SMFCSD - Special Board Meeting - June 25, 2020

001we are calling our meeting to order at 6:32 pm and we will begin with our roll call um so let's begin with TR yeah thank you H here trusty Proctor here trusty Watkins here and uh trusty Coro is present so um all trustees are in attendance and uh we can move on to approval of agenda um but I actually would like to uh move item 5.5 um in front of 5.1 so uh I move to appr move our our agenda with 5.5 before 5.1 do I have a second I'll second thank you roll call Vote Yes trusty Hitchcock hi trusty yes trusty Watkins yes and a yes for me as well um great so moving on to it um 5.5 resolution number 341 1920 denouncing racism and supporting Equity well-being and States as I um

002have mentioned this uh was a request by the board to bring forward a resolution and um so I looked at various uh templates worked with um uh language and have brought this forward for your review and approval so if you would like to discuss it at all um this would be the time um are we gonna read it though I no we can't hear you Noelia oh okay sorry about that I was moving to um audio on my phone so you guys can hear me a little better um thank you Dr roses um yes this uh resolution is very important I would propose that we uh read it and then um and then go from there so um let's go in alphabetical order as we have been with me actually going last and um so

003that would begin with trusty chin this is resolution ution number 34 um- 19-20 a resolution denouncing racism and supporting Equity well-being and safety and the safety of black people whereas since our nation's in Inception institutional and structural racism and Injustice have led to deepening racial disparities across all sectors of society and have lasting negative consequences for our communities cities and Nation robbing countless lives and futures of people of color in the process and whereas historically when black people have fought for more Democratic Society the lives of all people have improved and conversely each time barriers to black people's potential and Humanity have been erected our society has suffered and whereas on May 25th 2020 George Floyd a black resident of Minneapolis Minnesota was murdered in police custody after a police officer knelt on Mr Floyd's

004neck for 8 minutes and 46 seconds while Mr Floyd was handcuffed lying face down pleading that he couldn't breathe and whereas the continued and unacceptable loss of black lives calls upon us to be visible in our outrage and more importantly in our resolve to work for Change and whereas Police use of excessive and militarized force particularly against black people are among the most serious ongoing human rights and civil liberties viol ations in the United States and have led to a decrease in public safety and the ex exacerbation of structural inequities and whereas our public schools are facilitators of the Limitless growth potential of all people with the charge to instill in our youth a belief that every person deserves to live with dignity be valued for their humanity and be treated ethically and Rebecca you're

005on mute one time I thought I was goingon to get it right all right um whereas it is essential to teach the experiences honor the history and highlight the contributions of black people through history Andor ethnic studies while ensuring that every black person has the social economic and political power to thrive and whereas stating that black lives matter does not negate our commitment to all members of our community but rather elevates the importance of the lives of black people whose lives have historically been oppressed by our society and affirming that their lives specifically matter and whereas the covid-19 pandemic has taken a disproportionate physical mental and financial toll on black brown and Indigenous communities and whereas black community members continue to experience microaggressions racial profiling hate incidents and racial bias in all systems and institutions

006that they encounter including our school district and whereas discrimination bias and racist incidents against black brown and Indigenous students harm them mentally physically and academically and whereas we believe that silence and inaction by individuals and institutions perpetuate Injustice bias and racism now therefore be it resolved that the S Foster City School District Board of Education stands firmly against bigotry Prejudice discrimination and inequity in all forms both institutional and individual and wishes to affirm its commitment to the well-being and safety of black community members and let them know that they are not alone and that they are that our district stands and solidarity with them and their struggles for justice the sateo Foster City School District denounces discrimination racism and sentiments against black people we will not tolerance race racist treatment of any members of our

007community and we will speak out Against Racism and systemic oppression in our society to help stop the spe spread of bigotry oh we can't hear you sorry the Sano Foster City School District joins cities counties and States across the country in affirming its commitment to the safety and well-being of our black community and in combating hate crimes and biases in our government systems three the S Foster City School District will increase its efforts to provide a safe and welcoming School environment for all students working with the cities of samum Foster City Community nonprofits and other governmental agencies the Sano Foster City School District will confront the biases of our own school district and actively engage in the challenging work of dismantling the problematic practices that are limiting the opportunities for our black brown and Indigenous

008students be it further resolved that the S Foster City School District joins the movement to fight for Freedom Liberation and Justice for the black community and be it further resolve that the Sano Foster City School District is committed to providing safe spaces for discussions on race and Injustice and be it further resolved that the Sano Foster City School District is committed to restorative justice practices anti-racist anti-racist training culturally responsive teaching and resource sources that Foster dialogue Around The Guiding principles of black lives matter and finally be it resolved that the s f city school district will work tirelessly and collaboratively with staff students and families to dismantle institutional racism in our society and School District passed and adopted by the Board of Education of the Sano Foster City School District at a regular meeting held

009on this 25th day of June 2020 by the following vote thank you um so this agenda item obviously will not uh need clarifying questions from our board so um why don't we uh make we can have our discussion um and then we can move on to um to public comment on this item and um with that I would actually um like to begin on this one um I just want to take take the time um to you know again publicly State my 100% solidarity with the black community and their struggles for justice and freedom from oppression and racism um and I'm going to read something that is um it's an oped that was in The Daily Journal a couple of days ago that is written by the president of our um SEO County School boards

010Association and um one of our County Office of Education um trustees and it is titled correcting inequities in our school systems in the midst of responding to a global pandemic that has had a devastating impact on communities of color with disproportionately higher rates of positive covid-19 cases and job loss reality chooses to dig in we live in a fundamentally racist Society the murders of Ahmad Arbury Briana Taylor and George Floyd and the continued killing of black Americans has have brought people to the streets calling for an end to the systemic inequity and oppression that has persisted for more than 400 years the time for a reckoning is now schools and education leaders play a critical role in disrupting systems of Oppression a journey that starts with taking the active and intentional steps to become anti-racist

011for years anti races for years education leaders have attended workshops and seminars aimed at closing the achievement Gap looking for something to fix many of these meetings only served to Center whiteness and white voices unsurprising given the demographic makeup of those in power at all levels of government and leadership in Sano County participants left feeling better about themselves and their passion to fix things but with no actionable items or tools to help dismantle a system that was built to ensure these inequities the these in Equitable outcomes two important points frame this conversation first the current educational system was never designed to be Equitable what we see today in schools is the result of a system built to maintain a particular balance of power second there is a stark difference between equality and Equity Equity is

012not giving all students the same thing it is ensuring that all students have Equitable access to resources to thrive Equitable access needs to be reflected in every facet of our educational system including budget Staffing resource allocation and many other spaces more resources need to be directed towards marginalized students and communities these decisions must be made and these changes must be enacted to ensure all of our students have access to the resources they need to eventually contribute effectively to our society the path to True Equity must start with the educational leaders themselves the SEL County School school boards Association took the Bold step of launching the equity Network a collaboration of school board members and their executive leadership teams working together to make lasting change to our education system for the benefit of all of students

013we cannot close the educational gaps that we see in our school district if we don't close the ones in our minds first said Nicole Anderson an educational Equity expert and facilitator of the equity Network 13 districts took up that challenge bore Elementary B Belmont Redwood Shores Elementary Burling game Elementary Jefferson Elementary Jefferson Union High Meno Park City Pacifica Redwood City Elementary Sano Foster City Elementary Sano Union High theoa Union High and South San Francisco Unified School Districts and the county the sale County of Office of Education and while covid-19 paused our inperson efforts and redirected energy to Equitable online teaching and learning the work continues the time for change is now a global pandemic and global protest in response to the murders of black Americans something many school leaders in the country are now much

014more aware of because of their participation in the equity Network this difficult moment provides an opportunity for us to be bold in in addressing long-standing racial inequities said Davina drain trustee on the Berling game Elementary School District board highlighting that the current design of the education systems continues to oppress marginalized students holding up the current flag system prevents a redesign that works equitably for all students we must reflect on our current practices what are our hiring practices our district and School staff demographically reflective of the student body if not how are districts preparing staff to work with these students and communities is a curriculum ref reflective of the student population and anti-oppressive why have we not taken these first basic steps to creating a culturally reflective School environment that challenges an oppressive system as Kevin

015Skelly s Union High School District superintendent put it the SM csba equity network was an opportunity to eat our own cooking and demonstrate that we are committed to this work Beyond just others doing it this is only the beginning of the journey to correct the inequities embedded in our Educational Systems in s County but this many districts joining together United in purpose is a powerful first step toward that goal this is not the sole responsibility of school districts and school boards this is the work that needs to be embraced by the district Community by supporting the necessary changes to policy and practice join us on this journey thank you can I hope people um Can reflect on that um for a bit and I just also wanted to um add a couple more things and

016I'll wrap up quickly um you know I was really grateful to see um the support in our community for black lives matter and the protest that um was held a couple of weeks ago um I was grateful but I was also cautious because ensuring that black lives matter in our society doesn't just mean that you go to a protest and you hold up a sign it's much deeper than that um it means that you're willing to make sacrifices it means that you're willing to reflect that you're willing to to listen it means that you're willing to recognize when your own actions can exacerbate the oppression of other people um it's not something that's easy to talk about it's not something that's easy to experience and um that is what I really want to stress um

017that although it's it's difficult um for people to be face to face with their own um their own biases their own um you know mindset that may not um may not always actually embody what what you what you say that you believe um it's it's just really important and as as we go into our next topic um we we'll dig a little deeper into this but we as many people know we have been getting many many emails um I want to say more than ever before on any other topic and you know I understand that because this is really important our children and fall reopening is really important absolutely um but what but I have to say this um because it's it's it's not right and I don't know if people recognize that they were

018doing this um but many many emails that begun with one specific template um you know just so happen to focus um frustrations and um frustrations and and and uh I don't even know how to say it to be honest but basically like the targeting of her L are one African-American Schoolboard trustee for her comments in our last meeting um and that's very it's one thing to be upset and to vent and to and to you know speak on on our board in all of our comments and it's a different thing to specifically call out the only black and brown trustees on our board for our comments only I don't think that it's right I'm disappointed by how many people have copy and pasted that specific template and not taking the time to reflect at to

019reflect on um you know the the racial undertones to it it's extremely disappointing um you know our our board does not take these things lightly many of us are parents we care about our kids we care about all kids um the way in which some of us speak and present ourselves is a little is different just like just like that's I mean that's Humanity right um but I couldn't help but notice that and I couldn't help but think about I just couldn't not say anything about it um I'm not I'm not as you can tell I'm struggling to find words right now um but this is something that's been weighing on me I had to say it and um I will also say that you know um social media is a whole thing of its

020own but the way that some of our community members have taken their frustrations and directed those frustrations at the Two of Us online um is really hurtful and problematic um because if you are aware of the work that we do on this board then you know how much time um and energy and thought we put into this work um and that's not to say um that nobody else does our entire board does a lot of work um but I I just have to say that you know personally for me it has been um a privilege and something that I'm very very grateful for I've been just so grateful to be able to work with trusty Watkins and to um learn under her leadership and to you know I just admire her so much and and

021the way that she's done her work on this board and to think that people think that it's okay to Target her in that way um it's just not okay and and I'll say it now I'll say it tomorrow um I will say it every single time that I need to if you make a statement of solidarity for black lives matter then you need to practice what you preach and you need to be aware of how you treat people um and and I'll end there thank you I'd like to comment um noellia and I do not oh sorry sorry um trusty Hitchcock I just want to I just want to give trusty Watkins the floor and if she wants to wait that's okay but go ahead okay go ahead go ahead okay um I wanted to

022say that we did not talk or discuss anything um before this meeting but I find it interesting that it is my sentiments as well um we just adopted a a resolution that I am eagerly agree with um but in saddened that in 2020 we have to approve such things it and what has just happened from emails just goes to show how how close it is right it's not you know um oh somebody in the city or the city or the city it's literally right here in our district with people that are experiencing it on our board um and we've been inundated with emails since last Thursday's board meeting and yes same as Noelia said tons the most we've ever um and while I appreciate hearing from everyone I only want to if they're um productive

023Communications I immediately just from the first one I read um it jumped out at me that noelia's comments mirrored some of mine and Sher and I basically said the same thing and while I received thank you emails they received hate mails um and I'm speechless and given the climate we're in especially it blows my mind that people are still thinking that's okay um you know I people need to model the behavior that we want our children to learn um and the decisions we make and how we act have the potential to impact lives in deeper ways than any of us have ever imagined and I'm saddened that that has happened to both of you and it is not okay um is it okay if I speak okay um I just wanted to say um I

024support this resolution um I think it's important I'm sorry that it's taken the loss of George Floyd and so many others to bring this to the Forefront but um you know it's important and we need to um practice what we preach basically but I also wanted to just address the emails that we received and I'm not on the same social media like um sites and stuff that you guys are but um I've heard about them and so I just want to say that for us um we're a team here and um everyone is certainly entitled to their own opinion but trusty Coro and trusty Watkins are part of our team they add value their perspective is important and they matter a great deal to us um I think that this board has made a commitment

025to using an equity lens when setting policy and making decisions and Noelia and Shara are truly leading the charge on that within this board and so um you know I just ask that people really take a take a look at what you're think about what you're going to say these are mothers Community leaders human beings that have a voice and they're they um they are meant to be heard and so I heard Shara in her um speech at their protest I heard her at the board I am here to listen and um make space for for both of you and I support you in any way that I can and um I'm here to do better so I thank you both I don't really have a lot of words um I just I'll repeat what

026I said the last meeting when we had this issue which is you know sh and noie I support both of you guys and I support everything that you guys are doing so um it is difficult to receive those emails um it is so it's unfortunate but please know we are a team we support you and we want to help you in any way we can because we do care and you guys are amazing thank you guys for all of your your comments um I you know I think one of the words that stands out in our resolution in the oped that trusty Coro read um is systems and something I spoke a lot about in my um speech um and just reminding us that it's functioning exactly the way it's designed and intended it to

027fun intended to function um I want to read a quote from an article um that A co-worker of mine actually shared recently um an not that in the Washington Post um talking about the importance of action um and the quote States the right acknowledgment of black Justice Humanity freedom and happiness won't be found in your book clubs protest signs chalk talks or organizational statements it will be found in your earnest willingness to dismantle systems that stand in our way be they at your job and your Social Network your neighborhood associations your family or your home and I'll just add your school district there seems to be a real disconnect between the statements around black lives matter right the book clubs the protests and the daily actions in which people are engaged so I want to

028give a couple concrete examples here um one the first one is just um something that I shared at in my speech but um if you're here for this movement it means you aren't solely going to use the great school's website to determine what's a good school and what's a bad school because there's always so much more that goes into those scores and that is always synonymous with black and brown it means you go to those schools you are the only one you pour your resources into those schools that's what it means to be here for this movement if you're here for this movement it means you're here for equity in our schools that means you are here for setting your kids needs aside for a minute for losing a little bit of what you think

029you're entitled to so that other kids have who need more have it practically it might mean in the situation we're about to talk about your kids might not get a full day of school because they don't need it in the same way that some kids do it means that you stand behind your local school district when they say and talk about the ways in which they're planning for fall reopening first with the needs of our most vulnerable students in mind that's what it means to be here for this movement if you're here for this movement as a couple of my colleagues already pointed out it means you aren't going to specifically criticize the only two black and brown school board members publicly and repeatedly it also means when you see somebody else do that you're

030going to call them out which I have not seen a single person do if you are here for this movement it means you're going to if you're going to look in the mirror when the black and brown students in your classroom are the only ones that aren't succeeding the only ones below grade level and if you're a school leader it means you're going to call it out those are some of what it means to actually stand for the movement to dismantle a system that's what we're talking about so I'm really hopeful I know for our board we are ready to do that and we are doing that and I'm hopeful that for everybody that's on this call right now right almost 700 people that you are ready to actually do the work to give something

031up to do something bold we do not have time to keep talking about how much we care thank you trusty Watkins um let's go ahead and move to public comment okay president Coro um currently we have 11 attendees with their hands up do we want to now 12 it could potentially grow what time limit would you like for public comment um let's do two minutes just because I know that um a lot of folks are waiting for the next agenda item not to say that this isn't important but I I balance you know completely understand so again to those attendees um almost 700 Welcome to our board meeting uh in order to initiate public comment at this time if you would like to address the board please use the raise your hand functionality within zoom

032and I will call on you one at a time to which you'll have two minutes to address the board all right for first our first attendee is Chris snook and then after Chris will be Cheryl remedios Chris I'm bringing you in Chris are you there okay can you hear me now you can thank you Chris you have two minutes thank you um my name is Chris snook my pronounce are he him I've got a son at uh at Baywood um and I am wholeheartedly in support of uh this resolution however um I I I think we must make sure that we go beyond just the resolution um there's there are some concrete actions we can take to uh to to to make uh the schools um more Equitable uh particularly for for black and brown

033students um that I don't see on any agenda items here um I apologize if they were discussed at previous meetings um that I wasn't able to attend but uh one thing that's notable is uh school resource officers um I I I see that uh the middle schools seem to have them um historically school resource officers have not been a net win for uh for equity in schools uh they they consume resources that could be better used um uh with by counselors uh who uh can who are better at uh providing healing Services um uh even the best trained school resource officer uh their their tools are ultimately focused around compliance and that is not what a lot of students need uh I I think the school I think the school board should seriously consider uh

034getting rid of uh school resource officers and diverting those resources to Healing Services thank you thank you Chris okay uh Cheryl remedios and then afterwards will be Ian Mulla Cheryl um don't have anything to do with this agenda item and it was a general comment that I wanted to make and I don't know if it's appropriate to do this now or if I should wait till another board meeting um this is a I'm sorry it is a special board meeting so comments were for the agenda items so um um Cheryl is it related to one of the board items that we have no it's not but it was some happy news that I wanted to share with some with you all that made me very happy yesterday on my walk and I thought it would

035be a nice way to let everybody know kind of some happy things um before we got into difficult topics but if not I can wait and do later so would you like I think I I think it would be good to wait thank you okay not a problem thanks thank you Sher all right Ian Mulla and then after Ian will be John Pharaoh Ian uh thank you all for raising this resolution and Having the courage to speak out and speak speak loudly on behalf of our community these are values we should all strive to demonstrate in both word and deed this is precisely the sort of conscientious intentional leadership for which we as voters elected you specifically to trusties Watkins and Coro I had the privilege of working under your leadership when you two co-chaired

036the measure B committee to secure additional funding for our schools our teachers and all of our students as a witness to the countless hours you pour into your trusteeship and to the even greater number of hours and Sh if I recall correctly you were pregnant at the time uh that you poured into that campaign you have my personal deep and abiding gratitude thank you for your work thank you an okay we [Music] have changed order VI Vo uh and then after VI will be Mia VI can you hear me we can thank you um my name is V vo um and I'm actually commenting um or asking a question um on behalf of my daughter who is a sixth grader at um bage Middle School her name is Julia and she is wondering um how

037how do I ask this for her um she has wanted to figure out who to speak to and maybe that's what you need to give the information to me is that um she wonders who she needs to speak to about changing the curriculum in terms of um history that she has you know social studies um where she's learned about many cultures except for African-American cultures um and their ancient history um or their you know their current history here in the United States and she thinks that that is a huge um disparity and wants to know how she can go about changing that so if anyone has any information um you know you don't have to answer here but um if you can send that information to me I'd like to direct her on how to

038uh proceed with that process so one amusing thing I would like to add is she did ask how to um take um divos um uh position at the White House as Secretary of uh education and she wonders like what her path needs to be to get there so all right bye thank you very much all right uh Mia Bennett and then afterwards will be Francis uh Isola [Music] Mia good evening my name is Mia Bennett and I'm a language and literacy specialist at Abbot I'm also a member of our district Sanctuary Task Force Team alongside president corso and trustey Chin um tonight I'd like to speak in support of our Equity centered leadership and this resolution um so the mission of our Sanctuary task force team is to ensure that all students in our school

039district feel safe protected and supported at all levels of our institution and this work is more important than it ever has been before um the last month our work has expanded to include supporting families faced with unlawful evictions and food insecurity as well as supporting our youth's right to protest safely in our community I want to take an opportunity to appreciate all members of our task force but in particular president Corso for for her powerful voice on the team tireless advocacy and deep commitment to students and families in our community as a member of the task force and educator I want to speak again in support of this resolution um our country is built on a history of systemic racism that impacts every in institution including our classrooms and for us to be silent on

040this matter means there's no way we are teaching all of our students equitably we cannot work to create a just world for our kids without grappling with the history that's brought us to this moment and then rooting our teaching and anti-racist Frameworks moving forward um I want to appreciate and uplift the work of trusty Watkins in particular for pushing this forward through the resolution um I've been really inspired listening to the comments from the board tonight and it's only the beginning but I'm really very very hopeful and optimistic for the future direction of our community thank you thank you Mia all right we have Hines p and then after Hines will be Diana harlick uh Hines okay Hines because of the version of Zoom I'm gonna have to promote you to a panelist so it'll

041disconnect you and then bring you back in okay okay you are muted okay hello yes we can hear you thank you yes so I'm H pendorf I have a third grader gonna be fourth grader at C Park School um you know it's it's a tireless job and being in the positions that you are at that is is an elected position but it's also a public position you're being paid to not only make hard decisions and to decide how things are done and should be carried out to transport as best for our whole community and children um sometimes we got to take it on the chin in that position I've been in law enforcement for 30 years um I have been on both sides of the racism and Prejudice scenario growing up and traveling back to

042the uh South and traveling all around a lot of places here in our country a lot of things have happened uh I would just say that I I would prefer to hear that it's all lives matter because the issue that we have is that we have you know yellow brown we have other races that are also wh skinned but don't speak English and at least where some of this problem has been coming from I'm glad that somebody is actually speaking out we're trying to do something but but everybody should be the same so all as the other parent was talking about all different races and other cultures should be explored but even more so you know here in Sano County we had shenet wobe in 2018 who was also Tas and killed diving custody very

043similar to the same snar that we had with Mr Fuller here that just occurred in Minnesota so we need to make sure that a not enough thanks ever goes out to an elected official or to positions that you guys are in the the even the same with teachers they need more pay we shouldn't be cutting away from our programs and when we have as many in my school at Park School we have almost over 50% are non-english speaking we need more resources for them the Asian all of our cultures to be better educated and this as I've said multiple times as well you know you guys have a fiduciary responsibility and I know this was all dropped on us but this Zoom is still better than the meat class that we have for our kids

044that would be great to again use better resources as we move forward so thank you for your dedication and work I know how hard it is it's ireless thank you H okay uh Diana harlick and then afterwards will be Marcel Diana oh thank you can you hear me we can thank you um good evening I'm speaking tonight as a parent and as a member of the district's Equity task force and I want to express my full support for the board resolution as we navigate this tumultuous time in our community's history people of privilege such as myself are being challenged on their state beliefs versus actual practices as well we should be nowhere is this more evident than the intense debate now occurring around school reopening as I witnessed the debate I become dismayed and disappointed

045at the vital directed at the board especially at our black and Latina board members Chara Watkins and Noelia Coro as I navigate the complex issues at play during this unprecedented time as people of privilege our first instinct should not be to tear down the people who are charged to do this work especially when those people are our board's only Latina and black elected officials of color we cannot claim to be champions of equity or anti-racists or black lives matter supporters when we're not willing to listen to the voices of our board members who have lived experiences as people of color in our public education system and who not incidentally also work as highly accomplished Professionals in field serving children I'm not saying to not ask questions or offer opinions and I'm not saying don't be

046analytical definitely please stay engaged but stay engaged respectfully and with humility as you stay engaged consider coming to board meetings not just when there is a crisis but at other times of the year as well so that you can understand the full context of the work the complexity of issues our extremely hardworking District staff and board board members are navigating in a vastly resource constrained environment and the many other Equity issues remaining to be addressed that we need all parents help with I'm going to skip ahead a little due to time um I hope that all of us in the place of privilege who say we stand for Equity who want to dismantle the systems that continue to lift some students up but not others will be willing to make sacrifices during time it's okay

047for my kids to get less next year other kids can get more it's a little bit behind because they're going to be okay regardless um thank you trustees Coro and Watkins for working tirelessly and relentlessly on behalf of our District's kids for using your voices to speak up for families who are not sufficiently represented in the setting and for keeping the needs of our most vulnerable students front and center of your work from day one of your tenures our district is a better place for all kids because of it thank you thank you Diana uh we have Marcel Marcel bringing you in then afterwards we'll be Ron Patel hello thank you um I my comments are a little bit smaller but uh because words matter I uh in reading the resolution I have two suggestions

048that I'd like the board to consider last at the last meeting you passed the uh supportive ethnic studies so in your whereas where you talk about through history and or ethnic studies I don't believe the Andor should exist I think that highlighting the contributions of black people should exist in history from kindergarten and the second piece um is in your be it further resolved you're uh utilizing restorative justice practices anti-racist training and culturally responsive teaching and I'd like to recommend that the word authentic be placed in there because I have seen restorative justice practices cultural and and these words taken um in a sense and uh utilized to force compliance as opposed to authentic actual practices last week truste Coro mentioned having to unlearn so much bias suppressive teachings that made her believe that she

049was anything other than um beautiful worthy brilliant um capable of taking on any Challenge and the evidence of the unlearned is her president is her presence as a leader in our community and I'd like to make a bold suggestion that um as I mentioned in my comment last week on the resolution that was passed I believe that as a district we hold the power to help the next Noelia or Shara or Marcela learn from the start in a way that honors our respective cultures and communities our contributions and our Beauty and I ask the board to dream bigger than a resolution um and to put in place as soon as possible to do better than continuing to otherize all of our Collective American stories um so those are my two suggestions thank you for listening

050I'm done thank you Marcella uh Ron Patel and then afterwards will be Lisa Warren uh Ron um hi to all of you uh sorry to hear about the abuse that uh you had to go through um wasn't aware of it and sorry to hear it um I'm a Foster City resident I'm a person of color I'm also a veteran um educator as well um the brutal murder of George Floyd was tragic and preventable I feel the pain of the black community and hope that we as a nation can heal and unify against the intolerance saying that I think the school board should denounce racism and support equity and safety for whole races and religions last year California had the third highest number of anti-Semitic incidents including physical assault vandalism harassment and murder in the country

051FBI data has shown that Jews have been the overwhelming Target of religious based hate crime in every year since 1991 60% of hate crime attacks in the US were targeted against Jews or Jewish institutions last year in here in Sam County swasti KAS and racial graffiti were found in our schools as such I'm greatly troubled that last Thursday the board unanimously approved the racist anti-semitic resolution the draft curriculum that you approved for implementation is offensive to my own Multicultural Jewish Community which includes Jews of color who are also the number one target to religion-based hate crimes in California during last week's meeting it was suggested it was become a political issue and that the Jewish Community slowing down the process this is not about politics or the Middle East conflict it is about racism pure

052racism anti-Semitism for me it's too close to home both of my parents had to flee their country of birth because of their religion my family suffered through violent riots and murder carried out against the Jewish population of Bagdad Iraq I don't want my kids or anyone's kids to even experience discrimination because of the religion race of color I'm very troubled that the did did not care that this resolution was written by a declar anti-semitic you know a former hill hill High School teacher Samia Schuman she's well known to a rhetoric in class and for demonized Jews how can the board support such a resolution um ask the board to approve the resolution because I do believe on fighting racism but I'm also asking the board to be considerate to all Races and all religion and

