001be um appreciative of the people who got here. Um let's let's get it let's get it moving. So I am going to call the meeting to order u of the leazison meeting for the town council board of ed uh RTM and city council. Um and it it's 5 5:33. Um and um our first order of business is to review um the meeting minutes. And um I mean I guess we can we can vote to approve um so um I'll make a motion to approve the July 1st 2020 uh meeting minutes of the leazison committee. Can I have a second? >> Second. >> I got it. Thank you. Um any uh any other discussion about that? All right, then we're going to move on. Um I know that probably is on most people's minds. Um wow,
002this is like a board of ed meeting. um is um I know that we um probably what's what's on most people's minds is probably what's happening with the schools um and specifically for the RTM and um for the town council. I think my sense is is that the board of ed we are sort of um sort of inshed and embedded in all of those plans. specifically Susan and Dr. Grineer. So, um I don't know if we want to kind of do it backwards and just kind of hear what's going on from the other bodies um so that it we allow um I'm actually going to let su between Susan and Dr. Grineer to kind of go through what the opening what what are the different opening plans. The caveat with that is is that the
003board does not vote um until Monday about where you know how school is going to reopen. um and what which one of those avenues it's going to be which is full-in virtual or a hybrid model. Um but I would I would have Dr. Baneer kind of give us a kind of a synopsis and and Susan a synopsis of of our three and a half hour or three almost three-hour meeting that we had um on Monday where we went very detailed into it. Um and then um I also want to have us spend some time um that regardless of sort of where how we open the goal for the school is to eventually with as much safety is to get all of our kids into school. Um but there's there's a lot of cost to that
004and I and I asked Dr. Grineer to kind of work with our business manager so that um the RTM and the town council understand that we do we have gotten a whole bunch of money from the um CARES Act. um but that um it has not it's not going to cover all the costs that we that we need to have um in order to keep our students and staff um uh safe. And so um so I just wanted to make sure that we have that dialogue and that the other thing that I'm going to ask for um for doc um for Patrice and for if Kathy if you could please um send this on to the RTM is I know lots of members want to hear about what's going on in the school system and
005I just ask um you know and I guess this is me being protected is that Susan and Mike are working with their staff full guns to try to get this to happen. Um, and that I ask that the art that this really this leazison committee become the place where you get the information that you can then give to the members and that um, be be kind enough to not request for the assistant superintendent or superintendent or board member to kind of come in to kind of talk this over. Um, and if if you could just give us a a chance to kind of get get in and get our feet wet, I think that that would be most I would be most appreciative of that. Um, and it's not that I don't want to share
006this information because I do. Um, but that I we have to like think about what that means for the staff. Um, in terms of having another night meeting and so I just am going to respectfully ask that this is not coming from the board. This is actually just coming from me. Um, but I know that the board would most likely share my sentiment around that. Um, so with that said, um, Patrice, how about if you talk a little bit about what's happening on the town council end? >> Okay. Thank you. Um, we have a long-term recovery meeting actually at 6:30 tonight. So, I I may have to bow out a few minutes early if you guys are still going. Um, we postponed I postponed the meeting last night because of the weather and um the
007storms and we would had to have had staff on the road um during the height of the storm and I was a little leerary about doing that. Um, so we will have our council meeting on Tuesday at 6:30 and as soon as it concludes we will have our cow meeting immediately following that. Um, and the main things that are coming up for that meeting are um the noank school property, acceptance of open space on Sandy Hollow Road, and an affordable housing plan grant. So those are the three items we will be voting on. The other thing that's kind of um looming out there, we're going to be talking about um infrastructure a bit. So that'll be over the next next probably month or so. We'll be trying to have some discussions about roads, um complete
008streets, and how we're going to fund those things. Uh we also have some bridges, as you know, that are in need of replacement. So, we will be looking at trying to find money for all of these things and trying to make a decision as to whether we're going to fund these infrastructure improvements yearbyear in the capital improvement projects um capital improvement plan, excuse me, or whether we're going to try to do a bond. And that's that's a big issue that the council is going to have to decide which way we want to go with that. So, um briefly, I think that's that's about it. We're moving ahead with um um helping out the businesses in town with PPEs and um getting some money for masks for customers that come in without masks um and trying
009to just supply the businesses so that we can try to keep people healthy um here in town. So, I think that's about it. I will yield back to you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you. Um Kathy, do you um feel that you could kind of talk about what's happening on the RTM level? >> Yes. >> Sorry. >> I love your backdrop. >> Oh, thank you. Um yes. Um, our last meeting was held on July 8th and we had one item on the agenda and that was a referral to add a student as exe officio to the RTM and there was a lengthy debate about that um whether to have two four and where what what high school they're coming from and how to choose them. So we will probably will be talking about that next
