07/13/2020 School Committee Meeting

001you're all set good evening the School Committee workshop meeting of July 13 2020 one that will come to order pursuant to governor Baker's March 12 2020 or just assuming certain provisions yes yes okay I apologize I don't know what that is did somebody have their computer on can everybody maybe mute their screen and we'll try okay good evening I'll try to put one more time the School Committee a workshop meeting of July 13 2020 will now come to order pursuant to governor Baker's March 12 2020 order suspending certain provisions of the Open Meeting Law mg/l chapter 38 section 18 and the governor's March 15 2020 order imposing strict limitations on the number of people that may gather in one place the meet this meeting of the Methuen School Committee is being conducted via remote participation

002secretary please call the roll Ryan jizan glia present Aaron Auer present Jessica McLeod present Lou the nicholson present Louanne Santos Epson jana zombie pêche present and Manuel Perry is absent thank you I also want to mention those others they're in a tendon superintendent Brandi Quan assistant superintendent Ron noble business manager Ian Gosselin Edward Lucia and Dodi wrong um do we have anybody else on the call is there anybody I missed nope good may I have a motion to accept the agenda as presented so moved Sarkar moved by was that to Nicholson I believe and second by member dissolve Liam may have a roll call vote my end is oddly oh yes Karen Hall Bella yes it's gonna cloud yes the Nicholson yes epsilen Jana's Aggie Peche yes and Dale Perry is okay thank you now

003we have the flag salute and with a little bit of coaxing and lots of candy would like to do it okay go ahead she'd like to say bye everybody how about participation was posted ahead as individuals that would like to participate at this meeting majors so in writing before 2 p.m. Wednesday July 13 20 28 via email to D wrong it Methuen k12 ma us which would be read to the public no emails for public participation sent in tonight but remember if you would like to read a comment at the next meeting please send the email again to de rung at Methuen k12 ma us by Monday July 27th 2020 before 2 p.m. the superintendent will now update update us on the FY 21 reopening plan thank you um so I sent a memo this

004afternoon and I do want to apologize for that coming so late that's typically not probably like to do business but as I explained I really wanted this to be as detailed and as current as possible so it was something that was written this morning to capture all of the work that happened over the course of last week so mr. Noble and I will go through pretty in detail of the memo we tried to include a lot of level of detail for you I also sent this to the staff I posted this on the website and I do intend to send this to parents with a link to the video tonight as well just to get the word out as much as possible in a district as large as ours about where we are in the

005reopening progress at this point so the first sort of section of that memo really outlines all those links are alive and I used to certainly realize that that's a lot of information for you all to have been able to look at prior to this meeting but it is there and it is open for everybody to look at including everybody in the public we did send a so from June till today is sort of what I wanted to outline what is available to us and I think you know what we have been talking about this for the past five months or so you know we're working on information that we currently have to make all the decisions that we are making and I will say this now and I'll probably say it four or five more

006times as we go along we do not have all the information that we need right now to make final plans so we're working with what we have right now so we don't have all the answers to everybody's questions that is without a doubt we do not have all of that right now and so I just I want to share with you sort of what has happened since the beginning of June until last week so we did send out the community needs survey I know I shared that with you what you have there is are the links to the results those results were analyzed by John Parker and his team of staff who are working on the social emotional learning and mental health component of reopening as part of their work so it was important that

007we had this far I work last week so you can see the questions that were asked and then the results that came of that and he did which was great for our work last week we divided it into K eights and high school because the results you know the responses we needed to look at those different levels I think we're critical in that that did pose to be very beneficial last week to have that separated out I also sent a very similar survey it was just rewarded for staff but we sent on June 10th and the results of that staff survey are also there for you and the public to view similar setup you can see who the staff are it's a pretty even spread of the five schools who responded you know some of

008the questions we focused on more than others the results of those questions anyway when we were talking in our teams last week but both of those results were incredibly important and valuable to our work last week so those are there for you to review and I believe those were requested I can't bring my privilege committee members so I apologize requested if they would be if you all would be able to see those results so they are here for you to see so June 25th I know that you are aware but we're making it aware again that we received the initial fall reopening guidance from Jessie that document is also linked here in this memo that was sent to staff on the website and again I'll send this memo to parents as well with a link

009to our school committee meeting tonight so that they can see it with a couple other messages this week on June 26th I did send a letter to the families with that initial guidance and did ask for folks if they had a different idea or response from reading the initial guidance than they did when we sent the survey out in June on June 5th if they wanted to just send an email we opened up a new email account you know reopening the fill in ducky 12th I mean with a winky 12-time you doubt us I didn't receive a flood of emails from that I opened that up to staff as well and we also incorporated anything that came in that email account in the serving results data that was something that John Parker also had access

010to to incorporate anything that came in after I sent that out On June 26 to make sure we incorporated any concerns ideas that Stanford parents had so the reference this already but so you are aware so John cracker is has convened a team of staff guidance teachers K through 12 to really focus on social emotional learning and school mental health we did have some grant funds to be able to pay folks to be on this team so this work started prior to the initial cadre the open guidance coming out knowing that and I think we've all talked about this the social emotional impacts of the school closures that it had on the students you know that the potential situations and trauma students have experienced at home but you know there's a lot of preparation that

011we're doing as a team as a school as a district to make sure that everybody feels supported regardless of how we're reopening I think that's what has been really important to the work that he's been doing right now they are gearing all of the work they're doing whether it's in person hybrid a remote of how we're going to support our students how we're going to support our teachers and so they are working there's a boat I think I believe he's like 35 to 40 members k12 on these teams that are working in subgroups so some great work happening there um so July 7th to July that brings us to last week so last week we had a full week actually it was we were closed on Monday so we had Tuesday through Friday and um

01245 to 50 given a day staff members we were we were in person we were socially distanced and broke out into smaller groups to make sure that we were adhering to safety guidelines during this time but we had administrators and we had a little over a dozen teachers with us we had the unit a bargaining team plus other members to represent other departments we have special education fine arts PE and health to make sure that we had everybody there that kind of ideas and inputs to the planet and so this reopening team I think the agenda is there for you all to see and I think I'm gonna pull that up on my screen and allow Iran to just sort of talk through a little bit how we organized that agenda and the four days

013because I think you know run and and and I spoke previous to last week to try to facilitate what what we wanted out of last what we wanted out of the week with the implementation team because knowing full well we weren't going to get a final product in four days mostly because we didn't have we don't have all the answers and the guidance just yet run introduced us to the design thinking and I think that it was incredibly incredibly powerful and it was incredibly useful during this time and I can I can reflect on that a little bit just for myself the experience but I will pull up the agenda just so bran can kind of go through and just so you guys have an understanding of what the day actually look like I think

014that's important so just give me a moment to share my screen and then run if you want you can everybody see my screen mr. Lucey airs this it can the public see my screen yeah great all right so Ron if you just want to take this full committee and the public watching through the development of this agenda that would be great Shirley thank you dr. Kwang first I want to acknowledge last week was my my first week as part of the Methuen team and the committee and community should just be so proud of them the through in public schools educators hearing the stories that teachers and administrators shared about the past four months and watching them you know consider every possible circumstance and scenario as we went through the four four days of work last

015week was just totally inspiring and most of all humbling so the team was just really dialed into the problems at hand and and thinking really creatively about how densely solved many of them so you should be really proud of that but we use principles of design thinking in last week's workshop which basically is a is a process for planning that starts by assuming that human beings rushed too quickly to solutions and so a Design Thinking asks you to do is really take a second to put yourself in the shoes of we of the the audience's you're trying to serve with whatever you're trying to build so in our case reopening the schools we really wanted to start the team off by giving them time and space to talk about the feedback we have from families

016from students from staff the surveys that dr. Guang just reviewed were a big part of that but also just bringing forth the stories and the specific examples that teachers and administrators had to share about about the community's needs in this moment as we think about how to reopen schools either per full in person teaching learning the hybrid of partially in person and partially remote or a full remote scenario and so by grounding the process of the four-day workshop in design thinking we were able to really make sure that whatever we were building was tuned into the needs of the specific groups teachers students families were trying to serve and so I think that really opened up a lot of great thinking and brainstorming what it did come time to advance some solutions and we always

017kept going back to be grounded in in in those initial needs that we surfaced and so the way we divided up the days knowing that full in person is fraught with the most uncertainty and the most challenges to to dig into we dedicated all of Tuesday and all of Wednesday to thinking through those those returning through in person calling person plans and so you can see the agenda here for Tuesday or we again you know sort of introduced a group to design thinking started with what we call the empathize stage or we really asked them to put themselves in the shoes of the folks we're trying to serve with these plans we analyzed that the data that we got from the surveys and then we moved in to scroll down a little bit more the

018the definition stage which is where we're trying to make sure we're crystal clear about the problems we're trying to solve and and then we launched the ID aiding stage which is where we start to think about the best potential solutions and the risk benefit analysis of the of each of those solutions for each of the problems we've identified a to Wednesday was a continuation of that work we we ideated a lot in school teams we end up mixing people up into groups to get new ideas to the table and we had people actually kind of think through what their ideal forward turn plan would be and we gave it wasn't particularly important for the school teams to me because some of the needs that emerged were unique to each individual Grammar School and certainly the

