was you know those are small rooms for gym and you're trying to now have all the kids back you know with ball you know so I'm curious about how you see that kind of playing out and um and and also I'll step into that you know the the full return model that we had you know and there's been kind of questions about that we did there was a plan that was submitted to be clear for everyone you know again we at that point we hadn't lived through covid you know a lot of it was really hypothetical we hadn't known you know Mass compliance the kids have been really above and beyond great with mass compliance I mean I had a concerns are these little ones going to keep their masks on I think they're better than adults but there's so much that was unknown that now teachers have learned I just wonder like at what point you know are the teachers being part of these plans coming to the table talking about like well this was working well you know are are they working with you and that you know and I know we have an upcoming date in service day on March can you talk a little bit about that because I've had concerns with staff kind of wondering like you know are we going to be brought into the plans and how is this going to play out and they are definitely the people who know the best how this is going to work so right right I would definitely say this you know it can't you can't say that there wouldn't be changes as far as people being able to move around a classroom uh use materials you think about not so much at the elementary but U Middle and High I mean been in those classrooms I was a couple of weeks ago and missed a um uh Sam brodsky's class with the Robotics and and and think about that work that goes on if you had the full class so it's or a lab situation for example the labs are small so yeah to get more kids in there I remember being in um another class science class last year even and how tight it was with so many kids so yeah there's definitely a difference when you bring more students in and what you can do with them um but as far as the the teachers being involved and that that you know goes back to our work with uh the leadership team we meet with the entire leadership team and then they go back to their schools where the the best work takes place because they're able to know the idiosyncrasies of their school the details and work with their teachers and each school might be a little bit different and you know so they definitely um do work with them to see what works best how to plan how to roll things out and our plan was which we will still do because our intention will be to at least focus in on bringing our students back to the end of the month March 8th we have the full in service so we will be um Elementary will be working together teachers together uh planning for that shift and adjustment in in their teaching their curriculum how their classrooms are looking Etc okay and I guess my last question is mcass you know we don't have any ability to push this off I mean can you can you talk about that that I just find that's so frustrating and and this is not on you I just again I go back to my disappointment with desie and I just think it's it's crazy but that you know to bring these students in I don't think it's a good diagnostic tool we've already talked about this we made a statement as a committee but I just wanted you know I just you know I I had some parents who were you know kind of not who said oh we're just bringing it back for mcast I absolutely don't believe that you know at all but it is an unfortunate fact that it's it's part of the reality right it's it's not the reason we're bringing anybody back if someone else has that alterior motive I'm not aware of it our Focus is you know again the entire goal for the entire year was to bring students in that's what we all want right um but it's a in the armor so to speak so to to think about scheduling and bringing students in we have to consider that and how to make that as less you stressful as possible and when does it occur and the principles actually brought that up that if we to kind of know a schedule of when kids were coming so they could plan for a hybrid mcast or a full insuran gas so it's it's um you know it's just part of the like I said it's a in the armor but it's not the end all be all it's certainly not the reason we were even looking that a few weeks ago we've been planning this for a few weeks um I do want to go back to that whole Furniture thing because I don't think people fully understand that when the district shifted over the last few years to collaborative and learning we we got rid of a lot of desks we brought in tables we brought in flexible seating the ideology the philosophy changeed change excuse me so to say that now in preparation for bringing students back because we know we would be in covid still in March and April so let's run out and buy a thousand desks is a ridiculous statement it's a ridiculous thinking so now that we know that we're preparing for it it's just one of the things we have been thinking about and and how do we go about it it's not that it's impossible it's just as it is it feasible and it you know so like you miss way I read all the stuff too and it's and um and sometimes I feel like we speak here and then people don't listen to what we say so I I think we Circle back and say it a hundred times oh my goodness and and then you know I I'll I'll Echo what you know Chris said to Mr Oliver said about our seniors you know I I feel like you know last year seniors we made such a big thing you know again but they really got to do everything until March you know as sad as it was missing graduation I just really hope that um you know I like what you know Mr Oliver said you know I really hope we can do something you know I I love to they've got a lot of money in their account from what I understand you know I have a junior not a senior I'd love to see them you know it'll be a different scenario hopefully by June maybe we can do a prom a masquerade ball outside you know but I'd like I'd like to see yes so maybe we you know I'd like to see those you know you know talking to some senior parents they've been reaching out about that they'd like to be involved and I I'm hoping that we have enough time that we give you know get them again I don't want to overstep here you know this is more you know High School territory you know with with Ross and everything but I really really want those kids to have that experience I mean it's been they they've missed you PR in graduation I you know they're not coming back into the school after you know it's typically that Thursday then graduation Sunday I I hope that we can you know do something for them right on a positive note and I know they're talking about it and and they're considering all things but I did see um they had some um their academic ADV their advisory schedule and uh Ross put out a statement that said you know let's um it was a time to inspire especially seniors to continue to stay the stay the course right stay focused and get their academics done because they would were thinking they're planning specific events but make sure you stay on track so that you're able to participate so I haven't touched base with him on what those that thinking is but I will reiterate and emphasize that it's important for some kind of special events whatever it might be whatever we can do yeah okay all right that's it thank you so much you're welcome thank you Mrs White thank you Dr gford Mrs Emeral thank you um I just have a qu one question uh like right now as it stands uh what what is our average cohort size in ele say let's stick with Elementary School up through fth grade yeah about eight or nineish somewhere in there I have explicit numbers um of what it would look but yeah they're they're kind of low because if I have the classroom numbers here you know I'm looking at just I'll just rattle some off quickly so class sizes for example um just across I'll just go across one one school um starting with kindergart 17 18 20 19 18 19 so a cohort is half of that and that's about average okay and so in in measuring um I'm personally not necessarily comfortable with but that's just my opinion I don't speak for the committee with going to three feet but with that three feet have those measurements been done and and we could conceivably fit all of the students in with abiding by 3 feet that measurement has been done to say for sure that that yes um and then my next question uh I read it all too the desk piece it's a problem but would we be able to I'm just thinking fiscally you know responsibly uh thinking of the budget um would we be able to utilize some of those desks for the younger Learners you know having two on each end and mixing in some desks I know that's not ideal but uh in order to still maintain three feet and fit all the students or would the measurement be um kind of relying upon the fact that we're assuming that each student would be in their individual desk I'm just as an artist I'm trying to visualize and spatially kind of recognize what we're working with here I don't know that's Mr Kylie maybe yeah I can I can speak to that so you know unfortunately a lot of those tables um that we've been using uh at the elementary level especially with the younger kids aren't sized to keep kids apart this distance so what happens is we really just wouldn't be able to fit the number of kids um and still maintain that three foot plus distance uh you know at those tables so they're really not of use to us um believe me it it the idea of um buying hundreds of desks to accomplish this and then not being sure what I'm going to do with the desks um you know there'll be new desks so they will replace old desks and obviously we'll we'll be thoughtful about what you know how we do it but um yeah it's it's not appealing to me but um but I I don't really see any way that the existing equipment that we have could be modified and accomplish what we're trying to accomplish oh thank you thank you for all that you do Mr Kylie um and my understanding and I don't know you can correct me if I'm wrong I'm wondering how 3 feet is going to work when thinking about say lunch unmasking in lunch my understanding is that still remains a six feet Pro uh requirement and so if we're thinking of bringing back prek through five how how are we going to how are we going to manage that what are some thoughts around how we're going to obviously we have to be creative I think if any of us sit and think oh this has been an easy day we're doing something wrong um nobody's had days like that I'm not even in the working for the district and I certainly don't have days like that but um yeah if you could if you could speak to that a little bit about lunch what lunch is lunch is one of the more difficult scenarios and in addition to lunch mask breaks right which you know it's it's sort of similar to lunch um you know at that three foot distance um students should not be without a mask on so we need to think about how we can accomplish do we have a space where students can go to eat lunch well we've already pretty much thought about that and that's going to be very challenging to actually um you know accomplish uh like a cafeteria for instance um that's that's probably not a viable option for us so you know we go back to the idea of kids eating in the classrooms and we look at shifts and trying to figure out you know how we could have um kids in the classroom meeting and some kids with masks on uh in the classroom sort of in like a checkerboard pattern is one idea that we're talking about where you know every other student essentially is eating and the other students are maybe reading or you know but with their mask on uh and then and then the other group eats and I mean you just have to get creative and and you know figure out ways to keep kids six feet apart um you know with masks so it's it's not easy it's one of the more difficult things and we haven't decided on any specific um solution and it might be different from school to school as well but um you know depending on the space in each building but yeah great um thank you I mean I don't mean to be flipped but it's almost like hey well throw it in the transportation guidance let them eat lunch and breakfast on the on the bus right all bets are off on the bus um sorry you know in some respects I feel like flexible and fluid you know I think we should take a step back we always should take take a step back um and reflect as you do about about you know practices and and glass half full I think of one thing that you know on on one level kids teachers parents Community we're we're we're at the end of our rope we're frustrated we we just um you know we're suffering pretty significantly all of us no matter if we put that smile on our face we are suffering um but in some respects I think if we think about you know for us you teaching an old dog new tricks it's not always easy but we've all been flexible and fluid and we've made the best of it and in some respects I think um that we're we're teaching our kids you talk about our our buildings we need new buildings that's conversation of the day our buildings might not be adequate for 21st Century Learning but I think the practices that we're that we're um modeling for our students and and having things kind of shift on a dime uh I think that the workforce I think in their generation the little our little guys moving up they're going to be able to kind of move on their feet and and I think that that's something that that we should uh remember and that we're we're they're gaining skills they're suffering um they're learning it's not ideal uh but they are gaining skills they're gaining skills about being creative about working as a team about following rules about caring for them for themselves their teachers and their classmates um so anyway I just thought I'd throw that in uh uh I'm the next thing that Chris and I think U Mary mentioned I've always sort of been talking about high needs yeah I have a I have a child with significant needs when I look at his needs I don't think of him I think of all Learners I think of the things that he benefits from I've always said that I've seen the things that he needs as a benefit to others talk about differential seating for kids standing sitting bean bags it's helpful for for if uh for all students at any given time no better time to illustrate that than during covid and some of those things aren't possible right now and everything with with keeping apart but I'm very concerned about you know my son is a clear clear example kids like my son they're a clear example of of being needing prioritization and that should be for sure but then we have our kids that you know are on Ed plans who we've brought a couple of them back in who are struggling um but I think that when we talk about you know we're complaining about the prioritization of vaccine I think that we really need to reflect on our own prioritization and I I would not feel comfortable struggling to get every single learner back until we sort of prioritize which of those Learners need to come back first um the younger kids absolutely um I'm I'm not so sure K through five um on person sort of feeling like a k to2 for different reasons when you talk about legal age limits of of grouping kids perhaps even for those kids in inclusion classes that may not have or or whatever expanding upon our own personal um definition of high needs uh and I think you've been doing that it's been evolving it's been developing but I know just from hearing from a lot of families there still are those kids um and I say k to to but I know that there are third graders and fourth graders um and and they're I mean all the way up of course of course uh who are some on Ed plans some not who aren't prioritized who I would love I would love for us to prioritize those students I think it is so so important that we prioritize those students and bring them in and catch them up um and then I think of I think of the freshmen who are in the high school and others in the high school but I just think about um or or those sixth graders who really didn't this year and those freshmen who didn't have don't have the luxury of having the staff unless the parents are like me and I send a book before my kids start school every year I always send a book this is how we