053to fight anti-Semitism anti-Semitism in a school district thank you for your time thank you Ron we have Lisa Warren and then afterwards will be rosan uh Roseanne Wong Lisa hi Bor Dr roses hope this finds you well um trusty Watkins trusty Coro especially I I don't even have words to describe um both my out rage and sadness for my own community that you know this sort of um latent racism and just runs under the under the surface at the same time I'm really no stranger to it um you know let's just pop open the elephant in the room we if you look at the demographics of the schools which I do on the sarc reports um every year there are definitely disproportionately black and brown families that are at schools um and disproportionately um white

054and Asian families at other schools um and of course with that we have uh achievement gaps we have a swift learning curve in terms of you know learning the language and learning how School works because some kids this is their first school experience and that might even be in fourth grade I mean I've seen it at my children's school um and I just feel like that needs to be taken into account as well it's just it's very very evident that you know as Progressive as we like to think we are on the peninsula and in the San Francisco Bay Area we're Progressive as long as it suits us we're Progressive as long as you know know it's a NIMBY sort of a thing which again needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed

055starting at the school level because this is our next Generation we have a responsibility as a community to address this with um with all of our children and help them learn better ways so I feel like there needs to be more integration and more more diversity at the school levels especially starting at elementary and I'm not seeing that Thank you Lisa we have Roseanne Wong and then after Roseanne will be Deb C uh Roseanne yeah hi um I'm a my name is Roseanne Wong and I uh fully support your resolution I'm a teacher at Foster City Elementary school um and um after teaching California history um I know that there's been a lot of injustices um so I I just want to make sure that you include in your ethnic studies um Asian-American History because

056I I I have to teach the Chinese Exclusion Act um and I I think that nowadays there's um a lot of racism directed against uh Asians so I think that is very important that you um in your resolution mention not only um black brown and Indigenous people you I think that it should include yellow people as well okay thank you Rosanne thank you right uh debc and then after debc will'll be Julie MacArthur Deb uh Deb it's going to disconnect your Zoom to bring you in as a panelist because of the version of Zoom that you're using so it's might take a second okay can you hear me yes we can thank you Deb you have two minute uh I want to Echo the other Community member Ron Patel's request that we need to be

057cognizant and sensitive to any religious discrimination as well um I fully support your Equity resolution I like how Shara pointed out we need to dig deeper into what Equity truly means in this district and as some parents have also commented um about looking at our schools and the equity in them as the board considers truly making changes systemically to increase equity in our district I hope you'll take note of the vast difference of all Foster City schools with regards to socioeconomically disadvantaged stud students a simple look at the demographics in the Foster City Schools show that the Foster City Schools all have only 4% or less students who are socioeconomically disadvantaged with a new school being built in Foster City this is the perfect time to rebalance the socioeconomic disparity to Foster greater equity in

058our district I urge you to consider redrawing the boundaries of the north central neighborhood to direct a fair portion to Foster City School as well thank you Deb okay we have Julia MacArthur and then after Julie uh will be M Tracy uh Julie good evening everyone um for those who may not know given we have 700 people in our meeting tonight uh my name is Julie MacArthur and I am the President of the Sano Elementary Teachers Association and I want to speak tonight to offer my sincere support for this resolution and to let the board know that SMA teachers understand there is a lot of work to be done around equity and uh we are absolutely here for it um I look forward to engaging with the district and the board on um professional development

059trainings what we can do to encourage more um people of color to join the teaching profession um and other actionable items I have to say I am completely saddened to hear that two of our board members have been unfairly treated and I would like to let everyone in this meeting know that a few years ago uh Shara Watkins and noellia Coro came to SM asking for for our endorsement um and we wholeheartedly gave it to them on behalf of the teachers because we believed they would be the voice for underrepresented people and they have not disappointed us so um know that these two board members have the support of the Sano Elementary Teachers Association we appreciate sincerely their perspectives on what it means to bring Equity to our um students and um we look forward

060to continuing our work with um in the future thank you thank you Julie okay uh all right uh Christina Ogburn Chow uh you are next and then after Christina will be Iris Christina hi um thank you for your time um I want to start by saying thank you to the board for your anti-racism resolution I think it was important and I was glad to hear you all read it and again you know just thank you for doing that I know it is you know it's important and it's hard um while I would like to know a little bit more about the elementary afternoon options for um the fall hybrid back to school plan um I want to just share my feedback you know in you know on that um so right now I just wanted

061to you know say that you know I have some concerns about only having two half days in person I don't expect a full-time program so don't iners program so I don't want it to sound like that U but my soon to be second grader loses interest in online and self-driven activities really quickly Christina sorry I just I'm going to interrupt you very quickly because we do have this item on the agenda agenda next so there will be a chance to talk about that yes okay I only saw public comment on the agenda for one time so um so I wanted to make sure so I can stop and wait until that yeah please just raise your hand um at the next opportunity for public comment thank you okay appreciate it thank you Christina okay uh

062Lindy okamoto Lindsay hello uh I I just wanted to make a comment um I am in support of this resolution and I'm grateful um for the work that the board is doing in the area of advancing Equity well-being and the safety of black people um however I did want to make a comment and I wanted to speak out in response to um one of the comments that someone had made earlier regarding all lives matter um and I just like to note that I found this statement to be incredibly offensive to the work that has been done and to the black lives movement and especially to the content that's contained within the resolution um and while I think that we all agree that all lives matter I think that it was this sentiment that um is

063working in opposition to what we as a community and what I as a parent am teaching my kids about the black lives matter movement and really what's contained within that resolution so I just wanted to um to to state that so thank you and thank you for the work that you're doing thank you Lindsay uh Mona Reeves hi thank you for taking my question um trustees I um I'm calling as a parent of two kids uh in the district um I myself am Asian and I'm raising a black child and a white child so kind of this issue is um kind of personal to to my family um one thing I did want to kind of ask about and hope that you guys can take action on is that the Sark reports I understand are

064the current ways of measuring performance on socioeconomic and Equity issues across the um the schools and what I have noticed is that um in Sano County because certain populations are low in demographics when a school drops below a certain number of students so let's say if a school has less than 10 kids who are black or you know less than five kids or a certain percentage that's Native American or any sort of um um yeah uh kind of the more affected minorities they are actually not tracked anymore because they kind of fall off uh fall off the the statistics so um I'd like to kind of ask you guys to kind of address that issue to make sure that our vulnerable populations don't kind of go off the map uh because because of our County's

065demographics and that's it thank you thank you Mona president Coro that was all the hands for public comment thank you um let's move on um to what we've all been waiting for a motion to approve it oh that's right I'm so sorry okay a motion very important step I'll make a motion to approve resolution number 34 um 1920 denouncing racism and supporting Equity wellbeing and safety of black people and I'll second that okay oh sorry that's okay Rebecca second okay roll call vote trusty chin I trusty Hitchcock hi justy paror yes Excuse me yes trusty Watkins yes and a yes for me um the motion carries and now moving on to um fall reopening parameters and program I'm sorry no PA fall reopening plan I mistake yes thank you I believe um Diane is going

066to um present the slides and I am going to talk through them I do have some additional information I've been Gathering I'd like to share tonight too but before I begin I want want to recognize how difficult the pandemic has been in our lives both personally and professionally um and I want everyone to know that we are working diligently to bring options to the table um options that respond to uh our staff needs and our and our families needs but most particularly to our students needs um I too have fallen behind my email responses been trying to keep up with with all of that but uh we are gathering that information and sharing it with our action teams so so know that um this is a difficult time it is um continuing there are more

067cases this week uh it's gone up but we are really very serious about moving a program forward for the fall so the purpose of the presentation tonight is to re review the options that we have for the fall reopening and make some preliminary decisions so that staff know what the framework will be in order to further develop this program so we'll be discussing offerings both of a distance learning program and a hybrid at school atome model so we're we're looking at both as our recommendation tonight so on June 16th um on this next slide June 16th Sano County announced that it was granted a variance it was a variance status by the state of California allowing our County to more fully open up and aligning the county to the State Health orders and guidance so

068what that means is that this alignment means that we're following the state orders and guidance um so we are now following California Department of Public Health guidance for schools the California Department of Education guidance for schools and the Centers for Disease Control these different areas these these different um entities their guidance does align with the um pandemic recovery framework that we have been working with also know next slide please also know that as our district moves forward we're following some guiding principles first and foremost being health and safety for our students families teachers staff we need to make sure everyone is safe and healthy we are looking at Equity we're looking at the issue of students um English Learners students with disabilities socio uh social emotional um issues kids were struggling um we're looking at

069these students who maybe they didn't even begin with everyone uh when we started on distance learning because they didn't even have the technology so we need to look at equity and bringing these students uh up to where we all are working we're looking at the student learning for everyone rigorous meaningful consistent for everyone and we know that that wasn't the case this spring we looking at Community Connection kids want connection with one another we need to address that and our families and staff are wanting to learn more more about how we can help one another and support our students now people have asked me how have these plans been created like how are different districts doing this where are we coming up with these ideas know that they are based on the health guidelines the

070health guidelines do vary in certain counties but they are based on health guidelines and we are all attending seminars uh with organizations that work with school districts such as California school boards Association the Sam Mato California school boards Association the association for California school administrators County offs of Ed also know that the superintendents in this County have been Gathering sometimes daily and for the past several weeks we've met a minimum of two to three times a week to discuss where we are with creating plans curriculum and instruction directors across the county have the meeting regularly and additionally we look at the input that we're receiving from our own staff and our own families now part of what um guides each district is obviously all of our county is is using the same framework but part

071of what guides our work has to be based on space and Staffing options that's going to come up in a bit and I'll explain that so um I do want to skip to where we've been Gathering some input from our families so I will um talk to that a moment what we have done uh in order to gather some preliminary input from our staff and our families is through coffee chats we heard a lot from families about what they felt they needed our board meetings emails we've also run ideas past our standing committees such as the daac the equity task force we've gone there several times we've gone weekly to LMI our Labor Management initiative gone to sedak that's our special education District advisory Council and our Communications committee we also have weekly leadership team

072meetings where we've been meet uh discussing what options we have task force teams have been meeting regularly and we've been meeting with our Union leadership now are we done gathering information absolutely not we're trying tonight to determine a framework so that we can go back out and do further engagement with our families and our staff um we'd like to look at engagements by complex so uh things that are going things that might affect Foster City for example or things that might affect our Title One schools so we'd like to work by complex and include a Spanish language Outreach we also have a family distance learning phase to survey out right now and we would like to utilize that information in informing the program and we also plan to send out the family registration survey which

073will provide more information for us also so one piece of information that I think is very important to hold in mind when we think about um moving forward for the fall is that we are the largest District in the county our space and Staffing options are different from other distri districts and I do want to share a little bit about what I know about other districts and then we'll go to our district um for example you may have heard that Marin County um in partnership with their County Office of Ed and the County Health Department made a decision to decrease the recommended six foot uh distancing from six to 4 foot well that that allows more students to return to school at a time our um County and our guidance has not made that change

074at this time it may come it may come during the summer may come as early as July I don't know but right now it is still six feet some of the school districts within our County are able to do some things that we're not for example um Lo Lamas fora Valley Woodside Hillsboro they have smaller class sizes already they have more available rooms so they are able to manage bringing all their students back so you will hear that they're coming back and that is because they can manage that bore bore is a one school district and Berling game they are considering a potential a in the morning B in the afternoon schedule they basore feels they can do the cleaning that's necessary in between Burling game has not determined how they would clean in between

075at this time um Meno Park they're looking at alternating weeks San Carlo Redwood City they're looking at an AB paired schedule but basically they the options are these you can go back full-time if you have space Staffing and um that is uh and in Marin's in Marin's case the spacing is is less that would make a difference for us too you can go to an A in the morning B in in the afternoon if you feel you can clean clean uh safely in between the cohorts can go to a week on a week off you can go to a paired so let's talk a little bit about our district um I and while we're getting that slide I do want to confirm that all of the districts in our County no matter what model they're

076using they are still following the pandemic recovery framework which means that these are some of the things in that framework health and hygiene face coverings physical distancing and limited Gatherings under health and hygiene I'm not going to read it to you you all know what it is it's staying home if you're ill it's the face coverings hand washing cleaning and continuing Health instruction for the physical distancing that's the piece that I was just talking about it's right now the guidance is 6 foot for us to do a six foot distance and we've actually gone out to measure approximately 50% of the students coming into a class at a time with different areas needing to be marked off and entering it entering and exiting protocols and looking at um recesses passing times that kind of thing

077so again let's look at the models that we have that we have um in front of us we know how to do and can continue a distance learning program and we do have families who have requested that we've learned a lot this spring we can do uh a much better job with what we we um plan for the spring we for the fall we we've learned from what we did at this present moment in time we can't return to school as normal which is the easiest thing and what we would all want to do so we have to work now on the hybrid the hybrid is the piece we've never done and that's the work that has to be um developed over the summer so in order um as we move forward this this um

078this summer we would like to implement two models the full-time distance learning for those families who require Ted and the hybrid model which is at school at home which is and the reason for that again being the distancing and the requirement then for about half of a class at a time so let's talk about the distance learning first on the distance learning like I said we have learned a great deal about distance learning and believe we can establish a rigorous program for the fall um we we are looking at whether creating a separate distance learning school where we can better support our staff who are teaching that program and our students might be something to look at we can adopt that and adapt an online curriculum a common Learning Management platform where the curriculum lies

079so that it will be easier for families to um navigate and for students to navigate on their once they learn it um we have practitioners looking at some options right now they we expect to have an answer on um an online curricula by July 8th so these are some things that we would be coming forward with for the for the distance learning so now let's look at this hybrid model this is the part that is new to all of us so we are suggesting a paired schedule however there are other schedules and I want to make sure that we review them there's an AM p.m now in our district I have very very serious reservations about the ability to clean properly between an AM and a PM we have too many schools too many classrooms

080too many people coming in and out of the of the classrooms in that sit situation I do not believe our custodian custodial staff could do the cleaning necessary so the AM PM schedule while it does bring students to school every day is not something that I feel we can actually Implement that leaves us with two options one which is like um memo um Park the um alternating weeks that's where students go to school for the 5 days but then they're off for a week so on the week that they're off of course they would be in distance learning and our staff they were concerned about the frequency of contact UM being able to see the students more often so there is the alternating week schedule I think it's wor able uh you would clean on

081uh Friday Saturday Sunday um and then it would be safe for the next cohort to come in or if we want to look at and this is what staff is is requesting and and recommending more frequent contact with students then you do a paired day and a paired Day schedule is where you have a cohort a they go to school on Monday Tuesday then they're at home on the Thursday Friday cohort B is at home on Monday Tuesday and at school on Thursday Friday and everyone is at home on Wednesday so that the cleaning can be done and that's an opportunity for distance learning there now special day class students they have a small class size to begin with they can physically distance in their class they could come back and it is an example

082of a student group that's very vulnerable so if they um were able to come back on four days a week under this schedule that would be um of great support for them it would be a daily schedule of about four to four and a half hours a day um and I do want to point out that on on that some people have said it's it's a half day well when you add in all of the different kinds of things that go on in the day and if you look at our actual instructional minutes fourth through 8th grade the instructional minutes um equate to about five hours a day so this is more than a half day this is um a 4H hour to a 4 and a half hour day lunch would be grab and

083go we have a lot of students on our campuses managing lunch would be very difficult in order to ensure safety so it would be a grab and go lunch at the end of the period uh morning period and then students would return uh some students would stay in order to Pro get additional support um those students who maybe had struggles with the the online learning maybe they have fallen behind those students who are struggling they would be able to stay and their teach teacher could um uh support them and or a specialist could support them um let me just show you an Elementary schedule in a in a graph form so that you can see it um you can see here it describes what I was saying that a is in school on Monday Tuesday

084B is at home on distance learning Wednesday distance learning for everyone and then it's a switch in the afternoon like I said additional instruction uh maybe some uh synchronous instruction for students who were in school in the morning um and also we're looking at some options around our library time our music music for miners we didn't continue but I don't see why music for miners couldn't provide something during the distance learning period of time so music library Maybe specializ Services maybe even some of our physical education maybe one class is at school but one class is online so there would be more frequent contacts during the distance learning time um Middle School is the most complicated it truly is we have Singleton subjects we have teachers who teach um core classes and electives um so

085this one this work has to really um be intensely reviewed with our principles and the um academic counselors at the at the middle schools and then um input from uh Middle School staff uh to make this work and we are um in conversation with them now about how to um really develop this this plan the basic plan would be a type of block schedule where students students in cohort a would come and have four of their classes uh on on Monday and another four of their classes on Tuesday and then they would everyone would have a distance learning class on Wednesday and then there would be a swap and um B would come in and have their classes on Thursday Friday so there are many I'm going to repeat many outstanding questions regarding Middle School

086um and uh those need to be worked through however we do need to know uh what the frame is going to be so that we can build it out um there are a couple of outstanding questions related to programming that um have come up a number of times I know you've heard them I have too and I have been in conversation with other superintendant about what they are intending to do um and we are all uh going to work together on addressing for example the immersion student the language um the language time necessary to build dual literacy um it takes more time and so I've talked with uh the superintendent Meno Park and also superintendent Redwood City they both have language immersion programs and we're looking at how we can better address those programs um

087we also have a lot of um work to do a ra inclusion uh because our special education students who are already scheduled in class in a in a gened class with specialized Services that's one that's a cohort special day class students are a cohort but what about the students who travel from a special day class to a general education class for inclusion so we still have some work to do to figure that out and we expect to bring more of this information to you in July now I did want to point out to that child care is uh uh serious concern for our families and our staff because if our staff are teaching five days a week but there students are not at school 5 days a week they need a place for students to

088go and same with our parents parents who are working five days a week they need support so we're looking at an anex schedule that could um support uh this uh this paired schedule you can see it here um and we are talking to our um Community Partners I was on the phone for over an hour just yesterday with one of the Community Partners and they were figuring out how they might be able to make this framework work um but again they need to know what framework are we are we um planning to go with for the fall so that they can work around that so um another area that we do have to um keep in the Forefront of our minds is wellness and we do have a task force working on this but in

089particular they are looking at these areas they're looking at Community Connection um they realize that there needs to be relationship building there's going to be transition they're developing recommendations um to support students integration into these new classes social emotional learning we're we have a very strange World we're living in right now social distancing and masks and staying home so there is a need for a strong cour curriculum and and support and our continued mental health support through counseling so I guess um as and I've talked about that but it as we uh wrap as I wrap this up we do know that this is very difficult for our families and our staff we do need to move forward we need to establish some kind of structure that we're working with so that we can develop

090the program more robustly so that we can engage our fam in how to make the framework work um and what we're looking at is um a update or an implementation review should um a change come in health directives that changes how we might U be able to enter in the fall um and also we would like to um utilize any information that we receive from our stakeholders through the surveys that I was talking about through the Outreach sessions that I I mentioned and uh possibly yet another robust survey once we've implemented the fall plan to see how that's going pull that information together bring it to the board to discuss and assess potential changes so um with that I am asking the board tonight to approve both a distance learning plan and a hybrid model

091staff is recommending the AABB paired model um for more um Regular contact with students face-to-face contact with students um and then we staff um families can go forward to build out the details and bring further information to the board so um do know though that as you're making doing your um making uh your decision engaging in your discussion the um AABB is something we can do and the alternating weeks is something we could do I would very seriously I would be very seriously concerned about the A and the B because I do not believe that we can clean the schools appropriately in between so um I just want to say that um as you go into your discussion thank you thank you Dr um Roes um we're gonna start with clarifying questions and um I'm

092just GNA let's just I think we've as a board we've gotten used to um the the process we were using before questions comment um and then discussion but let's go ahead and popcorn style now so we don't necessarily have to go in the order we've we had been used to right when you when you get used to it h Ken yeah I was gonna say does anyone want to go first because I'm happy not to go first all the time you can still go first all right we're gonna do it I have three clarifying questions Dr roses um one just in terms of the full-time uh distance learning curriculum or even in general the distance learning curriculum as I heard from the presentation you you had stated that we have been looking at more robust

093curriculum uh including some sort of I think it was a learning management system which from what I understand from previous conversation or so it's a it's almost like a portal portal where everything is there and so you don't have to as before when we were all in distance learning our kids would be shuffling back from site to site to site and and this is just more complete and from my understanding just from the presentation you are going to bring back you you're projecting that our analysis of this distance learning curriculum will be done by July 8th and then our next we added two July meetings to the to the um Board calendar so our next board meeting is July 16th then I mean absent the one we have in two days on sat in Saturday

094so do you plan on bringing the distance learning curriculum to our first board meeting in July July 16th or is that the plan at the moment yes um and let me clarify you are correct about the online curriculum there are some online curriculums that actually create the platform and you can put things on their online curriculum so it it may be that the it's the one and done it's right there or it may be that we put together a platform so everybody goes one place and then there might be some different um curriculum placed on that so for example um you know we just adopted the science twig and um it does have a fairly robust science online curriculum so that would be nice to put it in the portal and be able to use

095it so um there the um staff are going through and looking at at options and and we may need something different for Middle School than we need for elementary school so um we put both of those things there um to leave it open as to what will come back and yes we would bring it to you then at your next board meeting and um share what it looks like great but um bottom line is because I know we've gotten a lot of feedback regarding uh people's experiences family's experience with with the previous distance learning whether it was phase one or phase two and a lot of them when they're going to ultimately make a choice of what they're going to do in terms of staying distance learning or not um a lot of them have

096had concerns about the curriculum itself and from my getting uh understand just bottom line we will have some better answer at our next board meeting yes but um and you will have an online curriculum of some sort I just can't answer to you which one at this present moment yes sure and and at the board meeting is it informational or does the board actually have to adopt the curriculum if let say it's something different than what we that's that will be the question so I think you will need to adopt well so you don't have to adopt twig you already did um and you wouldn't have to adopt a a platform but if we add to those things or we go with a different platform you will need to adopt so I would bring it

097for forward for you okay great thank you um because I know we got a lot of emails and comments about just that distance learning specifically in terms of the curriculum right second question in terms of the the paired uh hybrid system versus the week to week from my understanding being on some other committees that we reviewed this stuff before the week to week as it was presented um doesn't actually show the full details of it because there's no other chart there that gives an example schedule and in that and what I what I missed here in the present this presentation was the plan to as when you're in the paired system uh the district just proposing Wednesday be a sort of professional development day for the teachers but or you know an extra day for

098planning for whatever it is um so it's Monday Tuesday off Wednesday and then Thursday Friday is that um actually it's it's a distance learning day yes and it could be some um additional time with struggling students but it is a distance learning day and um opportunity for learning sure um for professional development the idea being that people leave the site so that we can clean so there'd be no one on campus on Wednesdays basic right and in the week to week schedule I I don't think it was clear I I believe in previous scenarios it was Friday going to be the day that was the same thing and so a lot of the comments that we got by emails was they were everyone who might have been um sort of advocating for week to week

099they were saying full five full days or five you know four and a half hour days or so um but in reality it's actually a Monday through Thursday so it depends um right now Menlo is uh Meno Park is going with um the they they are considering whether they're going to be the four days and a and a part of of Friday so four hours doing about a 4our day also because uh they're going to end around 1 1:30 and then on Friday it being a short period of time and then everyone exits oh so so they're looking at maybe not a full four hours on Friday but but something potentially sometime and maybe the teachers are going to work from there to do distance or maybe they're going to do smaller groups or maybe

100they would bring bring some students and they're not completely done with their framework yet and so for what we're proposing and what we're looking at what is that week week versus every other week look like is are we looking at Friday being an at home day essentially or we or is that still on the table remember that staff is recommending the the first one so um you could definitely ask me to come back with some more information if you're interested in the alternate weeks because I would need to talk more with staff yeah I just wanted to clarify um some some things there because I I do believe that it was sort of a not a Monday through Friday it was actually Monday through Thursday and I just don't think that was as clear uh

101if we were to go that route um the last question um can you define um what you mean by synchronous instruction in the afternoon I just wanted to make sure that that's because that seems like a term of Art and that from most of the people in the public you know what is that additional option in the afternoon of the pair days so maybe um either David or Sue can talk more about that since they've been working more closely with staff and could um respond sure T I can help you with that um so synchronous learning means that online uh students are scheduled to meet with their teacher um at at a you know a set time it means that there is uh live interaction uh but at a distance asynchronous just to you know

102work on the vocabulary around all this is um you know learning tasks that students engage in independently of uh their teacher like literally being with them in the moment so they they're done independently and and in that scenario when you're looking at the AA and then the BB in the afternoon is it the synchronous instruction for the kids that were not in the classroom of that time or in the classroom it was the ones that just went home for lunch or is that sort of open uh there's there's some variation there between elementary and middle but um what we're thinking about is that we want to make sure that students who spent the day at home have opportunities to um have contact with their teacher who that day has spent time with the the kids

103in front of them so when we're talking about synchronous instruction in the afternoon it's really a t a a point of contact where the teacher checks in with that group of students who've worked at home and has an opportunity to you know just to do any problem solving any any questions you know you know just so that the students can be productive in their in their um distance learning in the afternoon I would like to add on to that if if you if we do look at alternating weeks that afternoon is very important because otherwise you have students who have not had a contact I mean you have to set up contacts during that week off yeah yeah so so basically the point is is that whoever was home each students would be home there's

104still an opportunity for them a space a time frame for them to touch in or or um contact their teacher it's not like there's like hey you're distance learning you're at home I've not seen you until your your given day so that's correct and I would add also that we're looking at there are other staff on campus besides the main classroom teacher uh that we would we would imagine scheduling um live contact with students who are working from home so it could be a a PE lesson could be the the music lesson that that um Joan mentioned earlier um it could be a counselor checking in I mean there's all sorts of opportunity when students are working from home have other staff making connections with them great thank thank you for those clarifications um at

105the moment I don't have any other clarifying questions I have a couple questions um me get to um I was hoping um uh that you could share a little bit more just about for folks about how we sort of Define equity Equity groups in our district just paint kind of what what that means to us um and then also kind of I know you know there's still a lot of work to be done um around kind of building out the plan so we don't have all the answers yet um because we need to know the plan but um also a little bit about just process for identifying who those students would be so it kind of goes hand inand so I'll start with that um and then I may ask um for um David to

106step in also but I'm just looking for my slide that where we really do um State some of the students who would um need additional support um and I'm not finding it right here and right in front of me but I can certainly answer um we have students for whom the distance learning has been particularly difficult and that would be um our in newcomers newcomers to the to the district who they did not speak English and their parents don't and there is no particular help for them to navigate that technology so English newcomers English learners students who are already struggling with their reading um they would have difficulty with keeping up with the curriculum um so these are students who we really would need to Target it's a very similar list that other districts are

107using I'm looking at another list from uh meno and from Redwood City where they're talking about students who are English Learners students with IEPs students who are um not within the grade level of their current grade homeless Foster youth who already are have many struggles students from families who are considered low income so um these are students who traditionally have not been doing as well as they should in our district and this particular uh situation has exacerbated their academic um progress so we do you ask how to identify them you know we do have a problem in that the the state suspended all monitoring all testing so you don't have that venue but we can easily if we're back at school easily do a quick survey of our the reading levels and be able to

