001Alderton. Present. Ramey Gentry. Present. Jacinta Green. Present. Michelle Reeve. Present. Christopher Suarez. Is Chris on? Oh, maybe he's not here yet. Sorry. Heather Thornton. Present. And so Christopher will join us as well. Chris will join us as well as Margaret's participating in. some interviews for principals. So she'll join when that's finished. Okay, now if we could go ahead and adopt the agenda, if I could get a motion to adopt the agenda. Madam Chair, I move that we adopt the agenda for today. Second. Ms. Alterton, second Ms. Gentry's motion. I will call for a vote and I'll do it by roll call. So I vote yes. Cindy Anderson, Veronica Nolan. Yes. Megan Alderton? Yes. Amy Gentry? Yes. Jacinta Green? Yes. Michelle Reeve? Michelle? Yes. Heather Thornton? Yes. Okay, so now the first order of business and
002the main order of business today is our grading policy changes. So I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Hutchings. Thank you, Madam Chair. Before we even get started to take any clarifying questions and also give a quick overview, I just want to thank our staff who have been working, you know, so hard these past few weeks and they continue to work extremely hard every single day on behalf of our students here in Alexandria City Public Schools. And as you all know, I mean, with this pandemic, This is definitely unprecedented times for all of us. And it seems that each week there is something new and something different that we've learned and something else we might need to refine or do better. And I just appreciate our community who has provided us so much grace
003during this time, as well as our staff who are just stepping up to the plate each day. But today we are here to talk about and to get a vote on our grading policy. We presented to the board Friday prior to spring break and provided an overview of the calendar changes that were approved unanimously by the board so that we're offering now an additional professional learning day, which was this past Monday. Thank you all for that because our staff did need it. as well as extending our third quarter for our secondary students through April the 24th, which we also appreciate because of the fact that many of our students, you know, they're now able to make up assignments from the third quarter that will hopefully help. their grades. It can't hurt their grades. So that
004decision was really in the best interest of our students, especially now that we do have the technology devices out and the technology access that our students do have. Giving us that additional time is now allowing folks to catch up and to get into communication with our staff and our teachers. But today, the vote is about grading for elementary as well as grading for our secondary. And we've asked for some of our principals just to be in attendance today. So if there are any clarifying questions that come from board members, I think it's important for you all to hear from some of our leaders, our school leaders. So we've asked for Pete Ballas, who is high school principal, to join us today. We've also asked for Perrette Peters, who is Francis E. Hammond Middle School principal.
005And we also asked Ginger Canton, who is our principal at John Adams Dual Language Program. And she has joined us as well. We've also asked for Miss Mariah Runkle to join us. And you all know Mariah. She's like the energy lady, energy bunny, energizer bunny. And she's also leading a lot of our efforts that relate to grading policies to make sure that things are accurate, that they can come out on our report cards, that it is sufficient, that it's going to be effective, and that it can all work. She is the one who tells us yes or no. And then we have Daryl Sampson, who is also joining us, who is one of our directors over our counseling department. And Daryl, he is... a part of a lot of really all of the efforts that
006we've been doing with our grading policy with this whole proposal. He's been a part of all of that work and he is guiding us and making sure that we're following the VDOE guidelines as well as making sure that with this recommendation it's aligned with the expectations and policies that we already have in place so that they're in the best interest of our students. So we asked them to be here today. We wanted to open the floor for some questions. I thought we could start off with a question, even though Ms. Lorber is not here. She did have a question that she wanted to ask, and she is right now participating in some of our principal searches. So I wanted to start with that. And her question was specifically around, in elementary schools, typically about February,
007our staff, they meet with families of students who may have have some deficits and they may potentially be on the path of being retained for the school year. And her question was being that now we are home for the remainder of the year and we're learning from home, does that have a negative impact and does that now require those students to be retained? And we had this conversation with our principals and what we believe is that Throughout this time, being that we are learning from home, we still have supports for our students. And we're still providing additional supports, academic supports when needed as well. So, for example, when we have students who were falling behind on a certain subject area, we are now still able to provide that academic support either from a paraprofessional, from
008a co-teacher, from a teacher. similar to what we would do in a face-to-face setting. Of course, we're not replicating the face-to-face setting, but we are still providing those additional supports. And now that we are able to do this throughout the remainder of the school year, it does afford us opportunities to make sure that we're customizing certain supports for students so that we can hopefully build capacity with them and not have them fall. further behind. The challenge that we have across the board, and this is something that all of our principals have discussed and agree with, is all of our kids are really going to have some form of challenge, you know, because of this experience. And it's going to be in all different ways, depending on the child that we're dealing with. And once we