grew up this is what he needs this is what he like but not all people have to do that I do because I speak for my son he doesn't he's not able to communicate but you know those kids that don't have the luxury of past years of teachers saying wow I've this kid is not a d student I need to do better so you've got those kids that are moving into a new building that like I said don't have the staff that understand their historical trajectory and who are struggling significantly um that's not to say sophomores and juniors and seniors but or eighth graders and seventh graders because there are those students whose parents haven't reached out or feel vulnerable to reaching out for whatever reason but I know that they're reaching out out to me and it breaks my heart and I hope that before we and we said we're not going to talk about middle and high even though we might not be talking about middle and high tonight and we've got the TR the timeline I hope that tonight we could make a decision around um digging a little deeper and identifying those students even if it takes reaching out to their previous teachers reflecting upon their School record and identifying those kids that might be getting C's and D's or might not be showing it on their face uh that they're struggling but breaking down at home um and the grades might be reflecting and sometimes the grades don't reflect maybe it's more of a mental health issue I really hope that we could put something in place where we're able to kind of dig a Little Deeper to find those kids um and again they exist in third grade they exist in fourth grade they exist in fifth grade whatever we decide today whether we decide to to go back in person okay through F through five or if like I said I feel I feel personally more comfortable not cutting anyone out but I feel more comfortable grouping and prioritizing those younger Learners 3K through two um but then also expanding Upon Our Own per you know getting a little bit closer to the ceiling like I desie says the guidance is the floor we can go to the ceiling I would love to see us go a little bit more to the ceiling and identifying um those students who who haven't met yet that threshold of of of um full inperson learning if at all possible um and I I I won't talk much longer because others have said so many good things um you know as much as we're hearing the loud noise of of all of us want our kids back all of us want our kids back uh but then there are those kids that and this is Middle School again but we've heard from and I don't know if the the committee I can't remember now I believe the committee fully heard this as part of our public comment or anyway it's in my notes there are there are families um there's been a theme of like some families that have come back from tekka because even though we kind of made some modifications to how we're dealing with the supporting students with Tekk um and with some that's worked and some some others who for health reasons have feared return to school uh they did change to hybrid because their kids were struggling just way too much and and and it wasn't working and so now they fear going back full in person and um and and just this concern about those families and the sensitivity around whatever we decide clearly we're going to decide something that brings a bigger group of students back at some Point soon and so even in those instances where families are are happy that their kids are going full in person those kids are probably going to have the anxiety or uh the lack of etiquette that they were used to kind of uh let me sum it up I I I want to make sure that we also have a uh a system in place where it's not punitive where kids who might be acting out for Behavioral reasons understanding and I know we are quite understanding as a district and we we're quite aware of our student social and emotional needs but an extra caution around recognizing that if a kiddo is acting out it might be that they weren't so certain about returning to school as much as Mom and Dad were having them come back full in person um because there's in other districts unfortunately and hasn't happened here but unfortunately um not all districts are as compassionate and and supportive of their students as we are um I hear it in my work and uh so I just want to be mindful of that because it could cause um some other you know manifestations of the anxiety that they're feeling and I think that's all I really have right now I'll pass it along to whoever sorry I've taken so long no please thank you Mrs Amaral I we appreciate uh your input a lot of well um a lot of really good points uh Mr noones thank you thank you Mr chairman uh a few things number one a simple easy question um Mr Kylie the uh you know talking about desks and you know if we were fortunate enough to procure some I'm going to assume that these are desks that are going to come understand in like a 2x4 box that you know open a box and they've got to be put together so somebody's got to put them together whether it's a maintenance or a custodian and I'm assuming that probably is going to be on a weekend because you're G can't have them do it because of everything else that they've got to do between 7 and 3:30 for discussion purposes that's correct there's yeah they will they would come with the body of the desk uh and then the legs separate um so the you know there are opportunities to um to um provide to that some of the companies that you can buy these from will do assembly uh obviously there's a cost associated with that um we can do assembly inhouse but like you said that has to be off hours there's no way we can do that within uh any you know now is just for curiosity sake because of the situation is that something the you know the K's Act and the co grants would cover or is that our budget yes sir I think I I I would I'm confident that act funding will cover okay that's good that's fine um a couple of couple of things and everybody's you know kind of really touched on a few things but I've got some notes that I did write down um you know we talked about a little bit of Transportation earlier type of deal I mean everybody knows I live near the Quinn School in the middle school and let me tell you and I'm going to make an assumption that all the other schools are the same way but it's an absolute nightmare okay uh I've tried to pull out of my street you know last Thursday or Friday even this morning going to work and I've got teachers pulling u-turns right in front of me you know they come halfway down and they pull a U-turn instead of you know I mean the amount of parents that we have dropping off and picking up students is is unbelievable I mean when I go by Quinn school at 10 minutes past two and there's already a parent there or Andor parents waiting to pick up students you know that are not getting out till 3:00 is is unbelievable and I'm assuming it's the same that you know I've been by the middle school at 1:00 and you know there are parents there so I mean we've got some Transportation issues that are you know unbelievable I mean in I know the transportation contract's up for Renewal but boy that's that bothers me uh I got to take my hat off to our Administration I if I've mentioned this before then I apologize but I'm going to mention it again I mean I remember sitting in on a negotiation session a while back in quarter P 5 on a Friday afternoon or Thursday afternoon and you know Mr Kylie gets a a phone call from a Elementary principal because there's been a covid discovery and you know everything switches from there into you know what do we got to do with these students the facult you know the faculty the administration the staff that type of deal I mean at quarter 5 on a in the afternoon so I mean thank you for what you guys are doing and I guess kind of my last because I did write all kinds of notes down when everybody was talking Believe It or Not uh in all seriousness uh I think we've all gotten the emails from The Faculty over the weekend with what's going on with the co and I've got to go back to our January 25th meeting when we authorized the chair to and I got Governor Baker's letter here it says Dear Governor Baker the school committee voted unanimously the urge the inclusion of teachers and School Employees in Phase One of covid vaccines and that's dated January 20 29th we got one going to the governor we've got one going to the commissioner of Department of Public Health one to our local Senator Mark Mony and one to our house representative Chris okay we've done our part if they're not moving off their backsides to vaccin teachers then maybe the teachers union and the MTA have got to reel in their sources and you know start stepping on toes and raising their voices type of deal but you know with all due respect yeah I want teachers vaccinated I want kids back in class no disrespect to Dr gford her and I had a discussion I voted against the plan that she put together in in August because I wanted everybody and I still want everybody back and I think what she's given us is a great plan I just would no disrespect to Dr gford I wish it included middle and high school I understand but I want middle I want you know all for argumentative sake 4,000 of our students back in front of their teachers okay I want done with tekka because I'm sick of hearing what's going on with you know and all the other issues that are going on I've had it I want the kids back in the classroom I want the teachers face to face with the students so that everything is good thank you Mr chairman I'm done vending you are very welcome Mr Nunes uh always appreciate your your thoughts I what's that tell it like it is nope I we appreciate that I I appreciate it all my uh fellow committee members um you know Ju Just a just a couple of things um after listening to what everyone had to say um I think it's important to note that um have we reached out I know at the beginning Dr gford we um you know we serve parents we put information out to parents have we done anything similar to that as far as getting the ball rolling on if they would send their student on their bus if they would feel comfortable sending their sending their students back um fully if we were to go back full-time I'm just curious if we have any data on any of that no we haven't done anything since no okay is that something that maybe I'm not saying it we need to but what are your thoughts do you think it's worthwhile just to get a a the just check the temperature lack of a better term check the temperature in the room for you know our our our parents our families I think it it would especially if we if we put in place like at least I'll say a tentative plan let's say we went with the the dates we proposed tonight again not knowing if something's going to happen along the way we can always back off of that but to know I think the bus transportation is really important we had a pretty good um Sense on that the last time although I think Mr Kylie also plans for everyone just in case but and to have a sense of my my thinking is no parent that is already in Virtual is going to want to now come back be now that we have more kids in um so I'm curious I'm curious about what that data might show sure uh Mrs Amaral I I also worry if we I mean surveying parents to some degree we surveyed out but um I think if we did anything like that it would be important to really emphasize um that it's to take the temperature because um if you we all mention we we know we've delete Facebook every other week or I do because I'm just so you you know frustrated with the comments but um it's it's just heartbreaking but I think that we um inadvertently sort of weren't clear about it when we surveyed parents the beginning of the of the year it was to take the temperature to know what we were working with and then Dy came along and said you need to do three pans and then you got to you got to do your six feet apart or then they said well 3 feet and then we wanted to air on the side of caution we went 6 feet I don't need to repeat history it's like bang heads against the wall but um I'm full of it tonight so um but I think that we if we did a survey we would have to be very clear because I think we're going to have a lot of people say oh yeah another one of their surveys and they're going to just do the opposite of what what we say and so we would have to be really clear that it it would be to take the temperature and to to Dr gord's Point um you know I'm I would I would wonder the value in the I mean any data is valuable but you know nobody in Virtual is going to you know we've heard a lot of people that want to go full in person we've also heard a lot from a lot of people who are appreciative of the fact that we have been airing on the side of caution um but if we did a survey my vote to to say to repeat myself three times uh is to just be clear about it being a taking the temperature and not a you know you got first place you got second place you got third place you know and and it's it's it's law no very fair point Thank you Mrs amiral on another note Dr gford um I know in speaking with some of my other colleagues in other districts other school committee members in other districts that um at least as far as I I'm concerned the the TR Town Mary and matap poit Rochester they are fully back K through two only right now um I'm not sure about um I know cushion it is also moving in that direction I'm not sure about Fair Haven are you aware of any districts that have already committed to and I know Freetown Lakeville did something funky with bringing back transition grades whether it was like five or six and then maybe eth grade and ninth grade are you aware of any districts in the area that um that have gone full in full door um yeah other than what you've just mentioned I also know that Berkeley actually started today with full um inperson uh similar to what we were speaking about transitioning over the next couple of weeks I don't have the exact uh data with me but that came through an email um he was just letting us know and I believe um Swansea has put out a notice to their parents that they're going to be moving in this direction as well Dr gford is that just Elementary when you say full in person I just clarify that okay that's what I know right now yeah but I know Berkeley started today with one or two of their grades okay um was that at Berkeley Middle School though or just at the elementary level guys yeah like like an elementary at the elementary level so so right now there's no other districts that you're aware of at the middle school and high school level um nobody's made any Outreach to me to let me know I inquire I I've reached out I've tried to do my research and speak to people uh Mr Nunes did you have a question and then Mrs wait yeah Mr chairman I'm going to make a motion that we approve the superintendent's recommendation of March 29th bring prek and K back March uh April 5th grades 1 three and five and April 12th grades two and four back full do I have a second Mary are you saying something you're I just I just want to ask a question real quick before we well we need we need a second then we have then we can have discussion okay I don't know how I feel about that you can vote against it you can just have yeah at this point uh the motion fails because we haven't had a second Mr NES sorry uh Mrs weit I just was um scanning quickly if you know so we've gotten some emails that have come in during our discussion not surprisingly but um one of the one of the thoughts I you know one of the points that or questions that came up I think you know is certainly something we can discuss quickly is you know have you seen you know we're talking about these schools coming back have you seen any schools every in person you know whether it's private you know that are let me start that are utilizing three feet social distancing have you been able to see any of those like in operational like guess that's that's kind of the question I'm trying to spit out sorry to stumble over that but the only one I saw was today when we went over to Stang because they were again it's a high school but you did visit there to see how the desks were set up Etc um so as far as an elementary school I haven't visited any and do they have as many does Stang have as many students per classroom typically that we would have in a typical