108very quickly determine who is not at the um level that they they need to be so um I think that I'm answering that question but maybe David I don't know if I missed something uh no I think that's pretty comprehensive we we would use our benchmark assessments like FMP and reading inventory um our local math assessments I guess I would just add and uh we could talk about Equity Group groups that are not specifically defined by academic performance but also by social emotional need and So based on um you know SST referrals or teacher referrals it becomes an opportunity to support and connect um you know hold groups uh with students who uh share you know you know Common family challenges with the economy and all that so okay um I have I guess more

109questions and thoughts that I'll save and I know it's something that also the task force is going to be looking at and other groups are going to be looking at um in terms of kind of how that flushes out once we have the plan but I think that's a helpful start um I was wondering if you could share I know that we have a group working around inclusion and what that how that would be potentially integrated into the Frameworks I'm wondering if there's anything that you can share about what folks are currently where folk where we currently are in our thinking around what that enta might entail or how we might just any thoughts that might be kind of on the table right um actually I um didn't have time to check in with Alma

110with so many other things going on today um and she has told me that the task force is starting to dig into options as for inclusion but I was not able to ask her where we were with that at this point so um I just know that the task force is working on it okay um with an a potential adjustment I know trusty chin was asking a little bit about week a week B and that possibility um uh would that alter and I know that we don't know um yet whether that would be Monday Thursday Monday Friday Monday through Thursday Monday through Friday but would that change SDC classes as well um to say that was Monday through Friday would then we also would that expand SDC as well as potentially increase amount of time

111and Equity cohorts for other groups so just um so yes because of course what we're trying to do if we do the paired then we do want to have everyone at home on Wednesday Wednesday is a distance learning um option so it isn't like it's just a free day um however it is not face Toof face so if you're saying more face tace then you could potentially if you do run a class on a Friday um if if you but it would be a shorter period of time in order to get everyone do a te a contact and then head home so that the the school could start to be cleaned and aired out okay um so it could be it could potentially provide some some additional time and do remember though that even if

112you do the alternating weeks you still need to stop uh at some point the before those kids are starving right let them pick up their lunch um because if you don't then you don't have the time for contacts with distance learning that you know to reconnect and also um for the additional support for students who are struggling so so keep those things in mind yeah and then I just had a couple logistical questions more kind of health and safety related um and I I I apologize if I missed um any of this but um I believe we may have touched on this last week um mask requirements I know we've had a couple of questions around what that looks like for younger kids what that looks like for students with special needs for you know

113sensory um challenges like those sorts of things um or kids that might be frightened by the appearance of a teacher you know so what is uh can you talk a little bit more about what we know about that both from County State and then what flexibility we actually have as a district around that sure and um know that at your next board meeting um they the different task forces that are working on B annotation and security and all these kinds of things they would like to come and present more fully about what they've been working on but I can tell you in general there was a um statement made that people did not have to wear masks and then that has been reversed so if you look at the guidance we're under we do have

114to wear masks and it's everyone and so it's at school and in the classroom now they do say that obviously a student with a medical need or a staff member with a medical Needler where they can't breathe with that Mas then that's different but otherwise our our students are wearing them all day now does that mean that everybody is ready to wear wear a mask all day probably not so um part of what we have to work on is how do we have mask breaks right I mean when when are we going to have some recess time for the kids and when do they take those masks off for a little bit um how does that work so our teams that are working on that piece have some suggestions for ways that um um staff

115might consider coming back and and really being able to manage a mask so that it isn't frightening and it isn't um overwhelming to somebody and then um requirements are or are there requirements around covid testing for staff for kids um I guess is part A and then if not um is that something that the team is thinking about or the distri that we're thinking about or not so there's no covid re testing requirement for students no there is a requirement uh for everyone as you come into the school site to take take temperatures so um we're figuring out how to be most efficient with that and we were discussing different opport options for that today so there is um um there is a require re M for that and then if someone is showing a

116temperature that they need to have um an isolation space so that they can get to their family get home um and so so there is a a protocol around that now um as far as testing staff no that's not required either um the idea of a stable cohort is that that group is is together and if there's something that happens then that group is notified and um can be contact traced um if you have a staff member who would be traveling from one place to another um then you might want to set something up um that that has some testing but it's not required right now okay I don't know sue if you have anything further on that um that's what I know no that's as much I know as well is not a requirement

117to have testing um however we are encouraging staff to get tested um as they are able to I think those are my questions for now thank you okay I have some oh sorry oh sorry go ahead go ahead okay um so just referring back to let me get this back on my screen here it is the implementation review and um how staff would review any change in health directives um something that um I feel like came up on a call that I was on today with the SM csba was the the possibility of um you know as cases continue to increase because they are increasing um the reality that we might get to August and we won't be able to go back to school at all um if if it continues to increase and my

118understanding is there is an a surge expected in August and I and I am understanding that that is why we are still you know totally committing to bulking up the distance learning plan um but I'm just wondering um I'm I'm thinking about how that type of situation could present additional barriers to families as they try to make plans for child care and um for work etc um is that can you just speak to like how we would approach that can I speak to that [Music] um I I just have to be honest that um all of this is difficult um and it's very it's very possible based on what's going on right now that we will have a surge and that we will be told that students need to remain at home so the building

119of a really strong distance learning program is essential and being prepared for that possibility is important so I think as we build this Frame and we start working with our our um child care providers and our Community Partners when we do our work in our complex engagements we talk to families about how do we manage s such a thing because they're asking that we be prepared to toggle to toggle back and forth potentially to distance learning and then back to hybrid so um I can't give you a great answer for that because I do think it's just going to be difficult but I do think that in conversation and with pre-planning we can have some options available and ready thank you um I know you touched earlier just on the collaboration that you've had with

120um our Community Partners For example like after school program specifically um can you just share like is that going to continue are we going to try to reach um more Child Care Partners um are we connecting with for example like forsees or pencial family service I know there's like collaboratives um so I we've started with some of our our um most um robust Partners Boys and Girls Club homework central Jewish Community Center uh and we will continue to reach out but um I have not pushed that yet because I need to be able to tell them what we're doing um so that they can then plan because um in the conversations with the three groups I just mentioned um I've told them about the different possibilities and and so um they're there's thinking that they're

121kind of holding they're in a holding pattern until they know how we're going to move forward so um that's why this kind of conversation is so important um all the answers are not there we're not coming with everything um delineated but we are meing to get a skeleton so that we can build on it and so we will reach out more I just have hesitated to do it because I can't tell them what we're doing yet yeah understood understood um something that that I've seen come up a lot is um you know the the the basically the the role of the city as um you know as the because of the fact that they offer Recreation they offer child care as well um I know that we are having um soon we'll be having a

122a s a liaison meeting with the city of Sano um and the City of Foster City but um yeah is that what have those you know I know you talk to them um to the city managers what's that kind of look like so we have a really close relationship actually with Park and wreck at both Foster City and in Sano um they are in fact in our schools right now every summer they run programs now of course their program is very changed this summer it's much smaller and it's much more spread out but um we've had a lot of conversations about how they're running their programs this summer um how we're going to be doing our summer school and conversations about how we might go forward in the fall so um again uh they're ready

123to um listen to what what we are proposing so that they can start thinking about their off offerings also and Patrick I don't know Patrick is the one that interfaces most with the park and red folks especially during the summer do you have anything else that you would add to that no I know they're they're trying to abide by all the the guidelines as well too and we've had some conversation about that so they are fing all the same protocol that we're aware of as well so that students or I should say children safe um and uh we um have uh been working with on our Maus to reflect that they're going to abide by those guidelines as well too so and and they have they're willing to to look at at off options in

124the F absolutely thank you um that that's it for now okay um I'll go so a lot of my questions have been answered which is great thank you um but let's see if a family um were to choose like the full-time distance learning model and vice versa do they have an option to switch or opt back into either program what would that look like or do do they need to be committed for the school year or six months or yeah we've actually talked about that and we don't think that that's um that choosing a program for an entire school year is appropriate because things could change very dramatically I mean we could get a vaccine and folks will want to be off of distance learning or or we could have a situation where it goes

125the other way and folks want distance learning so um we can indeed uh a move uh between distance learning and the hybrid approach now uh we won't be able to just move on a dime uh because we are count we're going to need to send home a survey as soon as we know what this Frame is going to be we need to send out a survey and say to families what are you choosing because we have a set number of Staff members right and we have to then look at who is going to take the distance learning and who is taking the hybrid approach and we have to staff this so you we wouldn't be able to just flip in and out of one or the other because we we we have to staff for

126this however we thought that we would um look at the year and make um some um Milestones so to say in the year where we say okay we would send out um a check with our families is are you wishing to continue and and then we could make adjustments so maybe u a natural place for example particularly at middle school is is at your trimester break where you finished up with one trimester and could make a move so um no decisions have been made but um we think that we could accommodate change okay because I just think that's important for families to know before they decide on a Model um that there is flexibility so thank you um and sorry I'm kind of all over the place um pleas I'm so sorry I um I

127do have some health and safety Logistics questions but knowing that they're going to be um the team is going to present later shall I hold those until well they will present to you in uh at the next meeting um we talked about that um that we would hold off on that piece because this is so important to really concentrate on the program um but if you have specific questions that you would like that team to look at um if you uh would email me those questions I will send them to the team uh what we've done is questions and thoughts and comments from our community parents staff we have forwarded those I have forwarded them other folks have forwarded them to the different task force teams so that they have that um information and I

128guess I should just do a shout out right now um our community has really come forward uh with um additional supports um masks uh shields uh we we have just been so very very fortunate with um what people are donating to support our program so just just a nice yeah much much appreciated and needed yeah thank you um and also regarding just again because I think families need as much information as possible before they can commit um I'm assuming that the same kids from a family yeah same day same cohort so we we know we can do that at the elementary level we know we can do that um because um the siblings are paired we can pair them at the school and we can we can find them all um might be a little

129more challenging between elementary and middle so we're thinking about how we can figure that out okay is the thought maybe just to provide that on the survey as well I I don't know because we have not created that survey yet great okay thank you um and then kind of in regards to what Noelia said you know knowing where we are regarding cases going up um I think something was mentioned in one of the many talks that we've had somewhere of possibly starting at 100% distance learning and then depending on the climate you know kind of scaffolding yeah in now some school districts um they've been talking about that so no real determination yet but some school districts have talked about starting everyone one in distance learning because they've been hearing about the surge in August

130and then peeling back to the hybrid um as soon as as they feel comfortable um we haven't really fully fleshed that out yet um however I have talked to several superintendant who are starting to consider that and and we'll talk with their boards more about it as the as July continues to okay at this point every one feels it's a little early to make the decision but um but that's option our numbers are not going in the right direction so so yes okay okay um and okay um and then I know there's been concerns with Middle School mixing of classes and kids going from U class to class and sorry if I've missed this lots of information um but I'm wondering I know David mentioned that there are multi-ub credential teachers um and the core

131class core classes um so I'm wondering if those teachers would indeed teach the subjects all subjects that they're credentialed for essentially um thus making the children not really move classes right they're all together um and then when class or when a group of students does need to go to a different class um can we just assume it's going to be the same group of kids with the same ex schedule I'm going to address what you're talking about as far as the number of of Co of students in a cohort um you know you uh we can identify the um the about 160 some students that we talked about last meeting as a state cohort as long as that's the group um however there is uh there is concern about that number so we're looking at

132ways that we might be able to limit the number of students who interact at the middle school level um by maybe doing some uh things with block scheduling yeah uh maybe some uh conversation around the uh electives because for example some of those electives are not going to be able to um start the year in distance in at school they'll have to be done in distance learning such as some of the Bands um so so there are some things we're looking at as far as block schedule to decrease the number of actual um contacts at Middle School potentially not having students move but maybe the teachers move um the what you shared about a a multi-ub teacher teaching all the subjects you see our our teachers are not all multiple subject credential at the middle

133school so you would be you would be hiring a whole set of people to run those classes because they're single subject teachers so um so uh that is part of the complication and Sue uh is is very much involved in this Middle School conversation about how are we setting this up so that the right teachers are teaching the right classes great um I don't know if I I think I've responded to it as best I can at this present moment unless either SE or David had thoughts that would add to that conversation right now yeah I can just add that um there are some options um in the Education Code also in title five which is around credentialing that allows us some flexibility um in terms of um what teachers can teach um we can

134also um get possible waivers um so what we are we need to make sure that teachers are teaching within their credential um this adds another layer of complexity um around the scheduling but we are going to adhere to the credential requirements okay thank you and then Joan oh no okay Rebecca yeah I'm sorry I just thought I would add um yeah to just add on to Sue's point that um the the complexities of of Master scheduling when we're trying to do these kinds of things um you know we talk about reducing electives to make this possible what do you do with staff who are full-time elective teachers uh you talk about the credentialing demands um Master scheduling is uh is almost a technical expertise equivalent to I don't know uh you know building a television

135set or something it's it's really uh complicated work and uh we've gotten some great and I just really say passionate uh feedback from our community about please look at this these numbers are too high and uh we really hear you and um want you to know that we're trying like we've got all the best Minds we've got in the district looking at this and um and and we're gonna make the best call we can uh this may come down to um just uh hoping we can get the trust of our community that um we have figured it out the best way that we can and so to understand those complexities um is it's really hard to communicate unless you really know what what what it looks like to to manage a master schedule this way

136so I just want folks to know we're gonna try and um it's pretty tough yeah being it said I do want to point out I've been a I'm an old Middle School person so uh I know this can be done and I do want to uh make sure that nobody walks away from this conversation hearing that we're reducing any electives I I didn't say that but I'm saying that electives may have to be done in a different way because I know that band can't come back on site so I I don't want anybody to think we're we're eliminating electives it may be just how they're delivered I don't know for sure yet um and David is right that it is very complicated to schedule a school and the smaller the school the more complicated it

137is because there's not as many options um but we do hear that that cohort number is too high and we're trying to figure out how could we schedule so that we have less movement so um thank you David and thank you sue oh yeah thank thank you both I know it's a logistical Nightmare and that you all are working as Joan pointed out with a bunch of uh different groups whether it's within our district or without um or and not just you know the superintendent meetings but the County Office of educations um and I think that's really important for people to know that you know this isn't just something we're throwing out there it's it's taking a lot of time um I do think that one thing that has been difficult and I just want

138to point out that unfortunately we're all inventing the same wheel so that is why we're so we're trying so desperately to stay in contact with one another because best practices need to be shared and I do have to say that the other districts that we are most in contact with uh have not completely figured out their middle school schedule right um and we're working through their the curriculum and instruction folks uh to see how uh what are different options that they're looking at and how might they schedule so that we can share best practices awesome um and I do know too we are one of the largest so it's going to make it very difficult um even though we are collaborating with other districts and yes they might be doing the block schedule um it

139just might not be feasible or it's going to be different than others because we are so large um and then regarding just the distance learning model I think it's I almost think it should be 100% a standalone program um um meaning you know like if the Virtual School site for with a dedicated principal and staff and um teachers that way I I'm trying to think as putting myself in that in an educated educator uh position that would hopefully alleviate um just extra work for for teachers who are doing it in in sight on site um and also who provides parents with a a single kind of touch Point person so those are that's my thought on that that's not really a question um so I don't know I just I know this impacts um families

140more so than ever and I just I appreciate sending out a survey um to all households and would love to know what their input is before a schedule is decided upon so I appreciate it thank you um I just have one more thing actually I I'll wait for discussion um why don't we go ahead and um did everyone speak did did everyone ask their question no I not yet sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I it's okay it's okay don't worry about it um I had just a few questions thankfully um a lot of asked my question so that's great um I was wondering um Dr Ros we've got a lot of emails from people wondering why they can't why they need to go home before lunch so let me if you could just for the

141benefit of the public explain expand a little bit on why the day ends right before lunchtime and why logistically it wouldn't okay work so we want to provide um a a fairly robust morning program so it is it is um not a half day program like I said it's a we're looking at four hours where um instructional minutes per day for for our fourth and grade and up which are our highest instructional minutes are a 5H hour instructional minute so it is a 4our um they the health guidance talks to us uh very specifically about lunch that it it it h would have to be um distanced uh the cleaning the ability to make sure that um all um the touch points were were cleaned down before another set of students came we're we're simply

142not sure that we can do that kind of cleaning so um the grab and go lunch means that the student takes it away and they eat in their own home and additionally when we look at the equity issues that we have in our district we need some additional time in the afternoon to to provide small group instruction for those students who have had such difficulty with the technology fell behind who maybe they were language Learners we talk about how important FaceTime is for language learning we talk about it about our our immersion programs talk about it in G gaining Spanish or mandrin but it's the same for gaining English you have to have face time for language so um we need some additional time built into this schedule for that work so it's it's two

143things it's health and safety and then it's um ability to pull that small group that needs that additional support thank I just want to make sure that was really clear before people um get a chance to speak that that that's answered um I was also wondering oh um I was also wondering for um have we given any thought to like the TK and kindergarten students and whether it's possible to do something for them where it's a a morning and an afternoon thing because they're new to school there are some there are some there is one District that's looking at potentially doing something a little bit different for tkk um because they might be able to do the cleaning and um they know that the FaceTime for the littlest ones is really important so um we

144can certainly look more at that uh as we move forward right at this moment I'm not ready to make that suggestion to you um because there's still too much that we have to check to ensure that we really could do it because we're still we have a lot of te kks too okay I just wanted to make sure that was at least a a consideration on the table um and then I think a question for when we talk about health and safety later I would just want to know um what happens if there is a student that either a student or a parent or a family member or a teacher that does have a has gets a case of Corona virus and what that would look like for the school and for the classroom so

145um not a question for now but you said we could um put um I will bring that for you at the next meeting because there's a whole communication protocol that we're to follow so I don't have it with me right now but um there is a a pattern you need to follow so I'll bring that so that I can share it with you June 8 uh July 8 16 thank you and then my last question was um in in developing the plan is there any um thought to maybe doing a screen time policy um to help limit some of the screen time for our students a thought another thought I I had not gone there yet but that's another good point okay thank you that's all I had thank you for the presentation okay thank

146you trusty Proctor um let's go ahead [Music] and open up public comment we have 30 okay we have a lot of public comments um yeah president Coro would you like to continue with our two-minute time limit or change it sorry I'm just looking at the numbers continuing to increase and I know it will um continue to rise as people keep raising their hands um I will say um I just want to remind folks that uh are giving public comment that um we do read your emails and we have read your emails so if you were planning on just re itating um what you already wrote Us in an email um please um consider just um yeah um giving space for other people but yeah let's let's two minutes is 90 that this is an hour

147and a half of public comment um I think let's do a minute and a half okay yeah okay again to all those who are have not uh figured this out already if you'd like to make public comment it is the raise your hand functionality in the zoom call uh we currently have 44 attendees uh your minute and a half to address the board the first on the list is Ian McCulla follow by John phoh Ian uh thank you again for the opportunity to speak over the years I've had the pleasure of getting to know each of you on personal terms to varying degrees and I do not at all and be the decisions before any of us in the community but especially the decisions before all of you you have the unpleasant job of telling

148all of us things that none of us want to hear and I thank you for doing that difficult work um I'm going to make my comments slightly briefer uh first and foremost president Coro thank you for your series of probing questions around child care I think it is really important to Ed you know to as the district solves the problems that the district is chartered with solving having the larger Community conversation around that and that all of us in the community um not conflate the district's efforts to solve instructional problems with the larger duties we all have to look for child care options wherever we can and to engage other governing bodies in solving this this fundamental problem uh the second piece uh is that I would like to extend an invitation to uh the

149district and the District administration um Dr roses uh I have come to very much respect your tact in execution of your work uh you spoke of other districts such as Woodside Hillsboro and Marin uh and I will lay out lovely what you laid out tactfully especially since Equity is a fundamental conversation in our district what we're talking about is wealth and money and the resources that those other districts bring to bear so uh what I will say publicly in front of this whole audience is I invite you as a member of the community to come back to us uh and see if we can bring additional money in perhaps through the Education Foundation if we can step up to the plate as a community bring more resources what more could we get on behalf of

150all of our children uh this is not just a test of the district's creativity and will this is a test of the whole community's creativ creativity will and let's see if we can all deliver awesome thank you Ian um and just as a reminder for folks please one one and a half minutes we do have a lot of attendees and a lot of people that would like to address the board so please one and a half minutes um John phoh you will be next after John will be Liza Ashbrook John thank you um I have a nuts and bolts issue that I have communicated with the board about but I have not communicated this to the community and I think it's important um two critical changes have to be made to the Middle School plan

151this cohorts have to be smaller than 150 I recommend the stable cohort of 15 students who take all their classes together and those students should not move from classroom to classroom the teacher should move to them we don't want to have them occupy desks and chairs that have just been occupied by other people the purpose of these Provisions minimize the number of person-to person contacts and that's required by the two guidances that you're purporting to follow both the California Department of Public Health and the California Department of Education recommend minimizing student cohorts and their school guidances that have been released this month uh Department of Public Health says students should remain in the same space and in groups as small and consistent as practical um Department of Education also says that should create smaller student

152cohorts to minimize the mixing of student groups to minimize movement of students and staff as much as possible the plan presented last week didn't do that I'm glad to hear that you're going to take a look at it now I think that's really critical and um I know that this is feasible uh there's some flexibility uh to to uh the electives are the problem they can be uh coordinated or limited or taught offline or online and I think that some constriction and those choices is a small price to pay to get exposure down from 150 other contacts to down to 15 um so this uh scheduling process is complex but I don't think you should ask us to just take it on trust I think it should be transparent and not a black box uh

153so I would ask that you bring this back at the next meeting and let us know how you're planning to do it and where you're going to get on it thank you thank you John next we have Liza Ashbrook and then after Liza will be smarti Cara and my apologies if I'm misspelling or mispronouncing that uh Liza great thank you can you hear me we can thank you wonderful all right thanks so much for the opportunity to speak and for all of your hard work on this issue and also around the discussion of um our role in the black lives matter and in equity um so I'm the parent of a just finished kindergartener at Highlands I just wanted to you know school's essential to all of our students and I think we need to

154aim for having the same level of Education or near that that we would have in a traditional year and these past three months with just 55 minutes of interaction with the teacher per week was not nearly enough for a six-year-old student so I'd like to Advocate that at least for our youngest Learners we really strongly think hard about how to to better engage them these are unprecedented times but we can't abandon our commitment to Excellence um so you know a uh the proposed schedule doesn't get that into detail about what distance learning will be as has been discussed um and I think that's really fundamental to understanding and I'm sure difficult for the board to make an ultimate decision without um having better insight into that um so a few points um that I would

155um think you strongly consider in thinking about the distance learning plan um for even those who are on the hybrid schedule it's going to be primarily distance learning so you know the better structure and organization lessons interaction feedback adaptation none of those were part um of the distance learning these last three months and I think are really really important moving forward to to Really educate our students um also allowing teachers to innovate and to share their Innovations with each other and then also including the parent community so we want to be included and and um be able to help our students thank you very much thank you laa uh we have smarti Cara and my apologies again if I'm mispronouncing your name uh and then afterwards we'll be Colleen Sullivan um hi can you hear

156me we can thank you you have a minute and a half okay um so my name is SMY Kaa I'm the parent of a kindergartener going into first grade and a preschooler and uh I want to Echo the point previously made that um um you know I I app first of all I appreciate how these decisions are um and so I I thank all of you for for you know giving us the time and considering our opinions um so I'm really worried about the loss in the quality of Education by distance learning especially for the youngest elementary school children um I mean they learn best in a class with a teacher I really support the idea of stable cohorts um I think you know in combination with testing and contact tracing and then limiting that

157the coh s do not inter intermingle with each other that's a good middle path to minimizing Community spread because we're talking potentially he about the long run um and then also as well minimizing disruption to our community in general however I um would like you to have maybe a third possibility of a full full week of school uh for for the young at least for the age group that I'm concerned about a full week of school for for the those children and I would like to propose that if Staffing becomes an issue or resources become an issue uh families like ours I know will be very happy to consider a fee based option to help support um to uh children places that are harder to control when there's no school to go to for those

158three days so I think our community will see greater spread and that's something for you to consider um the fourth point is that this could you quickly up last point is that all two op both of the options right now on the table are going to cause tremendous hardship for working parents and I for one will one either me or my husband will no longer be able to keep our job and um that's just the reality of this proposal thank you thank you all right Colleen Sullivan and then after Colleen will be Marcel uh Colleen Colleen are you there Colleen Sullivan uh you are mic is muted sorry can you hear me we can't hear you thank you technical challenges okay I am on the equity task force and for the past 15 months our

159team has been looking at equity and education for students equality is not Equity the two recommended plans that have been presented tonight attempt to provide that equity and education for all of our students these plans are not going to make fam's lives easy but given the current Health crisis I feel they are the best way forward this crisis has impacted every one of us every teacher every student every family by offering the choice of a full distance learn model and a hybrid AB cohort U model families can choose the model that is the better fit for them I say this knowing full well that child care resources are a huge issue and that this spring has been a tremendous challenge I also understand that most families would prefer that their children be in school for

160a full day this is where the equity piece comes into play we know that we have students who struggle to learn in our pre- coronav virus education system distance learning makes their education even more challenging by providing time for students to work excuse me teachers to work in person with these students these struggling Learners stand a much better chance of growing and succeeding a tremendous amount of time and energy has gone into gathering information from the community the county the state and other school districts to make the most informed decision possible to move forward this decision must be made tonight only then can the work begin on fleshing out the details to make this plan as successful as possible as you know if you guys are steeped in this training processes need put in place

161professional development the middle school schedule all of these things need to be decided in Partnerships with care providers to develop um with so many things that we as a community have not even don't have enough knowledge to even consider so I want to take the time to thank you for your commitment to our children and for taking on this impossible task in this impossibly challenging time thank you so much for your service thank you Colleen uh Marcela and then after Marcela will be Jana krisman Marcela hello thank you um I am a parent of an incoming second grader and sixth grader but uh and some of my concerns are related to them but I'm definitely concerned uh in in general about Equity so um as I think about what distance learning is going to look

162like my concerns regard quality education um and what when use the acronym DL what that actually means in terms of uh connection with our teachers I I know you all know this but I I want to say it again or I want to make it very clear our teachers are more than content deliverers and when we think about curriculum um and prepackaged curriculum there are some pretty big uh challenges that come along with them so uh I hope as you're considering curriculum I loved um Dr russa's idea of developing your own learning management system as as opposed to utilizing those that are a little bit challenging in terms of the mining of data that they're doing I have concerns about masks for teachers in the classroom and how that will impact um the way that

163they view their teachers and I'd like to ask you to reach out to your local universities that have people looking at distance learning curriculum and are looking at the work that you're all doing I know that we've had some connections with universities in the past and I know that um when we do that we can see benefits and finally I agree with the previous speaker that K through 2 or K through 3D needs to look different than older school children especially when we're in language immersed and language enriched programs for both our Spanish language Learners and our English language Learners thank you thank you Marcella all right we have uh Jana griezman and then afterwards will be David Pluto uh Jana Jana are you there if you are you need to unmute your microphone hi

