001[Music] good timing Michelle you appeared on my screen right at 6:30 okay well I want to honor everybody's time tonight since we have oh wait I said we have all our board members Victoria was here let's see um Kyle you know is Victoria in the building and she's just having con connection issues yeah she's here she's um she's probably just connecting I will I'll check on her real quick okay thank you give her a minute there we go okay I think we got everybody now all right so um in accordance with Ohio Rose code one 2 1.22 House Bill 197 and House Bill 404 I hereby call to order the Board of Education of the beex city school district regular board meeting for Tuesday December 15th um Mr Smith will you call the role Please
002Mr barno here miss Mino here miss Mitchell here Miss Powers connected Miss pow can you hear me I can I keep getting thrown out it's the third time I've joined so we'll just watch we're on roll call now Victoria and um Kyle just called your name I'm here thank mised here all right thank you um can I have a motion to approve our minutes for the meetings of uh November 3D November 17th December 4th and December 10th second thank you with that motion is a second all in favor please signify by saying I I I any oppos same sign thank you that motion carries um can I also get a motion to to approve our agenda tonight so moved thank you second second thank you all in favor please signify by saying I I I
003any opposing sign thank you so we will be moving on to Awards and recognitions tonight this is always one of my favorite things about Schoolboard meeting so um Mr uh or Dr good you want to start our leadin for this actually I'm going to go ahead and flip it over to um principal Kristen Robbins and vice principal Craig can yeah absolutely thank you [Music] um I'm speak let me know I but I don't see her on here this evening to this point we uh I was fortunate to be contacted by um by one professors of Music at the Ohio State University who uh to award present to one of their one of wanted to present to one of our F music teachers Amy boser um specific for um the RO distinction with respect to um
004teaching in in music um she has served as a cooperating in partnership with Ohio State for over 10 years I have been fortunate in my time back at High School in this capacity at the as the assistant principal to be in her classroom on many occasions and witness her with our students uh during rehearsals as well as certainly during performances um this award is presented to one high school teacher each year and this year again they selected Amy Blosser to receive that award I believe my internet is not so awesome so I'm going to stop speaking there so that I continue to uh freeze and and pause and all the things aside from saying we are so fortunate to have Amy especially on those days when we have performance and everyone can witness the work
005that she does with our students thank you so let me just add in because I knew Craig would say more if we could actually hear more than every fifth word that he's saying so Craig I'm going to go ahead and kind of pop in here as well um so the the award from the Ohio State University is given by the School of Music in music education and it's really one that recognizes excellence in teaching um and to that end theyve developed a role of Distinction to honor classroom Educators who personify all of those qualities of musicianship creativity effective delivery of instruction professionalism but most importantly dedication to to the development and education of the children it's an award given annually Bexley is so very fortunate that Amy Blosser is being given that award and I
006know that both Kristen and Craig Echo those sentiments and um Kristen I believe you're on now if you wanted to add anything to that yeah I was on The Struggle Bus there with my video so I appreciate your patience um you know everything that Craig and Dr good said um certainly um during a time that's incredibly challenging it's so wonderful if they have the opportunity to celebrate one of our own and I think Craig even said this afternoon it's so nice that OSU Rec recognizes everything that we already know about um Amy and are so very blessed to have her here and you know as Dr good said this does come um out of the school of music music education specifically and part of the recognition was they had some um comments from some of
007Amy's former students and also um former student teacher and um one was I it was especially touching his name was Heath Baron and he said that first Amy um Amy Blaser invests in you you know you have an advocate for life um and then second the the one thing that sets Amy apart is her unyielding drive for excellence and I think we experienced that all the time um and finally Amy's passion for the profession of music education is inspiring and you know the the final thing I'll say is um they speak in you know to the role of Distinction award um it's award that brings together the great tradition of excellence and music education at OSU um by taking some time in the present moment to honor one of our own in the field and
008they talk about like by by highlighting someone that's currently in it hopefully you know sparking that love and that interest for someone that that soon will be coming into the profession as well so again it's such a testament to Amy we're so thrilled um she received this and honored and thankful to Craig for creating the opportunity for them to come and do this virtually last week so appreciate everyone's time allowing us to do this tonight thank you um so I think that moves us on Dr good to um Susan Drake R is going to uh talk to us a little bit um about Cheryl Fields who I just have to say quickly always lighted up um my days at Maryland the many years that I was there she was fantastic so sorry to see her
009retiring um but I would like to hear from Mrs Drake now yeah it is certainly a Bittersweet moment to get to share the amazing you know I we're so sorry to say goodbye to Cheryl and it is not going to be easy for us at all to say goodbye to her because as you pointed out she is just truly loved by our whole Community by parents by teachers by our kids um you know it's hard I it's hard for me to believe she began working in Bexley in 1999 and she's been with us all that time and I've only had the privilege of working with her for a couple of years because I haven't been here all that long but in that time I mean she has shown herself to be truly dedicated to the
010work and to the people who make up our community and I actually asked staff if they would just share some things those of you those staff members who had really worked with Cheryl for a long time and the response was tremendous so I'm just going to actually read a couple of the things that they shared because they're just so they they're incredibly touching um Cheryl is going to to be missed I remember when I came to Maryland and we were starting the new school year when I walked in my room was set up everything in its place already she meticulously numbered and labeled furniture and returned it to the spot for us I couldn't believe my eyes I am going to miss our chats and our laughter she will be a tough act to follow
011I really love this one I could always tell if Cheryl had been absent the night before when I walked in my room the next morning morning it's not that other people did a bad job but my room always felt that extra bit cleaner and shinier when she did it she knew our room so well where all of our random trash cans and pencil sharpeners were which boards to wipe down and which ones to leave alone plus it was always fun just to chat with her I am going to miss her Beyond taking care of our spaces Cheryl took care of us she took the time to get to know us as people she asked about our families she joked with us and she always had a positive attitude if I ever needed anything or had
012a question I could ask Cheryl she is a she is a kind funny honest and hardworking lady I will truly miss her honestly I have like 10 more of these but I know you guys have a long evening ahead of you so I hope that gives you just the tiniest picture of who she was who she is and what she has meant to us here at at Maryland um and I'm just going to say Cheryl I really hope you're listening to tonight I don't know if you are but I really hope you are because I just want you to know how much your Maryland family is going to miss you um we wish you so well as you go into your retirement and you know the drill because you've been at Maryland for a while