say like ninth grade social studies course I mean do they have as many students per class I honestly don't know I do know looking at the schoool the classrooms are a lot bigger right and all those things are really important because we have you know when we talk about you know people say like well you know we need to look at other school I think that is important like the classroom size is critical to this you know and how many students that we're talking about trying to do in those classrooms so okay that was M thank you Mrs White Mr nin yeah in in all seriousness Mr chairman I mean you're talking apples and oranges in the sense of you're talking a a a public public school and you're talking a private school where parents are paying tuition so they with all due respect they the kids are going to have their no that of grindstone the parents are going to make sure that the kids and everyone and the staff is everybody is behaving themselves and doing what they have to do to keep you know social distancing and masks and such so that everybody can stay in school so I personal opinion your your apples and oranges between public and parochial and private schools no different than the CH schools or and you know the parochial elementary schools in the city of New Bedford thank you Mr Nunes um with with that um myself uh I'm only ready to to vote on and I don't even know do do we even need to take a vote is this is this a committee uh Vote or is this just uh based on uh you know Dr this under Dr gord's control I think with this important decision I mean normally we just do what we do but I mean a vote just to see or if you just want to have consensus it it it's helpful I guess I think we need to have I think it's a vote of the in all seriousness Chris at this point in time because of where we are and what's going on I think a vote of the committee to uh support the superintendent with what the administration wants to do to bring students back is is important I agree I I would certainly agree with that with that I'm going to say I will say this I I'm prepared to approve um PK and K uh for that March 29th um I'm I'm not ready to approve anything else at this time until we see how that roll out goes I think we need to look at long the long run I think we need to have a plan in place that if um staff and Educators were to get vaccinated say by the end of April um that we're we're ready to go to open fully um but I can't I cannot support and then also to um John's point I also in addition to the email addition to the letters that I signed on behalf of the do school committee I individually emailed uh Mark montigney Chris Mary I had a conversation with Mr Mary I've had a conversation with the president of masc Glenn coocher to get his feeling on the commission stance and what and everything that's going on um so with that you know I I still have serious reservations and concerns about student safety um staff safety um you I live it I live it every day and besides my my job here on my volunteer position here on school committee as many of you know I I do work in another school district um my family is extremely extremely careful around this virus um and it struck us both myself my wife and my daughter all came down with Co this is nothing to joke around with um this is extremely it's it's it's scary and it causes a lot of anxiety not not just to adults make no mistake about it that it's just adults it's students I started my own daughter so this is very personal to me um so that's why I just I I think I don't think that any one of us disagrees that we want we don't want every single student back in school I don't think that the teachers don't want every single student back in school we want everyone back in school it's easier it's easier for everyone to to teach it's easier for teachers to teach it's easier for all of us to do our jobs when the students are back in school um so I can only at this point in time I I appreciate that motion Mr NES but I can I can only support it and that's fine we can whoever wants to make make a motion uh we can see where it goes I'm only one vote uh Mrs Amaral I I I certainly don't want this to be this is not a kicking down the curve but we're meeting next week and we just had the director you know we just had Chris Mish show here talking about the next week and uh you know to John's point about you know being supportive of what is nothing's going to I would like to see high needs kids come back tomorrow but the uh the nothing's going to change in terms of you know planning is still happening is there a chance that the committee would be agreeable to sort of wait to see what the numbers do for the next week in terms of the I'm just putting I just thought of it I just coming out of my mouth as I'm thinking of it no so you're thinking it's not going to make I'm looking at faces if you want my with all du respect if you want my opinion the quicker we put this in motion right wrong or IND different the quicker we put this in motion everybody it gives them more time to get everything in place that again my opinion only okay yeah I go I go back to a year ago when Mr Oliver Chris and I had a had a conversation on a Thursday or a Friday afternoon I think it's next week per say a year ago and we were talking about covid and that type of deal and I said to him I said look I says I prefer to keep the schools open and let it ride and see what happens however whatever the superintendent wants to do I support but she's got to make the decision per se on Friday because she can't make that decision to shut schools down at 10 o'clock on a Sunday night for a week if you understand what I'm saying because of child care decisions of course the governor took that out of our hands don't get me wrong but understand what I'm saying the more time that we have to get this going and they have to get this working and get the plan in place the better off we are my op I do agree that we need we owe it to the parents and the families in this town to give them the time time to plan um any other thoughts I I person like I said I I'm I'm ready to approve looking to bring bring prek and K back to 29 as far as the next grades what is it um one and two um you know I'm just maybe we St we look to stagger them out I think you had set them up and I don't have the dates in front of me I can't find it in my papers Dr gford but are they backtack weeks or are there two weeks apart back to back weeks okay but it's April 5th is 1 third and fth coming in Chris and then April 12th is second and fourth so it's not you know first and second on April 5th it's you still bring in those you know that older grade of the fifth on the fifth helps so what if we do this what if we space out the the return two weeks apart instead of a week apart just to give us some just to give us some some room to make sure that because there's clearly there's going to be logistical challenges one way or the other bringing two grades back at a time that first time uh with prek and K and then the ne then the next week with the three grades there's going to be logistical challenges um so are we okay with trying I'm just trying to get something out there I agree with Mr noones that we need to we need to do something tonight um to get the ball rolling um I I would feel better I would feel better with a couple of weeks apart um and then hopefully in the meantime that educators are going to start getting vaccinated along with school staff yeah Mr Mr chairman yes Mr NES yeah I mean the problem you have is you've got the week you know if you space if you go to the the 29th with the prek and the K and then you wait till the 12th well okay those uh 1 three and five are only going to be in a week and then the week of the 19th is April vacation so now you're waiting till the 26 to the 26 so now you're you know basically going to May 3rd you're already into May before you're bringing back the way I would read it you know grades two and four and at that point in time you are just about dead in the water my opinion of bringing back middle and high school students what is would there would it be possible Dr one Mrs way would it be possible Dr gford to to maybe move up to would you be ready for prek and K in March 22nd I believe we are but uh Mr Kylie you know the number of deaths we would need at that point I think we can manage that I think maybe with just K and prek we could right accomplish that we'd have to yeah steal some and yeah figure it all out but we probably could do it I'm sorry Mrs wait yeah no I just wanted to go back though to Dr G and you know this is circling around to something really again I'm still frustrated about mcast you know still happening but think the the rationale also for staggering for those particular weeks was that the kids would adjust before they were you know forced to sit for that you know and that would be a you know a problem you know and again getting back to Mr nun's point that then we're hitting vacation I just you know it sounds like it you know it sound that we're not dealing directly with middle school and high school but I got the impression that they might that might not even be part of the conversation anyway that that's not what we're dealing with but um I just I I can see that as if if we're having these kids do it I'm stumbling I apologize but I I just I could see that that's you know that's an issue that we've gotta we've got to let them have some time to settle in before they jump into this so Mrs ameral you to your hand up I forget what my question is I would like though um with what you just said a reiteration of the timeline if you don't mind because I've written so many notes down yes I've lost myself I agree with you and if you could say uh adjust it to what Chris just said um say perhaps if we're able to bringing back prek and K what did you say Chris on the 202nd the 22nd yeah so you're saying establish a new timeline Mrs Amaral based on the 22nd I think that's what she said then are you thinking the 5ifth and the 12th and Skip wait a minute I'm looking at a calendar I don't think that same issue leave a week is that what you're saying yes so prek and K on March 22nd so and then two weeks out on April 5th 5th would be one three and five yeah so really the only thing that shifts is the pekk and that gives time in between to see how the how it's going I guess is what you're looking at Chris let me ask this do do we then bring two and four back on the 26 the week after vacation or we bring him back to 12th I'd like to see him back on the 12th yeah I don't know for that hoping that vaccines are in place [Music] and it's before the vacation mcast again without mcast we can we'll manage around it I mean we again go back to the 29th we had we had Chris signed letter the 25th and Chris wrote on the 20 you know the 29th and he signed the letters to to everybody that said put the you know put the mcast aside for this year yeah clearly the state only wants to listen to us when they feel like it amen Dr gford I'll I'll defer to you as the I'll defer to you and Mr Kylie on the call as far as what do you think um for the bringing back um second and fourth before or after April vacation I know the logistics involved it's huge I'd like to strive for before vacation and giving Mr Kylie a little bit he's already looked into the purchasing again I hate to keep saying about tasks but unfortunately it is a point of you know if we could pull everything we have out of the storage and just use it that's a different point of view but um I I think if we set those dates and if we have to when it gets closer move them a little bit forward it won't be a a deal breaker if you will um unless we I'm just looking at a calendar here pekk on the 22nd 1 and five on the 29th if we go right along and just bring fewer than we had Chris yes yeah I mean again are we looking at bringing 1 three and five back on the 29th or again going with that two we I i' like to I'd personally like to see two week you know and again all right so the 29 I mean you know bring look I'd like if we're doing that I mean I'd still like to bring two and four back on the 12th so that they're in before they at least get a week in before school vacation let's shoot for that we can always adjust our plans and we give people enough time to make plans if we say the 22nd we start with pekk 45135 for April 5th we do one three and five and the 12th we do two and four again we can shift our plans if something's come up we don't feel that it's right but it gives us something to shoot for you know we've already talked about bringing like I said furniture out of the storage getting classroom set up thinking about lunches all of that is in place already it's just to give a tentative date to parents I think and teachers we have the eighth set aside for teachers to plan um yeah that's fine maybe we'll all vaccines by [Laughter] then I will um I will I I will support that I'm reluctant to support it I know we need our kids back in school but we also you know yeah it's it's so it it's so tough It's so tough and you know obviously Dr gford and Mr Kylie if you feel as though you know some of these benchmarks can't be hit because of whether it's furniture or whether it's Staffing yeah um plea please let the committee know and keep us updated right because that's another Point you're right Staffing as well so I I think I I personally think you know there's there'll be a number of hurdles that we have to uh get over in order to make this all happen so um I don't know does anyone else have any any other thoughts before we uh yes Mrs Amaral just uh not to sort of just beat this over and over I I would like to see this return in these grades also include um a deeper dive into kiddos who really you know in our middle you know if we approve this those kids that are in the higher levels um you know yeah um prioritizing them for iners as well you know so is it would it be fair to say then with Mi uh with Kathleen's statement Dr gford that maybe by our next meeting we can have that conversation on the agenda about or just you can brief us quickly on what your thoughts are and plans are with after speaking with the Middle School and High School administration about getting those kiddos back um that would benefit from in-person learning um because for one reason or another yes we can do that yeah we'll see what I can dig up okay thank thank you uh welcome you're M muted Chris with that chair will entertain a motion to approve a return to school plan uh for prek and K uh starting on March 22nd followed by grades 13 and five on April 5th and followed by grades two and right am I yeah and yep and then grades two and four on April 12th I'll make that motion ear so I have so I have a motion by Mr Nunes a second by Mrs weight um on the motion any other discussion uh the only caveat that I'll add to this is I would just ask Dr Giffin and Mr Kylie that if you get word from um Mr Mard with dater obviously you know that those are published weekly anyway um so the public will be will be aware of changes in in uh covid positives so I would just ask you to keep an eye and as always like you like you normally do keep in touch with I'm just mean sure and I just like to say again that you know for all the parents in the community that's watching I just hope everyone reaches out and again it emphasizes that we need vaccines and we need to prioritize our staff I mean that you know we've done it we've we've sent a note you know I just hope that you know parents who want their kids back that they you know they see it's the you know we need to have our staff be safe and you know they are the they're on the front lines with our kids they make they make the experience for them so we need them to be protected and safe and so we it's a community effort to get that to happen here and and somebody please understand that we are doing we being the committee and administration along with Mr misho and everyone else are doing the best that we can do based on the information and everything that we have right no I I agree it's just it's it's extremely frustrating as we're all aware that the state as well as the Department of Education is is still um conducting their work as far as I'm concerned uh from home yeah yeah so with that roll call roll call yes roll call thank you no problem Chris Oliver yes Kathleen Amaral yes Mary