164can you hear me we can thank you y hi thank you so much for um giving us the opportunity to voice our thoughts I I have some concerns about the current plan mainly based on our experience with distance learning in the spring where despite having a wonderful teacher we only got one hour a week with her I feel that what we saw the spring was a real detrim to our child's education and we were really hoping to see more in-class instruction so we're very disappointed to see that would be 25% of what the normal school year would provide I think that having a Wednesday off with no kids in school is a great loss to our children where they could be spending that time in school I'm very concerned about what distance learning would look

165like because I think offloading the responsibility of educ of educating small children I have a incoming first grader to working parents with multiple kids and multiple responsibilities as unrealistic and I think our kids will really suffer especially when compared to kids in other districts private schools that really do have the opportunity to have a full Academic Year as opposed to our children which may be getting only 40% of what they would normally be getting and unfortunately this is going to roll over into the next year and the year after that so I really do want to um encourage the board to see what is the most that we could do for our kids to really provide them with teacher instruction because it's really from the teacher that they learned the most parents can you know

166sit them down to do an assignment but we can't teach them while balancing two jobs out at home out of home along with other children and multiple other tasks thank you I appreciate your time thank you all right David Pluto and then after David will be M Tracy David David you may need to unmute yourself hello can you hear me we can hear you thank you David you have a minute and a half hello can you hear me yes we can David go ahead okay great thanks Kenneth so I want to thank Dr rosess and the board for all the thought and the effort that they've put into the planning for this um unforeseen event I'm the parent of two aabon kids and I'd really like to see some effort put into fleshing out the

167every other week schedule because I think it's gonna find the opportunity to create as much as like 25% more classroom time if we were to do the cleaning on the weekend as opposed to taking full weekday to do that and then my second concern is about um with the paired schedule the impact of the federal holidays are going to mean that we're going to have a lot of one day a week instruction and I'm also concerned about the disparity then between the a cohort and the B cohort because those days tend to fall on Mondays so that a is going to be disproportionately affected and then I would also ask that any professional development days that typically take place on Fridays or Tuesdays should also be moved to the middle of the week if we

168were to do that parade model because you know again looking at the current schedule there's a huge disparity between the two so anyway thanks for your time appreciate it thank you David okay uh M Tracy will be next and then after M Tracy will be Cynthia erens hi hello can you hear me we can you have a minute great great I'm a pediatrician in the community and a follower of an elementary school student on C Foster City Schools um and speaking um as a pediatrician a group of us pediatricians in the community academic centers and practicing community centers from a wide variety of backgrounds General pediatricians to sub specialist wrote a letter to the board today outlining um some concerns we have and we definitely appreciate how thoughtful the board has been discussing reopening but

169our feelings are strongly that from the growing number of scientific studies that are published relating children in covid children are at low risk for serious complications from this disease and appear to be at a lower risk of becoming infected and of spreading disease to adults we feel really strongly as both parents first and pediatricians that returning to school is safe for kids and adults we're going to send our kids back as long as you'll take them and we think adult teachers can be safe at school with frequent handwashing and mask wearing there are serious health consequences from not going back to school increased Mental Health Services referrals increased domestic disputes and violence without access to mandated reporters at school and of course loss of academic growth and learning particularly for underserved communities and for our

170youngest Learners school is an essential service there will be positive Co cases um but the risk of closure or limited reopening outweighs this we have several recommendations but one I'd like to address acutely is the lack of evidence for deep cleaning the virus is easily killed on surfaces by improving air circulation wiping down high touch surfaces we don't need that full Wednesday off thank you thank you all right we have Cynthia erens and then after Cynthia will be Slava basovich uh Cynthia can you hear me we can thank you thank you thank you Dr Rosa and Bo I have been a kindergarten teacher in the district for 30 years although I am a teacher I am also a parent of two children a wife a caregiver for my elderly mother who is imno in um

171comprised working like this is not only a danger to our health but the health of our students and our families we cannot be successful Educators with the necessary protocols in place kindergarten sets the tone for the way these children will View school for the rest of their lives it is a fact students learn better in environments that they feel comfortable in maintaining six-foot distances masks Shields and all the precautions may keep us safe from germs but renders education impossible I am a much better teacher in my classroom alone broadcasting to students safely in their homes over Google meets then I am six feet away away and faceless they need Smiles human interactions and warmth the safest way to do this right now is over Google meets teaching virtually has made me a more driven more

172creative and better teacher overall the proposed conditions are inhumane 25% of the time in mask isn't enough I agree it's impossible to get four-year-olds to keep the mask on but with 75% of my time unmask we are putting the lives of of our children our teachers and our families in danger if I bring this home my mother will have no one to care for her so we would need everyone in mask 100% of the time which is impossible so don't uh so why don't we keep the students at home without mask we they can be comfortable safe and effectively I am not a daycare I am not being paid Hazard pay I am a teacher so let me teach and let me teach well I cannot do that with these restrictions and I cannot teach

173in a classroom without these cautions without endangering myself and my family let me teach as best as I can over Google meet doing 5% of my potential is a hazardous work zone is not good enough for these students we all deserve better for our safety and for their education thank you for listening thank you thank you Cynthia uh Slava basovich and then after Slava will be Sandy AR Slava hi thank you for uh for taking my my comment um I am the father of an incoming uh kindergartner and a rising third grader and I would just implore you to reconsider uh the solution that's currently being presented as the hybrid model completely understand that we're going to have to do some hybrid learning but two half days is just the the cost of it on

174our kids in terms of like like we know that for the most part distance learning at best mitigates a slide and the slide that they're going to experience for now potentially a year is I mean it's just it's going to be so so difficult and just to Echo what another parent had said earlier um the cost for working parents is is just it's it's immense like my wife and I both work we don't have any family so we're here alone in the Bay Area my wife is an essential worker and you know you can't just put a kindergarten in front of the computer and say here's some work work choices have at it I'm going to go take some meetings for three hours like that's not that's not a realistic solution so basically like one

175of us is going to have to like walk away from our jobs um so that we can take care of our kids and that's going to be a decision that a lot of people are going to be forced to make and it's feels like a very cruel choice to make now I I understand that like five half days is difficult and it's challenging and there's costs associated with it but I feel like the work that we should be doing is thinking outside the box and coming up with solutions to make that op work maybe it's not two 4our days maybe it's three hour blocks half days maybe we we we raise money we ask for direct donations I think a lot of people will be willing there's so much money in this community people would

176be willing to make contributions in order to make that a viable option I know it's difficult I know it's challenging but I'm sure that there's got to be a way for that option to work thank you s uh Sandy Arata and then after Sandy will be uh Lisa Warren Sandy hi um so I just wanted to say that I I support the idea of having a separate online school and the kindergarten teacher that was just on with an imuno compromised family member is a perfect example of someone that could be in that school and make sure that she stays safe especially because she said she felt like she was so effective doing online teaching I do not think that kindergarteners can learn online unless they absolutely have to my kid could go to school I

177hope they can because that is how they best learn I also think that teachers should wear face Shields if we are allowed to instead of masks so that they can see expressions and be able to see their teacher's face um for kindergarten and TK kids that are able to go to school I really hope that you'll consider doing a morning groups if the biggest comp or biggest problem with that is the cleaning in between cohorts I think that that could be H able to happen with that small number of classrooms that would need to be cleaned that makes all the difference for that age group and I really hope that you'll consider sending our kids every other Wednesday like some districts are doing I don't think that we should for teachers to collaborate thank you

178thank you Sandy uh Lisa Warren and then after Lisa um I've identified as pH uh Lisa g board and Dr roses thanks again for letting me have this opportunity to talk um for the my comments right now I'm going to come to you both as a parent of three children in within the district as well as a pediatric nurse um and I'm a nurse over at Stanford and essential worker and all that fun stuff in terms of the infection control issue that Dr Rosas you had mentioned earlier in regarding to ensuring um cleanliness and meeting the standards one of the things we do in the hospital because we're kind of in the same position about needing cleanliness to the nth degree is looking at having a control infection specialist consult create policies and procedures then

179educate the custodial staff and continually check competencies I would also suggest creating a checklist that must be daily or even every hour if need be checked off signed and dated keep those records so that you they can be shown the cleanliness is there also now shifting gears a bit to being apparent as an essential worker um looking at the returning to school um I really feel like the district needs to look at the impact of children um of essential workers like I said earlier I'm a pediatric nurse I work night shift which is 700 PM to 7 a.m. doing that it means that I must work I must sleep a whole day before my shift and then I must work my shift and sleep the next day one shift means my children miss two days

180of distance learning if I do three shifts that means my children will miss four days of distance learning and that's assuming that I can bounce back so therefore I've got these two incredibly motivated kids in first grade or going into first grade and going into third grade who are starting to lack apologize the one minute and a half is up could you please wrap up your comments I will do my best please trusty Coro ah too too short of a time so much to say I apologize um long story short is my children are losing motivation for school these are kids who adore school who can't wait to get up in the morning and my kindergartener sitting here saying she's all zoomed out she wants nothing to do with distance learning anymore so I feel

181like we need to bridge that and come up with something that works for all sorts of students personality their parents of being essential workers and whatnot thank you thank you Lisa all right um again it's identified uh Zoom is pH we'll be next and then after pH will be Maria G um if you could introduce yourself hi um I'm a parent of a middle schooler and thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to ask question uh I know we parents will be sent a survey to pick either we want to pick a hybrid or a distance learning but please try to understand as a parents how difficult it is when we don't really know some of the questions to make this decision like we don't know how the online curriculum will be designed

182how it will be planned how it will be executed and how who are these teachers who are going to be teach and how interactive this class will be and what kind of electronic platform will be used for distance learning and most important since my child is in eth grade I want to know how this distance learning curriculum is going to prepare my child for high school and how I can be assured that my child will not strugger in high school and going forward have difficulties in college so how do you expect us to make this Choice by one survey when we don't have a concrete plan in front of us so I would really uh appreciate if you first come up with the plan and then go forward with the service so it's easier for

183us as parents to decide thank you thank you uh okay Maria G and then after Maria G will be K uh Maria hello hello thank you Mar hi hi I'm a parent at Highlands and um I have two Elementary School students and one in middle school and I I hear all these parents talking about you know how we have child care issues I have child my husband and I are both essential workers and you know there is a part where especially my job is is threatening to fire me or whatever but you know for the care of my children and for the health of my child I'm willing to do that I'm willing to sacrifice because you know with three kids if I do send them to school with cohorts of 12 I'm being exposed

184to 36 people I mean you know and and I think that we should as parents just start thinking about that I understand we have bills to pay but then it doesn't do any good if we if we send our kids to school and God forbid you don't know what's going to happen to your child they say all this is happening oh children aren't affected but it does affect children children's health if you get covid you might get some sort of heart heart disease that that would last through the lifetime so I think we should start focusing like that um I my experience with the distance learnings our teachers done a phenomenal job I also got to see what the kids were learning and um I I mean we had uh I had a teacher that

185saw my kid every day and they were doing math writing spelling they did a phenomenal job doing that and I think that if we can follow that model and do some of the the um you know the small group learning I think it I think it will it will be H it will happen it's really up to a child if they want to learn and it's as a parents we need to support our children um also with the board I you knowe and a half is up could you please wrap up your comments okay um I know that there's there's a ultraviolet light that you can purchase and maybe put in the classroom that might help clean it better I'm concerned about the chemicals that the custodians might have to use you know being exposed

186to that every day or whatever it may be maybe we can look into some sort of you know ultraviolet light that will kill the virus um that's something to consider so and I just had a question about like distance learning this Al it be a separate school so will our teachers be able to do if we choose distance learning I mean we can our kids just be in our own class classroom with the teachers from our school to learn so that if there's a flip where we do go back to school or a flip to distance learning that they will have some continuity okay in both it's been almost it's been over two minutes please we have a lot of other uh attendees all right thank you for your time I'm done thank you thank

187you Maria my apologies no worries thank you all right we have K and then after K will be Jennifer mayman uh k uh hello thank you for taking my call I'm Karen ban henro a parent at the district and also a par educator first I want to thank all of the board members for volunteering and doing this in representing all of our families we elected you and so thank you for being a voice and taking responsibility being the face of everything that we have to go through on this um I think it's really I want want to thank the teachers who walked out of their classrooms in March from a 360 degree classroom and now had to teach a 12-in screen so to all of them that is really incredible I also think it's really

188notable for all the families who really have been accepting that we're going to have to change things in the future that it's not going to be the way that it was before um my comment has to do with Staffing So based on the communications with Smita what is the board's level of confidence that the district is going to have the numbers of teachers needed to fill the positions for the exclusively DL or online and the hybrid positions because I hope that we're going to be able to take care of the teachers who do decide to do a hybrid position because it takes a lot of responsibility and time to teach both an A and B cohort plus the online efforts that it takes afterwards because as soon as you add that online component everybody seems

189to think that the classroom dat doesn't end at three o'clock you're getting emails after hours you're getting calls from parents and 50 people are expecting you to answer an email right away and that just not really plausible it's it's impossible along with that I also just want to advocate for the par Educators because the par Educators played a big role in contacts with students on campus and can also help make contacts virtually so thank you thank you K uh Jennifer mayman and then after Jennifer will be Christina giovanini uh Jennifer hi thanks very much for taking my comment um and thank you all for your hard work on all of this um I just had a comment about um distance learning and I um am hoping that the district can can consider some um non-computer

190based distance learning options um our we have three kids in the district our youngest is an incoming kindergartner um and I know that um online learning is a challenge for her and many other young children so I'm just hoping that as we build out the distance learning curriculum it can include both online and non-online options thanks very much thank you Jennifer all right uh Christina and then after Christina will be Susan Christina good evening Bard thank you for all your work that you do can are can you hear me okay we can go ahead great um so I'm wondering about the contuct of teachers running the classrooms running their classrooms online so having a morning meeting and having the meeting be live for people is that considered an option I mean we do that so

191much with our work um you know different seminars and things are online where there can be people asking questions then and there can also be the kids in the classroom asking questions has that been thought about um I feel like we need to do what we do best um and kind of set up this year as it would be like run anyways and then we are prepared and we can be flexible so have everyone pick their classes and then use a percentage of that time um that they would be in class with their student uh say 10% and have that translated to 10% of those minutes being actually just online so for the middle school that would look different obviously for the the grade schoolers um I also want um I I really think Hands-On

192work is needed um so if we could meet once at school to pick up materials everyone should be able to do that they were driving their kid five days a week and I think our most vulnerable need to be at school period five days a week kids need routine and our most vulnerable need this routine more than ever one last point if I will um don't think the most vulnerable population are the ones necessarily that um that will be able to you know that don't have you know I think it also should include parents working and so I think we should just take a General survey and ask would you be able to come or not thank you thank you Christina okay uh Susan then after Susan will be Jessica Weidman Susan hello thank you

193Susan you have a minute and a half thank you I just wanted to share a little bit more about um where safety and wellness meets accessibility and therefore Equity I'm asking the board and the district to consider um the specific kind use of the specific kind of math during inclass instruction I did hear Shields clear Shields um mentioned from another parent I am a parent of a middle schooler who is significantly um he's a significant visual learner and because more than half 55% of communication is visual there's issues with traditional masks that block faces and prevent seeing facial expressions emotions prevents making connections and catching critical Clues visually um although it may not be P readily perceived traditional masks can add or create isolation and loneliness um children can hide you know hide behind them

194or or not be seen um behind a mask um so missing critical visual Clues can be the difference between completely understanding or completely or partially misunderstanding and or confusion of a lesson or assignment I heard Dr Rosa speak about FaceTime it's easily accomplished on Zoom or Google meets um but not necessarily under a mask in the classroom the ability to see a smile helps it adds to the social emotional peace in learning facial expressions are important for um perceiving empathy and so I'm asking whether clear masks could be worn by instructors during inass lessons um invest in them in them for students maybe as a uniform um so that um it's common ac across all students and are two brands on the market clear mask is one of them and the communicator Clear Window mask

195is another thank you thank you Susan uh Jessica Weidman and then after Jessica will be Vivo Jessica hi there thanks so much um regarding the needs surrounding language learning there has been no preliminary discussion as to how these kids are going to get access to teachers virtual or otherwise to get that language exposure that's necessary so I'm looking forward to hearing what the potential possibilities are for those students uh in the immersion language learning programs specifically within our district uh schools that offer dual immersion program language learning are the same schools that have the highest number of students who are at the biggest disadvantages so wanted to point out that while the small groups are great in the afternoon it's kind of furthering the inequity in our district as the number of atrisk students is

196not balanced across all schools another point I just want to make is to keep in mind that our teachers are essential workers I'm struggling to understand how this is seemingly difficult to expect them to go back to work as they should uh every other type of essential worker is taking on additional precautions hours to make new accommodations learning a new way of doing things I work as a nurse my job is insanely is much more difficult and much I I'm struggling to understand why they're not expected to do the same type or make the same type of accommodations so teachers should be no different than any other essential worker and I mimic s's thoughts as to um that the teachers who are immunal compromised are otherwise unable to teach in person should be given the

197opportunity to keep their positions as teachers virtually um the other thing just without any sort of ownership by the district over testing and giving all students access primarily the underinsured to testing then our stable cohorts just don't make any sense at the Baseline if there is no tracing without adequate te there is no tracing without adequate testing so I very much hope that the district is keeping that in mind while planning thanks thank you thank you Jessica uh vvo and then after V will be Alysa talesnik V thank you Peter for pronouncing my name right my apologies I had to be corrected thank you but no it's all right don't worry about it um I I am interested in hearing um more details on the week to week schedule um I I've heard more details

198on the other schedule and I haven't heard enough about the week to week and I'd like to hear more about that so um but regardless of that it's I you have the difficult job of making many parents unhappy regardless of what plan you choose so I don't envy you there and given that I think everyone needs to remember that although this is very is is an extended time it is a temporary time and we you know we we should understand that the border of Trustees are trying to um make the best decision for as many people as possible and whatever decision they make it's going to make people unhappy and you know and it's not just you targeted um so if it's difficult for you also remember that it's difficult for a lot of other

199people too and so I feel that it's hard for any of us to really move forward without details um and the details are lacking because there's no commitment to a specific Direction um so if we can get to just committed to something anything and just go with it you're going to make someone unhappy you're going to make a lot of people unhappy and that's just the fact of it and we just need to move forward and if we can just you know get something Chosen and and just commit to it and then um problem solve after that rather than trying to get all the options trying to satisfy all the options you know it's it's making everything up in the air and if we can just get more details sooner then more people can plan

200for it even if it's difficult thank you thank you B all right we have Alyssa and then after Alyssa will be Stephen uh Alysa hi there my name is Alisa tesic I um first of all thank you for letting me speak thank you uh to the board and the superintendent for all that you're doing and thank you to all the teachers who are listening right now um I live in North Central San Mato I have three kids two of them go to Laurel uh elementary school and I'm also a high school teacher myself um I wanted to I don't know if this has been an issue um in the S Foster City School District but I just wanted to make sure that the hotspots that are being um distributed to students in our district we

201had an issue where we found out it wasn't until after the fact that we found out that they only had two gigs of data per month and that was an inadequate amount of data for students to be able to um do all of the distance learning that um was required and that would benefit them so I wanted to just bring that to your attention in case that is an issue um sorry I'm nervous and trying to get this in in 90 seconds um I'm wondering what the the distance learning piece looks like for students who are like on the off days um if my children are at Annex and there's distance learning uh that they're expected to do to do during that time where the annex teacher is helping them with that and then my

202final comment is about um my my middle child is a rising first grader and um I'm just hoping some extra special attention will be given to those kiddos next year because um they lost out on a third of their kindergarten year and you don't you don't you only get one kindergarten year so thank you so much Lisa thank you very much uh Stephen and then after Steph will be Mary uh Stephen thank you very much I'd like to say thank you to the board for your service um you've all been really inspirational through this entire process and than us um I wanted to emphasize the import of focusing on Equity as we consider reopening with the understanding that there are already Health disparities economic disparities and many other disparities associated with covid by race and

203that we can't add educational disparities on top of that um and to emphasize the importance of that uh I'd also like to emphasize um earlier comments that I've made regarding uh creative fundraising attempts to understand whether we can access the uh District funds and um funds of the community to support either extended education with the equity mindset Works an education for um all parents I say this as a parent who's a primary educator who's also working from home with a high press job with a partner who's working and I understand the struggles with that um but we need to focus on Equity as we consider what this year is going to look like so that we can move forward as a thank you Stephen okay uh then we have Mary and then after Mary will

204be Paula Mary yeah hi this is uh this is Paul Mar's partner again and uh hi thank you PA wanted to wanted to thank you know everyone and particularly uh truste Watkins and Coro for keeping us grounded in the important work around equity and and building the community here uh it's not easy you know the pandemic is creating a lot of challenges and it's exacerbating a lot of those inequities and it's and it's coming to the four so it's important for us to to to know that also want to thank personally uh Dr roses I mean the the explanation around some of the decision- making that's going into how we're constructing these plans much clear I really appreciate that I think it's showing that you're being responsive to some of the parent feedback so uh

205thanks very much for that um you know we've got a lot of challenges ahead of us um I think you know I'm excited to see how we're going to continue to get that parent feedback so that we can get to the right outcomes this is a dynamic situation it will continue to be one uh we need to maintain that flexibility I think a simple way that we could uh uh pursue a path forward here would be to add to our guiding principles a desire to reopen full-time inclass instruction as quickly as possible and as quickly as is safe and practice because that's what we're all looking for here this is going to be challenging for parents uh this is going to exacerbate some of those inequities for everyone and that is going to fall on

206those same communities that we want to be represented you know my wife and I like we were very uh uh intentional about going public school we both went to public school growing up we had private school options given where we are financially it's made us better parents that we went to public school it's made us better members of the community uh and I and I think it's we [Music] can instruction because this is the best answer thank you thank you Paul uh Paula uh and then after Paula will be Mike Paula Paula you might need to unmute your microphone can you hear me now we can hear you thank you Paula you have a minute and a half thank you thank you um we're on a journey where we're driving down the covid-19 highway towards

207normaly in schools and in front of us there's a huge fog bank which is getting thicker by the minute with conflicting information from scientists doctors and political leaders the issue of children wearing masks in schools was supposed to be settled already but today when I listen to Governor Nome he was asked about it and he said that it's still he admitted that it's still being worked out which for me is shocking and very unsettling as a classroom teacher we're heading into this Co fog without really knowing all the science and most importantly we don't have a vaccine and we don't have adequate treatments and as one of the most or the oldest teachers in the district I really do not feel safe returning to the classroom um the co fog even gets thicker when you

208realize that you cannot control people's interactions it's not just one family that you're being exposed to you're being exposed to everyone that that family has been in contact with and over the last few weeks as things have started to open up I have witness people socializing in driveways backyards and streets which is contributing to the rise in the co cases sometimes I see the parents trying to social distance but the kids are being allowed to run around together and those children's circle of exposure is much greater and they will bring that greater exposure to the classroom we all want to get through this covid fog because we desperately want our schools to be back to normal however schools be far from normal I do have a teacher perspective learning that I would like to share

209because I've done it I did it and I think I did it pretty darn good job would it be better to have a really strong online program the teachers don't have to create then the teachers would be able to focus more on working with the kids online individually and in small groups by doing that the teacher would actually have more meaningful interactions with the students rather than trying to work with them six feet apart how am I supposed to as a teacher help them with an assignment when I can't get my apologies if you could wrap up your comments please yes so um my recommendation would be that for the safety of everyone um not to drive through the co fog at full speed but to really slow down and start the year online entirely

210wait till we have the science wait till we know more and then return When there's a vaccine or better treatments and um just continue with the online learning but maybe at a higher level thank you for listening and I hope I didn't offend anyone with my opinions but I just feel very strongly that it's not safe to return at this time thank you Paula appreciate it uh Mike will be next and then after Mike will be Rana Mike yeah hi could you hear me we can go ahead Mike great hi um I'm a parent of two kids in the district and I've got a comment about distance learning in the hybrid system and it echoes some of the previous comments about live teacher instruction um from our experience with distance learning in the spring it

211seemed like when kids were doing self-study online there was a significant drop off in the quality of the instruction not to mention you know their lack of connection with their classmates and teacher um and I'm wondering if you've considered having the distance learning program include a live live instruction component as opposed to the type of self-study online that the kids were doing in the spring um so for example while you know cohort a is at school in person cohort B could then just dial in remotely to the same classroom you know like on a large monitor in the class and be receiving the same live instruction that that the other cohort is receiving um I think they're doing something like that in New Zealand and of course um companies have remote meetings like that all

212the time on Zoom um it seems like also that it could be easier on the teachers because it it would allow them to prepare a single curriculum that they could give to everyone and which would be closer to what they're normally used to doing rather than having to prepare both live instruction materials and online self-study materials um so even if you don't have 100% live instruction via Zoom I think it would be very beneficial to the kids and improve the distance learning program if it did include some component of live instruction thanks thank you Mike uh Raina and then after Raina will be uh Leila or Lea uh Rena hi uh my name is Reena Corb and I have Middle School uh student and I wish I had gone after John phoh because I agree

213with everything he said so I'm not gonna say it again um and for my family I think it's we really expected we were really looking forward to going back to school and having some school experience again but uh it will come down to balancing out the amount of time in school versus the exposure um you know with I I don't want them exposed to 46 kids possibly every day and as they also cycle in other activities as they go back to socially distance extracurriculars um that's going to be more kids so um I just want to say that and I also really Al um Dr roses had said that maybe electives May you could play around with that and I would be really supportive of you know maybe those all go distance learning and we

214can really focus on the core things that that the kids really need to have um when they're in class with their teachers and that's it thank you thank you okay and then uh Leia ler and then Lauren Quan will be afterwards Leia hi everybody can you hear me uh we can thank you thank you very much um I just uh really want to appeal to you to please not press pass resolutions that are half-baked this framework is not ready to be passed first of all I'd like clarification on what Wednesday is optional means with so much lost learning already how is anything optional on the table right now also I'd like specific feedback again on why five half days is not acceptable because of cleaning what are the specific cleaning issues and how can we

215address them why are we passing a framework when par parental feedback is due June 29th why not hold the meeting to vote next week and consider the feedback from the meeting how do we expect younger grades to pay attention to District learning distance learning on the computer without parental supervision where's the consideration for working parents like the state by pediatricians and nurses school is an essential service so community members can do their jobs they know about infectious diseases in cleaning more than all of us do we should be listening to them and not recreating the wheel every single Medical Professional on this call has said the same thing and to the point of not passing Frameworks that are not ready to be passed the ethnic studies curriculum had anti-semitic content and passed anyway and said

216because it will be changed later this is not good enough my parents came here to the us as Jewish refugees from the former Soviet Union and I grew up in this District in seventh grade A boy drew a swastika on my notebook while I was in the bathroom ethnic studies is incredible important incredibly important let's be inclusive of all ethnicities and religions when we teach our children let's wait to pass Frameworks until they are fully thought out please thank you thank you okay Lauren and then after Lauren will be Nicole [Music] Lauren hi thanks for giving me the opportunity to raise a few comments so my first one is on distance learning I think I have two kids who are in the district now one is going into second grade and the other is going