013once you are a malard you are always a malard so thank you for letting me have the opportunity to share thank you Susan I appreciate that very much um all right and then moving on uh I think uh Mrs Abraham is going to um give some recognition for Leon Smith thank you good evening um it is uh with pleasure that I would like to recognize Leon who will be leaving Bexley schools in January as she pursues a new professional opportunity Leon has provided incredible support and mentorship to our students their families the Bexley community and our faculty when she was hired to engage students in community five years ago she committed to Leading us through important work in conversations and she's done that and more and I I would add when I came to the
014district just a little over a year and a half ago Lon Smith was the first name that I heard when I came to the district from a Community member who asked have you met Leon yet and uh such pride in this community members storytelling as they shared um the great work that Leon has done and I've grown to know her similarly as well she's provided tremendous leadership in the area of social emotional learning and she supported our school counselors and our Nationwide Children's Hospital clinicians she's built an incredible team in the district climate committee and those teacher leaders will continue the vision that she's helped us craft as we work to be an anti-racist school district and most importantly she's engaged this in thought-provoking conversation she's taught us how to be better listeners and she's
015grown our understanding our perspectives and our practices in the area of diversity equity and inclusion we wish her the very best of luck and um we thank her for for growing us and and for giving us the courage to do the work as we move forward thank you very much um so some bitter sweetness and all of that and I I do want to Echo the board's appreciation for for all the dedication of our staff um we're going to move on now tonight to item 3A which are board updates um I will start with that and that is our policy um committee so uh just as an update on that we are going to continue um in next year with our with our current um superintendent policy committee so we have spoken um in the
016last few meetings about um dividing up into uh a different committee for each group of policies and what we've decided um what Dr good and I have discussed and where I think it makes the most sense is for our board members um to be responsible for policy review after we have our students back in school full-time so right now we need to focus our energy and that of our Administration on the task at hand which is leading our schools through Co through the covid crisis um some people have likened it to building a plane while you're flying it and I kind of agree with that analogy so right now um as of tonight we will um we'll stay with our with our current superintendent um policy committee you will see policies on for tonight for
017first reading they have come to us from the osba and have been vetted through our attorneys and administration so that's where we stand on our super on our um policy committee this month so next is up up is Miss Min who we'll have to unmute can you I don't think I can unmute you can you no hold on for Melle there you go there we go you would think I would like don't do this all day every day anyway um sorry about that okay so for our legislative update um really I wanted to share just a little bit of information about house bill or the house bill 305 um and for the other board members this is uh I think Mr Smith gave us some really good information on this um earlier like maybe last
018week um but basically it's looking at it's looking at um Fair funding fair f the fair funding um for the schools and um the biggest highlight was currently there is no funding formula it's in the past it's been like like considered unconstitutional but now it's um there's no funding there's no funding formula operating oh it says no Ohio school districts onor on the state school funding formula that's the summary um and the most important thing you need to know is right now this is kind of stalled at the Senate and um there's no forward movement so more to come on that there we go thank you um Mr barno uh thank you I sent um all of the board members an update on technology uh Mr ped and I met last week uh via zoom
019and and had a great meeting and and to Mr pedet and his staff of talking about all the the things that obviously that they've had to work on and overcome and as well as putting into place our onetoone devices um and as as some of the bullet points in the email that I forwarded to you that Mr pedet put together and he and I had talked about um we had over 2100 Chromebooks that were unboxed inventoried assigned to students and organized by grade or teachers catalog to a new database all of that being configured to where there are certain certain um things that could be pushed out uh to where there are apps that are that are convenient and and U the same for the different students um and and also to help set up
020at different levels and getting these Chromebooks out and his staff putting those out and getting getting that going forward and and I think Mr pedet um likened it uh at least where we were in Tech and how fast we've had to move forward not only with the one toone project that that the bef has been so awesome in helping us uh fund and hopefully we can keep working on that and anybody listening um if you could donate or find people that would donate to that cause that would be great um but he likened it going from to caveman to from caveman to astronaut with how fast we've had to move forward with where we were technology wise now with the onet to one devices and and how fast things have had to move and again
021I can't uh sing his praises and his staff's Praises of how fast that they were able to do that and the foresight to to ordering these Chromebooks and getting them when we did even though we didn't get them until I believe it was late out October there are still some schools that don't even have their orders yet um because they're in such backlog um not only with the Chromebooks but the the iPads for the for the kindergarten of first grade use um and and as pointed out in the email and the summary that I forwarded to all of you uh within a matter of eight months going from a network design focus on an inperson and on-site access to all services being accessible anywhere and all time at and at all times and as Mr
022pet pointed out we we're also working on their the tech department is also working on expanding expanding the network to public spaces outdoor public spaces and trying to work on that progress um another thing is getting cameras and different devices in in the room and and as he explained which makes a lot of sense when we talked about it is different teachers in different classes different grade levels all have different needs so it's not one siiz pH all it's not like just stick a camera in a room um because a first grade a first grade class might be obviously would be something different than a biology class at the high school level or maybe an English class um at the middle school level to whereas the English class maybe looking at documents whereas the first
023grade class maybe they want to being able to see the teacher to the biology lab to maybe seeing what um experiment or project is going on in that in that biology lab so what uh Mr ped and and his staff have done is um as as pointed out in in his summary and what we had talked about is getting some of this equipment out into some of the teachers t letting them take a look at it get a feel for it to see what works best for them and getting feedback um so we can start making more purchases to where we get the best equipment and again that's most responsive to the teachers needs and and again with Mr petett and his team and I know our our uh techn technology integration coach that we
024that we brought on um earlier this year obviously has been a godsend um and and I think also just from an overall perspective for my perspective too I think you know especially even going through what we've gone through since March is you know the tech plan that we have in place and the the planning that we made and not only just on the tech plan but you know in our overall strategic plan sticking to that and making sure you know we have the things in place that we stick to that and it helps us with that framework to keep um keep us moving forward and and doing the right thing and and and enabling Mr ped and his staff to have a clear plan and explicit directives and even as we even as we move
025forward um in dealing with pandemic issues so um with with that said and again with the other information I think there was video that I that Mr pet had put together that you'll see in that the email I forwarded to you um showing uh Toby Fischer the technology integration coach that we brought on um showing some of the different options of what different benefits that they would have for the various different types of microphones cameras and all of that stuff so um it I I really appreciate Mr pedit um and what he's done and in having to do what so many have had to do and especially with technology being so important um I can't again sing his Praises enough and what his staff has done um and and I appreciate that very much so