weit yes John NOS yes motion passes unanimously 4 to zero and I know I've we've said it a number of times please get K12 public staff vaccinated Governor Baker and commissioner Riley please and again math the the teachers Mass teachers union has got to get you know their body to uh get to uh the executive branch up on uh up on the hill as they say no you hit you hit the nail on the head Mr NOS with that go ahead Mrs wait no Dr ke just a note came in you know again and and I'm we're all probably getting the same emails but a parent just asked and I think it's a good question if you are not comfortable and I know we touched on this before sending your child back you're comfortable with hyber you're not comfortable with the move can you switch to full online that was the question how can I let them figure full virtual that's that's a fair point this is wait there we go I think I I think the best thing would be for that parent the particular parent to I don't want to make a blanket statement because the way the curriculum is and where the student is you know if it's a high school student it might be different than I I assume I think it's an elementary student parent that that that's my impression so and I have to say our Virtual Academy is really at full capacity so if it was a number of students that would certainly be a big conversation okay thank you so piggybacking I know we need to get to the budget and I know we're running well over um our our anticipated time but really quick um I think it's important for our next meeting to have in the agenda um because we know there's going to be like Mary said those parents are not going to want to send their kids in at the elementary level so I think just something for you uh Dr gfin and your team to think about yes among a million things right yeah among that's right uh with that at this time I would like to turn the meeting over to uh assistant superintendent of finance and operations James Kylie for the fy22 budget presentation thank you Mr Oliver I think Dr gford is actually gonna start us off actually given the we did talk about this today but given the late time I I'm gonna allow Mr Kylie to just move it along you know the uh intro to what how we develop our budget Etc nothing new but um I'm going to let Mr Kylie dig right in okay I will share my screen here so um I guess first I just want to thank you all for the opportunity to discuss the uh fy22 budget with the the lateness tonight I was wondering if it really was going to happen um so you know again so every year we talk about this and you know we we we try and make all of these budget decisions thoughtful and um and in line with the district Improvement plan plan uh with the school Improvement plans with our mission and again our mission uh is to provide a quality education for all Learners we have um these haven't changed these are our strategic objectives in each of um you know the key areas of our strategic plan um and they are sort of set the backdrop for our school Improvement plans that that um you know ultimately drives the the school proposal in the budget process some of the key things that we look to in our process is obviously trying to maintain and improve upon what we're already doing um and that becomes increasingly difficult with um you know the pressure that we're under in terms of resources at this point and Staffing but um you know we're focused on on making sure that we provide the supports and and uh quality programs and continue to you know offer those to the community uh through this budget we are constantly trying to enhance the technology infrastructure and Equipment um it's never been more important than it is right now today um and you know that's been a process that I think has paid off and the support that we've had through the town Through The Years um has really allowed us to be successful in our remote learning stages and our um hybrid learning and synchronous learning and uh you know it's really it's been evident that that was a a major factor in the success that we have had through this crisis um in in addition to all the effort that we've made to enhance technology in teaching and learning through our instructional technology Specialists and Mr gashaw and his staff um and uh you know it's it's and obvious VI ly all the all the teaching staff it's made a big difference for us uh class size always a thing that we need to keep in mind um you know we we I I provided in your budget packets some enrollment information I wouldn't look too closely um you know in terms of comparing that to last year because obviously this year is uh an extremely complex um situation where you have more students doing other things than normally would in terms of homeschooling private school um virtual learning certainly um so it's it's it's been difficult um possibly delaying school and entering school late for the youngsters uh entering kindergart that's something that we're anticipating and and you know hopefully we'll do our best to be prepared for um we are always looking to enhance curriculum instruction and assessment uh increasing our support for all Learners you'll see some of our budget proposals directly clearly TI tied to that uh increasing our capacity for social emotional mental health support um also you know part of those proposals and um supporting professional development for you know for our staff so when you look at um when you look at our budget for fy2 2 we're proposing a budget of 47,3 38,6 65 so the big piece of the pie is the green piece on your screen uh is the instruction category naturally it's about 75% of our budget uh it includes teacher salaries principals um teacher assistants substitutes other instructional staff instructional technology professional development special education servic um books supplies lots and lots of stuff everything that happens in most everything that happens in the classroom uh is incorporated into that 75% piece of the pie the next biggest piece of the pie is other services so other services according to the Department of Ed classifications include things like Transportation um which is one of the most expensive individual items in the district attendance um health so um you know Spotlight on health this year for sure with our nurses and the amazing work they're doing um that's that part of the budget supports their work uh Athletics other co uh co-curricular activities like music um art and all clubs all of that is in other services then we have uh maintenance and so that's maintenance and utilities that's about 8% of our budget um so it's it's a substantial portion of what we do maintaining these aging buildings U that was brought up earlier tonight um and you know we do our best to do that within uh within the parameters between this funding and the capital Improvement planning process we have uh administrative expenses about 2% of the budget so that would be districtwide Administration um administrative technology is included in there that's sort of districtwide and um probably the other largest item in that would be legal services that's about 2% of our budget overall and the last piece of the pie there is tuitions for out of District um out of District students so students who can't be served in District um that's about 4% of our overall budget so you know in preparing this fy22 budget we we um we'll talk a little bit coming up on on some of the other slides about our thought process and what we were trying to accomplish but um really the in the end these proportions are consistent with what we've spent uh the last couple of years so this slide uh shows on the instruction side of the budget U an increase of about 3% so that increas is related primarily to contractual obligations for salaries um and negotiate negotiated items uh it also includes some reclassified expenses because the department of Ed likes to Monkey around with the chart of account structure uh periodically and switch things from one category to another which they've done with technology expenditures and some administrative categories so overall uh instruction up about 3% it's the by far the largest increase in in uh in terms of category and about a million dollar increase right there in instruction on the administration uh side of the budget we have a decrease um we've restructured couple of positions the assistant superintendent director of teaching and learning position we are proposing a restructuring as well as uh my assistant and the transportation reception position that um so those are both through attrition obviously Miss Roy retiring and um and my assistant uh resigned over the summer and we've made some restructuring moves there to help save some money in the district we um on maintenance and utilities that's basically stable uh on other services we definitely anticipate so Mr noones mentioned you know we're we're out to bid right now on Transportation we'll have some hard numbers um fairly soon I have a a pre-bid conference on Wednesday and a bid opening next week um hopefully if all goes well with that we'll have something to bring to you for a vote at some point in the near future um but we we'll definitely have an increase in transportation costs it's it's um it's pretty amazing what we've um we've had to do in transportation throughout this uh throughout this covid crisis and and and yeah I not to get back into the school reopening talk but um it definitely is in congruous the way this guidance suddenly shifted um so you know we'll we'll I don't know it doesn't make a lot of sense going from what we were doing to what we're doing uh in terms of in terms of Transportation but we'll you know we'll obviously do our best to keep kids safe and continue to do that um our transportation provider has been has been great working us with us on that so you know we um we're not quite sure what it's going to look like in the fall but um we are out to bid so hopefully we have some numbers for you in the near in the near future also the minimum wage increase um some of our staff uh like particularly our playground cafeteria monitors uh very closely tied to the minimum wage um that minimum wage increase uh you know is is built in to to those U positions in other services and then tuitions we expect an increase uh based on you know student needs as well as the fact that that uh annually um those those u schools receive a increase approved by the department of Ed so overall that brings us to the bottom line which is is a $1,751 th000 increase about 3.88% so what did we do within that um and you know the the sad thing is you'd look at 3.8% and say okay they must be doing some you know adding some great things and and I think we are adding some good things we're just not adding a lot of them um we have proposed adding an Outreach social worker uh there's a there's a part-time person at the kushman school we'd be expanding that position to full-time we are also proposing another social worker um full-time for the district it won't be that person will not be um allocated to one specific school but will'll be able to support several schools in the district and then a specialized reading program uh this is something that we really we really don't have a choice we have to do this um it's been something that uh that we need to support students with dyslexia so those are really the only things outside of the norm uh and Status Quo that we've added to the budget at this point so this uh there there's you know a lot of positions listed on here I I won't speak to every single one but I I think of particular note so this is sort of our plus and minus Staffing for the year um so overall we we've decreased positions four positions net in for fy22 in this budget um we have the 1.5 Outreach social workers that I discussed on the previous slide and and you know if there's ever been a time that we need to support kids social and emotional health this is the time and um you know there were proposals before now um that were presented pretty much on an annual basis by some of the schools and um and now it's just you know it's so obvious to us that we need to we need to focus on this and and make sure that as as we do come back um and bring kids back into school um more fully that that we're able to support them so we um also listed there are the positions that we have proposed that we've restructured at this point um so those are listed as well as some other pluses and minuses through the uh you know through that have either already taken place through the year that we've sort of had to adjust or um you know are are proposed down the road um for next year so the two restructuring that would be a net result of 1.7 FTE uh you know decreased on the on the administration side there budget requests not funded I this is not an exhaustive list I did not write every single budget requests not funded but um but I think the the one of the keys on this slide is to look at uh the Outreach social worker positions that while not funded directly uh the way schools might have wanted them um we are hoping to be able to support them nonetheless um some other requests not specifically funded on this list we hope to be able to support through school choice funding um as we have been able to do in the past that would be more the one-time purchases typically not Staffing we've you know we've tried everything we can to to not use that funding for Staffing as it might not be you know permanent source for us um we don't want to go in that direction but you know you're looking at $600,000 of other requests out there um so it's it's you know substantial um amount of requests and these are you know thoughtful thoughtful proposals for the schools many of which would I mean they all would have had a positive impact on students and unfortunately weren't able to be incorporated into the into the budget this year so um those are the factors that make up our fy22 budget proposal um I have provided you all with an electronic version of the budget um we tried to improve it this year it has the it's not just a regular PDF it has some tabs built into the PDF so if you download it and look at it that way you should uh it should be a little bit of a easier experience um and we and we still have extra Books available if anyone would like a a hard copy budget book I'd be happy to provide it um all the backup information is in there I'm available we you know our hope is that over the next uh couple of you know we have really now a couple of school committee meetings uh to be able to you know have have good thoughtful discussion with the school committee um about this budget proposal Our Hope would be to still have the public budget hearing on March 22nd but you know we could be flexible with that if the committee needs it um and we will go from there so I appreciate finally getting the opportunity to present this thing and uh look forward to talking with you about it I'd be happy to answer any questions you might have great thank you very much uh Mr Kylie I I always appreciate I know I speak for the committee when I say we always appreciate uh the level of detail that you do put into your budget not only your presentations but your budget binders uh that you share with the school committee to really look at uh the finite details of of the school department budget to help us uh get a better understanding of our uh fiduciary responsibilities uh that we have as a school committee um so I think that's really important um i' I'd be lying if I said I was not I was excited and I was not disappointed um but the the percentage which was I don't have it in front of me was 3.7 3.8 yeah three 3.8% and what we're really looking at getting for that um it's uh it's a little disheartening um I know that you've had conversations um I I know you're always in contact with Town Hall and what's coming out of there um so I'll be curious over the next couple of weeks as we continue the the committee continues to you know have discussions around the budget and with you um you know if anything changes or um I'm really curious as uh at the transportation bid as well um because that'll that'll be a big big key um I'll I'll open it up for any quick questions I know we're kind of I know we're all kind of burnt out right now it's almost quarter past nine um obviously the budget is a big deal um and at least we had the opportunity for Mr