009begin to introduce to the board as well as to our community, our continuity of learning plan 3.0, which is for our summer experience and our summer learning, it will entail some of the additional supports we're going to do to prevent you know, the significant summer loss that could occur if we don't have some form of intervention for our students. And then throughout the summer, we'll be also preparing our continuity of learning plan 4.0 for when we open our doors, reopen our doors to our schools and what that learning looks like, because it is going to look very differently than a typical. school year beginning in the fall, because we're going to have to, we normally do review, you know, at the beginning of the school year, but that review is going to look very different
010because it's going to have to be a little more intense and strategic so that we're making up for some of the time where students are at home. So I wanted to make sure I responded to Ms. Lorber and I got this information also from our chief academic officer and our principals to validate the response that I am providing you all today. Okay, I have a question from Dr. Reif. Thank you. My question about the grading policy regulation was related to a different section than the changes that we're making for the closure. It was on the section seven, which is calculating high school class rank and grade point averages. I recall last year that there were some changes made by the administration at the high school. about the class. I think it was the class rank
011percentile. I don't know if it was going to be removed from the transcript. I wasn't sure. I just wanted to make sure whatever changes we were making here were aligned with those changes that were made at the high school. So if somebody could speak to that, that'd be terrific. So yes, I would like for, I know Mr. Ballas has joined us. If he can chime in in regards to this question. And I know we also have Mr. Sampson, if there's some additional information that's needed. Sure, absolutely. Yeah. So class rank in terms of number, the senior class of this year would be the first class not to have the actual class rank number on their transcripts. There was an agreement to have the. top 30% decile bands on transcripts, not report cards, but on transcripts
012to show them in the top 10, 20, and 30% of the class. And so you could see here on the share screen exactly the part that you're asking about. And I would just add that the schedule here, this information provides you with sort of the schedule of when during the school year and during the student's academic career, these decile percentages will be calculated. Okay, thank you. Dr. Eve, does that cover it? Yes, thanks. Okay, next up I have Mr. Suarez with a question. Yes, apologies, took me a couple minutes to log on today. But my question basically is about sort of some additional data we could be collecting during this time. I think one of the things that I really love about this grading proposal is that, you know, it was really thoughtful about, you
013know, make achieving a balance where kids have an opportunity to improve their grade, but also not penalizing students who may not have. as much access or resources during this time where we're all doing remote learning. So I thought that the committee and everyone has done a really thoughtful job and I support the proposal. My question though is, I do see this kind of an opportunity in, you know, and my one sort of slight concern is that, you know, students who might have more resources, more technology, more, you know, just sort of an ability to access the learning opportunities that are being provided may be an advantage, more advantage to improve their grade over those that do not. And so I feel like right now is a really great opportunity to sort of, you know, figure
014out who are we engaging with? How much are we engaging with them? Are there people falling through the cracks? I do think we've been collecting some of this data based on prior conversations we've had, but I think it would be really helpful for the board to receive. some sort of update or data compilation of like, are we reaching everyone right now? How is that going? Because if we can ensure that we've reached everyone by the end of this grading period, then we'll be in a great position for the fourth quarter to make sure that everyone's being engaged to the extent possible. So I'm just kind of curious how we're thinking about that vis-a-vis the grading policy to sort of make sure that kids are not slipping through the cracks to the extent possible. So one,
015I'm glad that you asked that question. Today, you will receive our board brief in regards to technology. And it gives an update on where we are with technology devices, as well as with technology access in our homes of our families. So that's one area that we're really proud of, because I know a lot of our school divisions across the country right now are experiencing those inequities with technology access and technology devices. And we have been very fortunate in ACPS to already have that. one-to-one, you know. initiative in place back in 2004. I was just sharing with our principals recently. I do want to give a shout out to Rebecca Perry because in 2004, you know, she and her team took a lot of heat with trying to do a one-to-one and being the first in
016the country. But look at how it has paid off now for us as we look at other school divisions across this world. We are ahead of the game. And I know a lot of that is due to the visionary leadership that we had back in 2004. And I sent her a text today, by the way. to just thank her for that because that is something that has made our lives so much more easier. In regards to supports for our students, and Dr. Crawford, she can elaborate a little more on this. Our SSTs are still in place, and some of our principals, if we need to, they can also chime in, but our schools. at our school level when students are not engaged. The advantage we have now is that teachers know if somebody's not engaged.