217to third grade super motivated kids and loved school before covid and uh one is kind of okay and the other one just hated school every single hour every single minute we asked them to do anything and I think taking kids and sending to 100% distance learning or any distance learning to me feels like we're sending kids to college too much Freedom they're not ready um even my my uh now going into third grader he kids are smart you give them the computer this is stuff that they want to be on but you know what they want to be on playing games and talking to their friends and doing other things so if we are going that route and really really there isn't another way then we need to do everything we can to not just

218have a learning system in place because having just a system is not useful having teachers who are ready to actually engage with the students and to really know how to motivate them and engage with them and really understand whether they are really learning is really important and it seems from the comments from some of the uh people who spoke before that we've gotten a wide range of teachers who some have done that really well in the last few months and some who not so can we make sure that in putting the curriculum together that we're really pulling forward the people who have done the teachers who have really got it done it really well and learned from them what they've done um second thing is on the fiscal space limitation that seems to be driving

219a lot of the um decisions around what can and cannot be done are we looking at all at other spaces that could be available um so that we can open up other opportunities for extending more you able to be back together with their teachers and classes so corporate campuses you know there are companies that you know are not opening up maybe they you know can actually open up some space that students can use college campuses some of them are not going back minute and a half is up if you could do me a favor and please wrap up your comment so we can get to the other participants okay and then also like you know c summer camps you know use more of the open spaces so I think we need to just look at

220more of those creative options instead of just saying this is what we have we can't do it because I think looking at what we need to do and then finding those options to make it work is important thank you thank you Lauren uh just as a reminder to folks the the list of U those that would like to address the board in public comment is you know hovering and staying at about 30 and it seems to drop and then grow so please please try your best to to to stick to our minute and a half time frame uh for your public comments it is it is appreciated we still have a lot of people to go uh Nicole Feldman will be next and after Nicole will be uh Alicia Nicole Nicole are you there yeah

221sorry so sorry about that I accidentally muted I just want to thank the Board of Trustees and Dr Ros I know this is a very difficult time for them as well as the families and staff I also want to thank the pediatrician earlier for his comments that uh that so refreshing to hear from the Frontline workers uh with real data that I I don't really feel is being acknowledged uh models that you guys have proposed although they are very thought out creates more in exposure instead of less I kindly request that you all consider a five full day with creating pods that do not move or engage with other pods having local Partners including child care to provide afternoon staff so those pods remain the same throughout the entire time other countries that have returned

222our live streaming classes to give family options to stay at home 10 to 20% of those students are choosing to stay at home and live stream lowering the class sizes automatically having worked the past 15 weeks with my preschool and before and after school program I know a full day program is possible pods could also work in the middle school with moving staff and not students having online electives so that they could stay in the same class but also get options for what they'd like to do CDC recommends six feet or mask they're say when six feet is not possible then a mask needs to be used they I've not heard that they need both CDC also doesn't believe that the risk is within touching items therefore cleaning shouldn't be so intensive it shouldn't take

223it shouldn't take days or hours this option in my opinion is a win-win it would help mitigate Coit help essential family working continue to provide for their families and keep their children safe allow families that are still wanting to add home learning to choose to do so thank you very much thank you Nicole uh Alicia nedwick and then after Alicia will be Stacy Alicia hi thank you so um I just wanted to I I actually agreed with someone else U Mike who had mentioned that I think the distance learning is um the only place that we really felt it was lacking was in the um actual teacher instruction so uh one gentleman had mentioned that there would be synchronization and I'm just wondering if within that synchronization instead of it being more of a check-in

224for those of us who are choosing to do who are choosing to do the the um distance learning can that be more teacher-led instead of checking more instruction because I really feel like that's where it was lacking um and also I think you've had a lot of teachers and um Dr Rosas you have also mentioned that the this the teachers feel very strongly against uh more exposure and I think that that should really be taken into consideration because this is also uh a decision in their health it's not just about our children's educations but it's about their health and safety so that was all thank you thank you okay we have Stacy and then after sta Stacy will'll be uh trying Stacy hi my name is Stacy sto and I'm a sixth grade math teacher

225at Bell I teach both the compacted math class a regular math class and a foundational math class for students that are struggling in math um I see the whole spectrum of students I feel compelled to speak tonight about the fall reopening plans being offered while I have strong opinions on what transpired in the spring how we can improve going forward and the options we have in the fall I'm going to limit my cont ments to focus on the math education in the Middle School in the hybrid option I will only see my math students one day a week for 60 minutes for example I will see half of my first period class on a Monday and then not see them again until the following Monday I will see another half of my first period class

226on a Tuesday and then not see them until the following Tuesday and as for third period class I won't see them until Thursday or Friday for the rest of the week they will be attending other classes one day a week and working on distance learning at home the other three days in this model I will be in front of a small separate cohort of my students Monday Tuesday Thursday and Friday all morning so I will not be available for the remote students during that time one day a week of instruction is not enough Ma and a try to keep them on schedule on the other hand the sixth grade student will have Ela teacher twice a week um and if they are El day they will engage in language development a third time each week

227at Bayside a sixth grade student due to ELA and social studies teams will see that same teacher three times a week yet those students will only see their math teacher once a week this is not fair and this is not balanced math education is too I'm sorry could you please wrap up your comments the minute and a half is up yes just to let you know in Katrina they said the the largest losses were in mathematics that those students suffered um if I was using distance learning as a model I could be in my classroom alone safe in front of my whiteboard providing synchronized instruction to all of my students in the safety of their own home several times a week or even five days a week I don't pretend to have the answers because

228I don't but I do think that this needs to be brought to light and keep in mind as we move forward math education is too important to only be taught face Toof face one day a week thank you thank you Stacy uh we have try and then after trying is our ch archana my apologies if I'm mispronouncing it try yeah hi this is Trina can you hear me hi Trina thank you very much hi hi and thank you for letting me speak um I'm a parent of a rising seventh and ninth grader so you're only worrying about to seventh grader here so first of all I want to thank you for giving the parents a choice um between hybrid model and all distance learning um based on what I'm hearing about the all distance learning

229model I do have some questions and suggestions um I know you're still working on the plans but it sounds like the all distance learning model um will be completely independent from the hybrid and be comprised of a mix of students from different schools in the district so my concern here is that the students might lose connection with the school and their Community um and I'm just wondering how that could be addressed um I'm also hearing um online curriculum um so I'm wondering if that means intact in classes and online webinars um and not a teacher at all um if not then I was wondering if distance learning in the all distance learning model is conducted conducted the same way as in the hybrid model with an actual teacher like you were talking about before so

230my suggestion is that since um hybrid is about 80% distance learning anyways I was wondering if the 100% distance learning kids could be taught with their classmates from their own School Community um I'm thinking of a scenario where the in-person classes is streamed from the classroom to the um all distance learning students at home and then merge with the hybrid kids in the afternoon and Wednesdays with distance learning um so I'm thinking this would make them feel more connected to the school and community and if not feasible I think um at the very least there should be some form of realtime instruction with the teacher because I strongly believe the kids have the consist need the consistency of a teacher and live teaching um or be too isolating thank you thank you Trina again my

231apologies I'm mispronouncing next person is uh Arana and then after archana will be Tracy archana yes hi can you hear me uh we can thank you very much you have a minute and a half okay great thank you for giving us the time to voice parent opinions I think we've been on the front line so it's been more obvious than normal uh school year the level of Education that's happened during distance learning I'm a parent of a 2B third grader and a 2B eth grader so my support is for going back to school we're in phase two in San Mato County there's already interaction as long as schools follow standards I I don't think there should be any difference but I'm more concerned about the implementation of either the hybrid um or the distance learning

232in I'm I'm more concerned about the implementation of the distance learning in either hybrid or full distance learning um given how things went these last few months understandably phase one was a learning experience for all I had sent an email to the district at the highest levels and received confirmation that phase two would be a lot more comprehensive but unfortunately it was not I found that there was was very little time teaching by the teachers and just general check-ins I heard a great suggestion just now by another parent why not have the teachers continue to teach as they would in school for 45 minutes every period whether in person or virtually the job is the same whether it be virtual or in person the virtual students tune in the cohorts there are for the day

233would attend in person I've had the same challenges as I have to teach first and second graders on Sundays and it was simply a matter of doing the same curriculum but Chang making a small changes to keep attention during online instruction so my question is how can kids be expected to get the same level of instruction if time together is limited to checkins for 30 minutes and self-study assignments um so I'm G to make sure I stick to the time I have a lot more to say but my basic suggestion is there's no guidance or requirements for teachers with respect to actual online instruction for full classroom and small groups during distance learning so my suggestion is to provide very clear requirements for teachers if we continue any form of distance learning and to try

234to combine um instruction at all times for both the hybrid approach and the full distance learning so that the teachers are actually teaching both students at once and we get full instruction thank you Arana appreciate it uh Tracy and then after Tracy will be Katherine Tracy all right thank you for letting me speak I am trying to um I guess get my point across that in all of these conversations or comments that have been happening people have been talking about what's Equitable um and I don't think there's been enough emphasis on the fact that these these Equitable ideas are so far-reaching um that you're missing the point for the most vulnerable students in this Equitable component here the most vulnerable students that um already have IEPs in place that should be addressed and um they're

235getting almost no kind of consistent learning and that they're struggling the most with the distance learning proposals that you have in place so I'm disappointed that Dr Rosa mentioned none of the other districts and federally yes we not um required to do anything but other districts in our area did actually continue a good portion of their testing for IEP did actually continue making sure that their students were getting the services that they actually needed and I do not feel like there was any kind of consistency from the top down you set the bar and you did not set it high enough to allow anyone the opportunity to even try and slightly jump over it to give our children exactly what they need the most vulnerable ones who are in this position and have no choice

236as to how they're getting their education at this point they needed some kind of in so social economical the whole thing across the board without that actual FaceTime and the commitment to give them a high quality education there wasn't anything set there was not enough consistency so I'm sorry but um I'm disappointed that you didn't actually try to give the communication enough to the district to this to the schools individually and allow people to create a curriculum that could actually get across to these vulnerable students please keep that in mind thank you very much for my time thank you Tracy uh Katherine Goodman and then after Katherine will be hyam K Katherine hello this is Nick Katherine's husband uh thank you for the time you've put into this situation so far uh we're parents at

237Fiesta Garden our kids love the school um biggest fear I've had when you've presented the AABB option has been around Child Care uh like many other people were both full-time working parents I think this is uh an issue that goes across uh race class uh Etc um and thank you so much for talking about Annex under that option I think a lot of us in this situation might feel way more comfortable with AABB if we really understood what Annex could look like you you've shown some really interesting ideas I'd be really curious to see um what capacity Annex would have and how that would compare to uh this the demand last year and what if we had increased demand from many other working parents who might say we'd love to go to Annex both of

238our children go to Annex now they both benefit from it um and I I think it's a great program um it's paid for by parents uh we would definitely be willing to continue paying for it even paying more for it um and I uh my opinion before you laid out that option was highly in favor of a week on and a week off and has really shifted towards this option if Annex is actually viable because it means that my wife and I can both continue working um and we can handle Child Care on the off week if we've got it covered for the week or for the um for this situation so thank you so much for detailing that and if I think if you cover that dep make thank you Nick okay is it

239hyam uh we'll be next and then afterwards uh it's identified as WF um H yeah hello good evening uh as a parent of two elementary kids uh second and fourth graders uh and with our experience last semester with uh distance learning uh it was not clearly uh distance learning it was more of homeschooling than distance learning uh so I'm with the kids going back to school for next year and for the teachers and the staff uh they are essential workers like every essential workers we have and you should find ways to uh to be able to do their job in school uh and the other thing you mentioned that the kids or the families will be given the choice if to do the full-time uh distance learning or the hybrid program is other parents going

240to be given also the choice to go into fulltime to to the school and not uh and send the kids to school if they going to give some parents they're going to be choose to stay home home maybe some other parents you choose to stay in a school that's it thank you very much thank you uh we have par me hold on one second all right um the next one is WF and then after that there's no name associated with it it looks like it might be a zoom account um say like a zoom URL is the display name name so that will be the person that's next but the person identified is WF if you can U please introduce yourself great hi uh my name is Hannah Whiteside um I have a child who

241just completed Turnbull and is moving to Parkside Elementary for Kinder and I have a child entering Turnbull um I have three main points I'm going to go through them quickly one the district is sending a strong message that money talks Annex program the preschool programs that are funded summer camps Community Partners everything that costs money everyone else can figure it out they can get those teachers they can get that staff back to work but you can't figure it out for teachers that means to me that the safety precautions for those are acceptable and you are willing to put those people at risk but not teachers and that is completely ridiculous frankly and they are essential workers and they need to we need to protect them and we clearly can when there's money involved um my

242child who is not even five yet has spent all day at summer camp seven hours a day wearing his mask to say young children can't wear a mask and learn is ridiculous um Point number two we chose monu because my child struggled in a traditional learning environment at Turnbull this year we evaluated that and chose monor for a reason we haven't talked about the kids who are going to struggle in a traditional learning environment especially a distance learning environment and the impact that we'll have on their learning especially when it's their first foray into learning in a way we didn't want them learning in the first place which is why we chose those Charter programs and lastly to date we are certain teachers have said that their distance learning was successful we are not dealing

243with the kind of social detriments that we are expecting for young children as they enter School in an environment of fear restriction anxiety and what are the long-term repercussions what messages this sending to our young children about what School means for them and those are my concerns thank you thank you Hannah okay uh the next person again the display name is identified as kind of a zoom number uh but after that will be Paul Schneider um if you I'm GNA L you in if you could introduce yourself again the display name I I have no idea what else to call you the display name is a kind of like a zoom room link um if you think this might be you you might have an opportunity to unmute actually let me ask to unmute again

244if those that are participating and have their hand raised if you can look to see if there's a prompt asking you to unmute your microphone be appreciated okay I'm Gonna Leave This hand raised and maybe we can come back and circle uh Circle back to this one okay Paul Schneider will be next Paul and then after Paul will be Jen hi this this is Paul thank you for the opportunity to speak um over the last several months we've performed an experiment in distance learning and from our experience with our kindergartener who's now going into first grade and from all the parents we've talked to I think the experiment was very clear that distance learning really didn't work there was no learning there was a lot of practice there was some busy work but there was

245no learning beyond what was was learned in school through March it's not really surprising a lot of people have brought up your points that it's very very difficult for young children to be independent with either online with worksheets you know so so some people who had a lot of time parents had a lot of time could do homeschooling um that wasn't an option for us um I I I understand the point that that the board is looking at um improving distance learning but all the published studies are pretty clear learning is not ever as effective as in classroom training and I have grave concern that we're really derailing education for whole generation of youngsters while this pandemic is quite unpredictable and it's hard to claim anything with true certainty there's one piece of data that's

246becoming more and more clear and that's young children really are not significantly affected or transmitters of this disease and if we look at Nordic countries like Denmark um where schools have been open for five weeks now um there really has been no uptick and it does appear that there is a path forward for schools to to bring children in and do it safely so I would strongly encourage aath to get children in the school five days as much as possible thank you thank you Paul okay next person is Jen galante and then afterwards the uh sikin family Jen hi and thank you for allowing me to to speak I wanted to speak to you as both a doctor I'm uh I practice adult primary care and also as the mother of a a five-year-old she

247she's GNA become a a kindergartner so number one I'm really worried about the amount of screen time that's being proposed for our five-year-olds the American Academy of Pediatrics says no more than one hour of quality screen time a day if if you're G to ask my 5-year-old to do three days of distance learning I'm not really seeing how how you're going to be be able to limit the screen time appropriately so I'm really concerned about that um number two I really think that the this there's a big risk of increasing in our community the risk by putting kids in school only two days a week uh for two reasons number one our health officers recently advised us all the be social Bubbles and I think that children are going to end up being in too

248many groups because you know on Monday and Tuesday maybe the the kids are at school but parents are needing to to find care so I think these kids are going to be in many many groups and I think actually they'd end up being in more groups um than if you actually had them at school five days a week um I'm also very concerned about our uh grandparents you know I think that a lot of families are going to need to ask grandparents to be taking care of their kids um you know as they're trying to find ways to provide child care while they continue to work and so I think that there's a real risk of increasing exposure to our the elderly in our community which I think is just in terms of a County

249Health perspective is really a concern um there there's also an article I'd like to point out so this was in the journal Nature sorry so June 8th June 8th 2020 it's called the effect of large scale anti-c contagion policies on the covid-19 pandemic it very specifically points out how the closure of schools really did had almost no effect on the spread in an entire community of of covid so I think that you know this this Mass lockdown of the schools is not really the way to go thank you so much for for listenting thank you Jen okay we have uh the sikin family and then afterwards we'll be rosan hi thank you um my name is Katie I'm the parent of a rising kindergartner and a rising second grade student uh we have one comment

250and one request and our comment is that we'd like to propose and hope that the board would postpone the vote on this issue it's clear here given the comments from superintendent Rosas um and that the school district is still gathering information it's clear that there's a large volume of questions that need to be addressed that have come from the parents over the past hour in 22 minutes and voting now would be premature in advance of that vote and to inform that vote our request is that we quantify the number of hours per two week cycle for both the paired so the Monday Tuesday Thursday Friday and the alternate alternating week scenarios for first inclass instruction second distance learning specifically synchronous instruction so this is teaching of new material and third distance learning which would be

251the touch points the office hours the showand to Etc these would be incredibly valuable for us as parents to evaluate and for you as a school board to evaluate to understand what exactly we'd be consigning in our children to for reference our first grader this year technically had an hour and a half of synchronous instruction an hour of that was sh and tell that should not count as instruction um so that's what we'd like to propose that the board not vote at this point because it is clearly premature and this is an unformed plan thank you thank [Music] you okay uh all right dropped off uh Alysa with uh Wick toop is next and then after Alyssa is Diana Alyssa yes hello um so thank you for taking my comment um I'm a mother of

252an incoming third grader I have two points uh the first is um as much as it pains me to say um uh as a as a as a working parent and uh whose husband also is a full-time working parent but in the interest of equity for different Learners I strongly urge against the alternating week schedule um and I would support consistent weekly schedules as opposed to alternating weeks um in whatever form that ends up taking um while this is more disruptive to our lives as working parents um and I still don't know uh how we will make that work in our home um I know that having predictable and consistent scheduling each week will have much better results for those students with difficulties handling Transitions and with week on and week off [Music] schedule different

253social emotional needs learn Alyssa I think we're losing you week after week I think that that would simply adjusting to the different rhythm of this week compared to the rhythm of the previous week so just for that reason um uh and from that perspective I would really um urge and ask that we move in favor of consistent scheduling week to week rather than the alternating um option and uh just secondly I wanted to Echo another parents concern about masks being a challenge to visual spatial students um who either completely or would partially Miss curriculum when part of the teacher's face is covered and if at all possible would ask um echoing that other parent um if possible to have clear masks or face Shields as a possible alternative um those were my two comments thank

254you very much thank [Music] you um Rosanna Wong I saw that your hand dropped I'm not sure if it was an accidental CLI Click by me and you re raised it so I'm going to bring you in because I know you were you were before um Alyssa so Rosanne Wong not sure if it was my fault or not yeah I think it was my fault hi um I wanted to talk to you about my experience as a teacher right before the shutdown um I was trying to get my students to wear masks and within like half an hour most of the people did not want to wear them because it was it gave them headaches it was really stuffy and then um I had them washing their hands multiple times during the day and it

255just took so much time to have them line up and then um there was no hot water um there was no paper towels the restrooms have no paper towels um every time someone um like touched a surface I had to run over there with alcohol and wipe it all down um and there's no um air f filters so it is really hard for us to get fresh air when you open up the windows and the doors it's when it's cold weather it's um it's not possible um and then the deep cleaning is just the teacher is doing the deep cleaning and um it it is really hard to do it like every time someone has touched a surface but I also wanted to say that um distance learning was very productive for me I I

256met with my students in small groups which were differentiated we had very um intimate and um productive talks um we were able to do synchronous learning because somebody we all shared the same document and they were writing on it at the same time I was writing on it and my fourth grade team was really um creative and very um conscientious thank you thank you rosan appreciate it okay back on track and my apologies for the technical problem Diana Harris and then after Diana Harris will be Julia MacArthur Diana hi I'm the parent of an incoming third grader at Meadow Heights as well as a former Elementary and Middle School teacher I wanted to chime in that my son had a very positive experience during distance learning he was able to both review material already covered

257learn some new Concepts and produce his first slideshow presentations on a research project and a fairy tale unit I was very impressed with this teachers's ability to grow and adapt to distance learning and know that she and other teachers would be even more effective if given the opportunity to concentrate fully on distance learning over the last few months I've seen public sentiment go from praising teachers and expressing words of support to resenting and disparaging them and this has been very disappointing please remember that the primary role of schools is to educate like you I trust and value our Educators when when a large number of them say that they can be most effective in a distance only learning situation I believe that we should support them and pursue this option with the hybrid model Child

258Care is already going to be a problem perhaps we could focus on working with Community organizations on providing more affordable child care where students could spend their time in one setting with a bubble group instead of the hybrid model where students within a stable cohort will all be going to different Child Care situations and coming back together thank you thank you Diana all right uh Julie MacArthur and then after Julie will be Karen field uh Julie uh good evening I wanted to share some information with the board um that SMA gathered um so one of the things I wanted to share with the board is that 52% of the teachers in our um membership are either vulnerable consider themselves to be in a vulnerable group or live with someone who is vulnerable so that's half

259of our teaching staff um either L either being vulnerable or going home to someone vulnerable and I also want to make sure that we understand um that when we look at this today and I'm not advocating for or against it I'm just saying these two days in the classroom are not going to look like what I believe parents have come to expect happening in a classroom the pedagogy is going to shift tremendously we're not talking about Turnin talks we're not talking about small groups anymore we are talking about kids at every age sitting in a desk for four and a half hours and receiving their instruction that way um and I also want to say that it is really unrealistic to expect teachers to do uh distance learning at the same time as in-person learning

260um you know we experienced um I think you know teachers experienced a lot of struggle with um kids during the distance learning before um parents weren't getting all not all parents were getting their students to their Zoom meetings on time they weren't making sure that their students were doing the followup work um and so there is a parent engagement piece to this that I don't feel it is fair for teachers to take the sole blame for what went wrong with distance learning finally and I know I'm overtime I do want to address the essential work comment that has come up yes we are essential workers but my doctor makes me have my doctor visits with her over zoom and so I don't really feel that that is an absolute fair comparison thank you thank you

261Julie uh we have Karen field and then afterwards uh so Somaya paron again my apologies for just pronouncing it incorrectly but Karen Karen can you hear us sorry can you hear me uh we can hear you thank you Karen thank you uh good evening my name is Karen fields and I have two children at Laurel Elementary in the third and fifth grade first I would like to publicly thank their teachers for doing an outstanding job during distance learning both Mr G and Miss zap prepared lessons for phase one with Mir day's notice that were appropriate and engaging during the next phase they created classroom discussions live Learning lesson lessons hosted small group instruction support one-on-one check-ins extensions activities fun projects challenges learning for both achievable and engaging in addition they were responsive to my children's

262individual needs and quickly responded to emails and concerns that I had I believe that both my children are ready for the next level in fourth and sixth grade I say all this to thank the teachers who work countless hours in front of the class and behind the scenes and second again I want to showcase what a quality distance learning program can look like I believe that we need to listen to the teachers who have expressed concern about their safety and the safety of students in class and should start with a 100% distance learning model I also believe that teachers should be part of the conversation about the hybrid model that has been uh shown today it seems to me that teachers will be teaching cohort a at school while also creating distance learning for cohort

263B at the same time you're asking teachers to create and deliver two separate lessons at the same time they are only Human After All even if we call them superheroes um I have asked my own children the choice between returning to school where you will sit in a desk for 4 hours with a mask six feet away from all of the you will not be able to move around and the teachers not allowed to leave their designated area or distance learning at home what would you choose and they both said distance learning thank you thank you Karen uh somia Paran is be next and then afterwards will be Ellen and again my sincere apologies if I'm mispronouncing and I know I'm probably butchering it oh thanks Peter uh my name is Samia and uh I

264have no I have a a kid who's going into kindergarten and an income and Rising third grader um both at aabon um I have a couple of comments first of all I want to thank the school district District as well as the board uh for offering these sessions and for offering um transparency around your thought process as well uh my first uh uh question and comment is um I hope that you will seriously reconsider uh calling distance learning something else because there's a completely different connotation to what was called distance learning through the phase one and phase two um I kindly request that you consider this a form of online education uh where there is a synchronous teaching um teacher based uh you know how many hour hours that is that translates to the required

265hours of instruction uh where teachers are actually offering education to kids um uh personally my kids second grade teacher um I you know we had two uh 30 minute check-ins but she actually taught in those two 30 minute check-ins my kid came out learning something new um and being able to apply that for the rest of the U you know time that she was doing distance learning um so I really kind request that you invest more in that um we've seen success so I think we should pursue that uh and the second comment second is more of a comment it it sounds from from listening to all the speakers who spoke before it feels like maybe nuances to how you are thinking about this like you know some kids that are more younger may need

266certain kind of attention that slightly older kids U may need a different types of type of attention um I just maybe request that you can finetune uh your proposal to fit um you know bands of kids that are younger versus even in elementary bands of kids that are younger and then the third to fifth graders Etc I I don't know what those bands would look like but feels like that may be another appropriate step to think about um thank you for the time thank you appreciate it we have Ellen and then after Ellen will be Stephanie Ellen I listen tonight I keep wondering what is the specific outcome we are trying to achieve for our children you provided Frameworks of instructional delivery but there was no actual stated outcome or description of actual day-to-day methods

267and activities of how our children will be educated preo our children went to school and received live in-person instruction from a teacher for at least 4.5 hours daily in fact I believe the state requires at least 4.5 hours of instruction daily and 180 days of in-class instruction this spring we experienced something called distance learning that included little to no face-to-face online teacher instruction with subpar curriculum so I think about education from two lenses lens number one teacher instruction why can't the teachers keep the existing class schedule and teach via Zoom Google meets Etc this seems to accomplish the goal of safety plus provide the same level of live instruction what am I missing then there's lens number two curriculum there are incredible online schools that have been doing this for years with real teachers leading

268online instruction don't reinvent the wheel just look at out school there is a tremendous wealth of instructional information there who is the task force that is working on this and what research have they looked at how are we using parents as a resource we have incredible resource of Technology experts especially in this area don't reinvent the wheel instead of dwelling on the difficulties I believe there is an opportunity here to really make a meaningful shift to better instruction in curriculum how can we as parents help most of us aren't Educators but we do have an incredible wealth of Real World Knowledge you can leverage this framework is not ready to be approved thank you Ellen all right Stephanie and then after Stephanie will be Kayla Stephanie Stephanie are you there Stephanie you may need to

269unmute your microphone okay thank you um I apologize for the lateness I know it's late for everybody this meeting has gone on longer than we all probably thought um I have an incoming kindergartener and I'm very concerned about what I'm hearing about everybody that went through so-called distance learning this past spring um we all know that this is not a a one- siiz fits all approach and I really hope that you guys look at every aspect especially for our Young Learners who need that instruction on a daily basis not virtual um my daughter had nothing to do wanted nothing to do with virtual learning um during the break um luckily her um preschool was is open again and she's going back and really loves the the interaction but I'm I'm very concerned about sending her

