August 07, 2020 Special Call School Board Zoom Meeting

001Great, thank you. Okay, welcome everyone. This is the virtual special called School Board Meeting for August 7th, 2020. We are calling the meeting to order at 12.01 p.m. I'm going to do the roll call to see, so if you hear your name, please say that you're here. Cindy Anderson, I'm here. Veronica Nolan. I'm here. Megan Alderson. I'm here. Ramey Gentry. Jacinta Green. Neither. Margaret Lorber. Here. Michelle Reeve. Here. Christopher Suarez. Here. Heather Thornton. Here. Okay, we are nine and accounted for. All nine are accounted for. Next, we will have our moment of silence before we get into the meeting further. Okay, may I please have a motion to adopt the agenda for today's meeting? Madam Chair, I move that we adopt the agenda for August 7th, 2020. Second. Ms. Lorber seconds Ms. Green's motion. I

002will call for the vote. Cindy Anderson, yes. Veronica Nolan, yes. Megan Alderton, yes. Rami Gentry, yes. Jacinta Green, yes. Margaret Lorber, yes. Michelle Reeve, yes. Christopher Suarez, yes. Yes. Heather Thornton. Yes. So that's 9-0 to adopt today's agenda. So now today we have our public hearing again this afternoon. We have four speakers today. So I will ask if the speakers, if they could raise their hands if you haven't already so that it's easier for the clerk to find you. If you've signed up to speak for today. Now, the first person on my list is Adrienne Spencer. I don't see. Susan, maybe you can help me locate people. But next we have Dana Chambers. I see that person. Dana Chambers is in the meeting already. I'm also a panelist. Oh, okay. I'm here twice. Oh, all

003right. Am I up first? Yes, yes, go ahead. Three minutes. Great. Wonderful. So last month, the Alexandria Times printed my letter to the editor calling for creative child care solutions in the wake of extended disruptions to schooling due to COVID-19. I'm encouraged to see that child care options with community partners is one of the four foundational elements in the recently released Virtual Plus plan. But I think the creativity can go further. While addressing child care needs is important, it's also an important opportunity to provide necessary instructional and wellness support to the children that need it most. City organized child care should prioritize learning at the center of their plans, and these services can serve as free or low-cost public learning pods for the children that need them most. As families with greater resources turn to

004private schools or learning pods, we must ensure we aren't leaving the rest of our students behind. Centralized curriculum and instructional planning by the district is fundamental to the success of embedding distance learning into public learning pods. Districts can support this through identifying universal, grade-level appropriate virtual instructional materials for all students and schools across the district. This approach has several clear benefits. First, we know very little about what works for effective virtual instruction. By investing in vetted virtual instructional materials, we ensure all students have equitable access to grade-level appropriate instruction. Second, centralized instruction would offer consistent access to learning opportunities regardless of learning location. With a common instructional plan, students from different classes in different schools can access common instructional supports regardless of whether they're learning at home or learning at a child care site. For

005example, all second graders attending child care sites across the country could access common materials online and have a virtual second grade teacher piped in to provide synchronous or asynchronous instruction. Third, child care staff and tutors could be more easily trained to supervise distance learning if the instruction is consistent across grades and subjects. If purchasing a virtual curriculum package is not feasible, Alexandria may be able to create universal curriculum at reduced cost through using the most innovative and engaging lessons from the district's most talented virtual instructors. As a result, students across the district can benefit from the innovation and talent of particular teachers and access the most effective and engaging lessons regardless of their school or class. This also has several benefits for teachers. It removes the challenge for teachers of reinventing lesson plans for a

006fully virtual environment. Teachers are experiencing dramatic shifts in their role, while many are navigating challenging family or daycare obligations. Second, by reducing lesson planning requirements, we free up teachers' time to focus on additional differentiation for students, including small group instruction and remediation or enrichment. By providing publicly funded distance learning pods that access universal curriculum, it would no doubt be a complex endeavor requiring extensive coordination between the district, schools, teachers, and community partners. However, as ACPS seeks to prioritize the most instructionally vulnerable students and mitigate COVID learning loss, investing in public learning pods and universal curriculum is a step in the right direction. Great. Thank you. And if people speaking today would forward their remarks to the clerk, if you haven't already, that would be helpful as well. I see that we have Janet Eisenstadt, who

007is signed up to speak today. Hold on. Okay, now she is talking. Okay, there you are. Sorry, it takes a moment for you to be given the ability to talk. Sorry. Okay, that's no problem. I'm here and hopefully you can hear me. Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Janet. Great, great. Well, Madam Chair, members of the board, Dr. Hutchings, thank you for your time and your devotion to our kids. I'd like to thank you all for the hard work that went into Continuity 4.0 and the feasibility study. So as a mother of a neurotypical eighth grader and an a ninth grader with complex special needs who receives his instruction in a citywide special education classroom, I'd like to share my observations. The first is that virtual instruction simply does not work for some children. In many cases

008such as mine, the student rapidly regresses and loses the hard-fought behavioral skills that were gained in the consistent classroom environment. Also, the stress of being teacher, aid, behaviorist, therapist, caseworker, tech specialist, timekeeper, and mother is overwhelming even when you have the best of circumstances. You might say that what I'm talking about is true for all families and all students suffer from the fully virtual model, but I can attest that this is simply not necessarily the case. My neurotypical child actually thrived academically and even socially in the virtual environment. My second observation is that you cannot turn a key and go from all virtual to hybrid in one leap. We need to learn how to operate in this new normal, which is likely to be with us in fits and starts for up to two years.

009Students with special needs are uniquely. equipped to be the leading indicators for how to return to school safely and effectively. I urge you to consider sending back the students in the special citywide classrooms as soon as possible. Many of these students have behavioral challenges, sensory needs, and intellectual profiles that make compliance with social distancing rules very difficult. Through the hard work of the City of Alexandria's therapeutic rec program this summer, My son learned to wear a mask in hallways and to social distance appropriately in the public spaces so it can be done. And they had challenges too, but the first four weeks were very successful. If you can get social distancing procedures and safety procedures in place with the special education population, then moving towards a hybrid and or a full return will be easier

010and better for everyone. In short, I'm urging you to concentrate on getting the virtual instruction right while opening up the citywide special education classes as soon as possible for in-person instruction so that these very special students can teach us what we need to know in order to be successful at bringing all students back into our school buildings. Thank you very much for your time. And I'm happy to answer questions online or offline if anybody ever wants to talk special ed. Thank you again. Thank you. I'm looking for Adrian Spencer and I'm asking again because I don't see the person, but we've had a situation where sometimes somebody is signed in and they have a different name that shows up. So if you are that person, if you could raise your hand and then we can

011see you. But maybe she was just unable to join. Okay, so next then we have our, I think our final speaker then will be Cindy Hart. Is Cindy Hart on here? Can you hear me? Yes, yes, I can. Thank you. Again, I'm Cindy Hart. I am the chair of the Special Ed Advisory Committee, and I also have two children with disabilities in ACPS, a rising third grader and a rising fifth grader. And I just want to say very briefly, well, first, again, a thank you for all the work that's been done in moving forward. I know it's just a huge task, and I have great appreciation and respect for all that. the planning and everything that's been going into this. As others, I appreciate the safety first approach. Safety has to be first and we

012have to acknowledge that this is difficult and there has not really been a clear way to do it other than starting out virtually. I'd like to share a motto of one of my children's special ed teachers. And that motto is start slow and strong. I think we have the opportunity. Well, first of all, I think this is a great motto for us to work with as we. hopefully start to move kids back to school. And I think it's a great one for us right now. We have students, as you know, very young students, especially those with disabilities, students in citywide classrooms who have multiple disabilities or just have really challenging situations academically that. are just not going to be successful in a virtual model. I know you've heard that other from other parents. I'm sorry,

013I just have signing on so I haven't heard the other public comments, but the only way for some of these children to learn is with in-person learning. So I'm hopeful that a start slow and strong approach can work, that we can get our most needy students into school before too much time goes by. Parents often just really cannot provide the instruction at home. For some students, one of my children's included, it really requires a skilled adult being with that child in front of a computer, even an adult with significant behavior understanding, such as a behavior therapist or a parent who's been trained in that area. So I hope we can get some of these students into school even before the nine-week mark at which time we're reevaluating. And secondly, just an aside, I'd like to

014see if the school system can encourage and guide parents in helping their students wear masks, like just to have that practice. And again, especially for students with disabilities, sometimes this is just a really hard thing. I have a child that falls into that category. And I think parents might need some guidance and helping their children to do this so that they're ready to return to school when the time comes. So I want to, again, thank you. Thank you for the time. And good luck with all the work ahead and start slow and strong and we can do this together. Thank you. Thank you. So I'll do one more call for Adrian Spencer before I close out the public hearing for today. Adrian Spencer. Okay. Thank you very much, everyone who spoke. Again, your comments can

015be forwarded to us so that we can review them again in writing. So thanks for joining us today. We're going to move on to our consent calendar. So if I could get a motion to approve the consent calendar, please. Madam Chair, we approve the consent calendar. Second. Ms. Alderton seconds Ms. Lorber's motion to approve the consent calendar. Is there anything to remove from the consent calendar today? Okay. Hearing none, then I will call for the vote on the consent calendar. Cindy Anderson, yes. Veronica Nolan? Yes. Megan Alderton? Yes. Rami Gentry? We'll come back. I think she's on, but she might be having technical difficulties. Jacinda Green? Yes. Margaret Lorber? Yes. Michelle Reif? Yes. Christopher Suarez? Yes. Heather Thornton? Yes. Rami, can you hear us? Okay, for some reason, she's still showing up. Anyway, so we

016have eight. Oh, here's Rami. Yes, okay, great. We have nine zero for consent calendar. Thank you. All right, now the next topic is one that's a really big one, and I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Hutchings for the Continuity of Learning Plan 4.0 update. Thank you so much, Madam Chair. And this is the moment that everybody in the world has been waiting for, including me, as well as I'm sure the board. And I do, before I even begin, hold on for just a second because my computer just went off. I want to thank... all of our cross-functional planning team members and our thought partners and all of our community and staff members who have provided input over the past several months. I just want to thank everybody for that because it really showed

017how our community can come together. You know, we really do value the input of our staff and we value the input of our families in particular, as well as our students, you know, who were a part of this process. And all of that information was put into consideration for what we're going to be presenting today. And I just want to start off by saying that today's presentation is not about what is right or what is wrong. It's not even about what is best for our kids. Because as we all know, as educators, a virtual environment is not the best way to deliver instruction, right? What it's about today is what is most feasible. for us to open our schools with all of the implications and all of the guidelines and all of the constraints that

018we'll be able to talk through today. And I just wanted to set the stage with that first so that this is not about, we think this is the best thing in the world to do for our kids. But we do believe this is the most feasible and this is gonna allow for us to provide the health and safety as well as the engagement in regards to learning. So let's go right into our essential questions for today. And specifically, there are four things that we want the board as well as our community to understand. And that is how our cross-functional planning team was planning throughout this process and how we conducted our feasibility analysis and what that looked like. We want to be able to share as we conducted that feasibility assessment, what the constraints were,

019what internal as well as external input we received throughout this process. And then how was all of this aligned? with our ACPS 2025 strategic plan that the board just adopted this past June. We also want to be able to talk through the supports that we know our students, our staff, as well as our families will need throughout this process. And then how we're going to reassess in-person instruction decision or in-person instructional decisions as we begin to progress throughout this process, because we can't be virtual forever. At some point, we are going to have to bring our students back in and we want to be able to share with the board. and our community how that process will work. I want to remind us about our guiding principles and it's so important for us to revisit

020these because it is, you know, this is really what guided the work. throughout this entire process. You know, equity was the heart of all this work. Collaboration was so important. Learning our, you know, lessons learned throughout, you know, this process from May until the present and making sure that we were building trust. And, you know, today we are going to have, you know, a lot of different speakers talking to the board. people who may not have presented before the board before, and it's to show that this was a very collaborative effort and we wanted to be extremely clear and consistent with our messaging. And this is why we needed that additional time to ensure that we were doing our due diligence and providing the board with the most feasible option. Continue. This is just a

021recap of our cross-functional planning teams. I'm not going to go into specific names, but all of this information is available on our school division's website, ACPS at Home. But the five specific areas that we are going to address today and share information out with the board as well as with our community is around our social, emotional, and academic learning, which we all know as SEAL. our human resources, our capital programs, our facilities, and our technology, which is another key component to this work, our health and safety, which has to always be at the forefront of everything that we do in Alexandria City Public Schools, and then also our financial management, and then finally our school and community relations. And as we go through this process today, we're going to be able to really focus not

022only on those five specific areas, but talk about these key elements. One being the critical guidance that we received from our thought partners, from the CDC, from the Virginia Department of Education, from the Virginia Department of Health, as well as from our local health department, which is the Alexandria Health Department. There was a lot of research that was involved in this work from looking at our neighboring school divisions and some of the work that they have done in regards to reopening planning, looking at across school divisions across this nation, as well as school divisions across the world, because some countries have already opened their buildings and their school buildings. And we wanted to use that research to allow us to have some lessons learned along the way. Now, here's some buzzing sounds. Is that me?

023I don't know if everybody's muted. The other specific area in regards to us getting started is around our ACPS 2025 strategic plan. You know, in the midst of this global pandemic, we were still working diligently to have our ACPS 2025 plan approved by the board. And we wanted to ensure that we were living up to our mission, our vision, our core values so that we can attain our goals. And we're going to talk more about some of that alignment throughout this presentation today. And then the final specific area deals with our community as well as our staff and student input. input and feedback. It was so critical for us to receive that type of information because it allowed us to understand the different perspectives and also how our decision making impacts not only our staff's

024lives but also our students lives and their families. So that was another key area. So right now I'm going to pass things over to our chief of teaching, learning, and leadership, Dr. Mozingo, to take us into kind of where we have been, where we currently are, and where we're going to be going moving forward and kicking off the presentation for us today. Thank you so much, Dr. Hutchins, and it's so good to see everybody this afternoon. I just want to quickly highlight, this slide includes the four outputs that guided the work of the cross-functional teams. As Dr. Hutchins has already indicated, we started with a lot of questions, a wealth of questions from the Virginia Department of Ed that actually... covered all of those planning team areas. In addition to that, you'll hear a little

025later from a couple of our principals where they examined, reviewed, and studied different schedules for elementary, middle, and high. And they will share some of the voices of our school leaders and some possible models so that learning can occur throughout the school day. In addition, in terms of creating materials for staffs and staff students in the community, we are in the midst of refining the playbooks and those playbooks have been attached draft information, but they will be finalized next week. And finally, the goal is to submit the comprehensive reopening plan to the VDOE on next Friday. Early on, we mentioned in a previous presentation that we were working with a group of excellent consultants, consultants associated with education elements. And they actually exposed us and shared with us a strategy for planning. and where you

026take your particular milestones and you divide those milestones into many, many milestones, M-I-N-I milestones. And that's what they did for us. They identified all of the actions that should occur in each of these sprints. Later, you'll hear from the different chairs and others about what some of the actions that have actually occurred. Good news, we're finally in sprint four. I think we're running, maybe not sprinting, but we are in sprint for now and we will be highlighting more of that information for you later during the presentation, particularly around scheduling and the transportation update and the guidance for families and students. We love this one because this one actually illustrates to the public, to the community, that we are on target with achieving the milestones that were established within the timeline. Early on, there was a

027deliberate effort to identify those essential milestones starting way back in June and really actually a little bit prior to that. But we've outlined here for you where we are along the way with meeting the milestones. And again, we are glad to announce that we are in sprint four of the milestone. We love this slide because this slide actually illustrates the amount of engagement that has occurred with all of the work to date. You'll see that there were early on when we established the planning teams, we also identified 24 core areas. that are essential to any school operation, facilities, transportation, communication, instruction. So we not only had the cross-functional teams, we also had areas to groups from these different areas to support the work of the teams. In addition to that, the company, along with Dr.

