July 28, 2020 Methacton Board of School Directors Regular Meeting Part II

001And we're going live now. We are streaming on YouTube. Okay. Thank you. Madam President, I have seven o'clock. If you believe that we have all the board members present. I actually have 658. Not that I'm trying to split hairs here, but. We'll go by your watch. You tell me when you're ready and I'll hit record. Dr. Zerbe, are we still waiting on Ms. Montaigne? It looks like we are. Stay with me. Let me call her. Ms. Montaigne is running on my kind of schedule, right on time. All right, Dr. Zerbe, we can start whenever you're ready to record. Okay, we are now recording and streaming live. Okay, good evening, everyone. I'd like to reconvene and resume our recessed meeting with the Mithakton School District Board of Directors from July 28, 2020. When we left off,

002Dr. Zerbe had just wrapped up a presentation regarding our return to school for September. Dr. Zerbe? Thank you, Madam President. I'm going to share my screen. This evening, as a result of our having to recess the meeting on the 28th of July, I'm just going to step back and refresh everyone who is on the call. Prior to ending the meeting, or I'm sorry, prior to recessing the meeting. On the 28th, I had talked about the plan. The plan is posted to the agenda. There were no questions at that time on any specifics with the plan. And now allows me to get into the overall reopening plan for the Bacchus School District. So this evening. On the agenda, the board has three health and safety plans, one for athletics and activities to begin August 10th for

003football and August 17th for all other fall sports. The driver education that's on the road training beginning August 3rd and the health and safety plan for reopening the fact in schools on August 31st. The process, as you may recall. We gathered input and feedback in a number of ways, surveys, focus groups with both staff and the public. We provided direction to the staff for planning online instruction. We call it, in fact, an online framework that was decided and communicated prior to the end of last school year. And a lot of that was based on the feedback that we not only received from staff, but we received from the public as to online instruction, specifically to the extent of having more structure and synchronous instruction. We continued reviewing and monitoring guidance from the experts. We developed

004a draft plan. We put the Methactin online program out first. We followed that up with a draft plan of the on-premise program. And we've been addressing both of those ever since. We created peer, parent, staff, and pandemic team review and received feedback on a number of occasions. We held three-hour long meetings with the staff. We held... similar length meetings with members of the public. We presented the plan to the board at the work session of the board last Tuesday. Not this past Tuesday, but the Tuesday before. We held the parent feedback sessions and we're here this evening with the board's consideration for approval of the plan. As you recall, the plan generally talks about giving parents and students two options. One, an on-premise option where they will have to have, well, they'll have traditional instructional

005programming with modifications to address symptom screening, social distancing, face coverings, cleaning, sanitation, disinfection, and communications. And certainly the second option is an all-online option of what we call the fact that online. which is an instructional program featuring a blend of synchronous and asynchronous instruction, like live synchronous instruction via online meeting platform like Zoom, consistent routines and daily schedules similar to on-premise program, a mixture of whole class and small class and individual connections, and instruction planned and delivered and supported by MFACT and staff. This is an update. As of 7-30-2020, we have 4,731 students enrolled in the Facton School District as of the enrollment report from June of 2020. We have 1,729 students committed to the on-premises program. We have 1,195 committed to the online program. So the 2,924 students, or 61% of the enrolled students,

006have committed as of July 30th. We also have about 25% of the total enrollment currently committed to Methactin Online. I believe before we ended or before we recessed the meeting on the 28th, I was in the process of sharing the process forward. Please know that as a result of recessing the meeting and coming here before you, some of the dates on this changed from the 28th. But generally speaking, we're looking for an approval from the board this evening, decision letters on the 31st through the 5th. We will be blasting out a number of communication, not only through our phone system, but email and other. ways in order to help parents come to a final decision so that by the end of August 5th, we have a good determination, the Board of School Directors, that we

007either are, we have met our target determination or we have not. And our target determination is, like I've been saying, is about 30% of our students choosing to go online. While that is not a hard, I must say this is not a hard number, whereas, you know, once we meet 30%, we can just do all this. Certainly, that is a summative target by which we believe it can work. But please know that if anything else comes up that we need to apprise the board of, we will certainly do so at that time once we see the numbers and how things line up. Because quite frankly, we cannot predict who's going to want what choice and how many grade students and what grade are going to want what choice. And while we're putting some mechanisms in

008place to address what we can project, there's just no guarantee until all the numbers come in. But if they don't come in the way we think, we're going to place on the agenda here the potential for a special board meeting to not only apprise the board, but the public of where we stand and what the challenges might be and the potential of what an alternative option would be. I must say that by the time we get to August 10th, and if we unfortunately have to get to August 10th and have a special meeting. I must say that really the only path forward for the district at that short notice is to go in an all online program. And then obviously with your consideration to the recommended calendar change, that would have the first student day

009starting on September 8th. So let's talk about some of the considerations and challenges. What's critical here is that we talk about things like the expectations and certainly considering the best laid plans. I think our community has helped. I think the board has helped. Our pandemic team has helped. There's been a lot of input to these plans. And while it might not be perfect, I think it's a fair representation of what we can do and what we can do well in order to support our students and staff on premise. But it's also important to recognize that our teachers, our support staff, and administration are going to be held to a new level of accountability that goes beyond what we're used to and what we generally do. You know, our teachers are experts at teaching and they're

010experts at, you know, the general safety procedures that we've commonly put in place and that we've been following for years. But it should be known that it will be challenging for us to be perfect and perfect on a daily basis. This causes significant stress on the system, for our staff, for our students, and it may impact our ability to, you know, the performance of our students and learning. Again, I want everyone to know that I believe that bringing students back to school is our best option educationally. And these considerations or challenges just need to be said so that, you know, it's just not information that I have or that some of my administration has. But it should be information that our board is aware of. And it certainly should be information that our parents are

011aware of. So in terms of potential on-premise student moves, I must say that depending on how the choices pan out, we may have to relocate some students from one elementary school to another elementary school. Generally, these moves, while they happen from time to time during pre-COVID-19 times, they don't happen all that often. But when they do... We make sure that we work with the families to ensure that those moves are going to work for the family. We provide transportation for the family to the other or for the child to the other buildings. But we also recognize that this is not going to be a popular decision. You have to contact the parent and say, you've been attending Arrowhead Elementary School, for example, but in order to go. You're going to have to move you to

012Eagleville because that's where the available spots are. So I do suspect that we may have some of these challenges and I'm certain that parents aren't going to be, you know, really happy about that. But I just want to make everybody aware of it. And just so everyone knows that if a parent is faced with this. unfortunate circumstance, we will give them the opportunity to decide that the move will be fine or that maybe the online option might be preferable for the child. So we will certainly work with the family. In terms of course access and limitations, I think it's important to know that while our primary goal is to ensure that all students have access to core subjects at all levels, regardless of on-premise or online, elective or other special classes will be secondary in

013terms of our scheduling and may not necessarily be available in both the on-premise and online options. There may be instances where we cannot deliver all the same electives and all the same specials as in both environments. But we can't tell you right now what those will and won't be. And we won't know that at this time, and we won't be able to do that until the numbers come in. Until we look at those numbers and we look at how we and our staffing and what's available to make that occur. But once we know that, we will let parents know it. We will finalize their schedules, and we will give them some consideration if there's needed changes in their choices as well. In terms of class size, I just want the board to be aware that

014we are likely to have class sizes on premise that are going to be lower than normal as a result of the distancing requirements. It should also be known that There may be more students in the online class in certain instances that might be beyond the board policy. So as such, like we've done in every other year, that whenever we reach, you know, the threshold and we're one or two or three or four over, we'll be apprised aboard of that and we talk about what the options are. We either decide that, yes, we'll continue with, you know, having a class size larger than what our policy says, or no, we're going to not do that. We're going to look at hiring another teacher or whatever other options may be available. In terms of the potential staffing

015challenges. Many questions have been raised in our parent focus groups as well as with our staff meetings regarding the ability to staff a program on premise or online and with concerns regarding what happens when a teacher has to quarantine or get sick. So we have made a commitment to our substitute teacher service to add more building level substitutes. So while we're working on that, we think we'll be able to manage some of that. Certainly, there is also an estimate right now that we might need six to eight additional full-time teachers to execute both the online and the on-premise plan properly. As a result, you know, our support staff may be equally challenged with keeping pace with the cleaning and disinfecting needs that we put into the plan. And as such, while we're moving some of

016our evening custodial staff down into the daytime to help with those routines, we're likely going to need to backfill with casual on calls to address the evening cleaning program as well. So please know that. There may be some additional challenges in staffing with our support staff. There is, however, another concern with regards to staffing. While we fielded inquiries from about a dozen or so staff with concerns regarding health, anxiety, and other matters, related to COVID-19, we are being told by districts who have already made decisions to go back in person that they are being inundated with requests for medical sabbaticals and leaves under the Family First Coronavirus Response Act. Now, these requests are just that, but they, you know, I don't know how many have been processed, but I can tell you that other HR

017directors in the county, as well as other superintendents in the county are concerned about our ability to manage those benefits under this act and under our school policies and make sure that we deliver a program that our parents and our students are expecting. So the challenge is that any of these things could happen at a moment's notice. So it could happen tomorrow after you approve whatever path is going forward. It could happen the day before school starts. I can't predict that in advance. It could happen in the middle of September. But I just want everyone to know that I'm not trying to make excuses for not doing one thing or another. I'm just trying to let you know that if something happens where I have challenges being able to staff programs. we may need to

018shift direction into doing something totally different. And then furthermore, you may have been paying attention to the news and what's going on in our neighboring districts, but some districts that have already gone virtual will likely help exasperate these leave requests. Because imagine that, you know, we have, and I know we do, I don't know the exact number off the top of my head, but we have a lot of staff that either live in the Factor or live in the Spring-Ford School District or live in neighboring districts that when they go online or go into some other mode where it requires them to potentially have to stay home with their children. they may be eligible for the benefits under the Family First Coronavirus Response Act, which could limit their ability to serve us so that they

019could stay home and be with their child. So while I fully respect our staff and those that may have concerns, however, I just must inform the board that as we proceed forward, there is potential for these types of leave requests to occur and that these could require us to change our course rapidly. In terms of potential increase in cost, given the personal protective equipment, the staffing, the technology, and other cleaning needs, I really have no way of accurately projecting or giving you a number that we, at this time, that can tell you what our potential cost increase will be to the budget. While we put aside about $325,000 in the budget for COVID-related matters, and we are awaiting word on a grant of about the same amount, the extra staffing alone could significantly eat away

020at these available resources. Access to PPE and cleaning resources. I think it's important for everyone to recognize that while we do have a lot of the cleaning supplies and PPE on site for at least the first month of school, we have not been successful in securing the electrostatic sprayers that we've been speaking about as part of our plan. We believe we'll have access to some of those, but not to the quantity that we believe we can effectively and efficiently disinfect as we have so indicated in the plan. That may change between now and tomorrow, may change between now and the middle of August. I hope so. But what I'm telling the board and the public right now is I don't have a guarantee of when I will get those things. And then I guess it's

021important to talk about what other districts are doing. We just take a look at what is going on around us in the five county region. We're certainly hearing districts that are going back in a hybrid environment. We hear districts going back similar to what we're talking about. But we also hear a lot of districts that have already made plans that are holding special meetings and are changing to going all online. And I think that's as a result of some of the things that I've shared with you. The stuff that the challenges I'm sharing with you are not unique to methactin. I think they're pretty prevalent across the five-county region, if not across the entire Commonwealth. But these are important factors in your decision as we move forward. So in terms of action this evening, on

022the agenda, we have to approve the plan as is with the amendment for the start from August 31st to September 8th. So while I haven't gotten into the calendar change, I'm going to, after this presentation, talk about that calendar change as a recommendation for the board to consider. But again, if the board decides this evening that our plan is proper and ready to move forward. I only recommend that, and if they approve the calendar change, the action item would simply change to just amend the motion to include the change from August 31st to September 8th. So I just want to make the board aware of that in the public. And I guess it's important for me then also to just share that I've been paying attention to what's going on in districts around us, and

023certainly our administrators are having... job-alike sessions with other districts and having a lot of these conversations about how we're going to accomplish the things that we say that we can accomplish and the things that are being required of us from PDE and being recommended to us from the CDC and the PA Department of Health, et cetera. And with all that said, considering the fact that we, and in this presentation, back on the timeline, if we find ourselves in August 10th, where we aren't ready to be able to move this plan forward and the board has to consider an alternative action. Like I said earlier, my recommendation would be that the action be all online program at that time. That doesn't necessarily mean that, you know, that's the action you have to take this evening, but,

024you know, certainly this evening, you could also say that, you know, that might be the best choice, even the start of move things forward. So considering that those could be your options, I think it's only fair for me to also talk about what an all-online program might look like if that's the best option under consideration by the board. So with that said, I have a couple other slides that I just want to share, and this is a plan for reopening the fact in schools all online for the first marking period. And that first marking period, depending on when the start of the school year begins, whether it's the 31st or the 8th, it'll be early November within the first week or two of November is when the first marking period ends. So with that said,

025talking about the Methactin Online program. There isn't anything different in terms of the delivery of instruction that we'll be asking of our teachers compared to the option that's already on the table for going all online. And again, this is just a summary of what is on our website. There's a ton of additional information there. This presentation will be posted afterwards, and parents can certainly look at that information in more detail. But if you go to methactin.org and you choose the roadmap to reopening, one of the first links is the Methactin Online Program. It has a number of things, including sample schedules. And this is just a snapshot of those schedules for the elementary program, for the 7-8 program, and for the high school program, as an example. In addition, I want to talk about the

026process forward. If we decide, say, for example, this evening, the board says, well, you know, given all these concerns and considerations that we need to take into place, considering, you know, whatever else they're hearing in the public, you know, if they decide, if the board decides tonight that they want to move forward with just an all online program, here's what the timeline would look like. We would have a... the approval tonight. We would send letters and emails and communications to all families notifying them of what has transpired. We would have the first student day, assuming the calendar change is approved on September 8th. And we would continue to look and have a draft plan presented to the board and the public by the 15th of October to decide how we're going to proceed beyond the

027first marking period. I think it's also important that as the planning with my administration goes, you know, we also recognize that if we go all online, there's still going to be a need, at least in our opinion, for in-person services. And I'm just briefly going to talk about some of the things that we've already organized and we believe that we can put in place immediately upon starting school if, in fact, the board thinks that going all online for the first semester is the most appropriate action. But these in-person services, I will just talk about them briefly. The related service clinics, student service center, a grab-and-go meal distribution, and in-person socialization activities. So in terms of related service clinics, our idea here is that we need to provide services to our, not only to our students

028with special needs and need for occupational physical therapy and hearing services and vision services, but we also want to be able to provide mental health counseling. We believe that we can continue to provide our REACH program for students in our district. We believe that we can continue to provide. other orientation and mobility training, and psychoeducational evaluations and re-evaluations. We would recommend that we choose the Skyview Arcola campus as the hub of all these services and that our staff and third parties would help us provide these services. Again, these are the related services that are generally required under students that have IEPs or 504 plans. In terms of Student Service Center, this allows us to take some of the Title I funds that we have and put them to use for all students, including reading support,

029math support, English language development support, gifted education, special education, Title I services, and you see the list that is included there. These are all services, again, that can be provided not only by... some of our staff but also from third-party services. Thirdly, we also believe that if we go to an online program that we will need to use the Aramark services to provide daily food for a daily grab-and-go meal distribution. So with that, all district students will have access to packaged meals through the Aramark and district food service program through a drive-up distribution process. We'll also provide other mobile distributions, say, for example, at a faraway elementary school, like maybe Worcester Elementary School, as an example. And certainly we'll continue the efforts that we've been making with the backpack program. In terms of in-person social

030opportunities, there are a couple slides here. I'm not going to get into a whole lot of details, but these are things that we believe can support a full online program with on-premise socialization. We would schedule similar to, and this is how my team has shared this with me, similar to the process by which you would make a hair appointment with a salon. You have to schedule the appointment and they would follow the health and safety protocols to ensure that all the steps that we have outlined in our health and safety plan are being followed. But it gives an opportunity for in-person structured sessions per week held at an elementary school, an opportunity to interact with their classmates. at a distance, and certainly there's a sample schedule of how that might unfold. We can provide transportation.