270to school in the district um with distance learning because there I'm I'm very concerned that I'm hearing there was no learning um and I'm I'm just concerned about that overall thank you thank you for your time and uh everybody have a great night thank you for spending as much time as you have on this call and I appreciate everybody and what you're doing and putting in the good work thank you Stephanie okay uh we have Kayla and then Chelsea uh Kayla first hi thank you guys for letting me speak thank you Board of Trustees and superintendent roses for putting all of this together and taking your time to do all of this for all of us um number one I've been watching the numbers these past four days from Monday to today it's the numbers

271have increased 4,000 cases um so with that being said and a surge coming in August I think that we should keep distance learning for August um I don't think we should be going back to schools if we do go back to schools I think the teacher should be wearing face Shields instead of having masks fully covering their faces that way um the children can see the teacher's reactions having a kindergartener or my son going into kindergarten facial reactions and expressions from the teachers is important um and then I'm trying to remember everything that I had to say um um um I guess that's it I totally blanked out thanks guys thank you all right we have Chelsea one and then afterwards is Christina Chelsea hi can you hear me uh we can thank you all

272right first I just want to say thank you for the opportunity um to make all these public comments and for everything that the district and the superintendents have done I understand this is a very overwhelming and difficult problem I also want to say thank you to all the teachers who worked so hard throughout all this um I have two Elementary School students one just finished first grade and the other one finished fifth grade it was a very online learning it was a very different experience for both of them so I want to Echo what some of the other parents said about how we may need to it may be better to tailor um what we do in the fall depending on the age range uh my fifth grader was able to adapt to it pretty

273quickly my first grader really suffered from not being physically in a room with the other students I discovered how much he learns from just seeing the other students and the physical activity of going through the day separate from the teacher instruction also he has he had two teachers one he had formed a good bond with before covid hit the other he had not and that played out in extremes um in online learning because he was able to benefit from the teacher that he had bonded with he was able to make that transition to online learning and he was not able to do that successfully with the other teacher so I just want to advocate for the two days a week I agree with what other parents said about how um younger children will be able

274to adapt to that easier than the alternating weeks a week of no school and no human interaction is a lifetime for them thank you all thank you uh we have Christina and then after Christina will be Meg uh F Christina hi thank you um I want to comment tonight on the uh hybrid option so I did send feedback already and I'm not going to repeat those comments um I did want to say that you know I'm enthusiastic about the the hybrid uh option um that being said my incoming second grader is not what I would call self-driven easily bored by video instruction so you know I'm concerned about him and students like him becoming disengaged because you know after a few minutes of a video he tends to try to wander off my husband and

275I you know we work full-time we're not able to adequately manage that kind of you know situation that Home Learning so I just wanted to say that live instruction even while remote is really important as part of that hybrid plan um additionally I would like more information on assessment um because I just want to know how we're going to be able to judge whether these kids um you know are are meeting the academic standards and thank you all for your time I know it's late so I didn't want to throw that in there and that was um those were my comments so thank you for your time thank you Christina okay uh Meg f f and then afterwards we'll be Megan great can you hear me uh we can thank you m well thank you

276everyone I know it's late but since you're here we're all here and we're all committed to you know the health and wealth of our children so I appreciate all that you're doing this is my first um attending a board meeting so um but we're all on this together right um so I did I'm here also advocating for TK and Kinders um my daughter just completed TK and um for the most part the distance learning didn't work I don't know if you've been on a zoom with five or several five-year-olds but it doesn't work and it didn't work for us the teachers did incredible but the attention and the social interaction was detrimental for us so when I think it affected a lot of children as well um we ended up having to get a therapist

277because she was so sad and so depressed by not being having that social interaction and seeing her teacher so I really would like to um encourage you to explore more into having you know two options these children the younger ones need to they need to go to school and they want to go to school um so I think we need to explore that more and I'm sure that there are several safety protocols and stuff we can put in place um but you know to make it safe for everybody uh there's you know sneeze guards the big plexiglass you know so you can have interaction without having to wear face masks and you know I think that we just need to spend a little bit more time exploring that for the little ones so um while

278the older ones it makes sense distance learning really works um but anyways thank you very much thank you Meg uh next we have Megan sandal and then afterwards we'll be Jenna Megan hi everybody thank you for your time um I wanted to briefly mention I'm not sure if you have looked into San Jose School District but I believe that St Christophers has found a way to allow all of the children to come back to school full-time they have um included also acrylic dividers for the desks so that's definitely um a school to look at to see what they're doing um in order to keep their children safe in addition I would really suggest offering a survey to see who would primarily want their kids to learn online as well as teachers then take that pull

279out and then see how many you know kids are left to then figure out if it's possible to bring all of those kids in school full-time safely um in addition to that my daughter is going into the fifth grade into Fiesta Gardens and the Spanish Immersion is completely being lost right now um she's really struggling to keep her Spanish and we are not a Spanish speaking household so that's definitely something that needs to be Revisited among the imersion um and then finally to address the comment that came out in regards to the lack of um support from parents being the cause of distance learning you know declining I really think that is ridiculous because we did not go to school for this we did not go to training most of us are working full-time and

280to compare it to um a physician's uh office visit that's online you can't even compare the two you wouldn't accept a diagnosis from a front desk receptionists just like it's not realistic to think that parents would be able to support teaching their kids full-time in addition to working so that's all I have to say thank you so much thank you Megan okay we have Jenia and then after Jena will be Monica Jenna hello I'd like to Echo and emphasize the need for the youngest kids to have more on campus instruction and I would say for all kids but especially the kids in language immersion programs so please do consider the five day a week half day option for the youngest kids at least and I'll say on the flip side it's totally possible with what

281we've been seeing with the virus trajectory that me we may all end up and doing online learning anyway so whether the online learning is three four or five days a week it's very concerning based on what we've heard from the spring distance learning experience that this would be a repeat and it's really critical in my opinion to set requirements for live teaching for how many hours teachers will need to teach live for small group online meetings and really to try to do better than this the spring experience that's being reported and I'll say despite the comments um that we really cannot rely on parents being teachers and especially not in most households where both parents work so the distance learning option has to take that fact into account thank you thank you okay we have

282Monica then after Monica will be Jen uh kakami Monica uh Monica you have a different version of Zoom I'm so I'm going to be promoting you to a panelist it might disconnect you for a moment hi Monica if you can unmute yes hi can you hear me thank you yes we can minute and a half yes well thank you thank you so much so I'm a international experience register n from Europe and also here um from the United States I have three kids entering first grade um third grade and seventh grade um looking at um the crisis in Europe what started earlier um I see that most European countries open up their schools um at first especially for the um younger kids lower grades um and this goes align with one what of the pediatrician

283said before that the likelihood that the kids are spreading the virus is very minimal especially at the younger the younger ages so um some models what I've seen is like that the younger kids like kindergartner up to first grade up to first grade they go back full-time to school and the higher levels they go more like online or or maybe do kind of a hybrid later on and especially like the bridge um grades like saying the fifth graders eighth graders they also went back full-time so just to make sure that they're on track with the learning um I just want to give this as an input maybe this might be an option um especially for the younger ones I was struggling with my kindergartner and I think everyone who had a kindergartner was really struggling

284and it's really really necessary that they see the teacher and also that the teacher present um either online every day or at school thank you very much thank you Monica okay we have Jen kawakami and then afterwards uh Malini I mean uh Jen hi thank you so much for listening to me tonight thank you to the board and in particular thank you to trustees Coro and Watkins I'm really disheartened to hear you have been receiving inflammatory emails it saddens me greatly that you have received those it is not okay and I want you to know that my colleagues and I stand with you as we look forward to fall we have to consider first the safety of staff and students as we continue to hear parents wanting a synchronous day questions like why can't teachers

285just uh teach live for the four hours um I have some thoughts for you to consider first of all all research shows that online learning needs to be very short 10 to 30 minutes depending on the age and developmental level it's important for parents to understand that there are clear recommendations on distance learning in the regular classroom teachers literally Dance all around the classroom giving feedback guidance redirection extension modifications reteaching Etc we do this every day all day in every subject this happens within minutes it is the art of what we do as professionals what we do every day cannot be replaced online it is really important that parents and board members remember that we teachers are doing everything we can we are always open to learning more we appreciate your patience and support during

286this Global pandemic we want to do better thank you for your patience thank you Jen molini Amin and then afterwards will be Danielle mccardy uh molini and did I pronounce that correctly hi yes it's Molen thank you thank you very much one minute minute 30 thank you sure I'm a a parent to an incoming kindergartener at the Highlands Elementary and um a pediatrician as well and I'm not going to spend time really echoing the things that have been said by the medical professionals um earlier because I wholeheartedly agree um but I wanted to first and foremost thank you of everyone for parents and the board for being here this late it's my first time joining a meeting as a you know first time parent with a child in school and or going to school and

287um I'm so impressed by all the work and all the dedication that has been shown today um so thank you for for your work um and I wanted to just urge two two things I guess one is that it doesn't seem to me that today is a day to make a decision that's going to be so impactful potentially for the next year for our kids education so I urge the board to gather more information and explore the other models in a way that we did with the two-day model um in more detail so that we could have a more informed vote when we do move forward as a community um and then the other thing is I really want to add a um a support to rethink the model of a morning and afternoon session

288I think the main hesitation there was the cleaning issue and if there was even a few hours that children are there it seems like the benefit will outweigh the risk of it being shortened um and the cleaning issue shouldn't be as severe based on what science tells us it doesn't have to be a deep clean in between every day um you're eliminating the contacts you know the surface contact of virus and then remember remembering that it's not going to get in our bodies unless we're then touching our faces or mouths or eyes so I think the fear might drive the cleaning portion um as a you know negative factor more than it should so I hope we can reconsider that model thank you thank you all right we have Danielle and then after Danielle will

289be Christie Danielle hello can you hear me uh we can thank you okay thanks for listening tonight my name is DaNell I have a rising first grader and um I have to Echo what Jen just said although I'm using her quote a little differently the art of what you do cannot be replaced and I have to tell you that having a kindergartener doing distance learning I am not a teacher um so it was a struggle especially as a single parent working fulltime um it's just something that is it was definitely not an easy reality um and it was a struggle and I definitely think it's going to be a struggle with first grade as well I think that we need to Echo what the other parents have said about young children needing to have as

290much in-person education as possible they need that social connection um not only to the teachers but to the other students as well um it's a critical development stage for them um I also want to Echo the support of the week by week schedule I think that that consistency is both good for the students as well as the parents with child care issues um and I support the live stream of the in-person classes there is a way that that can be done especially with donations um that we can support that and that if we do have to all go to distance learning models then the students might be able to be on the same um you know same education one concern I have not raised ination on is the expectation of what the children are doing

291in the afternoons when they're in class in the morning um I know for younger students once we pick them up take them home and transition them home my six-year-old is not going to want to go then into distance learning and so expecting them to then transition right back into a different learning model might be difficult thank you thank you d uh chrisy and then after chrisy will be Randy Christie hi everyone can you hear me okay we can all right um I'm a parent um and a teacher at Highland's elementary school and I just want to thank you all for all that you've done um I just want to make a few comments and then propose a few things for Thought um there's been a lot of reference in comparison to the spring model and

292I just want to reiterate to parents that the spring model was focused on child welfare um and beyond that it's it's wonderful that children were able to learn some new things but that was really our Focus so we can't really use that as a grading tool of what our next phase of distance learning will look like so I just wanted to reiterate that um and then I also wanted to say that there's been a lot of discussion about child care and trust me I face that issue as well um but I also want to have everybody think about being prepared for the inevitable of going to distance learning in some scenario um and so you know to base a decision on on what the child care needs are um it I don't know if about

293if that's should be such a determining Factor um and then the Food For Thought is uh the bus situation um are we having bus monitors who's taking temps before children get on buses um how are we going to socially distance in buses the logistical the logistics on that um kind of baffle me um and I know you are all doing a wonderful job so thank you and and I know you're faced with a horrible not horrible but an a very very Dreadful decision but I just would urge you to make a decision you're not going to make everybody happy including myself thank you thank you okay we have Randy painter Randy hello good evening um I wasn't gonna say anything this evening but um I'm going to um I wanted to bring up how the

294district has collected data and input from the community developing this plan clearly the community wants to give input about their experiences and their ideas and their concerns that's why you're still here at 11 o' but not all of the community is here expressing themselves these board meetings and the superintendent chats despite the intention are not representative ways of collecting data even more importantly these formats do not lend themselves to hearing from our most vulnerable families an easy way to hear from our families is by asking collecting data creating clear well-design surveys um it was easy for me to find out that San Carlos got 75% of their families responding when they surveyed them about their thoughts and concerns about returning to school well it's great to collect qualitative data this should actually lead to um

295using the qualitative data to direct how you're going to collect quantitative data and acting on those data thank you thank you Randy okay sorry hold on one moment okay next we have David David hi just a quick thought um listening to the um math teacher from Burell really resonated with me and it made me think is there a reason that there has to be the same plan for elementary and Junior High with the AABB versus the junior high being a different format thank you thank you David and then the next person is identified as AMC uh there they are okay brought you in AMC can you hear me yes I can your name oh hi yes thank you uh my name's Alana mcar and um I have a daughter at noro view monor um she's

296going to be a second grader um but I want to say thank you all for everything and I do appreciate how difficult this is for everybody um so I just wanted you to consider um you know I I was all for you know ready to sign my daughter up for distance full-time distance learning because you know I feel more fortunate enough to be able to support that but like learning more about it um I'm a little concerned because I feel like um she lose connection to her school and um it's basically she's starting a new school um so I just want you to consider that or if you are going to have that um if it's possible for her to be um in the same group as kids from her school and her grade so

297that's all I wanted to add thank you okay thank you very much okay president Coro uh president corza you are muted thank you I see that there's another hand up but I just want to clarify that if you've already spoken on one item you aren't you aren't able to speak again on the item so um thank you everyone for your comments um let's open it up for discussion and we can do popcorn style so whoever would like to speak first please go ahead thank you Peter also for moderating um I it's late my thoughts are all over the place um we've heard a lot of speakers um so I'm just going to throw out some things um to those who offered fundraising um to help with Extended Learning uh purchase possibly purchasing equipment um and

298to help support our populations that need extra Services it's a fantastic idea and I urge you to connect with our Education Foundation to start those efforts um to those who are concerned with the implementation of their IEP 504s and support services very much encourage you to get in contact with our sedac special education District advisory committee as these are the very topics that they will be discussing um some new comments I heard are the federal holidays and typical inservice training days I that never came to my mind that's great to you know something that needs to be addressed and I'd really like to know uh how those work into our plans um I I understand the need to support work uh work schedules and child care needs I hear what all of you are saying

299and I understand and while it would be great um if everything could happen and align as we would like it to it it's it's going to take if if it does get there it's going to take some time because we we cannot do it the district cannot do it all by ourselves um And in regards to that I know Dr roses did speak to the collaboration efforts uh that is happening with child care agencies and other um supporting networks um including our own Annex so that we we can work to support our children and schedules um I appreciate the dedication you all have to your children um I want you to know that we have the same dedication we are here to to provide and be a part of creating a district that best supports

300the needs of all students um and with that it's not going it's not going to as other parents mentioned it it's not going to make everybody happy there is no one Silver Bullet I do think um some considerations would be to to kind of look at the lower grades and upper grades and what um different needs can be met um knowing that middle school is is its own unique system um and then you know prek and to first grade is something different um and the other ones too um H regarding our staff um we need need to support them and provide them with the tools that they need to feel safe um and I know some other things regarding that have been raised um like ventilation um windows and doors HVAC systems the use of

301outside areas um I want to ensure that for those times that if we are to be on site I want to ensure that those needs have been addressed because our our teachers you know I I'm putting myself I'm I'm trying to look at it from every lens everything that you guys are speaking of of and being in the education field myself what would I want uh and of course that's I want your CH I would want your children on site with me at all times but I also know that it's it's it's going to be tough because of the situation we're all in um I want to ensure that the Educators and staff do feel comfortable and have everything in place with clear guidelines and um you know regarding the masks and shoe covers or

302thermometers and all of that I that again I think was going to be addressed at a different board meeting um and along with the I know sha touched on last time about the variety of cleaning solutions so I think again that's going to be something that needs to be in discussions um for the health and safety teams to consider um along with how the bathroom situations will be H handled um I know a lot of teachers feel that it cleaning and uh bathroom responsibility is going to be fallen on them and I don't know if that's the best solution um you know is it something that other staff can be utilized as bathroom monitors and what would that look like um I have so many notes um it's a really tough heart situation no there

303haven't been concrete details to either schedule um but and I know I know it's needed but I also know that it's hard to come up with those because of the environment we are in and all of the meetings that um our leaders are involved in it's different different different train of thought I'm going to go and hit our distance learning um we are all aware of how the previous distance learning uh went we learned a lot um and know that going forward it completely needs to be revamped and looked um and looked on as a different model um I think those teachers that need to stay home can be those who are on the distance learning team I think one way to do that is you know create a standalone virtual school or the different

304wording that was earlier suggested um and and for it to be something what I said is the dedicated principal staff and teachers um so they can address those concerns that have been raised by parents and they can focus on creating a very robust program with engaging and challenging curriculum um which could include both on and offscreen activities and curriculum live online support time including one-on ones and small group time I think it needs to be looked at as a completely separate school um and to those families that choose to have their children on site you know they'll have those teachers dedicated who can truly focus on providing a robust curriculum for those children um for those for that model I think having a teacher um tackle a distance learning model and inclass is very um

305is asking them to do even more so that they can't they won't be able to provide your child with what they need um and I think um we really do need to cons consider um opening up maybe with 100% distance learning model with scaffolding on Scaffolding in um because of the concern of cases rising and who knows if shelter in place is going to happen happen again um but it is predicted something is going to happen earlier rather than what we later expected um and I there's a there are a lot of things that need to considered I appreciate the team that has worked T effort you know tiredly to come up with these Solutions um and I understand where everyone is coming from um and it and it it's a tough decision and it

306makes it an even more uh difficult decision just because I I I I I'm I hear what all of you are saying and I hear what all of your concerns and needs um are um I also know clearly you know the parent Community wants to be involved and included and we have teachers that have varying um ideas um and as this does impact families more so than ever I think if a survey has not been created yet or I heard that maybe there was one um it needs to be sent to every household of the options um before before before the board can make um a decision I think this is something that is going to take our village all of us to determine the best the best course and I would appreciate putting out

307a survey as to um several options um so that we can see what where they are where they stand um and I just thank everybody for taking the time to be a part of this uh it's not easy for anyone um and I just I appreci appreciate all of you who want to be part of the solution um there's many more things I can say but I'm GNA end it there because I already spoke for a really long time so thank you can jump in for a minute here um and I just want to a apologies for having my camera off I am starting to get a migraine and so um I just had to turn it off for a minute and step away from from the screen but have been listening um so um

308you know I I just want to start by just for a moment um you know acknowledging um that the team that's been working on all of this our District staff our um Educators that have been involved um you know folks have been working day and night to put together the most robust plan given all of the complexities that this entails um and so you know I know that there have been emails and comments you know kind of around taking the easy way or not being intentional and you know so I just want to know um or I just want everyone that is involved in this to know that we understand how not easy this is and how much time has been invested and just you know taking a moment to honor and thank the work

309that is the team has put into all of this um I think a lot of times um it can this is a passionate topic it's a personal topic people are stressed and frustrated by things that have nothing to do with this um and of course that all filters into everything that we're all all feeling right now um um but I just I kind of wanted to start with that um I also just want to say that um uh you know to what our assistant superintendent uh David shamas you know said around um trusting the team I I want to Echo that and I know that there were comments around trust needing to be earned and that is true um I also want to point out I think it's noteworthy that the community members who have

310been engaged over a period of time with our district and our board um have communicated a level of trust in decisionmaking and focus on Equity um because they have seen that how the board has worked over time um and so I want to acknowledge that um that um everyone that is on this team our teachers our staff our district leaders our board we are all here every single person wakes up every day um us as board members volunteer you know our our time it is volunteer um to be here to do what's best for all kids in this District that is every single person that is involved in the school um and it requires taking into account many many different thoughts and perspectives I think if you've been on this call for this long you

311can see that there are thoughts and perspectives from one extreme to the other go back full time we just we just want to go back and you know what it's fine and kidss don't need masks and it'll be fine we don't need to clean right to it is not safe to go back at all we should not go back at all and everything in between um and it's comp so it's complex and it's balancing lots of needs and lots of stakeholders and um you know as I said last week I think um the the guiding lights have been health and safety and equity um it's a commitment our board has made it's a commitment our district has made um and um you know they I I I shared this quote last week and I'm going

312to share it again but 38% of kids from America's lowest income homes and 35% of kids in special education are doing little to no remote learning by contrast 83% of kids and families making over $100,000 a day are doing it every single or sorry1 a year $100,000 a day sounds nice um are doing it every single day um PL in my day job we do a lot of work I do a lot of work around special education and supporting um you know students of speci special needs and students that need a lot of additional support outside of that and one of the things we talk about is um planning for what we call an extreme user um that means planning for students who need the most and when you are driving with planning keeping those

313students in mind um all kids benefit but those kids get what they need um and that's what has to be our driving force and as a previous commenter spoke there are a lot of voices that are missing here and so we can't solely be driven by folks that have the time the resources to be here and Sh and and sharing right it also has to be driven by our families and our and our members of our community who who need the most um so the other the other point I want to make is you know there are cascading effects so think sometimes it's easy to say well if we just do this but then we think about the impacts of that right so if we just go back full-time even teachers are essential workers they

314should go back we just need to make everybody go back well what happens then is that we have teachers that can't and and file for family medical leave we don't have teachers in classrooms we need to find long-term Subs we don't have long-term Subs because we're in a global pandemic and then who's in the classroom to teach right there are cascading effects for every decision that also have to be thought through um there are positive cascading effects there's you know when we think about this idea that we're fewer days we're also talking about really small class sizes in comparison which has significant positive impacts on student achievement we've heard you know there's study after study around that and so that also has to be taken into account again cascading effects for all of these things

315um and it's complex it's not just as simple is we'll do this one thing this one way um and so I appreciate that a lot of folks in their comments have taken that into account right I know it's complex and I'm sharing my perspective and we value and appreciate those perspectives um um we have had folks that haven't taken that approach and have been you know really really critical and I get that it's personal um and you want to fight for what's best for your kids and we appreciate that and we're fighting for what's best for all kids and our staff and our Educators um you know we need to move forward with a plan we need to make a decision um it's going to be hard because what we can do is spend the

316next months having meetings every week and continuing to listen um going back and forth and we're going to find ourselves at the beginning of August without a plan and nobody's going to have time to work out the logistics and answer all of the questions that are being asked right now the only way we can get into the meat of those questions is by knowing what we're driving towards um the one caveat I have to that so I'm saying we need to make a decision and I do believe that we need to make a decision um I do have kind of one proposal suggestion that I'm interested to hear what the rest of the board feels so I feel like there are two options on the table or that have been on the table that keep

317Equity at the Forefront and safety the one that does not is an AM PM schedule that does not allow for us to prioritize the needs of kids that need more that means we're giving everyone the same thing and that is not something that I believe that I am comfortable moving forward with and I don't believe that's something our board given our commitment to equity is comfortable moving forward with um the one option in addition to the one that's being proposed is the week a week B model that would not be a full day model um I would only be for be comfortable considering that as a model if we still maintain the afternoon cohorts for Equity groups for kids that are going to need more based on we're gonna I have a bunch of questions

318about that but I know we're going to get to that right and how we determine that and all of that um the that wouldn't add when we think about the actual hours right if we had Friday we might have an extra day of you know that four and a half hours or four hours so it's not adding a ton more time than than has been um proposed in the schedule but there does seem to be some support for that over what I would be interested and seeing if the board um the rest of the board would be interested in is um sending out a very brief survey this week that asks about those two options specifically both for our teachers and our staff and to our families and we come back next week and we

319look at that data and we decide based on that between those two options that's it there's no I you know again I do think we need to make a decision the C aat is if we feel comfortable and and our our staff feel as though these are two viable options that support the the elements that um that we are holding up as the most important is that something potentially to ask about um I think with either option I just uh you know we need to support our Educators our family with online curriculum I know that's something that we're looking into um um so you know I think that that's an important piece of this puzzle and I just um I'll I'll add by just saying that when we come back with updates um I know

320that we're going to have our different teams present in July um I know we talked about inclusion I would like for um kind of the group that's thinking about these Equity groups and cohorts to be a part of that I don't know if that's a separate Task Force if it's not I would like for it to be and I think we can engage our task force which is already already thinking and asking questions around that in that um if we don't already have a task force or in middle school which it sounds like we do having that and having that come back um if we don't have a task force already it sounds like we do just saying if you know I know that we've thought about most of these things but just kind of

321putting out all of the ones that seem to be coming up and that feel really relevant um online curriculum just kind of distance learning that segment because it is separate and integrated with the hybrid model uh external child care so um Annex Community Partners can we have a task force that really looks at that and so we have a menu of options for folks and just to the comment around kind of the payment piece many of our Our Community Partners that we're referring to are not fee based um spaces so um some some of them are but a lot of them that we that we're talking about aren't I know there was a public commenter on that um and then my only other point with kind of those were the ones that that are coming

322to mind and I might be forgetting some um I would love for us to think about I know we've had this internal this internal task force to kind of figure out what we as a district can manage and do um and I think now you know there's a lot of Engagement and are there ways that we can integrate parents into some of those task forces as well so potentially that's something that can be shared in the July meeting around um you know how we can how we can loop our parent Community into those groups as we plan and answer all of these questions that people are asking um and I would I would I'm just going to end with um you know I'm glad to see that there are so many people engaged right now

323you know we had over 700 people on our meeting we've never had that many P people attend a Schoolboard meetings so I'm glad people are engaged please stay engaged um these decisions in this work right now are personal right they're personal for everyone here but this work is always important we are always meeting the Ed Foundation is always raising money um we are all always looking for engagement and support and partnership with our families and so I just want to Circle back to our resolution and encourage you to be engaged and to be involved and to be this passionate also when it isn't personal um and so I'm looking forward to continuing to see and hear from folks um as we continue to address all of the tough issues both as it pertains to this

324and as it pertains to all of the other things that we address and consider we're thinking about what's best for all of our students and continuing to move the needle so that's what I have for right now and if I turn my video off it's only because of my headache hi I wasn't sure who was GNA go um so sha I like your idea um I I um I think it's it would be nice to get a survey out there I know that we've done like a lot of surveys but this is an important decision I think um it's one that is not going to be able to make everybody happy and um I can appreciate that every single per every single family has their own unique situation including teachers and and and everybody with

325their work situation their health um you know it's this is not easy um and I think we can all agree that the best place for our kids um is at school with their teachers and and we're all striving to get there we're just dealing with this pandemic right now but um I don't you know I think when you when you kind of look into the future we don't know what it's going to be but we want to be with we want our kids with their teachers and their friends at school and so I I think we'll we'll get there eventually it's just going to be it's hard right now um I also wanted to just say I appreciate the medical professionals perspective here um I'm just curious and I I've gone through this a couple