019high school I spent a lot of time and it's its team to think through the logistical challenges are unique to that facility into that student body and so what emerged after the first couple of days was a pretty good sense of what are the major roadblocks to full in-person some of the big challenges we're still gonna have to figure out our way through and what are the opportunities to do things differently that might better serve students and teachers what we do go back in person and that segue to Thursday where we spend our time and they scroll down just a little bit more I'm thinking through the hybrid learning plan and so for this we had folks focus on four different categories of work that we know we're gonna need to dig into so first

020was operational just moving kids in and around the building ii was academic and what does it mean to have students part-time in school learning directly with their peers with their teachers to to then part-time remote and then what are the unique supports that I need to be in place for students family and staff and finally for professional development for staff and so throughout the four days we had folks continue to reflect on those four categories and the hybrid planning was really interesting we're going to dig into that a little bit later when we when we show you sort of where we think we need additional community feedback on to potential promising models for hybrid learning and that all emerged Thursday and then that took us into our final day together which was Friday where we

021spend the time talking about the remote learning plan and that was a time to kind of do an autopsy and what happened in the spring and really kind of learned from what worked and what worked on the fly with little time to prepare and then think through what didn't work and how we could structure things differently for the Fall if we are in a full remote situation and so the conversation is really you know bled into each other nicely because we need to make sure that that the three things were required to submit to DES e1 portfolios and one per hybrid and one peripheral remote speak well to each other in case we're in a situation at some point next year where we have to toggle between one or more of those plans Thank You

022mr. noble so do does any of the school committee before I stop sharing do does anybody have questions for you gave us about sort of the framework of the 40's that we were with everybody or questions about the process no great I'll stop sharing great and so I'll continue one I think one of the and this is where shifting gears just a little bit because I'm trying to keep the timeline - we do have a full proposal for the graduation the commencement for the class of 2020 to happen on July 31st that was approved latley last week by the DOE and Department of Public Health and the mayor I also just got approval I wanted the fire department in the police department to also make sure that they could support the plan before we send

023it out to parents and so I just received the fire department and I do expect the police department is coming shortly as well that mr. pardon can share those plans with parents so that we can get that organized and of course we will share it with all of you as well so that also happened last week which was great great news for our class of 2020 we will have it looks like we will have a successful outdoor graduation following all the guidelines from Jesse and I I commend Rich's team mr. Brighton's team for it's a pretty detailed proposal as you can imagine and again hopefully we'll have that to you guys to review as well once we get it all stamped by the last department so the another document that we received late last week

024was another document for special education services for guidance on fall special education services so that is something that we also used last week we got it a little bit late I think it came Thursday night so we didn't have a lot of time to review it and us use it with the whole team but it is something I know I reviewed it carefully miss Bozek reviewed it with her team there wasn't a lot of new information in there compared to what they gave for the summer guidance so we didn't feel that it was you know turned our world upside down there was a few more specifics in there that certainly will guide us but nothing that would have sort of changed our course so that's important to know um and then so last Friday night

025we received a letter from the commissioner which also is linked here and I think one of the most important things on the call that we had with him on Thursday of last week was that two decisions were made by by guessing or by the Commissioner last week is one that he expects us to every district to submit a plan one plan to Duffy that consists of all three models that is the mandate so that we need to every district needs to submit what in a full in-person model looks like and what that will take what a hybrid model will look like in what the district has decided is the best hybrid plan for the districts and then the third is what is a full remote plan and that full remote plan also includes students and

026parents who opt out of any in person so we are obligated as a school district which does make sense that if students if parents opt out of in-person teaching that they can ask for remote learning for a given set period of time now that is also something that I think mr. noble will talk about but we could not determine what that set period of time is because we have to have that part of our our procedures basically saying if a parent ups into remote learning and not into any kind of in person how long does that last a year a half a year all of those decisions will impact what happens in any other model so we have to be careful thinking about those things as well so that wasn't that was a little bit

027of a change superintendents were under the impression that we would have until August to submit those plans the date was moved up so as you can imagine there is some angst and all of us to get all these plans finalized and we do not have so I did bullet underneath that the information that we still do not have as of the meeting that I'm talking to you right now we do not have the template that we are expected to have the information filled out we don't know what that looks like for all three models and then and they put that word there very purposely it's very clear the Commissioner also made it very clear to all of us that we can't just submit a plan it has to be executable and so it has to

028be something that we absolutely can execute and know as a district we can implement we can execute this and we can do it exactly how we're saying we can do it so we're not just guessing at how many kids fit in a classroom we're not just guessing and how we're going to you know have students arrive from school every day and be dismissed it's absolutely if these are absolutes and so we also don't have the transportation guidance just yet we're expecting it to be similar to the three beats no less than three feet on the bus with students wearing masks but we are unsure of that final guidance so we have been we've started to type start talking about transportation but that was not part of the conversation last week so we did not use

029any part of the time last week with the teaching staff and administrators to talk about transportation as that alone is really a whole another conversation depending on the plan depending on what the bus company can can accommodate so those are conversations we started to have today that we will we will move forward with with our our leadership came and we don't have any information about extracurriculars electives or sports those are all considered in process right now so we have no idea if there's going to be any expectation or guidance on extracurricular clubs or any athletic the MIAA for high school has its own task force for reopening happening I believe they are in contact with destiny but we don't know any of those things so these plans don't include any of that information at this

030point so so that's what we're working with right now so I'm gonna pause for a moment and ask if there are any questions about those bullets that I just went through before I'm actually gonna have mr. noble kind of go through that's reading different where we where we landed at the end of last week with the three plans and I will say to all of you the document that we have with the staff is about 90 pages right now that we use last week so it is chock-full of questions solutions different problem sets different ideas that the five different teams came up with so what we try to do is summarize those things - the highlight points that we felt that was important at this point because we there was no final outcome of a

031plan last week so I want to make that really clear for anybody watching at this point right we're in the process of trying to make sure we have executable models full in-person hybrid and full remote that's our job right now that tasks so so there was no final outcome so we have lots of information to share and as mr. noble indicated you know we do have some I think we're going to need to get some community feedback festive various this meet mostly regarding the hybrid model and so I think that's you know we'll talk about that in a minute so if there's are there any questions about anything I've just said I don't see any hands about superintendent okay all right so mr. Noble do you want to just go through the return for in

032person and then a little pause and let folks ask questions after that just we'll just pause after each one if people have questions sure thanks so if you're following along with the memo I'm just going to talk through the high level conclusions the team's true last week so for the return to full in person learning the most fundamental question that the teams were grappling with is can all students sit safely in accordance with all state and federal guidelines right now in our school buildings and if so what additional staff resources size reallocations etcetera need to be in place in order to make that happen and so I think without exception each of the five schools has identified additional needs in order to make a full return feasible and that may be something as straightforward as

033as repurposing a computer lab in a media center into classroom spaces all the way up through you know needing more substantial increases in staffing levels in order to make it work given all the requirements of the current guidance we have access to and so the the leadership of each school was with their school teams periodically through the week in their buildings actually moving physical furniture around and figuring out what was going to fit and in what rooms they and where their needs are according to each room and so that's where we have that that sense that there are across-the-board needs in each of the five buildings but but we did get to a place where we were able to identify some opportunities there for poor reallocating space serve more students we also we're looking at

034the logistics of student movement within the building that was another big scene it's one thing to be able to accommodate students physically in a room with the minimum three feet ideal six feet distance between them but how do we move students at key times during the day like arrival and dismissal and moving them to recess lots of conversation around whether we're going to continue to have student specials or have specialist teachers come to them I think most most team members concluded the latter was going to be more feasible we didn't want to outright lose those those special courses so there's a lot of conversation around around the movement of students in schools I think some of the more promising strategies that came out were using either color coding or some other nomenclature to cue students

035on where and how they should be moving through the bed through the building so for effort made to identify cohorts of kids are going to take certain pathways in and out of school into the school yard to the cafeteria if that's necessary and two other key places where they might need to move so that was that was really concrete for each team on how they would think about doing that as far as teaching and learning is concerned is concerned given the the length of the school closure this spring all teams concluded that diagnostic assessment is going to be critical at the beginning of the school year and so that's one of the commitments dr. Huang has made to do sort of something consistent across the grammar schools so that we have the same tools being

036used we also talked in the teaching-learning space about how the car and se guidance has us putting students in rows facing all in the same direction with a minimum of three feet between desks and the designated teacher space a minimum of feet wide at the front of the room and you know all the teachers commented wow that's going to take us back about 15 20 years in education if that's the way we're teaching right and we have late we've all been told not to do things that way and here we are and so there was some acknowledgement and some grief frankly about you know a regression in practice and and I think one of the key things we're going to need to provide teachers are sort of a new best practice new set of best