010meeting as well. I um I hope that that kind of goes through even if they only need to come for like a little bit part of it or what have you because speaking from the board the the having the students um um be as active in the past couple years they've been so incredibly active in our in in our meetings specifically our committee of the whole meeting meetings um it is just really it is absolutely delightful question >> what do you mean which high Well, although it didn't say Fitch High School specifically in in what they had written up, what the committee wrote up, um there was some concern that um that it would be implied that it would only be from Fitch and there's many other high schools and there's there's students that live
011in Graten but go to other high schools. So, um I think it's going to be a Grten resident and they're just working out the details on how uh those students will be chosen. >> I can support that. All the children of Graten should get the chance. >> Absolutely. >> Does anyone have any questions for like the RTM or for Patrice? Um and Mark um Reggie was not has not come in or anyone from the city council. Is that correct? >> I have not seen them. >> Okay, super. Um all right. So, as I as I sort of assumed, people are pretty probably like us pretty anxious about what's happening in terms of the school district. Um I also just um want to just remind people that you can remind your me your membership is is
012that um our meeting of Monday where we had a lengthy conversation and a full discussion about the reopening plan like the whole document um and each author of each document um was present to um present what what we did is on our website um with all the different links um and so um and quite frankly it's an incredible ly um impressive. It's pretty impressive piece of work um and um a lot of hard work has gone into that and that I also believe um and this was actually Susan Austin's idea is that there's a lot of people who were um uh putting chats in um and we're going to gather those chats or those questions and we're going to use that as a question and answer piece and that's also going to be on our
013district web page. So, kind of like those kind of regular um sort of asked questions, frequently asked questions, that's going to be as well on the website. Um I think that there's it just takes some time to get um to get to get to all those. And we also received many um letters and I think that any of those um those will also try to we'll try to get those answered as a as a Q&A as well. Um so, I just wanted to to let you know about that. Um, but I'm going to now pass that over to both Susan and to Mike and um kind of if you could kind of talk about um what our reopening plan looks like um reminding people that we have not voted on what that plan is going
014to be. >> Sure. I I'll start and maybe Susan, you could jump in and do some of the the academic aspects, but I'm going to share my screen for a minute here and I'm going to try to have you see if I can make this bigger, I'd be happy. Oh, okay. Okay. So that didn't work. So uh okay. So uh if you go to uh gratenchools.org uh the first thing that you will see uh is is a link. Here's what I was looking for. Uh is is a link to the Grant Public Schools reopening plan. And and the way it's structured, uh we we have a a little bit of an introduction here which which basically says that we have uh we have three be because the the governor and the state department of education
015asked us to make sure that we had three plans. We have a plan for all the students to come back full in face to face. We have a plan that if the health measures indicate that we would go uh full remote like last spring and we have a plan uh for the hybrid and I'm just going to roll through here a little bit and and talk about this hybrid model u that I know a lot of school districts have already adopted. uh I I I think it will be uh a dominant one uh perhaps in the state. Uh but uh the the basic the basic thought here is that to have a a hybrid model, we would we would separate the the each class basically into two groups, two cohort groups. uh and cohort A
016and perhaps they would be separated by alphabet but we we would be flexible about that. Uh cohort A would come in on Mondays and Tuesdays. Uh by having only half of the students in a cohort uh we would of course be able to maximize social distancing uh in in the classroom and on the buses. uh uh Wednesdays schools would be closed and the students would participate in distance learning. The schools would be deep would have a deep cleaning on on Wednesdays and then on back to Monday and Tuesday the the other 50% that is to say the children in cohort B would uh would uh have distance learning would would do remote learning on those days. Then on Thursday and Friday, cohort A would have distance learning and cohort B would would come in in
017person. And there are some exceptions to this. For example, in some of our high needs classes, our special education self-contained program, there are actually very few students in the class anyway. So those children would come in four days a week. uh so that uh we would still be able to maximize social distancing. We're we're also going to make sure of course that families if the children perhaps have different last names uh we will coordinate it so that uh all the children in one family would would come to school on on just two days. Um, and then if you if you I'm going to talk ask Susan to talk a little bit and and Sam if if if you're prepared uh you could uh perhaps briefly address some of the facilities uh steps that were taken