028Hutchings and many others, we've had 60 plus planning sessions. And what that means is that Sessions were held with the chairs, with the cross-functional teams to help design the work that you learn about later today. There were alignment meetings, again, design meetings, scheduling guidance, lots of conversations. Over 150 individuals were involved in the cross-functional process. That was also one of the guiding principles to have a very collaborative and engaging process. Later on, we will share with you information about the playbooks. And in addition to that, you will hear, as I said earlier, from the three principals, from the two principals representing all of our principals and really sharing how learning and assessing will occur throughout the school day. And lastly, we just want to say kudos to Ms. Burgos and her team because they really

029made sure that we responded to the FAQs and you can see 22,000 views. wanting asking questions and viewing the responses to the FAQs and later on we'll you'll tell you a little bit about the survey and the amazing chats that were held particularly with the elementary middle high school students. This is just a slide in terms of a summary slide, kind of where we've been, what happened last week, and then where we're going, which is most of today. You'll learn a little bit more about, again, the playbook, the reopening chats. The most exciting is the activity where one of our parents would share about the day-in-the-life activity. So we wanted to share more with you about that. And lastly, today's the 7th, so we will highlight what some of the... expectations and outcomes with our

030virtual plus as we move forward. And now I'd like to turn it over to Ms. Burgos to talk with you about community insights and input. Great. Thank you, Dr. Mozingo. And I want to say thank you to the school board for allowing me the opportunity to share some of the work that we've done to support the team. But first, before that, I want to thank my co-chair, Kurt Huffman, who's been a valuable member of my team, helping me along the way as I transition into this new role. And I also want to just thank the whole team that worked on the school and community relations portion. We had to sort of... prepare for hybrid or virtual. So we have to think from both angles. But thankfully, we were able to figure it out and use

031a lot of our information to support both models as we move forward. I also want to acknowledge too that Krishna Leva and Tesfai Anberba are also here today to support our families that I'll be introducing next. But before that, I want to talk a little bit about some of the insights and inputs that we have received over the past, actually a few months, but I think the survey will start with that. We had historic participation from all sectors of our community. We did a concerted effort to make sure we were reaching all sectors of the community. um particularly our non-English speaking families we wanted to make sure that We had an opportunity to hear their voices as well. So we did a lot of targeted outreach through our schools. Our principals really hit the pavement

032with their staff to help reach those families, as well as our bilingual family liaisons. They did a great job in calling families, working with them, sitting down with them on the phone, and making sure that they were able to participate and fill out the surveys. So I want to thank them. We would not have had that result if that outreach had not been done. We also have a current survey, which is very important. We have until the end of this weekend. So we encourage families to participate in that survey and that will help us to further refine our plus in the virtual plus model. And so we encourage families and if you know a family that hasn't filled it out, we encourage you to have them do that. We also had a series of reopening

033community chats, 10 in total. We were really fortunate to have 2,600 live participants. And then in addition to that, we had over 22,000 people that viewed the recordings as well as reviewed our FAQs that came out of those chats. We had seven chats with families and staff, and then three with students across all grade levels. And I have to tell you that our students really were engaged and they were sending us lots of questions. And it was really... insightful to hear from them about some of the things that they were really concerned about. And we weren't surprised to see a lot of their questions were around social and emotional. and academic learning, as well as the school day. They wanted to know how they were going to eat lunch and be with their friends and

034keep their families safe. So it was really important to see those insights from our students. We actually had over 200 questions from our students, many of them that were elementary school students that were really interesting to read and enjoyable. So I think that really helped shape this plan. So right now you'll find on our website that many of the questions that we received, we turned those into an FAQ. It's a pretty comprehensive and robust FAQ. So grab a cup of coffee and read through it if you have a lot of questions and questions and answers. But that really came from all of the feedback in our community. And so, as I mentioned before, we want to make sure that we hear voices from our community. We have two parents that are joining us today. We're

035really excited that they were able to join us. And as I mentioned before, Krishna and Tesfai were really instrumental in getting them prepared and to join us today. We thought it was important for you to hear some of the experiences that they had in this whole process and really being able to understand from. the community from our parents really what it was that we did that worked and didn't work. And so I want to start out by introducing Ms. Maletza Ferrer who is representing our Amharic speaking community today. And she has two children, Patrick Henry. So I know that Tesfaye is going to be also joining to help with translation. Good morning. This is Tesfaye Amberwood, Division-wide bilingual specialist. Alexandra City Public Schools. I think Ms. Maalita Farah can speak in English. She's prepared so

036she can continue now. Good morning. I would like to say thank you first for all of you who work for our kids. Thank you so much. And also I would like to say thank you who let the kids stay home for this spiking moment especially. And also it's good for us to participate with our kids. It's not easy to support them from the house. I mean, online class is not easy for them. But, you know, from when you see the situation, they should stay home. So I'd like to say thank you. who worked for us for this virtual class. This is all I say. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Taffara. I really appreciate you joining us today. And then I'd also like to introduce Ms. Ruth Larico. She's representing our Spanish-speaking community. She

037has three children at John Adams and one child at Jefferson Houston. So Ms. Larico. . Quiero agradecerles por siempre tener en cuenta a nuestros niños que estén en seguridad y tomar la decisión que toman las clases virtuales en casa. También darles las gracias por siempre a ACPS, FACE, mantenernos informados, también por también escucharnos y leer nuestros mensajes en las reuniones. También darles las gracias a los profesores por siempre. Thank you very much. Good afternoon to all the ACPBs and FACE and community and our extended family. My name is Ruth Larico. I have my three kids in John Adams and one in Jefferson, Houston. I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to be in this meeting. And I want to thank you for these moments, for the virtual classes we have at this

038past month. And also, I want to say, you choose that good decision to keep the kids be safety and home. And for this, in these moments, because we're not in good situation right now, but it's going to pass. Together we can. And thanks for all ACPAs and FACE to always... talk to us, send a message, and read our texts in ASIM. And also, thank you for the teachers and staff members for all the jobs you're doing. Thank you, and God bless everyone in this moment. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Federico. And thank you to Mr. Ferraz. We want to thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your voices. It's so powerful to hear from you and also for our FACE team who has been working with you closely. And we encourage you

039to continue to share your voices with us. And now, next, I'd like to introduce Susana Chambers, who we met a little bit earlier. She's going to be joining us today. She was a member of our planning team. And so she's going to share about... Thank you. Are you able to hear me okay? So thank you to the ACPS and the board for the opportunity to share about my experience as a parent representative on the reopening committee. I have the benefit of wearing many hats in my role on the reopening committee. You heard me wearing a different one during public comment at the beginning of this meeting, in fact. I'm an ACPS parent with a rising MacArthur third grader. and I also have a two-year-old and two teenage stepkids who attend Fairfax schools. They are pictured

040in this slide in a rare moment of calm during the spring school closures. I'm also a former public school teacher, and I've spent the last decade providing technical assistance to states and districts on educator quality and school improvement. When I joined the committee, I wanted to balance my own personal perspective as a parent, acknowledging it comes from a place of privilege, with my professional experience as a former teacher, and my deep personal and professional concerns that COVID-19 disruptions to schooling will exacerbate already existing gaps for instructionally vulnerable children. In particular, as I said earlier, I'm concerned that as some parents with greater resources form private learning pods, we will risk leaving the rest of our students even further behind, navigating unchartered virtual learning territory on their own. The day-in-the-life exercise was an eye-opening one for

041all participants, and I tried to wear my different hats as we walked through it. My small group focused on a day-in-the-life of a sixth grader who was attending her first day of middle school and had an elementary-aged sibling. We focused primarily on the experience of returning to school in a hybrid model. Thinking from the perspective of the students, we talked about the anxiety of not knowing where to go in a new large middle school building, anxiety about not seeing your friends, potentially being self-conscious about wearing a mask, worrying about bringing illness back home to your older or vulnerable family members. As a working parent, I understand all parents, especially me, are eager to have life return to normal and to have our kids return to school. Even as a trained teacher, I have great concerns

042about my own ability to effectively supervise distance learning, and I also have concerns about the effects of isolating children from their peers. But I also considered how it would feel to worry whether my own child was obeying safety guidelines or disrupting the class, or how much time would be spent managing logistics versus learning, and whether there was really a way to attend school safely. And then I put my teacher hat on, and this is where it really started to get real for me. As a teacher, I wondered whether there would be adequate time for learning while I was navigating time-intensive logistical routines and strict public health rules. I worried about the kid who crawled around on the floor during a lesson or the one who won't stay in her seat or wear her mask. And

043I know that my kid can be that kid on Sundays. I thought about whether my students might get each other sick or whether I could get sick or bring germs home to my family. And I thought about kids sitting in distance rows going against how we know kids learn best. So I wondered to myself whether the tradeoff is too large. How much learning will happen in this environment? And is it worth the risk? Balancing these many concerns, combined with the understanding that we don't really yet know how to do virtual learning in a consistent, effective way for all students, I was still left feeling that a hybrid model was not feasible at this time, and that unfortunately the only safe decision right now is a fully virtual model. As we look ahead to launching Virtual

044Plus, I think the most important priority would be to find ways to provide safe and affordable instructional and wellness supports for our students who are instructionally vulnerable or who have parents who must work outside the home. And I'm encouraged to know this is a foundational element of the Virtual Plus plan. Thank you. And thank you all. I just want to talk a little bit about and give just a quick overview as to how we determined what was feasible and we had to develop feasibility factors as we explored this kind of this analysis. And specifically what we looked at was what are the constraints in regards to the model that we are recommending to the board? What specifically are the constraints in regards to capacity, meaning space within our school buildings, the staffing of our employees,

045the equipment? that we might need in regards to whether it's cleaning or supplies and things of that nature, the time as well as the funding and the health status. We really do have to continue to monitor our city as well as the region, health statistics that are being released pretty much daily in the city of Alexandria. We also had to look at our inputs, and this was input from not only our community, but also our staff and our students. You know, looking at our thought partners and the feedback that was received from them in May and June, as well as the survey results. And we did an initial survey in early July. We are recently polling our families again, which... families please complete that you know that survey that is out that is to help

046guide our work um so we hope that we can have all of our families even if you don't need some of those supports that you still complete those um surveys saying that you don't need those supports um as well as our community chats and our faqs and uh miss bergos mentioned this earlier that we have hundreds of questions you know out there that we have worked through and we made sure we had responses for all of those questions and they're posted to our ACPS at home website. And then finally, we needed to look at the alignment between or the model and the actual strategic plan with a specific focus on our mission, our vision, our core values, and specifically if we are actually living to the expectations that we set, living up to the expectations

047that we set for ourselves. A part of the decision-making approach for each of our teams, and we're going to now be sharing out, or the chairs and one of the representatives will be sharing out about their constraints and the inputs that they received, as well as their findings with this. But this was the approach that we used for each of our cross-functional teams. They looked at, you know, those three specific feasibility factors that I just mentioned to you, and then they determined whether those constraints still allowed us to implement the particular model, also whether the input that we received, if that still allowed us to implement that particular model, and then also if the model was aligned with the actual strategic plan and our strategic planning efforts. And if our teams found it that was

048feasible, meaning that we can answer yes to those constraints, inputs, and alignment. that we were then to determine whether it was feasible or not, and also to determine if there was additional information that may have been needed. So we're going to turn things over to our cross-functional planning teams. We're going to start with our social, emotional, and academic learning team. So Dr. Crawford will begin in talking through the feasibility from this SEAL lens. Dr. Crawford. Thank you, Dr. Hutchings, and good afternoon, members of the board and all viewing. We appreciate the opportunity to highlight the work of our social, emotional, academic, learning, cross-functional planning team, which is a mouthful. So as you've heard referred to as SEAL, I was lucky enough to co-chair the SEAL team with Dr. Mann. And to begin, we really want

049to thank our team members who spent countless hours and hours considering the SEAL needs of our community. The group was truly just amazing. You'll hear from many of them today and I know a number are watching. So Dr. Hutchings just mentioned the process that we used with constraints and inputs and I'll highlight a few that you can see on this slide with respect to our conversations on scheduling development and student supports. One major issue that we discussed was the physical capacity and the challenges of the school building. So an example being George Washington Middle School, which is one of the eight schools that would not allow for the 50% hybrid schedule as far as the feasibility goes. In fact, George Washington Middle School would only allow for 60% of their students being able to participate

050if we went with the AB hybrid schedule. So obviously that was a critical factor in whether we could go to the hybrid and then the resulting student schedules and other supports that would be needed. Because we could not achieve what we needed to within that, the team did not feel that the hybrid was appropriate at that time. With respect to inputs, we looked at a number of data sources including the pulse survey from the spring. We also discussed and know that this has been an exceptionally traumatic time for our students for a variety of reasons, including the sudden closure, the lack of physical and social contact that we're used to, and the ongoing health fears that many people are experiencing. So a critical piece, and of course I'm biased, but I would say the biggest

051piece to reopening is how are we providing emotional support to our students? What will happen on a daily basis to build those relationships and address the trauma that our students have experienced? In providing the SEAL supports, when we reopen, We hope that this will address a number of the concerns that were expressed in the spring with respect to student engagement and also connectedness. So I'll give one example that actually happened on the first day of summer school. And I think this really highlights the needs that our students have right now and that they're showing us. At one of our middle schools, we had a counselor who offered an optional counseling lesson, a check-in, and some social-emotional support. We had 100 students who participated in that, middle school students on the first day who opted in.

052And obviously this shows what our students are going through right now and the tremendous need that's different than anything that we've encountered in the past. So you're going to hear more details on the explicit schedules, the frameworks for the schedules, as well as SEAL details in the presentation from Mr. Darrell Sampson and two of our awesome outstanding principals. But at this time, I'll turn it over to Dr. Wilkins. And I thank you for listening to our SEAL considerations. Thank you, Dr. Crawford. Good afternoon, board members. Our planning team spans three areas, personnel staffing, classroom space planning, and computer devices. We thank all the members of our team as we've worked over the past several weeks to compare and contrast the two models of a remote opening or hybrid opening. Our co-chairs, Sandra Hardiman and Erica

053Gulick, who are experts in their respective areas, will be available for your questions in the Q&A session that follows. In our discussions, a key criteria of consideration in our feasibility analysis was sustainability. That is, our organizational capacity to deliver school services not just on time, but over a period of time. I emphasize this requirement, operations on time and over time. That means whatever we do must be doable and sustainable for the next six to nine months. Our conclusion is that the remote learning model is the most sustainable and feasible option at this time. Upon examining our areas of staffing, classroom space, and computer devices, we made this assessment. First, in human resources staffing levels, we project over 90% of assigned instructional staff is available for remote work. However, under a hybrid educational model, only 60%

054of instructional staff are projected to return to on-site instruction due to COVID-related impacts, such as personal sickness, caring for a sick dependent, or the lack of child care. Second, in facility space planning, we have severely limited occupancy rates given the six-foot social distancing requirement. The impact of this constraint is that only 40 to 60% of learning space is available. How does one run a school with approximately half the classroom space? To run a hybrid model with such limited classroom space now requires that we must know the specific student, specific teacher, and specific courses to assign to a specific classroom seating limit. These are details which require more time to develop. Indeed, it will take several iterations of running module simulations of school schedules to see what works. If there ever was a time for IBM's

055Watson, this is it. Third, computer devices. Our technology services department can support either school opening model. However, tech services still needs time to procure more than 7,000 devices to put in the hands of students by September 8th. But the real challenge is how to manage the health risk when one is in close quarters to pick up devices, clean devices, and maintain devices to a standard that is unprecedented. The overall assessment is that the availability of teachers and staff for on-site work is greatly reduced in a hybrid model. The physical space is severely constrained. and managing the health risk of daily on-site cleanliness and maintenance of computer devices requires just more time to figure out. Given these constraints, our conclusion is that the remote model works best at this time. In summary, the potential impacts of

056opening a classroom and two days later closing a classroom for a COVID case, or opening a school and then closing the school a week later, is not just problematic for school operations. but it is dramatic for students and families who need and demand a consistent school setting. At this time, given what we know of available staffing, available space, and available devices, the most consistent and sustainable school operation is a remote model. That concludes my section. I will now be followed by Dr. Hart. Good afternoon, board members and ACPS community viewing today's presentation. My name is Dr. Alicia Hart, and I, along with Dr. Marcia Jackson, will be reviewing the health and safety feasibility plan. Prior to starting, we just like to thank all of those who took time to participate on the health and safety

057planning team. Two of the key data points that guided our constraint conversation on the team was first being the Alexandria Health Department information that we receive on current COVID cases in the city of Alexandria. Another key data point that used to develop our constraints was the updated transportation model that our team developed. Guiding those constraints, I want to really highlight the three that we felt as a team would be most significant regarding our feasibility analysis. The first being transportation. We have to contend with current and projected absenteeism and vacancies within our staff. We know that there will be routing impacts. There will also be contract implications for our transportation staff given the extended routing. And then also, what would the funding need to be in order for us to transport all of those within the

058division to maintain equity? Another key constraint for us was the procurement and lead time for PPE or personal protective equipment. We all understand the importance of making sure that this resource is available to students and staff that would be returning in a hybrid model. I would like to note we have been purchasing limited PPE over the past few months to support some of the essential functions that are currently ongoing on site. However, that is not enough to outfit the nearly 20,000 people we would need to consider for reopening of school. Also adding to that is the competition for ordering supplies. As we all know, many entities are asking for and procuring the exact same PPE items at the exact same time, which really extends the lead time for these items. So the team did not

059have confidence that we would have the necessary PPE for the start of school. And then our screening process. We also understand just from current medical guidance and information that came from the survey that health and safety is primary for parents and families when assessing whether or not children should return to school. With that said, we really had a lot of robust conversations regarding what screening process should we employ as a division. Should we do 100% one-site temperature screenings? Should we do health self-screenings where parents and families would, you know, complete temperature screenings at home prior to the start of the school day? Or should we use a combination of the two? Our team, after having many conversations, could not land on right now what the recommended process should be. And of course, we should not