037practices that are gonna work in the in the environment that we're going to be bringing kids into when we when we get to that stage it was a lot of talk about how we're kind of support teachers to teach given the constraints of the physical layout of their rooms which is going to be different for lots of folks especially younger teachers who have never taught with rows we did we did quite a bit of inventory of equipment in whether we have solution desks and chairs and so each building principle this week is sort of wrapping that analysis up and making a real clear list of what we'll what would be needed from from a equipment standpoint to make a full return possible there was lots of discussion also about in the health and hygiene area

038how to adhere to all the deci and DB age safety guidelines specifically around location of nurses facilities both for the set of kids who have daily or weekly needs to visit nurses but who are not sick and the set of kids who may be symptomatic who are going to need support during the school day who are sick and then the guidance is to separate those two spaces for nurses to operate in and so those comes from oh what what what rooms or areas of the school can be repurposed to make that work there was also lots of thinking done about the specifics of the buildings and where bathrooms are located relative to classrooms and figuring out the route that kids would take and the schedule for for bathroom breaks to make sure that that can

039be done in a safe way similarly mass breaks are going to be critical especially for our younger students can be you know expected to sit with a mask on for a whole school day so thinking more creatively about the use of outdoor spaces both as a way that gives that break but also as a way to to do some outdoor education that that may be you know a new opportunity that this set of circumstances presents for us so there's there's conversation about that you know I think in all there was optimism in the group that you know if we need to you know potentially get there but it will take additional resources and so that always remains a question you know where will they come from and that's one of the pieces were you know

040we're waiting impatiently for for the state to give us some insight on that front I'll pause there and filled any questions about the in person learning okay I was checking I can't see you when you physically raise a hand if you press the button for the hand I can say a question I I'm thinking about looping and I'm wondering if there was a discussion during the week about the possibility of looping wherever possible given the fact that the knowledge that the classroom teacher has of the students from September until we close may be of great importance in jump-starting the start of the new school year that absolutely came up as a potential idea is doing looping wherever possible and related to that was an emphasis on the need for creating opportunities for teachers to work

041in vertical teams that has always been important but maybe perhaps never more so than the year we're about to enter for the reason you just said member Nicholson there's there's no key knowledge and key understanding of who the student is the person that no needs to translate especially this coming year I think you know part of the conversation I think we've had I know the principles have kind of a conversation about looking in June before the teachers left - is that something anyone to consider we don't know what eventually it's going to look like so I do think there were some conversations and the building's about looping but then there's also this the amount of newness and what we're going to be what our staff is going to be faced with upon return you know

042a sense of nervousness a little bit about about yes following the kids is one piece but now we have a teacher who's known a whole different grade level will we be able to support that amount of professional development along with remote learning the systemic racism that we know where we can't let that go you know the hygiene and safety there's just an enormous amount and so all of those factors put it into this conversation so I don't know if it's a all or nothing but definitely part of the conversation and I don't I don't you know we haven't finalized this conversation so I think it's still out there a little bit on the table okay thank you so just a gravure looping is the practice of having a group of students stay with the same

043teacher for multiple grades has her hand up thank you please know that I'm grateful for all of your work in energy and ongoing efforts I have a million questions and I know that you don't have a million answers and that it will all be unpacked in due time I'm curious if there's any idea related to dusty guidance for continuing the use or focus on power or anchor standards knowing that time on learning regardless of how instruction is delivered is going to be impacted and how do we ensure that what is being provided to our students is high-quality and appropriate given all of the other things that are happening and then everything's going to take more time take up more space and fill space differently and what does professional development look like around that the conversations

044related to this look like sure I think that is a critically important question and as I was transitioning out of deci I can tell you that there were many many calls from districts for guidance around whether or not we were going to issue any sort of document that prioritized the standards or focused districts attention on a specific subset of standards unfortunately I think a lot of that conversation is driven by the future of state assessment and where we are heading for next spring you know so I think you know the line right now coming out of deci and the most recent guidance is is we should expect we should play in with MCATs in fall of 21 I'm sorry spring of 21 as ago of course that could change as could a lot of what

045we're about to face so a lot of the curriculum conversation you know I think I think will be tethered to that statewide decision but that said you know this time to suggest we should sit on our hands and do nothing and wait for that decision there are organizations that that I've worked with in the past that I think a really high-quality have done a lot of important work in the spring and summer to support districts in prioritizing natural connections between standards and standards in the previous grade level student achievement partners for one has some really exciting resources that I think I could imagine supporting teachers in Methuen to to understand was sometimes obvious but sometimes under-the-radar connections between grade-level standards that I'd be excited to you know to work with folks later this summer to

046help focus our efforts next year I think one of the big tasks that's going to be on my plate later in the summer is going to be to help prioritize which modules which units which texts we're going to focus on in subjects next year follow up with what he said what mr. Noble said we actually talk today a little bit about and I know I shared this with you all about me when we submitted the Esser grant application that there was a likelihood that as we began planning and got closer to reopening there would be amendments done to that grant to knowing what we would need more specifically and so this is one of those areas where you know we're really looking at this and I don't think we're going to get a plan that

047is going to be just opening and we're going to know it so one of the conversations we had today was is this is this part of the amendment that I'm going to have to do to allow teachers and staff to come in an August to work with us to actually say what is our pacing now and what assessments are going to use to diagnose in September right and I don't mean diagnose for disabilities and things but you know do diagnostic assessments to find out where kids are right now you know with their grade 4 with their grade 5 theatres that that is something clear also that the commissioner said will most likely be a mandate that districts will have to have an assessment done in the first month of school that will show where kids

048have left off where they're starting and what do they need onto Little Miss forward so we're fully prepared for September to be you know we re getting to know the students supporting them social emotionally that is something that has come across without a doubt as a priority about where they're our students are all going to be at all age levels and then really figuring out where where the regression potentially will be because not all students have progressed I think there's an important part of this we had a lot of students who made progress during this time and actually did different levels of work during this time and really took to remote learning to be more successful manner in their learning than a person and so we talked about all of those situations came up last

049week as well so I think you know that's and I didn't I already sent that off to our liaison to say how many amendments can you do because I don't know how many times I'm gonna have to ask for this to change over the course of this year so the good news is unlimited so I got the experts today so and she's she clearly said hold off a little bit you know until August so you kind of know when you make some and then you can hold off a couple months and make some more but I do think that's how this is gonna go and I know I share that with all of you I don't know if that staffing that we put in there is the staff we're gonna need I don't you know

050the materials the tech you know we did it sort of finally and so we have the opportunity so I'm grateful for that but that did come up so that's a good question justice but I think we're gonna have to take the reins on that and work with our own staff to actually pull out the things that we are not going to focus on in each brain level and what we're gonna be focused on to get kids where they need to be successful at the end of each grade level or course at the middle in high school dr. Kwan do you anticipate that the beginning of the year benchmark assessments are gonna be normed across the district or specific to each school um once tell me more about your head shaking yeah no definitely not specific

051to each school it'll be more across the district's it will be a common assessments you know right now and these are things we're considering considering but I Excel it has a diagnostic in both math and science and we are going full steam ahead with that that's one thing that was talked about last last week teachers are familiar with it kids are as well and we're allowed to open up the diagnostic to any students you know unfortunately we missed our opportunity in June to have a curriculum institute which is what we had hoped for for our wonders a new reading program and so that's something else that mr. Noble and I talked about today was we may have to group and just regroup elementary teachers together just to make sure we carry forward the conversation about

052the new reading program because that can't get lost either right now and the whole focus was going to be what common assessments where we going to be given with the wonders program starting in September and so you know the worth of looking at those assessments right now what is that common assessment I think is critical more than ever you know we have Diaries in the system but I'll say it publicly that would not be my first choice of assessment because there is so much subjectivity to that and you know we have a great new reading program and if we have the opportunity to focus on and some of that in August I think that's where our our focus should be the high school is in a little bit of a better place because they have

053pre and post assessments already for every course and so I think the opportunity to actually see where kids start the year or where they ended if they're leaving Algebra one and go into geometry it's pretty easy to determine by that post assessment what they might be missing that they'll need to move on to geometry maybe that wasn't the best example but so so and those are already common at the high school so the course by course at the high school in a little different position than they are at the grammar schools but they would be common across the district I think it would not be in our favor to have school by school choosing what their assessments are going to be in September thank you very much I appreciate that I don't see any other

054hands up is there anybody else who had any questions at this point if not superintendent I just had a couple questions um first of all thank you for putting this together I think you've hit the nail on the head when you said you know we're all going into this blindly um we don't know what September is gonna bring we don't know how this is gonna roll out my only question is this you know as a parent when we talk about returning full time or a full in person learning immediately my heart wants to say yes of course I want to go back to that but what my heart is saying is that I want to go back to normalcy right I want my kids to have regular school and I just want parents especially if

055you're gonna be with me for more input going forward understanding the situation is extremely fluid where any discussions made about social interaction because we talk about social and emotional well-being you know when I think about that for my children I think about interactions with students right and things they can do together in collaborative working I don't foresee and I could be completely wrong a lot of that happening even if we go back full in-person learning so were there any discussions on actual socialization for children if they go back both in person and how that would actually work in terms of you know masks like I'm thinking even on here you know students will eat in classrooms right we've got the young desks in a row they're facing forward I'm assuming they'd have masks off will