031We can also work with families to do drop-offs as necessary. In terms of grades five and six in person, similarly, we add a meet and eats opportunity where we're picking up our grab and go lunches. We grab and go and we go to a safe setting in which our students can eat and socialize in person in those locations. And this would be at Skyview Upper Elementary School. Scott, you're up for elementary school based on the way we're looking at the 5-6 schedule for online. This might be the best opportunity for physical education sessions and other optional sessions that could provide activity and access for students. In terms of in-person social opportunities for our COLA, again, this one is similar to that of the high school where we'll have meet meets, we'll have transition activities to

032the fact in high school, and we'll schedule clubs and activities as examples. And these aren't all the activities, but as an example, based on teacher availability and interest in continuing to provide these on-premise. clubs during this COVID period. We would make available these types of clubs and activities again all within the health and safety plan guidelines. And lastly similar to Arcola, the high school would be doing the same. In terms of considerations and challenges for an online program I think it's really important that we understand that the expectations are clear for our online program. This will not be the online program that our parents or students saw in the spring of 2020. And students will be scheduled. They will have a schedule. They will have rigor in place. They'll be expected to perform. Our teachers

033will be expected to perform. And the accountability will certainly be there to ensure that we are providing a high quality program, K-12. And certainly revisiting in early October, if we go on this path, we need to revisit the health and safety plan and we need to look at what is best for our students and the community. We need to update the plan. We need to communicate any new or alternative paths that can help, you know, get our students back into school as soon as possible, but as safe as possible. And we also know that when we talk about the potential of going all online, there could be some issue for the reduction of some staff. So with that said, it's likely that the downside of this option is that there may be a need for

034us to make recommendations to reduce some of our support staff. I don't know how many at this point, but if this is the path that we proceed forward with, my administration would work those things out, communicate with the board, and make those recommendations. And I guess it's important to recognize that if we go down this path, meaning everyone going online, it's really a singular focus for all going forward. It allows us to really focus on providing one particular program and doing that well versus having two options and knowing that we are straddled and challenged with being able to provide both of them equally well. We'll certainly do our best no matter what path that we go down. But I can't tell you that there's challenges with either of these offerings and these processes forward. Again,

035what other districts are doing? Many who have already approved in-person plans, like I said, are holding special meetings and announcing that they're likely going to go online for a definitive period of time. And I guess lastly, you know, if the board would decide that the online program for the first semester or some other defined period of time is the proper thing to start the school year with, it's going to have an impact on our decision with athletics. And what I mean by that is, you know, certainly going all online, the logic would be, well, how could we continue with athletics? But I must say that, you know, for some, for example, we had one district in the area that has already canceled all their fall athletics. But others are thinking that and are looking at

036athletics as an elective or as a volunteer option, because not all students are required to participate in athletics. It's those who sign up for it and that make the team. meaning that it's not like they're required to participate in athletics as compared to the compulsory attendance for school-age children to attend school. So the decision you're making, as some people think about this, the decision that the boards make about the reopening of the schools may not necessarily be as... on the equal par as that with athletics. So I'm not suggesting you make a decision one way or another. I'm just saying that these are some of the thought processes by others. In terms of action, the action that if you decide that you would want to go all online for the beginning of the school year,

037it would be approve the health and safety plan with the amendment for students start from August 31st to September 8th. and to direct the superintendent to provide methactin online programming to all students through the end of the first semester, I'm sorry, first marking period, that should say, 2020, and to reevaluate options for the second marking period forward. But I just want to note in my presentation, I have an error. It should be marking period versus semester. But with that said, that ends my presentation on the health and safety plan going forward. I think it's only appropriate to open the floor for some questions. Any questions from members of the board at this time? Before we get into all of that, Dr. Zerbe, I just wanted to, I know we have a lot of people on

038the line, a lot of people who have never possibly been to a board meeting before. So the time for public comment will be coming up a little bit later in the meeting. There will be a time before our voting items that the public can comment. And then at the end of our meeting, we have courtesy of the floor. So I do see people are starting to raise their hands. This is not going to be a time that we'll be taking comments from the public. It'll be a little bit later in the meeting. So, Madam President, would you like me to open the floor for questions or would you like me to present the calendar change so that we can understand the whole impact together? I think the calendar change is pretty self-explanatory. If anyone from

039the board disagrees, we can get to that or we could just dive into the questions here. Looks like we want to ask some questions. Yep. Ms. Hall? Ms. Hall? Just for the public, I know this has been covered for us, but could you expand a little bit on the FFCRA and what is involved in that? I can, but I'm going to ask our Director of Human Resources, who deals with this on a daily basis, to provide that response. Mr. Regina? Thank you, Dr. Zerbe. FFCRA is the Family First Corona Response Act. What it does is there's two components to the act. There is a two-week, 80-hour component. It's a full-pay component for those individuals that have either come in contact with the virus and have tested positive or are on quarantine by a local, state,

040federal agency or through a health care provider. That isn't necessarily the component of the act that could be as challenging as the childcare provisions. It's a 10 week childcare provision of the FFCRA. It's a two thirds pay up to $200 daily for any individual employee that is impacted. because they do not have childcare or schooling is available for their child and have to stay home. Which as Dr. Zerbe has indicated, as schools are moving to an online platform, over the last 48 hours, the requests have increased quite dramatically. Any other questions? Thank you. Also, in addition to that, there is additional leave opportunities for people under, there's all kinds of reasons, but if you have various conditions that are related to COVID, there are options to get additional leave that are specific to the CARES

041Act that would not ordinarily be available. So that may affect staffing assignments and so forth. Thank you, Ms. Montaigne. I believe Ms. Perdue, you have your hand up for a question. Yeah, I just had a follow-up question for Mr. Regina. In reference to the FFCRA, you indicated that we've seen a number of increases coming in. Is that in reference to methactin or for other districts? It's a component of other districts operating in either a hybrid or online environment. And the requests have come in that their children will be at home and they need to be at home with their children. So therefore, they would like to request to be able to take the 10 weeks of the FFCRA component to the act. So then we're seeing requests for our misacting staff now? That is correct.

042Okay. Thank you. Ms. Reese? I was just going to say what happens after the 10 weeks? There are still continued leave options, as Ms. Montaigne had referenced, but they would not necessarily be part of the Child Care Act. So there are obviously certain accommodations that the district would have to take in consideration. The option for teleworking and then any individuals that are at a high risk. We also have a number of options there, too. We have talked with individuals about health care sabbaticals. We've talked about unpaid leave. We've pretty much go through our whole exhaustive list with individuals depending on their specific cases and questions. Other questions? Ms. Drummond? Yeah, well, first I wanted to thank you for adding in the socialization component to the online delivery. And I also wanted to thank you for

043ensuring that the children will be able to get lunch. through no matter what delivery. I was wondering, I have a few questions. One, is there a concern about substitutes in any of these delivery or all of both of these delivery methods? Second, I wanted to know how both the start delay and choosing one or both of these delivery methods would impact our students at North Monaco Tech. And I was also wondering if there is any forthcoming guidance from the Department of Ed at all that you see in the future? Ms. Drummond, these are all good questions. We're going to try to take one at a time. Sorry, I did the thing where I asked you too many questions. Sorry. That's okay. But I just want to confirm the first one. Would you say what that

044was again so that we can get the right response? The first one is a concern of lack of substitutes in these scenarios. Yeah. Mr. Regina, can you speak to that? I know that you've been working with our substitute teacher service to bring on additional substitutes, but what other concerns do you have and similarly, what other concerns do other HR directors have with some of the on-premise offerings? Yeah, the likelihood of, fortunately, we got in with CTS fairly early on this question. We have requested at this point to double up, but although we may be having to do a little bit more than that for building specific substitutes, we're able to offer the same location every day for individuals who are fearful of going to different buildings and different classes for different districts every day. That

045is certainly an advantage. STS, like many other companies, was on a bit of a leave themselves. So they're starting to come back online with their employees. So as they're putting out feelers to try to get substitutes, they are also running into a similar concern with finding individuals that are interested in substituting as well. So we're hoping for the district level subs. But again, that's... as much of an unknown sometimes as probably our own physical staff. So I think just to add to that and not to make this sound like a doomsday maneuver. But even putting those extra substitutes on, we'll call it our payroll, and committing to them, we may still find ourselves having to have additional coverages taken up by our staff. And the real challenge is the way we handle coverage at the

046elementary level. With the distancing requirements, we're going to be further challenged with... how to even manage when a teacher is out at the elementary level, because we need an extra body. It's not like we can split the class in half or in thirds and send them off to go with the other sections of the same grade. So, you know, let's just say we have some concerns yet regarding that. And I can't tell you I'm completely comfortable at this point. So that was question number one, Ms. Drummond. Question number two, please. Question number two was how does both delaying the start of the school calendar and also the possible delivery models impact our students at North Monkotech? So I must say that as being a board member on the North Monaco Tech Board, as you and

047Ms. Reese are, I'm sure you're familiar with the fact that the North Monaco is really challenged with this whole situation. Given that the program that they provide is primarily a hands-on program, a program that requires... teachers and students to be in very close proximity to demonstrate and to show the necessary skills and for students to share those skills back. It's just incredibly challenging. I don't know if, I don't think there's a significant amount of challenge for the change in the calendar and how that will impact them. I don't know their specific program just yet. The problem is that I believe North Monaco was waiting for the sending schools to figure their plan out first. And until we do that, they're not really going to be able to make a commitment because they generally, while they're

048not required in this case, but they generally make decisions based on the majority of the population. And as of right now, a majority of the population hasn't made a decision yet. Actually, one school district out of all of them, or two have made, have boards of past actions. And that means the three remaining, North Penn. methactin and PV, which constitutes the largest amount of students is still outstanding. So I can't really tell you specifically if it will impact it, but we've talked about the delay. I've explained that to the director. She recognizes that that might be coming from other districts. So I don't think it's gonna be as challenging as it would in a normal year. Third question, Ms. Drummond. Okay, well, I guess to follow up with that, if we're delaying the start of

049our, if we're delaying until September 8th, I guess I'm just wondering if everyone's going all in, is transportation going to be available if North Monkotec is starting sooner? We would like to be able to do that. We even said early on that even students that want to go to North Monaco and choose our online program under the choice option, we would still transport them. And so we would do that even if we start later. Okay, thank you. And then my last question was just, do you have any more or do you anticipate in any way any more guidance from the Department of Education on on any of this? I can tell you that there are a lot of rumors about a lot of different things. And those rumors create, in some instances, a lot of

050hope. And those rumors, in some instances, create a lot of doubt. I can't recommend to the board or even share those rumors, or recommend to the board something based on those rumors. So all I can tell you right now is that there is talk about the governor making a decision that impacts everyone. And there's talk about there's no way he's going to do that. and you're going to leave it to the local school boards and the superintendents, all of which have no medical experience whatsoever, to make this choice for their communities. So with that said, I really don't have anything to tell you of substance that would be helpful to this board in making their decision beyond what I'm already sharing with you. Okay, that was my questions. Thank you. I will say that the

051governor did tweet today a reminder that under the orders signed by himself and Secretary Levine that telework is mandated in Pennsylvania unless it is not possible. So that's about as close to guidance as I think we're going to get. I'm sorry, Mr. Winters, I know you've been waiting. Go ahead. No problem. Not in any particular order. I think Dr. Zerbe, if you could just mention real quickly, the September 8th recommendation is to provide the district to do a couple of certain things, primarily around professional development. Can you just speak to that in 30 seconds or so? Yes, it's primarily to do two things. One, help get teachers prepared for the online delivery. And two, help teachers prepare for the on-premise delivery in terms of the health and safety routines that need to be put in

052place. Right. Thank you. And then just... Not that it matters so much, but we are looking at June 1st and we had 380 or so graduates. So when we're looking at the math, I know that there's kindergartens coming in, but we have to, when we're looking at what type of percentages we need to account for the 12th graders that have left. You mentioned the 30% as the targeted. From a comfort level, do you believe that number is too low? Well, the higher the number for online would make it easier to fit all the students in on the on-premise. And so 30% in my estimation based on just doing the math and not getting, again, there's probably thousands of different iterations that could occur here based on what students are choosing to go in what area

053to what courses. It's not so much of a challenge at the elementary level because we know that there are gonna be four sections of this grade and we can see that if 25 children in... in one building, I'll go online in grade four, we know what to do with that. What we can't easily predict is what's going on in some of the Arcola and high school programs and how that will have an impact. Okay. Related to the substitutes, I just want to point out, and this is just mathematics only, but in our current MEA contract, we have five personal days that is independent of sick days, close to 400, 398 and a half-ish staff members. So we're talking about 2,000 days in a calendar year, which works out to about 11 man years or women

054years. Teacher years, I guess you'd call it. So immediately when we're talking about the substitutes, we more or less have absorbed that automatically just through that process, let alone the normal sickness. So Che, do you have any average, is it 20, 25 on a daily basis of substitutes needed in the district? Well, that's a good question, Paul. I mean, unfortunately, it's based on our historical data on the day of the week, time of the year. I would say that our Monday to Friday totals can go up to almost 50 to 60 teachers. We do have totals in the middle of the week that it could be down as low as 20. Of course, at the start of the school year, we don't see it so bad. But of course, as we get closer to spring,

055those numbers almost double. So it is very difficult to predict and this is not obviously a normal September. So I could certainly see it if we looked at it as the spring, looking at something like 50 to 60 staff members a day might be something that we'd have to predict that could happen. So I certainly understand the point around class size flexibility. And I believe in this year, it would be something that I would have to support on the larger sizes on the online classes. I completely understand that aspect of it. I'm really pleased with seeing some of the in-person services, as Liz mentioned before. How comfortable... Are you to be able to deliver those starting primarily starting knowing that some of it will roll out, but primarily starting on September 8th? If that was

056the direction that board took. Yeah, I think we're confident in that. And the reason I'm confident in that is that a lot of those services are already provided to us, our students in school by third parties. So some of the things that we're talking about in terms of our challenges with staffing, while our teachers are teaching online, you know, these third party providers can provide those activities for the students. And one thing that's not on this list that, you know, just transpired earlier this week. We did meet with the Y. And while the Y, you know, has was temporary shut down for a period of time, they've been back up and running for a number of months now, providing, you know, care for children. And I would also say that where space is available and

057where staffing is available through the Y, we would be able to provide not only pre and before and after school care, but also provide care and allow students to be under the supervision of the Y to do their go on and do their schoolwork, bring their Chromebook to school, use our facilities and work in that partnership. If you recall, we did something similar to that a few years ago when we had an unfortunate teacher strike and they jumped right on that and we had a lot of families taking advantage of that service and they're telling me that they're prepared to provide that service again. That was my last question was related to you and I discussed briefly the possibility, I think Potsdam provides an in-school cyber school, which allows students to go in and out

058even in the normal school year and take some classes online. Is that something, if we offered some type of facility that provided, you know, I don't know, our COA auditorium or something, whatever. As soon as I say something specific, somebody's going to jump on me. But just as an example, our COA auditorium, if we provided a place for people to do, for students to do cyber school, is that a possibility for supporting those that are facing the issue around family first corona? virus response act is that is the district providing some alternative a something that I don't want to say closes the door but the reality is if we provide enough services that allow individuals to continue to work it does that meet the requirement of the district. Well, you know, Mr. Regine and I

059had this conversation and the challenge is that while the district can and should, and I would recommend that we would, we would at least try to provide some of those child care services or some type of service for our staff. If they were in fact coming in and they were challenged by having this, you know, potentially stay home and choose between staying home with their child or going into work. We could provide that, but I can tell you that just because we provide it doesn't necessarily prevent them from taking advantage of the leave. So just because it's available doesn't mean that they're not eligible to continue taking leave and actually just stay home. Yeah, no, it's certainly everybody has their own level of risk and concerns. I completely understand that. And it's not meant to

060be divisive. It's just trying to understand how the rules work associated with this act. So that's all I have. No, I understand. It's rather complicated and it's all new. And that's the challenge of it all. Other questions from members of the board? Ms. Drummond, one at a time, please. I just have one. We talked earlier about the the supplements, the supplemental activities, if there's the online school delivery. And just to clarify that those supplemental activities would be available if the state or the county is in a green or a yellow phase of concern with the coronavirus, but not the red phase. Is that correct? That's correct. We would not provide any in-person services or even whatever option the board chooses. Anytime it's red, all on-premise stuff stops. So that you can think about that, whether

061we choose between on-premise or online, the options between that or just all online. Anything that's dealing with on-premise would stop in the red phase. Okay, thank you for that. Other questions from members of the board? Ms. Perdue? So one of my things, my first one is a comment in reference to the PPE and the cleaning supplies. I strongly feel that if we don't have those materials in place, and my preference will be that we have materials in place for the first marking period, if that's what we're going to start with and then evaluating how things change later. If we don't have those materials in place, I think that's a big risk because I don't know if it's enough to open the schools and have cleaning and PPE materials for one month. run into the issue

062of not having it the second month. So I just don't think that's ideal. And I know you say you don't have any timelines for when those materials will be available, but I think we really have to ensure that we have those, that material in place. I recognize that. And that's why we wanted to make sure that the board was fully apprised of where we're at on things. So, I mean, I'm not speaking for Mr. Jones, but. You know, some of the vendors have said that, you know, we're not going to be able to get some of the electrostatic sprayers until October. So he's him and his team have been doing work for the last couple of weeks trying to figure out what other vendors can provide those things for him. And while we while we

063believe we're comfortable in terms of at least having a good month supply, you know, I recognize that if we get into this and we don't get just like, you know, there's. schools all across the nation trying to do the same thing. And if it becomes an issue, we'd have to shut down because we wouldn't have the supply. So I recognize the dilemma. Other questions? I had a question about staffing. Do you have an update for us as far as even the fact in online? So I know Dr. Hammer is supposed to be working on, I guess, screening and interviews for the fact in online for teachers. Do you have an update on that? We do. Mr. Eugenia, do you have an update? Yeah, we had 18 staff members ultimately apply for the virtual instructor positions.

064They're across numerous platforms anywhere from kindergarten to ELD services to some of our high school staff. I had a number of people that have said to me, you know, Che, if you don't have enough staff and then you ask for volunteers afterwards, we may be able to help, but we didn't put in for the interview component to it. So many of them are waiting, again, as Dr. Zerbe said, about our August 5th numbers, just to see how those play out. But we have 18 total, Samir, at this point. We have reviewed all the interviews and all the applications. We have those in what we call a VidCruiter system. It's a recorded video interview. All videos have been submitted and ranked with our administrative staff at this point. So we're just awaiting the enrollment numbers before

065we can determine where teachers and staff will be placed. And do we also have an idea if we were to go with... I guess the alternative option right now where it's just all online or maybe if the governor make an announcement where we are forced to go all online. Do we have any concerns about staffing all online? No, I think the only thing that we would work through at that point would be the substitutes, I think is a natural question. So what does a substitute look like in an online platform? And Dr. Zerbe and I have talked about that in great detail. One of the options that we've talked about is the district-wide subs that we used would be training them on the Google platform or whatever LMS that we're using at that time. so

066that we'd be able to use those in moments where a staff member may be off for an extended amount of time. We were very fortunate in the spring when staff members were out ill or weren't available. We had other staff members in the school step up and help at that day. But we recognize that isn't a great long-term plan. So we are looking at training some district-wide substitutes so they could help in the online platform in case we would need them on a day-to-day basis. Of course, we would be hiring our long-term subs and be prepared for anyone that would be off for a semester or the entire school year. Can I jump in just as a follow-up then? Sorry, Samir, if you're not finished. The 18 volunteers we have, if we continue with the

067current plan and we have 30 to 40% doing online, obviously that's spread across 13 raids. You used the word volunteer for additional spots. Is the thought process behind that is contractually the way that it is written? Is that they are expected to be in school and doing online is something outside of the normal contract. No, that's a normal practice by us. So we do put positions out for interest for people to be interviewed. If we do not have interest, we do ask for volunteers before we would then move somebody. And we typically do that based on seniority. And that's a contractual item. So volunteering is the second step, but the third step would be assignment. That is correct. Thank you. Other questions from members of the board? Mr. Navarro. Thanks. Liz already got her turn

068too many times already. Just a real simple one. There's some confusing information on the website. In some places, it mentions methactin online for a full year, but I just wanted to clarify that parent selection for methactin online under the current plan is for the first semester only, correct? That's correct. Okay. Thank you. I don't really have a question necessarily. I just wanted to clarify something. Because for the people watching. So what I'm hearing is that what I hear from some people is, oh, we're we're delaying the inevitable. But how I look at it is we are giving our families one more chance to kind of make make their decision. And if that those decisions. come to the point where we feel on-premises is not possible, then we make a decision by the 10th not to

069allow on-premises, which still gives us almost a month to fully schedule, plan, train, etc. Is that it in a nutshell? Actually, I believe all options are on the table this evening. So it is still possible that we could vote this evening to move to all online. Other questions from members of the board? Ms. Drummond again? Yes, it's just one. So I guess regarding the backpack program and the grab-and-go lunches, I just wanted to say that I think... I guess I just wanted to know if thought was given to if those would be available, even should we enter all online, even should we enter a red phase in the county. I just want to ensure that those families in need, those children in need are getting what they need from the district on a regular basis.