026with that said um we have a lot going on with the technology as is obvious from my lengthy report here but I wanted to make sure I highlighted some things not only with our onetoone but also with the different equipment now that we're looking at integrating into the classroom as well so uh again I I apologize for a long report but I know that it's important what we're looking at and again um I appreciate everything that Mr ped and his staff has done so that's all I have great thank you um Miss Mitchell hi um I have just a few um brief updates from bef um the annual uh installation for pavers engraved pavers uh went in on December 10th um and they were able to install 11 pavers uh if anybody's interested uh the
027next installation will be in may you have a a Bexley graduate coming up or um a Lums or even a Rec special recognition that you like to make of a teacher a staff member uh the contribution to bef is just $100 uh and it's a really meaningful uh gift to give for the holiday season uh and the BF can provide you with a gift certificate as well uh the parent mailer mailer that should be in everybody's hands now um just details the benefits of supporting Bexley students and teachers through the uh annual uh fund um as well as for excellent or excuse me fund for excellence and then the one forall technology campaign um just to kind of piggyback on what Mr barno just said without the support of the bef um our fall uh
028and uh upcoming winter uh semester would have resembled very much this spring uh so we're incredibly indebted to their support uh for being able to um provide um devices to all of our students um as far as grants go the grants committee and students in the youth philanthropy philanthropy program met to review Grant applications that were received this fall and then recommendations from both of those groups will go to the executive committee for final review and they meet virtually at 7:45 this coming Thursday uh and then I am on the marketing Communications Relations Committee and we also meet um this Thursday starting at 8:30 and then um that's pretty much what I have for bef so there you go great thank you very much um Miss Powers thank you um I just want to start
029by adding a voice of congratulations to Amy Blosser um both of my children were super involved in her programs and um Graham and Simon gained so much from her uh ability they have been inspired really for life um they went on to sing in college and um she is one of the many many teachers here um but she stands out and this recognition is so welld deserved as somebody who made a huge difference so I'm really excited for her and I congratulate her um Bexley wreck uh has met twice since I last reported um highlights include reviewing the 2021 budget that Bexley W presented as City Council in the last meeting in December the primary focus was on the programs that Bexley wre uh is trying to offer and trying to figure out what they
030can and can't do in these covid times there is a new program that they are working on to bring an ice rink um in to our community which would be really um just I think super fun so I'm very excited about that um they are all there there was also discussion about how um Jeffrey care could be um provided again as as the school is um going into remote and I would just want to say again how grateful I am to Mike Price and Katie saris and that's the team there that have really um done everything on such short notice to make things possible for our community I really appreciate the hard work that they do I also want to thank um publicly Kristen bogs who spoke with our treasur and our superintendent and reached
031out to board members about House Bill 305 um as um Michelle Mino talked about um I really appreciate that that um reaching out to the schools um because it's such an important issue for us to have our our legislature do that um my other reports um Franklin County School Board member Alliance meeting uh this is a group that's interested in advocating for school districts across the area um the discussion in November was mostly around instruction delivery models in various districts and um there was discussion of legislative changes Ed Choice voucher litigation and there was a brief meeting in December where um meetings for the coming year were set um Treasurer Smith and I both attended the annual meeting of the Ohio education policy Institute on December 1 um it was really almost like being in
032a seminar where um really knowledgeable um members of that organization presented on um many many issues that are still sort of Hot Topics in legislation for school boards so school funding Ed Choice student wellness and success funding and operating Levy Trends were all discussed and I was grateful to be able to participate in that that's what I have great thank you very much um so miss George are you I'm here hi she is hi unfortunately our class of the classes event um had to be postponed um just due to covid and such but what I said to my student councils I'm very happy that I know that we can put like we can do something um and it's we're able to um so that was the takeaway from this semester and we're really looking forward
033to next semester having an event almost every month except for January um we're not quite sure what those events are going to be but I'm very lucky to have a team behind me that's very diligent and on the ball about everything um I was also we were approached by Dr good um this past week or two um we realized that a big problem with going either remote or hybrid is that families don't have the child care that they need um and so doctor good approached us and we came up with the idea about putting together a way for families to get that child care from responsible high school students so depending on what our schedule's going to look like next year I know we're still figuring that out um over winter break I'm going to
034be working with Dr G and we're going to come up with a way to connect um high schoolers and families based on high schooler schedules and family schedules that will provide families with that child service if they need it um or not it could be available for volunteer hours um it could be whatever students and families agree agree upon and we're going to figure out a way to match families with students that best fit them so that is my and my exec board's job over winter break um and I'm really excited to give back to the community in that way thank you Sarah I'm really excited about that opt that opportunity as well and I really appreciate your leadership because that's not a small task at all so um I really am thankful for you
035and your and your committee and we'll look forward to hearing great things I know our our community is appreciative as well so thank you for that um all right and our uh agenda we're moving on to item 4A with our superintendent's comments Dr good um are there any things in our under four uh item four that you'd like to uh discuss with us um actually I kind of prepared a few comments so um I thank you for the opportunity to address the board and and the community that you represented it's really been a pleasure to have the involvement of so many of our residents as we challenged our school system to find ways to have more contact time with students on a more consistent basis and doing that without compromising the quality of instruction or
036the health and safety of our facilities occupants I know that our chief academic officer Jill Abraham will talk more about the process the participants and then the product that resulted from this what I consider a very model engagement when Jill presents for your consideration the adoption of that new service model that we're titling hybrid 2.0 I'm also going to take this opportunity to thank our health and safety task force and the evaluation team that's led by Dr Williams these two volunteer collectives have met almost weekly to develop guidelines and protocols that have been implemented and maintained as safeguards against the spread of covid-19 the evaluation team as we know created a learning mode decision tool which is referenced each Thursday when the team assesses two factors first Factor being the medical and the epidemiological data
037regarding the safety of having people in the buildings and second our capacity as an institution to engage and educate our students in the current learning mode I believe most know we are presently in a remote mode the recommen recommendation by the evaluation team to move to that remote mode was because our capacity to educate students in the hybrid learning mode was compromised it was compromised by both staff and student absences which were increasingly stressing the system our fill rates and fill rates are the percentage of Staff classroom vacancies that are covered by qualified substitute teachers that fill rates were declining and teachers already preparing for live and synchronous and asynchronous and quarantine and specialized instruction were giving up their only planning time to cover classes where no professional educator was available and so we did