060start school without having that main logistical item locked down. So based on those three constraints, our team just continued to have a lot of conversation regarding the feasibility of returning in an in-person model. I would now like to pass the slide on to Dr. Marcia Jackson to review the inputs for health and safety. And if she is not on the line, I can just jump in and keep going. So some of the inputs that were considered as part of the health and safety plan were staff and family surveys that indicated the health and safety as the primary concern, which I spoke to earlier. Of course, using CDC and AHD guidelines, such as decreased levels of community transition rates and mitigation strategies that we would need to consider for reopening. a screening checklist, whether that would

061be- Dr. Hart? Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. Are you here, Dr. Jackson? Yes, I am here. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Absolutely. Some of the members of our health and safety planning team included medical professionals from our community, as well as representatives from our school nurses. And we looked at a number of research and COVID response models that included guidance from the CDC, the Virginia Department of Health. the Virginia Department of Education, and the Alexandria Health Department. One critical piece of data that influenced our thinking were the results of our staff and family survey that indicated that health and safety was the primary concern as we decided which model to go with. The guidelines from the CDC and the Alexandria Health Department, which reference decreased levels of community transmission and mitigation as important factors for

062reopening our schools, you can see that data point listed here on the slide from the Alexandria Health Department. And we talked extensively about the need to have an overall health checklist that we can share with parents as well as staff, realizing that most of us are not medical professionals. And to prepare to reopen our school buildings, we also recognized the need for cleaning protocols that would prevent the spread of COVID. And we looked at various models, which included deep cleaning. as well as when cases are confirmed, what cleaning needs to take place that will adequately address the positive cases. And so as we looked at those different factors, we believe that a remote model is feasible right now. And so I will turn it back to Mr. Turner and Mr. Easley, who will talk about

063financial management. Thank you, Dr. Jackson. I appreciate that. And good afternoon, school board members and HPS community watching from home. As you all know, fiscal year 2021, we will be faced with many challenges, many of which we haven't seen before. I'm thankful for having the financial management cross-functional planning team and our four group leads, Mariah Runkle, Deanna McMullen, Michael Covington, and Robert Easley for getting us started and our financial services department team that will continue to tackle these challenges throughout the year. When it comes to reopening, like every year, we are limited by what we can do by our total budget. Our combined funds budget totals $319.8 million, with $3.7 million coming from the CARES Act. Unlike every other year, however, we are faced with a high volatility on the revenue side. Should our revenue

064decrease, then obviously our expenditures must decrease as well, further limiting our capacity. We already have seen this occur in one shape or form with allocating $385,000 to private schools to provide equitable services, reducing our CARES funding from $3.7 million to $3.3 million. We will have to continue to monitor revenue receipts, specifically state sales tax and the economic situation here in the city of Alexandria throughout the course of the year as we receive our largest revenue from the city. And as adjustments are needed on the revenue side, we will have to make those. In addition to the volatility of our revenue, we understand that in-person learning would require substantial expenditures to abide by health and safety guidelines, none of which were budgeted for. While we can shift funding around to meet these changing requirements, the uncertainty

065of the upper limit, how much and how long, and the volatility of our revenue makes it not feasible to pursue in-person learning at this moment. At this time, I'd like to toss the mic back to our superintendent, Dr. Hutchins. Thank you, Mr. Turner. And as you all can see, I mean, look at the time, effort, energy that has been put into this work to ensure that we're making the most feasible decision or providing the most feasible model for the school board today. You know, I have to thank all of our team members who gave these updates. And I just have to say that we intentionally set our sprints. in this order. We always knew August 7th was our day. We stayed true to that. We wanted to make sure that we were digging deeper into

066our work, which we're going to be sharing, you know, some more deeper knowledge around what we're doing. But I want to just validate what the recommendation is, and that is our virtual plus and as you can see um and i said this earlier it's really not about what's right or what's wrong it's not about what's best it's really about what's feasible in situations like this these are unprecedented times there is not a playbook that goes along with how to make decisions during this particular time so we had to look at our constraints and we had to look at our inputs and we had to look at our alignment to determine you know what was the most feasible and Virtual Plus is. I want to give a shout out to our communications team for branding, you

067know, this Virtual Plus and also to go a little more specific into what the plus of Virtual Plus means. So as you look at Virtual Plus, there are four specific areas that we're looking at. And really, there's a fifth, which I'll talk a little bit about later. But the four specific areas that we're focused on is enhancing and formalizing our social, emotional, and academic learning supports. There was a lot that we learned between March and June in regards to additional supports that students need when engaged in a virtual learning environment. And we want to make sure that we're providing those additional supports for those students. We also wanted to focus on childcare options. And these are childcare options that are for our most vulnerable families. And I'm going to say that once again, these are

068childcare options for our most vulnerable families. We're working directly with our community partners to ensure that we are extending these options and these opportunities. for our most vulnerable families in Alexandria City Public Schools. And we're going to share some more details when we dig into our deep dive a little shortly. The third area is our continued meal distribution. And I have to say that our school nutritional team has been doing a phenomenal job these past few months. You know, every week we provide over 30,000 meals for our families. And that will continue with our virtual plus option. And there will be some additional options, meal options that we're going to be providing our families. And you're going to hear about that shortly. And then the fourth area deals with our extended technology resources. You know,

069in order for us to have a complete 100% virtual, to ensure that our students are engaged, to ensure that our students have access to a teacher, we have to make sure that they have technology devices. And from March through June, we provided these devices for... third grade through 12th grade. However, for our 100% virtual, moving forward, we will be providing technology devices for our students in pre-K through second as well. And that is through tablets as well as Chromebooks for our youngest learners. I think it's so important to talk about living out our strategic plan as the board, as you all know, I want to just say kudos to the board for adopting, I believe, a bold and courageous plan. Everybody who has seen our plan, like literally people are sending me emails from all

070over this country saying, you all are about to do your thing in Alexandria City Public Schools. And I can't wait to watch what you're about to do in regards to changing this narrative in public education. But we put equity for all and we meant equity for all. We talk about empowerment and inspiring our young people. And we wanted to make sure we did not lose that with this virtual plus model, that it was aligned with our vision, aligned with. our mission, aligned with our core values, and specifically in making sure that our families are welcomed and our students and our staff are welcomed, that they're empowered, that we're equity focused, that we're being extremely innovative, and that we are results driven. And I think that with this virtual plus, as we think about our vision

071right now and talking about how we're hoping that our students will thrive in an ever-changing world, well, guess what? This right now is the opportunity for them to begin to thrive. our vision to the test with this virtual plus, because this is all about innovation and all about allowing our students to have to transition at such a very rapid pace from being in person to being virtually, literally overnight. And it's not just about our students, but also our staff members. And I have to just say this as we transition into our deep dive. that when we talk about our unsung heroes, let's talk about our educators around this country. Our educators, they are putting their lives on the line just as much. They have had to pivot from being in an in-person situation to a

072virtual situation literally overnight. We had to be innovative in how we deliver instruction, how we're going to begin to assess our students, how we're going to engage our young people throughout this process. And I just want to say hats off to all of our staff across Alexandria City Public Schools. Really hats off to educators across this world who are working on behalf of young people. So we're going to transition and take a deep dive into some key areas that I know the board, one, is yearning to hear more details about as well as our community. So I'm going to turn things over to Mr. Samson, Darrell Samson, our executive director of... I keep getting it wrong. I want to say SEAL, but we changed SEAL to what? Student Support Teams. Thank you. SST. I get

073it wrong every time. Daryl, I apologize. And I was doing so good. So let me just say, let me say it again. So I'm going to turn things over to Mr. Sampson, our Executive Director of SST, which is Student Support Teams. Thank you. Great. Thank you so much, Dr. Hutchins. And it's great to be able to speak with you a little bit. today about the work of the social emotional academic learning teams and we're going to highlight a couple of areas. I do want to first thank the larger SEAL group from the last month or so who've done an amazing job in a lot of different areas. And then I also want to thank in particular our principals and directors of counseling who spent the last several weeks supporting us in the exploration of some

074scheduling models. And I'm going to talk a little bit about those a little bit later. So, you know, one of the big charges from our group was really we knew that due to what a colleague of mine this morning referred to as the dual pandemics of both COVID-19, as well as the continued systemic and institutionalized racism. present in our country, we knew that we were going to have to come back this fall, regardless of model, and really be able to support not only the academic needs of our students who have not been in a face-to-face school since March, and also though the social emotional needs of our students for the same reason as they've experienced some of the traumas during the last, since March. And we knew that in particular, the guidance coming from the

075Virginia Department of Education was we need to focus on the social emotional needs of kids as the primary focus so that then our students are available to access the academic learning that we want to be able to provide for them. So some of the key components that we really took to heart and explored with these teams was making sure that we had some more consistent structures, particularly in the school day in 4.0 versus in 2.0. We really did want to use what we learned last spring and take that and then make changes in how we were going to start this fall based upon some of those learned lessons. We, as Dr. Mann will often say, school is back in session. So we knew that we were going to be taking attendance starting on September 8th.

076And we also know that for grading, we're going to be going back to our traditional grading system, you know, the standards-based grading system at the elementary level, and then the A through F grading system at the secondary level. So we are needed to plan for something that was going to... better reflect the traditional school days that we had prior to the closure. I am going to talk a little bit more about the schedules in just a minute. Something else we really wanted to think about was knowing that these Passover months have been new, we wanted to make sure that we were carefully thinking about what tools do we need to provide to students to assess where maybe there are gaps or where there are topics or curricular areas that we need to explore to better

077support them based on these very unique needs of this very unique time in our history. So we're really thinking about how can we employ some screening tools that will help us identify that kind of curriculum and then also help us identify which students maybe need more support. So smaller group supports or even some individualized supports. And that's whether it's academic learning or social emotional learning. As we... Think about then what our next steps are going to be. So this month we're really thinking about what is our tier one, our universal curriculum for all students going to be, both in academic and social and emotional content. We are working on making sure that we're developing schedules. that meet our student and family needs, even through a fully virtual model. And then next month and into October,

078we're really thinking about employing some of those screening tools to make sure that we're getting the data that we need to meet the specific and unique needs of our kids. And then also... then creating in those months what those supports, whether they're small group interventions, whether we need to be exploring a certain topic in our universal social emotional curriculum so that we get that information and then use it appropriately. Okay, next slide, please. So when we think particularly about the scheduling process, We wanted to, we started off by first developing a pilot schedules with a small group of principals and directors of counseling and particularly for the hybrid model. And then when we needed to build out the virtual. schedules, we wanted to be, you know, go to the experts. You know, we have a

079great group of principals and their teams in the buildings. And so we wanted to make sure that we were using those people who live the front lines every day, who develop these schedules on an annual basis. We wanted them to come and collaborate with us as we explored what should a model for ACPS look like when it comes to a virtual schedule. So we brought them all in. They've been fantastic. And they were highly collaborative in these efforts. And you're going to hear from two of them in just a few minutes. But we broke them up into elementary, K through eight schools, and then our middle schools collaborated. And then TC had their team working together to explore what it might look like. Next slide, please. So when we had them all together to look

080at the schedule for our students, we did sort of want to put out like what are the parameters, what's the basic guidance that we want to be able to give to them to help give them a foundation of where to even begin. So again, based upon that VDOE guidance, as well as the feedback we had received in the spring and over the summer, we knew that we needed to have explicit time for social-emotional academic learning. every day with students, both in order to sort of build up their social emotional skills and resiliency, but especially in this first month, just to build those connections between students and teachers, students and their schools, and students and their peers, so that they're really starting to feel a sense of Being at home, being that school is a safe

081place, that they feel trust and support with the people around them. Again, we know that no significant learning is going to happen without those significant relationships. We again wanted to, we listened to the feedback from... the spring and really challenged our schools to think about, do we having the same number of blocks? And also looking at, you know, where do we need to find some alignment in the amount of synchronous instruction? So that time that, you know, a teacher is live on, even if it's online with students, as well as some asynchronous requirements. We heard that loud and clear from the spring. And particularly for our high schools, we wanted them to look at and explore a bit, our secondary schools, I should say, sorry, this concept of a four by four schedule. Because some

082of the feedback we got in the spring were concerns about kids trying to juggle seven classes all at once through a virtual format. So we did ask them to look at. the potential of a schedule where they would take four classes in the fall semester and then take four different classes in the spring semester, in addition to looking again at the traditional seven-period or seven-period block schedule that many of our students are very used to. At the same time, we know that we need flexibility for schools. We know that school principals need to be able to have some wiggle room within the schedule to be able to provide interventions that are appropriate to their school communities, but also that support some of the specialized programs that exist in many of our ACPS schools, such as

083dual language, such as STEM, et cetera. So I'm very excited for you to get to hear from two of our amazing principals, and they're going to give you the principal lens of this experience and where some of this thinking has landed in the last couple of weeks. So I'll turn it over to Ms. Cruz and Ms. Canton. Good afternoon, board and community members. I am excited to share the process that we went through. You have heard about our cross-functional planning teams, which are represented in the orange text box. This timeline shows how the cross-functional planning teams began by reviewing guidance and plans from neighboring divisions. A variety of school principals and personnel participated in these crucial decisions. I was then selected to be part of the scheduling crew, which included George Washington Middle School Principal

084Jesse Mazur, our TC Williams High School Principal Ballas, and their counselors, the Executive Director of Specialized Instruction, the Executive Director of English Learner Services, and other ACPS staff. Since our elementary schools can be so different, I then brought in Elementary School Principal Ginger Canton, who has a larger school with a variety of programs. As principal representatives, we aligned on expectations for the hybrid and virtual schedules. We tested schedules at all levels from early childhood to high school. I will now introduce my principal partner, Ginger Canton, who will go through the work of our amazing principal group. Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. All principals appreciated the opportunity to provide feedback on the feasibility of the hybrid model and recognizing its limitations began a similar process for proposing virtual schedules. Beginning with the core instructional minutes during

085a traditional on-site learning experience, we reviewed examples available to us in neighboring divisions, and as an ACPS principal cohort, we came to consensus on the range of minutes for the instructional day. Once established, we prepare draft schedules aligned with the instructional minutes of the virtual learning day that are still reflective of the individual needs and special programming that may be unique to each school. On the next slide, I will share some of the goals that guided our work in creating schedules. We prioritize the learning experience for students and families and also the expectations for all staff members in a virtual model. We have expanded the content and hours for staff and students from the spring to this fall virtual plus model. Recognizing the need to protect time for connections, both student to student and between

086students and teachers before jumping into instructional content. School leaders engaged in planning to explicitly address and support the social, emotional and academic learning of all students. In this virtual plus model, student engagement, the use of various instructional strategies and models paired with meaningful assessments will be used to deliver differentiated learning experiences for all of our students. In order to accomplish this using virtual platforms and availing ourselves of the talents of all ACPS staff in various roles, Professional learning supports for all staff members are essential and will be provided to expand the toolkits currently possessed. This includes support for family engagement through Virtual Plus. On the next slide, Principal Hasebe Cruz will present a model demonstrating just how this can be accomplished. Hello again. I know most are wondering how what we are doing in the

087fall is different from what we did in the spring. This virtual instructional model more closely resembles the gradual release and workshop models that we are used to seeing in classrooms every day. The co-teaching model work that we have done with Marilyn Friend can be recreated in this virtual plus model. With this approach, teachers present new concepts. skills, or strategies and allow time for students to practice independently while working with smaller groups of students offering feedback before reconvening with the whole group to check for understanding through informal and formal assessments. The individual needs of students requiring English Learner supports and special education services can be provided using these virtual models. We want to ensure that all of our students are getting the help that they need from a variety of staff members, such as coaches, interventionists,

088educational support specialists, tag teachers, English language learner teachers, and specialized instruction teachers. As a principal group, we firmly believe that models like the one shown here can create experiences for all students that are targeted through small groups. I will now pass it over to Mr. Sampson to talk through the school day across different grade levels. Thank you. Thank you. So I know that everybody is eagerly wanting to know, well, what is my day going to look like in this new virtual environment? And our goal really is to be able to share more information on some of the specifics of those days with the community next week. We do have where our current thinking is around our core hours. for students at these three levels. So elementary, middle, and high school, as you can see presented

089on the slide here. I do want to assure the community though, that this is within this band of hours, it is a mix of synchronous instruction and asynchronous learning, as well as built in breaks for students. You know, we absolutely hear the community and we wanted to think about the developmental needs of our. of our students, especially our younger students who we, who, you know, people do not want them on screens for seven hours, you know, during a day. So we are really thinking very carefully about how we provide students with some material where they'll be working with the teacher through a device, but then also what are their, what things can they do on their own, maybe with the device, but maybe even with some other tools. And then in addition, like building in

090times for breaks so that they are getting some good solid time away from from the screens. I also want to highlight here that none of these time bands include opportunities for after-school activities or after-school clubs, but the schools are working on them. I think we absolutely heard from the student voices in particular in some of those community chats that they really want to have that time to be with their peers. you know, and then doing things that they like to do together, you know, in some sort of club or activity format. So there are going to be those opportunities beyond the hours listed here. Okay, so I'm going to pass this then off to Mr. Page to share some more information about the assessments. Thank you so much, Mr. Sampson, and good afternoon, board and