070Just a response to that. I can't tell you exactly what we would do in the red phase. Okay. Because I think part of the challenge that we have, similar to the challenge back in March, when we were in the, well, we weren't in red at the time, but when we closed schools, there was a lot of uncertainty by even the Aramark staff about whether or not, you know, coming into work and doing things. was proper or a challenge. But I can tell you that for either option or path going forward, whether we have the two options or we have the just all online, I think having a food service grab and go type of service for our students is gonna be important in the yellow and green phase for sure. And of course, I think

071in all the phases we'll be dealing with the backpack program. Okay, thank you. Other questions from members of the board? Ms. Cancro? Well, clearly I have an idea that, I guess my thing is we're ignoring the facts and just basing our position on the what ifs. So we're putting this online option as it sounds like I feel like people in this, my group is going to say and present an online only. And I'll put my position in later. But my question is, we're going to offer. Phys Ed, Art, all these other extra things. We're going to offer activities that are run by teachers. We're going to run special education that are run by teachers. We're going to run all these things. We have 1,650 students that are under the IEPs, the GIEPs, and ELD alone.

072And we're going to assume that those teachers will be okay online and that the other teachers don't want to go. We're going to assume they're going to come on premise while the other staff are going to go online and be okay with it. We don't even have a pulse on what we're offering as an online special education center. social emotional learning centers, activities of gyms. We are offering an online program that you are clearly saying we don't know staff. I implore you to take the week to get all the parents in their positions and get the staff in all their positions. We can't offer anything on premise if we don't even know. what our staff and teachers, like what they're going to do. It's not only third party that's running that. It's not. We are

073going to need lots of teachers to be okay with going on premise. They have to be okay with the health and wellness plan we are presenting today. That is the key. And we don't know where they stand. And I understand that. And I understand the flipping of it. And I understand choice. We can't offer that online program to that degree with on with premise, you know, I just we're saying one thing and we're not doing the other. And that's frustrating to me because we don't know what the staff will do at all at all. So we can't offer that. So I don't know how we're going to what you could say about that, if it's a statement or if it's. So what we would do with those programs by which our staff would be delivering

074those. Now, obviously, some of the things that you saw, like FizEd, we're not actually recommending that our teachers deliver those things. And we're not considering those things as instructional. So I just want to be clear about that. So those would be often by third parties. They'd be activities based, wouldn't necessarily be instructional based. But in terms of the special education offerings, and instead of working in a classroom of seven to eight students, all those services would be provided on a one-to-one basis or possibly two-to-one basis, depending on the needs of the child. But generally speaking, we would provide all the proper PPE and having a devoted amount of time to that child where they're only dealing with one child at a time allows us to better not only accommodate the child and their needs, but

075also certainly provide for a... a more protective environment rather than having to deal with multiple students and multiple challenges. You can focus in on the child and their challenges rather than dealing with, again, five to eight students and those challenges. So we believe that our teachers would be more willing to do the one-on-one type of approach versus coming back, as you mentioned, the irony of not going back in person in full classes. Mr. McGinnis? Okay, you brought up a couple of points with our teachers and contracts right now. Maybe I'm a little confused. Are our teachers currently under contract? Yes, they're currently under status quo of the current contract. So we can poll them on what their intentions are and we feel good about those numbers. Not sure. The contract is one thing. A survey

076data would be something a little bit different. And as things, as we were kind of talking about earlier, as the environment changes, our staff concern changes, and that's what we're seeing now. And is it fair to say that concern gets heightened? if we go to an on-premise solution? Certainly. Yeah. As we get closer to the on-premise solution, I have a number of people that I'll be talking to tomorrow, depending on what we do today. So sure, it definitely depends on that. Thank you. Other questions? Seeing no other questions, I'll move on to the calendar quickly and provide that. update for the board. So as a recommendation, it is so intended to provide professional development in these first three days, or actually first four days of the school year. That would be August 31st. should be

077this day here, and the first, second, and third of September. In order to do that and to move the student first day back to the eighth, which is the day after Labor Day, we had to make a number of changes. And I'm going to bring your attention to those changes. The 3rd of March, the 12th of March, and the 26th of March were all days that the third was an in-service day that got moved up to the first week. The 12th was a non-student day, which was used as a snow makeup day built into the calendar. And the 26th was a snow makeup day built into the calendar. And in order to get the fourth day associated with this, we added a day on to the end of the school year. So those are the

078things that changed. We moved from the 14th to the 15th. We removed the in-service. That goes to the beginning of the school year. We removed these snow days, the built-in snow days. and we get four days at the start of the school year. Any questions on that recommendation? Okay. That there ends my presentation for this evening. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Zerbe. Sorry. Let's ready, Kim. Do we have any other information for athletics and activities of the driver education program? I'm sorry. Could you please repeat that? I'm sorry. Do we have any other updates on athletics and activities or driver's education? The only thing that I can tell you is on driver's education, from the last time that I presented it to the board, there has been no changes. In terms of athletics, we did change

079from the recommendation of the board, the ability for spectators. We did hear that from the announcement from PAAA yesterday that they basically made a statement that no spectators are allowed. However, there's some uncertainty to what that means. Is it referencing the governor's 250 or half of the capacity? Or does it really mean no spectators? And if it means no spectators, does that mean no spectators anywhere inside the facility or not? So we don't have that clarification just yet. My recommendation to the board is if you approve this athletics and activities plan as presented. If the ruling is further clarified, I will inform the board and let you know that if it is more restrictive or less restrictive, you would know that and it would be my recommendation to authorize me to follow through with that

080new ruling. But at this point, because it's uncertain, I can't necessarily tell you that we should or shouldn't change the language that currently exists inside the athletics program. That was the only question I had about the PIAA because when people ask me, I specifically say we're following all PIAA guidelines. So I'm comfortable with leaving as is, but based on whatever that clarification is, I would like to follow what they... Because we've done a very good job of that so far. So I would like to continue that. Thank you. Well, seeing as that is one of our voting items, when we get to that portion of the agenda, if anyone has any concerns about approving it, we can discuss there. So I guess with that, we'll move on to reports. All of our committee reports are

081attached or will be attached to the agenda. Oh, it looks like they're all there, good. Do we have any updates from the intermediate unit, Ms. Reese? We did not have a July meeting, but just like Dr. Zerbe stated, they are working hard through the summer, working with the sending districts. And many of their programs have to go in person. So they're dealing with that and talking to parents. you know, based on what they do. But they are, they're working with other technical career centers and Ms. Partovich is keeping us up to date. So if there's anything to report, we will tell you, but just know they're working hard and doing what everyone else is doing and just trying to figure out what they can do. But they have to, as far as I know, unless

082something comes from somewhere else, some of their programs have to be online is the last thing we heard. excuse me in person. Okay North Monaco Technical Career Center. Miss Reese you're on mute. I apologize I spoke for North Monaco instead of intermediate unit no report for intermediate unit. Okay. I apologize I went out of order. That's okay we'll look forward to having some student board representatives joining us again soon and then for the Education Foundation Miss Kralovich has a report. Yes, I do. Thank you very much. When COVID crisis struck Methactin, our community asked us, how can we help? In response, the foundation launched the Methactin COVID-19 Relief Fund to support Methactin as it navigates this COVID crisis. That includes resources for distance learning, for mental health, supporting economically disadvantaged students, and other needs as

083they arise. Thanks to our generous donors, the COVID-19 Relief Fund, we have already donated $13,000 to the Methactin Backpack Program for summer meal distributions. And we are poised to continue to support students in the district this fall. There's so much more we can do. In addition to the generous individuals who have donated, many of our business and community partners have donated to the funding also. That includes Univest, Pediatric Therapeutic Services, Shirt and Ink, Indian Americans for COVID-19 Relief, the Lower Providence and Worcester Chinese American Association, Community Chiropractic Center, Abbey Plumbing, and DCO Orthodontists. It is really humbling to see our communities supporting one another during these hard times. Thank you to all of our donors to the fund. Some news about the Methactin Apex Awards. Last year's Apex Awards was an amazing evening of celebration

084and mingling side by side. It feels like another world now. We are really disappointed that due to the pandemic, we can't hold this event this year, but we are already planning for 2021 and we can't wait to come together again to celebrate the best of the best in methactin. And speaking of the best of the best in methactin, the foundation is very excited to announce that we are launching... The Methactin Alumni Association. We are building a virtual platform that will allow our alumni to connect with one another on a dedicated and secure website. In the coming weeks, we are going to be looking for alumni who want to connect, who want to help spread the word, who want to track down other alumni and share photos from Methactin in the past. If you're interested in

085getting involved, please reach out to me. You can find my contact information. You can learn more about the foundation. And of course, you can always donate on our website, metfactinfoundation.org. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Kralovich. Let's see, where are we? Communications, Ms. Kelly? No reports this evening. Sorry, there was no report from me this evening. Okay, thank you, Ms. Kelly. And thank you for all of your work getting us set up for the streaming for this evening. Very welcome. Superintendent's report, Dr. Zerbe? As listed on the agenda. Okay, thank you. Okay, so at this time we will take public comment on board action items. So this is an opportunity for residents to comment on matters that are to be decided upon as outlined on the agenda. So the board asks that you please keep your

086comments to four minutes or less. We have a list of people who had pre-registered to speak this evening. What I'm going to do since we have over 200 people on our Zoom call, I'm going to ask that just the person who's... name I'm calling, could please just raise their hand because it's a lot of names to scroll through on that list. So I will start. We have Jessica Dill. If Jessica Dill is in the Zoom call, please raise your hand. Okay. Alessandra Heller. Christine Charles. Mike Charles. Trish Rubendahl. Okay, Ms. Rubendall, I am allowing you into the room and you can start unmute, you can unmute your microphone and start speaking whenever you're ready. Can you hear me? Yes. Oh, and I'm sorry, before you get started, Ms. Rubindahl, the one thing I did not

087say that I usually do say at the beginning of these meetings is that this time is for you to share your thoughts on any questions that you may have, but it will not be a question and answer session. So for anyone speaking this evening, there will not be a back and forth exchange with the board, but we will do our best to address your questions when we get to the relevant part of the agenda. So with that, I'm sorry, Ms. Rubendall, you can get started. Okay, thank you. Again, my name is Trish Rubendall. I'm from Collegeville, and I am one of the office assistants over at Woodland Elementary. As I watched last week's meeting, I could feel some of the emotion in the meeting and the stress and responsibility felt palpable. So I want to

088thank you guys for all of your work with that. I've gone back and forth with all of the different options day to day. And I never know what I think is the best option. But at one point during last week's meeting, during, I guess, Mr. Navarrete and Mr. McGinnis were talking and sharing some of their thoughts and ideas. And I think for me, that's where things became a little bit more clear for me personally. There's no doubt about it. We're all, we know what we're dealing with here. And it's a deadly virus. It's not strep or bronchitis, but it's a deadly virus. And I'm just... worried and I'm not convinced that on day one when we walk into school We're not going to be walking in with other students and staff who have COVID and

089we don't even know it. Today I just saw Dr. Fauci make a statement saying that, you know, we're all going to be part of this big experiment. Well, that sounds terrifying to me. I don't think any of us want to sign up for this experiment for sure. And especially people that are, you know, have... high risk factors, or they live with people who have high risk factors. So I just wanted to put that out there. Two years ago, I was working with a teacher who was having a bad day. And she said, you know what, Trish, as long as we don't lose a child during the day, and we get them home to their family at night, it's actually a good day. And I never forgot that. So I guess my main question tonight is

090to ask everyone what are we going to do if and when we do lose a student or a staff member and what is that image going to look like the image of walking into that classroom or main office and seeing an empty chair I'm sorry I'm getting choked up I just think that we really need to visualize what that's going to look like because it's a possibility and I know it sounds harsh but death is harsh and death is final and there's nothing we can do to fix that I know, like I said, I'm from Woodland. So we have, you know, we have little kids who still can't spell their last name or tie their shoes. So as adults, how are we supposed to go in and sit down and down and talk to them

091about them losing one of their teachers or classmates? I don't know. I don't know how to comprehend that. So I don't know how they can either. I know there's no easy way. There's no easy answer. Our kids need to get back. badly. We all want that. And to hear also that some of our staff may pretty much be let go and that being a possibility is just one added stressor. I don't know. It's just at what cost do we put ourselves in danger? I just feel like this cost is just... it's too high. So for me, I feel as though that remote learning is just the best option at this point. And then we can come back and reevaluate at a later date. Obviously, I'm not smart enough to know all the ins and outs

092and stuff. I know it's easier said than done, but. You know, we're talking about life and death. Finally, I just want to let everybody know that it's not lost on me on how hard this has been for you guys as board members. So I would hope that everybody in the future after me, just to please show respect and grace to everybody. We could all use a little bit more of that now. And I don't know, maybe that will help. So thanks, everybody. That's all I have. Thank you very much, Mr. Rubendall. Next, I have Perry Rowe. Okay, it looks like I have Christine and Mike Charles now. So I'm going to admit you into the room and you can unmute and start whenever you're ready. I'm taking a quote from Superintendent Christopher Dormer from obviously

093the North Sound School District. One of his direct quotes from his. letter to the entire school district was, I will not be the superintendent who puts anyone, not one child, not one staff member in harm's way. Now, if this was me personally, that's a pretty big, that's a pretty big issue to have sitting on your shoulders. God forbid you are the first school to have a positive test result, which is a high probability of happening. God forbid, as the last speaker said, somebody unfortunately passes away from that. That is the last thing you want tarnished on your personal shoulders. That's not something that I would want to walk around having to deal with knowing that I had the opportunity to make a decision to keep everybody's safety the best I possibly can. and just make

094a final decision and go with it. And at this point, I feel like we're just pushing and pushing and pushing the dates out and making it more difficult for the teachers and the students and all of the staff. At this point, it might be easiest and more to alleviate the stress that everybody is personally going through through this because it's stressful for everybody who's involved in this decision-making process on both sides of it, with or without kids. to make a decision and go with it so the teachers can properly plan for these students to start the school year in a unified fashion. I'm sorry, Ms. Charles, I couldn't tell if you were finished or if you just were cut off there. I'm finished, thank you. Okay, I'm sorry. Thank you very much. Next, I have

095Perry Rao. I'm going to assume that this is you. Okay, go ahead. Hi, all. This is Vinay Rao, Parish's husband. It's getting too obvious here that, We are all not fully prepared here for a hybrid or an on-premise plus an online and stuff like that. It's just getting more and more obvious that just picking one option and just doing the best with that option is getting more and more likely here. I just wanted to make that comment, not a question, but thanks for all your hard work. Thank you, Mr. Rao. Next, I have Delaina Tran, Kit Markle. Ms. Markle, are you there? Okay. Now I have the other Mrs. Markle, Lori Markle, Sheila Fabish, Raymond Martinez, Mrs. Geis. I just saw you. You were just there. There you go. Go ahead, Mrs. Geis, whenever you're

096ready. Great. Do a microphone check. Yeah, you're good to go. Wonderful. I am reading a statement on behalf of the Methactin Education Association that was previously emailed to the Methactin Board of School Directors. We, the members of the Methactin Education Association, are dedicated to the education and safety of our students. With the proposal of an in-person return to start to the 2020-2021 school year, our members will need an unparalleled level of commitment and vigilance in order to keep our students as safe as possible, as well as to effectively educate our students in a drastically different physical and emotional environment. The weight of this responsibility is enormous. It will be the staff who will be on the front lines, charged with implementing a variety of rules, guidelines, and protocols. However, it is important to note that

097while these critical responsibilities are squarely on us, we do not have a vote on the decisions made regarding the plan for our return to school. In addition, with the potential for two possible models of instruction, or perhaps the addition of tonight's third, the entire staff needs significant time for preparation and training. We ask the board and the administration to keep the physical and emotional safety of our students and staff as their top priority when making decisions for the 2020-2021 school year. Sincerely, Chris Lloyd, Tony Haley, our co-presidents, and the entire Methactin Education Association. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mrs. Geis. Next, I have Melissa Smith. Okay. Ashley Wilkerson. Okay, Dr. Wilkerson, you are in whenever you're ready. Thank you. First, I want to say to the members of the board, to say that this

098is challenging would be an understatement. And you're in a situation where whatever you decide, it's not going to be possible to make everyone happy. And I'm certain you're in a situation where you're receiving varying guidance and you're receiving an overwhelming number of communications from parents who feel strongly about the options that should be available. and I just want to thank you for attempting to navigate these challenging times in a way that will benefit the students and the staff in our district. The CDC and all of the other organizations that are referenced in the plans that were presented to you assert that all children benefit from in-person education. The current in-person option, however, is only successful if you exclude at least one-third of the children in our district from that option. It's unfortunate that from the

099beginning, the decision was made to work to exclude one-third of our children from on-premises learning, given that that is the option that many organizations have recommended as best for children. I had originally planned to speak tonight to ask the district to please consider a hybrid option, since it has the potential to provide access to a larger number of students for in-person instruction. I do believe that it is possible to reopen with the correct measures in place. Hearing the potential pitfalls associated with any reopening, though, particularly with regard to staffing issues and the availability of cleaning supplies, I have concerns about the safety of students and staff, even if we were to go to a hybrid model instead of a full reopening. This is a tough situation. While I believe there should be an on-premises option

100for parents, I also believe it should be safe and well-executed. And some of the issues listed on the considerations and challenges slide that were shown earlier make me wonder if that is possible with any on-premises model. I wonder if it would be possible to do online only in the short term while preparing for an in-person hybrid model or something different down the road. And I don't know if that's possible. I don't envy the position that you're all in. But I do know that you have the best interest of our students and our staff at heart. And thank you for the effort you're putting into making this decision. Thank you, Dr. Wilkerson. Next, I have Amy Fink, Kelly Arnone. Okay, Ms. Arnone, you are in the room whenever you're ready. Hi, thank you. My name is

101Kelly Arnone from Lower Providence. We're 99% sure we're going to be sending our kids online this year. And I'd like to thank the district for giving us that option. A lot of other districts are picking options without their actual teachers teaching it. And I think we've got a much better program lined up for us. A couple things, though. First, though, I wanted to see if the district could take another look at purchasing Chromebooks for all grades, including K through two, if it's at all possible. Based on the experience from the spring, the sample schedule for online and the likelihood of another shutdown, it's clear that sharing Chromebooks in a household will not be an option. For the families with multiple children in K-2, it's going to be difficult, if not impossible, to manage that. I've

102looked at some Chromebooks recently for myself to purchase as I have four kids, one under in kindergarten this year. And the most basic models with the same specs as last March are selling for double the price at this point. I'm sure a lot of families would appreciate if there's some way the district could manage to provide them for K-2. If they have enough to loan out, that's really wonderful, but I guess we haven't heard a lot about that yet. The second thing was I've spoken to Dr. Harmer, who's been absolutely wonderful with handling impact and online questions, but I haven't been able to get an answer on this one item. I know the district has said that students online will be able to take their AP and honors courses and GIAPs will be followed. But

103my concern is in regards to Skyview when the gifted program is social studies and language arts. We haven't been able to find out if those students will be able to have the normal social studies and language arts gifted classes or if it's going to be some other way of gifted services. I know there's a lot of many larger issues at hand right now, but as the schedules are starting to be made for the fall, if possible, could someone make sure that that gifted scheduling is being taken care of and planned for, as well as communicated to the families it affects? Finally, at last week's board meeting, there was some discussion of the board putting out a statement to families that if they can keep their children home from methactin online to please consider doing so.