038move to remote I'm pleased to share that this amazing Bexley Community mobilized and began recruiting adults with bachelor's degrees to apply to substitute teach in bexy City Schools our objective is to be able to fill any teaching vacancies once we return to a hybrid learning mode I will tell you in my 40 Years of public education this is the first time I've witnessed this sort of patronage so I thank you the residents and relatives of residents for this kindness we've had already three dozen indiv indviduals express interest and we're very pleased we'll be offering reimbursement for their temporary lenser fees as well as payment for their background checks this week we were reminded of an unpleasant reality that we are a part of a fractured ecosystem and that ecosystem contributes to tragic and unnecessary loss
039Bexley continues to mourn the passing of former Bexley City Schools Junior Jeremiah Clinton Jeremiah's remembered for his bright smile and his paternal likee relationship with his siblings and our thoughts are with his family as they grieve his much too short life and we wish for the healing and the full recovery of 2020 Bexley high school graduate Troy Redmond Troy is known for his Magnetic Personality and his love of football the Bexley minority parents Alliance and the developmental assets Resource Network along with many many individuals are modeling bexley's compassion and Good Will with their actions and we thank you sincerely tonight the bord will act on the resignation of individuals that I've only had a brief period to know and yet like every administrator Aid clerk coach Cook counselor custodian driver food service worker librarian maintenance
040professional our mentors principal psychologists receptionist secretary Specialists teachers technicians therapist and treasures Lexy City Schools is a family we grieve any who leave but we also celebrate their next and for those who are joining us on tonight's Personnel agenda welcome this is a district that works in tandem with its stakeholders inclusively collaboratively and produces the extraordinary because nothing less than exceptional is satisf satisfactory in Bexley it's what makes us distinctly Bexley I knew this of Bexley when I lived here and now I experience it daily firsthand as a public servant and for the extreme level of Engagement while oftentimes exhausting nonetheless I am most appreciative many superintendant would exclaim that the role of CEO of a school district is the Loneliest position in the system well not here not ever you've been generous with your
041time and your your expertise and increasingly civil in your exchanges with me so I do sincerely wish the board and our community during this holiday season much joy limited of course to those in your bubble and I wish the incomparable Bexley City Schools faculty and staff a restful winter break that's the end of my report thank you very much I appreciate that Dr good um sorry I'm trying to uh manipulate the screen that I'm not in charge of so let me move over to mine um hearing all of that can I have a motion to approve items 4 a through H oh sorry a 4 a through G don't moved second thank you with that motion and second do I have any questions or discussions thank you hearing none uh this has involves Personnel Mr
042Smith can you give us a roll call vote please Miss Mitchell yes Mr barno yes Miss Powers yes Miss Mino yes Miss Snowden yes thank you that motion carries um so moving on to our treasurer's report Mr Smith thank you Miss Snowden um so briefly tonight on the on the treasures item sorry as you see the side of my face and I scroll um uh the monthly report there's not much to report for November it's relatively a quiet month financially not a lot of money coming in expenditures are pretty pretty standard um and the variances are are pretty pretty small um and significant at this point um because we've updated our financial forecast um to our our monthly budgeting so it should be relatively close for no um the second item is amended Appropriations which
043is being brought to you tonight for a couple of reasons this is about the time of the year when we get our final Grant dollars from the state or federal government um that those become finalized we've also um are expecting a little bit in a little bit more in U cares act funding so you'll see an increase in that uh also increased general fund by just a little bit for additional covid expenditures mainly in operations uh for PPE or cleaning supplies um extra cleaning stuff out of the business operations budget um third on here is theou with Bexley Education Foundation um anytime that we have to make a payment to really anybody we need to have some type of approval for it um or some kind of standing for it sorry to interrupt you just
044to be clear you you said the with the Bexley Education Foundation Bexley Education Association sorry thank you just want to be clear no thank you appreciate thatle Education Association um and so this is an agreement with them where they will uh there we're going to pay the uh members of that Association uh essentially uh professional development dollars that they have on their own checking account so they're their own um organization per se uh and they're returning some money to all their members for professional development so bottom line for us as a district uh it's it's no additional cost to us or any expense um on our general fund but it's a way of um technically managing um payments for them so I I believe it's um it's it's good for them and we're happy to
045um help facilitate that finally as a bus purchase um normally we see these in the spring but we're taking care of it now uh we do have a grant paying for uh part of this um estate Grant so about $20,000 of a roughly 85 or $95,000 expense 25 or 20,000 of that will come from state grants and the rest will come from our permanent Improvement fund and again Pi funds can be used for um items rather large in expense five $25,000 and half that has a life longer than five years and um obviously we hope that a bus would last that long for us uh that's all I had tonight if any questions on any of the items all right hearing none can I have uh a motion to approve items five a uh sorry
046we don't need a through e we just need to approve your uh B through 5B through e so moved second second thank you um was there a question that I heard in there okay great all in favor pleasee signify by saying I I I any oppos same sign that motion carries all right thank you so moving on we have um a report from our chief academic officer which is Mrs Abraham okay good evening again um we have two items tonight from the staff and student learning Department uh first we'll have a presentation from Dr Colleen Bole who has provided oversight to the Bexley e-learning Academy um we're coming to the end of our first semester so she'll share with you in just a few moments the work of uh she and our case managers and
047then following her presentation I will review the recommendations brought forward by our service model task force so with that Dr Bole I will turn it over to you thank you very much um good evening board president Snowden and members of the board thank you for inviting me to speak with you you about the e-learning academy I'm going to give just a second as the screen sharing switches I think Kyle is going to pull up presentation for us maybe thank you I know it's always a little challenging with the with the technology we'll see if we can techology Savvy except for when it comes to these Zoom calls so we're all we're all learning um I do I know the board members if all El fails I'd love her I would like our community to see
048it so we'll wait um but I do know you did send it in advance to all the board members so we have it um we can follow along great there we go there we believe that's working now uh let me know if it's not sorry with with two screens it's kind of tricky for me at least great thank you thank you okay so um I again I appreciate you asking me to come speak about the Bexley e-learning Academy the e-learning academy is one option among the learning models that we presented to our families this year and it was developed as an alternative for those students who were unable to attend class on site due to long-term concerns for most of our participating families they've chosen this option because one or more members of their household