091members of the viewing public. Thrilled to be with you today, and happy Friday to all. So I'm rounding out our SEAL supports with a look at assessments. And so in this discussion, we know the need to assess student learning to inform ongoing instruction and supports is absolutely critical. And we also know the need to balance that against the priorities of social-emotional health, as well as instructional delivery within the constraint. within the confines of the school day. When looking specifically at assessments, we also know we want to prioritize just in time formative assessments with a blend of diagnostic assessments to tell us where our students are so we know where they need to go. As it relates to formative assessments, our curriculum instruction staff We'll be working with staff from the schools to align assessments to

092the ACVS teaching and learning framework, as well as also acknowledging and knowing that for our youngest learners, assessments are going to need to look different in a virtual model, and we'll work to develop those formative assessments as well. We also know that formative assessments cannot be all one shape, size, and color, that we want a variety of assessments to check for understanding, including things like exit tickets. performance-based assessments, portfolios, video submissions, etc. so that we can really think innovatively as instructors to think about what is the best way to gauge where our students are and where we need to take them. From a diagnostic perspective, we will be administering the MAPS screener across all students grades 2 through 12 this fall. The MAPS screener was selected for its feasibility to be administered within a virtual

093environment. given its brevity, but also ability to give us the diagnostic information we need to know for our students in the areas of reading and math. We also have made a commitment to administer the full MAP assessment whenever we do return to an in-person learning environment. We also are continuing to work with the State Department of Education as it relates to diagnostic assessments at our earliest grade level, so our pre-K, K, and 1, as it relates to PALS. and the VKRP assessments and how those will fit within a virtual environment and we'll have more information as soon as it's forthcoming from the State Department in the coming weeks. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Huffman who will talk about childcare. Good afternoon, board members, Dr. Hutchings, and community members. My name

094is Kurt Huffman. I'm the Executive Director of Community Partnerships and Engagement. I feel like all of a sudden Brooke Curran from Running Brook should come in and give us a brain boost, but I'll keep us going. I'll keep us going. I'm speaking on behalf of Ms. Jane Richardson, who's the Coordinator of Citywide Early Childhood Programs, Dr. Hart, the Executive Director of Facilities and Operations. Ms. Shanna Sampson from our office, who helps from her lens of knowing 21st century grants and after-school programming, and many other ACPS leaders. As you can imagine, the complexities involved for this very important, essential child care or in-person student support virtual plus component. First, let me say, ACPS is so fortunate to have strong relationships with committed community partners who have and are willing to pivot as needed to continue to

095support ACPS. Together, we all know that we must do all we can to provide a safety net for our high-end needs students and family. We know several of those partners, including the Campania Center, RPCA, YMCA, Boys and Girls Clubs. Casa Chirilagwe and more, and site-specific student support providers such as Community Lodgings and ARHA, along with multiple early childhood providers, can potentially offer full day before school and after school in-person student support throughout Alexandria for our students. So we know we needed to connect with those providers. And over the last several weeks, multiple department leaders have been in exploratory kind of think tank meetings with these providers and partners to discuss potential child care in-person supports for our families and needs. These meetings led by Dr. Hart have been filled with rich discussions about arrival, departure,

096criteria for enrollment, limitations. safety concerns, locations, capacity, fees, and more specific to each partner. We know through the process we have identified some high-level key components as indicated on the slide. These are some of these are we know once we get these partners and providers and we get that list and we know those, we really need to design a set of supports that we can offer to those sites, including technology access and curricular support and potentially site staff training of the site staff that are there and meals and food distribution. We're looking at all of that. Along with once we get those components into place, we're going to need to make sure that all our stakeholders know about it. So our families understand the details and eligibility and capacity and all those things for each

097of our specific sites. In regards to the timeline and next steps, as I mentioned, we've been continuing our discussions with site partners to work through the logistics. One of the first steps. is to reflect on the data that will be coming in next week regarding family needs from our family survey to help us guide our path even more. Another continued step is the continued involvement and collaboration with multiple departments, organizations, and partners so that together with stakeholders, these discussions will provide clarity for things like ACPS facility usage, program site supports, guidance and compliance on safety protocols. All those things will be put into place. And finally, We know the importance of them and connecting them to other nonprofit official partners that we have. I mean, we have such an incredible group of partners in this

098area. Everything from dance, we have the Local Motion Project. We have Alexandria Tutoring Consortium, the Soccer Association. You name it. I mean, I could list off 30 to 40 right off the bat of these incredible partners who have already said, we will pivot as needed to help whoever we can and however we can. so we'll be connecting them to those site providers also. I know there were there are there's still plenty of questions to be answered but I just want to say rest assured we're continuing to lay everything on the table as we look innovatively to support our families and students with the highest level of collaboration remembering safety first. Again, we're so fortunate to have such committed, flexible site partners and providers, along with experienced, knowledgeable staff members, so we are able to move

099our planning forward with a smart, balanced timeline these stage gates we're going through, but as quickly as possible so that families will have sufficient time to make the decisions needed. Thank you. Good afternoon, school board and community members. My name is Cindy Hormel, and I'm the director of the School Nutrition Service Program. I wanted to provide you with an update regarding our school meal distribution program, as well as an update regarding the regulatory changes that will occur to our current meal distribution model as we approach the 2021 school year. In order to plan for the upcoming school year, we wanted to build upon our current meal distribution successes to support all students, regardless of the pain status, and to prepare them for a day of learning by providing them with nutritious meals throughout their day.

100The graph to your left is a representation of the number of meals that we have served from the middle of May through the end of July under the summer feeding program model. As you will see, when the mobile sites, aka pop-ups, were implemented, the participation at the distribution sites decreased and the mobile pop-up sites increased. We also saw another dip as we transitioned from the end of the 2020 school year to the start of summer, and when the Virginia Department of Education mailed out the pandemic EBT card to all students who were participating in the free and reduced meal program in school year 2020. Our current distribution model is located at five school sites and eight mobile pop-up locations. We offer breakfast and lunch meals seven days a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. As

101the new school year begins, we will once again start our participation in the child and adult care food programs, offering a daily snack, and we are also exploring the opportunity to expand our services to include a dinner meal. Starting September 8th, there will be notable changes at meal distribution sites that will need to be communicated rigorously to families. As mentioned earlier, we are currently operating under the Summer Feeding Program model. This model allowed anyone at any time, I'm sorry, this model is allowed any time there is an unanticipated school closure. The Summer Meeting Program allows us to feed children, regardless of their pain status, between the ages of 2 and 18 in our community, and we've been operating in the Summer Feeding Model since March. As we move into the new school year, we will

102need to start operating under the National School Lunch Program guidelines. This will require students to be identified by their paying status and only students who are attending ACPS will be able to participate. Therefore, parents will need to show proof they have students attending ACPS so that meals can be recorded and recorded by the school the student attends. We are working behind the scenes to streamline this process and have a plan in place. However, as we move forward, parents will need to present a family card in order to pick up student meals in the fall. Also, a gentle reminder, reduced meals are currently being subsidized through school nutrition services, and our program incurs these additional expenses. We will also need to re-engage parents soon to complete their annual free and reduced meal applications in a virtual

103world. Otherwise, they will be moved to paid status and will be charged for their meal. Regulations also indicate that if we allow students to charge meals during our regular school year, we also must need to allow them to charge at the distribution meal sites as well. Our next steps is roll out a rigorous communication plan to include many social media platforms, as well as the use of our meal distribution and our meal pop-up site locations. We need to coordinate with our IT department to expand our network capabilities in remote locations. work with curriculum to support us for the enrichment components for the regulatory needs for our snack and supper, and work with faith and community leaders to continue to identify our areas of need. This concludes my portion, and I'm going to turn this over

104to Dr. Hoover. Thank you, Ms. Hormel. So my staff and I had a very busy spring, and we continue to prepare for this next school year, and we are looking forward to expanding our resources and really refining our processes for both families and staff. So a part of our expansion is, you know, we know that our youngest learners do need devices to access their teachers or content. And so our pre-K kindergartners and first graders will receive tablets, and we are expanding our Chromebook program to include second grade. We continue to be committed to providing internet access to families that need. We are going to enhance our Khajiit program with unlimited data for our families. In addition, we're pursuing a sponsorship program with Comcast so that we could actually support the families for 12 months if

105they do indeed qualify for the program. We will be able to provide some in-person technical support as well as our online technical support now that we're no longer in a stay-at-home order. We're really trying to rebrand our access to PowerSchool and Canvas as virtual plus access. And so parents have one place to go, staff has one place to go to get our resources. And part of this is developing a family help desk within Canvas so that they know where to get technical support, tutorials, or any information on accessibility or digital tools. So we need to distribute devices to not only our pre-K through third graders, but also our new students in grades four through 12. Our plans are to do that from multiple sites across the division. I wish I could give you dates right

106now, but because 2020 continues to give us many challenges, there are some challenges beyond our control, such as supply and demand with COVID and getting... the technology hardware outside of China, but we are working on overcoming these challenges and as soon as we have dates, we will provide this to our community as soon as possible. We will continue to coordinate with FACE and our schools to identify the families that do need internet access. It's a fluid situation and we want to make sure that our students, our families that need that access know that they can get it and how to get it. So currently we are coordinating with facilities to identify times and locations for some in-person technical support that we will be able to provide throughout the year. We are also looking forward to

107starting that soon. So next week we should be able to give information of where you can start to come in August if you have a broken Chromebook or you received a new Chromebook in the spring because yours was broken. We hope to get a hold of that situation well before school starts so your students are ready to go. We are in the process of designing and scheduling some family webinars to teach our younger students how to use their new digital tools, as well as help parents access what they need to support their students and their learning at home. And as I mentioned earlier, we are working on our family help desk right now so that that will be accessible to them as campus as well. So we heard your feedback loud and clear from the

108community about the need for streamlining our tools. As a parent of two ACPS students, I could feel your frustration juggling multiple platforms at once. So we will be moving on all to a primary platform, which is our learning management system, Canvas. And so parents will have one place to go to see their instruction schedules and get technical support, regardless of the school that your children attend or the grade level within the school. Some of our teachers have not been using Canvas, so we know that we need to support them as they make this transition. So we are providing them templates that curriculum and instruction have been working on, so that when teachers come into school, that they have a foundation and are not building up from the bottom. We will continue to use Clever, that's

109our single sign-on portal, so that students do not have to manage multiple logins and passwords. And we are preparing some synchronous and asynchronous professional development for our digital tools. So what we need to do in the next couple of weeks is we need to finalize division and school-wide expectations for teachers so that parents have some consistency with where they're getting their resources. We are going to be providing targeted instruction for our elementary and our secondary teachers around Canvas. We are re-evaluating and reorganizing our applications in Clever to make sure that they are easily accessed. And then finally, we will be providing some information to our staff next week and how to get ahead on their professional learning opportunities if in fact they're interested in doing so before they actually start their new school year. So

110now I'm handing it off to Mr. Turner. Thank you, Dr. Hoover. So I just want to provide a brief update on where we stand with our budget and some of the things we will be doing during the year. Again, our total combined funds budget is $319.8 million, which includes $3.7 million in CARES funding, $3.3 million for ACPS, and $385,000 to provide equitable services. In a typical year, FSD would not be involved with applying for additional grants. We do the accounting, budgeting, and provide oversight, but this is no typical year. So we have been working with program leads and the grants office to pursue several new competitive grants as every penny counts. Some of these grants fall under the CARES and GEER set-aside funding. These different micro-grant awards Grants, if awarded, will provide additional funding to

111support our students with disability, cleaning, mental health, instructional delivery, and internet connectivity. Our consolidated application for these grants is due August 14th. The following slide shows our initial breakdown of the use of the CARES funding. This application process for this funding was brand new for FSD and surprisingly very labor intensive. So I'd like to thank Alex Biskup for coordinating with all the program leads across ACPS and Natalie Mitchell and Greg Tardow for their expertise in federal grant funding. As a reminder, our four broad categories are social, emotional, and academic learning, technology infrastructure, meal distribution, and facilities and transportation. Should things change and we need to reallocate to address different areas, we have this ability to amend our application with the Virginia Department of Education. Now I'll turn things over to our Chief Accountability Officer, Mr.

112Quint Page. Thank you so much, Mr. Turner. So as we continue to round out the PLUS model in the coming weeks, we truly believe in a bottom-up and not a top-down model, so truly wanting. to have the voice of all of our stakeholders to inform the options that we will be offering this fall. So we have, as mentioned earlier, a poll currently open for families, staff, and students through this Sunday. So please, please, please, if you have not yet, go in and fill that information out. And what we're really seeking from our stakeholders is what specific supports are needed in the critical areas listed on the screen here. We will be taking that quantitative data and using that to provide a sense of scale in terms of the overall need in different areas, as well

113as need by different groups. And then we will also be taking the qualitative data, providing the exact type of supports that stakeholders are requesting and passing that off to the leads and planning teams who are working on those plus supports. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Burgos, who's going to go through some further engagement information. Great. Thank you, Clayton. To round out our, oops, can everyone hear me? Yes. To round out our plus in the virtual plus, we have added a new component that I'm happy to talk about this week, and that is our virtual plus helpline. We wanted to offer families an easy way to access our team by having a live helpline that is going to kick off on August 19th and run through the end of the

114month. We were very excited to be able to identify 15 staff members from across the school division who will help us to, who are dedicated to this line and will be running throughout the day to answer questions for families as they navigate the first few weeks of school, particularly after we have now announced this new model. And so right now we're working on building the foundation for our timely responses. We'll be doing FAQs weekly to make sure that our staff is equipped with all the information that they need. And we understand that not everyone's going to have all the answers at their fingertips. And so for that reason, we're working with our schools and our departments to identify a subject matter expert in the school or in the department that we can call on. when

115we do have the need for further help to help those families so we can get back with those families in a timely manner and make sure that they have the information that they need depending on the issue. We plan to do, and I also want to say that the line will be equipped with staff that speak our four major languages and then we'll also have the help of the language line for the other languages that we may not have staff on hand to do to. speak with families. So lastly, I want to say that we're going to launch the helpline on August 17th with some of our linked families to sort of work out all the kinks and get some of their feedback. So we're going to do some beta testing with them. And then

116on August 19th, we'll kick off the actual helpline. It will also include information on this, in addition to many of the other things that we mentioned today, will be included in what we're calling our virtual plus packet, which is our welcome packet that we... give out to families and we'll be mailing out later on in August. And so this information, as well as virtual access and all the other things that we talked about today will be in that packet for families to find. And we will have the helpline available through the end of September, depending on what we assess when we do our assessment. If we feel that the helpline needs to be extended, we will do that. But we wanted to make sure our families can find us and speak to a live person

117when calling and not have that good customer service experience with our school division. So with that, I will turn it right back over to Clint. Thank you. Thank you, Julia. So moving forward, and as Dr. Hutchings mentioned earlier, with the launch of our new strategic plan, Equity for All, focused with racial equity at the heart, we really need to start to live and breathe the components of that plan, including our vision, mission, and core values. So as we move forward, we certainly know that we need to be results driven in how we assess our virtual plus model. And then based off of those iterative assessments that we need to be flexible, innovative, and equity focused in adjustments and refinements moving forward. We also know that we need to be welcoming and empowering to our stakeholders

118by hearing their voice in this process and continuing to take that voice and have it inform our decision making as well as having thick two-way communication. between ourselves and our stakeholders. We also know that as we reassess potential return to in-person as well as supports in that necessary return, that we are going to have to embrace all of these core values as we move forward. So as it relates to factors relating to a potential in-person return. Next slide. Here are some factors as it relates to reassessing that transition. And at the very highest level, we want to ensure that we are being... data oriented in our decision making process and informed and that we're also being collaborative across stakeholders, both internal and external of our organization. We heard loud and clear from our stakeholders that

119health and safety is the number one priority in this discussion. So obviously working hand in hand and continuing to work hand in hand with our Alexandria Health Department in monitoring the current situation of infection and COVID data within the city. within the region and state and national statistics. Then also continuing to iteratively revisit a lot of the feasibility factors that you heard earlier in this presentation. So things like PPE supplies, transportation, school nutrition, workforce availability, budget constraints, et cetera, in making that decision. And then also continuing to hear from our stakeholders, our students, our families, and staff. in terms of where they are and the potential to return to an in-person schooling experience. So a little bit more about that process and what that looks like. Next slide. So we will and have a transition

120team and we will be continuously assessing the potential for return to in-person every nine weeks. As I stated earlier, we will continue to monitor the health situation, working hand in hand with the Alexandria Health Department. We will begin now implementing the ACPS COVID-19 handbook developed by the Alexandria Health Department to make sure we're meeting those benchmarks. And we will also continue to hear feedback both from our staff as well as our broader stakeholders in terms of the potential for an in-person and where they are as it relates to that. We also know that the return to in-person school is going to be extremely complex. We experienced that through our planning sprints this summer. So we cannot wait in terms of that planning. So we are going to start that planning now and continue to build

121that out as we go through in regards to the potential return to in-person. With that, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Jackson, who's going to talk a little bit more about the decision-making process. Thank you so much, Clint. I just want to say, as we think about reopening schools and moving to our hybrid model, There are, there's guidelines from the CDC as well as the Virginia Department of Education that we are looking towards. These are three examples of the guidelines that are coming out from the CDC as well as the Virginia Department of Education. And we will be customizing these guidelines for, with prevention in mind, obviously. And also, what should we do? Should we have confirmed cases in our schools? And we'll be relying heavily on our parents to help us. And