326times where wondering with the framework how do we know when it's safe to go back to school when like when do we toggle between the two like if we were going to go to full distance learning because of um Arison cases or whatever it is how do we know when it's actually safe and so I somebody mentioned um consulting or getting a consultant I I would love to hear more about um about that and also about the cleaning requirements I don't know are we thinking about this are we going and Beyond with the cleaning is it really um is it really just as simple as the high touch areas cleaning those and so just learning a little bit more about what exactly is required would be interesting to me um I think the my my

327one comment about the the kind of the AABB schedule is that I'm I'm finding it really hard to imagine how um how teachers are going to do the distance learning with the B group while they're with the a group and so um you know as I think about my own kids and the decisions I would make that's one that I kind of struggle with um with myself there and also when um when Julie mentioned that there's 52% of the teachers um that are either imuno compromised or they live with someone that's imuno compromised um I'm just curious mathematically where this is going to land so I think with the survey um and getting with the one that Char was mentioning just finding out what teachers prefer um between the two scenarios I think might help

328answer that question a little bit more for me um and also Stacy's comment about the middle school math um and wondering if we um if we're do if we this I guess the schedule that's been proposed if that's really the best what's best for the middle schooler so um again I don't think that would um really change I don't I think maybe just it's refiguring out the day to Day schedule um but otherwise I I do um like your idea Shara for um putting on a survey for that so thank you sorry I between you trusty quo and I I I thought since I always want first maybe I'd go last but um um sorry I was looking over my notes so let's just get to my so first um I want to thank everyone

329for providing their public comment um I know that tonight we've had what yeah like Sher said it was over 700 people tuning in I also know that people who have have children in our district and the high school district we're probably toggling back and forth between our meeting and the high school district's meetings to determine what they're going to do because uh that was awesome tonight and I actually don't know if they're still meeting like we are um but I also want to apologize to the public um for uh responses by email I want to let you know that I have read every single email that you guys sent in uh as you can imagine uh just like the public comment the verbal public comment that we received today um it was sort of physically

330impossible to actually email everyone back um but I have read every single one uh and for those who actually provide provided their phone numbers I did call or most people who provided the phone numbers I called and talked to most of you guys um because I felt it was a little more personable than just sending it back an email thank thanks for your comments so um I really do appreciate everybody's uh emails and comments ments that you provided I really appreciate the public comment that was that was said tonight um there are some amazing and very interesting ideas and really valid points that people raised either tonight or by email um but I would agree as Shara had stated you know we have a very wide spectrum of people who you know want to go

331back and people who want to be in distance learning and then everyone in between and so what we have before tonight is is sort of the hybrid model um I think as trusty Proctor said you know definitely our goal is obviously to get back into school I mean we would love that I mean I think that if the miracle were to happen all of a sudden everything went away I mean going back to school is like easy for us we just like everyone knows it we you know we've been doing it for the past how many decades you know it's just live and room instruction you know we don't need to you know principles and everybody they could just set the class classes and boom it's done we know that that's sort of easy right

332so you know that's the goal for us to get there and then there's the 100% distance learning which we've heard you know through public comment through emails and today that that at least our distance learning was really not distance learning it was inconsistent and people you know depending on your teacher and depend how much time they spent and also depending on your students and your also family Dynamics um worked or it didn't work and so you know but the one thing that was clear from a lot of the public comment last week and this week was a lot of families wanted a more robust curriculum and I think what the district is coming back at the next meeting or maybe you know after July 8th because who knows we might have another meeting in between

333them uh then is that we will definitely have a much better online curriculum and I like the idea someone um sorry on my notes um someone actually said that we shouldn't call it distance learning because it has a negative connotation to it and actually sort of agreed with that person um I think if we kept using it people will just keep thinking that it's it's basically one more step from what we used to be doing and if we were to be doing a full-time 100% distance learning you know as mentioned in the presentation it might be you know a separate School a virtual school and so it won't be the exact same thing um you know one thing I love about when we when we look and we compare about uh compare other districts and

334ours you know the one thing I love about our district is in some ways it is the largest District in the county we have 12,000 students 1,00 teachers and staff members um and it's so diverse we have 20 schools soon to be 21 schools actually and so the issue is that every school is different and every needs at every school is very different and the fact that you know we actually have uh immersion programs two schools with immersion programs and two schools in mon monor programs and by being this large it allows us to provide these different choices to families but honestly after listening to some of the other trustees that we were all different calls up and down in s County I kind of wish that we were a little smaller and more nimble

335um the schools that uh Dr Rose has mentioned you know the ones that are smaller and have small classrooms or maybe only one District in one school or you know one District in four schools where they can be super Nimble and they be like hey look yeah come back to the fall we have all the space we have the money we could just do it you know this is the way it is I I wish for us to be like that but um but we're not and so it's difficult when we sort of compare and when we hear other districts are doing this or that because we have such a wide range of diversity and demographics within our own School District at each individual School uh to compare us to the other districts it's really

336hard um some districts you know might not have you know talked to the unions they might not have figured out how to actually clean um on a call today with some of the other trustees in sdo County it was actually clear that some trustees were Loosely um adhering to the health order and I was I was completely surprised by that um but that's how they're sort of getting around to going back and and so um but to each its own because they are their own District they have their own demographics they have their own issues and so we need to worry about what works for us um so you know we do have our own issues and you know part of it in some ways and someone had mentioned I think it was Michael Michael

337who Tau aled about improvements of circulation um you know when you think about our infrastructure we have classrooms that have no windows we have classrooms that have no sinks we do not have flowing air or air conditioning or any kind of air movement in a lot of our classrooms and so when you think and look at the health order and you think that one of the big things to try and bring kids back is improved air circulation with you know Hep filtration um we just don't have that and I and I'm really concerned about that um so that that's one of the issues that I have um additionally I you know I really do feel like you know a lot of the comments that came out you know in the emails some parents are single

338parents or working parents and this is this is going to put an undue burden on them and then on the other Spectrum we have you know teachers like um Juliet said you know 52% of our teachers may be compromised so so we have this huge issue of like what are we doing and and ultimately I go back to what Dr Moro kept saying over and over again through his statements is it's balance you know we have to find a balance in between we can't make everyone happy but we have to find a balance and so I believe that's what sort of the hybrid system is what everyone's been working on is moving towards um I am actually honestly partial towards you know the week to week versus the AABB but I'm open to um to

339looking at that uh to both of those options uh I actually am really worried about uh if you look at all of our emails you s quantify and put them in different buckets a lot of the concerns and a lot of the concerns tonight came from the TK and the kindergartener families not the new not only the newcoming parents but also just those who just came out of TK and so I really think you know when we look at different models and and you know is there an option like someone had mentioned today for the kindergarten or TK members to maybe have that amm because the cleaning maybe is less um I I would look at that I actually look at the same comment from um David about the Middle School uh in the different

340format and and the issue was when you look at the middle school format that we have we definitely have a lot of question about that and so I almost break it down like TK kindergarten you know or TK almost to second grade and then 3 four and five is is one sort of segment and then 678 is another and I I wonder whether or not we can look at having sort of different models through those because I think that there are different needs in each of those categories um you know I I am partial to like actually making a decision tonight because I do when you back up and I said this last week when you back up the time of starting August 12 you know and you have to give you know the principes

341and the teachers and everyone enough time to plan to figure things out you know I you got to give them at least a month and now if we all of a sudden go forward and push this back you know it'll be less than a month and I really worry about the logistics you know that we haven't thought of and things that haven't come up so I am partial towards making a decision tonight I am also thinking about as we look at the different uh timelines is really things have changed sort of week by week you know early on in covid it was day by day couple days everybody's sort of Running Scared in some ways but now we have you know we're Governor NSA might say something or superintendent Tony Thurman might say something or

342Dr Moro might come out and say okay it's safe but we don't know and it's sort of we're going by week by week and honestly what we're sort of fighting is is time and so one of the recommendations that I did like I forget who mentioned um beyond the federal holidays and maybe this was in an email form was to actually look at our school calendar you know we have moved to this modified schedule where before we're not traditional and we're not year round and so we have these long breaks in the spring and fall issue is you know what if we actually push back the opening of the school year maybe that the beginning of the school year in August was all professional development days for teachers and we took back a week in

343October and a week in in Spring Break and and you think about what it will look like in Spring and maybe we can actually all be in class in Spring or maybe sooner and so I I I worry what we're facing is we're basically fighting time and so if we have the ability if we don't make a decision tonight I really would hope we consider pushing back maybe the start of the calendar year so that we can actually buy a little bit more time uh um lastly I just want to say that you know it seems like we have sort of because everybody is all over the place in terms of the spectrum it's like we're pitting one group against another group and against another group and and people are voicing their concerns and they're

344they're making a decision well you value one or another and I actually feel like well we're all in this together and instead of sort of dividing us as you know as a district and Plumping us into different groups you know whether it's parents against teachers or everyone against the district or you know Middle School versus younger kids I feel like what we need to really do is come together and solve this Al together and I I I really feel like when you read through all the emails and everything else it's it's more of a dividing sort of tactic versus like unifying and I and I really appreciate the people who came forward with you know really good uh concrete constructive you know examples of how we can help solve it um because we don't know

345everything and I think a lot of it is shown through through all of your public comment and everything is is that there are some really great ideas and so I think we have to look into that so I think that's all I have a few other notes but I just want to say that I am I am partial to actually making a decision tonight because I feel like we need to make a decision so that we can go ahead and work out the other logistics as to what that decision is or what part of the hybrid plan is that I'm open to at the moment a after you have a chance Noelia i' would like to address that um because I have some thoughts that might help thank you um yeah I appreciate everyone's um

346points that they've made already and I won't be repetitive um this is uh this is a really difficult time for our community and um for working parents for for parents that are living in poverty for um you know for kids that have Chromebooks and don't know how to navigate them parents that don't even know the language and and you know all I think um you know that balance between safety and education right real education um well it's all real education but that balance is is it's delicate you know I think about um no matter what we do right there's going to be inequities exacerbated and and there's going to be learning loss for everyone and um yeah I'm torn I feel like um you know there is some still information there there is still some

347information that I think I I would appreciate having before making such an important decision um specifically like survey results and even just you know for example um going out to our staff and and saying like you know would you like staying on the on the ab schedules but the different the two different options um you know if we if we still have the ability to support Equity groups with both of those options I do wonder you know what would what would um what would work better and I'll and I'll just say I think for me I think about it like um like the schedule that I had with my son and his and you know I co-parent with his dad and we now we do one week off when we you know we switch off

348weekly and before we were doing this like two two two three and it was just it was really confusing for everyone um and it's so it's not impossible but it's but it's um it's a whole other different thing but um you know I'm also just thinking back to at the very beginning of the co crisis and you know we were we had to sit here and make a decision about whether we were going to continue our our projects and whether um you know whether um I mean I just remember sitting here and having people say like you know if one person dies because of covid because of a decision that you made like that their blood is on your hands like think about like how heavy that statement is and we're here again right with

349this question of um you know the saf of our families and of our students and our community and also you know with the reality that their education right like their learning loss the development of these children um you know it's it it weighs on us um and we have to make a decision but I I do feel like I'm conflicted I just I really am I'm struggling and I think that's why um I'm not I'm probably not being clear enough or but yeah Dr roses please go ahead and I I think I can um provide some options for you um if I know that the the the board is um supportive of obviously offering a distance learning option for those families who um would choose to keep their children at home and that the board

350is supportive of either a paired or a weekly schedule then our work can continue to go forward and we can survey our families and our staff to find out where folks are landing with that um obviously if we get very even results we'll have to just make a decision but if if we get a predominant um uh preference for one or the other that would help inform our decision um I do feel that by knowing either one of those because the either one provides an opportunity for um students to have contact with their their teachers continue with some distance learning also would um provide for Equity work either one so um we could write a short description to our families of what it might look like and get a survey back and continue our work

351um we could also really dig into what is Middle School going to look like because we're still we're still really um in conversation with other districts about what they're doing what are the best practices what thoughts do people have about how to keep the students in smaller cohorts but also still allow them to um see uh to have their electives have the different um opportunities that that they should have so I think that we could put that out and um now our I I do not believe we could have everything back and ready by next week um but I do think we could probably have um a strong um set of information by July 9th go ahead I'm sorry no no you can finish then I have a question for you right so um and

352then we do have a meeting on the 16th so um maybe maybe we switch we could switch those I don't know but that that would also come after the potential um decision on the online curriculum which then we could present that on the 9th I wouldn't be able to post the actual curriculum but I could say that it will be presented for your um review on the 9th and then actually you could vote on the 16th that way you'd know what was coming so it's up to you um I I think that a survey is possible I think it's important um I also think that um either one of those models if we're if you give me direction that we're going in that one of those ways we will be able to build those out

353um with more thought um the only issue will be that our Community Partners are really looking for what is it for their um after child after school child care so um but we could tell them that those are the two models and they can then build from that and be prepared so still vote um can we vote then this evening to move forward with to give direction on those two plans and then because a lot of the work then at least from kind of how we're right like work around kind of equity and defining equity groups and digging into that would still be happening in the same way it's just a difference of days on days off right um so all of that work inclusion same thing right all of those kind things could continue

354to happen right and many of the um groups that you mentioned when you were talking I wrote them down there they are the different task force groups that are working so they are wanting to present where they are what they know at this point in time now things have been changing dramatically um transportation is an example it's changed quite a bit since when we first started so it's been somewhat frustrating for that group um because they keep changing their thinking but we just all have to be flexible with that um that's the reality of this summer um we may have changes I may be coming back to you and saying that things have changed one way or the other either more restrictive or less restrictive and I think if we get a a distance learning

355a distance learning plan in place and a hybrid plan either one of those those could toggle they could go 100% distance learning at the beginning of the year if that's what we need to do because of a surge we could loosen it up if we if um we're allowed so yeah if you um would make a motion to that uh to that effect of going ahead with distance learning and an a paired Andor distance based on survey we can we can take that and run I um definitely support a survey so we can reach all of the communities that we haven't heard from um including staff so I appreciate that part that's all I that's all I can say right now just two two questions just on the on the one on the survey um

356we sent out just a survey just recently on the distance learning family survey the 2.0 version do we you know we gave everyone a week or so well it's Friday the 29th it was 10 days to respond uh which is a very long time in terms of if we had to make a decision you know on the 9th um we' obviously have to shorten that time frame I'm wondering whether or not do we know how many people have already filled out that survey so we just kind an idea of like what numbers we could come back with but that survey is to inform how to build out the distance learning and we do know that significant families have asked us for online curriculum and that and so so so we don't have to I mean

357it it um that survey helps inform the buildout and um yeah I'm looking at I'm looking more at the like the response rate right oh so like because if we sent out another survey right and I feel like we're gonna be send I see survey right which is fine because this is ever changing the issue is like did all of a sudden you know it's now what it was sent out on the 19th it's now the 25th you know in one week have we received 2third of responses back David David are you able to respond to how many um surveys we we've gotten back so far yeah um I was just texting you Joan we had approximately 2600 um I think it was yesterday um and then I believe Diane was putting out another another

358reminder prompt oh Cameron is texting me it's 27 00 so if we just average out and say you know most families have two kids you know we're looking at at least maybe half of the student population maybe maybe not yet yeah that's right there's another 1,00 in progress so about we're close to 4,000 which is about so when I worry about family population okay thank you so what I worry about is just the timing of the service again I I worry that if we keep pushing things pushing things farther back you know unless we move the big start of the school year we are just constantly you know sort of it's just fing time so um so that's my one point in terms on the survey and I and I lost my second point so

359I will come back to it oh the second point is you know is there an option because we did hear a lot from the TK and kindergarten parents tonight and through emails how we looked at whether or not what we can do there for them because you know from parents that I've talked to you know who've had who went through phase one and phase two of distance learning really the kindergarteners and teers they're not Advanced enough to basically be on the zoom calls and everything else by themselves most of the time it was it was them and the parents sitting right next to them or something in the time they were doing so really we asking the parents to be there too so if there was a way for us to figure out just at

360the younger age some other model maybe I I'd be really open to that too yeah I mean I'll I'll Echo the need for us to move forward with a decision um for sure um I think the only way that it this makes sense is if we can do a really quick turnaround right like it goes out this week deadlines next week like that's it um we have paper copies that we have for um folks that are picking up lunch um or and or Chromebooks or you know some way for individuals that are picking up lunch to complete it when they're doing lunch pickups next week so that we can ensure that we're tapping into you know that we're providing access to as many of our families as possible particularly those families that we're targeting um

361but if if that can't be done then I agree we just need to make a decision with the information that we have um because we can't can't keep kind of kicking the can down the road so uh I guess Dr roses that would be a question for you like how quickly could we actually turn something I mean for in my mind what I was thinking about was really just like a two question sort of situation with like you know a couple sentences like it's this or it's this if if you're choosing hybrid or if you hybrid was something that you were considering which one of these would be your preference teachers and staff parents and it's should be very easy I would think we could turn something like that around pretty quickly but maybe not

362so no I I agree I if it's simply um explaining that what the AA the paired and the alternating weeks I I don't see that being particularly um timec consuming it would um now you say this week well this week is tomorrow so we're talking next Wednesday are talking next week and that's why I'm saying next week and then we could gather on on July 8th and I mean 9th 9th and we could review that um but I as long as it's one of those um models we can we can start building those out um but uh and I will tell our Community Partners that it could go one of two ways and so that they can think it through next week is July 4th weekend just to I know the time is not perfect

363but the only thing is we'd have to ask one other question because I worry is is how many kids they have in the family or something like that because otherwise if we get a thousand responses well that might be all we're only do it has to go to the family just as a family yeah not not for each kid yeah no but I'm saying is like it would skew the answer if we only got like a thousand responses and that's only it's not a thousand kids it's ultimately if you count the family it might be 2,000 or 3,000 depending on many how many kids are in the family is what I'm saying well we just have to go with whatever data we had at that point right yeah it's fine I know we're all getting

364really tired um so is is is do would you like you you actually don't have to take um a particular vote tonight say that you do need to give me direction and so um so either we make a motion that you're going and then you vote that gives me direction or you're going to tell me that you're you're you're directing me to do something so I I need you to do that I was say since it's actually calendared as a voting we have to make a vote so um I'll make the motion to um for the hybrid um model whether it's the a the paired or the week by week uh with the caveat that we go out immediately to the parents and poll them which one they prefer um okay I'll second that and

365just add staff and parents yes I was just gonna say I will second that and add staff teachers and parents sorry and I also have to add distance learning yes right yes so with the idea so we are we are actually voting on an option for families to have 100% distance learning and a hybrid model whether it's a paired system or week by week with the caveat and that we send a survey out to all our families and staff really quickly to get a really quick turnaround so that this way we can have more data to actually make a decision I will second that and just I think that this was clear but that that if we do the week it's still includes the equity cohorts component roll call vote yes I yes yes yes

366the motion carries um I do I do want to tell you something funny um Cameron who is our is our survey person has already finished the survey for you thank you Cameron you're awesome this week now you're saying the expectations too high now we're gonna be like wait I know I know don't that at at 12 at midnight hey we went to one o'clock last week so so um I I I W to just kind of gauge where we all are um I hate to do this but you have staff who have waited to present to you so I don't know if you want to just go ahead or not I think if people are here waiting we need because we we just haven't been able to get through so I think we're we're gonna

367hit 1 A.M okay let's do it but I am gonna does anybody need a break a short break you need a break yes okay let's take a five minute break or yeah let's well yeah five minutes Peter as you come back would you um bring on um Carrie she's G to be next just so you know I'm here but I need to lie down my back John would you like me to bring the others as well um Carrie's doing preschool okay and then and then after hi Carrie I'm awake um and then we're then we have our summer school group that's Pam and Carrie and then we'll have our special ed for Alma so Carrie um has um so we need to wait till Rebecca returns but then I'll I'll tell you a little bit

368about Carrie's item no I'm here oh are you there I'm sorry I couldn't see you okay um so in all the discussion that we've been doing about fall reopening you have to follow very specific guidelines for K well K up K TK up but preschool is held to another set of guidelines very very rigid and very specific so um Carrie is going to present a little bit about what that looks like at in her world and what we're working on in order to make um create a smooth opening for our very most our very tiniest students so car you want to share what Diane is gonna share for me I believe oh good okay yay all right um thank you J all right so I am Carrie Hazelton I am the principal for the preschool

369programs um within our district and tonight I'm going to give an update about our fall preschool reopening so we have a task force and uh there's our task force we have a variety of people on our task force and in addition to our reopening task force we also Carmen and I are coordinator for the child development and myself are also a part of a task force with the San Matel County Office of educ ation um with all of the preschool um programs in the county and so we meet with them on a weekly basis as well to help figure out how to do our reopening and I'm going to go over our guidelines so like Janes said not only um do we have to follow the county health order our licensed preschool classroom and our

370licensed School wage sorry also have to follow our community care licensing regulations and then our state funded and Blended programs have to also follow the title five regulations and we are trying to wait for some further Direction and until we have that further direction we have to have a bubble cohort so in the fall at this moment in time unless there's other direction from the state um we have to have a bubble cohort which means we have to have designated staff designated rooms and spaces no co-mingling and the group has to be a minimum of three weeks long um before we could switch out we also have limited group size and ratio now this bullet below is already been changed um changed yesterday um so I don't have time to change it on the slide

371but we now the state says we have to go starting July 1st go back to our normal ratio which is a 1 to8 ratio we have to um we can have no more than 12 students in the classroom we do not need a waiver anymore so what that means for us is that we can still do the 12 students to two in each classroom without the waiver um and of course things are constantly changing and um we'll see what happens in the future but that's what we have to do at the moment we have lots of health and safety um procedures um to make sure that our students our staff and our parents are safe so before we open our programs all of our staff will be trained we will at the moment be in

372a bubble cohort unless things change from the state our staff and school age students will wear a mask or face covering our preschool students do not have to wear a mask it is optional um we are putting in place new drop off and pickup procedures we have temperature checks and intake questions for both staff and students prior to coming even onto the campus so it's outside of the campus students and staff that are sick will remain home um if a student gets sick or staff member gets sick on um while they're at work we'll have an isolation area for them on in preschool it's in our daily schedule anyways to wash their hands so we will continue that we'll continue probably even more there'll be maintain that consistent hand washing throughout the day of both

373the students and the staff we are rearranging the classroom setup and having individual Supply kits for students in different areas so taping off the floor and the table so that the students know what kind of area they can play in and then we are going to frequently disinfect and clean the classrooms and all of the areas and we have dedicated outside time and equipment and cleaning so right now all the students have to have their own outside time no one can be outside at the same time unless it's in two different areas so we are looking at um scheduling that you can it's fine um the in addition we also are giving our staff a space for them to take their class out besides their recess time that they could do Circle time outside they

374could do Choice time outside so they'll have an additional dedicated space um that they can do that our reopening locations are all of them and so we are opening at all of our school sites um both state subsidized and fee base for the fall just listed them there we have seven different School sites and so our model um is right now has to be the bubble cohort so we are going to have the on-site bubble cohort and then a distance learning cohort so if you're on the onsite bubble cohort we'll have 12 students in the classroom with two staff members we'll have regular staff or regular hours and the tuition for the fee base would be the same as what it currently is and then they will begin August 12th um if you're in the

375distance learning cohort if you're a fee based family you'll pay $250 a month we'll have a mixture of live small group Live whole group individual sessions pre-recorded videos and packets for the families that are in the distance learning cohort and we're going to align our curriculum to our on-site curriculum that we are using as well as utilize the different resources from the county and the state and um other online resources so our enrollment our fee based enrollment was completed prior to covid-19 so therefore all of the families in our fee based program were registered prior to all of this happening prior to our ratio changing and So based on our new ratio of only 12 kids in the classroom some of our promised families will be in the distance learning um at the beginning of

376the year um we were able to add an additional classroom for our Mandarin four-year-old because many of our Mandarin four-year-old um students are returning students and we had the flexibility we have a roving Mandarin teacher um and a licensed classroom that we can utilize at Turnbull so we're able to bring back 12 additional um 4-year-old Mandarin students for on-site learning next year we are in the process of getting an additional um light room that we can use for our monor programs so that we could again there's a lot of families um that were returning in our monor program and so we want to be able to bring back our returning families as much as we can the employees and then some other promised brand new families to our program so we're looking at the monitory

377additional 12 um students I'm waiting on licensing I'm hopeful and I um hopeful that we'll be able to do that and make that possible so that we can bring back 12 more and then once um we are able to have more students in the classroom they would go back to their normal classroom where they would have been prior to all of this covid-19 stuff families are welcome to continue distance learning instead of doing the on-site bubble court and families that um want to withdraw from the program would have um the option to and we would give them their full refund back um when I was looking at our numbers and our enrollment um if I'm able to have that additional monstory classroom we would be able to bring back almost 80% of our fee based

378families that thought they were going to be coming um before covid-19 that thought they were going to be there about 80% of those families will be on site so that leav only 20% of our um families will be doing distance learning our state subsidize our enrollment is has follows all different things so our part day families we can't enroll until 108 120 days prior to the beginning of school so we started enrolling in May May for AP part day families and we're telling them upfront that the first 12 um will be doing the on-site and then the next 12 will'll be doing distance learning and giving them some options of programs that have an on-site space still available um if the site that they choose is full at the moment and then our enrollment for

379our full day programs can't start until mid July because it's no more than 30 days prior to the beginning of the school year and so of course with everything that is going on we have to follow those three things the state guidelines for title five the community care licensing and the county health and so as things change um we will update what our plan is um to make sure that we're following all the guidelines so I will open it up for questions before you do that I just um had wanted to um say say um how much I have appreciated the fact that you uh have taken this jigsaw puzzle and tried to add more classrooms so that more students can come back um we are um thinking that some families are going to be

380waiting to see if they really do want to come back and so we may the um it's been about 20% of families that have not chosen to come back who have wanted the distance learning so we're thinking that that pattern may may continue y um but I do appreciate you adding the two classrooms finding the Staffing preparing for a bubble cohort of 12 to one um until things are relaxed 12 to2 12 to2 I 12 to two 12 to two I'm sorry 12 to two without a waiver whicher so you see these things could even change um next week so we're waiting on the state and so right now the guidance is until the 30th of this month so and we still haven't heard anything so if we don't hear anything we have to continue

381following whatever the current guidance is um but I'm hopeful we'll get some additional guidance here in the next week right and as you said I just want to reiterate that as those um numbers change and relax the students return to the regular classroom uh as they would have y so anyway thank you popcorn style Rebecca first Carrie I want to say I am fully aware of all the State Licensing regulations for the young ones uh thank you so much for keeping up to date with all of those changes because they were changing rapidly and making it work to the best of the ability that we can with getting them majority of children in there so I I know and appreciate the hard work that this this was for you so thank you very much thank

382you just in terms of numbers uh you mentioned 80% um What's the total um population of students that we've enrolled or so um we have currently enrolled 149 um students we had a handful of drops during covid um because the families didn't know what our plan was we didn't know what our plan was at that moment and they were able to guarantee a Fed day a week program so they withdrew prior to knowing what our plan was and so there would be approximately 30 students that would be in distance learning yeah until the rules change and is it you know it's great that we added another class which is great um is it a a space constraint to add another one or is a staffing issue both um both it's um we need to have