017So it's not like we have to monitor all 16,000 students from central office. Fortunately, our staff members are then putting in the necessary supports so that we're finding out why. the student is not engaged and why they're not online so that we can provide additional supports that are customized for that particular student's or family's situation. And now that we are at a place where by next week. all of our students that we are aware of will have that internet access as well as our technology devices. We will be able to have that lifeline between schools and home to get the necessary supports that look differently than what it does in face-to-face because nobody can do the face-to-face. We can't replicate what we do in school. But this new normal of what those supports look like
018remotely. And Dr. Crawford, I don't know if you wanted to add to that or if any of our principals wanted to chime in. Thank you, Dr. Hutchings, and good afternoon, everyone. Yes, actually, some of the principals were sharing strategies this morning during our principal meeting and the chat on the side of how they and their SST are reaching out to students, not just that we know who may have particular whether it's food insecurities or internet access needs, but also within the context of MTSS and where their students might be in a tier two or a tier three and need additional support. So it's primarily what Dr. Hutchings outlined with school administration, our teachers, and then our SST getting specifically involved in reaching our students. If I might add from the school level, during continuity of
019learning 1.0, our school counselors were tasked with calling every student on their caseload to just check the status, make sure their Chromebooks were working to see what the basic needs were. Now that we've moved into continuity of learning 2.0, we have tasked all of our teachers to call every student in their advisory teacher, I mean, in their advisory classes. So when you spoke to ensuring that no student slips through the cracks, we've been keeping spreadsheets and data on ensuring that we've spoken to everyone either by phone or email, making contact. And at the end of this week, which is today, we'll run another grade report to see how students are doing. And then next week, teachers have been tasked with reaching out to students who we still have not reached out to, have not made
020contact with, or still have grades below a C. Okay. Is that everyone who wanted to talk about that particular question? Okay. Next up, I have Ms. Nolan with a question. Thank you so much. Actually, that's so helpful. That's helpful information. I really appreciate that because I know that's one thing that everyone on this. zoom caller is concerned about is the students that aren't engaging so thank you so much to all the principals that are on the call and dr crawford for everything that everyone's doing to ensure their continuity so that was that was one of my big questions just a minor question i have no questions about the grading policy i think this was the fairest thing to do and i'm happy to proceed forward and vote yes on it so my question is more
021about that as we proceed into this space what is the communication clarification that both teachers and students are receiving in terms of what the expectation is on either like a daily, weekly cadence in terms of like what you need to do to get in now that we're moving forward with new information and grading. So again, my question is, what is the, just what's the clarification that teachers and students are receiving as to what the expectations are on either daily or weekly cadence? I see that Dr. Mozingo is on the call. Did you catch that, Dr. Mozingo? Good afternoon, everyone. So, and so, Dr. Mrs. Nolan, I'm trying to, you want to know what is the communication in terms of the expectations in 2.0? What are the communications coming from the schools to the students? Sorry,
022I'm just trying to understand that, number one, I guess I'm assuming it's been clearly communicated to teachers about what the expectations are, what they should be doing on a daily basis. But then how does that trickle down so that the students, it's clearly communicated to the students as to what the expectations are proceeding forward with this new era of as we're getting in grades. Like, do students, are students clear, crystal clear as to what the expectations are on a daily basis now that we've pivoted and moved towards the continuity learning? I guess. That's what I'm just trying to understand is like what the communication protocol has been. And is it clarified? Does everyone feel like they're on the same page, both from a student perspective, a parent perspective, and a teacher perspective as to what
023the expectations are on a daily basis moving forward as we pivot into this new era? Oh, okay. So I think first I would respond by, as Perrette indicated, as a part of 2.0, there is an expectation for communication with students on a regular basis. And that communication pertains to instruction. It pertains to, you know, trying to assess some of their needs. But there was the expectation, there is expectation in 2.0. At the same time, the individual schools or whether it's the counselor, whether it's administrators, whether it's assistant principals, those expectations are also being communicated through the teachers, through the students. I'm not sure if I hope, so in other words, yes, there is this expectation. There's expectation for communication on a regular basis. Some of the communication is through, as we indicated in 2.0, there's