122we know our school nurses will be present in every school. And we're grateful to have the support of our school nurses. But we are really going to be relying on our parents to make sure that they are taking temperatures and that they're looking for other signs and symptoms and not sending our students to school if they are not feeling well. And the same thing will go for our staff. And the third graphic depicts what partnerships do we need to make sure that we have in place if there are, in fact, confirmed cases. And we will be working with our Alexandria Health Department to do contact tracing to determine the level of risk, the level of... spread if there has been a confirmed case and then moving into action. And so we'll be working with our

123school health staff. We'll be working with our school administrators, as well as our entire community to prevent the spread of COVID. I want to also turn it back over to Dr. Mozingo now. Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Wow. I was just thinking. Alone we can do so little, but together we accomplish so much more. Wow, I'm just thinking about that as these different groups were presenting. But at any rate, where are we going next? We wanted to just share that over the next week before we submit the information to VDOE, we will work with our staff and schools and others to finalize the playbooks. As we said earlier, the playbooks will include guidance. will flesh out in further detail those staff schedules, student schedules. We know that those schedules must also be designed

124to meet the needs of our students with disabilities, to meet our English learners. as well as provide support for our gifted learners. So those schedules will be defined to address those needs, as well as instructional guidance. There is some guidance from the state regarding prioritizing initiatives, prioritizing standards. So we'll be working on all of that. In addition, just lastly, you have on this slide the four components that are required to be addressed in the plan. for VDOE on next Friday. The operational infrastructure, you've heard a lot about that today, but we have to actually put all of that in writing and submit that. Again, there is a requirement early on in the VDOE guidance. to provide new instruction for all students. And that'll be a part of a lot of professional development as we go

125forward. Again, I thank Mr. Page for talking about instructional gaps and identifying student needs. And we know there has been tremendous learning loss. So there will be assessments to address those areas and to help guide instruction. And lastly, a remote learning plan. So at this time, we thank everyone. And I would like to turn it back over to our superintendent, Dr. Hutchins. Thank you, Dr. Mozingo. And I just want to say, wow, everybody, I know that you all are exhausted, but let me tell you, this was a lot of information. And we heard from our community around us being extremely informative around this model that we're presenting to the board, as well as to our community. And we want it to be as thorough as possible. I hope that you will look at the attachment

126that is to this board memo that relates to our playbooks, because it has all of the real specific. information. We're still trying to make that even more concise. Right now it's at 80 plus pages. We are trying to make it a lot more user-friendly and concise and go through that document so you'll see a finished version next week that will be a part of the final plan that goes to the Virginia Department of Education. I want to publicly just say thank you, Dr. Mozingo, for your hard work. You all have no idea, but Dr. Mozingo, she was the co-chair for this. I like to say that I was in autopilot. sometimes I had to do other stuff. So I had to be like, Dr. Mozingo, now I have to handle X, Y, or Z. And

127board members, you all know all the other things that come across my plate every once in a while. But Dr. Mozingo had to really take the steering wheel in a sense. And you have done a remarkable job with this work. I just want to thank you. We couldn't do it without Education Elements who are also on this call, specifically Simma, Natalie, Christina, and then Andrea joined us yesterday with... some work that we were doing with our leadership academy. But our education elements, which is a consultant that worked with us, this would not have been possible in such a short period of time without their guidance and support along the way. And I just want to, you know, publicly just say thank you to education elements for helping us and guiding us and pushing our thinking

128and organizing us, you know, to provide what we have provided to the board today. So we're going to conclude. with that and turn things over to our Madam Chair so that we can, I'm assuming, open up the floor for some questions from our board members. Yes, thank you. Thank you for that. That was a very informative presentation and so enjoyable as well. So just just to let people know remind board members and let the public know we are expecting a vote on this today so But we will certainly have the questions answered first and I see Dr. Reif is first up with their hand All right. Can you hear me? Okay? Yes Well, thank you so much for that, everyone. I really appreciate the presentation and everyone who contributed. And I know that a lot

129of work has been done up to this point, and I can see that it's been a very methodical approach looking at the playbook. You've taken the time to consider the inputs, the constraints, and the feedback from stakeholders. One thing I just wanted to mention for the listening public is that we have heard loud and clear about the inconsistency. that students and parents have experienced a little bit across the division. And that's something that we are working to address in our strategic plan. And I can see in the playbook, if folks take a look at that, it really lays out the expectations for the central office versus the staff and what's kind of the non-negotiables versus where there's some flexibility for the schools. But speaking for myself, I just want to say that I was hoping

130for a little bit more specific details today. I think that you all, I know you've been working really hard. And we've kind of been building to this moment and I feel like there's a lot in here about what's not feasible and what we hope to do but there's not really, it's, it's a little short on some of the details of what exactly we are going to do. And I just want to give voice to that because I know that that sentiment I think is out there. This school is starting in four weeks, the teachers are coming back in two and a half weeks and I think that There are some details that folks are really, you know, very anxious to know about. In fact, when I was looking at the slide number 10, where you

131talk about what you've been doing for the last, this past week and what you've been focusing on, a lot of those questions are kind of like the details that I think people are really looking for. It's, you know, how will the... who will provide the supports, who and how many will receive the supports. You know, I think like I've heard feedback about the structured bell schedule. What does that mean? I think parents are trying to understand what their day is going to look like, honestly, because we do have so many working parents. Like, how are they going to be able to structure their day and also support their children? You know, with the SEAL supports, like, what's going to be provided? Who's going to be eligible? And who's providing it? Is the teacher providing it?

132Are there support staff that are providing it? I was concerned about like in slide 23 it talks about that the seal supports are going to be determined in September based upon needs. So I guess I'm concerned about You know how soon this stuff is going to be ready to go. Honestly, I mean, hearing from also some special education families like how are the IEP is going to be enforced. I heard some stories of families who, you know, lost the first couple of weeks in the spring and the summer because the the IEP supports were not in place right when those those learning periods kicked off. You know, I was I I really like the way that you all are handling the kindergarten prep. I just wanted to kind of put that out here that it's

133being called a kindergarten kickoff. And it sounds like at the schools, they're doing these one-on-one meetings with families to kind of help orient them to the school. And I would really encourage you, if it's possible, to think about doing. something like that for say our students receiving specialized instruction, particularly those who are going to be transitioning into new schools and who really need these supports. And I know also like I think staff are really very curious to know what the expectations are going to be on them because as you mentioned, many do have children at home. So how are they going to be able to manage this, you know, full virtual classroom, like, you know, the full day while they're also working with their kids at home and what kind of flexibility are they going

134to have? And then the childcare. The child care piece is so critical, I think, because, you know, I mean, you touched on this, Mr. Hubman, but the, you know, the capacity for our community partners and the affordability. So, I mean, it sounded like from your comments, Dr. Hutchings, that it's going to be, that's going to be really. more geared towards vulnerable families. So I'm thinking about, you know, who fits in that and who doesn't. And folks really need to plan for this because it's only a few weeks from now. And so those are some of my concerns. And so I guess my question is, like, if you could just talk a little bit about when... folks can expect to get these details. I know that we have this instructional plan and the health plan that's

135due to the VDOE next Friday. Is that going to be... posted on our website is that I'm curious what kind of format it's going to be. And I'm assuming it's not a PowerPoint. So what is it going to look like? The playbook is a great document. It looks geared towards school leaders. Honestly, it was over. It's overwhelming for me to read. So I'm sure that a lot of families are not really going to dig in too much to that. So when can people expect to hear about these details and how are they kind of like over the next four weeks? what is the timeline for when folks can expect to learn about some of these details? If you could talk about that. So yes, Dr. Ruth, one, thank you for your comments and also thank

136you for the question. First and foremost, I just want to say this, that the purpose in us having the presentation was to provide the board an overview and then to have Q&A so that we can get into those specific details. So I'm glad that you're asking those questions because that really is how this is supposed to operate where if you can specifically go through your questions, I know you were making comments, but I would love for you to ask those as questions versus comments so that we can actually respond to them. And the goal was for us to be able to share, which we don't know all the specific questions that board members have. So we can't cover everything in the presentation, just giving the board the details as what we were doing with our

137presentation today was to provide an overview. so that you can understand where we were. where we are now and where we are striving to go moving forward. We also can't be too presumptuous that the recommendation we're making today is a recommendation to the board. We can't take marching orders and say everything is approved and we're going to just operate as normal when we haven't had a vote from the board. So we do want to make sure that that occurs as well. But we are extremely prepared and ready to pivot into action the moment you all make a decision on this model going forward. forward. But if you can ask your question specifically to us, we will be more than happy to respond so that they can be on the record. So I don't know if

138Madam Chair wants to have a specific number of questions. There were several questions that came out of those comments that you that you had mentioned. Yeah, yes, I think that given the fact that we have nine members, I think You know, it'd be good. I think some of them are going to be overlapping questions is what I would think. But I think maybe people would have their top couple because we can also I mean, I think we're today our vote is not about all the details. It's about really the general direction. And we can also do as we've done sometimes during our virtual. period is have questions that are actually published and then the answers are published. So I think that we could do that for next week if we have. So if people can

139do their top maybe two questions today and then, and again, there'll probably be overlap. And so we'll cover more questions of everybody's. And then after that, we can submit them, have those published along with the answers. So, yeah, so I'll just say one of my sort of burning questions, I guess, would be with the SEAL, the Social, Emotional, and Academic Learning Supports. Can you talk a little bit more about who is going to be providing that and when, like, how will you be determining who is eligible for Tier 2 and Tier 3? And kind of aligned with that, are students who receive IEPs? When will families be connected with the services that they need in the school year? Perfect. So we'll have Dr. Crawford talk a little bit about COR, social emotional learning assessments and

140supports and how they're delivered. And then we'll have Ms. Werner talk about the specialized instructional piece in regards to the individualized education plans. Thank you, Dr. Hutchings. So just to highlight a few of the things that Mr. Sampson went through and our principals, the SEAL supports are going to be built into Tier 1 for every student at every grade, every day. You can see within the structure that we have ranging between 20 and 30 minutes that needs to be dedicated to that learning and that support and that relationship building. We had a phrase earlier. this week that I keep coming back to that it's connection before content. So when we are in this environment, it is bringing our teams together, our classes together, and doing that relationship building before we jump into some of the

141content. So the seal will be delivered tier one to every student every single day. you made a reference to the timeframe at the end of September. And I believe what you're referring to is when we talked about the assessment and the screener. And that's an intentional decision. We have Mr. Sampson and Dr. Baker, our director of psychology, has been working on screening tool research for months. And we actually have some tools that we'll be using that are COVID specific when we talk about social emotional impact. What we do want to be mindful of, and there's some new guidance coming out of not giving a formal assessment the first day, but allowing students to transition into this new model. Of course, we'll have the informal assessment so that we can use our MTSS system. as you

142referenced, where are the tier twos and threes, we'll follow the same process that we do during the school year of identifying the student need. But the assessment, the screening tool piece, you know, we're looking at giving that officially after a couple weeks in the month of September, but allowing kids to get used to what this new framework is. I hope I answered all of those. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Crawford. And if we can have Ms. Werner, she's on. I see her now. Yes, I am. I am here. Thank you, Dr. Hutchings. Thank you for the opportunity to Dr. Reif to address students with disabilities. As you know, students with disabilities receive their services under a very broad continuum. So there's a very broad perspective of services that we are looking to support

143and provide for students with disabilities. The majority of our students with disabilities access their services through the general education setting. And as Ms. Cruz had stated when she was presenting the student schedules, there was some very specific work put into determining schedules so that there were times within those class periods. for all the co-teaching that we have been working so hard to do. So we can ensure that students with disabilities who are accessing their general education program will get the co-teaching and direct instruction from their teacher. And then there will be place in those classes for students, especially in reading and math to have breakout sessions with the special ed teachers. We have the ability now through the Zoom process to use breakout rooms. And so we will be doing small group stations to. promote

144those co-teaching and ensure that students receive those special education services in their general education setting. In addition, we have the students who receive their related services have been receiving them through a very robust teletherapy model and that teletherapy model will continue this fall. So that's students who receive their speech and language, their occupational therapy. physical therapy and speech, did I say speech and language? Speech, OT, PT, and other related services. In addition for the citywide students, so what I want to make really clear for all of our students with disabilities, as it applies to all of our students, the preponderance of their instruction will be in a virtual setting. Everybody will be receiving their instruction. on the virtual platforms. So it is my goal to ensure that we have for every student with a disability

145a very strong and robust beginning to virtual instruction. Once we have that virtual platform down, it is the plan of the Office of Specialized Instruction in conjunction with working with operations and HR and other offices here. in the school division to phase back into face-to-face instruction students with disabilities. It is our goal to begin that process. in late September, early October, working with our pre-K to two students, citywide students, and then phase in our third through fifth grade students who are in the citywide programs, as well as looking at providing those direct special education reading and math services for students whose IEP requires that from a special ed teacher, and then phasing in our secondary students. So we are working very diligently to get our students with disabilities. back in to classroom settings to face-to-face

146settings as you heard from two of our public comments, Ms. Eisenstadt and Ms. Hart. There is a very strong support for starting small and phasing in. We want to make sure we get it done right and that we have very strict protocols in to ensure student and staff safety, but we want to very much ensure that we are able to bring students back face-to-face as soon as possible. Yes. Thank you so much, Ms. Werner. I just want to add on to what both Dr. Crawford and Ms. Werner have already said. That is the fact that we made the decision about the recommended model that's most feasible last Wednesday. So we are really trying to now transition into an implementation phase. And there's been a lot of work that's happened in regards to how do you

147implement with fidelity over the past several weeks. But now this is the chosen or recommended model that we are. that we're putting forth and a lot of work has happened in just you know the past week from the announcement of uh you know this virtual plus model and i also just want to just make a point that uh with this transition and being virtually We don't have all of our staff in place right now. So we still have to provide professional learning for our staff the week prior to school. We still have to provide, you know, schedules for, you know, our students, which typically even in the traditional time where we start schedules in April. because that's typically when we start in the traditional year. We still don't have schedules prepared for students until at

148least a week before school starts. So we are really moving at a very rapid pace that we do not want to be unreasonable with our approach and to give false hope to our families that we would have something in regards to an actual schedule for students today. That just is unreasonable and also unfeasible and not feasible to happen. Thank you. Next up, I have Ms. Alderton. All right. Well, good afternoon, everyone. And I'm just going to come out with the commendations first, because there were several things that were real highlights to me that I think could even answer some of the previous questions. So first and foremost, the cross-functional planning teams had the opportunity to sit in and watch the last meeting. And I think what was really powerful and what's important for everyone to

149know is that this isn't the end, right? This, you know, what I got from that was not only how great the work was, but the work is actually going to continue. And so I think that's important for everybody to know that, you know, this will continue. And, you know, this type of collaboration, I think, is what we want to. really flesh out and see how we continue this moving forward. Because I think it was, you know, clearly very powerful. And just, it worked well. So kudos for that. Kudos to the EL and SPED executive directors. I think what I loved seeing was that EL and SPED did not work in silos for this. And I think this is really, really important in how we improve services for these students. You know, we heard Dr. Warner

150say how she was involved in the scheduling meetings, right? She was in, they were involved in, in those big picture things. And I think that's, you know, how we move forward in improving outcomes for those students because we're not separating them. This is like, how real inclusive work happens when we work across departments toward the same goal. For the SEAL team, I really commend what I'm starting to hear as this tangible MTSS model that's developing. And, you know, even during the drastic changes imposed by a pandemic. So this, you know, not only gets me excited for now and really commending you and thinking about like, this is not something that we're just going to set aside because of the situation. But, you know, if we can do this in this situation, we can really build

151on this when we come back and, you know, make it even stronger. My question for, I just, and this is really, it's the basic question. The map screener, is that connected to the NWA map? Because, I mean, if so, like, that's awesome. Like, I see it as something that's easy to connect when we return to opening the buildings. So that's just my first question because I never heard of the screener. And then two. Were there, I think you kind of answered this with Ms. Reif, but were there thoughts on which social emotional screeners will be used or any ideas of some top ones that have come to mind already? Thank you. Thank you for the question, Ms. Alderton. So we'll have Dr. Mazzinko elaborate on the MAPS screener, but it is a part of NWEA.