Kylie to present it I'd love for us to continue um you know maybe take this back digest it a little bit more and then be prepared of at the next school committee meeting um to ask questions um you know and or also if there's something that some data that maybe uh Mr Kylie wouldn't have uh readily available that you would uh email him your questions in advance if it's around finances that um so he could have that that information available um and ready to go um but I will open it up uh for for question questions for anyone that may have something right now um I'll start with Mr n your first on my screen thank you Mr chairman uh Jim thank you very much uh first and foremost what time is that uh pre-bids conference on Wednesday with the uh I believe it's at 10: just let me uh let me confirm that yeah I mean if you just shoot me a text or an email and confirm it I'm it's at 10 am here at Bush Street we've reserved the conference room obviously social distancing and yeah okay I'm going to try and pop in if that's okay okay uh number two uh thank you very much for this I again I haven't had a chance to dive into it but uh as you and I have talked a couple of times uh I will and I will sit down and give you a call to uh to go over things but uh thank you very much and and again my in all seriousness uh my thanks to all the administrators you know both the building and the and the special you know I think of uh Mr christop foly and uh as the Director of Athletics on heal and fette and uh Mr Flint who's the music director of music you know for putting things you know for putting you know together you know reasonable budgets you know I and I again I'm always one of those that I always like to see you know what did we get you know what did we not get and you know to you know to have you know the amount of money you know we're not too too bad this year I think it was 500,000 a little over $500,000 that we couldn't fund per se type of deal but again it's not things that you know they're not pie in the skies they're not uh you know it's not somebody looking for uh you know a Maserati or Alexus or you know something of of of that nature I mean they looking for you know Chevrolets and Hondas type of deal to uh just to keep their program going so I I appreciate everything that uh that they have and I guess my last comment is is well my next to the last comment is uh again my usual you know again if we were at where the state says we should be we'd have another $8.5 million dollars and we wouldn't have to sit here and have many of the these discussions type of deal but it is what it is that being said in all seriousness Kylie have you heard anything from town hall slash the state I know the governor's budgets outed when I looked at it I was not impressed but you know have you heard anything you know in conversation with uh Mr bonds and Mr mcginness as to where things are looking for the town I know they're kneed deep into putting everything together yeah I you know they they challenges for sure I think I think from you know the the one thing about the governor the governor's budget well not um not going to save us or be you know be this uh you know this this incredible source of uh you know fueling our success on the other hand it wasn't a decrease um you know there is an increase to the town in funding and um any increas is good I think at this point in time given the uncertainty that you know that's out there I would I would say anything but a decrease I can I can I can handle I I'll say that the town got some some very favorable information in terms of U health insurance which is always a big factor in the overall budget of the Town um so I I think although we don't have the specific information as to um our rate rating and why we got a good rate um it looks like the you know the town's health insurance is about going to be about a 1% increase um and then may also incorporate a u a payment holiday which would the net result of which would be a decrease for staff for next year um now that's also a decrease on the on the town side um you know or at least only a you know modest incre you very small increase so um certainly less than I'm sure what they were projecting so I I think that was really good favorable information um I don't think that's gonna that's going to um you know offset the difficulties of um tax revenue and and you know given the pandemic but but um there's a there's a lot of I think I think we're probably behind where we would be in terms of uh knowing where this budget's going that's probably no surprise to you Mr NS and probably not to anyone else but yeah we're we're a little behind schedule on that thank you Mr chairman I'm good I appreciate again my thanks to uh the administration and all the building administrators and the directors for their hard work and getting this and and all seriousness you know uh the budget subcommittee you know our budget subcommittee for uh for looking at this I appreciate the work you guys have put into this thank you Mr Nunes anyone else Mrs weit I was gonna toose you and say that I have about 20 questions to ask right now why don't we hold most of them till the next meeting no I I do want to you know say you know first of echo what again um John and have said that you know this is tremendous amount of work you know so thank you thank you everybody the budget sub committee um I also you know I know we're going to be revisiting this um Dr Jenkins is not here I think she you know all she often brings up the point that you know the amount that money Revenue that we in this town commit to our students is is not what we need to really and it's amazing what we're able to achieve given the the small budget that we have I I'm it's late I apologize but I think you know I it it's just incredible what we're able to do what our staff put out what they you know what our administrators are able to work with I mean and I'm you know I think every school you know gets certainly is dependent on you know for the enrichment programs on their PTO so I'm very grateful to you know those people who you put the hard work in raising money too um it's just you know really a a testament to the dedication of so many people but you know we we should have more to work with than we do and so I'm very impressed with what you know what you've put on the table and and again I and to you to your point you know underscoring and emphasizing that we need to have social emotional support for these kids and we know that's in front of us you know I know we'll be talking more about this next week but um yeah I just uh I get kudos overall and uh a job well done so thank you thank you Mrs we um anything else Mrs Amaral um yeah thank you for for uh this um a lot it's late I just I have more of a uh tongue and cheek sort of commentary on desie again sorry Department of Elementary and secondary education um I just wanted to mention I'm happy to see the dyslexia you know the the the um the money sort of put aside and some things that we have to do um but I just want to note that this has uh historically been an issue um but the department of Elementary and secondary Education First brought this up in 2016 uh and then there was the you know the the law in 2018 so I'm just really glad they gave themselves two years to put out guidance and and that's just my fresh commentary but I'm glad to see it coming to fruition but love how they gave themselves a lot of time to figure it out thank you Kathleen uh with that I do have a number number of questions uh Mr Kylie and Dr Gord but I will reserve them um for our next meeting I think that's fair to say uh but I do appreciate uh once again taking the time and um always being so thoughtful about the around the budget process so I look forward to continuing this conversation uh with with my colleagues I know we're all uh we're all burnt out uh We've uh it's been a long evening I appreciate the thoughtful discussion I know base I know that um we're not going to make everyone happy we clearly have we will never make everyone happy and that's the positions that we're in and it is what it is and for those of you them those of the viewing public that are watching if you know if you're if you're not happy and you're you're always frustrated I encourage you to run for elected office so a lot it's a lot different on this side than it is out there Mr chairman that you know what Mr Nunes uh you could say that more than anyone else from your tenure on the school committee uh but eight years ago me um sitting in the audience and watching school committee meetings and now sitting where I am now um it's it's a thankless job but I'm I'm dedicated I know that all of you are dedicated I have a vested interest with my my my High School freshman at dmouth high high that loves her that loves loves Dartmouth and bleach green and um you know we do this for them so uh I thank you all at this time I will um before before I adjourn i' just like to say uh the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Adas school committee is scheduled for Monday March 8th 2021 at 6:30 Mr n you had a question or you want comment real quick uh have we heard anything on the voke minutes I just happen to be catching a school committee a v school committee the other night and was just wondering if we've heard anything from them on the minutes um I have not um I do vaguely remember have I'm not sure in passing if I had a conversation with superintendent O'Brien about what what specifically you were looking for I believe I can find out for sure that this was because I know that you had brought that up several months ago yeah um so I can certainly look um try to follow up with either Mr O'Brien or one of our one of our reps to voke okay that's fine Mrs Amal I just had some announcement I wanted to share um that anybody that would uh you know uh would consider I think this is a great time to do so I love when we can uh acknowledge both our students our and our staff uh but the department of Elementary and secondary education is is currently um uh accepting applications to nominate a teacher of the year uh the teacher of the year award uh honors Massachusetts teachers who exemplify excellent teach teaching in the Commonwealth it goes on to give a little bit more in detail but anyone that's watching anyone that um that is really grateful uh for the learning although different although less than previous years in some respects uh I think that um it would be um really great if people could think about nominating the teacher you can just Google Massachusetts teacher of the year it'll come up um the deadline is March 8th thank you anyone else Mr chairman make a motion to adour Second thank you I have motion by Mr Nunes and second by Mrs we on to adjourn on the motion any further discussion typically this wouldn't be a roll call but since we're remote roll call please miss gther m Oliver yes Kathleen Amaral yes Mary weit yes John Nunes absolutely this meeting is adjourned to everyone thank you for your time and dedication good night everyone everybody thank you take care night

so it was really successful it was a great event we had tons of volunteers here yesterday it was great to see people come through i talked to several people that like this was the first time they had really been out in almost a year so and we're really excited about what this opportunity was going to offer them moving forward so we'll do this again for the second dose so those that received the first dose yesterday will come through for the second dose on the 21st and then what we'll continue to do is work with other pharmacies like the ones we've been talking to julasco mariano cbs walgreens and see if we can find a partnership there where they're looking for a space to run a community clinic and we know how to do it now ed and his team were fabulous over here they did all of the facility planning and making sure everything was set up and ready to go ken sorenson over at north high worked on making sure that we had it appropriately staffed for the day so it was a full team effort across the district and across the community so it was a really really energizing day to see everybody come through i'm still a little tired gina got me beat on footsteps because she was she was cleaning chairs i was the runner running back and forth through the building i think she beat me by a few thousand steps so but it was a it was a very successful day well i just want to give kudos to the staff and all the work that went in on yesterday i had a couple i saw a couple posts on facebook and also exchanged a couple texts about how well things were done so i really appreciate seeing everybody i came out yesterday for a few minutes and seeing everybody there and just the work you were willing to put in for that it was also interesting as i was sitting watching people come in to get the vaccination kind of the relief that you saw on people's face some people are almost kind of trotting in and they were just relieved so i think it's a great testament to our community and to our staff and the work that you guys are willing to do i think i referred to dr thiele yesterday as nurse so thank you guys for that there's a couple of pictures from the day yeah it was a good event thank you how did we notify the community members i saw a few things on facebook yeah community members we turned over to the villages to work on that i mean they have far more inroads with especially senior citizens than than we do it's a different demographic than what we serve so the villages really did a lot of work especially you know two weeks ago they thought they were only gonna have to reach out to a couple hundred people and it turned out to reaching out to hundreds of of people uh and you know unfortunately all of the sign ups for all of this are all online they're all digital so with some folks that took some hand-holding julie was fabulous because a lot of seniors called my office because you know it was the district 99 consortium so julie was working all week helping people get in even saturday morning she was talking to people on the phone and then she was the point of contact all day saturday or sunday so you know we did what we could to help but really the villages headed up the majority of that work thank you and my favorite picture of the day is the little styrofoam cooler that they carry in that has you know all of these vaccines and it's just crazy to see just somebody show up with a cooler you know it was just a little shocking that oh that's it you know there's like no fanfare right but a great day uh update in the last week on saliva screening you can see we're starting to post to our dashboard we have these metrics that we keep posting the community metrics our internal uh case data and now we're also added to that our saliva sample data so you can see that from the two weeks there was a lot of changes from week one to week two obviously going from required to voluntary but we also had a alternate schedule last week which threw a lot of students off as well because the days that the samples were due were different so you know i wouldn't ex extrapolate too much out from week one to week two we'll see how that goes you know moving forward and see what the trends build out but i know we heard from quite a few people that were concerned if we would hit that 10 percent number for the cdc additional guidance for screening numbers and the number of 10 was far surpassed by 47 percent any questions on that i saw that these university of illinois saliva test just got emergency approval from fda is that something that down the road that potentially could impact us here at some time yeah i think it's an additional tool it's a it's a far different test than what we do with our screening right especially with the fact that the samples have to be gathered on site where the screening we have now allow students to do it you know privacy of their home and then bring it to school right it's also a it's an official pcr test the the new one the shield test which is an advantage but there's about twice the cost associated as well so gina and scott as they evaluated the screening process did evaluate the shield product at that time knowing that it was going to be available to us soon i think the shield product probably fits a niche for us because it is a relatively low cost easy pcr test