024a whole list of staff roles and responsibilities. Some of the communication is coming through. the teachers, some may be coming through the actual counselors, some through the social workers. Yes, the expectation for is being communicated. Ms. Canton, I don't know if you're on the call or on the Zoom, but it may be a good idea for you to express to Ms. Nolan kind of like how teachers interact with students and what that looks like with setting expectations or student expectations from a teacher to a student. So in K-5, all teachers are making contact, live contact with students using Zoom or other mechanisms. We're also providing direct instruction using WeVideo and other platforms already existing in ACPS so that students have some flexibility and families have some flexibility in accessing some of these lessons. That will
025be ongoing. We have also communicated all of those schedules to our families. so that they can use the sample ACPS schedules, the school samples that have been shared, and tailor something that works out for each household because everyone's needs are different, as we're aware. Great. Thank you so much. And again, I just want to give my sincerest gratitude to every single person on the Zoom and others that are. And just it's been tremendous seeing the staff at ACPS come together to serve the young people. And it's just it's really something remarkable to be seeing. So thank you so much. Great. Okay. I don't see any more hands for questions. So if not, then what I would like is if I could get a motion to adopt grading policy IKC and regulation IKC-R. I move we
026adopt the grading policies. Second. Okay. I heard Ms. Green first and a second. Ms. Green seconds Mr. Suarez's motion. And I'm going to ask for the vote by roll call. So I, Cindy Anderson, vote yes. Veronica Nolan? Yes. Megan Alderton? Yes. Ramey Jantry? Yes. Jacinta Green? Yes. Margaret Lorber? Yes. Michelle Reif? Yes. Christopher Swanson? Yes. Heather Thornton? Yes. Okay, we have unanimous and so that passes. The next thing we have, we have the resolution, which I didn't get to tell anybody about, but this is something that came, probably everybody saw it at some point that it was from VSBA. And I think, and I'll let Ms. Abruzzese if she wants to add anything, but I think basically it's. to prevent us from having to rework multiple policies that might be in conflict with something that's
027being done during this unprecedented time. So it allows some latitude for that. And it's something, again, that was suggested by the State Board Association. So I don't know, Ms. Abruzzese, do you have anything else to add? Yes, thank you, Chair Anderson. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen here so everyone can see the resolution, the draft resolution. And I will scroll through it slowly. As Chair Anderson said, many of our policies and regulations are based on state and federal laws and regulations. And some of those have been waived during this time, during the pandemic. And therefore, that will, and I should say the waivers are designed to be limited in duration. And because the laws and regulations that many of our policies are based on are now currently changing, it
028would be impractical for the board to have to come and change every policy that's impacted during the short duration where there is a change to it. And so the Virginia School Board Association drafted a model resolution that they sent out to all Virginia school divisions that would essentially be a broad waiver of any applicable board policy or regulation while it's underpinning state or federal law or regulation have been waived so that they are aligned during the limited period of time of the waiver. And therefore, for instance, the board did pass a change to the grading policy today, but this would prevent the board from having to come back every week and vote on an amendment to every single board policy or regulation that is impacted. This would be a blanket waiver when appropriate. And of
029course, the board would be notified when a particular board policy or regulation was impacted. And essentially, I'm going to try to highlight here on my screen. the the first three quarters of this resolution essentially lays out for the public uh all of the background that I've just highlighted. And then these two stanzas are really the important part for the board's purposes, just stating that you would suspend any policies or even specific provisions within the policies while their underlying legal or regulatory requirements were waived. It would be for a limited duration. And of course, these changes would be made public. So for instance, real world examples, things like waiver of SOLs for this year, the 180 clock hour requirement per each course for credit, certain placement tests. placement tests required to enter dual enrollment courses. There