383licensed classroom so the room I'm looking at um using is a licensed classroom but it's a school age licensed classroom so it's I don't need to get the fire inspector out I don't have to have licensing come out it's just I need them to approve that I can convert it to a um preschool classroom and that they won't be comingling with the school age and since it's a only 12 kids in a classroom I don't need two classrooms for my school age I only need one so I feel like it's going to be an easy switch in temporary until we're able to bring people back um so yes it's trying to find a classroom that has bathrooms that is licensed or can be licensed and then Staffing so I'm hiring um a sub a moner

384sub um I've already lined up if we get that classroom um um so we also need to have people that have their permits their teacher permits for preschool no that's great thank you I um you know as part of like almost the other one the other fall opening and and this I actually forgot to bring up the option of U of nolles and the idea that if we actually need additional classrooms for whatever the younger grades or what you know is there a possibility for us to use noes and I know that we did have a was it a preschool was up there that was renting or was it something I forget what school was renting it's a full school it's a full school yeah so I I don't know whether or not I mean

38520% is is fine I just do worry about those other families that may yeah you know and obviously it could change on the first and then we can be able to accept everybody so um I I just yeah thanks for all the hard work on this you know we thought the fall opening for the other for elementary and middle was tough this one adds a whole another level to it because of the the state requirements and so thank you for all your work on that thank you thank you any other questions for Carrie this late time I don't I don't have questions right now thank you Carrie for your presentation no questions either thank you here I just thought it was important for her to share with you that her regulations are quite bit more

386stringent and what she's having to do so that you're aware um and that we are trying to license these two classrooms so anyway thank you Carrie for staying up with us it thank you president Coro looks like we have two hands for public comment you want to do that yes first will be Lisa Warren then after Lisa will be Kayla Castro uh Lisa hello again um this actually is just mostly a huge thank you to Carrie umor Lisa my apologies this is my fault if you could pause for a moment president Coro are we still sticking with you one minute and 30 or do we want to go to two minutes for public comment um yeah two minutes time two minutes okay hold on one second my again my fault okay please again Lisa go

387ahead all right so anyway like I said this is mostly a huge thank you to Carrie as I said earlier I've got three children in the district um all of them at Park yay one drop off for three kids um my youngest being at Park preschool going into a second year I cannot tell you how grateful I am to hear that he got one of the five day iners on site um spaces at Park um first off as I said earlier I work night shift it's a great way to have one less child around the house so I can it can help facilitate me in my sleeping before and after a shift um and he's also my most precocious so it is much easier um also just in the standpoint of you know as we

388were in depth discussing earlier about distance learning for the elementary students having him occupied 5 days a week well you know there will be times where we have to figure out the whole distance learning thing again seeing that he is completely occupied and is involved in a learning environment um makes me feel better and it also makes me feel like yeah I don't have this child just roaming around the house trying to figure out what to do while we're trying to facilitate distance learning um I also have to do give a huge shout out out to the teachers at Park preschool um Amy gustus and doah higazi they did so much to stay in contact with the class and to touch base regularly between YouTube story times and zoom fa or meetups and a zoom

389graduation um you know it just it helped him feel like he wasn't missing things um quite as much and that he still had contact with his friends um which is such a huge thing when you're three and four years old so thank you Carrie so much for your dedication and your hard work appreciate it thank you thank you Lisa okay uh Kayla and then after Kayla will be Diana hi my comment is also to say thank you to Harry for everything that you have done um my son just graduated the PIP program from George Hall and the graduation ceremony was great with what you put with what you guys did um and with all the hard work that you have been doing over this time to get all the other classrooms together for next year

390and everything I just want to do a huge thank you to you thank you Kayla all right and Diana harck hi everybody I'm still here um I'm gonna try to keep it quick uh Carrie you know I appreciate your work you're amazing um and uh it's a terrific plan that you've pulled together and I can just say from the county office perspective that a lot of programs have been following Sanel Foster City and are taking your lead um so um thank you for that um just a c a quick question about your numbers because I wanted to clarify the 149 is just for fee based right not State preschool um and that your actual population served is much larger than that when you include State preschool and the 20 % distance learning is for your

391fee based but it's actually 5050 for State preschool so I just kind of want to make sure that board understood that 50% of the vulnerable most vulnerable kids are in distance learning there's not really anything anybody can do about that because because of these very very strict um uh complicated regulations that have to be followed um unfortunately um so anyway um uh my one question about your plan is um what is the status of the integration plan for the state preschool and full fee at the sites that you were planning to roll that out given covid are you still able to move forward with some of that or not I can't answer but right I don't think I can answer oh oh okay okay all right well you can you can answer if we ask

392and that's actually great question would be great if you could answer um so yes we are moving forward with our Blended program so um we are going to have um we were supposed to have before covid six students at North Shore View that were state subsidized and six students at um Parkside that were state subsidized so we are still moving forward with that so it'd be three students for the NorthShore view that would be onsite and three that would be dis distance learning so the half and half um and then same with Parkside three um that would be onsite and three that would be getting distance learning we are currently enrolling students in our state subsidized program um so off the top of my head I don't know how many they've actually enrolled for those

393monory programs um but I know there has been some interest and so we are moving forward with that and and she was correct we are we can only do half and half for our state subsidize thank you so much ter okay thank you thank you Carrie for staying with us I'm next though I I get to start the next one we continue that's right the next item is related to our summer schools and we need Pam to come up up come up Peter can you bring Pam on board there she she is hey you're looking pretty perky there for this hour I'm not but it's just it's just lipsick well I had wanted to um I mean summer school's starting so um I know that you were interested in hearing where we were um so

394um these girls have put together a presentation of what is going on uh at um preschool and then at our um P eight so I don't know which one of you is starting it's me and um okay so I'm going to start us off with our summer school update so tonight we are going to talk about preschool update I'm going to talk about our state subsidized 12-month programs the health and safety and kind of some general information and and then Pam is going to talk about the extended school year and general education summer school program the health and safety and some general information so a lot of my slides are going to be exactly the same um so our summer school guidelines are the same as what our fall is right now since we are

395licensed um we have licensed preschool and school age we must adhere to the county health order community care licensing and then Title Five because all of them are State subsidized programs so we have to make sure we're doing that um which again is the bubble cohort the individual classrooms no co-mingling maximum minimum of um three weeks and again the ratio and group size is exactly the same we have to go back oh right now summer until June it's um we can do um 12 students to um two teachers um but we're starting in July so our ratio will be back to the 1 to8 no more than 12 students without the waiver so we will be bringing back 12 students um our health and safety procedures are exactly the same we are training our staff

396we've done trainings and um staff meetings already we are have online trainings for them and that is District trainings for covid-19 and disinfecting trainings from Kenan we are meeting with them and doing some more trainings next week on Monday and Tuesday um and then they will start on Wednesday they will be in the bubble cohort um we have the new drop off and pickup and since we're only at Turnbull um we are giving an option for families that are driving to um use the back parking lot to drive up to do the drop off and the family would stay in the car and we have um staff that will go up to the windows they'll be wearing the face masks the face shield and um ask the questions of the parents and then take the

397temperature of the students and then have because of State um regulations we have to have the families sign um we need their actual signature so our staff will hold the clipboard the families will hopefully bring their own pen which we've asked them to um or we will have a pen that we will disinfect in between um they will sign and then um we will help the child out of the car and up to the classroom and the other drop off area will be in front of the school near the playground where the families will stay outside of our playground gate and our staff will be inside of the playground um gate where we will be asking the intake questions taking the temperature and having them sign so the visitors and the parents will stay off

398of the campus and our staff will stay on site um again students and staff that are sick will remain home we'll have an isolated area for those that get sick while at on campus we'll do the hand washing and we oh drop off and pickup today we took a video of um what it will look like for drop off and pickup and we're editing it and we are going to send that out to our families so that they can see what drop off and pickup looks like and they can show it with to their students we also had one of our classes we were able to join Carmen and I are um the coordinator for Child Development joined one of our state subsidized classes today where we the staff showed pictures of what the room

399will look like talked about that the staff will be wearing masks they put on masks to show the kids what that will look like they talked about the individual areas that they'll get to play in and um that things will look different so to help prepare the students and so we are rearranging the classroom with tape and we're going to send out pictures to the family so that they can kind of see their own classroom and what that will look like will be disinfecting and cleaning regularly and they'll have their own outside time equipment and time to clean and then an area for Circle time as well as um Choice time if they choose to do that outside and then are summer program is only at chull it is our state subsidized preschool we have

400three classrooms and our state subsidized school age and we have one classroom um so there's four classes total we are starting on July 1st and it goes until August 10th we will have the same model the bubble um on-site cohort and then the distance learning cohort 12 students in the classroom we do have modified hours because technically they come from 8:30 until 4:30 so that's 8 hours the staff are there 8 hours but I need to make sure that I have time for my staff to get their temperature checked and time for them to get ready for drop off and pickup and so we are modifying the hours um this summer so that we can make sure that things are safe for the students and the staff and the families the students were um already

401enrolled and so we did a a um lottery for who would be on-site and who would be distance learning and we've had some of the families that were on our on-site um selection were actually chose a distance learning model and so we were able to bring some other families that were slated for the distance learning to come on site and our distance learning will continue with the mixture of live group sessions small group sessions individual check-ins um pre-recorded videos and packets so very similar to our fall and now it's going to be Pam with summer school thanks Carrie um we' actually Carrie myself and the annex team and our Special Education team have been working really closely around prioritizing health and safety for the summer so we all have a policy and procedures for a

402summer program but there's a lot of similarities in them because we um planned it together so like preschool um we have staff training prior to summer start we actually had our first meeting with our teachers yesterday to review our policy and health procedures they are all coming in tomorrow our teachers for a staff work day where they're going to take their um well I think it's not keen in training anymore but the next training that we have as well as some training around the curriculum that we be using for Middle uh for summer school um our students and our staff will remain in the bubble cohort for General Ed that looks like two teachers to 12 students St and for esy it's one teacher with three par Educators we also ensure that every has a

403site some of them PE teachers that were interested in working summer school so they're be making virtual PE lessons but they won't be with a classroom um and so they'll be able to help at the site um for drop off and pickup um in extended school year it's again the bubble cohort we have a 19-day summer program we have and esy um as if you remember their qualification criteria is outlined in their IEP for students who need the summer program um for extended school year so what they did is they did have families that didn't want the students to come in so they are doing a model where they have live students attending that's 50 of them they'll be at Laurel Fiesta Gardens Brewer Island and we have one class at Sunny Bray but they

404also have 28 students that will be doing a distance learning all of the students will be doing unique learning curriculum um with some variations obviously when the kids are at school um there will be virtual social emotional lessons PE lessons and we um are Contracting with star Vistas for some of the counseling um Services all for special education students all related services are virtual because as you remember the bubble cohort you can't have adults come into the program into the classroom so those will be virtual and then the next slide will be for the General Ed program um I realized I made a mistake on the I just fixed it here it wasn't 50 students it was a lot more that was from the previous slide so I just fixed it we actually have 132

405students attending live summer school we have it at College Park and that's our Kinder through fourth grade and we also have it at Sunny Bray we have four classes there are fifth through eth grade um one of the ways that in our ed services team we really think about Equity is ensuring that students have access to rigorous instruction we accelerate and we do not remediate and so one of the ways that we're doing that is we have some of our district tosas um our L our El coordinator working together to develop this curriculum and using some of our current curriculum so our K8 math is going to be number talks we'll be using our program online ST Math and students will be playing math games that don't involve too much um sharing of manipulatives but

406manipulative that they can use on their own and obviously talking with other students in K5 our Ela ELD curriculum is US using Benchmark Unit 10 as well as an inquiry project and then for 68 we're actually going to try out our new Middle School academic acceleration course unit which is called the stories we tell um and we have many people involved in that um I did want to give a quick shout out to two amazing stars in this who are Justine M and Casey Brennan there are teacher leaders that have been leading Sumer school since like February I don't think they knew what they were getting into but they are hanging on and they're doing an amazing job um again for the general program we'll have virtual seal and PE lessons through um District staff

407and star Vista um and the other uh all students in all the programs will have onetoone Chromebooks um because one of the things that's going to be really important in summer school especially around the curriculum is we want to give these students an opportunity to get a jump start on what could school could look like in the fall so they'll actually be engaging a lot of the a lot of this curriculum is going to be done online they'll have a teacher that is to support them um we are going to make sure any issues that happen around technology for this work is an opportunity for us to learn to um make some adjustments for the fall um one of the other pieces we um were're we actually when we were developing criteria for the general

408ed students to invite uh we looked at first LPC scores we looked at Social emot uh so so economic status and then we also did look because it's in areas now students that didn't have Chromebooks and that do have them so we really try to bring in families and students that will need that extra support um not just the language but the Technology support any questions before you go into questions I just want to thank the team um uh for putting together the summer program because you are really the first ones to implement some of the procedures that we are working on for the fall it is an opportunity for us to find out how long does it take to protect temperatures how often and how long does handwashing take I mean just some of

409those kinds of things um and and um working with the the students during the summer especially after such a a difficult spring uh to help them with their technology and help them move forward it's uh a very important program so thank you for moving this forward it informs our fall and it also will help these students um get a good start so so I appreciate um your presentation and and what you're planning I have one quick question um do we have um I know when we talked about numbers we weren't sure kind of what it was going to look like in terms of how much space we had available how many classrooms and staff and then how many kids so have we sort of maxed out the number of students that um we can have

410in the program in the general program yes we actually um we what we found was was we did have a lot of teachers that were interested but then as we were making plans we didn't have as many that um interviewed um and so actually pretty much everyone that interviewed is having a spot somewhere we also maxed out since it's 12 students for every two teachers some of the lower grades we have two classes per grade level but the uppers we had one and actually Middle School there's a kind of a combo Middle School typically we have lower numbers usually they don't always want to come to summer school um but um we did max out our numbers and we actually still are calling a few families to see if they want to join because we

411want to fill every spot um esy you remember since it's nested in the IEP process they had they kind of went through all of um their formalities around that thank you questions or comments I don't have any question public comment or discussion should we should I just lump it all in I'm just going to lump it in it's late um so uh I I completely agree with Dr roses uh you guys in some ways are like our guinea pig or our pilot program um as you develop either the videos for drop off and pickup or any other graphics for washing hands or other things I hope that you guys as it's sort of maybe not best practices but what was used can be shared throughout the district because you guys are the in some ways

412the test case and I I think you know everything that you are doing is probably going to be used throughout the rest of the district so um it's exciting thank you for staying up with us thank you um it looks like we do do have a public comment I was gonna say that President corza we do have one for public comment would you like to start that now and then we still do two minutes okay Kai k I'm gonna bring you in K are you there might need to unmute your microphone okay can you hear us okay apparently there's some technical difficulty we do have one other public comment so what we'll do is we'll try to come back to Kai in a moment uh Maria G Maria yes I'm here so with the summer

413school program is that a hybrid um model that you guys are using or can you answer or no is that a hybrid um model that you're using for the summer school hello that are actually not supposed to answer questions it's just a public statement and then it can possibly be integrated into okay okay yeah so do you have any other statement um so we okay uh I guess it'll be nice for us to know what happens at summer school and what worked and what what what barriers you overcome through summer school for um a successful fall um semester then thank you thank you for your time I appreciate you guys uh sharing all this thank you Maria and working so hard thank you all right let's try one more time again my apologies if I

414am mispronouncing it but Kai k AE um going to bring you in okay might be having some technical difficulties if you can hear us if you have any particular comments um that you would like the board to review please forward those on to the superintendent Jan roses and she will make sure that they get integrated into the minutes sorry about the technical difficulties uh we have v v hi um I am actually just going to reiterate our our last speaker is I'm hoping that um there will be a report of how summer school um um um has resulted like what um what their schedule is um and the details of basically all the questions that you know parents want to know how fall is going to be you know like how um their classes are

415going how the bus schedule you know works so on so forth like all the details that we're hoping to find out for the fall um can we get a detailed report of how the summer session went um just so that we kind of have an idea of what we're walking into in the fall as well um I don't know if that would be available to us or um if not and if it is um I'm hoping that uh something can be communicated to uh the parents as to how the summer session went in detail though um in regards to all the questions that we had about the fall so did that make sense okay thank you thank you looks like we do no longer have any other public comment on this item okay thank you

416um unless there's any more discussion I think we can move on thank you come and carry presentations oh you have more okay go question it's not questions it comments so you can go Ken no you all right fine thank you both for staying up this late I do appreciate it um because it's the next day um as for being guinea pigs um the amount of thought um and considerations you clearly put into um what summer can look like is fantastic um clearly you've thought about working out logistics of pickups drop offs um training for teachers training for technology um ensuring that a variety of groups um will have special um uh dedicated time to just catch up on things um the explanation of the programs and the course units in detail um I just I

417think this is one of the best presentations just because I feel that you hit so many concerns that parents generally have um and I really do actually look forward to an update as to what works and what can be approved upon because I assume you know this is obviously going to be information that's shared with the fall scheduling committee and I just I really appreciate the consideration ation you put into all of this thank you so just um in terms of the Public's uh comments and the comparison between the hybrid system and and what you guys are doing I'm sure that there it's not exactly the same because obviously you set this up to be um something different that works for summer school um but later on in terms of how we go about and

418analyze and we use it you know what you've learned in summer school I'd love to kind of come back to that at a later point and just see what works and what doesn't so as you know the structure of the summer school is the bubble cohort so it is the 12 to2 and um it's not what it it is a morning program just like um it as it always has been um but the the main difference of course is that our classes our normal classes during the fall are not 12 it to I sorry I understand that um but I think it's just there's other things that can be looked at in terms of what uh training work best I agree I agree I agree I just wanted to say that the structure is so

419very different yes but but you are correct we're we're working through all of those safety protocols and trainings those kinds of things will inform the fall yeah thank you absolutely you're right okay any more discussion on this thank you guys for hanging with us and sharing I it would be great to have kind of some followup after this gets going so that we can um see you know again I think it is important to learn and I know that's a big part of kind of how approaching it is knowing that this is going to be something that we're going to utilize to inform some of the work that we do in the fall so I think having a followup will be great and it sounds like something that our parents are interested in as well

420so thank you guys um so we only have one more thing on our agenda but I I personally I don't feel like I have it in me I'm exhausted um I just want to see how everyone else is feeling if you all feel totally up for it let's power through but um I think this next one's really important and um I want I want us to be it is important um I it has been pushed already this twice so um I just wonder if we should hear what she has to say um and then maybe bring it bring some questions back yeah maybe maybe we can have um a uh the presentation and then because I also feel like there's probably community members that are interested in hearing more I wonder if we could maybe

421have the presentation and then bring I know we have um special education update that's going to be on the agenda for one of our July meetings is that accurate um if not potentially even just thinking about integrating a special education study session or something because I know it's a topic that's of Interest so maybe that's one way to do it because I also feel like we're missing a lot of community engagement now at 1:00 a.m. right on a topic that folks are really interested in but I agree I think let's power through the presentation I'm okay with the presentation as well I feel like it it's um we have a lot of community members that are still on and staff that are still on that stayed up with us and you know we should hear

422it out sounds good let's get started then all right so alna is going to present tonight and um she Alma Ellis our director of special education um and um she had a a couple of different topics she was going to share with you so I'll let her begin Elma I don't think we're hearing you good morning good morning uh Board of Trustees um Madame President Coro um on behalf of Dr Sarah Jin quarter I would like to um share our appreciation for the opportunity to provide information on non-public school placement state three so um pretty much nonpublic schools are privately operated nonsectarian schools that provide special education services to those students whose needs are so exceptional that they cannot be met in a public school setting the key points to this presentation are the Continuum

423of special education services the process involved um in nonpublic school place ment and the process involved in transitioning students back to the district and current logistical information corresponding to nonp public school um placements so the Continuum of special education services range from the least restrictive environment to the most restrictive environment or what we call lre the LR is the environment where a student can receive educational benefit make progress in educational social emotional and functional goals and it varies between every student the least restrictive environment is less of a physical location and more of a mindset or framework to ensure that the student is receiving the appropriate services in order to be successful some for some students the standard classroom may be the least restrictive environment for some students some modifications may be necessary a pushin

424or pull out me method for a special Iz academic instruction may be more appropriate some students may need to spend most of their day in self-contained classes While others may need supplementary AIDS such as uh speech and language therapy occupational therapy and interpreter or close adult supervision um some of them may need to be in non-comprehensive school environment where there will be less distractions less stimuli in the environment to ensure that they will be safe and the other other students in their environment will be safe some of them may need to be in confined residential settings where very close monitoring is required for mental health behavioral health and intensive medical needs some of them may be Homebound and just for us to note that the more intensive the services are the more restrictive the environment

425because uh this this slide lists the behavioral support that we provide our students prior to non-public schools we review Services minutes we look at instructional accommodations do we need to provide special circumstan as instructional Assistance or do we need to formulate behavioral goals do we need to train staff in formulating and implementing behavioral goals do we need to complete a functional Behavior assessment or Implement a behavior intervention plans for students um who are being placed in nonpublic schools for mental health um purposes we pretty much consult with the current educationally related Mental Health Services providers and if the student is already receiving um uh some services from a private agency we collaborate with the agency providers we also consider wraparound services and wraparound Services actually entail a particular way of working with youth and families

426in addressing social emotional challenges and same we look into the um current service minutes we look into instructional accommodations and if necessary we formulate what we call a crisis intervention plan for students who are really severely impaired some of them may have um multiple disabilities some of them may require an alternative way of communicating um th those are the considerations as well that um we um consider or we explore um the basic question is that do we have a program that can serve all of these needs please note that the steps and strategies that I have shared were based on individual cases that were brought up for review this year equally important important to note is that as we were implementing these strategies we also provided professional development training and coaching to the case managers

427and service providers as we acknowledge the varing skills of our staff in supporting the behavioral social emotional cognitive and adaptive needs of our students our main goal is to transition students back to a lesser restrictive environment and increase the opportunity to learn with their typically developing PE years so we make sure that we regularly connect with the current nonpublic School of placement that we participate um and engage in annual IEP discussions that we create a back to transition plan for students who are ready and um as the board may recall earlier on in the school year we also explored uh the possibility or the idea of developing or building a therapeutic system of care in the district and along with this would be um reinforcing some skills towards staff training and uh we recognize that

428we have to intensely collaborate with the parents and provide focused staff training to ensure that our students are ready to transition we recognize the fiscal impact associated with nonu school placements and the costs differ depending on the type of services that a student student requires in 201829 we have more students placed in nonpublic schools due to multiple disabilities and severe cognitive and adaptive needs in 2019 2020 we have more students placed in non-public schools due to mental health and behavioral needs it is our goal to continuously improve and develop the support system and service while we build on the staff's ability to serve our students and strengthen our support to the families of students with the most needs in our school district we have planed and in time with your support we will deliver um

429the second half of the presentation is actually uh providing you an update on our cace uh plan cace is uh the comprehensive coordinated early intervening Serv Services um that we need to develop to address the findings of significant disproportionality So based on the risk Ratio calculated by CDE our district has exceeded the 3% threshold set by the state hence we have been significantly disproportionate in identifying Hispanic or Latino students under the category of specific learning disability the ratio the risk ratio is the rate of the students with learning disabilities identified in specific racial or ethnic groups divided by the rate of specific learning disability identification in the population So based on this ratio students belonging to the Hispanic or Latino ethnicity is four times more likely to be identified under SB or specific learning disability

430compared to other ethnic groups um our data showed that in the school years 2016 2017 2017 2018 and 2018 to 2019 um we have been um going over the St the state threshold um in order for us to move forward um we have to undergo a programmatic improvement process which is four phased and um for each phase there is a timeline so for um phase one um the timeline actually ended June 15 um and uh we have submitted the uh requirements associated with the C's timeline so for the first phase we identified our leadership groups our stakeholder groups we initiated quantitative and qualitative um data collection and we also have contacted a technical assistance facilitator that was recommended by um Salpa as part of our data collection um Cameron leis our coordinator for assessment um

431research and evaluation held focus group sessions and we have engaged three focus groups so far and those are the focus groups that involve program Specialists psychologist and speech and language um uh pathologist in in addition there was also a questionnaire or a survey questionnaire aligned with the discussion questions that the stakeholders or leadership team members responded to and Based on data collected stakeholders engaged in the first round of root cause analysis and started conversations on possible change ideas um Board of Trustees we are at the initial stages of the programmatic improvement process and in the fall the focus groups will be extended to the parent um uh focus groups to the community and more root causes analysis sessions will be held we are pursuing The Continuous Improvement approach where there will be a continuous cycle

432of plan do study and acts there will be quarterly progress reporting during the implementation of the plan and eventually an update for State review in 2022 so these are pretty much the updates um as we have completed phase one um and we are opening I am opening up um for questions I don't know if you have questions for Alma this evening or whether you had just wanted to hear the presentation and then consider some thoughts and um then we we do have another scheduled meeting but um we're open to questions even though it's in the morning he Alma thank you I very appreciate it sorry tired um I do have questions but I'm going to save them for next meeting I just had a quick question about the root cause um what C can I

433just what are some examples of those I'm just curious like are they are they like predefined or they're open-ended like what does that look like they were open-ended and um um the questions actually ushered towards um siphoning or filtering um the possible factors that may have contributed to our Sig um status we are just in the initial stages and so we will continue to um get more information or data from the other focus groups and then we will hold subsequent root cost analysis session so we can actually Trace down what really is or are the main factors that are um influencing our sigd status yes I have quite a few questions um but I um so when are we bringing when do we have our follow-up um presentation on special education is that is that

434scheduled already for one of our July meetings I'm going to have to look at the uh at our agenda Builder I and I don't see it right in front of me so um let me find that out for you because that would be an opportunity to follow up maybe on these root causes that she's learning about and she could bring that back yeah because I do want to make sure you know this is really important which is why I think we've pushed it in the past because we wanted to be sure to get you know to have the time but I'm also recognizing that it's you know 1:20 in the morning um so I just want to make sure that if I don't ask them now that there's going to be space and time in

435July to be able to ask them I think you'll make sure that I I schedule that okay any other questions folks okay do we are there public comments on this right now I do not see anybody with their hand raised for public comment um I would uh ask that I know we're it's very late and we're not really thinking fully but if you do have questions um please send them to me and then um we can make sure that in the next presentation that she can address some of the things that you might be more interested in what else you might be interested in hearing thank you okay um that was our last item unless anybody has uh comments or discussion that they do want to add to this piece uh we're pretty much ready

436for adjournment just one question did we settle on actually coming back on July 9th or because I know we are scheduled for the 16th and the 30th or something but did we actually decide to squeeze in another meeting it sounded to me like you did want to do that so if I'm mistaken please let me know now hearing none I think you have three meetings in July one on the 9th is specific to bringing back the data around the learning and kind of any updates though and finalizing that pattern so that we can continue to move forward yeah okay thanks folks um do I have a motion for adjournment I'll make a motion to adjourn was that trusty Proctor oh yeah sorry okay thank you you have a second I'll second it okay uh rot

437trusty chin yes this is a record for us trusty yes trusty proor yes trusty Watkins what if I said no yes not funny I'd be outvoted but still it's kind of funny you still can vote no are you saying yes or no yes yes yes yes okay and yes for me as well we we're adjourned at 1:21 in the morning thank you everybody good night y'all thanks everybody thank you