001Cindy, I think we started the recording just a little bit late. Could you just rename the meeting? Okay, yes, this is the special call virtual board meeting and public hearing for July 9 2020 and we started at seven to three but at seven oh five now we've done the roll call we have seven numbers present and to absent to absent our Margaret Lerber and Megan and Megan Alterton and so now we are ready to make a motion to adopt the agenda. Madam Chair, I move that we adopt the agenda for the evening. Second. Miss Suarez seconds Miss Gentry's motion, I will call for a vote on by calling the roll call. Cindy Anderson yes. Veronica Nolan. Yes. Yes, just center green. Yes. Michelle reef. Yes. Christopher Suarez. Yes. Hello Thornton. Yes. So that said then
002yes and to absent. So the agenda is adopted. And so really tonight what we're here for is a public hearing on the continuity 4.0 plan for in to get input from our community. So there are three speakers, I believe that we have signed up for this evening. And so I'm going to look on the attendee side, and I see one hand raised. If you are here to speak if you raise your hand then that will make it easier for me to find you. So I have first up. I see the hand raised for Michael Donnie Donnie sorry I apologize about the name. So you have three minutes to speak about the to give us your feedback. Mr. Is he able to speak. We have to move them over into the meeting. Okay, so hold on.
003Hold on one second. Okay, I see two of the three speakers with their hand raised. Oh, there we go. Now we have them here. Great. Okay, Mr. Mr Donnie. Thank you. I just unmuted. Donnie or Donnie I'm so sorry. Last name is Donnie. Donnie. Okay, Mr. Donnie. Thank you. Okay, so I'm a West End resident, I've got two kids one just graduated from TC so we're very pleased with that but the TC graduation as you can imagine, punctuated a year, like a lead balloon hitting the ground. But that's not what I'm here to talk to you about what I've got is a 12 year old who's finished sixth grade, and I would argue, rather unsuccessfully the fourth quarter. I was at Hammond Middle School, 100% online. I want you I want you to know up
004front, my thinking on this, it was an abysmal failure. Not that the ACPS staff didn't didn't make a yeoman's attempt to be successful they I think they did what they could do. But I'm here to tell you tonight that that model will not be successful. If you continue to follow that that pattern into the fall and even later. What I wanted to share with you again his, his fourth quarter he was he was one of those straight A students in tag and advanced classes in the fourth quarter received no grades on any of the work that he attempted to perform. And as a result, over the course of those weeks and months. He, he began to be very uncomfortable and unhappy with the whole concept of doing online learning. I think maybe largely because learning
005the keyword learning wasn't really happening. Kids were being expected to to teach themselves lessons and materials and I can tell you that was not successful. It was also not successful because I was having to carry a burden as a single parent of trying to cajole my son into participating directly and actively and it became more and more difficult over time. So I will tell you, it's not going to work well. The outcomes will not be what we desire them to be. And let me finish with just a couple of last thoughts I want to put forward to you all to consider as you as you adjudicate these alternatives. I don't understand and have not seen any rationale why, why, if there is criterion, or if there was why full time return to class has been
006eliminated as an option. I've filled out the surveys and see that there's only two choices one is the hybrid approach and one is a full time online distance learning approach, which I would say is a no go for me. I don't know that you've set you've developed criterion for assessing the performance in the fourth quarter to judge whether a distance learning model is even going to be effective. So I would ask you to consider and discuss that and help us to know help us parents and folks in the community to know what's your yardstick and how would you propose to judge what type of learning model you would you would put in place. Let me finish again by just reiterating the fourth quarter at Hammond Middle School as hard as they tried and as dedicated
007as the teachers and staff are it was an unsuccessful fourth quarter. So I don't want to see us return to that. I'm from my perspective I would say a full time return to class is a model that ought to be considered. And I would advocate strongly against adopting a full time distance learning model. I don't think it's going to work now. Lastly, let's talk about middle school for a second. If I've got a little time left. Who has ever described their middle school years as the best years of their lives? Nobody. And what kid ever said the following. I can't wait for school to start again in the fall. And summer barely got started. Mr. Donnie you've used up three minutes now. Thank you. All right. There you go. Thank you for your time. Okay.