056they even be allowed to speak to one another during that time especially where the masks off where the masks are off and if so I mean at that point everyone's contaminated everybody sees in that classroom anyway so again I know this is an extremely fluid situation we all have to understand that like I said I appreciate you being so forthcoming you know understanding that we are going into the slime week just just wondering if discussions were had about that yeah so there were lots of discussions about that solution is not necessarily but lots of discussions about what that looks like especially for our younger kids and even there was a great concern across the board right pre-k through 12 for that because this doesn't stop at a certain age where they're not supposed to socialize

057right and be not socially distant so there was the level of conversation was different for each age group but it was something there and you're absolutely right this is not going to be returned to school as normal that is not in the cards at all this is going to be spending time in one room as much as possible with the same group of kids and the same teachers as much as possible sitting in the same desk with my own stuff in my own space and so this is a very different situation you know we talked a lot about do we see this as an opportunity and we tried really hard worthless and the teachers and the administrators did awesome this week thinking about what are those opportunities for us to get outside right it's now

058when you're outside give a different opportunity you know what kinds of exercises for our little little ones you know all right I've done very Elementary you know should we be taking them outside they're gonna need more frequent mass breaks right they're going to need more time for movement because they're going to they're not nice to sit in a chair for long periods of time we're not going to have beanbags and more time and things like that right so there's a lot it's not going to look normal but so so the answer to your question is yes we had a lot of conversations about what can that socialization look like because if we do this that needs to be a really important part of our conversation because we can't just have rows of kids sitting for

059seven hours a day that's just that's not gonna happen successfully right we're not gonna be successful with that so so what does that look like um I don't think we came and mr. Doval going to help me but I don't think we came to any conclusions with that either but we really tried to spark people to think and we did this all week right we have to think way outside the box as educators because what we have been trained to do and what we know best is what we're being asked not to do right now right and but at the same time our job is to make sure that our kids are getting a rigorous supported socially emotionally supported you know experience with it with teachers and peers and so really think outside that box

060so we really tried hard to open up those opportunities of can we have a morning meeting outside because we can have things spread out in a big circle and have that be movement and you know fresh air and have it look very different than it might on your learning rug in a first-grade classroom or a second-grade classroom but and I do think that I think I kept saying that on an occasion just to try to keep people focused and positive during this process because there are opportunities here I think we're gonna find that will be will be able to carry forward you know in the future as like a really great practices and there are just there are things that we are not going to go back to once we can go back to some

061different kind of normal schooling but so yes lots of conversations but no solid solutions at this point that was a long answer to your question and I apologize but no it's okay and I certainly wasn't expecting you to have solution I don't think anybody has them at this point to be fair I just want to make sure that we're assessing the benefit of going back to school versus the risks of having the students go back to school right I think that's super important were there also discussions because now once you're in in you know school full time you know full in person learning obviously we're going to have strict regulations right it with mass I don't know if we put into face shields or stuff like that to make it easier on the younger one

062what about disciplinary roles if those students don't adhere to those safety compliant measures so lots of discussion about that too no solutions but definitely on our lists and plans for each school to figure out how we're going to handle that you know there are going to be things that that are required and how we're going to expect teachers to handle that how we're going to expect teachers to react and administrators to react you know what's the what's the chena when a student takes his mask on what happens next right what's the next thing that happens to all parents and the classroom needs to be called and said Joey except this mascot you know what is that next step so lots of those conversations as well about what are the protocols that are going to be

063in place for this sort of this new normal and in school but we'll replace some of the things that we've kind of we don't in place in the past now will this be a like trial and error basis I'm just wondering because I know I think within two weeks right we're gonna actually this is gonna be on the agenda for our approval are we gonna work out those bugs or is it kind of kind of is it gonna stay like this and it's gonna be just a trial and error kind of you know malleable situation where we're learning by just going through the motions so my preference is to not have us do this proud of my error and that we know that we can execute whatever plans we're presenting the question at hand is

064going to be are we going to have all that before a plan is voted if what we have to present to the - does e you know our goal is to make sure that whatever we have presented and starts school with so we have a few more weeks and August to do that I I foresee yes and I may be wrong but I think our team experiences today we're gonna still be fine-tuning all these plans with regardless of what plan we select to go forward with as a district we're gonna be fine-tuning all of these up until the day of and so you know we're going to have all of these pieces have to be in place teachers are gonna have to know before they walk in we're gonna have to present them with here's

065what you do when here's how we handle the the safety and the hygiene and the you know what are the protocols look bathroom so you use right what do you do when a student takes out his or her mask in a classroom what's them except so we we feel very I feel that that is very critical for us to have on day one whether I can say with confidence we're gonna have all those details in front of you I don't I don't know about that piece we're gonna have what we need to to present and know that we can do this and we're going to those fine tuning pieces come September I know and all I would ask is if and when you guys get more information if you can supplement this just so that

066we have I know you always do but just so that we have the most current information as well because obviously you know I speak for everybody in the community and everybody everywhere you know the students houses of the utmost concern but the staff as well right so we want to just make sure everybody has the tools they need if this were to go into place I think remember does Aglio has come up with a late minute question there buddy actually everybody kind of answered all the questions for me because that was my main concern as the Disciplinary because in a perfect world everybody would follow the directions but for us I've worked in schools now that's not always the case and I want to make sure there's emotional support for our teachers and staff because

067this is a delicate situation and if certain students might not understand how delicate the situation is and we just don't want escalation in the classroom or things getting out of control that's where our main concern about it's a very tension time so I'm I'm wondering the one question I do have is their professional development on emotional an understanding of situation task in hand for our staff as well and then and hopefully for our students eventually once they go back to school yeah so so as I said to all of you one of the things that we have to prepare for is that the staff what they need to front-load the Squier so this is a good opportunity for me to tell you that you know the commissioner brought up an idea of maybe districts need

068three to five days of just staff days to open the school year and you know that's something that we may submit and our plan and I think those days are going to be critical and so in order to actually work with all the staff and talk about you know you know we gave you a one-pager these plans are going to be you know pretty hefty bite with protocols and details and checklists and things like that is how I see this regardless of which which plan me and definitely but each one of these plans is going to be filled with details and so staff needs to know what those details are and I'm going handle this and how we're going to handle this so so to front-load this school year with professional development days and ask

069the Commissioner study at this point it doesn't sound like there's going to be a general waiver of the hundred eighty school days like he's going to work with school districts and you know understands that inducements are going to need some front low being a professional development for staff and so I see that as an opportunity to say here in Methuen we need five days of professional development for staff and students start after that if that allows us to waive those four days that would be student days right the first date it's always best for staff and have a hundred and seventy six teaching days for students that would be great or do we as a school committee have to look at the school calendar and adjust our school calendar for what we're going to be

070up against this year all of those items the Commissioner mentioned last week as well that those calendar adjustments may also be happening at this point because every school district pretty much has a calendar adopted for next year but this may be a game-changer on what we have to do to change that calendar so that's one thing but so Ryan those five days right when we first opened this that's going to be critical time and one of the things that we talked about without a doubt in John Rocker address this the team last week about this is there's two facets to mental health and trauma it's what how we support the students and then there's the secondary trauma of how we support staff and so those two really have to be in the forefront of our

071work with staff those first front-loaded days that's definitely on our agenda you know that the health and hygiene and safety protocols whatever disciplinary or whatever social you know piece of this protocols we have in place for students who violate any kind of requirements social distancing or masks you know what are we going to do when that has to be part of it and then again without a doubt we have to spend time talking about anti racism but that is not going to go away and the teachers in this district and the students aren't going to be faced with that they're gonna be faced with issues on the first day of school and so we have to arm them with with some information and professional development on what we're going to do throughout the years for

072them with that as well so all of these things are converging and we can't lose sight of any of them and I appreciate very much that the Commissioner at least has recognized that that we are being met with safety concerns anti racism you know trauma and so you know giving us and saying out loud that school districts may need to front-load this at this point to have staff feel that they are being informed that they feel confident that they can move forward I think is critical so kind of sorry that was a long answer but yes definitely on our a done gun thank you I don't see any more hands up so I think you can continue with the next scenario different right this is a good one all right so mr. Noble if you

073wanna start with the hybrid models sure let me preface this section by saying that I think the team is pretty unified that any option in the hydra hybrid learning model space is not the ideal way we want our students to absorb instruction so you know just have had important caveat in mind as they go through and what we're calling the most promising of the bunch so what we really landed last week is with two models that we think are worth getting some community feedback on because they have enough promising aspects and enough frankly questions that we just aren't sure how the community or how families will react to that we want to get some some real-time feedback so the first is in alternating weeks probable anyone who's been tracking or reopening across the country this