104There are many children and families that online is not the best fit for, whether it's because of learning challenges, parent work schedules, or concern for students' mental health. There are a wide variety of very real and very important reasons why online may not work for a particular family. But there are some who can. It might not be their first choice, but they're able to go online without a complete disruption of their lives. I don't think it's an unreasonable request to put it out there, asking families for whom it would not be a hardship to consider online, taking one for the team, so to speak. It's not an emotional request, simply one of numbers. Dr. Zerbe has stated we need at least 30% of students to pick online in order for five days in person to

105work. We've seen the sample pictures of the classrooms. The fewer students in those rooms, the better and safer for the staff and families that do not have a choice but to attend in person. The unfortunate reality is that if enough families don't pick online, there might not be a full-time option for those who do need to have their students in the classroom. But thank you for looking out for our students and staff, and best of luck with these difficult decisions you have to make right now. So thank you. Thank you, Ms. Arnone. Neil Monahan, Amy Kenworthy. Ms. Kenworthy, you're in the room whenever you're ready. Good evening. I first want to thank Dr. Zerbe and the board for all of the hard work and efforts that went into these plans. I noticed on Tuesday night

106when Dr. Zerbe was presenting the in-school elementary plan has the removal of masks for eating spaced six feet apart. I was in my classroom on Wednesday and my room is set up for 20 students. I measured in between the desks and they are three and a half feet apart. Even if you take another six inches on one desk and six inches on another, that's still four and a half feet apart. So I'm confused. How can students eat lunch safely while spaced six feet apart, according to the plan, if this is how many students I'm going to have? I ask the board to continue to place the safety of students and staff as their first priority. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Kenworthy. Next, I have Alan Brandt. Okay, Mr. Brandt. You should be able to... I'm

107sorry. It's not letting me... There we go. Okay. Whenever you're ready, you can unmute. Hi. Yes. Can you hear me? Sorry, yes, I can hear you. Okay, thank you. Alan Brandt, Lower Providence. In winter, there are six inches of snow and ice on the ground, and Dr. Zerbe decides it's in the best interest of students and staff to cancel school for their complete safety. In 2020, there's a global pandemic that will sicken and possibly kill parents, teachers, office staff, and even children in communities, and Dr. Zerbe is presenting a plan to the board so that we can put our students, staff, and office staff back in schools and offices and potentially spread a deadly virus in our community. There's something wrong with this picture. What messages are we sending to our children, families, staff, and

108office staff? Their safety does not matter. Everyone on this board has praised and takes pride in the fact that Mithakton has the best teachers, office staff, and professionals. And we saw this in response to COVID-19 back in March when this pandemic began. I am confident they can continue the great work they started back in March with the improvements that have been detailed with the Methactin Online Plan, and they will continue to do that at home, where everyone, students, parents, teachers, office staff, and professionals can continue to conduct their operations as they do now while remaining safe. Teachers and office staff were heralded as heroes back in March, and now they're being vilified by parents and some on this board for wishing to remain safe and not being sent into the great unknown with just best

109guidance in place for their safety. Dr. Zerbe has made it clear this plan can't remove the risk of COVID-19 infection. However, everyone, students, teachers, and office staff remaining at home and continuing to perform work virtually can ensure that methactin will not be the cause of an infection and outbreak in our community. The virus only has to have the opportune time to infect and get it right just one time. We, however, have to be vigilant and get it right each time to protect ourselves from infection. Everyone has talked about the impact on students through the evolution of this plan. However, there are impacts on teachers, office staff, and their families, and a very real risk that infection could spread from a student to staff member. Within the past few days, Narshtown School District, Pottstown School District,

110and Springford School District have decided to go all virtual and remote operations for learning and all staff. This must be your choice as well if you truly care about the district and the families of all. I urge each member of the board to carefully consider their vote tonight and think about the ramifications of their decision on this vote will have on their families, friends, and the community. Could you live with your decision if your actions tonight cause even just one member of the Methaclin community to be affected by the life-changing after effects of the COVID-19 infection? Worse yet, could you live with your decisions if your actions resulted in the death of even just one member of the Methaclin community? This decision needs to be made tonight so that families can plan. It cannot be

111delayed. We cannot delay till later in August. You need to make a decision and put at rest everybody's minds tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Brandt. Next, I have Wayne Cancro. Mr. Cancro, you're in whenever you're ready. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Great. I want to form my talk on three points. Who, what, and why? Who I'm talking directly to the school board members. What I'm begging you to not take my choice away. Do not take the choice of 1,700 other parents who voted for you and elected you to be in that position. And why? I hear all this emotion, but I don't hear any facts. So that's why I'm going to talk to you about all good decisions are based on the data, are based on the facts. Here's the latest that

112came out from the American Academy of Pediatric. It's a COVID-19 planning considerations for school reentry. The purpose of this guidance is to support the education and local leadership, that's you, in creating policies for school reentry that foster the overall health of children, adolescents, staff, and communities, and are based on the available evidence. And you're going to hear that a lot in the next three and a half minutes. Evidence. The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly advocates that all policy and considerations for the coming school year should start with the goal of having students physically present in school. Policymakers must consider the mounting evidence regarding COVID-19 in children and adolescents, including the role they play in the transmission of the infection. SARS-CoV-3 appears to behave differently in children and adolescents than other common respiratory viruses such as

113the flu, on which much of the current guidance regarding school closures was based. Although children and adolescents play a major role in amplifying influenza outbreaks, to date, this does not appear to be the case with SARS-CoV-2. Although many questions remain, the preponderance of evidence indicates that children and adolescents are less likely to be symptomatic, less likely to have severe disease resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection, and in addition, children may be less likely to become infected and to spread infection. So let's look at the preponderance of disease. This report comes out every single week. It's on the governor's desk. If it changes, he'll know it and he'll make a decision. The reason he hasn't made a decision is because there hasn't been a single death in the zero to 19-year-old age population in the entire state of

114Pennsylvania, right? So that one, can we have a death in methacrine? There hasn't been a death in the entire state, right? Out of 75 million children, zero to 19 in the country. there were only 288,000 had COVID. That's 0.3%. So you line up 100 kids, less than one kid is going to get it. I don't know why, but the data shows it's not affecting kids. And there's an opportunity cost to everything we do. And not going to school has a lot of costs. In the state of Pennsylvania, there's 2.8 million kids 0 to 19. 6,600 cases of COVID. Do you know how many deaths, whoever that person was, one death? There wasn't a single death in the entire state. All right. So this fear and this monger, it's crazy. There are 1800 parents who elected

115you to represent us. And all I keep hearing is teacher after teacher, after teacher getting on there and telling us how horrible and dangerous it is. You were elected by 1,800 people who said, we know the risk. We know it's minimal. We're ready to take that risk. Now figure it out. Give us the choice. And the devil's in the details. There's an old saying in the military, no battle plan ever survives the first shot, right? It's going to be crazy. We're going to have to figure it out on the fly. But don't take that choice away from us. And the risk is not there. Stop scaring people. Look at the data. And you know as well as I do, as soon as it changes, the governor will pull the plug. So you have a safety

116net. There's no way in the world anyone on that board thinks that they're going to see a spike in Pennsylvania and Governor Wolf is not going to cancel school. Every one of you know that. Thank you, Mr. Cancro. Don't take away our choice. Thank you, Mr. Cancro. Next, I have Jeff Davis. Mr. Davis. Okay. Joanna, and I apologize, I don't know how to pronounce your last name. Ozechik. Okay. Amanda Mickelson's. Nicole Zhang. Lauren Sitchelsteel. Oh, okay. Nicole. I'm guessing this is Nicole Zhang here. Hold on one second. Okay. Ms. Zhang, you are in the room. You can go ahead when you're ready. Hi, my name is Nicole Zhang. Just testing. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. All right. My name is Nicole Zhang and I'm a 2020 meth acting grad. So first of all,

117I do commend you and the rest of the board for your work, since this is certainly, you know, an unprecedented time and every decision you make, it will definitely have an impact on a large number of students. Going back to the policy regarding teachers and what you said, or sorry, what Dr. David Zerbe said regarding the CARES Act and what it enables, what it allows teachers, you said, I heard, was it roughly like 10 days and having like a preexisting medical condition? If so, I do not believe this is sufficient for teachers. With many teachers being over the age of 50, They should not, even if they do not have a pre-existing medical condition, be forced to put themselves in the way of danger just to be able to continue sustaining themselves with, you know,

118be able to continue having their income. This shouldn't be asked just because you do not have a pre-existing medical condition does not mean that you don't have family. And even if you do have family at risk, or even if it's a young teacher living by themselves without putting anyone at risk, should they really be asked to put themselves in the line of danger? And going back to Mr. Kangaro's comment, I'd like to say that just because only like 1% of children nationwide can die from COVID-19 from the zero to 19 age group and we've had no deaths in Pennsylvania, does that mean that A, we want to put these children in harm's way of infection where they can be, continue to transmit it to their family? And we know that school is not going to

119be a bubble of isolation. I believe that the board has addressed that. We do not want students, especially older students in the high school, some who may be more reckless than others and continue to go out, socialize with or without masks. We do not want them transmitting it to their fellow classmates, transmitting it to their families, friends, elders, etc. No one, just because children aren't dying doesn't mean that anyone else should be able to get infected. We should, okay, sorry. But yeah, just because children are less at risk does not mean that this risk is worth taking for the safety of our community. All right. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Ms. Tsang. So I had Lauren Sitchell-Steele, Ashley Patton, Crystal May, Amy Smith. Okay, Ms. Smith, you're in the room whenever you're ready.

120Thank you. Amy Smith from Worcester. I just want to take a minute to thank the board. I know previous speakers have as well, but I think it's important to verbalize that this is not an easy decision. I understand that this is a volunteer position and that all of you have concerns for your own families during this pandemic, as well as for the community at large. So I appreciate you being leaders and having this discussion and allowing us to, all of us, give our feedback and our information in multiple ways throughout this process. I just wanted to touch on a couple of things. We are able as a district to provide devices for students in K through two for online schooling. I think that that's something that should strongly be considered. In my family, I have

121four children and it's difficult when we're sharing devices. And with the structure of the online day, it's going to be difficult for other people as well, you know, to share devices with their younger children. So I think that's something that the board should consider. The other thing I wanted to comment on was food availability. I know Dr. Zerbe said that in the red phase, if we're in a red phase, that it's difficult because of the use of facilities and whatnot, but that the backpack program would still be available. I would just like to say that if it gets to a point where we're in the red phase and we need to provide meals for students, I think it would behoove the school district to make sure that you reach out to the community and give

122us an opportunity to mobilize to provide that. I saw in the spring that other school districts were able to organize not better but faster than we were in some respects and I understand that there's a whole bunch of different reasons why but it's super important to me and I think it's super important to our community that we make sure that students are able to be students. hungry children are not students. They can't be. So I think we need to make that a priority and if the district needs support in any capacity for that, so please let us know and use our resources. The other thing that I wanted to comment on too is that we don't know what the long-term effects are of COVID. If a child contracts a COVID and they're asymptomatic, That doesn't

123mean that down the line, they're not going to have health problems related to the contraction of that disease. So I think that's something to be mindful of, that we don't know what the long-term effects are. So whatever we can do to protect our community, whether it be the oldest of us, the most vulnerable of us, or the youngest of us, we should be doing that until we know otherwise. And I also want to point out that... The reason that the district even offers an online option is because we can't go full online and provide for safety. We can't meet the American Association of Pediatrics recommendations if we go five days in school. in person. So in order to deal with that, the board is looking at all of these options and we're going to make

124the best decision that makes sense to provide an equitable education across the district, I would hope, for all of our students. So I'd like to point that out. And the last thing I'd like to say before my time is up is that I'm appalled at the lack of guidance that we're receiving from the state of Pennsylvania. I feel that it's completely unfair that 500 school districts across this state need to make these decisions on a local level. We're fortunate to have a scientist on our school board, but not everyone does. And I appreciate the enormity of this decision. And I wish that our state had done a better job of providing stricter guidance and taken some of this responsibility out of the local hands so that we were making these decisions based strictly on evidence

125and data. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Smith. Next, I have Sonia Ford. Okay, Julie Stern. Mark Yoder. John Andrews. Tricia Lockwood. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. Andrews, I see you now. Okay, you're in the room whenever you're ready. Yes, thank you. I'm going to talk about the Act 34 hearing because it's one of your voting items this evening. And it's another stepping stone for the architect on the road to a new school. There is no urgency. The right action is tabling this vote as you have more pressing issues. The virus-related health, education, and safety. Not Arrowhead or Full Day Kindergarten. An Arrowhead school is an unneeded, expensive, and unhelpful sham. As to this, a slew of major issues. The 2018 enrollment projection has flawed birth projections, high by 50 per year, but downplayed by Dr. Zerbe.

126A corrected enrollment projection is needed and likely to be helpful. Also, Dr. Zerbe's option C capacities are flawed and low. They have not been corrected by him or the board, yet correctable per my memos. Recent early grade enrollments are flat at best. Also, virus effects will likely lower long-term enrollments. Two, methactin suffers due to the Skyview opening and the present uncommon option A grade setup. Option C is a better choice, and it's K-5 in six to eight schools with K-5 at Skyview. It delivers great education and overcomes the local want for a narrowhead school by better use of existing capacity. Our high school ranking is way down. Option C won't fix those issues. Dr. Zerbe wants and needs to fix the ranking, but is silent on anything option C to the detriment of students, district,

127and community. Three, the Arc de Ronde school was sized for a six to eight setup. Six to eight grades together is proven best for education by its wide use, terrific high school rankings, and multiple supportive analyses. Facts. Yet as a seven to eight school, you limited its effectiveness and utilization to under 60%. Financing the $50 million arrowhead construction impacts needed master plan projects for three years with possible significant facility risks. The high debt level will also limit future borrowing flexibility. Five, the case for or against full-day kindergarten aside issue was to be made this fall, but lean staff and virus issues would appear to be delaying that. That delays finalizing the arrowhead design. Six, the replacement director of curriculum should be allowed to weigh in on Arrowhead, option C, and full-day kindergarten issues rather than

128be hobbled by them. Seven, the Arcola layout appears to be more like a country club than satisfying the needs of educating K-4 students. Your only justification for Arrowhead appears to be a political promise made to a select few. Arrowhead is a sham. Tabling the hearing resolution makes powerful sense to me. Thank you. How much time do I have? You're at 3.28, Mr. Andrews. Okay. I just wanted to say briefly with regard to K-2 that I would encourage thoughts about on-premises education because virtual education doesn't cut it for those students. They need socialization. There's no risk of crayons on the Chromebooks. As time goes on, there will be more immunity in the population. And the youngsters are less able to spread infection is what I've been hearing from the medical experts in recent times. Thank you,

129Mr. Andrews. Because they have smaller lungs. Thank you, Mr. Andrews. Next, I have Tricia Lockwood, Nicole Drake, Douglas Drake. Bernadette Dara, Nadine Baumgardner. Oh, I'm sorry. There's Nicole and Doug Drake. Okay, Drake, you're in the room. Hi. Hi, everybody. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak. As many of you know, well, let me start off by saying thank you. I may get a little emotional. As many of you know me really well for getting that way. I know this decision tonight is not easy. Many of you know me personally and know that I have a very sick child. My daughter is critically ill and extremely medically complex. We have done nothing but the last few weeks, I shouldn't say that, the last year or so, getting... guidance from the top experts

130and some of the top medical centers in the country. In the last couple weeks, we have seen doctors at the Mayo Clinic, DuPont, and CHOP. Every one of the doctors that I've seen, immunology, pulmonary, cardiology, allergy, and the list goes on, has told us the same thing unequivocally. Although the numbers show that children are not getting as sick, we have kept that population mostly contained at home or isolated for the most part since March. We immediately, when our cases were low in this county, in this state, we immediately shut down our schools to keep them safe. We are going to reopen our schools and my fear. is very much that these kids, we're going to see illness in them. We're going to see sickness. I understand that there's all these reports out there and we

131can all read them and I don't pretend to be an expert. But when every one of the doctors in the last 10 days that I've seen have told us the same thing, that unequivocally these children will be carriers, are carriers, and are going to bring it home to their families, to their adults, to their teachers, their staff, the bus drivers. It is a concern. I was advised many times by all the different experts to keep my children home. It is a very difficult decision for me to make that with having a senior. I know that I'm not an expert, but I'm just asking you to keep that in mind. Not all the reports are accurate. Not everything we read has all of our... best interest in mind. Please understand that we have to make this

132decision for everybody, not just our students, but all of you, your children, our staff, and everybody in this district. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Drake. Nadine Baumgardner. Okay. Go ahead whenever you're ready. I can hear you now. Okay, perfect. I am a methactin employee at Woodland Elementary who speaks therapist. I'm also a mother to an 11-year-old daughter who has severe asthma. So she's out there in school districts, but I just wanted to speak on behalf of the community. First and foremost, thank you to the board for your time and giving me this opportunity to have a voice and share my thoughts. I understand this is a difficult time and it will be hard to make a decision. Please know there's no right or wrong decision. I'm confident that the decision you make will

133be the best, best decision because ultimately it will determine the safety of our students and staff. With that said, I respectfully ask that you consider to delay reopening the school district and consider the option of virtual and online learning for our students during the first quarter of the school year. It is difficult to interpret school reopening guidance because it's been inconsistent. If you look up statistics and look up what our guidance is, things are changing. PDE guidance changed on July 16th. The government guidance released another guidance on July 17th. And the CDC on July 23rd, this past Thursday, a week ago. Health and safety should be our priority. And I would like to emphasize the mental health of our students and staff. We cannot, it's just, it's... To me, it's invasive. Being at Woodland, we

134have an amazing staff, amazing students, beautiful students, but we have K-4 out to 6 support. We have behavioral students. To expect them to adapt and be flexible to masks, to teachers wearing face guards, to six feet distance, their behavioral needs, their sensory needs, it's just, it's unethical. It is a dramatic, dramatic change six feet apart. The classroom is going to look different. What about their mental health? What about if a child got sick, teacher got sick, God willing, somebody passed? What about the fact that we have no visitors, people walking in the halls? You know, we have dog dads that come into Woodland, and we're so proud to have them come in, passing and smiling and being volunteers. All these precautions, there is no research, there's no reports, there's nothing that we're standing strong on

135to say that we're safe under these conditions. I would like the board members to ask themselves, yourselves, is it worth the risk? Is it worth everyone's physical, emotional, and mental health? I am so thankful for this time to have a voice. I appreciate the difficult position that everyone is in. And thank you for this time. Thank you, Ms. Baumgardner. Next, I have Heidi Greenwald. Okay, Ms. Greenwald, you're in the room whenever you're ready. All right, can you hear me? Yes, I can. All right, well, first of all, I kind of want to introduce myself. Heidi Greenwald lives in Lower Providence, been in this district for 40 years. I'm retired. Both of my daughters graduated from Methactin, and I have two grandsons who are currently in the school district. I want to thank Jennifer Cancro, Mary