so i would think that it would be another tool available to us for families and students to take advantage of i do believe that a a community shield site is being set up in dupage county uh the health department has mentioned that i know i believe that uh senator curran has been actively working to get that in you know in in the county so um i would imagine you'll see that show up for the community sometime soon and just to review our planning from last week we formed the task force those invitations went out today i believe from ed and janus and then we're meeting on wednesday night thursday the leadership team is meeting to work on building potential schedule models what we will when we meet on wednesday night that core team will give us things that they want us to consider key themes ideas concepts that they would like for us to build in or try to build into those schedules as we pull all of the logistical pieces together remember we've got to fit guidelines we've got to fit just the the environments that we're working in the size of the building you know the structures all of those kinds of things limitations that are still there on social distancing and those kinds of things especially related to lunch periods uh together with our curriculum and and what we're trying to do instructionally throughout the day so we'll try to fold all of that together with their themes in mind over the next week and then next week we'll get out a survey last week when we met i neglected to leave the or to put the word family there just as we have surveyed students families and staff all year we'll continue to do that that'll go out with some of the big concepts that we're putting together for a full in-person schedule and next week we'll bring you to those big concepts with the or the next time we meet we'll bring you those big concepts uh with the feedback that we receive and then heading into spring break we'll get everything set up and ready to go and then we just wait for the metrics to get to a point where we could actually return in a full in-person model so we do anticipate additional guidance in the next week or so here from the illinois department of public health the biggest thing that we anticipate that we have heard is a change in the 50 per person limit or 50 percent per space limitation and at a school our size that is a hugely restrictive set of guidance you know we can't even get a full band program together in a space no matter how big that space is you know 50 people and you're trying to do lunch that's very restrictive right so we hope to see that guideline go away and just to go to the physical distancing and other safety guidelines and that will greatly impact our ability to plan for a full in-person return so that's kind of what we'll be up to over the next few weeks have you heard of any with the new guidelines that are coming out you mentioned that the 50 per room has there been any talk in illinois about the six feet i know other states have reduced or changed that six feet guidance i don't know what the direction illinois is looking at yeah we saw the cdc make that change based on metrics right and that's what we discussed last week with that change the dupage county health department in our meeting last week was mirroring the cdc language we're just waiting for idph and so illinois department of public health and the illinois state board of education to also issue guidance that mirrors that however we anticipate that that they've followed the cdc guidelines in their planning so i anticipate that the illinois guidance will reflect the cdc guidance as it has pretty closely in the past and then when our metrics are in those two lowest levels the lower minimal i think are the two lowest ones but you know we're below 50 cases per hundred thousand below five percent positivity rate when we're below both of those then this full in-person model will be on the table and available any other questions i think the difference in the with the current cdc and currently with idph it's it's six feet being mandatory versus six feet being as much as you can right is that that's that's the nuance that we're just now right the language that we've had through the first half of the year was all six feet of distance if possible right and then we were told to interpret that if you could design an instructional plan i.e the hybrid model that would keep everybody six feet away from one another then that's possible right that that's what we've been told to interpret that as so if you can design a plan to keep kids six feet apart and staff sexy that's the plan you need to go with the change that was made in the new guidelines was depending on where the community transmission metrics are there's an area that's that above 50 per 100 000 cases and a uh and above the five percent positivity rate you move into these realms where you must maintain six feet of social distancing you must right then when you drop into the lower two levels it's if possible meaning spread everybody apart do what you can instructionally to keep kids from mixing you know follow the other guidelines around contact racing and lunches and those kinds of things but if people are five and a half feet apart if they're four feet apart like that's okay you know because the community transmission levels are lower so that's what the you know they finally uh and then we had that webinar i described last week where the cdc really answered school's questions around what does if possible mean and i think we have collectively as schools have much clearer guidance from the cdc now than what we've had over the course of the year you know we have a lot of people watching at home so i thought it'd be good to just go back over that so thank you yep any other questions one other question do we anticipate i don't forget the colors but the the lowest end where we can go back full in person i think it was under 50 you know the blue and then at what level or aren't we looking at this for this year do we not offer remote anymore and and students have to be in school is that been addressed by the cdc that has not been addressed as far as illinois has indicated is that i fully expect that students will have that option through the end of the school year there's been no talk that that would change for this school year the cdc guidelines say that anybody with a medical reason for themselves or a family member should be provided that option whereas illinois says all students should be provided that option so far as we move forward we'll move forward with the intention that all students will be able to choose that option because like i said there's no indication that that would change at this time point in time however we are having discussions this week with the leadership team of how do we encourage students to come back you know now that we have we've established a pretty safe learning environment you know we've been back pretty steadily since winter break minus one week we're not seeing outbreaks at school we're seeing every week we check in with our team to make sure we're with fidelity following all the safety practices we are i mean you saw two weeks of screening data and you see the number of cases that are coming back in the screening are very very low and we we believe generally overall our students that are here in person are doing better than those that are fully remote i mean we have a lot to offer to our students when they're here with us so one of the things that we'll be discussing with our leadership team this week is how do we better inform people that it's safe to encourage people to come back to let them know we have space for them to be here you know our hybrid plan is designed so that every student can be here every day for half a day for four days a week right and that's far more days and far more frequency than many schools in the state offer especially large public high schools so i'm very proud of the plan we've put together i think we've proven we can do it successfully and safely and i'd love for no matter which area we're in if we're in the higher levels or the lower levels for as many students to come back and take advantage of it as possible i mean that's been our goal all year is to get students back to school in person i think our track record of success here too would hopefully be something that people can look at and in order to have confidence and and maybe alleviate some of the fears that people might have had early on um i would hope those screening numbers those the five though the first week the one the second week have those been confirmed positive coveted cases are they just positive for a viral load which could be they show a significant viral load it wouldn't be appropriate for me with the number small number to say what came next okay i mean it's just it'd be too easy to identify who we're talking okay it's okay i see so but to be clear that just because there's a positive on the screening doesn't mean that it's necessarily a positive positive covet number yeah it's uh one in ten thousand cases will be a false a false significant finding okay so it's a it's a strongly reliable uh process i see any other questions all right thank you oh boy i need a new clicker here all right few other things the next uh today is our first night talking about staffing for next year those of you that remember month year to year this is when we come to you and just give you a heads up that is part of the big conversation that we'll have on the 15th the staffing recommendations that we have that are outside of student course requests okay so the majority of what we will bring you in staffing in a couple of weeks is tied directly to the courses that students select and then we staff to meet what students want to participate in right we we try to bring you recommendations so that students can get as many of their requests filled as possible but every year there are courses that are outside of that we used to call these below the line type courses for those of you that have been here for a while but we've changed our our vocabulary to be the courses that are outside of the sectioning process okay and you'll see on here we have a few the biggest one of these is tied to t99 as the board is well aware our attendance is growing rapidly there so to keep up with that change in enrollment we need to add a staff member at t99 and you know we're building out you know we're going to build out that building a great deal over the summer as well so this is the staffing that we need to go along with that change and then the other two changes are related to social work and special services particularly tied to special education minutes we we're having we're seeing an increase in the number of special education students across the district and an increase in the amount of social work that goes along with that staffing need and those requirements so you'll see how this fits in on the 15th along with sectioning and all of our other staff recommendations but we always give you a heads up that these are going to be part of that recommendation in a couple of weeks so any questions on any of these hank i have a question um i guess do you foresee that these requirements would stay in place then you hate to hire somebody for one year and then let them go especially in this field you know so do you foresee that we're we're increasing the the employment but then we see that that trend will carry out for maybe five or ten years it's a good thing that scott came here tonight scott uh can you answer that question for me scott's been yeah no it's a fair question yeah yeah i'll we'll put you i would hope it would carry on space yeah hope the trend yeah i mean obviously when students qualify for special education they you know the team meets and talks about what kind of services that are are needed and then students have annual reviews and then they have a three-year re-avail so we you know that's usually when services are changed meaning that if you were going to remove services you would do that at the three-year re-avail time you can adjust obviously services along the way so like say when we're talking about the social work you might at the initial meeting determine how many minutes are needed and then adjust that it may be more the next year maybe more the next year or maybe less but we don't anticipate um this is a pretty solid number that we feel comfortable with for a long term to provide the support that we need because relationships develop from this and you hate to have a relationship develop and then oh next year now we don't have a spot for you you know no yeah yeah and i guess my answer would be is we've you guys have been great about supporting special education and adding services and we've added social work uh in in the past a couple years as well um and so you can see we're adding to it so it's not going the other way good um so yeah i think it'll maintain what you're looking for if that's consistency and getting to know the staff and things like that right the consistency that's the and we do it all based on numbers though so i mean that's how we kind of arrive at our different uh special ed needs for the fte for social work do we also anticipate so going into next year let's all be hopeful next year is a much more normal year than this year but you do have and i forgot the numbers exactly 45 percent here at south 25 or so at north students at least freshman through juniors who are remote all year you have the other side of the population that has been in and out of school all year do we need additional services as we start school next year to support that re-entry back into full-time everyday school do we have the supports we need to to to help the kids with that transition in the fall yeah i think there's two two pathways to answer that one is social emotional needs and i think you're seeing some of the response to that up here because you know this is related to special education but we you know we have a lot of resources around psychology social work counseling across the district this adds to that pool you know to share the workload that's going to be associated with that and then when we come back on the 15th gina will be talking about uh other interventions that were we'll be proposing to put in place but that will fall under the sectioned amount of of the fte that we bring you so on the 15th we'll bring you that whole picture and you'll see inside of that we are anticipating some need to support students in different ways next school year scott do you feel that this is a good number or did you like say we want this but we'll ask for this or no i feel like this is a solid number to help support and i think people like hank was saying you know if if we obviously didn't get these numbers to go through to get the support then our our social workers and teams that are working to support general education would pick up um pieces of the special ed realm you know of minutes and things like that so this is a perfect number to provide the support and then allow our general ed uh staff to take care of our general ed population of students do you feel good about these numbers yeah no i'm excited if we can approve this this would be solid for us good all right thanks for being here scott daniels thank you any other questions all right like i said no approval of this tonight this all comes back with the bigger picture on the 15th but this is always that first preview as we work that way okay finally just master facility plan updates just some quick images here that the projects that continue to come along the auditorium uh just fabulous space slowly coming into shape here or i guess quickly coming into shape you can start to really starting to feel like an auditorium as you look at those pictures rather than just a big box all right i'm going to start giving zoe the clicker so it'll work over there south high commons they're actually starting to put the glass in you can see the grand staircase there some really striking views of how that commons is coming along you can see the the top middle there or the top left that blue glass is the study loft area so some really cool spaces north high commons also coming along here's a couple of images of a couple of the walls and corners and i believe the bottom corners a couple of classrooms or maybe that's the activities office coming into place and then here's kind of a wide shot or a little further back shot of that uh three-story glass curtain facing south in that common space you can see a little bit of the glass at the top the area that's brown at the top that's plywood right now is soon to be glass so that'll be going in over the next i think month here there's a lot of areas i wouldn't want to drive what's that there's a lot of tall areas i wouldn't want to paint yeah there's a lot of volume in these spaces yeah all right that's it for superintendents reports okay so we'll move on to the reception of visitors in public comment does anybody wish to address the board hearing none do we have a motion for german uh and there are no online oh i'm sorry i just want to make sure that no no there are no online comments go ahead you'll look the record i apologize no online comments uh do we have any questions terry second mike all those in favor aye aye all of us suppose we're adjourned thank you thank you everybody have a good evening richard