152There is a screener portion that they have, and they're even evolving some additional resources now that many school divisions across the country are now having to transition into virtual. um you know learning so they're trying to develop additional assessments uh but dr mozingo if you can just elaborate a little bit on the um the map screener uh from the nwea Oh, absolutely. And thank you, really. Thank you for asking that question, because absolutely, as he said, is connected with the NWEA. It's brand new. They just developed it. It emerged as a result of, you know, what is occurring around the learning loss. And so what it means is it only takes approximately 20 minutes. So not as much time as the actual math, but it takes 20 minutes for reading and math. And the nice

153feature is that. our schools still will get some data for informing instruction. Then as we move to whatever the next phase might be, we can always launch the next phase of the map. But we're really excited about moving in this direction. And it is one of the assessments that we have aligned in terms of our data component of MTSS. So I hope that, yeah, but it's brand new. It's a screener and it will be, and it will be administered shortly after we start September the 8th. Thank you. And I'm going to ask Dr. Crawford to talk about the SEO. And as Dr. Crawford, before she comes on, I do want to just point out the fact that something that our team has discussed, and it's very important for the community to understand, that when you

154are administering certain assessments, we want to also think of the environments that our students are in that could have an impact on the results of those assessments. And let me just give you an example. If you're at a home that's a one-room apartment and you have six people, at the same time and your brother or your sister, they're on their Zoom right next to you. And then your mom is on the phone talking to somebody at work and you're trying to do your assessment, that could be a distractor and that could have an impact on your assessment. So we are really trying to keep that into consideration so that we're not using our traditional. universal screeners and using our traditional assessments for our students, keeping that in mind just because of the testing environment, which

155that is, as you all know as educators, that the testing environment is key. for students performing their best on any particular assessment. But I wanted to make that point so that people can understand why we're not using some of our traditional assessments and having to convert to virtual or shorter versions of assessments for students. Dr. Crawford, if you can talk about the SEL assessments. I'd be happy to, thank you. And I do think while a pandemic and a... Closure is not exciting. The implementation of the universal screener and moving in this direction is something that we've talked to the board about previously. So we are very excited about that aspect. And specifically, you asked about different tools. And yes, Dr. Baker and Mr. Sampson and the team have been researching. The one that we have

156focused in on is the UCLA brief COVID-19 screening for child and adolescent PTSD. is what we're looking at for right now. I know Dr. Baker has been in touch with the developer of that screening and we have received permission to modify it to our needs so he's looking at making it developmentally appropriate for our elementary and our secondary students. We're of course working with Mr. Page and accountability, but we will be looking at this is COVID specific and then how do we build on that in future years to have a very responsive tool. I want to just take the moment to plug that we still will be utilizing our ruler program that the board heard about shortly before the closure. So our social emotional learning program or academic learning program there in several of our

157schools, we do have the planned expansion to I believe five other schools. and utilizing things that are within RULER, such as the mood meter that you all saw and different tools. So we're very excited about continuing RULER at the three schools, pushing out at the five new schools, and then having you know, a toolbox for all of our teachers and our SST specifically to provide social emotional support. I'm just going to pause for one second and make sure that I captured the screener question correctly because I know Mr. Sampson has been critical in that work. How did I do, Daryl? I don't, I'm not able to see him, so I'm assuming that he would speak up if I had missed anything. Okay, thank you. Thank you for the question. Thank you guys so much. Again,

158awesome. Okay, next up I have Ms. Thornton. Thank you and good afternoon, everyone. And just thank you so much for all of your hard work on this massive undertaking. I think one of the silver linings for the board and the community is that we really do get to see such a collaborative effort from our ACPS team and really see how you all make decisions and collaborate on these issues. So thank you for letting us tune into that. I do also really appreciate hearing so much about our community partners and their efforts to collaborate with us to provide childcare for our most vulnerable families. And I did want to just ask a few more clarifying questions about our childcare. And they do center around basic eligibility criteria and logistics. So firstly, I'm wondering if we can

159hear a little bit more about who we consider to be our most vulnerable families when we talk about child care. So, for example, if we have two parents who are at home but are working remotely on full-time jobs, are they going to be considered eligible for something like this? So we can just hear a little bit more about who are our vulnerable families in this context of childcare. I heard these were mentioned as part of this. I'm wondering, are those fees that we will be charging to families or is that something that ACPS would be paying to our community partners on behalf of our families? And one other thing too that I wanted to know, so will we be considering this opportunity for all grades and all ages, or will this be something for younger

160learners? So just overall eligibility criteria, if we can hear a little bit more about that. And then secondly, logistics. I know that we still have more planning to do and we do have a family survey coming out next week where we're trying to gauge more about what families are needing with regard to this. But I am kind of concerned just from a timing perspective about how, like once we figure out what those needs are, how will we be able to connect families to these opportunities with our community partners? Mr. Huffman did mention that there could be upwards to 30 or 40 different partners that we're working with on this. So to me, it just seems like a logistical challenge to see like how we can partner our families with these resources in a way that

161works for them. So if you could just answer those two questions about eligibility and logistics, that would be awesome. Thank you. So I'll start off and then I'll have Mr. Huffman chime in to kind of. provide some more specific details. First and foremost, you know, when we talk about our most vulnerable families, we are specifically talking about our families who they have jobs and their livelihood could be impacted if they don't have the necessary child care options. This is a similar approach that happened this summer with our RET program and with Campania, with the camps that we offered in July. And many of the you know the criteria was just trying to make sure that you know our families who were most in need of these services were kind of afforded that option first and

162then if there were opportunities or spots that were still available that they were open to you know to other people within our community we were also looking uh specifically at um you know students with special needs um students who are English learners, as well as students who are already performing below reading level or below grade level. So those are the targeted groups that we are specifically looking at. It's not basically just, you know, for the child care option, but it's also for some virtual supports that families might need, because we have to keep in mind, even though we... even though we have these options for our families, some families do not want their children in environments. You know, they do not want their children going into a school location or going into a child care

163location. They will prefer for their children to be at home. So it really is going to have to be, and this is why it's so important for us to get this survey data. We really are going to have to have our parents who feel comfortable having their kids be a part of some of these options. I also just want to bring to our attention and just remind us all. that we do work with our community partners every summer with all of the different camps that we offer in Alexandria, in the city of Alexandria. There's a partnership that happens with that every year. So this isn't new for us to collaborate. And typically our families know a lot of our community partners out there, like the Soccer Foundation, like Campania, like Recs and Parks. These are

164all typical services that we've always provided for our families. just either provided in the summer or provided before or after school. And that timeframe now is different, but the partnership that we already had is really not that different. But if Mr. Huffman can speak more details or speak about more details in regards to our partnering with our community partners. Sure, let me go back to eligibility. your question about eligibility and Dr. Hutchings hit it right on the head on terms of some of those special populations that we know we're going to have to target. We've been talking to those partners. I don't want to get confusing. We have providers of in student support, providers if you want to call them, and then we have these supplemental partners. Let's stick with the providers. So those providers

165and us, including the Campania Center, the Rec Center, Community Lodging, ARHA, we're all talking together, YMCA, we're all talking together about how do we identify those most at-need students. We're including Title I students as probably a check. Title I, we know that's going to be a lot of vulnerable students, so we may want to target them. So we're looking at those populations with each partner specifically, keeping in mind that some of our partners are already ready to... quote unquote, ready to go. So community lodgings, they have a specific group that they, for their, for the residents and for those, that area that they, they have students already in their programs. ARHA is the same way. Casa Chirilagua. So they already have eligibility type criteria that they've have established. Look at the rec, for example, I

166know over the summer, they're, they're, they first prioritized anyone essential employees. or first responders, food service retails, so that if there was no childcare available for them for a low cost or free, that they would help with supporting that. That's gonna continue that type of thing. It's all. All of this came out of an incredible, that city work group that talked about what is the priority for, at that time, after school or daycare or childcare. You put them all kind of together. And that was, hey, we've got to make sure that we are serving our most vulnerable students. So all these partners and providers that are together in these meetings with us are starting to really look at how are we making sure we're identifying those students. So I feel pretty good about that, that

167we're getting on the same page on those type of that eligibility criteria. On the fee structure, again, we have lots of providers, private providers that are that that someone could go to for child care. Jane Richardson can speak a little bit more about early care for private providers and also providers that she works with, such as Children and Family Network Centers. For age grade age students in the fee structure, we're again working with different providers to see what their criteria is going to be, what their fee structure is going to be. Can we possibly work with grants and 21st century grants and the city to offer a proposal for free child care for those parents that just and families just can't afford any fee? So that's all in progress. And I wish I could give

168you a final answer, but we're working towards that. And we're kind of turning over every stone to your point to make sure we're serving the most needy families and students, and also that it's free or affordable for everybody to take advantage of. So that's kind of from my partner view. And then you talked about those, I talked about those 40 other partners. Those are those supplemental partners that are going to help with the providers or help with teachers in school. So they're not a provider. I don't call them a provider. I call them a partner. So as the soccer association, they will add supplemental activities impact to the providers and to quote unquote our virtual plus model. I hope that helps a bit. Okay, thank you. I have Miss Green up next. Thank you, Chair

169Anderson. Once again, thank you to everyone involved with your time, the care you put into this and the hard work for coming up with this virtual class recommendation and keeping the safety of our students top of mind and at the forefront. So thank you very much. My question is, and I've been very concerned about it, those students that we've lost touch with since going virtual on March 16th, has there been any tracking with that or any data that could be provided? And have we been reaching out to them since then? And what has taken place from then till now, basically? So I will have Dr. Crawford to. to chime in on this one in regards to our outreach. I will say moving forward, you know, in the spring, we were not required to take attendance

170every day of our students. And that is what allowed or afforded some of our students to kind of not check in, right? We also had a lot of flexibility with staff members interacting with our students. It wasn't mandatory that that had to happen. Whereas with our virtual plus model in this fall, we are not. exempt from the Virginia Department of Education from our compulsory attendance requirements, which means we have to take attendance daily. So it's similar to how we operated in regards to attendance when we were in person. So each day we are going to have to take a role and parents will be contacted if a child is not visual on a Zoom session that will be required for him or they to be a part of. Dr. Crawford, if you can just elaborate

171a little bit on what we've done in the spring and kind of what some of the additional details are for the fall. Absolutely. And you actually, you hit on where I was going to start is that you know, going into the fall, Miss Green, we know that we're going to have different areas of accountability, including hopefully greater engagement because we know we'll have the attendance and we'll have a different grading system, which is critical for our students who many who at the secondary level were disengaged last year. Some of that was reported that they didn't have the investment because it was a pass or no grade. And in answer to your question about how have we kept up or reached out to those families. Some of that relates to just the collaboration with our principals

172who are on the line of teachers saying, I haven't seen this student in a while. I haven't heard back. We certainly have utilized our SST, but not unlike the MTSS system. The outreach started as a tier one hearing from our our teachers of who are they seeing every day, who is coming to office hours. And then when it needed additional support, if the outreach to the families was not working, then we did go to our psych, our social workers, our administrators, et cetera. I'm not 100% sure about continued over the summer. I know at the beginning, the outreach to families who were opting out of summer school, as well as those who continued at summer school. But I'm not 100% sure of the ongoing conversation with the families who did in fact opt out. We

173have provided also even during the springtime support from our office, the truancy outreach specialists. I know TC has specific supports in place for that. So, you know, that's how we've reached out to our families. I'm hoping that in the fall with some of these changes and greater accountability that the students will and the families will feel more invested. Thank you. Great. Next up, I have Ms. Nolan. Thank you so much, Chair Anderson. And Chair Anderson, I know we were allowed to ask two questions during this meeting. Do you prefer us to ask one and then go back in the queue? Or what is your preference for this particular meeting? You have two right now. You can ask them. I think some of us two questions now. Okay. First off, I do want to start off

174with just humongous compliments. I honestly wish I could go through every single person on this Zoom and just say how phenomenal your presentation was, your hard work, and I mean that very sincerely. So I really feel like there are so many also just unspoken heroes that are not participating in this Zoom that did so much work, including community members. And we have so many leaders on this Zoom, and I know your staff has worked tirelessly thanks to your leadership. So I just want to say how thoroughly impressed. And I am with everyone and just what an honor it is to participate in this meeting and be a small part of this school community. So thank you so much for all of your hard work. And I know it's coming from a very sincere place. So

175I just want to start off by saying very much thank you. All right. So Dr. Hutchings, don't hate me on this one, but I'm going to squeeze in a comment. And then it's not my question, though. So don't hate me. But all right. I love the thought about the assessment. It was really helpful, Dr. and Mr. Page, you going through the map. And so I just want to share that just from a parent perspective, I think we want to be super clear. And maybe when that gets disseminated to parents about, you know, what assessment can they expect in terms of like, what is the assessment going to tell about their student? What happens with the student once they get assessed? Like, meaning, are the students going to be grouped accordingly? How often will they get

176assessed? What's the grading process going to be? And I think just a lot of communication to parents and then every quarter, how are we assessing this? And as well as I'll be curious to know in future meetings, you know, we just did do adopted this phenomenal strategic plan that Dr. Hutchings referenced earlier. I'm just curious, are we going to have to assess this current school year differently based on this new framework? But that's not my question. That's just a comment for later. But my question is, again. You know, I know there's a theme here, and because it's such a caring community, about what our needs are for our most vulnerable students. And I know there's so many logistics that need to be figured out in terms of the child care, such as, you know, what's

177the predicted need? What's the cost going to be? Where's the funding coming from? What facilities are we using? How are we prioritizing the students? What staff will be used? So given that, I'm not going to ask that anyone walk through those because it sounds like we're still in the midst, and I know people are working tirelessly. I'm just curious more about... Is there a deadline or a date in mind as to when the community will know about these logistics? Because as you can imagine, that has been a significant question from the public, especially our most vulnerable parents who do have a dual, a need for every parent to work out of the home. And I imagine I'm representing all of us on the Zoom, including you, Dr. Hutchings, that there's a big fear of kids

178being left home alone. And I know no one here wants that. So I'm just curious, given the level of anxiety parents are having over that, when do you think the deadline is for all those logistics and when people and then also what's the capacity that we're predicting we'll be able to serve. So thank you. Thank you, Ms. Nolan. Thank you for the comments and the question. You know, I'm going to turn things over to Dr. I'm sorry, Mr. Huffman to talk a little bit about, you know, just with the timeframe that we're looking at, because he is working directly with our providers as well as our partners. And then I'm going to ask for Dr. Hart to just talk a little bit about some of the work that we're doing now that we've been doing

179for the past couple of weeks about like. what are our limitations in regards to space? Because we do still have to adhere to like CDC guidelines. We still have to think about the staffing that we also have within our schools. So can we accommodate, you know, with making sure that the things are clean because they're cleaning practices that we didn't have previously that we now have to do when our buildings are occupied. But Dr. Hart can talk a little bit more about some of the work that we're doing with. determining our limitations in our schools. But Mr. Huffman, if you can start off with the conversation about the providers and the deadline that we're looking at right now, timeframe. So Ms. Nolan, that's a great question. I kind of addressed it during my slide that

180we're going through these stage gates as quickly as possible without... We know we need to get some more logistics in place before we give a specific timeline for those partners or providers that potentially would be using our buildings. Because that's a different, that's kind of a different kind of stage gates we need to go through. And Dr. Hart can talk a little bit more about that. So that timeline is still being established, knowing we're going to need to know soon enough that we can get the messaging out to our parents and families. We do have off-site providers, as I talked about before, ARAHA, Community Lodgings, Casa de Chirilagua, that may be on a better, I hate to say better timeline, but a different timeline because they have established space. They have established kind of protocol

181there. We would help support them in different ways, but they can kind of move forward. And then we have all these private care that Jane might be able to talk a little bit more about, but probably also. are on a kind of a timeline where they could already have a kind of a schedule in place. They're a little bit smaller in terms of numbers, such as like, you know, we're talking back to community lodgings in Casa Chirilagua. Casa Chirilagua can probably take maybe 15 to 20 students. I mean, that's, it's just not because of social distancing and all the guidelines. There's not a lot of capacity there. So depending on the site. will depend on the capacity for each of those sites. Obviously all of them are going to, no matter how you slice it,

182they're all going to be restricted in numbers. I mean there's just no other way to say it. We know that's one of the reasons why we're doing this virtual plus. Our school buildings, you know, just in terms of school, we can't, we wouldn't be able to take those students, we wouldn't be able to serve all our students. So because of social distancing and all the CDC guidelines and everything. So those partners are looking and providers are looking at. based on their criteria, based on CDC guidelines, based on different guidelines that they have from their organization, and also aligning with our guidelines, what is the capacity that they can have? And let's just be honest and real, it's going to be restricted. And so that's why I'm hoping we can really construct this citywide map of

183different opportunities for these families that potentially can serve in different areas. and help fill the gap for these most vulnerable families and students. That's our goal. We're working so hard to get it in a realistic kind of stage gate series of meetings and then get it before so the families can get notification and understand the whole process sooner than later. Can I add something really quickly to Mr. Huffman's comments? I just wanted to add that the main thing that we're just waiting on to provide Ms. Nolan and the community with an actual date is we need our data that, you know, our polls close on Sunday. And we really need to get some of the data around what parents and our families are actually needing. And that is really something that's going to determine. how

184long that's going to take to, you know, like if we had 10,000 people who needed, you know, which I don't think that's going to be the number, but I'm just throwing numbers up. matter of fact, I won't throw any numbers out there because then people might quote me. So if we had a certain number that came back of families who needed some type of support, depending on how small or how large that number is, will have an impact on our timeframe of trying to share out definitively what the options are. But Monday and next week, we're going to have a clearer picture. So we're not talking about waiting for another few weeks or anything like that. I do know that, you know, we're waiting for the biggest data point, which is what are some of

185the needs of our families and having that, which we should have early next week will help us to provide a definitive date to the community. Dr. Hutchings, do you mind if I ask a follow-up question to your information? So are we expecting on the first day of school that this will all, the logistics will be in place? And then another, my second follow-up question would be, I'm assuming we all know that probably our most vulnerable families, and I don't mean to promote a stereotype or anything, but especially if you're going through a lot of trauma right now, are maybe the least likely to fill out a survey. So are we also proactively going after our most vulnerable? So I guess that would be my two follow-up questions. Yeah, so we are. So we are proactively

186working with our most vulnerable, the families that we know are most vulnerable already because we have relationships with them. And the goal is to try to have these options available for when school begins. You know, that is the goal to have. It's just a matter of we need to see what the capacity is and we need to see what the need is. And we're just waiting on the need, you know, that should be coming to us early next week from our families. I was going to ask for Dr. Hart to talk a little bit about the limitations that this does bring into our schools and how we are analyzing what our limitations actually are in our school buildings. And so in order to really answer this question, I want to be able to lay out

187some of the current activities that we have ongoing within our sites. I know I think maybe some of the thought is that we are not in person learning even over the summer, so our sites should be free and clear. However, we have a number of activities that still needed to occur within our buildings, such as on-site registration. We are doing meal distribution. We have construction activities and some significant construction activities at a few of our sites. So major renovations, kitchen and cafeteria projects, roof replacements, HVAC items that are currently going on. And so we have a number of small groups that are utilizing our facilities in some way, shape or form. And in working with Curt and our community partners, we now have to complete what we are calling a usage matrix to really lay

188out what are all of the current activities, what are the potential activities, and then what are our capacity constraints given social distancing. So it's a myriad of information that we're having to put into this matrix. So not only our community, but really our school principals and the rest of ACPS staff can see to the extent of which our buildings are being used, some of the considerations that we have to keep in mind for health and safety purposes, and using this matrix to help guide our partners into which facilities could potentially be used to help support these programs. And so working with my team, most specifically Anita Cordova, I know she's on the line as well. well to help create this matrix specifically because she has been really instrumental in organizing our summer logistics thus far.