136Hall, Paul Winters for taking time to acknowledge the emails that I sent and give a special thank you to Andrea Reese for including a personal message about the health of my family. If I left anybody out, I'm sorry. But my memory, you know, I'm getting old. My concerns are mostly in the safety area. And I have submitted some questions and some were answered on the fact in line. But there are a few that weren't. And I know I can't get answers tonight, but I kind of want to put them out there so you guys can discuss them. Some of the things that the experts say. proximity, amount of time of exposure, and the air quality contribute to being able to contract this virus. And I know that some of these schools have been here for

137longer than I have been. So it would be interesting to know if the HVAC systems in some of the older schools were beefed up enough to make sure there's adequate air exchange because of the virus. I also wanted to throw some busing ideas out there. The state guidelines, which were put in an article by the AP News on July 27th says, and I quote, the state guidelines recommend one child per seat every other row. And that they acknowledge that the buses and drivers are limited supply, but the plan that we have has two children per seat every row, which is basically what the Transportation Safety Administration says should be on a regular day, unless the kids are really little and then you can fit three to a seat. So that's a safety concern I had

138as well. One of my areas was sort of touched on earlier, and that's with the special area teachers. And at a previous meeting, Dr. Zerbe, I'm sorry, explained that the special area teachers were going to travel to the student's classroom most of the time, you know, with some exceptions. But it doesn't matter if the teacher goes to the students or the students go to that teacher's room. The teacher is going to come in contact with all of them anyway. And then there's that possibility. for the virus to be spread easily and through a much wider population. I also was very happy to hear that there are some options for staff to take leave if they get sick. I know from personal experience in my own family that recovering from COVID-19 can take substantially longer than

13910 days. My sister was laid flat out for over three weeks. So knowing that there are some things that the teachers can do. Some of the things you guys brought up earlier, like with the cleaning supplies and not being able to get them, is a really big concern. And there was a study done, it was in the New York Times today, that young children may not show the virus, but they carry as much virus as an adult does. So they can spread it pretty easily. And I will get you that article if you want it. In Montgomery County, the Montgomery County PA open data. There was, Ms. Greenwald, I'm going to have to cut you off there. Thank you very much. I didn't realize I was, see, last time I talked so fast, and this

140time, okay. All right, thank you so much. Thank you. Next, I have Sandy Katz. There we go. All right, Ms. Katz, whenever you're ready. Good evening, all. I hope you can hear me. I can hear you. Thank you all for, um, Sandy Katz from Lower Providence. Thank you all for all the thought, time, and work that has gone into preparing the plan. Um, I totally understand this is a very difficult decision for all of you. I understand that we want to keep our children and our staff safe. While I, I... While I would like to hear more as you work through the idea of the clinic that will support us virtually, I appreciate that thought was given to mental health services, related services like occupational therapy, PT, and speech therapy for our kids with special

141needs. So thank you for that. I did prepare to comment on another board action item, but I'll hold off to do that till we... So there's more discussion on it, if that's okay. That's entirely up to you. We can take comment now, or you can wait until after we vote tonight. Oh, wait, that's okay. Oh, it's after the vote, then I will comment now. Okay, yeah, thank you. So now I'm speaking on behalf of representing Methescan Special Education Alliance, and this is to urge the board to look at hiring outside the district for the director of DEI. Methactin Special Education Alliance understands the value of the position of Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion would bring to our district. Diversity does not automatically lead to inclusion. Unless Methactin takes active steps to create an environment

142in which disability, race, ethnicity, immigration status, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status are valued and respected, children will still fall through the cracks. Our children in special education, whether it's medical, social, emotional, intellectual, or gifted, are marginalized and often let out of planning academics, sports, and extracurricular activities or events. Last year, Dr. Zerbe and the administrators set a goal to promote inclusive practices and provide professional development to support the inclusion of children with special needs in the general ed classrooms. The DEI director would work alongside the directors of curriculum and pupil services to move this initiative along faster. An inclusive culture provides a better quality education for all children and is instrumental in cultivating and accepting less discriminatory environment. Research shows that inclusion significantly increases academic outcomes for children with special needs and their peers. Outside

143of our families, schools provide the context for a child's development with their peers, adults, and the world. We want to establish a culture for our children of acceptance and embrace the differences that make our district and our world beautiful. Change can be uncomfortable for some, but in the long term, it is beneficial for all. We urge you to commit to hiring an outside candidate in a director level position to give the Office of the DEI a fresh perspective and the experience it requires to hit the ground running. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Katz. Next, I have Jim Malik, Ramona De La Rosa. Okay, Mr. La Rosa, whenever you're ready. Thank you. I'm a parent in Worcester Township, and while I'm speaking tonight as a parent, I'm also a member of the Special Education Alliance and

144the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force. And so tonight, I want to comment on the office being established for diversity, equity, and inclusion. I know that establishing the office is just a first step towards supporting the overall initiative. I understand that it will take time to execute significant change. But as a parent of a child with special needs, I know that time is of the essence. Every year that passes is either an opportunity taken or an opportunity lost to advocate for their needs and to make a greater difference in their lives. The experiences that Methactin students have shared with Dr. Zerbe were but a small sampling of painful stories from the past. But each day, there are experiences of many others that are not shared, opportunities to change not taken. These experiences and missed opportunities

145become the unrelenting present. One of the quotes from John Lewis that was shared in the past week was this, quote, To those who have said, be patient and wait, we have long said that we cannot be patient. We do not want our freedom gradually, but we want to be free now, end quote. Granted, broad sweeping changes don't just happen overnight. This should be a thoughtful endeavor. Establishing an office for diversity, equity, inclusion is a first step. but we can commit to more than just a first step. The first step need not be a gradual one where we take a half step into a goal and then reassess that step at year's end. We can commit to making the best, most effective first step in order to lay a strong foundation for the challenging work ahead.

146I believe part of that will require that the position be a full-time director level with the authority and accountability that come with it. I also strongly believe that the position should be filled from outside the district. In normal times, it would be difficult for any person to come into a new role, develop it, and then be effective in achieving the goals set for it. But these are not normal times. We are now living and working in an alternate environment that has come with additional challenges that none of us ever expected to face, both personally and professionally. I do not believe it will be effective to reduce the responsibilities of our current district employee in order to give them the time to attend to this new role. They would encounter constant competing priorities within their roles

147in an increasingly challenging environment. To compound the pressure on one person to execute their current job well and then conquer this new role seems unrealistic and unfair to both the person and the role. Further, if you truly agree and believe with conviction that our district needs this role, then give the position the respect it deserves. First and foremost, along with diversity, include equity and inclusion in the title. Do the proper assessments to better understand what is needed. Don't default to hiring from within. Interview for the best candidate, one that can bring a different set of experiences and clear-eyed focus to the position. Our students have raised their hands to ask for help. What a great example of self-advocacy. I'm so proud and impressed with those who came forward to demand change. We're all facing so

148many difficult decisions. This shouldn't be one of them. Let's meet the moment and choose to proceed with the decision that will have the greatest positive impact in our community. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. DeLaRosa. Next, I have Brian Earnshaw. go ahead Mr. Earnshaw whenever you're ready thank you Brian Earnshaw from lower Providence I'd like to comment on item 14g which is the act 34 hearing relating to the construction of a new Arrowhead elementary school one thing to point out is that this hearing is now scheduled for the first day of school and with everything that needs to happen over the next month I would recommend that for a variety of reasons that this matter be tabled and the district reevaluate when this happens given a lot of discussion tonight. Mr. Andrews mentioned a lot of

149factors about the need for new Arrowhead Elementary, a lot of which could be debated, whether that's the new enrollment study, the impact of the grade structure and ranking, et cetera. But one thing that really cannot be debated is the availability of space existing within a district, which really raises questions about the need for this building. As everyone knows, our coal utilization is less than 60%. I believe Skyview is less than 80%. So that needs to be considered and evaluated more thoroughly. And another thing that cannot be questioned that was shown in the Act 34 documents is the impact of... construction of this new building on the financial condition of the district, something that will impact the district long after this pandemic is gone and behind us, hopefully. As of June 30, 2019, per the district's

150audit report, the debt service of the district was about $76 million as disclosed, and that reflected debt maturities through 2035. The Act 34 documents, if you look at pages 24 through 26, which I hope every board member has taken a look at. Those debt maturities will increase by 11 years. So the district's final debt will go from being paid in 2035 to 2046. 75% increase in the number of years needed to retire the district's debt. Another thing to point out is that the existing Devin District, a substantial portion of that results from the construction of Skyview. And we all know the issues relating to that decision made years ago by prior boards. When you look at that debt service of $76 million currently, with a new building, the district will borrow $32.5 million. The debt

151service to pay that off will balloon to $54 million, which means the district's debt service, after all the new or had borrowings are done. will require $140 million of principal and interest payments to retire that debt. Another way to look at that is the debt service requirements are currently at 68% of the district's annual budget. At $140 million, that's 125% of the district's budget. You're approaching levels at, you know, percent of your budget at the federal borrowing levels, which are astronomical and out of control. Given all of these factors, I hope the board understands the impact of the financial condition of building a new school and borrowing all this additional money when there are other alternatives available. And given, in case you missed it today, given the economic challenges we're all facing, GDP was down

152by a third in the second quarter and jobless claims continue to rise this past week. So this is not the right time to be considering. leveraging the district more to the tune of additional $54 million. This matter should be tabled for at least a year, if not two, until things settle down and should be re-evaluated at that point. Thank you. Thank you. Jill Dixon, Rita Sabaya, Guy Tai, Stephanie Marino. There you go. Okay, Mrs. Marino, whenever you're ready, you can unmute. Hi, good evening. Can everyone hear me? Yep. Okay. Good evening. Thank you for letting me speak and for the other members of the community and teachers and everyone speaking for listening to us. Like I said, my name is Steph Marino. I am not only a resident of Worcester Township, but I'm also a

153teacher at the high school. And I wanted to jump on tonight, not even so much just to talk about the emotional aspect, which I know a lot of other speakers have hit on, but more the logistics. And I think even more so tonight than any other meeting that we've had before, we've seen some of the challenges that are arising when we start to think about an on-premises possibility. So my first point is, I don't know if anyone on the custodial staff or on facilities is on this call or if they've been considered at all. But one of the biggest issues that. I'm seeing is besides having the lack of confidence in obtaining all of the PPE, the proper PPE, how equipped and confident do we think that the custodial staff will be that they can

154meet all of the requirements of cleaning all of these rooms? And some of the proposed plans have the custodial staff cleaning the rooms multiple times a day. In addition to that, I know that some teachers like will not feel comfortable wiping down every single desk or won't have time in between each class to do that. So that would also fall into the students if the teacher were to make that plan. So I think that's a really important thing for the board to consider is that if we don't have access to the appropriate PPE, that would keep the students and staff and faculty safe. That would be a big issue. Another really big thing is that some members of the community, and I know a lot of the board members are also parts of these Facebook

155groups where we hear from the members of the community, they want their students to go back to school because they want that socialization aspect. And as a mom, I completely understand that. And so if we're talking about logistics, the problem isn't just keeping the children out of school because teachers are afraid, but teachers are unable to prepare if we try to be a jack of all trades. In that instance, we are a master of none. So if right now we're saying that we're going to do virtual teaching and on-premises teaching, and we've heard from Dr. Harmer and Dr. Zerbe in different meetings that one teacher could possibly teach virtually and in person, then we're unable to prepare properly. Methactin is known for giving rigorous material and an education and we're unable to do that if

156we are not preparing. We have teachers who are working our butts off for free all summer long in addition to the 18 hours of MIAC that we had to do. We are not only trying to scramble to make sure that we can access every online opportunity we have for students. But we're working to revamp, update, and diversify our curricula because of the protests and everything that's happening in our climate as well. So we want to make sure that the only reason that most of us teachers are pushing for a virtual start to the school year. is so that we can adequately prepare for one instance and make sure that we utilize all of the resources we have and collaborate so that we are not just rushing around and doing emergency teaching like we did in

157the spring. It does not seem like teachers' voices have been... heard very often in this debate besides right now. We haven't been asked much, but we are requesting that we're given ample time to make sure that students get the best learning opportunity in the fall. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Marino. Next, I have Mukesh Mahajan, Tara Johnson, Aaron McCool, William Molden, Kong Chen, Jen and Mike Riddell, Christine Domergy, Kelly Gates. Yonghong Zhao, Emily Iacono, Victoria Alf. Okay, Victoria, there you go. Whenever you're ready, you can start. Hi, good evening. My name is Victoria Alf. I'm a resident of Lower Providence. I'm a 2002 graduate of Methactin, and I also have an incoming kindergartner who would be attending Arrowhead if we sent her on-premises. I want to thank the board and their administration for their efforts.

158I know that this is an impossible situation for all of us. All of the options have upsides and downsides, so just... Thank you all for taking the time to think through everything and try and make the best possible decision you can for everybody. Before tonight's meeting, my husband and I were leaning heavily towards sending our daughter 100% online. We've read all of the data about transmission rates in children, and quite frankly, we're not convinced. A lot of that data is based on when children were out of school, not when they were in school, so we really don't know what's happened. Just today, there was a study that was released that suggested that closing schools in March prevented over 100 over 1 million infections in the US and saved likely up to 40,000 lives. And that

159was at a time where the pandemic was more controlled than it is now. It's clear to me from the meeting tonight that the district is not prepared to have students on premises. And we will be sending our daughter online. There's too much uncertainty about staffing and equipment. I don't see how the board could vote to have students come on premises in the first marking period based on hoping that things fall into place in the next 30 days. Going 100% online, as one of the previous speakers said, for the first marking period at least will allow families and staff to make necessary plans for the next few months rather than scrambling at the last minute when things don't fall into place and we end up going 100% online anyway. Finally, I hadn't planned really on talking

160about this tonight, but since a couple of other people raised it, I just wanted to say that I strongly support the new Arrowhead school building. One of my concerns about my daughter going to kindergarten on premise is the fact that she would be attending Arrowhead and it's a really old school. I have no... I don't think that the air filtration and circulation in that building is equipped to handle what we're dealing with. I've asked questions about it, but I haven't heard anything to give me any confidence in that. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Alf. Next, we have Evan Burstein, Christina Venezia, Randy Burstein, Julie Stern-Delfiner, Latricia Hay, Amanda Woldowski. Oh, there's Latricia. Okay. Go ahead, Latricia, whenever you're ready. We can't hear you, Latricia. It looks like you're not muted, but for some

161reason I don't have audio for you. If you want, oh, go ahead. I think I got you. Okay. I just wanted to say that I agree with the previous two speakers who said that we need to give our teachers, our parents, our community time amidst this unprecedented time. to deal with this COVID situation, especially since we do not have a vaccine on the market as of yet. I think the board should take the time that we have now and go fully remote so the teachers can prepare, so parents can prepare, and the students can be equipped to tackle this first semester at home and virtually. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, now Amanda Waldowski, whenever you are ready. Yes, hello, this is Kyle Wodowski, Amanda's husband. How are you? Sorry, go ahead. Hello. Yes,

162so I joined this call and I know a lot of people have dropped off. I think partially that is they've lost faith in sort of where this is going. I was prepared to speak to either full online or full in person, but given the imbalance of comments tonight, I feel only compelled to offer. The disappointment in the board from what I'm hearing in not a commitment to really returning to what we know is best for our children. And the district has spoken up. Parents have spoken up. I've been on the focus groups. I've been online. I've been listening to what people are saying. Everyone believes 67% of the children belong in the classrooms. And it seems at the same time. 60, 70% of the school administrators and board are finding every reason in the world

163to not let this happen. And I think that's... That's a big mistake. A caller earlier talked about the data that's there, and I think it's big that we look to that. It's getting frustrating to hear about the tremendous danger that we feel students are under and children are under. That's just not the case. I wish we could kind of stop saying that. That's not proven. That's not accurate. And to think that we're sending students back into a dangerous environment is not fair. It's not fair for us to be compelled to. Weigh what's best for our families the best for our children to the fact that someone somewhere somehow some point might get sick The numbers are really staggeringly Against that I mean 99% against that and the 1% or half a percent that do get

164sick 95% of those are okay. It's not okay to put families in the position Working families, a lot of families out there have moms and dads that work. A lot of single parent families are out there. So where does the buck stop? You don't let kids go back to school. They don't have a day care option. They have to pay for day care option. Or they can't do their job. They can't spend four hours doing their job and four hours teaching their kids. It doesn't work. There hasn't been a case on the planet where a student has given a COVID to a teacher. There are baseball leagues open. There are soccer leagues open. There are tournaments open. I've been to these. I've seen the joy on children's faces. having them out with their friends. Children

165are not happy at home. It's not normal for them to be home. And you as educators have to see that. You have to see the importance of them returning to normalcy despite a very, very... low risk of anything. And you can't look at me and tell me that paper towels are standing in the way of our children returning to normalcy. This is not happening. We have camps opening right now. We have camps that are indoors right now. Children are not giving this to their counselors. They're not giving it to their teachers. And again, someone talked earlier about data. It's just not there. Yeah, it's really easy to sit back and be afraid of things. And I just feel compelled to speak on the fact that I need people on the board. I don't see it.