44. okay 16 minutes absolutely we have 16 minutes uh it's jason macenko again thank you so much again so sorry that you guys have to be on the board for the pandemic it must be nightmare um well somebody no there was no comment on that well somebody will somebody from the board uh please comment on why or why not an attendance strike on remote learning days would have any effect because we're desperate for leverage to get the kids back in school and i hear about the guidelines and the mandates and whatnot but i would like to remind you that you are elected officials and these aren't laws they're mandates and you're elected to serve us so how would an attendance strike on remote learning days specifically for my family wednesdays affect the school districts how would it make how would it make leverage on you guys i understand what you're trying to get at there i can tell you right now i think attendance is already way down on wednesdays it's not that's anecdotal knowing that i also get those letters on wednesdays sometimes sometimes it's technical error sometimes it's that i choose that from my child's well-being they need a day off of the screen sometimes it's that my child has been fooling me that all these things happen with a good kid so i anticipate that this is probably happening across our district um in terms of funding it doesn't affect funding we're hold harmless it doesn't affect i mean we have students enrolled we're required to have your student enrolled truancy affects your family i think more than it would affect the school truancy does affect the family i took a call from a truancy officer in the middle of a grocery store who i had already left multiple messages for only for her to start talking like a robot and talking down to me i'm very sorry that happened a few hours that i had with my child gone to do grocery shopping but yeah i mean it's disappointing i mean we're desperate for leverage i mean our tax dollars evidently don't speak enough in the 70 percent of us that are here wanting in-person school reminding you that you are obligated to your constituency not to the state board of uneducated unelected officials okay i mean we're a constituency mr missing if you could stay and what's your they are not elected so can we acknowledge that the people making these mandates are unelected and dictating from the state in a mob mentality forcing you to make decisions that go against what we want well so it's like it's like thug mentality so they bring these mandates right and then they basically threaten you uh-huh and say you're going to do what the state wants despite what your consensus constituency wants mr masenko um let me let me there's a lot to parcel out here and we want to do it justice sure um so i got a little speech in there so i just wanted you did get a little speech in there good good on you uh but i think the question there being uh our our illinois state board of education um they are selected how they're elected by teachers they're elected by teachers no this state board is appointed appointed by the governor appointments so these are governors professionals that have also spent their life in education i'm not gonna lie i'm pretty sure they've never had a pandemic before either um this is new for every single person there i mean i i went back at one point to try to find an article that could give me some idea of what this will do to our kids and i read an article from in new york city when they shut the schools down the public schools down for a year due to polio and they found that back in 1918 students ended up losing about seven months after graduation unless at 12 years old they went to work full-time because their families decided it was better for them to work than get to school i'm not sure if that's comment on the public education of 1918 or on the resilience of childhood so it's really very irrelevant is the kind of the point um the state board of education creates guidelines not to harm kids they're doing this and and what they presented to us last summer is what they felt at that time was the best that they could provide as guidance to 852 local school districts with what little we knew at that time and that evolves the bigger the system the slower it moves we all kind of know the sense of scale that changes when you become a state governing body a lot of the personal individual needs of each children have to be considered as part of the whole so while 70 of the people in this room as you mentioned might feel very strongly that you want five days of education when you look at our entire district of 18 000 that number shifts you know what i mean so one of the things that as the public wants well some members of the public want it that's what i'm trying to say so some members of the public want in-school learning some members of the public are fearful because at home sir if you'd like to speak and ask a question you're welcome to come to the microphone otherwise we're going to try to keep this a little bit in order here so that we can try to ask questions can i address uh part part of so the key word and and i've struggled this in my time on the board is why can't we why not and that word that you mentioned is mandate the state mandates it you have a state board of education that's appointed they mandate things there's guidance but there's mandates our legislature meets and they have mandates they vote and they say you have to do this or else you don't get your funding you don't have money to do that so this this i i know the issue right now is a is a hot button with with going back to school and coveted but pay attention i know some a couple of you had made comment before this started that hey this really got us paying attention to the school board this really got us watching meetings and what's going on once we go back to school in the fall don't stop watching call your state reps call your state senators watch what they're voting in watch what they're mandating us to do and many of them let's call what it is the unfunded mandates which falls into the whole financial picture as well so that word is a big word so don't lose sight of that word once we're back in school keep watching and keep paying attention to what's going on please can i can i give a teacher perspective on this district-wide strike on wednesdays so i when you say district-wide strike on wednesdays i have two questions and my first is as a high school teacher i give my kids things to do when they're not with me and for us it's it's for us right now it's friday we're going to five days but um so if your child doesn't have something to do that's something that we also need to know because wednesday should not just be get up take attendance answer one question go to bed or you know my kids play facebook and that's also a very individual experience so for raising hands and trying i i've seen four hands up now and we are at eight minutes to go so i'm going to try to honor this in the order in which you asked mr masenko do you feel that your question has been adequately answered although maybe not the answer you're hoping for absolutely i'm very reasonable thank you thank you for thank you for that acknowledgement we appreciate you being reasonable all right so then the gentleman who jason was standing up was that j who is that i believe we just i don't know gentlemen with the hat that's what i can kind of see from here and a mask so um and a coach i just wonder you guys put out a a survey to the public and to your point um lori yeah uh you said that um i guess that the the majority of the public didn't dis didn't want in school learning that's not true i saw the results of that public so you're well i guess what what i'm not trying to be untrue so maybe there's just something that we're missing i'm just communicating about what my intention is so let me see if i can clarify so here's what it is what's that now do you want in school learning or do you know i have my daughter in in school learning she needs it okay so i don't understand what the problem is for advocating for in-school learning and trying to say hey this is what i want this is what my daughter is in we've said we have gone ahead and sent out a a survey to our taxpayers who are the employers of the school district if i'm not correct because if they don't pay their taxes nobody gets paid right so you set up this report to the majority of this of the people majority of people have spoken said hey look we want to go ahead and have in school learning if only that were true so here's what that survey said faith do you remember when we sent the survey out what was the specific question because i think you're going to find this very fascinating i found it fascinating because i felt like this should be a cut and dry answer either you want to go or you don't is it a black and white issue on if you want to go faith no there are different parameters about i want to go but only if it's six foot social distancing or i want to go but i only want it you know if it's all in person i only want to go if it's somewhat hybrid there are many different gradients of what people want from in-person instruction so while the one end is saying we'd like to go five full days and there is another end that says i don't want to go at all for whatever reason there's this whole middle section how can yorkville pull off their in-school learning but we can't hear you that is my favorite question we get asked that a lot doctor spelling i'm going to let you take this one because i know i've got some resources we have more tax money well let's let dr spawn he's the expert so i would happily let him answer you know they decided on one model at the beginning of the year and you know there's a reason why all the large school districts large school districts in the state are doing you know deciding the same models that we have they've all i mean i have a list here of all the districts what they're doing what they're what they're going to be doing and you know the plans that we have presented this evening that the board that will make some decisions on coincide and if not you know i have more in-person learning opportunities than much of what the large districts in the area are providing as well but there's a reason why some district you know the different districts made different choices and uh yorkville that you know what they made a choice and things have worked out for them and i'm very happy for that what what is the reason that there was a different choice i think that comes to speak at the and i got you sir there's one lady over there and then you're next and then those are going to be the last two because we're at 856.

the positivity rate of the whole state of illinois is 2.06 cases have been declining and holding stable now our teachers have been received have received the vaccinations as well why wasn't the initial plan set so we can move smoothly into full time while still offering remote this should have been in place at the beginning of the school year it's almost as if no one expected we would ever go back to school in the 2021 school year now that there are so many people coming forward wanting more in person the admin is scrambling to make this happen school district 308 is failing our community i respectfully ask that you bring our kids back into school five days a week no more excuses hey can i also respectfully ask that when you guys come up to the mic because you have other people coming up behind you you keep your masks up over your nose thank so that is their third comment on five days a week all other comments regarding five days a week will get moved to after we've gone through the other topics and the intention is to be able to cover each of them the next one is plank from the staff at plank junior high and the next person on the microphone will be dominic castillo not yet in just a second on behalf of plank junior high school teaching staff we have concerns regarding recommended phase three plans of reopening in addition to the pros and cons presented by the district to the board and the lack of them generated versus actually shared that made it sound like teacher support option b we request that our staff expertise and perspective be considered in planning for phase three we are asking that we stay the course with the phase 2 school day schedule and only alter within that current structure the repeated changes to schedules are placing more stress on students families and teachers not to mention other departments in the district by having them make constant changes to their delivery and other staff are continuing to reconfigure their services while all parties involved are doing an exceptional job meeting the constant new demands this does not mean it isn't impacting their physical mental and emotional health teachers are experiencing an unprecedented level of burnout and while some are fine many are struggling if the adults teaching the kids are struggling how can we properly ensure that the kids are thriving in addition many students are currently struggling with an extensive amount of screen time and the thought of potentially extending that screen time as proposed in phase three is not advisable we do not support schedule options that extend screen time for students we do not support students taking their masks off for eating lunch throughout the building and in classrooms we do not support making more drastic changes to the current schedule especially changes that eliminate student support time we would like the following considerations to be reviewed remain in our current schedule of being in school from 805 to 105 with student support time until three o'clock monday tuesday thursday friday with wednesday being a remote go live day we strongly recommend keeping student support time this has been a critical component to the success of many students phase three options that omit student support time are not supported by plink teachers finally we put forward the option for building administrators to have the autonomy to increase days for special populations for example 504 iep sel and struggling learners on a case-by-case basis these students could attend four days a week instead of just two days if it better meets their learning needs this could increase the student's contact time with staff and any related services they may need in order to be successful we appreciate the district and the board of education wanting to continue to offer new options to the community but we respectfully ask that you take this request seriously and into consideration we want to teach students in a matter that needs students needs in a safe environment for all parties involved we do not support students when we removing masks for any period of time with the updated cdc guidelines being released and supporting keeping students and cohorts when possible social distancing being a priority and wearing masks at all times we feel the refinement of phase two as opposed to a complete change to a new phase three better meets these updated guidelines we request the focus on making changes shift please keep us in our current school schedule and start planning instead for next year thank you for your consideration plank junior high staff if you're coming up to speak public comment and your topic is regarding five days the week i'll