049have a medical condition that put them in the highrisk category for covid-19 and so this is our opportunity to continue to include those students in our district now the e-learning academy is a completely online learning experience that students and families will access in an asynchronous manner there there is a set Pace to make sure that students complete their coursework in our given time periods and calendar however they are expected to keep up with that pace but they can do it in a time that really works well for their family so they have some flexibility about time of day if they do it during the weekdays or um carry over into the weekends there's a lot of flexibility there now you can see on this next slide our participation rate um currently we have 12 seven
050students who are enrolled for the first semester we initially had 139 signed up but then his families became more or less comfortable with in-person learning those numbers fluctuated a bit and we are on track to have approximately 116 students participate in the second semester and on this slide you can see that distribution by grade levels one thing to keep in mind for K through 5 is that that is an accumulation of all three Elementary buildings on the slide you can see that same breakdown by race um and with a slight decrease in the number of students who identify as Asian participating in second semester the representation among our various racial groups has been very consistent from first to second semester now our primary platform for e-learning is schools PLP it's a national provider of online
051content and it's being used in many districts within the state of Ohio including new Alban Oakwood which is a suburb very similar to Bexley just outside of Dayton and then Licking Heights and Huber Heights among some others within the state the one thing that stands about stands out about this platform is that they include content from multiple Publishers including companies like bright thinker Lincoln Learning and echool um the courses are aligned to the same standards that Ohio has and it's the same standards that we teach in our Bexley courses the sequence may be a little different within each course but the content is the same additionally one of the perks of this program is that many of our secondary electives are available a typical lesson for a student would include some sort of video usually
052text for the students to read and then a practice T practice task such as a game or a worksheet and then the lessons and units also include assessments that help us document student progress some of those assessments are graded by the computer and then some of those assessments are graded by a team of Bexley staff now it's important to keep in mind no online platform can fully replace in person instruction as we all know so well however in situations where our students just can't participate in person for most or all of the Year this platform has been able to provide our course content to our students and from what we've heard from other districts this has probably been the most reliable of Platforms in terms of company consistency and support now um as great as
053schools PLP has been in terms of delivering content for us there have been a few supplemental platforms that we've utilized for specific needs for example um we do continue to use canvas and Google Classroom to a small degree specifically for our gifted language arts courses our elementary Reading interventions and then some of our other specialized Services Apex has been a source of our advanced placement literature and language courses in order to ensure our students can continue to access those we also have com have partnered with the Ohio history connection they offer a digital curriculum called Ohio is America that's specifically for fourth grade one thing that is unique about Ohio standards for fourth grade social studies is that they are very Ohio specific and school's plp's social studies curriculum for fourth grade was really designed
054for a national audience so we've contracted with Ohio as America to provide our fourth grade social soci studies program and then our team developed a pacing guide and our um case managers do the actual evaluation of students in that particular program and then finally our last platform that we use is with Sterling Academy this has been very specific to Latin one Latin one is a unique course that not many districts offer and so it was not able to be found in any of the platforms where researched but Sterling Academy offers it it's um an online school that serves Nationwide they've been able to provide both the curriculum and a teacher so that way our freshmen that were involved in that course can still be set up to participate in bexley's Latin courses next year when
055they return to school now during the first semester we have 27 students in the e-learning academy with IEP or 504 plans and then another 23 students eligible for gifted Language Arts Services in grades 4 through eight so our special education case managers with our e-learning families to review IEPs make sure that any modifications needed for the e-learning setting were taken care of and then those services are delivered either in person or via Zoom depending on the needs of the student for our students who are receiving gifted Ela Services they continue to receive those remotely from a Bexley gifted intervention specialist and then our students who were in our compacted 67 or compacted 78 math classes are able to take that course in school's PLP we were able to work with existing courses in school's PLP
056and modify them to make sure that the classes cover the same math standards that our compacted math classes address and then finally we have one of our literacy Specialists who also works with our e-learners that are on a rimp to make sure that they're getting the reading intervention services they would receive if they were onsite to make sure that our youngest Learners continue to develop their literacy skills pardon me so a fully online program can feel imp person personal if it's left unattended and so in addition to the continuation of services I just described we've created a system of supports to help our students and family remain connected to their school and Community we started the semester with a welcome email and Outreach to help our families get started and that email also included login
057information what to expect do extend learning beyond the computer our case managers and I continue to engage with parents about concerns and needs by phone and email and then as appropriate send group emails and newsletters with announcements and updates to keep everyone informed our families are also still on their school email list and continue to get school and District news as usual but we do have a few extra supports I want to highlight a little further the first one is the critical one and that's our set of case managers and we have four staff members who serve as case managers for the district you can see their names here um they are the first line defense when it comes to to coordinating and driving our e-learning program they have made it their mission to help
058our e-learners experience success and it includes work such as organizing weekly group sessions monitoring grades and attendance they collaborate with Specialists to align support they provide individual support themselves and help troubleshoot technology Galore they are the first and strongest connection between our e-learners and our district now the case managers also hold weekly Zoom sessions one concern that we heard early on from our e-learning families even before the year began was a fear of losing contact with other students in the schools and so in response each case manager has held weekly Zoom meetings with their students in their school and the purpose of these meetings is to give the students an opportunity to see and talk with others from their school share what's working well Provide support to each other and help each other troubleshoot technology
059challenges or time management issues our school counselors have also participated in many of these meetings to help facilitate social emotional work and sometimes other faculty will make a surprise appearance on occasion as well now because these are not manage or not mandatory sometimes participation can vary week to week and on the slide you can see the average participation rates for each building however it is still an option that we continue to hold regardless of participation rates just to make sure that there's an opportunity for students to sustain those connections now while our secondary students are much more independent our elementary students and parents can sometimes get overwhelmed as they juggle the main PLP curriculum our special services and efforts to have some sort of continuity with Bexley as a district so our case managers at