018to try to promote health and safety and a little bit about the transportation. But uh and then when you're finished uh I have some financial implications uh that I I'd be happy to share with you. >> Mike, can you go back down to the hybrid method? I just wanted to clarify a point. >> Sure. >> So in a hybrid plan or a blended learning plan they're often called, you're actually blending face-to-face opportunities for the children with distance learning. And on Wednesday, teachers are going to be able to work all day and they're going to be able to have office hours, Zoom calls. So imagine if you have um an elementary student and they happen to have Monday and Tuesday um in school while the Thursday Friday group is doing their distance learning according to what
019the teacher has mapped out for them to accomplish in the instructional tools that are there. Wednesday they're all home, but the teacher can do a morning meeting with them. She can do a read aloud. She can pull them together and do some, you know, some special bonding kinds of opportunities. So, they get to meet the class. And then, um, Thursday and Friday will be the the other cohort and the first cohort will be doing their work. I have to say we learned a lot of lessons and we had a lot of communication with students, staff, and parents. Um and they told us and we we were able to really find out things that we really needed to grow with. You know, our motto was start slow and grow. And we did make some tremendous growth,
020but I would say we needed to grow some more. And one of those things that we talked about was asynchronous learning blended with synchronized learning. Asynchronous is a lot of what we saw. So, if you were on a Google classroom, your child was assigned work, there might be some video clips. There might be some instructional tools. There might even be a Padlet for them to fill in. There might be opportunities for kids to actually work together, but it was mostly the work was given out and instruction in a remote way. As teachers got more comfortable with Zoom, many of them started to check in with kids in small groups and whole classroom. And that's called synchronized learning. And now we're kicking it up even another notch. So synchronous learning, the best of the best is
021when our kids are face to face and with us. But our thinking is that um we really want to still continue to start slow and grow because we want this to be sustainable, this model. So we figure at the end of the month we'll be able to go back to the board and tell them how it's going and hopefully we haven't closed down because we've done this so safely. And I think safety has been the number one concern for both Mike and I and our staff and this board. Like how can we do this sustain this work have our kids not be interrupted and our teachers kept saying if only I could have had my kids and could have shown them how to use the Google classroom and to show them how what's expected with
022distance learning. So, a lot of what the teachers have planned has been around um you know getting them back the first 6 to 8 weeks and what would that look like um you know developing reading behaviors and that kind of thing either at home or at school. So, just I wanted to preface this academic piece because there's been a lot of volunteers. We had over 300 volunteers create this plan and then Erica and I put it together. So that was the hardship taking all these ideas and putting it together in one comprehensive plan. And um you know I just feel like um the teachers really thought long and hard and then we had teachers also prek through 12 designing compacted curriculum for the start of the year thinking about their kids their whole classroom. If
023there's 25 kids, I have 10 in cohort, you know, AB or 10 in cohort A and 10 in cohort B and five who decide to do remote all the way. Those 25 kids are mine. So, I just wanted to say that out loud. Um, so that you could kind of understand that a little better. So, we can go to academics, Mike, and I can show them the three. So the there's three um topics designed by the state under academics. One is special education, the other is English learners and the following is remote blended learning. And in both the special education and the English language learner, the main point is that our students no matter what their abilities are, their disabilities, their languages, we have to provide free and appropriate education. We believe we have to
024provide high quality instruction for all our students and we need to meet their needs and in a special education um student they have what is called an IEP that we follow and that's an individual education program. For our EL students we have a loss test and we have certified teachers that are EL teachers that provide instruction. So no matter where they are on the continuum of understanding the new language, we have to provide for them, communicate with their teachers. And the same is true with our resource teachers. But under each link, you can kind of open it up. And I'll let you just open one up like the comm maybe the communication piece. So you can see there's many bullets under each that describe specifically what does that look like in Grten? What are we
025expecting in Graten? So, um, you know, I just want to make you aware of that. Um, that's what took us three hours the other night because we really wanted to go through all of that. Um, so I'll move right down to remote blended learning. And I did describe it a little bit for you while I we had the model up. So, um, and they said, you know, it would happen upon cancelling classes. We're thinking as as many superintendents across this area and across the state are thinking we would like to start with blended learning for sustainability for safety and then the hope is by October midocctober even. Let's see how things are going and if we're able to bring all of our kids back we will. We've heard stories in Georgia and other places around