074is this is going to be a familiar one this is basically students are grouped into two cohort and cohort a attend school five days one week and then in person and then cohort B attend school in person five days following week and they toggle back and forth like that duration of the hybrid plan so in this model the off week is still a week of school it would still be a week where students would be engaging in remote learning and would still have synchronous experiences with their teachers so they would still be engaging in two-way dialogue with their peers and teachers they would just be doing so outside of the school building some of the strengths of the team liked about this approach is the notion that having five consecutive days of in-person learning will

075allow teachers to go deeper than some of the models that were wouldn't have teacher going longer periods of time between these so that notion of that that consecutive block of time where teachers are working directly in person with students they felt would be valuable instructionally to go deep and also socially to allow a quicker connection between peers and between students and the teacher and so there was a lot of discussion about you know potential merits they're also folk to raise the point that if a student is ill or has to miss a day of school and it happens to fall in the week where they're there all five days that one day absence they have less of an instructional impact and in some of the other models where we're wouldn't be surrounded by other inverse

076and instructional days on some weaknesses that were discussed I think the biggest by far was was the realization that when you factor in weekends it means that every other week students are going nine days nine calendar days without being in person with their teachers and peers and so there was some concern that that amount of time away from the in-person pot could be disengagement and they would have to we would have to figure out the right mitigation strategy for that but but that's the alternating weeks model I'm going to do the two-three model and then I'll pause and take questions and comments on those two so the two three was the other model that that emerged as a promising one again here students are grouped into two cohorts and then but but as but but

077in this model within each work week sorry both cohorts attend two consecutive in-person dates and then they're remote for the other three days so the example is cohort a would go to school Monday and Tuesday and they age in remote learning the rest of the week Wednesday through Friday cohort B would be remote Monday Tuesday and Wednesday and then attend school in person or stay in Friday so you can see what happens in this model is there's a day where very few students would be physically in the building so so one in this in the example here would be Wednesday where both groups are remote and so the strengths here are having that full day with fewer students built into the schedule each week to allow for deep cleaning between cohorts being in the building

078between the two a cohort it would also allow teacher substantially I have time to do some intervention work with certain groups kids do some one-on-one follow-up and engage in professional development kind of making that teacher space available in the middle of the week to do that follow-up work as needed some of the weaknesses this model actually translates the fewer in person instructional days over the course of let's say a four week period of time in this model there would be instructional days for each student in person whereas in the previous model there would be 10 so that's something to take into account and then conversely to the previous model in this model missing a day or two of school due to absence would you know from write for any reason would potentially translate in you

079know missing an entire week's worth of in-person learning which you know when would mean going you know many more days without having that in-person touch point with teachers and peers and this that that's also true for teacher absences so that came up we're not only talking about students being absent but if a teacher misses an inverse an instructional day we have to consider the impact of that in the model as well let me pause there there are two other models that we talked a lot about last week and ultimately checked it until you have rationale there for why we rejected and I'm happy to go into those as well but when we pause and and take your comments and questions on the two we'd like to get some feedback on looks like member MacLeod has

080the question I thank you with the with the hybrid model would the process be that there's a synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning opportunities happening at simultaneous to the teacher providing face-to-face instruction would the face-to-face instruction be being recorded and sent out through a platform what are we asking of teachers in terms of planning for real-time and virtual some of that there's a lot of balls so I'm wondering more about the structure of inertia places sure so later on in the memo there's a there's a section called considerations for all hybrid models and I think I'm at the crux of your question member McLeod is this the important decision will have to make in how we identify the cohorts so basically last week different ideas emerged one is you take each class so let's take

081elementary school you take a fourth grade class and you divide half that class into cohort a and half you assign half that class to qohor day and half that class to cohort B that makes them so far so within each class you've got half the kids present on there in person day while the other half the class is remote so some of the benefits of doing it that way are you know the teachers identified last week are they can they can work with their students in person in a smaller group so they're only you know talking about a class of let's say 24 students they'd have 12 in front of them and so they felt like they could go deeper with a shorter amount of face-to-face instructional time with those 12 and it set the

082other 12 up for variety and asynchronous and synchronous experiences and and some of what you just described was talked about so if some teachers felt really comfortable and it beaming their remote students into the class for certain instructional moment so when the teacher setting up a lesson for example you know they feel like they have the the skill and the technology in the in the classrooms in order to be able to bring those kids into the room as though they were there other teacher said they would set it up differently where they've had and have their remote students working on projects or working together remotely and then catch up with them the next time they had there in person day so that's one way to think about dividing the cohort the other way is probably

083more straightforward for teachers in terms of tracking everybody and keeping keeping everybody on track making progress and that's to create cohorts by dividing each grade so in that model a class is always in person together and always a remote together now what it means in order to make that work with the physical distancing restrictions is that likely on the in-person day that classes is split between two rooms and so in the in-person day of the things will have to figure out if we go this route is classroom teachers with half the class in one room and across the hall is the other class you know manned by another teacher and that classroom teacher is toggling back and forth you know throughout the day so that's the downside of that model is the teachers kind of

084bouncing back and forth the pro of it is the teacher has their entire class with them on the same schedule that the teacher can then operate under so the teacher would also be engaged in a full remote day whether they're doing that from their home from the school we've seen but they're they're remote when their kids are remote and they're in person with their kids are in person and so from a planning perspective it's probably a little bit more straightforward although I would say there was no consensus last week among the teacher subgroup over the group as a whole which of those two ways of splitting the court made the most so there are a couple ideas that came up you know one being you know part of the hybrid plan could be that certain

085our youngest grade levels actually in person all all week right so the hybrid model could be that could include you know grades pre-k to 4 are in person all 5 base and then grades 5 through 12 are engaging in one of these two remote models so the part of what the principals are doing this week is looking at their space and there's supplies and equipment and seeing whether something like that could be potential but that definitely came up last week to your point is a consideration for for our youngest learners and and then other notions were you know potential benefit of doing the split of the cohort by grade which is method 2 in the memo is that the teacher would then be available the full week that the students are remote to be engaging

086in those synchronous opportunities throughout the day so every day of that child's remote experience they would have multiple touch points and live touch points with their teacher virtually I think another point just to make sure that we don't overlook that is for the hybrid and remote the last the last bullet there is very clear that we are that was a consensus that was actually just unanimous from all the groups that week that any hybrid or a remote that there would absolutely be consideration for special specialized populations to be in school all the time and so you know deci defines some of those for us but I think there are a lot of other groups that came up as far as how but we didn't wanted to find those groups of students that should be in

087school every day and not in a hybrid environment you know our sub separate special education kids are what level of ELLs should be in school every day that had a very difficult time with her home learning students who are homeless or in foster care you know that those are different and then pre-emergent readers and we didn't have a lot of conversations so there there is a some schools will be as so students will be in school every day regardless of hybrid or remote when safe and feasible I think that's really critical as well so however I see that and those populations of students but also their parents would also have people learning to opt out if they did not feel comfortable sending their kids to school at all for in-person as well so I don't

088I don't want that to go and recognize that that's you're going to see that bullet blast in the hybrid and the remote planet as well thank you I think member just thought they all has a question yeah well I have more of like a general statement I like how the models are being developed but the one thing I'm concerned about is um parents are gonna need to go back to work and the fact is that you're gonna have kids going to school possibly two days and then remote some people that could really mess up schedules and I'm just saying we factor all these decisions we have to understand that some parents are gonna be going to work full-time and and what procedures are in place for those type of parents that like a single moms

089working working she can't be home doing remote learning one day and that's just her job like her so what procedures are we putting in place that in these certain circumstances so we don't we don't have any yet you'll see the next in in the next section for me is what we're gonna do next mr. Noah and I are putting together a survey the the reason why they're presenting this tonight is the amount the amount of work and they have the lack of time that we have to create these we're going to send in two parents a survey this week my goal is Wednesday with information certified of where we are right now and we need some absolute information from parents and we are gonna ask them to give us some absolute information you know there

090are absolutely parents who know I don't care what the plan looks like I'm not sending my kids back we need to know who those kids are and where they fall into what school what grade level we also need to know you know transportation is going to be a big conversation for us for sure depending on how this looks are we get it provided are we not going to provide it can we afford it what is it going to look like lots of questions every district is going through this right now we're not the only ones obviously so we don't know what the transportation companies can handle with runs and space and disinfecting and all of that as well so that's a conversation to the eye but I think you know getting this information for parents

091there's a likelihood if we decide in a hybrid model you know to your point member to saw glio kids are going to be home at some point and so we need feedback from parents you know of the models that we find feasible that we can actually plan for and execute which were those two models that mr. Doval just described you know what would be your preference to me home for a full week with your child or get child care or a couple days a week but you know we need some feedback from the community on this one because for for me to ask our team to actually develop to executable hybrid grant plans and then put it out to the community is that's not feasible right now and so you know we need some community

092feedback to say you know our teams will do this and we think we can do both of these well give it some feedback right with the conference we have some preferences I think within our teams and our school teams and their teachers and the staff but you know I ended this day about hybrid making it very clear that we're going to need community feedback on this one because we can't just put a model out there and expect parents to just say yeah this is good and I'll make it work and send my kids so we are gonna be looking for feedback and the turnaround will be pretty quick this week I will be asking for parents to fill out that survey and have that to us by the weekend so that next week I can