060the elementary level created a Google Classroom that serves as a One-Stop shop of sorts for students and families it's a place for ongoing announcements for things like this week's school spirit week um Zoom session reminders and links any upcoming virtual events at their home schools the classroom houses links to all of the necessary learning platforms I shared before it also includes videos of literacy lessons with hegr and Foundations just like students would receive in school and it includes links to our supplemental sites used through the district such as Study Island Lexia or Prodigy our case managers also identified a need for additional writing experiences for our students so they created a series of writing prompts for all grades with weekly optional Live support for grades for and five and then our literacy specialist adds individualized
061reading and writing assignments for our students on reading intervention plans the case managers have included social emotional support resources links to Virtual calming spaces and even connections back to their building counselors so that the students have a constant connection if they want it it's not an additional class that the students have to complete none of the tasks are required but it is one more connecting resource for our students and our families now sometimes our students need individual support from our staff to find success I cannot emphasize enough again the value of our incredible case managers I can name any student and they are able to tell me about their most recent contact with the student or parents the students Trend over time challenges each student's had where they found success they engage in emails phone
062calls zooms sometimes iners dropping things off at doors these sessions are helping the student learn can be helping the student learn how to attach an image for an assignment or to review feedback from their assessment sometimes the case managers will get on with a student who's fallen behind and just sit through Zoom watching the student complete the work to make sure it gets done we have one staff member who holds a daily study hall to make sure that any student who wants help can come get it so we have had a handful of students who've fallen behind for one reason or another and our case managers have worked the families to create individual plans to get those kids back on track and they've collaborated with counselors principals Specialists any of their colleagues to get the
063students the support they need and then finally we created a series of web pages on our district website to provide information to families you can see some of the content that is included here this page can easily be found under either the find it fast link or the covid-19 page and then as new questions arise or resources are devel we add them to the website so it's an Ever growing evolving tool now anytime something new is implemented as you all know there will be challenges during those early stages and the e-learning academy has been no exception our initial hurdle with Staffing and as you've seen with in-person schooling our staff have been stretched thin and as you saw in earlier enrollment slides there was not enough of an enrollment in a single grade level or
064school to be able to reassign classroom teachers to to the e-learning academy without overwhelming our in-person classes so we had to get a little creative with the schedules of some of our staff using their current roles and then in some cases adding some supplemental stiens to fill in gaps here or there in order to staff the program another challenge we've encountered is that not all of our AP or elective courses were available on the flip side there were some different elective courses that students could experience in the learning platform that they would not be able to take here in Bexley so we've been able to help our students find Alternatives within that platform or using one of the supplemental platforms and in some cases using systems like college credit plus and Partnerships with neighboring universities
065to make sure that they don't miss out on courses that they need now we had some initial technology glitches most of that was related to the way our e-learning platform functioned on an iPad so those have mostly been resolved with the arrival of our new Chromebooks um as other minor issues have surfaced that's normal when a new program is used but we've been able to work around that either with the company or through internal problem solving to find Solutions or workarounds in most cases for us the key has been remaining and being willing to exercise those creative problem solving skills and then we've had to think through our recordkeeping systems to make sure that we're documenting student progress and that we fulfill accountability rules with the state that's included learning how to analyze the student
066progress charts in our learning platforms and then translate that work to our standards based report cards and then finding ways to document student attendance through their onpac work and login records so that we can balance maintaining accountability while still being flexible to accommodate our students and families in this unique time now when faced with all that we have experienced in 2020 as a world a district individuals it can be easy to be overwhelmed by the challenges and forget about the successes but when you reflect on what we have somehow managed to accomplish and survive the successes are pretty significant first despite all that everyone is juggling our e-learners have an average attendance rate of almost 94% since e-learning began on September 7th I would suspect that that attendance rate is probably higher than that in
067the past four weeks and a little bit lower than that in the first four weeks just due to the normal transitions as families learn the system and set up routines um for us attendance is determined by being on Pace in their courses and or engaging in the learning platform for an expected amount of time throughout the week we have found a routine that is creating a new sense of normaly even if not the normaly that we desire and it's created a sense of stability with a consistent schedule and a continuation of our exceptional student services thanks to the ever evolving array of group and individual supports our families have been very communicative and very proactive Partners as we've made all of the adjustments to this new way of learning and I know I've said it
068before but I cannot say it enough this success is heavily due to the work of our four Unstoppable case managers in collaboration with our principes our counselors our teachers our Specialists all other faculty throughout the district it's been a student focused creative problem solving approach that is indeed distinctly Bexley so we are full steam ahead preparing for second semester we have reached out to all of our current e-learning families in order to learn their intentions for schooling for second semester and we've received a small number of new e-learning enrollees so this week is the nitty-gritty of creating schedules working with principles and teachers to help make sure we can prepare students to transition into or out of e-learning later this week we will also be sending out a survey to both our students and our
069families who are currently in e-learning in order to hear more about what went well and what things we may need to adjust to better meet student needs for the second semester this way we can help ensure our students finish the year strong and then finally we will be looking to continue um looking for new ways to keep our e-learners connected to their schools this may be through participation in Virtual programs or clubs I know that some of the student councils are gearing up second semester and they're including our e-learners as well and also we will continue to include our e-learners in our district assessment programs so like all things this year getting an e-learning option up and running in a meaningful way has been a new Venture for everyone so I just want to say
070thank you to the board and our Administration for your help and providing the resources and structure to do this work thank you a huge thank you to our case managers I could not do this without them they're the ones who helped keep our students in our hands and then of course a thank you to our students and families for their engagement and for sharing their experiences and needs and for the ongoing Grace and flexibility as we continue to implement this program so with that I turn it back to you thank you very much Dr fo that was very interesting and enlightening um so Mrs Abraham I think you have um that takes us to our portion of our um agenda where our service model is found our hybrid 2.0 we of course as a board