166I don't hear it from anybody that we're really thinking about. The need for students to be back, the need for teachers to be back, and I don't want to hear excuses anymore. We have other districts in this area. We have private school teachers that can't wait to go back. We have private schools that are going back, and there's kids that are excited to go back, and that's where they are. That's where parents are. Parents, whether they are excited that their children will turn to normalcy or excited that they'll be able to. do their jobs or anything else for that matter. And I feel that as soon as that argument is combated with, oh my, someone will get sick, it squashes everything. And I'm sensitive to that just like anybody else. I do not want anyone

167to get sick, not anyone to die, not want any teachers to get sick. But we are talking about such a slim percentage and we're not seeing it anywhere, not only in Pennsylvania, not only in Montgomery County, not only in Mithakton, but anywhere, anywhere the schools have returned already. We can look at that and say there's a possibility. And I don't feel, I feel like this is just lip service, that we're just going through these motions, finding every excuse in the world to find a reason why we're going to close schools. And that's a very frustrating thing when you have parents struggling, literally struggling to manage their day, manage their children, manage their children's sadness and depression and angst and anxiety, all these things that are happening because they can't go back to normal. I don't

168hear enough normal. acceptance of this, but I'm seeing where I live. I'm seeing you, Mr. Waldowski. I'm sorry, Mr. Waldowski, I have to stop you here. Yeah, of course. Thank you. Andre Goldstein, Aaron McCool, I see you're in now. You can go ahead whenever you're ready. Hi, thank you. I apologize. I just wanted to say, first of all, I appreciate the time and the situation that the board is in, and I'm very grateful for the commitment to making the best decision for our families. What I would say is regardless of where you go with this decision, I would encourage you very strongly to consider using outdoor spaces. both in the district and in surrounding areas like the township and state parks to offer outdoor educational experiences to supplement education for students. As many of you

169may know, this is my field and my career, and there is a national organized collaborative that is working towards helping schools and parks work together to provide outdoor education across the country in light of COVID. I'm happy to share those resources with you. Some things to consider. The risk is considerably lower when we're working with students in outdoor spaces and using proper social distancing and masking when we cannot. And it also can provide opportunities for students to have authentic learning experiences, social experiences, and hit the really critical academic standards at the same time. And just something to consider whether you decide to go virtual as a supplement or whether you decide to go hybrid or live. either for the fall in September, October, especially when the weather is good, but also moving towards the spring

170because, you know, we all anticipate that we're going to be living with this with quite some time. So thank you for your time. Thank you, Ms. McCool. Brenda Capobianco and Kate Graff. All right, Ms. Graff, you're in the room whenever you're ready. Hi, thanks so much. This is Kate Graff, and I live in Collegeville. I have a student at Arcola. And I just want to say that like during this whole pandemic, I think that the parents in Mifactan have been very understanding of the last minute switches and the fact that teachers were not trained and trying to learn to use new equipment. And it was difficult. And I think as parents, we were very understanding. I will say, as an Arcola parent, my child spent the time during the last part of the year last

171year without a single online class where a teacher was teaching live. And all of her work was provided through slide decks and that sort of thing, which really isn't an online program. And I just want to make sure people understand that. In this pandemic, our children need to be educated. It's a critically important part of their growth. And as a parent, I think we all should get to make the decisions for our own kids. I think if parents don't feel comfortable with their children going to school, it's a wonderful thing to have the opportunity to keep your children home if that makes you feel safe and it makes them safe. I think the parents who want to send their kids to school should have the opportunity to do so. And I think our teachers need

172to realize and they need to have faith that the people who are making these health and safety plans have the knowledge to keep them safe, just like they do in any other situation in the school building. Just because this is something that's a little bit unknown doesn't mean we don't have technical... knowledge and scientists who can understand what's going on and have put programs in place to protect our teachers and to protect our children. No one wants our children to be in danger and no one wants our teachers to be in danger, but parents have to go back to work. And parents have been working through this entire pandemic with our children at home and with our children, you know, walking into our Zoom meetings and all of these other things. The teachers haven't been

173experiencing that. And I think it's time that we go back to school. And I think it's time that we give every parent a choice for their own kid to make the decision that they think is best for their child. I don't think it's fair for the school board to take that choice away. And to make our children stay home in an environment where they don't really thrive. And I just want to say that I heard a lot of comments tonight about the board not having, about not being prepared with the proper PPE. And to me as a parent, that's completely unacceptable. This has been something that has been being talked about in these board meetings for months. And the fact that the electrostatic sprayers are not in hand yet is incredibly disappointing to me. I

174also want to say early on, there were multiple options that were put on the table for doing disinfection of our classrooms. and it was decided to go with these sprayers, part of that decision should have been the availability of the equipment and the speed with which it could arrive at our school and our janitorial staff could be trained to use it. If we weren't thinking about that at the time that we selected going with this, we should have gone with a different option. There are other methods like ozone generation that you can use to do disinfection that are readily available off the shelf and can be delivered in a timely fashion. So I think that it's unfortunate, but I think that there's got to be an effort to bring in health and safety experts to

175support the decisions that are being made to make sure that we're keeping our kids safe and we're keeping our teachers safe and we're creating an environment where our kids can thrive. So thank you. Thank you, Ms. Graf. And with that, we will end public comment on board action items. So first off, we have suspension of board policy due to the fact that we are in a virtual environment. We need to... have a motion to approve the suspension of board policy 006.2 with specific regard to the limitation on the number of school directors participating in a meeting electronically the requirement of having majority of the board physically present at a meeting location and the holding of votes by roll call their motion motion will make the motion or second it okay let's go with um was

176that mr winters that made the motion it was miss reese with the second any comments from the board Seeing none, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Sorry, there was a late one there. Was there anyone opposed? Okay, motion carries 9-0. May I have a motion to approve the minutes from the work session meeting on June 19 and the regular June 23rd as attached? Reese will make that motion. Thank you, Ms. Reese. And a second? Second. Thank you, Mr. McGinnis. Any comments from the board? Seeing none, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries 9-0. Fiscal items. Does anyone want to take any of these fiscal items separately? Okay. Can I have a motion to approve the list of bills and treasurer's report as presented this evening? Mr. McGinnis. Mr. McGinnis, thank

177you. Is there a second? Samira Perdue. Thank you, Ms. Perdue. Any comments from the board? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Aye. motion carries I'm sorry any opposed okay motion carries 9-0 personnel items does anyone want to take any of the personnel items separately okay may I have a motion to approve all personnel items listed under item 11 as presented this evening I make that Reese makes that motion thank you Ms. Reese is there a second Drummond seconds thank you Ms. Drummond any comments from the board seeing none Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Ms. Reese. Just one quick question for Mr. Regina. Counselors, both new hires, it looks like. Correct or not correct? That is correct. Both are new hires for Mr. Midgley and Ms. Smits. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other comments? Okay. All

178those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Okay. Motion carries 9-0. curriculum and programs we have some textbooks that are available for review with board approval next month dr. Zerbe I'm assuming that there is a means in place for people to review these at the Farina Center by appointment that's correct okay where would they find the information on that is that on our website it is on our website okay Under policy, we have... Kim, real quick, before we just move out of curriculum and programs, I just have a quick question. We have an education meeting on Monday, so we can talk about that then, but I did just want to throw it out there that there might be things that we need to purchase for just, you know, excellent online learning, whether it's... across the

179board or for just some people. And I forget the dollar amount that we can't go over without board approval. So I just wanted to ask doctors, or I just want to ask about that because I would imagine at education, we're going to be talking about some things. The purpose of these are because of board policy, textbooks need to sit through two processes. In terms of dollar amounts, as long as they were budgeted for in terms of the budget that was approved in June, the dollar amounts are relevant. But if there are new things that weren't budgeted for, depending on the fund that they come out of, they would have to come before the board for approval. And that approval occurs normally in two ways. Either it's a pre-approval or as a process that can be

180approved through the approval of the bills under your normal monthly approval process. But I think as part of what you're referring to is if, depending on the determination of our start of the school year, there may be additional licensing, things that aren't necessarily textbook related, software licensing, etc., that we would have to move forward with. I guess probably the most important part is there was some reference this evening about the purchase of K-1-2 laptops. And in a communication that I shared with the board earlier, we are using grant funds to go ahead and purchase the devices for K-1 and 2. So that's all we've been taking care of. Thank you. Okay, so moving on to policy, we have six policies that are up for first read, which means they will be up for a second

181read and approval next month. And now under other. We've got quite a list here, and I'd imagine there's going to be some discussion around a few of them. So what I'm looking at, I'm thinking we could possibly approve items 14A through F. Does anybody have an objection to that? Okay, so can I have a motion to approve items 14A through F? Mr. McGinnis, and a second? Thank you, Ms. Perdue. Any comments from the board on items A through F? I'd just like to, again, thank the Education Foundation for all of their work to help our students in need. Mr. Navarette? Thanks, Kim. Just a question on the Student Code of Conduct. I know there are members of the Community DEI Task Force that are taking a look at that and are going to recommend some

182suggested changes to that. What's the mechanism for us making any changes mid-year on that? Would we be open to that, or is that something that would have to wait until next year? Certainly the board can update the code of conduct at any time. It's just that we need to make sure that once it's updated, it's notices provided to students so that they can properly follow that. And it may also require that parents sign off on a new. to typically have students and parents sign off that they received the code of conduct as part of their handbook. So there'd be a process to do that. So if there were to be any changes, it's best that it occurs on an annual basis, but it doesn't mean that it can't occur at another time. There's just a

183number of steps that we would have to take. Okay, I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah, in the past, we have had changes, I believe, mid-year, possibly, but I also know that the Code of Conduct is usually reviewed by the Policy Committee. So I would recommend that if the DEI Task Force has recommendations, that that would be a good place to start the process. Perfect. Thanks, Kim. Okay, so we have a motion. Any other comments on these items, A through F? Seeing none, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Okay, the motions carry. Next, we have our Act 34 hearing. Can I have a motion to approve the attached resolution authorizing certain actions regarding the new Arrowhead Elementary School construction project, including scheduling and authorizing advertisement of the Act 34 hearing and authorizing the district's

184officers, administrators, and professional consultants to take necessary actions in connection herewith? Mr. McGinnis. Thank you, Mr. McGinnis. Is there a second? I'll second, Mary Hall. Thank you, Ms. Hall. Comments from the board? About the date, if we approve the calendar change, which I imagine we will. I mean, I don't know if the first day of school really matters because it's in the evening. I don't know if anyone else has thoughts on that or not. I don't know if people that have to attend might not be able to because of that. I don't know what anybody, Dr. Zerbees or anyone's thoughts are on that. It's my recommendation that you hold it. If you pass this, you hold it on the date that's so scheduled. KCBA has organized the calendar of events to occur. And I wouldn't

185be able to recommend to you this evening an alternate date. Okay, thank you. And I will make note that, you know, Mr. Earnshaw brings up very good points about debt and our economy and the GDP and all of that. And I have thought long and hard about this, but this building has been pushed down the road long enough. And I know that the economy is not great right now, but we have an elementary school, an elementary school that we need, an elementary school that needs to be rebuilt. And it'll take two years. And by then... Hopefully there's not even any. The word virtual or the word hybrid has the only time we ever hear them is to do with cars. So I think we have to just keep going. Yeah, I may be misquoting you,

186Mr. McGinnis, so I apologize if I am, but I believe that you had said in a recent finance committee meeting that there's not going to be a less expensive time to do this. And while this is a sizable amount of money that we will need to finance the school, it's not going to get less expensive if we put it off until later. There are certainly pros and cons financially to doing this right now. But as Ms. Reese said, I don't see that we can continue to neglect this building that has been neglected for too long by previous boards. Yeah, the point I made there was, I don't, I'm... I'd be curious to see a mapping of the correlation of GDP and cost of capital right now. And the other thing is, I made this seemingly

187years ago, just in the last meeting that we had, is that you're going to have a lot of bidders on this project that really need this job. and they will come in with a kind of penetrating pricing policy. So when you look at the interest rates right now, which are staggeringly low, this project will never be less expensive than it is right now. Mr. Navarrete? Yeah, I think it's just worth noting that this decision tonight doesn't have a spending any money other than what we've already allocated to the architect to have this hearing to solicit public input. And when we get designs and bids back, that's the point where we'll decide whether or not we're going to actually spend all this money. Yes. Thank you, Ralph, for pointing that out. This is not a we're

188spending money tonight decision. But I think in the environment that we're looking at right now. Even when we have to cross that bridge, we'll still be in a suppressed interest rate environment. And we've already borrowed money that we've actually got premiums on the borrowing. So we've gotten really good news on our cost of capitals currently. So I don't see any reason why we would stop going down this path. Okay. Any other comments from the board? Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Seeing none, the motion carries 9-0. Next, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Office. Can I have a motion to establish an Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion that will serve the students, staff, and community of the Mithakton School District in providing advocacy, oversight, and focus on matters of equity, inclusion, and diversity, and authorize

189the superintendent to develop the structure of the office, including staffing for the board's consideration. Drummond makes the motion. Thank you, Mr. Drummond. A second, Mr. Navarrete. Okay. Comments from the board. I do have a comment. I think what we've asked for here is to have some type of timeline set on when this will happen. And I don't see that added to the motion here. So I'm wondering what the plan is. So we'll set it up and this is our first step. I guess, where do we plan to take that? Because this motion wasn't changed based on comments that I provided to Dr. Zerbe. So my understanding was that this motion will allow us to establish the office and then we can give Dr. Zerbe direction on where to go from there. And I like the

190idea that we talked about, I believe last week, about appointing an ad hoc committee of the board. to work with Dr. Zerbe on how exactly to staff this office. So the first step is to establish it, and the second step is to staff it. Is that correct, Dr. Zerbe? Is that your understanding as well? That is. So then the next step is to form the ad hoc committee. Perfect. Thank you. Yep. Mr. Navarrete? Yeah, if I can just to add to that. I think one of the things that would be good is that as we form this ad hoc committee is that to ensure that we have meaningful measurable progress month over month is that this committee reports back during the normal committee reports when we talk about finance and property and the IU and

191the tech center. I think that would be a good way for, even though we don't have a defined timeline for certain goals here, it brings a measure of accountability. to that committee. I think that's a good idea. I'm sorry, Ms. Drummond, I think I cut you off there. I just, I am in support of that idea as well. Any other comments from the board? Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Okay. The motion carries 9-0. Can I have a motion to approve the revision to the 2020-2021 school calendar as presented? All winners. Thank you Mr. Winters. Is there a second? Samira Perdue. Thank you Ms. Perdue. Any comments from the board? I just, I don't know comment or question, but I know that the MEA had to agree to this and I just wanted

192to reiterate that, that the MEA had to agree to this, correct? Yes, based on the collective bargaining agreement, there was a stipulation in there of when the first student day should start. And as such, any change from that language requires a memorandum of understanding. There is an email exchange that signifies the agreement between the administration and the Mathackin Education Association that reflects the changes if approved here this evening by the board. And then we would finalize, I would have Mr. Regina finalize the MOU to be placed into our collective bargaining agreement as a reference. Thank you. Any other comments from the board? Mr. Neverett? Yeah, just one quick question. Dr. Zerbe, can you put that calendar back up on here? I know there were questions. My question has to do with August 31st, which I

193believe is the Monday. We talked about that as a room prep day, but it's not listed here as an in-service day. I just want to make sure that everything is clear. Yeah, so the way it's listed is in-service. So all four days are in-service. What the association is actually doing is giving the administration what's called the room prep day, which is a full day that's outlined in the collective bargaining agreement. And those hours are going to be used across each of the days of the first of those four days. So where by the end of the day. each of those four days will be, I'll call it the teacher room prep, you know, hour or two hour process. So that's not, you don't see that on the calendar because it's not necessarily a part of

194the calendar change, but in order to get everything completed, the association did give us that. Okay, thanks for clarifying that. Any other comments from the board? Okay, all those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? motion carries 9-0 I'm gonna take these next three items individually can I have a motion to approve the driver education program health and safety plan as presented Reese makes the motion is there a second never right Thank You mr. never it comments from the board seeing none all those in favor opposed seeing none the motion carries 9-0 May I have a motion to approve the Athletics and Activities Health and Safety Plan as presented? Mr. McGinnis. Thank you, Mr. McGinnis. Is there a second? Reese. Thank you, Ms. Reese. Comments from the board? Mr. McGinnis. I'd like to thank Dr. Spiewak

195for putting into our plan, in fact, the allowing of senior parents and then potentially junior parents. And I know the PIAA issued an order. I guess trumping that, but if you read the PIAA order, it's as clear as mud. But I'm sure once September rolls around, they'll give more clarity. But I know he's not here, but I do appreciate Dr. Spiewak including the at least acknowledgement that we're going to try our best to allow some people into the games if the PIAA allows it. So thank you. Thank you, Mr. McGinnis. Any other comments from the board? Okay. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? I like everybody. Motion carries 9-0. And finally, Dr. Zerbe, we have to amend this motion, I believe, now that we've approved the calendar revision. Is that correct? At the very

196least, if you take the motion as it currently is written, you would have to, yes, amend it to reflect August 31st student day be moved to September 8th as the first student day. So to clarify, this will be a motion to approve the reopening of Pentacton Schools health and safety plan as presented, moving the first student day to September 8th. allowing for both a virtual and an in-person option. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. Can I have a motion to approve that? I have a comment. Well, let's get the motion on the table first and then we can move on to comments. Reese makes a motion. Thank you, Ms. Reese. A second? Second. Mr. Navarrete. Okay. Ms. Perdue, go ahead. So I think that the plan as we have it is really And I'm fine with

197giving parents the option to pick as far as when we think about on premise and also the virtual option. Right. And I think both plans were put in place. The reopening plan is put in place with certain safety measures in place, which include a face covering, which now we have. plan as masks, the use of face masks. We also put certain things in as far as sanitization. And my concern now is that the risk that was highlighted by Dr. Zerbe in reference to the cleaning materials. I don't know how we can open our buildings when we don't have those materials. And I think it's more than paper towels. We all know it in this case when it comes to COVID-19. So is there any way we can get more information about what we are going

198to do? And are there alternatives that we are looking into now? So I would like to ask Dr. Zerbe again. I think I've asked about it before. And I'd like to ask again, just because I think parents are... people will get more worried if we're highlighting the fact that we don't have the materials in place. And I think we should have enough in place, at least for the first marking period. I can tell you and share with you is what I shared previously. And that is that there are things that we have in place. And there are items like the electrostatic sprayers that we don't have confirmation that we'll have them before the start of school year. So my concern is you're asking me for certainty, and I recognize that that's what I should be

199able to provide. But this is a matter of getting a hold of the proper vendors who can make the commitments to us. And this isn't a technology that just Mephactin is trying to get a hold of. This is all over the country. I wish I could tell you more, but I can only tell you that we don't have the confirmation that we'll have all the things that we need, nor do we have all the supplies for the first marking period. So then considering that, we're saying that we have this plan in place that we are approving, but we don't have the proper tools to proceed. To me, I think that's critical when we talk about all the things that we have in place. If we don't have... the proper tools needed to proceed. How are

200we opening our doors safely for students, staff, and teachers at this point? I agree with you. I agree that it's problematic. That's why I'm sharing what I'm hearing this evening. Again, it's not just that concern. I understand that that's one that you have, but I listed all the concerns that I have. And while I'm not trying to make a case for not going back, I want everyone on this board and the public to know that I think the best choices, the ones that we have already presented. But I can't, you know, this isn't a matter of ideology here. I also have a responsibility to deliver. And I'm telling you that, you know, we're struggling right now to deliver what I think is the right thing to do. I think it's important. Sorry, go ahead, Ms.