093have our teams focused on you know what hybrid model does it look like we need to now focus on and that's we're gonna focus our attention to and try to build the best hybrid model behind based on that feedback does that make sense so so we do need parrot feedback right now and you know members of you know you're right nothing there's nothing I didn't know we said that about 50 times last week see right there's nothing ideal about any of these models all right you know the situation we're in but parents are gonna have to help us out here and I think they will and they have this entire time and so people are going to be you know understanding about this as well and so we're doing everything we can to to you

094know do I have a plan for all parents who are going to be working I don't but hopefully we'll give parents enough time to make plans and then work with families as we have to you know one of the things that we also talked about which mr. Lussier is working on with us as well is you know if all kids are gonna which they love so all kids right now we're going to be one-to-one right we already know that but we're not sure yet if all parents have access to the Internet at home or if they're sending their kids to a daycare you know is that something that we can provide a hot spot for them they take the Chromebook in the hot spot now to a family members house or a daycare where they're

095actually being watched all day so it's not up to the parents to teach them right it's up to the kids will have the devices they need to do any kind of asynchronous or synchronous learning wherever they are and so those are things that were working through right now as well yeah thank you but one of the another question I have and with these hybrid models and I don't know if we're doing any safety protocols when it regards to temperature taking and all that and what happens if like a student or I teach you know comes up with covered is there gonna be a process in place for them yeah so of course there will be is actually that's one of the other guidelines they're going to - they share with us we don't have it

096yet you know what what's the process that this school should go through if a student is positive and staff is positive you know is it isolated too classroom right is now in quarantine for two weeks is it isolated to a great level is it isolated to a school so they will be giving us more guidance on what to do when those situations happen so we and in patty como is our nurse leader for the districts is I mean she was helping out at the city and so she knows all the ins and outs of what's going on in the Department of Public Health so that's been very helpful she was with us for a couple of Middies last week you know with the teams and so that was really nice and impactful to have her

097there to be able to touch base with all the school teams just about the pieces that we have to you know follow as health care providers in the school but there's no requirement at this point members is Aglio for any school staff to do temperature checks upon arrival for students that's going to be left in the hands of parents and then obviously if the child is ill in school there will be a protocol in place what to do and not get in that situation there'll be an isolated sick area for students who have any of the symptoms of kovin and I'm sorry I don't want to take much more but the other question I have offered that the thing I'm most concerned about is is it a state that could could Methuen public schools require

098temperature checks or the Commissioner has said no because the thing I'm worried about is I don't know the demographics but we have a lot of 50 and older teachers in our district and the concern is they're more acceptable to the the virus and I don't want to be putting them and I'm just thinking of all this with with the hybrid motto but also if students are coming in and we're not testing them and what and again we're hoping parents will do it but if parents are not doing it and they get test positive and we have a 50 year old the teacher in a classroom and she gets sick this again I might be thinking outside the box here but I'm just thinking through these models and I'm saying what is the proper procedure right

099now to keep make sure you're keeping all these people safe because I I would I as if if I was a teacher I would like to know if a kid is is getting sick because sometimes they're not gonna be acceptable to the vice they're not going to show symptoms so the kids are showing symptoms and he or he or she is in a classroom and just for sitting for one second he takes off his mask or she takes off her mask and cops toasty sneezes that whole costume is getting sick including that 50 and older teacher so I'm just I think before we like decide on a model I I think I don't know if the procedures are from the commissioner but I would recommend the commissioner to put safety guards in our staff and

100faculty before we even move forward with amaro throughout the whole state I just think that's kind of setting us up for a possible disaster yes so let me just respond a little bit to that will help if you actually look at the guidelines that you sent it is required that we follow all of the Department of Public Health safety guidelines that is within that document so we are going to be required to do you know we put that in there sort of as a blanket statement because that's a whole set of details that we have to include in our plan how are we going to keep kids physically distance how are we gonna keep teachers safe what kinds of PPE our different staff members we're gonna be required to wear because that's gonna be a

101whole thing we've already started ordering those equipments and so all of that is in place so there are requirements we're not haphazard like doing this we're following all the required DPH guidelines and anything that was in the des idées lines the reason that temperature checks aren't in there and that was through new medical advice you know that I think it's it's pretty well known that the governor and the Commissioner are really following the scientific data the data trends from Ovid and the scientific data on the illness and they made it very clear and they've been sending us compelling evidence that there's a lot of false kind of what you just said there's a lot of kids who are going to have a temperature there's people who aren't going to have a temperature and it's been

102or it can give a false positive so there's a lot of information that they gave us that said you know us taking its time and the resources to actually temperature check 1300 kids upon arrival or whatever amount of kids upon arrival it's not gonna guild the response that we think it will and when when a student is sick they're gonna go to the nurse and if indeed they have a temperature there's going to be a very specific protocol to follow to isolate that students to get their parents and to not have them expose anybody else in the building so those those guidelines have been given to us and we know we have to follow them which is why the conversations were so challenging last week how are we going to have 1,300 kids in a

103building pull it in person and three feet is three feet apart social existence all day long how are we gonna do that that's what we've spent hours talking about and that's what we're gonna spend more hours deciding on and seeing if it's even feasible and so I think you know just to go back to mr. Nobles the first one that fell in person you know keep the first statement was this is we don't have right now initial space and step two to have a full in person return I'd not need additional space and stuff so it's it's our job right now our principals are working over the next two days to give us some absolute information how many additional teachers do you need in front of students how many additional space is doing to create

104in your building to adhere to at least three feet apart socially distance right and in an OK space what does that is that going to take is it going to be ten additional teachers is it - is it 11 though each principal is putting that together for us in the next 48 hours is that we need absolutely right if the Commissioner wants for me what that plan is I don't know if it's going to be feasible for this district to do that I think that's a really important thing for me to say publicly you know can we make it happen I'm not sure where I'm gonna get the funding for the additional step I can tell you right now every building needs some level of additional certified teachers to do this because we don't have

105class sizes small enough to fit in every one of our trucks rooms with three feet apart we just don't so I don't think that's a surprise to anybody you know but when you're looking at a max in some of our classrooms but 23 what how do we accommodate the class of 25 of the class of 26 maybe we have some you know we know we have some departments at the high school that are over we weren't able to hire any of those new teachers to eliminate some of that stress this year so it's automatic we're gonna need additional staff to adhere to those safety protocols might we have the space we might because we're gonna repurpose media centers we're gonna repurpose gyms we're gonna be purposed cafeterias we have space to repurpose but but that's

106what the principals are given us right now is what are those absolutes because honestly it would not be responsible of us to submit anything that is other than what absolutely is necessary to make it and that's what we're being asked to do what is it gonna take to bring every student back into the sister-act so the more information I get from parents this week the better off I'm going to be to determine if I can if we have 20 let's just say 20 percent of parents absolutely say you you can give me the best plan on the planet I you're not sending my kid to school in person right that absolutely answer if 20 percent say that then we will have this potential we argue this point but you know a hybrid model will have

107full in person and one have some people who are opting out to do remote learning and so we have to be prepared for all of that the more absolute answers we can get from parents this week the better opportunity to keep moving forward and be able to give the Commissioner you know a better idea of a plan and it's hard because I'm gonna ask parents an absolute questions that they're not going to have absolute answers for me either right now so I think that's that's where we're all in a difficult position but we're getting all going to do the best we can and hope I get a lot of feedback from Harris this week to help us make these decisions so remember McLeod you have a follow-up question I do thank you it's related exactly

108to your point dr. Kwang I was hoping that the district might be able to make a shareable invitation to complete the survey that can be used across social media and easily shared only because looking at the survey findings which are really important for the community needs questionnaire at most only 30% of any given school population completed that and if we really need to know what 20 percent is 20 percent of 30 percent is not 20 percent of a hundred percent and I know that you're sending out really invaluable information via email but not everyone checks email with the level of cares they might check Facebook and so if we can cater to that reality in order to get the most information I think that would be important yes thank you and I'm also this time

109I would ask you a phone call to the entire district to say there's a really important email and a survey we need information and if you don't have that please call us and you can give us your information we can take it I have to figure out that as well because there are parents who have opted out unfortunately of they have an email address in Infinite Campus but they have opted out of receiving correspondence via email so this one I would do a phone call to the district to say please check your email for an email survey about me opening endeavours response if you don't have that open here's how to open it and if the campus you can support I'll do that in English and Spanish but there's an opportunity for them to seek

110support to get that information to us as well that's that's on our agenda for tomorrow is there definite a version zero so I do intend to share it with all of you I'll share it with the administrators for an unofficial I'll share it with CPAC and I'll have parents PTO parents to put on their webpage No so it'll be a letter from the parents I'll absolutely put that but I do think the phone call some people get the phone call and then that will trigger them to be like oh I should check my email or maybe I should turn making them on right now because a lot of important informations and it happened over the next six weeks so I definitely will do a phone call I feel like there are people who missed the