071have had the opportunity to um view the entire uh presentation and have um had the chance to ask many question questions and uh which I greatly appreciate is there anything else um that you would like to share with us tonight and I I think I would just like to recognize the work of the actual task force uh when we convened at the end of October when I sent the first invitation out asking our community our parents our staff to join with me to examine our current structures to imagine um new Solutions and and to be open to giving and taking feedback um I don't think I imagined uh where we would land and so I'm very grateful for their work and for those who weren't able to join our presentation on Thursday evening I just
072want to reiterate this was a task force made of 42 uh members and again parents Community faculty Board of Education the administration those 42 folks mve forward into six work group six work groups invited other folks in uh which grew to be a large uh group of over 140 folks we sought opportunities to get feedback from our students over 600 students responded to a survey we've had over 100 community members respond online um to a Google form and have provided thoughtful feedback and consideration for us to review and um to add to our thinking and so tonight as we um stand before the board we have our recommendations for what we've coined uh hybrid 2.0 which is an AM PM hybrid model for our K5 students and it's an alternating day scheduled for our students
073in grades 6 through 12 thank you thank you very much all right um I'm trying to click back through to my board docs thanks for your patience everyone um we as a board will have an opportunity to um ask any more questions a uh of Miss Abraham after um our public participation section um when we vote on the actual resolution so that brings us to our um public comment and as far uh let me check really quick Mr Smith do I am I right that we have one person who was um signed up for public comment yes we had one submit uh a desire to speak uh I don't see the name but um if Benjamin if you're on with us if you could raise your hand so I could identify you and allow you
074to speak um I didn't see a name that would match so sorry as I scroll through the attendees that's right I know it's it's I know sometimes um participant attendee names don't always thees don't always match with people so Benjamin if you're on with us if you could raise your hand please KY how do how do you raise your hand on here do it become obvious is it under the chat function um trying to think what it would look like for me but just don't want somebody to not know how to do and be waiting on the other end the raise hand features at the bottom of the screen it's just a hand okay thank you Tyler um all right so if we do not have anybody on for public participation um then we will
075move on to our resolution section so tonight we have in front of us a resolution to approve our service model that um Mrs Abraham was just uh discussing with us so can I get a motion to approve our item 8B so moved thank you second second thank you all right so now that we have a motion in a second are there any questions or comments for um the good of the order um Miss Snowden did have a couple of questions um and I just want to they're really brief um first I want to acknowledge um Miss Abraham and her team and the team of folks with this task force um really turning turning around um this task of delivering a new model for us to um look at you know I had a million questions
076before I had a chance to just listen into your presentation um and um they were answered a great deal of them were answered um the first thing I just want to note is you know our you said something to me when we had another Zoom call what's the problem that we're trying to solve and um it actually was a pretty transformative question um because it it really brought back to me the the problem that we always have to solve as school like in educating kids um and it's easy to get kind of lost in all the other um things were sometimes asked to figure out um but I did want to ask you really quickly um Miss Abraham if you could because I know that um this new hybrid will replace the old hybrid should
077we ever when we REM go to remote and then back and forth if we have to do any of that um because of conditions in the county and what have you um but could you uh tell me what were some of the issues you might have identified um for the middle school or high school that if they wanted to switch into this um amm model Am Pm absolutely and I do have Jason coddle I know as a panelist this evening as well so that he can contribute to the thinking um again as Dr good referenced in his opening comments one of our priorities uh or driving priorities were to increase contact contact time and consistency so we were looking for ways to really optimize what would that mean in terms of um being able to
078increase contact time and didn't have to look the same at each level we knew in the summer task force that there may come time there may come a time where the needs of students Andor um the way that the learning day naturally looks for students as they move through it may prompt us into different models between the two levels and that's exactly what happened as um our 6 through 12 our two work groups uh began to research what were some opportunities how do they increase contact time uh I'm going to let Mr coddle explain he does a better job of explaining exactly the challenge of working with an odd number of periods across uh days to get what feels like an even balance of that so Mr coddle are you available yes thank you um
079so one of the uh challenges is making sure that when students are in the school building that we're making good use of that time and so that means that we would need to maintain the length of the periods um otherwise we would just spend all of our time changing classes and going through our cleaning protocols and not spend our time educating and so when Miss Robbins and I sat down uh with our teams and looked at the schedule it looked like a half day could really accommodate about three class periods um between the Middle School and High School um we both have seven period days once you remove lunch from the um from the equation and so that would mean that on day one we would have classes one23 then we would have the next
080day classes 456 the following day we would have period 712 and so we would get into this cycle where no two days were ever the same uh and so consistency would be very difficult um and then we would actually lose a day of instruction um across a two-e period so we felt like an AM PM was really a step backwards from contact time um and consistency standpoint thank you that's a best actually spoton explanation so I appreciate that um and then um I think I only had one other last question I I was curious about where we landed on the support for um child care for families um you know I'm I'm assuming that um our um principles and school counselors individual School counselers are supporting those families that's been identified but have we um
081provided um you know that backup plan for just at least at least a resource like hey here you go uh you know I certainly don't expect the school to solve the problem um but you know what what backup plan or resources have we finalized because we're going into Christmas and then you know a lot going on with the holidays uh and then we're back to school so just curious what what were the the final um recommendations or or resources that we're going to communicate in the coming days so a couple of things I I would share in response to at first we were very fortunate to have Mike Price and Katie saris from Bexley wreck as part of the task force and Mike Clapper of The JCC also was a member of the task force
082so they have been um a part of the thinking and um have had the foresight to see the potential of of what a recommendation might look like so we've been very very lucky to have their partnership um Dr Williams and I have worked with them and things that we've been problem solving with them is obviously with the midday transition and having some students who would need to be leaving at one point and other students that would need to be coming we've talked about um being able to support them with the use of District Vans um potentially we've also um a lotted um cafeteria space um for Bexley wck to be able to use at montros and Maryland that could be spaces for students so it would eliminate a need for travel and so students in
083those two particular buildings would be able to be able to support be supported in the other half of the day um and then the JCC additionally has shared with us um the number of spots that they would have available to support families who would also be looking for um Child Care should be moveed forward with your approval um we also had the opportunity again in working with partnership with our student council to be able to utilize our Bexley students our high school students that might be able to best support our families at this point I would say that all of those entities that I've just mentioned are really waiting for a board vote then to step forward and to be able to um communicate um availability spaces scholarship those types of of of um pieces