201Perdue. No, go ahead. I think it's important to note that while the motion that is on the table is for the approval of this as it stands, we do have the option of amending the motion if the board sees fit. Mr. Navarrete? Yeah, Kim, I think we just, let's just talk through all this first. Here's my position on this. I struggle a lot with this, right? I'm not just potentially sending my kids into school, but I'm also, you know, my wife is also going into school here as well. I said last week that I was heavily on my decision here. I'm fully in support of a plan that brings our students back and our teachers and our staff back into school safely at the right numbers with the right protections. If we get to the

202point where we can't execute that plan, and I think, Dr. Zerber, you've got to decide where that point is for each of these items that you've discussed. And then we then we adjust and pivot, just like we've been doing for the last six months as this whole thing has unfolded with us. And I think, you know, parents, like somebody said before, right, our parents are understanding and and, you know, there's going to come a point where we're going to have to pivot at some point. I think we all believe that at some point in the school year, we're going to end up online. But the way it sits right now today, this plan, I'm in support of giving parents a choice. and having the protections in place that we have. But the second that we

203can't provide those protections, the second that we believe we're not going to be able to staff. our schools inappropriately because of leave issues or for other reasons, then we pivot and then we adjust and we move on. I just don't think that right now I'm willing to put that on the backs of all of the parents out there who have kids that need to be in school, whether that's because of... you know, special education requirements because of food insecurity, because of simply we've got, you know, I've got a single mom working to just keep a roof over her head and she's, you know, she's got to make other arrangements. And there's a lot of that out there. And I, at this point, I'm not willing to give that up. And unfortunately, I think we have

204reached that point. To hear Dr. Zerbe's statement that we're not going to be able to procure the appropriate materials to be able to sanitize to our own specifications, to hear what Mr. Regina is saying about potential staffing. I mean, if we have 18 teachers that have applied for these online positions, as it is, we don't have enough. And I think that if we are trying to do too many things, I'm going to paraphrase something that Superintendent Dormer from Norristown said earlier this week. If we are trying to be a jack of all trades, we will be a master of none. And I think that our parents deserve to have a decision from us. And I don't think that delaying this to a later date is going to serve us well, no matter what path we

205go down. Yeah, I certainly wasn't suggesting delaying any decision. I think the answer is we make our decision tonight and we live by it until such time as we can't. What I didn't hear tonight was certainty that we can't achieve our objectives given what we know today. When there's certainty to that uncertainty, then we act appropriately. Okay. Well, I guess I'm hearing Dr. Zerbe's statements about our lack of appropriate PPE as being uncertainty. And I mean, there were a couple of things that if we were to show that slide up, there were a couple of risks that were highlighted, right? And I'm picking at one of the ones that just to me, just based on my background, I think is critical. But there's a lot of things that were highlighted when we think about staffing,

206right? If we don't have the proper staffing, out of what we're looking at, if we only have 18, I guess, teachers expressed interest so far in actually leading an online program, how do we also encourage our parents to keep going as far as signing up for online program? I think there's a lot of issues here. And I really struggle that our plan is not as solid as we would like to have it. And so I'm picking up what I think is critical because I think it's important to have the proper PPE in place. And I also think it's important to have the proper staff in place. And I think it's important for our students and parents and then also teachers to walk in that day feeling safe. And I just don't think the plan that

207we have here is guaranteeing anyone's safety. And I don't think we can guarantee anyone's safety, but our plan was to put the proper precautions in place and prevention in place to really put people's mind at ease. And I don't think we're doing that here by highlighting the fact that we don't have these things. Ms. Hull, you had your hand up earlier, I believe. I did. And I have wavered back and forth on this. And I've spoken to many of you individually. And this is a really difficult decision that unfortunately was punted all the way down into our hands to make this. And I know none of us are comfortable in making a decision of this magnitude. But I feel like we're depending on so many people. And the plan was worked on very hard. It

208is a good plan with minor tweaks for returning to school, but it also depends on us being able to staff buses, teachers, custodians, substitute teachers, having adequate PPE, having test results that come back in a reasonable time. So I just feel like there's too many variables that are out of our control right now. And I would like to make a motion to amend this motion to read. I approve the plan as with amendment for students start from August 31st to September 8th to direct the superintendent to provide in fact an online programming to all students through the end of the first semester of 2021 and to evaluate options for the second semester forward by October 15th, 2020. I second that motion. Well, actually, I'm sorry, let's let's let's let Ms. Montaigne clarify for us. The

209person who the person who approved the motion is the one that is the only one that can amend it at the moment that can be withdrawn. And then you can have a different motion. But let me are we not allowed to continue just discussion? Are we now that that motion has been and we have to follow up through before all comments can be made from the board? Well, I would suggest at the moment that Ms. Hull's proposed amendment is not really a proposed amendment at the moment. And because that's not really an appropriate step to take first. So you are still actually in the discussion phase. If we want to change the motion that is on the floor, the person who made the motion can either withdraw it or choose to amend it. and then

210you can change, you have to second that, decide what you're going to do with that. And then if you want to make a new amendment pursuant to Ms. Hull's suggestion, you can go ahead and do that. Okay. Well then who was it that made the motion? Because I apologize. I didn't write it down. Was it Andrea? It was me. Okay. I'm not really at the stage where I want to withdraw it. I mean, so my question is, can we vote on it and then put up another motion? Yes. Okay. I think people aren't finished discussing. Right. I apologize. I didn't mean to shoot down discussion. I just wanted to redirect. My apologies. I didn't mean to cut anybody off. Unchartered territory, Ms. Hall. We're all there. And I don't think you you cut off anybody.

211I just think your discussion was you're not comfortable with the plan is that that's your discussion. Correct. Yeah. And that you you have this other idea. So that's perfect with the motion as it stands and prefer to amend it. OK, well, before I withdraw or or anything else, I don't know if anyone else has anything to say. Go ahead. No, I know that I'm probably not the majority in this situation. You know, I definitely have been emailed. I've been, you know, posts on social media where I stand. And I get it. And I want you to understand that first and foremost, I'm saying the health and safety for all staff and students is a priority. But I also want to share with you as a school board member what my position is, is to represent

212the community. People asked, who is this person talking? An email sent to me from teachers and parents. Who are you to make this decision? Personally, I am a mother first of four children, one that goes to the high school, Arcola, Skyview, and Worcester Elementary. So I'm there. I'm there. I have seven immediate family members that are teachers. We all have them. I have my two brothers, my three sister-in-laws, my father-in-law, my niece, among all my many friends who are teachers. And I'm also a healthcare professional for 25 years, working in hospitals, in nursing homes, in home care. I also worked at school districts, local school districts, as an occupational therapist. I'm currently a clinical director for a therapy service that gives OT, PT. speech, behavior, psychology services to 10 districts out in Harrisburg, to Reading,

213to local Berks, Bucksmont, and then even local Montgomery schools that we all have been looking at that have been flipping their vote. I understand that. I work in the trenches with the teachers, with the therapists, with the third party people you are all talking about saying. What are we going to do? And what are we doing? And how are we going to do online and virtual and the flip-flop? I'm working continuously with them. That is what I have been doing since that COVID March 13th date, working with everyone that is speaking. So the health and well-being, and I get it, I understand it. But as a school board director, and I step away and I look at what I'm representing as my community, I have to take facts into consideration. We have to look at

214the health and the government guidelines that were provided to us. And it says, strongly urges for online, in-building. It does. I do believe we did a process that we put together a pandemic team that represents all parties. And I do believe the teachers had a great representation with the president of their association there. And the concerns were supposed to be brought up from him as a representative. I also feel that we have to look at the governor's ordinance for us to look and see what he has said. We have to look at the community. As you saw in the numbers, our numbers are clearly saying that they want choice. They want choice. We are looking around us and we're worried about all these other schools are doing. But the biggest thing, and we always are

215saying, we're talking about tonight, is staffing. We're saying that this is a risk, a risk that we're doing. But we do not have any measurements of what that risk is. We have not asked the teachers as a majority, what will you do directly? What will you do? We have to directly ask the parents, what will you do? To give us that full week and like, sorry, but like Mr. Ratt and Everett said, trust the process till it's fully done for us to make that decision. Get exact numbers from the students and what their position will be. Get exact numbers of what the staff will do. Ask them. And I ask all the teachers, and I am pro-teacher, as everyone knows, I work tirelessly with the methactin, with responding to any needs that they want, because

216we are pro-teacher here on this board. I ask you to show transparency of what your plan will be. for us so that we could plan if we have to switch to an online that you give Dr. Zerbe and the administration the ability to collaborate together for what is needed. But to make a decision on hypothetically what our staff will do locally, it's not fair to our teachers. I just feel that we are, I know that North Penn just went, I'm getting texts everywhere. Everyone's going virtual. Everyone's going virtual. And if that's the way we will go, I will respect that and I will full force be a part of that chair of the education and make sure all the needs are addressed. And I will make sure of that. But I look at the children

217and I worry about the benchmarking of these children. I worry about being able to truly, the teachers, their strength is in person. You could wear a mask and you could put a nice little windshield over there. We've got ways. Teachers are amazing to do modifications to make this six foot distance apart, wearing the mask, doing the cleaning products. We've got staff on hand that will work together to collaborate. I guess I'm just not ready to just succumb to this online pressure. And as a whole, that's why we're all doing this, because we're all going to represent our thoughts. And I will respect all of you of whatever you decide. But I have to voice choice. The community has done that. We don't know what the staff are saying. And I want us to ask the

218staff, what will you do for us? I understand my therapist sometimes you're going to have to go to an in-the-person moment teaching, like giving a therapy, popping off and doing a virtual because another child decided to stay home, which was respectfully so, and then go back into a treatment. And that might be asked for the teacher. But let's ask. Let's ask. And I don't feel we have trust the process we have put into place. I know I'm the minority, but. I have worked with everyone. I see the special ed numbers. I see all the children, the numbers. I see the normalcy. I see what we're working on now, wearing masks all the time, and how well our children have excelled on their own, socially connecting with masks fully on, six feet apart in a chair.

219I've seen it firsthand. And I just know whatever choice we do, and I love someone put this on Facebook post, whatever choice you do is the right choice. You have to believe it. You have to understand it. You have to believe in the process and it will sway back and forth and we'll make that decision happen quickly. But overall, above all, we have to understand it's flexibility, working with each other. and following some plan that we should stand behind. So that's my speech. I know it's big, but I couldn't help but tell you all that I believe in this community to reconnect. And whatever decision we make as a board, I trust as a whole, but I do feel like I had to speak for that other side. So now and I I respect that,

220you know, that parents want a choice and students want a choice. But I firmly believe that all of our employees deserve a choice as well. And I think that there is a lot of concern among the teachers in our association about what happens to their current position if they volunteer for an online position. I think there's a lot of ambiguity around that. I think there's concerns about what will happen if they volunteer for a virtual position, if they're going to be required to cover a class when they're teaching in the building and we have some students that are still being taught in the buildings. I think that there's just a lot of concern there, and that's just among the teaching staff. We haven't taken into account the fact that we have all of our support

221staff to think about. We have not talked to our Teamsters. These people are not being given a choice, our bus drivers. And they're the people that are, statistically speaking, at much higher risk of getting sick, getting seriously sick, and possibly even having some fatalities because of this virus. So, yes, I respect. the choice of parents, but I am also being very mindful of the choice that I feel that some of the other representatives in our buildings have not had. And I know that the government, I feel like the government has let us down on this. I was very clear about that last week and I'm being clear about it right now. The best that Wolf can do is tell us that telework is still encouraged whenever possible. So I'm going to interpret that as applying

222to teachers too. telework is possible. We have said that. We have a way that we can do that. I firmly believe that we are all going to end up in a situation where everyone is virtual. And I don't think that it serves our students well if we have to pivot midway through a marking period. I saw what happened in the spring when we had to switch on a dime and we had to go to everyone being at home. And people felt blindsided. And even though we know that that's an eventuality for this fall, I still don't feel confident that we'll have much warning from our government before a shutdown could be forced upon us. So this, yeah, none of us want to have this choice put before us. But we do have a choice. And

223the choice that I think keeps everybody in the safest and brings the least disruption to our education is to keep everybody home and online. I just want to clarify that. You shouldn't feel like you're within the minority here when we think about this decision and discussion, right? I think, and I can't speak for everybody, but I strongly support providing parents with the options. And so when this plan came out, as we've discussed, we've sat through focus group meetings, we sat through board meetings, we've looked at this, we've considered the options, we've all read, we've stayed up late night, we've looked at Facebook posts, we've looked and we've... listen to what our community is saying and our community is asking for the options in which we have provided them. I only struggle because we put together

224a plan, a reopening plan that consisted of certain measures and certain things that we have in place. Right now, I am not getting a confident feeling from Dr. Zerbe. We also have a director of facilities on the call now, and nothing has been said about some of what I consider is critical. It's a critical path to our reopening. It's not being addressed. We're seeing that highlighted as a risk now. How can I confidently? sleep at night knowing that we make a decision to send back our students. And I have two kids in the school district also. I cannot send my kids back to the school knowing that they won't have the proper things that they need to just get the basic necessities done. And up to now, we still don't have the information. Have we

225looked at alternatives? That information hasn't been provided. And you ask for data. which is what we're asking for. We don't have the information on whether we've explored alternatives. We don't have information on whether vendors have communicated a timeline to say, we can guarantee we can get these items to you by, even if you push back your start date to September 8th, we can get these items to you by. If you push down your start date to October 8th, we can get these items to you by. We don't have that. So I'm really struggling here to try to make a decision to send people back to the school. We sat in focus group meetings and communicated certain things that we would do in place. And people are making these decisions based on what we have communicated.

226And right now we're telling them that we don't have these things and there's a risk that we're highlighting. So how can we really go forward making this decision? Is there a decision that we need to? take a break from and come back when we have a date, a defined date, or is this something that we need to make right now? I think we gave our parents also an option as far as signing up and making a choice by a certain date. But we're also here now making a decision and it's based on the fact and we don't have everything we need. So I'm really struggling right now. We're having to make a decision when we're telling them now we can deliver on some of the critical things. So it seems like a lot of us

227are really saying the same thing. Sorry, Paul. Let me just get this out and then I'll let you go. I mean, a lot of us are really talking around the same thing here, right? It's really just a matter of the level of uncertainty and the when. So let's address some of these things and let's dig deeper into the details and let's get the facts around them. I mean, Bob, you're here. Dr. Zerbe, when we talk about sprayers, I know we've gotten... some sprayers are that you know I don't where will those be targeted what are we how many will might how many do we order how many might we be short what might the alternatives be and is it an acceptable alternative given where the shortfalls that we think we might have can we answer

228that and I got one more along the same lines can anybody hear me I can hear you Robert I hear you Bob can you can you respond to Mr. Navarrete Yes, okay. Right now the situation is we had originally ordered back in the beginning of June 27 static sprayers and right now I'm being told that they are being shipped in September, late September, early October. of when we're going to get those units. We're working as of today to get 10 smaller units that we will have. We have put purchase orders out to companies and expecting delivery on those in the next two weeks. So that's where we're situated right now with the static sprayers. We do have the disinfectant we need, which we can put disinfectant in all the rooms as well as the hand

229sanitizers and also the sanitizing wipes. So what the situation with the electrostatic sprayers is that we will probably have to bring one or two additional people on the evenings to do additional wiping versus being able to use the sanitizers in the classrooms to make sure that the classrooms are disinfected properly. Thanks. I mean, that is the level of detail I think that we needed there. So of those 27 that we originally ordered, what you're saying is we haven't received any of those. Correct. Okay. So of the 10 that we... And that's across the country right now. Every supplier I've talked to is they're not shipping right now until end of September, beginning of October. Yeah, I think throughout this whole effort, right? I mean, something everybody's aware of now are deficiencies in the supply chain

230when everybody's looking for the same thing. And I look at the other technologies and the technologies that are out there for the ozone and the other technologies would mean a lot more equipment, as well as more time to do the disinfecting and doing that. So it's much more expensive equipment also. Okay, so of the 10, then let's assume we get these 10 when we're supposed to get them and where you can take delivery before school starts. Is that sufficient for us to safely operate under the plan as we establish it? I'm sorry, I got to raise my hand. There is no way you can make that assumption. This PPE does not exist, guys. If you think this fantasy we'll get you to by October 1st is real. It doesn't exist, guys. It's a shortage all

231around. It doesn't exist. And it has nothing to do with when we ordered it. It has nothing to do with when we think it's going to get here. It doesn't exist. So this fantasy that we're going to get 10 when they say we're going to get it and we might get five later, you got to pump that. And it's the same decision criteria that all the other schools have gotten to, right? You know, North Penn voted tonight. They're looking at the same data we are. And if we think we're going to specially magically get this package delivered to us on October 2nd with all these sprayers, that's fantasy land. The PPE does not exist. I guess I was trying to get to an actual fact there instead of speculation. It's not speculation, Ralph. It's not

232here. We ordered it in June. We ordered in June. You don't think you think if it existed, it would be here when ordering in June. I'm not going to argue with about supply chain. I asked the question. All right, guys, listen, I made the motion. And the reason I made the motion is I've been very clear. And I and I want to back up Jen here for a minute and talk about some of the comments from the from the public. But I don't want to make this go on too long. But. The reason that I made the motion is because methactin tried very, very hard to give parents choice. And we really thought and think some that we could do it and do it well. And it was better to do one well, one way

233and one well, the other way. Somebody called that trying to exclude people. And I look at it as the exact opposite. We were trying really hard. staff, board, community to make sure that people who did not feel safe going into schools had a wonderful, robust online environment. And then those who felt, knew there was risks, but felt okay, could go to school. Then you throw the staff, you throw all of that in there. So we tried really, really hard to do that. And in doing so, we've created in some ways a problem, even though that's not what it was meant to be. selfishly, as an educator, I want to go into the classroom as is right now with the plan we have in place. But I 100% understand the hesitation. I know why every district

234around us has done what they have done. I have to teach virtually where I teach. I don't want to. I want to go into my classroom. So. I want to be fair in saying that. I want people to know transparently that I signed my three kids to go. If we voted tonight to go to school, I would still send them. However, this is where I struggle and why I will withdraw my motion. The people that don't have a choice, what I mean by that is those people that are signing to go. to our schools because they have to work or because they're not understanding the choice. I can't put them in that situation. You know, maybe I can't do that because as everyone else has said here, you know, we're nine volunteers, whether we're elected

235or not. Dr. Zerbe is a superintendent of schools. So again, the government has failed us. So I want to go to school. I want my kids to go to school. And I received emails from teachers that want to teach in school. Have I received emails from teachers who don't want to go to school? Absolutely. And it's not because they don't want to teach. It's because they're afraid. And I respect that. So we tried our best. And I'm not going to see the headline that it's PPE's fault. It's not PPE's fault because we can probably be okay with wiping, but nobody knows that. So I'm going to stop. But I do want to just say to the people, we're not excluding anyone. In fact, we were trying to do just the reverse. We were trying to

236make everybody happy, which is impossible. And to the gentleman that says that we vilified any educators, that is by far not true at all. Anyone here who's ever watched a meeting knows that. And I just wanted to thank Ms. Rubendall and Mrs. Drake for their comments. And I will withdraw my motion. And if someone wants to make another motion, that's fine. I don't know if I can vote for it as a teacher, but maybe I will. And we can discuss what plans go in after that. I don't know if we can, whatever happens, we can arrange some kind of pickup. some kind of something. You know, I think methactin can put more of a face on this than maybe others, because I know the nine of us and Dr. Zerbe and all of his administration

237and all of his staff just wants what's best for kids. So if the motion has been withdrawn, Ms. Montaigne, what's the next step? Do we need a second to withdraw it? No, you don't. Okay. Do you want to open the floor for an amended or for a new motion? Yep, I will. I'll take an amended motion at this time if anyone has one. Should I try again now? Go for it. I have to find the document. Okay, I would like to make an emotion to approve the plan as is with amendment for students start from August 31st to September 8th to direct the superintendent to provide an effective online programming to all students through the end of the first. My recommendation is marking period. Yeah, it was an error in that document that I posted.