111email whether they turn it off or don't receive the notification or I don't I don't know but I will do a phone call on Wednesday as soon as I send it out so to alert parents and I have no problem putting an on Facebook I will ask people to do that we need it out there as like you said if I if I had that if I had the army and staff to just make phone calls and you know having to have a bank of telephones to call and call every parent and ask them the questions to get their response I just don't know that right now so we'll do what we can to get it out I don't see any more hands up so I think we can move on with the final scenario

112great I'll share my screen again so the final scenario is is full remote learning and I think one of the realizations or major takeaways from the team last week was and the district has made some really smart investments over the last several years to to set things up so that should we need to go to a full remote learning scenario again we have the infrastructure we need to pull that off and dr. Kwang mentioned you know one of the potential holes in the spring was internet access for families but we have a solution there to be able to provide hotspots for any family that needs it for the full school year students have devices they have email addresses teachers have been trained and the systems they need together the Google classroom all the teams emerged

113last week believing that Google classrooms should be the single LMS learning management system that the district would use in a full remote situation likewise I think there was pretty strong consensus coming out of each level lower school upper school and high school that the ideal remote learning plan would allow students to follow a stimulated school schedule and so again for thinking about the course of next year potentially involving toggling between a full remote hybrid and an in-person or some combination of those three the extent to which were able to give students and families a single schedule that kind of makes sense regardless of what type of model were presently working under you know teachers in particular public that would be the best for continuity of learning and so making sure that the students are set

114up to have if we are full remote to have those initial touch points at the beginning of each class period where attendance would be taken teachers could lay out the goals for the day's work and then depending on the nature of the lesson either stay with those students for the duration of the block or you know gonna let them release them to work in groups or work independently and then reconvene at the end to sort of wrap things up so you know this is a place where I think teams talked about you know an opportunity to to use the virtual environment to model some of the classroom structures and practices that have been trying to put in place for four years you know that are valuable instructionally so setting things up to use flipped classroom

115or workshop model and things like that you know that can be done virtually just as well as it can be done in the brick-and-mortar school so there was there was a lot of excitement and enthusiasm about know kind of keeping to the schedule that was a piece that that folks thought was missing in the spring effort you know in large part because everybody was just trying to keep their head above water and keep things moving with little time and little information I'm suppose that was you know I think I think the general sentiment of the group was that if we are full remote at any point in the 2021 school year we're going to be much better than we were in the spring and we learned a ton we'll be prepared we have time the

116benefit of a little bit of time not a ton obviously to think through the logistics of slipping an entire district or an entire school to full-time remote learning which obviously nobody had this year again I think the final copy that dr. Kwang mentioned earlier is that you know if we are in a full remote learning situation but we are not in a full statewide lockdown there may well be opportunity to have an identified group of students continue to attend school full-time in person but again that would be you know based on need and based on the circumstances that that have prompted us to go for remote I think that the one thing I just want to stress which I we're feeling some equally not a not a ton at this point but some enquiries about

117the remote learning and what kinds of things will happen if we go remote we really pushed aside and what the plan was in the spring is not at all to look like promote learning right remote learning is going to be as mr. normal said it's going to be a simulation of real school so you know kids if their first plug class is at 7:13 and within high school weeks time to get up and report to their first blood class so so there's it really ended our week together on Friday on a very positive note because all of the teams that worked on this we're really in similar positions with that that it's going to be it's going to count kids have to be accountable teachers have to be accountable there's going to be synchronous moments

118all day long you know how long we want kids behind the screen you know that's still left to be determined but there's going to have to be accountability for attendance and check-ins and you know homeroom and everything like that and the greats we talked about assessment and grading and you didn't feel that there needed to be much change to the practice of assessment and grading it's all gonna count and everything like that um you know but there might be some adjustments to our standards-based report cards depending on what we actually focus on teaching in there you know so there were those conversations at that level but not as those aren't necessarily as urgent conversations but really important conversations so you know just the fact that it's not going to be what we experienced in the

119spring is really important for everybody understanding watching and listening and for all of you don't understand to share with your constituents as well it's going to be more school like and that was across the board that was really where the conversations landed with all of five school groups and we actually mixed groups as well on Friday girls focus on k4 and a couple of focus on five eight and then the high school working together so it was a pretty solid and consistent understanding of what remote learning really needs to be in the fall regardless of parents who opt out from day one what it's going to be if we have to go into that and snap of a finger and have to go to the full lockdown what it's going to be and everybody wanted

120that understanding or if there's a hybrid of some kind and some students are in it so we can move and transition to remote learning very easily with a group of students so does that make sense I just wanted that's it that was a big question and I think those are the questions and I know I've had some conversations with the parents they don't want what happened in the spring to be what the kids are going to get in the phone and nor do we they got a really good solid stuck in the spring but not nearly what we can down with planning and and forth on right so I think that's where we are and again that was unanimous across the group so that was a really positive very productive conversation so moving forward with

121a remote plan for the district we feel really strongly that we'll be able to put all those pieces in place and thank you to mr. Lussier we're making sure that we're going to have all those other people every student will have their own email accounts so we'll have to get that in place and that one I put that note in there so parents don't get nervous that's not emails that can go out of the district it just stays within the domain so the teacher the students scoot into student it can't go anywhere else in the world so those are the things that seem to block us you know there were obstacles in the spring that we absolutely had resolution for even to begin the planning for remote learning so if there are any questions about

122remote learning for us we'll take them I don't see any hands up superintendent the mayor did send over a question if I could read it um you know he had an emergent issue with the city so was able to be here but he had a concern he said with both the hybrid or the full remote learning scenarios he asks have we considered any ancillary features beyond Google meaning will we be using the school TV channel at all have we spoken to Comcast or Verizon for potential delivery options in addition to football he said several parents of the first concern with the Google platform missile so we we haven't had detailed conversations about other platforms I I would imagine and I don't know this because I but the Google platform I think was difficult for people

123who didn't have devices at home the k2 students potentially you know who didn't have the right device we're going to make sure every student and family and household has the right device and it has the right internet and on the right a minute has internet access so that the Chromebook will work so you know we feel that were in a better position now that it's not gonna be parents struggling with Google on their phone or students sharing a device at home those were some of the comments that came up and me we came out I would say probably 1,500 to 2,000 Chromebooks over the course of the closure for families who needed them but even then even here from a lot of parents right so even though we were getting them out they weren't coming

124and asking them asking us for them so they're gonna have them from the get-go and they're going to be their devices that they will be able to take home when we need them to take them home part of our plan right now that came up last week is how do we have to do this because we don't necessarily want all right under students taking on Chromebooks every day because that can get a little bit disastrous potentially another thing they can't but you know if that's not something we want them lugging around in backpacks every day to learn from school so you know what process will we have in place if we do shut down we're gonna already have a process in place that people will know if we shut down in the remote here's how

125you gonna pick up their students chrome oven and charger and we're gonna go from there and the kids will already know how to use it in school that's gonna be part of our professional development with staff that was also talked about no matter what we do full in person hybrid we're going to need time to make sure kids are actually using the Chromebooks using Google Cloud everything that we do is going to be on the same platform so any transition between pulling person hybrid remotes is seamless right that's really that was one of our commissions and goals was it has to be seamless students can make a home in a remote environment and how not know how to open up the Chromebook powered up and log into their account right so we have to be

126doing that with them and have to teach them kind of do that all the way through so everything seamless and comfortable so that it's not we're gonna compete we're not taking the leap off to get ready for remote learning we're just gonna start remote learning on Monday everybody knows what it's going to look like and what the expectations are but that's our goal and that was I would say that was a very loud and common thread last week from from all of our plans that we really need this to be a seamless transition between all three camp plans back and forth next year that's what we're being told as well you know just not knowing what what the events of kovin and what the what the trends are going to be we need to be

127prepared to have that be very fluid so that's our goal I think that's a super valid point to when looking at that parent survey I think it was like a third of the students or something we're even using laptops I know I was because you know I wanted to save their Chromebooks I needed it for my children we have the laptop tops accessible so I didn't want to you know take one away from a child who had no accessibility so ever so just knowing that everyone's gonna have the same tool in their hand and use the same platform I think actually will help the situation and in the teachers right so that's why we the teachers have everybody yeah from teachers to students kk8 and then teachers and students nine twelve everybody's using the same

128tool teaching and learning and I think that is you know once we got that hand so the chrome looks and enhance the teachers at the k-8 that made a huge difference that last month of school I you know people were more confident in the Google + hangout they had a device they know that could work and had a camera it was simple and they knew the platform the students were working on so it didn't help it so it you know again I think we plan to all the facts appropriately to be easily ready for any remote learning situation that arises again if merit opt out if we go in full remote because we're in lockdown if we have to go over mold because a classroom is in quarantine we would have to have that seamlessly

129ready and I feel like we're in a good place to meet back when seamless I don't see any other questions is there anybody else that has a question on full remote learning scenario or superintendent do you want to wrap it up did you want to mention anything about the timeline of continued work yep I can I can just go through that timeline into the last part here it's just the continued work I think I've covered a lot of this already in between all of our conversations but you know our goal is to send the survey out this week the HR director and myself are also going to work on a survey to staff indicating and I think remember to toggle brought this up but there is language right now that actually indicates what staff are