008Thank you. Thank you Mr. Donnie. And I actually do know you are. I just can't remember how to pronounce your last name. So thank you for speaking this evening. We'll move on to Jania Luck. One second. Cindy it's Jania Luck. I'm doing so poorly with names. Actually I had a clue on the third one. That's that's not even on here. So sorry Jania Luck. Thank you. Hello. This is Jania. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Yes. It sounds like you have someone who wants to help you with your, with your, with your, your speech. Yes. Please go ahead. Hear me. Yes, we can hear you. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes, we can hear you. We can hear you. You can go ahead. Is there a way to send her a chat or something? Susan
009or a text? I don't. I don't have any phone number for. Any of the. Let me see if I can. We don't have a chat function. We do not. Yeah. Okay. Ms. Luck, if you would like to get started, that would be great. Hello. This is Jania. Hello. Can you hear me? I'm not sure if you can hear me or not. Yes, we can. I'm going to go ahead and continue. I hope this is being recorded. I'm not sure if you can hear me. But this is Jania luck. I am a parent of a second grader going into second grade this year. And we. Again, have had the experience of doing virtual learning. As well. the gentleman that spoke earlier. It is, Zoom is a four-letter word now in my home. It took a lot
010of effort to get a first grader to sit still, to be inspired, to be engaged with a classroom of about 20 students that were all on Zoom. It was very hard for the teacher to, in fact, provide some sort of order or quorum or excitement, and it was, I don't think she was very familiar with the Zoom platform. Also during the summer school program, what we are experiencing right now, 15 to 20 minutes every morning has been just trying to get the microphones to work, the technology to work, and it is truly very disappointing, actually. I don't know if all the teachers have the right microphones, if they're using ethernet cords, if in fact we are working with our local cable providers to make sure that they have download speed, upload speed that's appropriate for
011this type of distance learning, but I do know that it is troublesome. I will also encourage any parent to try to experience in-person camps this summer. It is a shocker if in fact you believe that we can go back to the schools and just have chairs and desks spaced six feet apart. You're sadly mistaken for the elementary level. It is very hard for students to keep their masks on for more than three hours, and the hand washing that is done during the camps every hour is being implemented, but again, it is very troublesome for younger children. So I just really would like to encourage our school board to take a moment to encourage other parents to volunteer, to be paired up with different teachers, to be assistants for some of these Zoom platforms, and also
012to work through the technology hiccups that are glaringly disruptive. But thank you for the opportunity to share. Thank you. I'm not sure you can hear me, but thank you. That was very helpful. And I- I cannot see our third speaker for this evening. Okay. Okay. All right, everyone. So I think that concludes it, right? You don't see anyone with their hand up. I see no one with their hand up. No, I do not. Okay. All right. So we do have some other opportunities for people to speak. We have tomorrow during our meeting at noon, during our communications, and then on Thursday, August 6th at 7 p.m. and Friday, August 7th at 12 noon. So people can do that, and they can continue to please send us comments, your ideas and your concerns and your feedback
013about things that you've seen, like we've heard this evening, and things that you think we should be looking into. So that's really all I have. I think we have- Dr. Hutchings, would you like to say anything? It's your superintendent's report time. I already know I got a superintendent's report at the public session. So that's nice. I don't have anything to say. I'll say it for tomorrow, though, other than I appreciate all of the work that everybody is doing. I do have to say this about our distance learning. There have been a lot of lessons learned between Mark and June, and all of that, that was some of the reasoning for us having that pulse survey this past spring, just so that we could get some feedback to help us refine our distance learning. And as
014we move into continuity of learning 4.0, which we'll be giving an update to the board tomorrow, as well as next Friday, you all will see that a lot of that information is being put into our refinement efforts of our virtual learning opportunities. So I can't wait to talk more about that tomorrow, but I'll conclude with that. Okay, everyone. Now then what I need is a motion to adjourn as we're finished for this evening. Madam Chair, I move that we adjourn. Do I have a second? Second. Oh, I thought everybody wants to stay, except for Ms. Green. Mr. Suarez seconded Ms. Green's motion. So I will call for a vote. Veronica Nolan. Yes. Rami Jantri. Yes. DeCenta Green. Yes. Michelle Reeve. Yes. Christopher Suarez. Yes. Heather Thornton. Yes. Okay, we have seven yes and two absent.
015So we are adjourned at 719 and I'll see you all tomorrow at noon. Have a good evening. You too.