026the country that have already started school and they had to close the second day because some there was a case of COVID. So, we don't want to have to do that. And if we have to go remote, we will, but we'll have plans for that as well. So, um I had said the compacting curriculum and teams of teachers being ready, knowing what assessments will be used. They even have links and lesson plans. And we're going to be able to have four extra PD days at the start of the year. Children will be coming back after Labor Day. And that's going to afford I I have like a five a handful of PD. So the first PD will be health and safety first and foremost. What are the school um procedures? What do I have to
027consider? What is the schedule going to look like and all that? Then there's curriculum and instruction and what do those first six weeks look and particularly what does that first week look like for a first grader. And so colleagues have worked on this and they're going to be sharing that. And then, you know, thinking too about remote learning. Our teachers, you know, they kind of took the nest plunge on remote learning and there's still so much more they want to learn. And so, we've kind of surveyed them and we've got some great ideas for a virtual remote learning day. But then other things too coming up. And the fifth one is really about social emotional learning. Kids have we have not had them since March. And the most important thing is to check in and
028see how they're doing and building those relationships. reading readalouds that would help them feel part of the community. And then another subgroup of our social emotional learning group is something called DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion. And so thinking about what's happening around the world right here in Grten and how those three factors, diversity, equity, and inclusion are absolutely imperative for every person and especially for every student in Graten Public Schools. So that's kind of it in a nutshell. You can open it up. Mark had um done a videotape of Mike and I and I think Sam's doing one of just a two to five minute brief that we'll be adding to this site so that if there are RTM members who want to hear us talk about it or want more information, they can certainly,
029you know, we'll we'll direct them to this and if there are questions and answers they may have, they can certainly email us and we can add that to the um you know, or town council members or city council members. So um we will definitely send out an email and you know link it to this page so that they can um get more information. >> Perfect. Thanks Sam. Uh can you hear me? >> Yes I can. >> So uh may maybe you could just kind of give us the overview for this. >> Yeah. Um uh the uh facilities operations plan, the cleaning uh sanitation plan is uh uh uh all uh developed through the guidance of uh the uh CDC, the state health department and of course legislate health district. So that's how we put this
030all together. I think the uh the highlight is or the most important part of it is that we are planning to uh bring in additional uh staff during the day to actually do continuous cleaning of the lavatories and hight touch zones throughout the school buildings. That's number one. Um the the other thing that I did point out the other night is that um I gave out some some definitions. I think that's also critical to understand the differences between uh just cleaning which is essentially just wiping something down doesn't necessarily kill germs and viruses. Um sanitation is would be the next level and and that is using a chemical uh spraying it and wiping it down that kills some germs and viruses. But uh the best way of doing it is disinfecting. And in order to
031disinfect, you need to use an EPA registered chemical uh and spray it on or wipe it on wet. Leave it there for 10 minutes. Let it dwell for 20 minute 10 minutes and then wipe it down so that you're actually uh doing cleaning and um disinfecting at the same time. So that's the most effective way of taking care of this COVID 19 uh and uh eliminating the possibility of transmitting that throughout the uh the buildings. Um >> you want to hop down to hop down to transportation? >> Yeah. Uh transportation. Um we've been working with STA. They've been great since the beginning of this. Uh so uh SDA is already working uh off the CDC guidelines for uh transportation uh for school buses and they are planning on sanitizing between runs. Uh there's about um
032takes about three hours to do the runs in the morning for all three schools and in between runs they'll actually sanitize the buses and they will disinfect the buses on a nightly or a daily basis. Uh there are certain rules for the kids when they get on that number one they must be wearing a mask. Uh two uh they should face forward and the third thing is that when they get on the bus they'll actually the first kid on the bus will go all the way to the back of the bus. So they will load uh from the rear of the bus forward so that the kids aren't bypassing each other on the bus. And then of course when they're uh disembarking from the bus they'll unload from the front of the bus uh to
033the rear so that they're not uh to keep it as socially distanced as possible. So that's uh pretty much of it uh in a nutshell I think. >> Thank you. Um I I'm as you'll see in the plan uh we also have family and student engagement and there's you look at the plan there uh Seth Danner and and Denise Dittle and their committee did some really terrific work reaching out to uh plans for reaching out to families and kids and and of course the the health practices that is largely worked out with our nursing staff with and Ledger Health District. So, um, it'd be hard to to to go through everything briefly, but Sam and I talk a lot about, uh, what I think of as the as the the big five measures. Kids are