030are lots of changes being made right now that impact board policies. And so we are proposing this resolution today for the board's consideration, purely for information, and that would come back to the board at a future meeting for action. Great. Thank you. Do I have anyone with questions on that? Oh, I see Dr. Reif. Dr. Reif has a question. Yeah, I'm. So this is just for information purposes right now as I understand it, but I'm just wondering, you know, I'm sure there are school divisions in Virginia that are not able, the school board is not able to meet weekly in a weekly Zoom session like we're doing right now. I think we, you know, we're very effective. So I'm just wondering if we really think that that kind of a policy is necessary for our
031school board since we are able to, you know, if we're going to continue to meet weekly that would seem that. we would be able to vote on those policy changes. And I'm also just wondering, if we were to adopt something like this, have you given any thought to the section that says that the superintendent would be directed to inform the school board of any regulations that are proposed for suspension and the duration of such suspensions? Beyond just informing the board, I would certainly want to see, I would still want it in writing and something that is accessible to the public so that people are informed of what any of those changes could be. So there's like a clearinghouse that people can go to to see any things that are being adopted in the interim. Ms.
032Abruzzese, did you have something to say about that? I see you've shared your screen with us, but it's your desktop, I think now. Yes. So, sorry. So I was just trying to highlight there the section that Dr. Reif was addressing. So I would say essentially that I defer to the, you know, that is a discussion for the board. Really, it's depends on if the board prefers to have, I think it would result in policy changes coming to the board every meeting. Yeah, I think not only would it come every meeting, but then once this is over, we'd have to have them come again to change everything back. So it would be, you know, I think there would be quite a few. We would fill up our meetings and in fact, it wouldn't be, we wouldn't
033be able to probably get through them all in a timely fashion to. I mean, Ms. Abruzzese can give her opinion, but I think it would be hard to get through them all in a timely fashion and then have to go back and do them all again, you know, just to be sure that we're, you know, because everyone would have to be for info and then action, you know, we'd have to change, follow our procedure, our process, I would think, if we were going to change the individual policies and regulations. It would also create a lot more staff work, I believe, so. I don't know if anybody, let me see if anyone else is trying to ask her. Okay, I have Ms. Gentry. Thank you so much. So kind of building on some of the thoughts
034that I just heard from you, I do wonder, I can potentially see some of the adjustments having to be made maybe on a slightly fast timeline reacting to certain particular situations and our current format, even with this meeting weekly, where... you know, we would still have to post for info and then we would have to post for action. I also know that it's been a struggle for us. We technically scheduled these for an hour, but it's been a struggle for us to hold to the hour. So I would kind of worry about us being able to get through the material. I'm also mindful that In the coming month or so, and probably going forward, I think we're probably going to have to start spending a lot of time having budget related discussions. And I'm sensitive
035to the fact that we might need to spend some time focusing on that as well. So I do like the... I like the flexibility of this resolution in that it allows that to happen, but sets that really clear parameter that it is really only for the purpose, you know, only for the duration of the waiver. And then fortunately, I also like the fact that we do still have this regular check-in moment. So, you know, there's still the ability for that to be. very transparent and publicly shared, not only with us, but with the public through board briefs, through, you know, any of the other, you know, through info moments. So I'm grateful for the thinking that went behind the idea for this resolution. Next, I have Ms. Alderton. Yeah, so I'm really just building on
036a similar point to Ms. Gentry's. As much as I love policy, we've had a lot of success during this time. I mean, and I think a big part of that is that we've been very efficient. And so, you know, I do see doing it this way as very efficient because I do know we're also going to have to, and I think we probably want to spend more time on other things. I think budget is going to be a huge one. But also, like, it's really important for us, I think, to continue to spend time and, you know, staff energy and resources on the continuity of learning. Because this is so unprecedented, it's taken a lot of innovation and creativity, and it's just going to be continued work. And I think as much work that can