189So we do have a framework. We just have to expand on that framework to include now this child care piece. And how do we make this fit within our facilities if they are needed? How do we do so safely, keeping in mind that we also have a number of other groups and wanting to, to the best of our ability, isolate these groups if they are in the facilities at the same time for health and safety purposes. Great. Thank you. Next up, we have Ms. Lorber. Hi. Okay. Sorry, you can't see me. It's just impossible to my reception here. First of all, yes, thank you. I want to join all my colleagues in thanking Dr. Hutchings and all of his colleagues and the great work. I especially appreciated hearing from so many different members of our

190central office staff. That was really exciting. And not just the central office staff, but members of our advisory committees, et cetera. It was very nice to get a sense of what a huge collaborative effort this has been. I'll be brief. The issue I'm concerned about is the... the free and reduced price lunch issue. We have a long tradition of being very careful that students are not identified and carry no cards or tickets of any color that show that they are recipients of free or reduced lunch. And I understand that because of the budget and the fact that we can no longer do the summer food approach that everyone gets to eat. So I wanted to ask. Will these ID cards, will those be for families, for parents, as opposed to... Okay, now I'm here. I'm

191here. Okay, sorry. So will the ID cards, I understand there will be some kind of identification you have to show to be eligible to pick up the food. And I would want it to know if those cards, can you hear me? Yes, yes, you can. Well, but now we can't. Sorry. It says you're muted. Okay. Now we can hear you again. Somehow you're... Okay. Yeah. It's just my computer keeps losing the thing when people change the... Yeah. Don't change the slide again. That takes me away. Anyway, it's just wanting to know if we know yet how we are going to... identify families so that they can get their lunch and breakfast. And I would urge that it be through the family, not by child. And then the other question would be, I know we have

192some schools eligible for universal meals for the entire school. I think Ramsey, a couple of Polk. And so I was wondering if there's some way that we could take advantage of that so that even though we have certain schools already identified as distribution schools, perhaps vary that to the degree that any school that has universal eligibility could become a site just for the students that attend that school? So those are my two questions. Thanks. Okay, I'd be happy to address that. We're still working through the logistics for the family meal card, but part of regulations, we're going to have to have some type of way of knowing when the family presents the card, how many students are in part of that family so that we know how many meals to provide, but there will be

193no overt identification. Our intent is to provide a family meal card for every student attending ACPS, so there will not be any You will have no way of knowing when people present their card as to what their pain status is in the distribution areas. As far as the CEP, we are continuing this next school year with the Community Eligibility Provision Act for Kelly and William Ramsey. We're also gonna start capitalizing again on our provision two opportunities where we can at least provide a free breakfast to select schools. I believe we right now have already enrolled over eight of our schools district-wide that are enrolled in the provision two and continuing to explore opportunities for CEP school sites. I mean, for the next school year. Thanks. That's great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Moving on

194now, we have Mr. Suarez. Thank you, Chair Anderson. And I do want to also... keep on the praise. Thank you so much to the staff. You know, this was incredibly comprehensive. You can tell that there's just been a tremendous amount of effort and collaboration and thought leadership on these issues. And so I'm very excited about all the great work we're doing. And I'm looking forward to seeing how all of this manifests and how we continue to collaborate both internally, but with the community at large. So I'm very excited about that. And so my comments and questions sort of build off of a lot of the comments around data and around what this looks like going forward. And I want to say I appreciate the clarification from Dr. Hutchings about what today's presentation is meant to

195do. And I would say, you know, in terms of what we've seen today, I think, you know, the staff has done an excellent job providing the case for why. virtual plus is the correct way to go. And I expect the vote to proceed on that and to move forward with that option after we're done with our comments and questions here. But I do want to sort of take a moment to think about, you know, what this is going to look like going forward in terms of the board's role in sort of supporting staff. in making this as robust and excellent as possible in terms of how we implement this going forward. And so there's just a couple reflections I want to share and that will sort of lead me into my comments and into my

196questions. You know, one, I just want to reiterate that this is totally different for teachers, you know, and You know, whereas when you're in the classroom, you, the teacher is constantly able to see exactly what's going on in the classroom, who might be getting out of their seat, who, you know, is on task, who is engaged, you know. That the classroom now is totally different. It's this amalgamation of people in all different sorts of settings. And so, you know, and I remember when I was teaching, I heard the sort of adage that teachers are making as many, if not more decisions in a given day as an air traffic controller. And those decisions are informed by the data that the teacher is constantly taking in consciously, subconsciously. as the case may be, while they're in

197the classroom. Now that we have assumed the mantle of having synchronous learning, a structured schedule, and frankly that we're, you know, assuming the mantle of grading, you know, that we are grading students, you know, we have to, I think we're essentially putting the burden on ourselves to really make sure that all teachers are taking in all of the data points about all of their students. their individual situations, the parental situations, you know, whether they're both parents are working. You know, Dr. Hutchings, your point about there may be people in a single room, you know, where there's distractions and different things going on. Like, we need to know about, I think in general, frankly, teachers should know the individual circumstances of their students and appreciate them. And that's something I think we want to build to

198when we move back to traditional learning. you know, for now, I think it's all the more imperative that we're taking in that data and our teachers, our school division, and everyone knows exactly what is going on in the quote unquote classroom as that's defined now, which is this sort of broader thing, entity beyond what we've traditionally had. So, What that gets me to is I'm really excited about the fact that we have this map assessment. I think that's awesome. I also am excited about the seal data that I'm hearing about that we're going to be taking in. You know, and I'm also excited about the fact that there will be attendance. But I want to push, you know, the staff, you know, to provide going forward, at least the board with you know, robust data

199around some of what we call the KPIs in this era. So I'm looking at slide 40 and in Clint's presentation was really helpful on that. And it talks about reassessing the transition. We have these health and safety KPIs. We have these technology, you know, related KPIs, the academic related KPIs in terms of the screener and the formative assessments. You know, I'd like to request whether it's a board brief or it's some sort of, you know, just sort of identification as sort of unpacking of what's in slide 40 in a clear identification of, you know, here is the sort of list of data that, you know, we are looking at right now so that we can go into the year, you know, with some sort of baseline. Now, whether that's a qualitative baseline or a quantitative

200baseline, I know we might not have every data point, but I think it's going to be really important that we see exactly where we're starting in terms of who has devices, who doesn't have devices. where are people academically right now, given the learning losses we've inevitably and unfortunately experienced? You know, where, what is the situation? It sounds like we're gathering this data now, but, you know, what is the situation of our families, two parents working, you know, one parent available, things of that nature, all of that sort of thing, so that the, you know, the board and the community, for that matter, can understand sort of where we are as a division, and also so that we can talk to our teachers about the data, the data gaps we have and the data that we

201can be filling in that they can be collecting based on the personal relationships and the interactions that they have with their students. And what I'm sort of building toward is, you know, we've talked about this nine week sort of turning the crank reassessment. And I think, you know, it's going to be tremendously helpful for the board. to have, you know, every nine weeks sort of an update on, okay, what are the key indicators we're looking at numerically and qualitatively? Where, you know, have things progressed? And what are we doing to respond to that so that the board can be a real partner in sort of making the assessment of, you know, do we and can we stay open, but also what adjustments do we have to make as a division with partners and all these

202other things that we're looking at. And I say this sort of in the spirit of what Dr. Hutchings presented to us last year as a board with the data workbook, which I thought was a really excellent tool. And I think everyone on the board thought that was an outstanding tool where we sort of had that and we're able to use that to drive decision making. I unfortunately think that COVID kind of creates the need for new data and some different types of data because we just don't have the same exact information as we typically have. But my sort of long form comment in question is sort of driven towards, you know, is, you know, are we planning on creating similar sort of data based workbooks? Are we going to in you know, future board meetings

203as we reassess every nine weeks, going to be talking about that data so that we can kind of have these really robust conversations that are aligned with the strategic plan around really unpacking some of these inequities that we are dealing with. So I'd appreciate any comments from Dr. Hutchings or Mr. Page or anyone else on what the thinking is there and how. again, the board can be helpful in sort of looking at data and continuing to reassess. Thank you, Mr. Suarez, for your comments as well as for your question. And I do believe that there is going to have to be a paradigm shift for our staff in regards to how we teach and deliver instruction, as well as how our students learn and also what student engagement looks like, because it is going to

204be a very different learning environment being virtual. and a part of our professional learning which we are working through our professional learning modules now because all of our staff come back the week prior to school that it is actually focusing on some you know some best practices in those areas because This is a new era for our staff that we all are going to have to adjust to. And, you know, I think the one thing that everybody can agree on across the world is that the global pandemic has impacted everybody's life in some way. There's nobody who's exempt from being impacted with this pandemic, and we are going to have to be able to shift to make that work. Yes, we are going to have some of our baseline data collected. We shared with you

205some of the specific areas that we're going to analyze as we transition or as we determine whether we transition or not. each nine weeks. In addition to that, we will be sharing with the board on August 27th at our work session, just some of our areas of focus for the 2020-2021 school year. And some of that is evolved around this reopening and being virtual and not knowing when. We will no longer be virtual. So even today, I can't share with you and say, this is when it's going to change. You know, I don't know, you know, the specific date of that. So we will be adjusting and being flexible throughout this time. But on August 27th, we'll be able to share with the board just some more concrete data points and data that will be

206collected so that we can monitor our progress throughout the year. Okay. Next up, we have Veronica. I'm sorry, Miss Nolan. Veronica is totally fine. So I apologize. I just wanted to ask my second question. I promise not to have so many facets as I did my previous one. I just, Dr. Hutchings, wanted to give an opportunity, and you can designate whoever you think is the appropriate staff person, but we have received a lot of questions from parents about this one thing. So I wanted to give Dr. Hutchings the opportunity to respond. But if I had to capture what a lot of the emails and a lot of the public comments we've received, it's almost about... falling under the focus areas of communication and uniformity. And what I mean by that is a lot of parents

207are asking, you know, when will they have an understanding of what the curriculum and the standards and the schedule will look like for their students? And will they be similar across schools? Because I know sometimes schools operate differently in terms of curriculum, but is this an opportunity that given that we're virtual, would it be uniform across the city? And then the second question I'm getting a lot in terms of what we're all getting actually is the communication. Like, what is the uniform expectation of staff that parents will receive in terms of communication? So, for example, one of the challenges a lot of parents are mentioning is that they're trying to juggle both jobs and. you know, overseeing their students' education, their child's education. And one of the things that keeps coming over repeatedly, both through

208public comment and through emails, is it would be super helpful to parents if they could expect, you know, a weekly email from their teachers as this is what we're learning. This is the schedule. This is what the expectation is for this week. And during the spring, obviously, that was sort of left to the device of maybe some teachers did that, some did not. And I understand the spring was... different. But I'm curious, will there be a uniform expectation across the board about what is the expectation of parents and teacher, given that the parental role is going to look very differently this year? And the thing that they seem really thirsty for is the understanding of how can they be most helpful? What is the expectation of what their kid needs to learn? How are they

209getting back assessments from the teachers as their kid on track or not? So I think it's the communication and then just the broader understanding of is there uniformity across the schools in terms of that communication and the curriculum and standards of what will be taught this coming year. Thank you, Ms. Nolan, for that question. And yes, that is a question that many of our families are asking, and as well as our staff members, you know, are asking too. And we are, you know, I really believe that from March through June, there were a lot of lessons that we learned. You know, for one, at that particular time we were going into this virtual world uh without really any experience you know now we can say at least we have six months experience right we still

210have a whole lot we got six months though of some experience and What we learned from that, too, is when you have so much flexibility in regards to like how the curriculum is delivered, when we had to start off initially, remember when we started off when we first closed our doors on March 13th, we really didn't introduce any new material. It wasn't until several weeks later that we began to introduce that new material. But we're starting with this virtual plus, knowing that. there is an expectation to teach and for kids to learn and for us to also assess. And in order for us to have, you know, that consistency across the division, we are going to have to have clear expectations around the curriculum pacing and the curriculum guides and what is being taught. And

211let me give you an example of some of the conversations that were had this past week with our principals and some of our instructional teams. We were specifically talking about If you had a situation, and this is just a hypothetical, because you got to do a lot of hypotheticals because we don't have examples, right? But if we had a situation where a teacher, let's say, was sick and contracted COVID-19, right? And of course, we're in a virtual world, so it wasn't something that the teacher contracted from ACPS or during ACPS's time, but they are going to have to be out of pocket for at least 14 days, right? So that means two weeks that they're going to be out. If we have a common curriculum across the school division, we could be in a situation

212where those 20 to 25 students that's in this particular teacher's classroom for the next two weeks could be assigned to a different teacher. anywhere in the school division, if we're all on the same curriculum, doesn't matter where it is. Now, granted, they're not going to know the other kids, but they'll get to know some new friends on Zoom, right? They're not going to know the teacher, but they'll get to see a new face for a couple of weeks. But when they all come back together, they're still going to be at the same place, right? And that is what is going to be so important for us. We have to set up an environment where there is commonality so that we do not, you know, jeopardize. an inequity in regards to what kids learn in our

213schools. So that is going to be a non-negotiable. We're just working through the logistics of that. Now, granted, we don't have to start from scratch because we already have a curriculum. We already have pacing guides. We already have Virginia standards. But we do have to begin to now look at our curriculum, look at our standards, look at our pacing guides, and the recommendation that we're doing from our principals and from our instructional staff was to have, you know, that synchronous learning four days a week. We're going to have to now figure out how do you fit that into those four days a week for kindergarten, for first grade, for second grade, and so on, and for the certain content area so that regardless of where you are in Alexandria. If you're in kindergarten, this is

214what you're learning on this day. Now, the autonomy still comes from our teachers, because one thing we don't want to take away from our educators, and I'm always an educator, right? Even though I have a title of superintendent, I'm still an educator. You don't want to take away the creativity and the autonomy of how you deliver, you know, your instruction. So what you have to teach is one thing, but we still want teachers to have the autonomy and the innovation and style. of how they teach that particular material, but it's still the same content, you know, regardless of where you are and it has to be at the same pace. So that is non-negotiable. We're still working through all of those logistics and we're hoping, and not hoping, but we will be providing that training

215for teachers and for our staff members when they return on August the 24th. That is our week of professional learning where we're building capacity and that will also continue throughout the year. We can't just... have like a one week of professional learning. You know, one thing that we got from our teachers and our staff's feedback was that we needed to make sure and ensure that they still have professional learning time, you know, weekly, and that they still have planning time weekly. That's something that is sacred that we cannot touch. And we are going to have to keep that going or we're not going to be able to implement any curriculum with fidelity. Your second question was about the communications piece. And it is also important for us to communicate and to have some consistency with

216how we communicate. I recall some of our board members sharing, you know, in the spring where some. teachers they spoke to students every week some teachers talk every day some teachers never talk to the kids you know um according to you know some of the feedback that court members have received uh so we want to make sure that we are having a bare minimum of contact uh that we're having with our staff and one of the things that are our two phenomenal principals you know uh miss canton and uh miss miss uh cruise um shared was the diagram that really talked about, you know, kind of the multiple ways that students will be learning in our schools. We want to make sure that, and how that's going to be consistent across our buildings. We want

217to also make sure how we communicate or a minimum of how we communicate out with our community and with our families, that it's consistent as well. But we still need a little more time to work with our staff to do that. If we were to do that, all the teachers and our staff members will be calling you on next week, right? So we have to continue to work, which we are already developing our instructional teams. They started getting developed this week. So we're already developing our instructional teams to give us some feedback and insight in regards to that. So more information about what that communication is going to look like will be forthcoming. Thank you. And Sharon, if I just might follow up, I don't have a follow up question, but I just wanted to

218thank you, Dr. Hutchings. And I also just want to share that I think one of the things that's been really great that the communications department and other staff have been mindful of is that the majority of parents haven't been educators in the past. So I really appreciate the fact that we're going to disseminate this communication in a timely manner in a way that's. you know, folks can understand regardless of their life experience or their language that they speak. So I just really want to appreciate that. And the only other thing I wanted to share in addition to what you said, Dr. Hutchings, is also in terms of the teachers and the uniformity is just the reminder. incredible excessive amount of feedback we're getting that especially the lower elementary grades, people would really appreciate teachers doing

219these smaller Zooms and that they, you know, as we can all know, developmentally, especially K through two, that seems to be the most effective. So I just really want to appreciate and just want to thanks everyone for being so well receiving of parental feedback and community feedback. And thank you, Ms. Nolan. And I just wanted to point out two more things just so that it's on the record. And that is, if you look at slide 28 of the PowerPoint presentation, and it talks about a sample instructional model and how these stations are, I think that is going to be key for especially our early learners, for all of our learners, but especially our early learners, because, you know, you have the whole group, but you have a group, which you need to have whole group.