034kids and staff are going to be wearing masks. We are going to be encouraging frequent handwashing. We're going to maximize social distancing. We're gonna Sam didn't mention it, but we are recommissioning uh all of our ventilation systems in each of the schools so that they are operating as designed. We're going to ensure that. And and and then lastly, as he said, we're we're having extra custodial force come in and do continuous cleaning uh throughout the throughout the day, espe especially for laboratories and hightouch services. Uh but I want to I want to share one other document and then we can we can come back to this. Um the the other document I wanted to share uh is is a financial document and hopefully I can get this to be big enough so that we could
035all see it. Uh we we have been asked to hopefully I can this okay uh as as Kim said uh about six weeks ago the car's act uh was uh was passed and signed by the president and it it sent to the state of Connecticut $111 million of uh and the education portion of that was divvied up to the various school districts and and Graten received $686,000 and we've actually put a budget together for this. Some of it was anticipated and some of it was already spent. Uh so let me let me just walk my way through the budget. Uh and uh so what we said was we were going to fund a social worker and we were going to fund some curriculum. uh curriculum work in the summer. Uh the social worker has been
036identified and the curriculum work has actually already been done. The the the next portion is the lion share of what we may need, but we don't know because we don't know how how the virus is going to proceed. But for planning purposes, we're saying that we would we would hire for about uh for about a hundred uh uh 140 uh 140 days. Uh we would we would uh we would hire 40 40 substitute. It's $100 a day. 40. So, so for the for the first 40 days, if we hired 40 substitute teachers, it would cost $160,000. Uh, if if the schools needed subs beyond the first 40 days, uh, we would have to hire substitute teachers and they would have to be certified, which is another challenge. I'm not sure we're going to get these
037certified people, but we would need them for say another 140 days, assuming this is a kind of a worst case scenario that we had to be out for the whole year. Uh, and that would that would require about $1.5 million. We know that there are power professionals. In fact, we know uh because Lori Lori Leine and her staff are actually conducting interviews. Uh, hold on one sec. Uh, Reggie, I'm sorry. Reggie Stanford. Hi, Reggie. Are you able to get on the meeting? >> How are you? >> I'm doing fine. >> Okay. I can if you stay if you stay on the phone, I'll just leave you on speaker. >> Okay. Great. All right. So, Reggie Reggie Stanford is with us. We'll also have a recording of it too. We can >> Yeah, we'll have a
038recording of it, too. So, hopefully you can you can hear all this. So anyway, I was saying that uh we would we would have to uh well, we don't have to, but uh we're concerned that there are about I started to say Lori is interviewing about 70 staff members, some teachers, some paraprofessionals have requested accommodations because they they have pre-existing conditions or somebody they live with has a pre-existing condition. So we we know that about 90% of the staff in responded to a survey they can come back they're prepared to come back uh but 10% which is a fair fair number of people uh so hence the number of uh substitute teachers and substitute paris and then Sam Sam worked out that we we would need approximately 10 additional part-time custodians and that would come
039to uh to about uh $118,000. The food service people, we are paying the food service people, but we're not getting reimbursed for the meals uh the way it typically goes. So Ken uh looked at the invoice today and to pay for our food service staff, it came to about $113,000 already. So, uh, in terms of the salaries and anticipated benefits, we're we're at about $2.3 million. We also know that we are we we have purchased some death shields, which is kind of a plexiglass barrier for each of our elementary children and all of our special education children. We have ordered some additional personal protective equipment. We ordered hundreds of thousands of dollars in the spring, but we this is additional. Uh we've got some additional uh costs for at home supplies toolkits that Susan and
040the principles are coordinating. Uh we we have some uh se secondary uh there are some uh secondary school costs uh per school for those those uh supplies. So it it it all comes we anticipate it all comes to about $2.5 million. We have already received 686,000 about 20,000 of that will be allocated to Sacred Heart. So we're left with about 666,000 which leaves us $1.8 million short of of our anticipated uh expenditures. uh the the the way we we we hope to address this shortfall which I I realize is monumental uh is that there is an act right now that the Senate is is working on it's called the Heroes Act and the Heroes Act would would send to Connecticut not 111 million for education but 300 million if if the act goes through. So,
041we we anticipate that we would we would receive approximately I'm I'm I'm this is a really a general ballpark. I think we would get approximately $2 million if if the if the Hero Act is is passed by the Senate and signed by the president. uh if if not and the the pandemic continues and this is this is I wouldn't call this a worst case scenario but I would say this is a pretty bad case scenario. It could get better. In other words, we we we could go back in full and not need nearly as many substitute teachers. I'm going to go back up to substitute teachers. Well, that was a uh all the substitute between Paris and substitute teachers and so forth, that came to $2.3 million. Um, we would need some of that, but