037be focused on that as possible is what's most important right now. Thank you. Next up, I have Ms. Lorber. Am I still muted? Okay. No, you're good. You're good. Oh, okay. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Okay. Yeah, I just wanted to say, just a question. I understand Dr. Reeve's point about wanting the public to be aware of whatever these changes might be. It seems to me that... whether we do them one by one or blanketly, the ones that are most relevant to the public are going to be publicized, correct? Because, for example, this grading policy, we're not going to keep that a secret. We're going to do things to get that new policy out to the public. My question would simply be, any policy changes that affect our students, I would assume we would. let be letting
038people know in one way or another whether the board briefs whether it's you know one way or another we're not trying to hide these changes it's simply a matter of being efficient so maybe someone could respond to that Yes, Margaret, the board would definitely be notified and we would make any proposed changes public, of course, to be transparent as we always do. As everyone's aware, we never make changes to policy or regulation without full notification and transparency to the board and the public and that would continue to be the case. We just wouldn't be required to bring every single temporary policy and regulatory change to the board individually in regular order. I would like to highlight one other thing, though, and that is to address Dr. Reif's, let me see if I can do it
039correctly this time. Can you see the proposal now? Okay, to address Dr. Reeves, she did raise one concern. I would like to highlight that the stanza that discusses proposed changes to regulations merely is highlighting that although technically the board approves policies and the superintendent can issue regulations, even any regulatory changes that are even being proposed for temporary suspension, the board would be notified in advance. Thank you. Now I have Miss Nolan. Yeah, I'll be brief because most of my comments were already said. In fact, after Miss Alderton spoke, I just wanted to say ditto. So that I mean, primarily, that's what I was going to say is I completely appreciate Dr. Reif. bringing this up. And I think that's resolved in terms of like, not only would it be brought to the board's attention, but
040also made public, it sounds like from Ms. Lorber's comment. But I think, you know, we are in a global pandemic right now. And so I think efficiency is going to have to be continued. I think we've done a phenomenal job with that. But I also think I just want to add, just being sensitive to staff's time, right? during this time. Not that I think we should be sensitive to staff's time all the time, but particularly our staff is drinking out of the fire hose right now. And so I think anything that can minimize, you know, things that we can move forward with efficiency that they can instead move about with their day and really fixating on those students, particularly the students that we're trying to engage that it's difficult during this time. I mean, any
041energy that can be put towards that, I say, let's go for it and support that effort. Okay. I don't have any other Any other people asking questions about that? So this, again, is for info and would show up maybe, you know, next week, depending on what other, because as we've discussed, the timing of the length, the duration of our meetings requires careful planning in terms of what we put on the agenda. But look for it probably in the next meeting. And if not, the one after that, I would assume. Now, I don't know, Dr. Hutchings, do you have, do you need, do you, would you like to say something else? No, I don't have any, any further updates because I send you all those updates daily. Right. Okay. Any other comments from anyone before we,
042before we adjourn? Okay. Well. Guys, we're getting pretty good. It's 1238. Oh, I see. A couple of comments. We still have a little time. Dr. Eve. Thank you. Yeah, I wanted to ask a little bit about our essential workers right now. You know, I'm very concerned about the health and safety of those essential workers that are still. that are still out there and I was just wondering if you could provide us with an update. I know that it's our nurses, our school nutrition and cafeteria staff, custodians, bus drivers. I wasn't sure if there were any other individuals who are still working at this time or accessing our buildings. I was curious about our contractors, any contractors that we might have working. And I know that, you know, as the situation has evolved, we have put
043increasingly, you know, increasing safety measures in place to protect our workers. And so I just, if you could talk about, I know that we're looking to implement a new health screening process. And I was, I was wondering why we're not doing that next week, why we're waiting for an additional week to do that. I was also wondering about the essential workers, if they're ever having staff meetings and if they are. If there are protocols for how to hold meetings like that where there's proper social distancing or there's less than 10 people gathered in one place. And I know that we were also waiting for, at our last meeting, there was questions about the MOU agreement with the health department. So if you could just kind of give us an update on. what's going on with