084that the community would need for next steps in their planning thank you um I just had one last question and you kind of touched on it um So based on whatever our vote is tonight the um after care will then um step in and try to finalize location of where these services will be provided both morning and afternoon yeah um and I'm sorry I'm drawing a blank but I don't remember seeing any information on the crossing guard function for the um morning and afternoon sessions will students still be you know like the morning guards will come in and do morning and then the afternoon guards will come in in the afternoon for the elementary that'll be something we'll need to work out with our School principles okay all right thank you thank you any other
085comments or um questions um just really quickly I appreciate the process of how we've got to this point not only um the committee and obviously U Miss Abraham and and organizing all that that's phenomenal but having the meeting last Thursday and being able to listen to a lot of stuff and having so much information that Miss Abraham um she's done a lot of talking on Zoom calls I'm sure and the Thursday answering lots of questions really helped a lot um so not only the the substance of it obviously is fantastic but the fact that we were able to kind of get to the point where we had that Thursday meeting and hear that and then that also allowed our public to to hear that listen in on it see what was on our agenda and
086then being able to um give us feedback if not public comment tonight but certainly the emails that we've gotten and and honestly I think the the amount of emails that we've gotten has been pretty minimal compared to what I thought would be and I think that's because of the the process and the thoroughness of the presentation so I wanted to point that out and appreciate not only miss Abraham but uh Miss sowden and Dr good for kind of giving us uh as board members that process and that ability to ask questions on Thursday our public to look at it think of questions send those to us and public comment today so I I think all of that is a really good process and I and I feel a real I feel real confident in that
087um getting that information and our questions answered so I I wanted to kind of point that out uh again not only for the substance but the process of where we are today so thank you thank you thank you very much um anyone else Miss Min or Miss Powers um so I'll be super I'll be super brief um I want to say to the committee um to miss Abraham and the committee the people who served on the committee and the overall all the Educators who participated um in some way thank you for your work thank you for your work here um um I want to share this is just a comment um this year I have a middle school student and two high school students um but the previous two years I had one in Middle
088School or one in elementary one in middle and one in high school and I know to our families how hard it is to juggle multiple schedules or to look at the needs of an elementary school student at the same time looking at the needs of a high school student um so to our families I I truly sympathize with what the the the disconnect that this this model creates um but I think it was super powerful I am very appreciative of the presentation and the graph where we could really see charted out how many more minutes of instruction time this model provides to our students I thought that was also really powerful so um like I said to our fam I hear you um but to the team thank you for creating a model that prioritizes
089or gives us a strong focus on increasing um instructional time and then finally just just a quick shout out um to everybody everybody in the community who has kind of rallied around creating supports for our families who um this model might create some scheduling challenges for thank you to parks and Rex and JCC and the student council and everybody else who's kind of stepped in and given a contribution there so that's those are just my comments thank you everyone thank you Marley I'll just add a couple of quick comments um first just want to reiterate the gratitude for Miss Abraham the incredible work from November 4th start date till T tonight um bringing all that together for in a process that was amazing um more than 140 people participating um getting input bringing it all
090together and um just working through all of those details was incredible um so great great D gratitude to miss Abraham and and to the folks that she led in this process I also want to say that reading the 650 or so comments that came in from families and from our students was incredibly powerful and it it helped me to understand what we had learned um from the beginning of this process from the first task force that we had in the summer about learning modes we knew that we would be learning as we went and listening to the students in particular um really helped me to think about what we have learned and um how we can reimagine the instructional model to increase contact time and consistency while continuing to prioritize health and safety and as
091Miss Mitchell said these are the problems that this task force identified or set out to solve and that's exactly what was done with that input so I'm really grateful to the community and the students for their um input for speaking up about what was and wasn't working and to uh Jill Abraham and the and the team for listening to that and and figuring out how to make that be an important guidepost for how to solve the problem that was set before us thank you thank you I'll just Echo those um those thoughts briefly I can't overstate my appreciation to miss Abraham um and her task force and specifically our teachers Who provided creative thinking and Leadership on that task force was really exceptional work um and it's provided us with a service model that meets
092our goals of as we said of um time and consistency with our students as a public uh education institution I believe that must be our deciding factor so I am um I do appreciate and I'm concerned by the stress that um a new system will cause for our families I am thankful to our Administration who has worked diligently with our Community Partners to ease this burden again I recognize that this is not a perfect solution but covid-19 has left us um with no Perfect Solutions so um I am compelled um to vote in favor of hybrid 2.0 because I believe it's what's best for our academic and mental health of our students it's supported by our teachers and it represents um what I believe is the very best that we can offer so I greatly
093appreciate that and now that we've all had an opportunity to speak I think we can move it to a vote Miss Nota real quick can I I just add something to what you said um and I'm sorry I I forgot to mention this I think um I had comments about kind of what all the questions being answered but also why I think this is important step it seems like it's more contact time more consistent contact time for our students and I understand the the child care issue but I also would Echo what you just said too is that uh I believe this is a good model and I and I also think it gets us closer to getting getting getting to the point of of more hopefully sooner rather than later getting our kids in
094school full-time all in as we've been calling it so sorry I I should have added that earlier but thank you for kind of reminding me of that yes thank you all right any other comments then all in favor of item eight B please signify by saying I hi hi hi any oppos same sign thank you that motion carries so we are going to be moving tonight into executive session um we will not have any votes after our executive session we um will I I'm going to read the section from the Ohio Revis code um and ask for a motion to move excuse me into executive session under Ohio Revis code one to one um22 wherein we hold an executive session um to consider items with respect to Public Employee or official in um employment and
095that's it thank you so can I have that motion please so moved second thank you all in favor please signify by saying I I I any name sign thank you so we'll be moving into executive session um and as I said we will not have a vote after that so we will sign back in you will see that on our screen but other than that there'll be nothing further um on our screen tonight so thank you all for joining us our community members who were able to and um happy holidays to everybody okay thank you e e for hey Alicia's there Mr Smith is there all right good I'm taking a tour and I think I can get um a motion and can I get a motion and a second to uh end this meeting
096so moved second thank you all in favor please signify by saying I hi any post same sign all right we're done thanks all very much we're cleaning we're cleaning now bye