042not all of that. If we go all out, that is to say, if the pandemic gets worse and we we we would not we would not need the substitute teachers uh a except for those uh who are covering for uh an a staff member who's unable to work, which would be relatively limited. So, I'm going to say, as I said to to the board the other night, I think we're in about the $2.5 million area. We already have 666,000 that's already in the bank. So, we are facing a potential shortfall and you know, which is why I'm following the phone, the Senate deliberations. And I I I don't want to be overly optimistic, but I I the reports the last couple of days have been relatively positive. This would be money, by the way, that
043would come to municipalities for the municipalities benefit as well as additional money for the school system. So, if if this money comes through, then I think Graten uh would receive its fair share of it and we would uh we would be able to cover these expenses. So, I I'll I'll stop there and I'd be happy to answer any questions. I'll turn it over to you, Kim. >> Would you be willing to um stop sharing your screen? >> Sorry. All a sudden, everyone came back. A little scary. So, um um I also um I think it's pretty clear from at least from the board's perspective that Dr. Grineer and Susan have a have a preferred plan um which is the hybrid model. I mean, I think that that's I think that's pretty clear, though people need
044to need to understand is that the board has not voted on that. Um, and so we have to really have to consider um what it would look like if we did an all-in or what what it would look like if we um did um just all remote. But my understanding, Mike, whatever path um that gets um played out, my understanding is um we are going to um there's going to be a shortterm like review like we're going to be able to have um data gathered um and to see and that my understanding is that that's also pretty clear with the other districts um superintendents in the local area is that um they also have a preferred um way of entering um and but that the belief is is that in the very beginning of October
045to have a review about how is it going, what needs to have happen, do we need to kind of continue or or or what have you. So I I just wanted to make sure that um I'm not going to I it would be disingenuous to say that we don't know where Dr. Grineer and Susan fall on which which um which model that they support. Um, but I do have to say that we have not as a board come together to to make that pronouncement. >> I do have to say though that our team has planned for all three ways. So they've planned for the big plan. They've planned down to curriculum and priority standards. They've planned down to lesson plans. So they've they've done it face toface. Everybody's together. They've done it distance and then
046they've done it the hybrid method which I think is a good way to look at it because Mike even said he'll hat if if it doesn't happen all three ways in one year. So you know and he has a lot of hats. So you you just don't know you know um so we have planned for it in all three ways. I think people, parents, um, students, teachers will feel much more comfortable once they know what the plan is and can plan for the plan, even though we're going to start out kind of a month at a time in review. >> Are there questions? >> Yes, this is Stanford. I do apologize that I'm late, but um one one question is are the schools going to install or have thermometers to read the temperatures of the
047students and staff members on a daily basis or how would that work? >> We yes, we we have the thermometers, but it is not it is not recommended that the every single student's temperature be taken uh as they enter the school. that that does not seem to be a leading indicator. Uh so when we when we we made our plan, we we actually purchased dozens of thermometers. Uh but even in the summer school, uh Reggie, they they have not recommended that for the young children. >> Okay. >> It it's it's Yeah. You welcome, >> Kim. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Um I don't know who you're referring to. >> No, please. Um um mayor, >> thank you. Um so, first I just wanted to thank thank the board and um Dr. Grineer and um Miss Austin
048for all their work on this. And I just needed to clarify if town counselors or RTM members for that matter have questions about the plan, what you would like us to do or what you're requesting is that we go to the video of your meeting from last week um first watch that and consult the plans that are posted on the Rotten Public Schools website and look for our answers there. Correct. >> Right. But if you still have questions, they could certainly be sent in. And I don't know what would be the best way to send them in. >> We have had lots of surveys, but >> I would be really concerned that everyone kind of bombards Susan and Mike. Once again, that's me just being really kind of protective over them. Um and um but
049I and and Patrice, one of the things that I was just asking for was that instead of just asking for Susan and Mike to come quickly and to say, "So, how is the beginning of the school year going?" if people can just be understanding that um that there's so many balls in the air that we really need to have a have a chance to be able to kind of breathe around that. The other information that people probably don't know and and Mike I know that you had a question and and Lee I see that you have a question um is um we Dr. and Susan um along with their principles have been leading focus groups. So they have been having um parents coming together um obviously via Zoom um to um to to uh uh
050to get to get parents input about what they need in order um for the schools to sort of reopen. Um so that once again when the board makes our decision on Monday, we're not only going to have all the information that we had um that we had gained from last week's, but we also will have the information gathered from the the focus group and I also believe um staff were also in a focus focus group. Is that correct, Susan? Or no? >> Yes. Yes. >> And we've and we've done surveys too >> and students students at students. So, we've been really trying to make sure that we have as much information as possible, >> right? And we'll continue to do that. That's not going to stop. We really want to continue this journey and communicate