ask that you pass until we receive three comments on each topic so dominique would you like to be moved okay good evening i'm elizabeth palatine the co-president of the oswego education association tonight the board of education has yet another decision to make about in-person learning for a year now the important decisions that have been made have been difficult and individual viewpoints have only expanded the common thread is that everyone wants what they feel is best for our students their education and our communities teachers are happy to be back in person and the joy of seeing our students in the classroom has been wonderful teachers want nothing more than to safely return to in-person learning for everyone teachers support the essential actions to help keep schools open including the consistent implementation of universal mass squaring physical distancing hand washing keeping our facilities clean and contact tracing following these measures consistently along with proper student schedules will help keep our students and staff safe while also helping keep our buildings open remote learning is an option for families and teachers want to ensure that all students groups a b c and d get equal educational opportunities not every family can or will send their students back for in-person learning due to personal circumstances or safety concerns it is of greatest importance that those students who are remote be considered when making planning decisions to ensure that they get the same learning opportunities as their in-person peers being able to interact and not just stream burning out through zoom fatigue and having opportunities during the day for small group student support are just a few of these important considerations there are going to be benefits and drawbacks to any plan that is being considered in this difficult environment but we trust that you will carefully consider the best option for all students when you take your vote tonight each student deserves to be in the safest learning environment possible and have an equal opportunity to a quality education thank you nicky rivera hello 308 board of education i have two high school kids these students need consistency and to be in school it's essential research shows schools are not a main spread currently the percentage of coveted positivity is low some schools have been in school full time with no major spread and doing well with precautions also many teachers have gotten the vaccine which should help support the cause to be back in school more often i support phase 3 plan a kids need consistency not more screen time my kid has adhd 504 plan and the other one is on an iep remote learning is not a good option for them phase three plans are terrible options but going at least four days a week is more consistent than two days spread apart by six days and in plan b that is just too much screen time for general kids let alone kids that have adhd and iep issues also these plans don't allow 504 and iep resource kids to be in school more which is wrong this is why there are accommodations and this should be an exception kids are having more mental issues anxiety and depression this is also a health crisis as well and should be taken in consideration and a reason to get kids back in person at school more often teachers are essential workers just like me as a healthcare worker i treat covet patients and stay safe teachers and students can be safe and the state guidelines have given you more room to allow this let's get back to the business of better education for our kids because we can do it and stay safe we need to try kids need to be the top priority now and families need to do what is best for them i will sign a waiver you need to give parents the choice we have one more for plan a second that was okay tim casper okay thomas leninga my name is tom nangate i have three children one's already gone through the system here and actually was the first kid to go to this school when it opened i now have a sophomore at oswego and i have a fifth grader at lakewood creek and i am going to apologize before i go on any further if i get emotional because mental health of our kids is a real thing and they are suffering right now with staying at home and trying to do chemistry from their screen yes my daughter is one of those black screens yes my daughter had to have a doctor call into the school to make sure she could turn her camera off because the anxiety she feels by sitting there and feeling stupid last year she was in high honors all a's in including honors classes this year she's got f's she's got d's it's horrible my 11 year old is the most social kid in the world i've seen him gain 15 to 20 pounds this year and all he does is stay in his room all day long these kids need to be back in school and as far as covet is concerned our pediatrician says that if any of the adults in our family get coveted expose our kids because this will not harm them get it out of the way so the it's just i'm sorry i'm upset but living has become a real hell in our household with my two kids suffering through what they're going through right [Applause] now march greece this is the next email chief march greece john biller is another one for secondary a oh i have more traced but it's labeled seven you had one before though but it's on the same my son is a senior and my daughter is a freshman at ohs currently doing hybrid school i ask the board votes for the plan a that was discussed which would increase in-school learning and therefore decrease remote learning the plan b option only means that children will be in their bedrooms on their computers for even more hours and will indicate that this board has made no meaningful accomplishment for the entire year listening to the recent meeting i was glad to hear one board member state that the goal should be for all students to be at school five days per week and plan a at least makes an attempt at this on the other hand it was disturbing to hear one board member from last month's meeting believed that the school should remain closed through the end of the year since this board made the decision to keep our schools closed to in-person learning all the first semester they should be interested in discovering the negative impacts on thousands of school-aged children in oswego i am asking for a response from the superintendent or any board member if data has been requested from the oswego police department or from the kendall county health department before making any decision to keep children at home for more hours the board needs to present real numbers on cases of child neglect criminal activity drug alcohol abuse mental illness and suicide attempts as compared to 2019 during last month's meeting at least one board member found that it was funny that young children are not learning how to tie their shoes how funny is it for teenagers to be started on antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications due to your decisions the board mentions 16 cases of coronavirus among school-aged children therefore the board needs to share data on the severity of these cases were these children hospitalized or were they all asymptomatic or with mild illness what were the ages and what number of these children were doing hybrid versus remote only school the board should finally acknowledge that this virus has almost no significant effect on children and feel free to ask why this is so instead your decision has been to isolate 18 000 children in their bedrooms in order to prevent illness that is similar to a common cold know that the parents who decided to send their children to school last month have already accepted this minimal risk and then you need to assume that every one of these parents wants their child to be at school every single day but for now plan a will have to be good enough john paul daler jason messenko's top remote learning attendance good evening everybody i appreciate the chance to speak tonight my name is jason macenko thanks for all the hard work that you guys have done i know that this has been a tremendously difficult situation but to get on with my point on the eve of thanksgiving there was a email sent out to the districts and in that email it quoted the great and late john lewis the civil rights icon and i believe the quote from that email was when you don't see something right you got to stand up hashtag log off hashtag sit in my son is in kindergarten and he received two letters of truancy because i refused to log him on wednesdays because attendance for that day was answer the question of the day poof you're all set i refuse to be that button pusher i'm not going to lie and be a liar about attendance when i got the second letter of truancy i made some phone calls and my wife made some phone calls too and the fifth day of in-person learning was added to my son's schedule within 36 hours my wife and i can't help but believe that we were a part of that so i've been racking my brain for months after reading about john lewis and how he would like to do old-fashioned sit-ins and so what i'm proposing tonight is that if you truly believe that remote learning is no good log your children off on wednesdays please do not participate in this anymore do not call your children an absent but don't skip out on your child's education and i'm not virtual signaling do what you've already been doing just don't log in attendance matters to the school district and we must have some currency to make leverage to get our children back in school for full day education now it's march greece dear sd 308 board members i am writing you to ask you to strongly consider voting in support to support plan b for the high school students as we move into phase three of learning this school year the administration has presented you with two plans that will get us to the end of an academic year that has been full of many challenges for all of us as you have moved from phase to phase in an attempt to slowly get our students back into the school setting one thing has unfortunately been true for the high school students each phase has slowly taken away instructional minutes from each and every one of their individual classes per day while the addition of a fifth live day of instruction during this current phase has given our students the most amount of time in their classes per week since the beginning of the school year a transition to plan b to finish out the school year would finally allow our students to receive a full day's worth of instructional time each day and receive the most amount of time in each of their individual classes that they have received to date when school started this year students received 40 minutes per class four times a week when school moved to the first hybrid plan they then had classes reduced to 35 minutes per class four times a week while phase two reduced class times down to even further to 33 minutes per class live sessions were increased to five times a week thereby increasing individual instruction time per class to 165 minutes a week for an academic year record implementing plan b and going with a full day schedule would allow students to receive 45 minutes per class five times a week for a total of 225 minutes of instructional time per week a move to plan b would give our students a whole 60 minutes more class time in each and every one of their subjects to have more time to learn and bridge the gaps on things that might have been missing during the entire first semester when instructional time was weighed down in times when parents had concerns about their children failing and being left behind due to the craziness of this year plan b provides a way to make up some of the educational time that has sorely been missing additionally plan b allows the district to continue to follow the successful hybrid plan that has been working since phase two for high school students began to date there have not been any cobia 19 outbreaks at the high school and no reason to shut down the schools one can only assume that this is due to the proper use of masking and social distancing in the schools in their most recent recommendation for the safe reopening of schools dated february 11 2021 the cdc was still saying proper social distancing is a must given the success the district has had in doing so plan b is the only plan that provides for the continuation of such social distancing for all the reasons stated above i would ask you all to strongly consider voting for plan b for all high school students for phase three of school reopening this plan has already demonstrated that it can safely be implemented by the district and it will allow our students access to very much needed additional instructional minutes for the remainder of the year this is something that will help all students bridge the gap as we transition into next year and help make up critical learning time that was missing during the first semester of this year care of baits about safety in the school setting is this regarding five days a week okay then we'll put it to until we've had a chance to go through the rest that's all i have left i have they're all one more email for plan a hi i'm gwen daylor a freshman at ohs and i have a few concerns for the way that phase three is going to play out this is my first year of high school and along with that my brother is in his last year of high school our school years have been ruined entirely and i know you're all aware of this but i do not think you understand how much we need school not just to learn the friendships and interactions we make at school are so important for our overall success in life that has already been taken away for us for so long things have to become normal at some point and it is really disappointing that people love to advocate for us are not pushing for having groups a and b together four days a week i understand that there are health concerns because of the amount of people and how crowded it may be if students or parents do not feel comfortable then they can choose to stay home ask any high school student and most will say that they miss normal school doing option a is the most normal we can get right now at this point we will take anything my giant classrooms are now filled with 10 people at max my smallest class is four how is that a good learning environment i might as well stay home it's not just a struggle for the students the teachers have it just as hard it hurts to see the best teachers struggle because they have to teach half online half in school basically they are teaching two classes at one time they are trying their best always but if the first option was in place it would be much easier even some of my own teachers have said to students that being closer to normal would be nicer than what is in place currently mental health of the students should be the main focus in the past school was already one of the main sources of student stress but now it is even worse sitting in one's room every day doing the same thing becomes mentally draining going to school even for the smallest two days a week is better it could be so much better according to research done by south university they found that individuals who participated in social or community activities were more likely to report good or very good health the positive interactions at school are so necessary and this year proves that all students are done trying to learn part on screen and part in person having more in-person time will benefit all especially those with rough home situations i think those are the students that need in person the most getting away from a toxic or sometimes abusive environment is the best thing a kid can do even if it is just for five hours a day four days a week school is a safe place for so many people and it has been pretty much gone for way too long please make the right decision for the students even though it is a hard one and choose plan a and just realize your decision is affecting people way more than you know i'm going to keep going dominic castillo yeah so the last ones are all regarding five days from what i understand yes hello my name is dominique castillo i'm a mom of two three year old and 10 year old who my 10 year old attends used to attend this district until i removed her from the school district this year i'm a local small business owner and i've lived here since 1989.