220Kids need to be, you know, and with all their peers and teachers modeling that information, right? But then, they also have these breakout sessions that are in smaller groups where now you can get a lot more attention and a lot more engagement that can occur in a group of four or five kids versus 25 kids. And I love the fact that our elementary principals, they really pushed on that because they felt that the classes, they are really large, especially if you're trying to do this virtually. And now we're adding pre-K. first grade, kindergarten, and first grade, and second grade, right, with our earliest learners, that it is going to be key to have these smaller breakout sessions. And then one final thing, because I had two points I wanted to make, was I wanted to

221remind us about the single platform, too, that is so key for us. Because prior to this, you know, you had Google Classroom, you had Zoom, you had... Everybody was all over the place, right? And, you know, I allow people to have that autonomy, but in a case like this, where, you know, things are just changing consistently, it's ever changing. We just have to have a lot more consistency. So having this one platform, I know some of our staff members are just not going to be happy about it because they just love. you know, whatever platform they were using. I get that. I know we're going into it with some of the, you know, disgruntledness that is going to come from it, but it is going to help us in the long run. And it is

222going to be what's best for our students and our families at this particular time. Thank you, Dr. Hutchings. Next up, I have another question from Dr. Reeve. Thank you. And thanks, everyone for hanging in because I know this has been a long meeting but I do appreciate the opportunity to ask questions and get your responses. Just two quick other things I wanted to ask you about just to be clear about the communications that parents can be expecting to receive in the next couple weeks. I saw that the virtual plus website was there were a lot of updates to that today so just So folks who are listening should definitely check that out. And then next Wednesday, there's going to be the ACPS Express that's going to be going out that should have maybe some more

223detailed information. And then I know that the instructional plan and the health plan are due to the state next Friday. So I'm guessing those are going to be posted on our website. And then the helpline is going to open the following week on Wednesday, the 19th. And then the packets, the welcome packets will go out the following week. And a question about the helpline. I think that's a really terrific idea. I was just wondering if, are we directing everyone there or if they have more... specific questions directed to their specific school. I don't think the offices are open. Should people be calling the school or directing it to the principal? That was one of my questions. And then the other thing was just about this issue with the learning pods. I know it's been under

224discussion a lot. There's been a lot written about the equity concerns with the learning pods. I know you've made some... comments about it, Dr. Hutchings, and I've felt the community push back on that. I think that with the learning pods, it means different things to different people. For some people, it's a child care issue. For some people, it's about their social and emotional needs of their children. For some, it's about trying to kind of create some two-tier supports, I think, for their kids. So I just wanted to give you an opportunity to share ACPS's kind of current thinking around this idea of the learning pods that seem to be so popular with people. So thank you for that question about the learning pods. And I do want to send some clarity out in regards to

225that. You know, I think families, you know, they have the it's their prerogative to do whatever they feel is best for them. Right. So I'm not telling people what they can't. can or cannot do in their households. But the point that I was making about the learning pods is that it can cause some inequities, especially for families who don't have, one, the means to hire somebody to come in to teach their children, and two, the insight to know that that's even happening. And it can just cause inequities within our school division. it can then over time increase the achievement gap that we already have within our school division. So I think that what we hope is by us now having synchronous learning for all and having common curriculum and common assessments that regardless of where

226your child is and what school they go to and who their teacher may be. or may not be, that they are still engaged and receiving the high quality instruction that they deserve in Alexandria City Public Schools. So we hope that this new structure for Virtual Plus will not have the need for the learning pod unless that's just something supplemental that somebody wants to do. The concern that I had about the learning pod piece was that there were some requests for students to be put into the same classes because they're a part of a learning pod. And that raises concern because then you end up having, because I know you and we've worked together, because typically if you're in a learning pod, your parents know each other, you might. you know, be from a same or

227similar group. We're now going to group you two into a classroom in our schools. And that is a huge concern. And I think that if we are providing a common curriculum, then you can always get your kids together, even if they have different teachers, because they are going to be covering the same material. So if you wanted to do something supplemental for your children, if you wanted to have somebody to watch your kids all in a group, they're all zooming in. to their classes and learning the same material but they're zooming in with their teacher who has been assigned to them and it could even be a situation where they're zooming in to teachers who are not even in their building so you can have a wider range of students uh with you so if

228anyone chooses to do those learning pods out there supplemental you know it is their pro their prerogative to do that i just uh want to make sure that people understand when you begin to request for those students to have the same classrooms. And if we weren't having a common delivery of instruction across the school division, it would lead to significant inequities. The question about calling, yeah. So for the call center, I think to answer your question, what we wanted to do was provide a supplement. We know the first weeks of school will be very busy and that even the team, be it virtual, that will be handling the phone call volume to the school. It's not like the typical day where a parent can just walk and ask a quick question if they're dropping off

229their child, but that we know that there's going to be a major demand on those. front office staff. And so we will be working with those front office staff, but we wanted to provide parents an opportunity to be able to call a live person and get help. And then if we cannot answer that question, we will be making those connections with. the with the staff at the school to make sure that we're getting those specific questions if they're very like individualized questions and so um it's really more about having parents get supported in a very um you know like i said a customer service way where we're speaking to them live and they're not bleeding but voicemails And then the staff have to follow up and it just takes time. So we're trying to help

230and supplement that. But in no means are we saying you can't call the school, but we are going to provide that helpline member when we send out the welcome packets, our virtual plus packets, to make sure that families know that that's a resource for them to call so that we can help them with any issues or concerns that they may have. And it also alleviates some of the burden to the schools and having to answer some of those quick phone calls that we can possibly help them with easy questions. Great. Thank you. We have one more question from Miss Alderton. And I guess I'm going to just say it here. I'm hoping that sort of some of the questions that we had here already verbally can be incorporated into some sort of FAQ so that

231people can read it rather than having to see the entire three and a half hour meeting. And Madam Chair, yes, they will be. Yes. Okay. So that would be good. And then on top of that, again, I will say that. that other questions that board members have, we can do the process that we've done with asking questions and those can also be published, the answers, the questions and the answers can be published so that the public can see them as well as board members. So Ms. Alderton. Thank you. And I just have my last question are about technology. One of them I think would definitely be for Ms. Hoover and the other one for Miss Werner. So just curious, the thought of having students who might live in households where there are, you know, multiple

232families or multiple people or people in one room, have we considered, thought about, are we considering, are we going to provide headphones for everyone? That's just something that... popped into my mind given not knowing everybody's circumstances. And then the second one for Ms. Werner, as we develop individualized plans for students with disabilities, will there be opportunities for families to pick up? assistive technology that they need at home, both low and high tech. I'm thinking things like noise canceling headphones, you know, magnifiers for reading, those kind of things. Like I know we send home, you know, kits with all types of tools for the kids to use. And so my thought is as we develop individualized education, well, these sort of pandemic versions of IEPs? Are we thinking about making sure there's AT tools available for

233kids as well? So many of our students, in fact, most of our students that use very specific AT devices have them already. They went home with them. So they've been home. We also did some special runs for things that got left behind and sent some things home already. Having said that, we will always consider individual needs and what students need to access. You know, as I had stated earlier, it is our ardent hope that we are going to be able to phase students back in to the school setting. So many of the students who would require things of that nature will be back in school with us. And so we will be able to provide services and devices and things in that way. Thank you. Ms. Alderton, I will answer your questions about headphones or

234earbuds. We typically do not provide those. And if you're in grades three through five in your elementary schools, they're usually in your back to school list. But I actually had thought about this. And I think this might be an opportunity, maybe work with the PTAs or, you know, we can get a cost on it. But I think there are lots of ways that, you know, the dollar store has them. I think that's. I definitely think that's a need we can fill. I also think we are going to find that there are going to be other tools that would be helpful in environment in a virtual classroom like whiteboards and things like that. So we are certainly looking at that. I will tell you a fun funding funding funding we have a you know. Mr. Turner

235would remind me that we can only purchase what we can afford. So, but anyway, I think this is going to be interesting because I saw all of my daughters of teachers like trying to write upside down with a whiteboard at home. And so I think we'll be investigating on whether they're actually hardware tools or there's some additional software tools that we need to make sure our teachers and students have access to. Great, thank you. We have Mr. Suarez has another question. Just a follow up. Thanks. Thanks, Sherry Anderson. Yeah, I just I had I had been thinking, Dr. Hutchings about your response to my question about data, which I appreciate. And just on reflection, I would appreciate it if following up on sort of my board. I'm sorry, Mr. Suarez, Dr. Hutchings just stepped away

236briefly. So he'll be right back. Okay, maybe we should wait then a moment. Thank you. Again, this would have been a good time for one of those brain boosts. Yeah. Would you like to leave us? I'm sorry. Mr. Suarez. No one should drink water during, I guess. That's right. Too much water. But my, my second question had been about the, about those those pods, but Dr. Reif asked that question so I don't, I don't think that more follow up is needed on that. But I do think just a comment on that that, you know, insofar as there are members of the community who are availing themselves of the pods I think we should think about ways that those can be harnessed to enhance equity, and I'm sure those conversations have been have been had but

237I know that. There's a lot of concerns about them being detrimental to equity, but I think that there could be ways, to the extent that people are already doing them, that that could be something that complements some of the things we're doing, and hopefully there's some discussions around that front. But my follow-up, Dr. Hutchings, was specifically about my data comment before requesting a board brief. I think it would be tremendously helpful. I do appreciate that you're going to outline some of the data in the August 27th meeting. I do think it would probably, at least personally, and I haven't gotten the pulse of all my colleagues on this, but I think that it would be helpful if the Friday before the 21st, that August 27th meeting, if we were presented with something that sort of

238outlined, you know, here are the key data points that we want to look at in these various categories that are on slide 40, you know, this year as sort of we assess. whether we're going to reopen at various points and also just assessing sort of how our instructions doing and how are things going and sort of getting an explicit list of those data points and to the extent we have the data, you know, presenting it in that board brief, but also to the extent we don't have the data, just, you know, letting the board know about that because I think the conversation will be most productive. on August 27th if we are able to have a conversation about where are the holes in our data and what is our data showing. So I just think

239the earlier that can be presented to the board in advance of the August 27th meeting, the better. And I want to be able to personally at least filter that data through the lens of the strategic plan so that we can be as effective as possible through this. through this time. So I don't know if you're able to commit to that, you know, submitting such a board brief or if there's a way to collate that data. But I figured I'd rather ask that explicitly now than wait to ask it because it will require some work potentially to pull that together. So I know what I can commit to right now is meeting whatever the requirements are for the time frame. and board policy of getting that information to you. And I think that it's at least

240three days in advance. You know, I can commit to that right now, but we will strive to try to do an entire week before, but I know I can commit to what we have, whatever the guidance is. And I just don't know it off the top of my head right now. I'm sure Jennifer can say it or Susan can, and it might even be that Friday. So, but I can definitely commit to that. as of right now. But now I know if it's not that Friday, let's try to make that our target. I also just wanted to mention to you. Oh, go ahead. I just wanted to mention about the equity piece that, you know, I agree with you on the learning pod piece and trying to make it equitable. And that is one of

241the reasons why when you look at that sample instructional model, we have a synchronous live teaching small group instruction, right? That's a component that makes it equitable because now everybody gets, you know, some of that and it's based on what you need. You know, some kids might need something different. than other kids. So these small groups that are going to occur are going to be based on what the student needs. And I think we have to keep in mind as well when we talk about some of the inequities, some parents don't want their kids around other children because they are coming back home to their family. So that is instantly people who can't do it, you know. You won't be able to even engage in a learning pod if you wanted to because parents don't

242want their kids around other kids. So, you know, these are factors that we just have to keep in mind. With this model, it is live teaching. that ACPS will be conducting. It's live teaching. It is virtual. So everybody has access. Everybody has a device. Everybody has the internet access. And this makes it equitable. And then adding that additional piece to providing them in these small groups what the student needs and not just the learning that happens. That's going to happen when everybody's together. You know, everybody gets the same thing in regards to delivery of instruction. But then you got to provide those additional supports. to give them what they need. And it's three business days for the actual prior to. So I guess the 27th, it would be that Monday or whatever. But we can

243try to strive to do earlier if possible. Sure. Right. That sounds good. And the best we can under the circumstances, I think just the more of that information we have in terms of the data, we're looking at the gaps and where we're trying to go with that data, the better. And I would just ditto that, you know, obviously we want to enhance equity with that as much as possible. And it kind of goes back to what I was saying before about how the teachers, you know, really need to have an insight of what all their students are getting. And if some families are providing supplemental instruction or doing these pods, I think it's really important that teachers know about that so that the grading and the assessment and all these things can be done equitably

244because there's just going to be so much variation potentially under this model. And so we just need to know about that so that we can do the best we can and we can all learn from each other. Okay, so we've had quite a discussion. And I need to remind everybody, though, that we are supposed to have a vote with this. So I think we're maybe at that point in time, if somebody wants to start that off. Okay, Madam Chair, so I'll make a motion. All right. Not all at once, huh? Madam Chair, I move that the board adopt the ACPS Virtual Plus Learning Program to start in the fall of school year 2020-2021. Okay, a second. Do I have a second? Who said that? I'm sorry. Lorber's on phone. Oh, great. There you are. I

245was just texting Susan to make sure you got in. Okay, I have Ms. Lorber seconding Ms. Alderton's motion. And so I will call for the vote. Cindy Anderson, yes. Veronica? Yes. Megan Alderton? Yes. Amy Gentry? Yes. Jacinta Green? Yes. Margaret Lorber? Yes. Michelle Reeve, Christopher Suarez, Heather Thornton. Okay, great. We have the vote is yes, nine to zero. Thank you very much for all the work everybody did on that and all the questions that were posed by board members. Now we have the superintendent's report, but I'm not sure if he has anything more to say. He's probably talked out. So yeah, that's it, huh? So now the report, the only report I have is just to remind people that the 27th is our work session where we will be talking about the priorities for next

246year, including the renaming. And also, we will have likely some policies to discuss that are needing to be changed because of our continued virtual nature. So those are the big things. So the 27th is when we'll hope that people will We'll tune in again. And I just want to say, I didn't say this before the public hearing, and I have sometimes in the past, but I got away from it and realized different people might have been talking who didn't know this, but we never respond directly to people making public comment. I mean, we're listening, but that part of the meeting is just to hear the comment and it's not our... practice to respond at that moment. So just so people know that going forward. Madam Chair. Ms. Green. Yes, I'm sorry. I just wanted to

247thank Sahar for working that PowerPoint. She was amazing. Anything we talked about, that slide popped up on the screen. So thank you, Sahar. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. That was very, very good. You must have it memorized. So great. All right, so now we are to that point in time when if someone would like to make a motion for us to adjourn, then we can do so. Madam Chair, I move that we adjourn. Second. Ms. Alderton seconds Ms. Green's motion to adjourn. I'll call for the roll call vote. Cindy Anderson, yes. Veronica Nolan? Yes. Megan Alderton? Yes. Ramey Gentry? I think she might be off. Jacinta Green? Yes. Margaret Lorber? She's muted. Yes, yes. Michelle Reeve? Yes. Christopher Suarez? Yes. Heather Thornton? Yes. Okay, so I think we're going to record that as eight yes

248and one absent for that vote. So thank you, everybody, and we're adjourning at 335. Okay, thanks. Have a nice weekend.