051better and have two-way communications all along. The other thing I was thinking about, Patrice, is I am gathering that list of highly frequently asked questions that we'll be able to post. So, people may see that and there may be a way that I could just add something a survey like that. If people had additional questions, they would come to me. So, let me talk to the tech director and see how we can do that. >> Great. >> Thank you so much. And I just wanted to um say thank you again for all of you. And I'm going to have to cut out because I've got that other meeting, but um you're No one wants to be in your shoes and we appreciate all the work you're doing. It's a very difficult situation. Um and we
052appreciate all the energy and time and we know you care about the kids and we know you care about the teachers. So, um we know we trust you will do your best for all of us. So, thank you so much and I I apologize. I have to leave, but I' i've got this other thing. So, good night everybody. Thank you. >> Good night, >> Mike. >> Yep. >> You No, not you, Mike. Mike Whitney. Mike. >> And Mike, you just switched on my other side of my screen. So, I was like I was trying to find him. >> I lost him, too. He went from there to there. >> Thank you. I just had a quick question for the face-toface model and the hybrid model. There going to be some kids, I assume, that have
053health conditions and can't be back in school. Um, are they going to be zoomed into the classroom where the students are or Google meet it in? I mean, or is there something preventing that or I don't know what the plans are for that? >> No, we're actually working on that, Mike. We would like to be able to give some opportunities. The problem with zooming all day is that might not work for children or parents. So, we're even looking to see if there's a way to record that lesson. So, if they're not able to be there for morning meeting or whatever, we'd love to have all of our kids check in at home room time together, kind of get oriented to the lesson of the day and then be able to record some of those lessons
054so that they and then post them. So, e whether they're in the classroom, they get the lesson or whether they're um at home, they would get the lesson as well. >> That's great because it'll be important for them to feel part of their own class as well. We're learning how to do this though. I'm reading all about, you know, flipped classrooms and hybrid and all of these plans. So, it's kind of exciting for me, you know, to learn. >> Are we doing the same thing on the university level? >> I bet you are. >> Mike, the big the big thing that we're trying to accomplish here is picture a class of 21 students. We think that seven might come in in cohort A, seven might come in in cohort B, but the seven children who
055are remote, we're going to get them involved as often as possible. uh live recorded. We're we're we're trying to the the big thing on Monday that I Susan and I are kind of taking a deep breath here because once once we have our model, then we're going to start having a laser focus on how do you actually pull this off? It's it's it's not it's not as easy as you know. It's not as easy as it looks. uh and we and we we need the technology to do this and we need the personnel to do this. But the the answer to your question is yes. We're going to try to get the remote children uh and any any anyone who there may be there may even be some teachers who are remote uh and uh
056and we and >> they're zooming in to the class >> and they're going to be zooming into a class that will probably have a substitute in in the front of the room, but the teacher will zoom in to a Prometheian board. So we're, you know, we just made that up. that up as we go along, of course, but that's what we're trying to do. >> Well, we want those highly qualified certified teachers. And at the high school, if you have a chemistry or physics teacher that for what whatever reason can't be there, but you can find a a substitute who can carry off some of the work, you could actually zoom that certified teacher in to be part of that class. And so, we're just really trying to think out of the box. Lee. >>
057Uh, yeah. Kim, if you could please let everybody know that they can go to it's called gratenchools, I think.org, not gratenpublic schools, but it's gratenchools.org. >> That's it. >> Thank you. >> And it's it's a it's a marvel and it asks answers a lot of questions. >> Lee, thank you very much. And I always get that wrong, so I I appreciate that. Mike, I didn't mean to um cut you off. Did you have more questions? Okay. All right. All right. >> I would I would just add one thing. Uh when when Mark Russell and I looked at the the length of the video was 2 hours and 53 minutes, we realized it might be cruel and unusual punishment to subject the public to that long. So what Mark did is he taped me and I
058took my introduction and I got it to two minutes and seven seconds and then Susan did her piece today and Sam's going to do his tomorrow. So there will be when you go to the web page I think there'll be a picture right Mark. So if you if you go to facilities you click facilities Sam will come up and Sam will do uh do a kind of an overview but but like maybe two or three minutes worth. So, I think I think when you get to the end of the eight sections, probably you could get through that in about 20 minutes. And if people are like super interested, then God bless them. They can watch the whole two hours and 53 minutes. >> And there's a lot of information under each of those bullets, too.