044our essential workers and how are we really doing everything in our power to protect their health and safety. And I know there's been issues too with the personal protective equipment. And if we could just get an update on where we are with that. In the city council meeting the other night, I understand it sounded like the city has been providing some PPE to ACPS. So do you have any concerns around? running out of PPE in the future. Are there any, you know, Are you anticipating any future safety challenges that you might be planning for? Like, I know that the food distribution is so critical, and I'm just thinking ahead, you know, how that situation may evolve as the number of cases in our area, if it does continue to increase. So if you could just
045provide an update on some of those issues, I would appreciate that. So one, let me just tell you that we share the same concerns that you all have. or that you just shared. And beginning on March 16th, we actually began to put our safety precautions in place for all of our essential personnel. And that ranged from, you know, making sure we were practicing our social distancing guidelines and making sure that I knew specifically with our custodial services and making sure that we had our actual maintenance plans revamped and revised so that we don't have multiple employees in certain areas, in certain sections. We also have always practiced with having gloves and masks, particularly with our food distribution and then making the different breakfast and lunch meals. That was a part of our practice and it's
046always been from the beginning. So none of those things are new. We've been practicing that. um thus far uh what we've added and you'll see that in the board brief today for um all board members is the um the temperature screening um and we have asked to do that the week of april 27th for next week to be more of our trial week of making sure that people are trained, that they know how to operate, and that our operations are efficient as possible and effective as possible. So next week, we're actually spending time with staff to provide the appropriate training and run-throughs of how this entire operation is going to work, because it does require multiple people who are doing something that we haven't done before. So this is a new thing for us. We
047don't want to just dive into something without having, you know, some practice and the fact that, you know, even we can do a Zoom. Doing a Zoom is not the same as being there in person and actually going through the full process. So we wanted to allow ourselves a week to get through those processes and making sure that people make arrangements, you know, for certain times that they might be coming in to help and assist with these. on-site safety precautions that we've taken place. I do want to make it very clear to the board as well as to our community that the temperature screening that we have in place is not something that's mandated. It's not even something that other people are doing. This is just an additional precaution that we have decided to do
048for ACPS. It is not something that we have been asked to do. I know that Ms. Anthony and her team consulted with our health director while we were putting together these. plans to get some guidance, but it wasn't a directive that was given to us to do. It's just an additional precaution that we wanted to take. And you'll see that outlined in the board brief later on today. In regards to our nurses, I know that Dr. Crawford, she just recently provided us with an update regarding our nurses, and we're still working on the MOU. uh for the for for our nurses we were working with john kafferkey to finalize to finalize that information uh and i believe that we got those final revisions today um i saw an email from but i haven't read it
049yet but i saw the email from john kafferkey but i believe we got those final revisions um today but dr crawford you want to give a quick update just regarding the nurses Sure. Yes, first of all, the final language was circulated on MOU to the city and to us. So that should be moving forward pretty quickly. Our collaboration continues. I'm very happy to say we had five nurses who worked over spring break and some of them worked almost 40 hours. They really volunteered their time while they're being paid, but they elected to provide their time there. The schedule has varied this week and will continue to be monitored. As the health calls have come into the hotline, our numbers of need has varied. So right now, as of today, we have two main shifts that
050our nurses participate on, two shifts and two nurses per shift. So at present, there's four nurses a day who are reporting on site. That's significantly less than what we had talked about before spring break. We have some people on call if needed, but that's really, that's a smaller amount and have nurses who are there volunteering, no exclusionary criteria along those lines. Dr. Reif, to your point about, you know, safety and work location, they have actually a separate room. They all have private rooms that can be wiped down. in between shifts. It's my understanding that they're actually in a separate part of the building on a different floor. They're away from more of the activity. And these, again, my understanding that they're also, these spaces are just reserved for our nurses to do the work there.