130at the highest risk medically and so we kind of need that information as well and it will be you know confidential it's only gonna coming McCarthy's gonna be the only one that actually sees any information and we're not asking for doctors notes no you just need to know fits into this category yes or no you know what if it's a yes they're not gonna return in person and if it's a no they they can and so we need some of that information this week as well from stats so we're planning updates for their survey from staff because I think those are big concerns for people and and yes right and there is very passive of many members out there there has to be you know alternative plans for staff who hints are they going to

131be our remote Academy teachers or learning teachers from day one you know how we just need to assess that and so again we need some the more information this week from all of our folks parents and staff so we are in an already sadness where we just started today and I put a small team of people Indian and Colleen may be on the task of starting to reach out to our transportation company looking at the different routes you know the Commissioner talked about double bus runs to make things happen we're talking triple bus runs if we're keeping three feet apart with some of our buses and what's the feasibility of that you know what's the safety of have four kids having different groups of kids out of us to see morning so there's a lot

132to that conversation so that started today we're also so as I said to you the principles are focused for the next 24 hours or so they know that they have to hum this to us to me by Wednesday afternoon prioritizing the in person what is the absolute need of the buildings for in person how many additional teaching staff teaching certified staff do you need we're not even talking about support staff right now it's just how many additional certified teaching staff do we need to make a full in person work and the space because now there's monetary value to that again you know how we're going to outfit these spaces with the rights with the right that this student desks the the dividers for classroom spaces in the media center you know how you gonna outfit

133these pieces now looking to do with all the library books and shows if we're making media centers classrooms you know those are real conversation its products right now another thing we started talking about today that what happened is what can we start right now with our maintenance in post OD and so custodial staff that's no matter what's in person or hybrid or remote we're going to need to do to bring kids back eventually you know what things can mean are we gonna have shared computer labs and we start dismantling some of those classrooms and spaces to repurpose you know I think that's where we landed today and starting our work you know we I believe it's actually completed but mr. Lucey right now um you know what are you doing with the changing air filters

134in every single building that's that's an important issue for planning and reopening is the air quality so that's something that we're focused on and then like I said we're preparing a survey to send with staff to staff and I would say on this I put a little bullet there but I think everybody knows this is kind of a big bullet but this is all going to you know this all has to be intact bargain by every single units just like we did in this spring because it was a huge change in working conditions you know this work is going to have to be carvings as well and so it's one bullet but I think y'all know there's just a little bit it's a bigger task and just it's it's difficult thinking about the timeline that

135were under but we know we're going to be working I think in a positive manner with all of the units regarding these plants and then these are my tentative timeline so I did put a caveat there saying that those could change depending on guidance were given or things that might come down from the commissioner those but the timelines this is what I have that the week of the 20th is really where we're going to get that feedback and as is school and district leadership team will be able to focus on which hybrid model we're going to focus our time and energy finalizing and making sure we can execute certainly finalizing both in-person and full remote we feel like we're going to do a lot of that work this week but we'll spend a little time

136next week finalizing those and again keeping those conversations open with the teachers unions and all others to bargain and then my goal would be on July 27th to at least present to all of you three so one plan this is how it's being explained to us right we're submitting one plan it's kind of like SOA Korean right it was one SOA plan with different focuses right and so this is what he's asking for one plan three different models and that's what is being asked and required of each districts my focus to present that key winner it's already scheduled meeting of July 27th to be able to submit that to the state on July 31st and as I understand it this is going to be an approval vote because pretty much every plan that we're putting

137forward is a complete change in some of our policies and practices of which you oversee so there you know there is going to be we've been told that it absolutely is something that is going to be school committee and approved so that is why I would bring that over to you at that time but I hope that makes sense and then I'm hoping again this is my use manage that we will better understanding of what our keys are for the school calendar year much of what I talk to you about how many days we need to front-load for professional development for teachers that's gonna be in fact bargained as well the School Committee has the final say on the school calendar there so that's hopefully something I can present that doesn't mean that we have

138to vote on it that night the priority that night will certainly be the plan that were singing to decieve three models and and obviously we're gonna just continue to work with all unions see where we already need continue to work in the buildings Dignan our plan and then usually graduation on July 31st that's really important because I don't want to forget about them and then I August 3rd to August 13th you know I expect that that's a time frame when a final decision will need to be made by us not just me but by us as a small department and the School Committee that we will make a final decision on which plan at which model we want to open school with and so I find that that will be a really important message from

139from me to present to you and the public of which Bryn we feel and we meaning the leadership team and a staff in the district some of the parents feel it is going to be the best district best model to open up the school year with and so I know you all are aware that these states and is really pushing us for a full an in person right they want to know what its gonna take to get a full in person plan in place but I as far as I understand that doesn't necessarily mean that has to be done babe that's what they're promoting that's what they want I stand for but if that's not feasible for a district then that has to be a decision that district needs and so the district is us

140and so you know that would be something that we would want to make the Commissioner just said early August I think is what he said in his letter so I just use that to me timeframe I also recognize that our our typical our start date for this school year September 1st which is before Labor Day so you know waiting too long in August for parents and teachers and staff planet it's not ideal I do understand the waiting as long as we can to make sure that we have the most current we don't tell people something and then a week later that plan completely changes so we'll be very cognizant of that make sure that we have decisions made I would prefer that first we got honest I don't know how you all feel but I

141would prefer that cutting in a plan you know ready to go and a decision me to send out to staff the families so we can begin preparing for that at least we'll have reaffirm prepare if we do the first be honest any questions about that subject to change I just want to put that disclaimer and then the last piece I just wanted I would be remiss if I didn't give the school committee some budget updates and you can see that sections really short this conversation will be really short we will be pissed so Ian and I only be joining the City Council on Wednesday night at six o'clock to present for the public hearing the school committee level funded budget I and I can ask Dodie I know I know that we have to share

142our information with the mayor's office to make sure that we're joined at the right time for that public hearing I know that often in the past women community members have attended the physical public hearing in support of the budget and the time I'm not sure if that's possible but if any of you want to actually join this soon for that portion of the meeting I can ask the mayor's office if that's possible tomorrow but if not I guess there might just have to be a viewing that you guys tune in and watch it but I will ask Adobe no I can notice the mayor's office tomorrow I already talked about the amendment I shouldn't have said most likely there absolutely will be a marinade for a PS or funds I do not have any detail

143I know that that was in that initial guidance and it's in the documents that the governor is giving two hundred and twenty-five dollars part people additional funding I don't I don't have any additional information about that how our web note will come and what that would look like exactly be in the form of the grants is that going to be in addition to chapter 78 we don't know what that's going to look like right now I have not received any further information I will certainly inform me when they do but just for your information that's about 1.5 million dollars for my villain at this point just you have an estimated amount of money because we did calculate then and who do not have any final chapter 17 allocations at this point oh I should've added

144we do I'm sorry we do have one bit of good news and I can't believe I didn't add it and I apologize but we did get all of our entitlement prints for title one two three and four allocations and we're good well you know level funded and in some cases title one actually sign increase so that was some really good news that we got on Friday and I apologize it at that that we are able to sustain you know salaries and some of those grants we may be able to sustain some additional services and in some of those places so I mean I'm happy about that we weren't sure how that was going to come out but level fine we'll take level funded right now so any questions about that my friend Nicholson has her

145hand up thank you vice chair I would like to thank you superintendent Wong and assistant superintendent Noble for all of the work that you did this was a great presentation also I'd like to thank the staff who participated for four days on all of the work just a great presentation tonight lots of information for us to digest but we appreciate we really appreciate all of the work that all of you have done to compile this information and we certainly have a lot to think about so thank you for what you have done for our district our students and our families member MacLeod thank you I would just like to echo what member Nicholson said you know my child is my most precious thing ever and I have so much more confidence after this conversation and

146what the fall might hold for her and that was a really great gift to me and to all of the children and families in the community so thank you for all of your hard working for what I know will be another several several several weeks of hard work to come I don't see any other hand up I too want to say thank you superintendent to you and your team I can't even imagine how much work actually went into planning something that you know developing a plan with the situation is still so open-ended I think you did a great job thank you as well and the only thing I would say to the public I'm sure as a parent it's just raised you know 500 other concerns for me in my head and sure every other

147parent it's feeling the same thing and I know you're gonna reach out and try to get as much input so I would just ask anybody watching you know teacher parent whoever to contact any one of us and hopefully any concerns they have we can get to you superintendent to put more input before we finalize any of these plans all right nobody has any last minute questions remember Nikolas and you have another clusters your hands still up uh-huh no no further questions thank you okay um can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved mercury moved my memory Nicholson second by member to Zog Leo I am desired Leo yes Garin haha yes let's go MacLeod yes Susanne Nicholson yes yes we can adjourn now okay great the meeting is adjourned at 7:01 p.m.

148thanks everybody good night with dune