059It's really a lot of detail. >> Um, the other thing, too, um, that the board is also doing because, um, trying to figure out how to reopen schools in a pandemic is just not enough. um is is that as most people know Dr. Beneer is um will be retiring um and in October and so the doc so last week um our the board um which has already formed as the search committee um has hired a consultant to kind of lead us through the search process um and that in case people I know there's a lot of people who are asking um is that in um in consult with the consultant that we have hired recommends that the board is actually the search committee um but she will be running lots of focus groups because um
060to get information from our stakeholders and so we plan to make sure that the RTM and the town council and the city council are going to be part um of the stake stakeholder meetings um as long as along um um parents as well. So for we want to make sure that people have their voice and have their um and have participation in the process. Um but we are we are going to remain the board is going to be remained as the search committee um as well and that's once again under advice from the consultant. Um so we're doing that um because that's kind of fun. And then the other thing is is that um Westside Middle School and Cutler Middle School um have uh are no longer functioning buildings. Um in fact, we voted two
061weeks ago to um to bring them back to the town so that they can be destroyed. Um and where they're already excavating and doing um some ground work um for the elementary schools. the board is very much involved in the redistricting, not redistricting is is sort of um where are the different neighborhoods going and we just need to kind of get through this kind of current hump and we will be then doing some more town halls and stuff like that to get people's input about what what what neighborhoods go to there. But we but Mike and um excuse me, Dr. er and Miss Austin has been working with a consulting firm um Mike Zuba who has done a lot of our work before and has also also worked for the town um in helps on
062how do how do we how do we rethink um who goes to what school um and also magnet schools but and actually that's another thing that Susan is involved with because once again reopening school and making that document is not enough. Let's make sure that we get um naming of the elementary schools going and also um magnet schools, >> right? >> Uh think thinking about magnet themes so that all of our elementary schools would have an element would have a magnet theme um to it. um which also helps with um we can keep some neighborhood feel to it, but it also allows us to make sure that we're meeting the requirements of racial balance um since that has been a historic issue um in the town of town of Graten. Um and also because once
063again we we're not doing enough. Um the Graten Middle School is going to be opened. Um and so um right um and we were fortunate enough um there's a few members of the board who got to come and um actually do a tour of of the Grant Middle School. Um and let me tell you something, it is a a beautiful building for the community. Just amazingly beautiful. Um, and lots of great space that I believe that the community will be able to use when we're not in school. Um, in terms of some wreck programs and etc. Um, but it's just it is it is a marvel. It is it is it is just amazing. Um, so that's that's the other pieces that the board is also involved in. Um, any other questions? Kathy. >> Yes.
064Thank you. Um I was very fortunate to be able to go on the tour of the Graten Middle School. It is awesome. >> Good. Good. >> The dining room is phenomenal. The lighting is f I couldn't get over it. The school is just phenomenal. >> It really is state-of-the-art, isn't it? I'm so proud. >> Unbelievable. >> And wait till the kids get their schedules. It's coming soon. But I think they're going to be so tickled that they, you know, they can do the deep dive or the dabble and they've got a lot of opportunity. >> Oh, it's unbelievable. I wish they had had that when I was going to school back in the dinosaur ages as my grandchildren say. Um, I do have one request if it's at all possible. And you don't have to
065answer me tonight. I was wondering if we could have another tour when it's all furnished furnished just before school starts so we can have that visual of what it really looks like. >> You know, I was going to say, you know, Kathy, they like to keep it to a relatively small number of people like like eight or so. I was going to say, Mike, one way that we could do this perhaps is to invite uh the ed are you on the education committee, Kathy? >> Uh yes. >> So maybe we could invite the >> Well, you could come in. >> Yes, I am. I'm sorry. >> I think you are. >> We haven't met in so long I can't remember. >> Yeah. Maybe we could maybe if we could get like six, seven, eight members
066of the education committee, we'd be happy to give you a tour. Mike, and if you could if you could invite them, shoot me a message and I'll give you a few nights. Well, we could do it whenever, but usually we do it in the evening, but the building is is even even a couple of days later, Kathy, I went and it's amazing the progress they make just like in a couple of days. So, >> right. >> It would be it would be really fun to go there, Mike. And do you have a child there, Mike? >> Yes. >> Oh, yes. Yeah. >> Yeah. Good. Okay. So, uh, so anyway, in invite the committee and and shoot me a note. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Fantastic. Thank you so much. >> Did you have a comment, >>
067Mike? Dr. Grineier. Sorry. There's >> no I I was I Kathy anticipated what I was going to say. We would like to invite you. >> Okay. If there are no other questions or comments, I'm going to continue to live up to holding a Harry Watson meeting and have it done in an hour. >> Yay. >> I I' I I'd like to note for Harry's purposes, it was less than an hour. >> Yes. >> All right. >> To spare. >> All right. So, all those favor >> Russell. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, Mark. >> Mark. Mark. All right. All right. Um, meeting is adjourned. >> Great. >> Thank you. >> September. Bye everyone. >> bye. >> See you Mark. >> Bye Sam. Thanks for coming.