051They're also at the health department, so they're aware of practicing all of the regular things that we know help to flatten the curve with hand washing, social distancing, things along those lines. That's really, I mean, that, you know, that's where we are. They have requested, if anyone is interested, to work nights and weekends. You know, some of our nurses are interested in doing that. But on the whole, we only have four nurses per day in those two shifts, two in the morning and two in the afternoon. We talk to the health department leadership, obviously, daily. And our school health coordinator is on site. So she's our main relayer of information there. And we just monitor what that need is and are in regular communication. The nurses are still holding their staff meetings in response to
052your question there. I believe that they Zoom. And that's it for the nurses right now. We're very happy for their support. And the health department's been so wonderful to us that we're happy that we're able to support them in our state of emergency. If I could just jump in, because I know I asked, I kind of had thrown out a couple different things when I asked my question, but you mentioned next week was going to be used for doing the training for folks who are going to be doing the health screenings. And I wanted to, I know we're going to get a brief with more information, but I just wanted to clarify who was going to be doing the screenings, if it was going to be nurses or other personnel, and then how you're doing
053the trainings in a way that's. making sure that folks are socially distancing and things like that. Is there any kind of protocol around staff meetings at this time so that We know that people are being- Yes, and this is all outlined in the memo that you all will see this evening. And it has specifically, it actually has a script that goes along with it, as well as where people are stationed and centered so that we can practice the social distancing. So you'll see a full report this afternoon. And I think it'll be helpful for you to see that because that will give a complete outline of everything that is occurring for you and to give you a better- picture as well as the community because there will be a public document for our community to
054review as well. So yes, we are practicing the social distancing with that training next week. And we will have multiple, there are multiple employee groups that will be assisting with this. This is a very collaborative effort from transportation to helping to, you know, to monitor that traffic. patterns that are happening to security officers. But nurses right now, you do not have to be a licensed nurse to administer the non-touch temperatures. It's a device that actually takes your temperature from your forehead. So there is no interaction where you're touching somebody or using multiple thermometers with different people. So it's a no-touch. temperature screening that occurs, but it will be all outlined in the board brief. I know I just read it today, so you all will have it this afternoon. Great, great. So it sounds like
055we have lots of good information. And if then there are questions after we get it, then we can ask those certainly over the weekend or next week. I have Ms. Alderton who had her hand raised. Oh, maybe she took it down. No, I'm sorry. I meant to unmute myself and I took my hand down. I just, you know, I wanted to, you know, this is the end of the meeting and I really wanted to say like, seriously, seriously, seriously, thank you to all of the staff, all the senior leadership team. Like I have sort of a unique opportunity where I, you know, just because of work and, you know, being around people and being in education for a long time. I'm sorry. I've heard all of a lot of the experiences that are going on
056around the DMV and, you know, ACPS should be proud. I think I know I'm proud of all of you guys. Like what I have seen teachers doing, what I have seen administrators doing. It is absolutely amazing. And I just want to say, you know, I hope you guys can just bottle this up because I think what's really made it so good beyond the competence is the innovation and the thinking outside the box. And if we can bottle that and, you know, keep that going, even when the doors are open. It just has really shown like the talent and the quality of people that we have in this division. So thank you, thank you, thank you. You know, you guys are rocking it. Keep rocking it. And I'm proud. I'm proud. Well, on that note, I
057think that's a great way to end our meeting. I don't see anybody else with their hands raised. but I will need a motion to adjourn. Second. Okay, Ms. Lorber seconds Ms. Gentry's motion, and I'll do the roll call for the votes. I, Cindy Anderson, vote yes. Veronica Nolan? Yes. Megan Alderton? Yes. Remy Gentry? Yes. Jacinta Green? Yes. Margaret Lorber? Yes. Michelle Reed. Yes. Christopher Suarez. Yes. Heather Thornton. Yes. Okay, everybody have a great weekend and thanks to everyone for all you're doing.