238Okay, so 2020-2021 and to reevaluate options for the second marking period forward by October 15, 2020. I will second that motion. Can I make another comment? Absolutely. Sorry, I'm... Paul still hasn't gotten to talk. But, you know, last week I was all in on sending my kids to school. And I thought we had a great plan. And I sat them down and showed them what the classroom would look like and what the cafeteria would look like. And they were all in and ready to go. And I think this is a really hard decision for me to change my mind. But some of these variables, if they don't go correctly, the plan stalls. It's not just like a band-aid that we can fix. I feel like these are major stalls. So that's why I've changed my

239mind. There's one. Oh, sorry. I'm going to actually let Mr. Winters go because he's tried multiple times to get his hand up and I feel bad that he didn't get a chance. No problem. Nothing profound coming from my mouth anyway. I do want to... Just to give an experience, the 189 people are still on the line. It is remarkable the amount of input we got from the community in both directions and generally very respectful. The remarkable thing is you could get an email at 1202 describing why you should do virtual only. And literally 1207, you would have the exact same argument on the other side. It was uncanny how the emails just came back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I was a supporter of choice. I am still a supporter of choice.

240And where I'm where I'm hesitating a little bit today is I don't know where the line of comfortableness is for us as a board. It's problematic for various reasons, not for anybody's fault, but problematic for various reasons why September 8th or 9th, whatever the right date is, puts us at risk of delivering in a solid way. an online experience and an on-premise experience. That scares me. That gives me pause related to the spirit of choice. But the reality of it is, in my opinion, as an... I know that eventually I will get shot down for this comment, but my opinion as a country, we have not done the right things to prepare ourselves to make these, to put ourselves in the position to open ourselves up for doing these things. So when you're in South

241Korea or you're in Denmark or you're in Germany, in some cases, they have done the things where the level of virus and risk is at a level that most community is more comfortable with doing. It might be a cultural thing or not. But the reality is we haven't come close to those numbers. And we as a board are being put in the place to. decide to ignore some of those recommendations. I'm not a scientist. I don't know the math. I'm sure there's somebody who's going to tell me I don't know what I'm talking about. I have no problem with that. But the bottom line is we are not in a position as a community that's supposed to deliver education. We haven't been given a level playing field to be making this choice. So my concern

242is When we get to October 15th, if we postpone any on-premise schooling, what is the point that we're going to be comfortable? What are we going to be comfortable with PPE equipment? What are we going to be comfortable of putting students at risk? Because there will be risk. Putting staff at risk. Putting the bus drivers, food services, everybody, administrators, everyone at risk. And I don't know. If our decision tonight is indicating that we're ever going to have any type of risk acceptance. And honestly, I believe that shouldn't be our, and I'm not going to throw everybody under the bus, but the reality is that shouldn't be our choice, but it is. So in that case, I, unfortunately, and, and, um, I certainly support the spirit of choice and I understand, but I think we're in

243a problematic and what I think in this case, Samira said it well, you know, I believe that we were headed to a path, Mary said it too, we were headed to a path, but for whatever, all these alternative facts or alternative opinions that could happen along the way, the reality is we have a a lot of things that could sort of make everything go bad. And I prefer not everything go bad on September 9th. Thanks. Oh, sorry. I think Ms. Drummond had her hand up earlier. Sorry. I just, I see this as a philosophy versus a practical, a philosophical versus a practical decision. I think philosophically, I truly believe we're all aligned that we want our kids in school. We want our kids like it was, you know, January. And we want that. We want

244the social emotional learning. We want the academics. We want everything that goes along with being in school. And so this comes down to. I don't think a philosophical difference, but a practical, you know, what we're able to withstand practically and looking at the practical matter before us, which is that we are not prepared to deliver five days a week for all the children as it stands now, I don't think, because just the concerns I have with the in-person are. unmasked students, special needs students who might be unmasked, who might have to be unmasked, and what is actually going to be... the protocol of dealing with those students in the school. And again, the lack of the PPE. I have concerns about bus transportation, the proximity of the students in relation to each other. I have

245a serious concern regarding a lack of prompt testing. that's available. Testing, you know, tests are coming back in three to five days and spread can happen, you know, in a great, a great deal in that timeframe. And, and I also feel like I, I really, in my heart, I don't think that school is going to be continuing. I think, and it's my hope that Governor Wolf and the state is going to give us some better direction about this. And, You know, that's just my thought. I mean, you know, none of us, we're volunteers and we all have, we want our children to be in school. We all have a great deal of empathy and consideration for families who are working because we're all working. We're all, we all understand and we all want the choice.

246If in an ideal world, we would want the choice. Of course we do. And it's just, we're stuck here in this impossible situation. Ms. Cancro? The only statement I would say, I understand, and I understand waiting till October, and I do agree when we return, there'll be a level of risk. So my only statement is this, all these risks that we presented, like staffing, let's ask them. It's not going to change. We are, I guarantee you, we're going to have to still offer an in-school or or virtual, maybe later down the road. So we have to know if that teacher, what they will do. And we have to have those conversations and we have to know about the protections. And, but we could say a lot of different things, but I think if we go

247ahead and extend it to October, that is fine. But we need to look at what is supposedly our highest risk. Ask the teachers. That's what I'm asking. Ask them directly. Each scenario, if you'll do that, because it will be back here in October with the same situation if we don't ask our local teachers. And that is what I implore upon you is that that's that's my point. So they have a choice. They have online in person. And there are, thank God, we have a wonderful union of resources that provides them other choices. Work with Mr. Regina on the corner. But what I'm saying is choices for both the teachers, the parents, and the children. We will provide choice for all. So thank you. So one of the things that I really liked about what Dr.

248Zerbe presented to us tonight is that I feel like we now have an opportunity to switch our perspective. So I think for many of us, we had looked at this as the default is in person, but you can opt for online. What I think we can do by going all online is flip it so that the default is that everybody is online. But I mean, we're not going back to the conditions that we all lived through in March and April. It's not going to be the emergency education that we had back in March and April. And it's not going to be that level of lockdown, at least not right now, assuming that our virus counts stay the way that they are. So we have opportunities that we can still bring students in to meet their

249needs. And not just, you know, students that have an IEP and students that have a 504, but just, you know, as Dr. Zerbe talked about, having these lunch options and giving students options for smaller groups in a more controlled environment where we can guarantee more adequate spacing. We can use our outdoor spaces for as long as the weather allows us to. I think that if we can shift our perspective so that... Our default option is keep everybody online, bring students in as it's safe, as it's needed, as we have programs that we can meet their needs, as we have teachers that can meet those needs. And I think that that gives us a way that we can maybe make a few more people happy. I understand that there are going to be a lot of

250parents very unhappy if we do decide to go with an all online option. I recognize that. And I apologize. It's not a decision I take lightly. I was on this board when I voted to close an elementary school a few years ago. And I know that I didn't make some friends with that decision either, but it's what I felt was in the best interest of the district. And this is another situation where I feel like the health of the district, the wellbeing of the district, the continuity of education for our district depends on us going online right now. If we don't have further comments. I believe that we have a motion on the floor that we can vote on. Do you want to make this a roll call vote? Yes, I was planning on that.

251Thank you, Ms. Montaigne, for that reminder. Tim, would you mind, just for clarity, just so everyone's clear, Mary, would you mind restating the motion just so everyone's clear on what the motion is? I choked on the little typo earlier. Approved plan as is with amendment. for students start from August 31st to September 8th. Mary, can you be a little louder, please? Oh, I'm sorry. Do I need to restart? Yes. Okay. Approved plan as is with amendment for students start from August 31st to September 8th to direct the superintendent to provide methactin online programming to all students through the end of the first marking period, 2020-2021. and to reevaluate options for the second marking period forward by October 15, 2020. So we'll do a roll call vote. Kim, before we vote, can I ask you a

252question? No, that's okay. Before we get to the point of actually voting, this makes a difference as to how I'm going to vote. Bob, can you finish your comments before about the sprayers? I know we might be in a fantasy lane having this discussion, but when we asked, my question was simply, let's assume for a second that we get, we are able to get these 10 sprayers and they do show up. Now we're talking a couple of weeks, which puts us, you know, very tight to school opening. With the priorities that you've set as far as cleaning buses, right, between AM and PM runs and what we've talked about in terms of spraying classrooms, can you adequately clean our buildings with that few sprayers? Your hesitation tells me everything. Okay. Yeah, it's bringing the extra

253people into staffing to not use the sprayers and disinfect. So then again, it's a staffing issue to bring additional people in. Okay, thank you. Anyone else before we move to a roll call vote? I believe that motion has to be seconded. Does the amendment have to be seconded, Ms. Montaigne? It's technically not an amendment. It's a new motion. Oh, that's right. And I did second the motion. Yeah. Okay. So we're going to go in alphabetical order as we do for attendance. So I apologize, Ms. Cancro, that we're putting you on the spot first. No. Ms. Drummond? Yes. Ms. Hall? Ms. Hall? All right. Yes. Okay. Mr. McGinnis? Yes. Mr. Navarrete? Yes. Ms. Perdue? Yes. Ms. Reese? No. Mr. Winters? Yes. And myself, I also vote yes. So with a vote of 7-2, the motion carries.

254The faction will be starting school online September 8th. Thank you everyone for your input. Thank you fellow board members for a very thoughtful discussion both tonight and last week. I know that none of us took this decision lightly and I know it's been a very emotional time for all of us. So I thank you all for all of your hard work and dedication to the board. We have dates for board members' calendars. We have education, property, and finance. Both are all meeting in August. We have a work session August 18th and our regular meeting August 25th. All of these will be done virtual. Is there any old business this evening? Any new business? I just wanted to quickly thank... the board members for all their hard work and Dr. Zerbe. I already started looking on

255social media. My bad. Shouldn't do that. But I would, I was really, really, really proud of our community for the most part. Everyone was very, very respectful. And I just, even tonight. So I would encourage us that all of our children are watching. Many of you saw my children going back and forth in the background, which I don't usually let them do, but this was very important. And they were really curious about the outcome. So children are watching and we have a great community. So let's keep it that way. I know there's very, I know there's many people unhappy. I just wish you all good health and kindness. like Ms. Rubendall said, who started off the night so lovely with her comments. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Reese. Anyone else with any new business? I

256don't have any business, Kim. What I just want to add a comment just because we have. So we're moving towards the, we made the decision to go all online. And I think it's still critical for our pandemic response team to continue to meet and keep the work going because I don't want to see us in this situation in October when we have this discussion, when we start to look for what do we do, what is our next step, what is our strategy. I think we, in all these discussions, we identify where some of our gaps are, whether it's with our program or our plan that we have mapped out, whether it's with our PPE, our cleaning supplies, staffing, and everything else. So I think What this bias is some time to really look at our

257plan and really make sure that when we come back in October or we come back later to revisit this discussion, some of these things that we've identified, we're not talking about it again. Those that information is already available. That data is available and we can move from now. I just don't I just don't want to sit here two months later and have to have. some of these same discussions. We have to make sure we have the equipment and all those things in place. So I just really want to emphasize that. And I know you're on the pandemic response team and that's why I'm bringing it up. I just think we have to keep that team going. That team still have a lot of work to do. I absolutely agree with you on that, Ms. Perdue.

258Thank you. Ms. Hall. Sorry, I just want to have one more comment. I think our communication has been excellent from the administration to our parents. And I just want to hope that that continues that, you know, parents and families. We can't hear you. Okay, sorry. I just want to make sure the parents are aware of what critical dates are coming up, when they would be aware of when they would be receiving information on PowerSchool, how they will be, you know, how we will be distributing Chromebooks as we need to and things like that. So I just hope the communication continues as well as it has been going. Real quick about business, sorry. Someone, there was a couple people on the comments, I'm reading through my notes who mentioned K-2 devices. That's already been decided that

259we're buying those. So I just wanted to avoid, not avoid, you know, I wanted people to know that they're bought. So, right, Dr. Zerbe, or in the middle of buying? That is correct. Okay, so I just wanted, thank you. Okay, last call. No one else with new business. Okay. At this time, we will take courtesy of the floor. So this is a time for anyone that has pre-registered to make comments relevant to any matters that could come before the board of directors. We ask that you keep your comments to four minutes or less. The board may choose to respond to matters following conclusion of courtesy of the floor. But again, this is not a question and answer time. I will go through my list of pre-registered members. And if you could just raise your hand

260when I call your name. Okay, first I have Alessandra Heller, Karen Barnes, Xenia Ardeshna, Christine Charles, Mike Charles, Brittany Golas, Jody Cubbin, Harry Rao. Bascar Kuthupati, Eric Hostetler, Delaina Tran, Kit Markle, Laurie Markle, Raymond Martinez, Naila Saeed, Jenny Geis, Mrs. Geis. Welcome back. Welcome. Thank you. And this time I'm speaking just for me, Jenny Geis, Woodland kindergarten teacher. I would like to say thank you very much. from the bottom of my heart for taking into consideration the health and safety of everyone involved in going back to school in person. Students, staff, bus drivers, custodians, aides, we are all very thankful. for what you have done for us. Another thank you for getting the one-to-one devices for K1 and 2, and especially for clarifying it at the end, because I had thought I had heard it

261briefly mentioned in there, but really wasn't sure I could believe my ears. So thank you very much for that also. It's a late night, so I hope you all get a good night's rest tonight. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Geis. Kathleen Place, Carla Vitti. Okay, Miss Vitti, you're in the room whenever you're ready. Kim, thank you. I just wanted to thank the board. And I'm emotional because it's been a very rough, rough couple weeks for the parents. So anyway, I don't even want to cry. But I do want to thank you guys for making our decision easy. Now we just have to move forward with a very, very strong online plan. and make sure that our students get the best education possible under these circumstances. I know the kids are going to be upset that

262they're not going to be able to go back to school, but I am happy to say that I will do my best as a parent to help educate on my end. And hopefully all of this is behind us in the next couple of months. And I just wanted to thank everyone. Thank you, Carla. Next, I have Michelle Casper, Ashley Wilkerson. Neal Monahan, Elena Lopatina, Amy Kenworthy. Okay, Ms. Kenworthy, welcome back. I just want to say thank you to the board. I know this is a voluntary position and I know that you put your heart and soul into what you do to protect our students and teachers. And I know that this was a really hard decision and that everyone won't be happy no matter what you decide. But I still appreciate everything that you've done

263to try to come up with a plan that was the most safe for everyone. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Kenworthy. Next, we have Sang Paon, Alan Brandt. Mr. Brandt, welcome back. Sorry, now you're in. Go ahead. Thank you. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you. Alan Brandt, Lower Providence. First, I just wanted to thank Dr. Zerbe, the administration, the pandemic team, and the board for the efforts they've put in over the past few months. I know it hasn't been easy. I'd like to thank the commitment to get the devices for the K to second grade. I think that's a... that's great that we are committing to getting those devices for the kids, you know, when they will need it. And I want to thank the vote tonight for the board members for making that vote

264based on the facts that we have them as of now. I commend them and I thank you for, you know, putting this community's mind at ease now that they can now plan for what they will need to do. And I just hope everybody stays healthy and safe. Thank you. Thank you. I have Jeff Davis. Shade Darby. Ms. Darby, you're in the room whenever you're ready. Hello, my name is Shade Darby. I am a Lower Providence Township resident and a 2017 Methactin alum. I'm glad the school board has come to a decision. My younger siblings, who are 11 and 13, have decided on online learning as they do not trust their friends to follow protocol and are worried about catching the Rona. I'm ecstatic that the board has also voted for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

265Office. It is so needed and I would like to see a permanent outside hire for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer to serve with Acton Red students. With that being said, I'd like to bring attention to the high school mascot again. I am disappointed that the changing of the mascot petition author, Julia Pablo, who wrote numerous emails to the superintendent, Dr. Zerbe, was ignored and has still, as of July 30th, not received a response. The mascot change is necessary, and as the school year begins, I hope it can find a place on the school board agenda. I also want to let the school board know that images of the Mithachton High School mascot has reached the Athna Athabaskan tribe in Alaska. I have some quotes of what members of the tribe thought about it and

266will list those now. Jalene said, that's extremely racist. I'm not a fan of it. I think that it's insensitive and racist. If I went to that school, I would feel incredibly threatened and offended. Just by seeing it, I feel offended. Angel said, I think it's offensive because it's our culture and white people have taken everything from us. They use our culture as something to make fun of and wear costumes. I feel like if there were some natives there, nobody would listen to them because no one listens to what we have to say when something happens, you know. Sasha said, if you're not Native American, then don't act like one. That's disrespectful and we don't have a mascot for dressing up as a white person because we don't do stupid stuff like that. Jason said, It

267hurts that people use my race for stereotypical and racially offensive mascots. The people that praise these mascots do not honor Natives or Native culture at all. It is racial discrimination against Native Americans and Natives alike. Nick said, white people traumatize our whole race, murdered us, used us as slaves, ruined our land, and then they're using our race as costumes, mascots. It is disrespectful. It's not right to have Natives as mascots or costumes. None of that. I hope the board takes these native testimonials into consideration. Since emails seem to not work, I will continue to amplify the voices of the unheard and underrepresented. Please reconsider and include the changing of the racist, insensitive, and embarrassing form of a school mascot onto the agenda. Thank you, and I yield my time. Thank you, Ms. Darby. Holly Judge.

268Hamisha Lee. Nicole Zhang. Lauren Sitchelsteel. Jennifer Reed. Okay, Ms. Reed, whenever you're ready. It's always hard to follow Sade because she speaks so well on these topics. So I really want to amplify everything that she said. One, in commending the board for the director of DEI office being established and also asking that we do search for outside hires and that so we can get the proper attention that should be deserved for this type of position. I would also like to ask. and actually demand at this point that the issue of the mascot be brought up into the public eye because this is something that everybody is watching us do. These decisions are being made across the country and I really think that we should be leaders in this situation and understand the racist connotations and

269impact of the school mascot. And I would also like to commend those who voted in favor of having the first marking period being online. I'm a class of 2019 alum and I'm in college right now and I know that as a student it would have taken so much pressure off of me if my college decided to go on all online. So even though I'm not a student here I know students in the school and I cannot imagine having them make this decision to put themselves at risk. So I really really want to commend this situation. Yeah I appreciate it very much. Thank you very much. Have a nice day. Thank you Miss Reed. Denise Ketterer. Crystal May, Amy Smith, Sonya Ford, Julie Stern. Okay, Dr. Stern-Delfiner, you're in whenever you're ready. Thank you, Ms. Larceniz.

270I just wanted to thank the board and Dr. Zerbe for all of their hard work. This has been an excruciating process for everybody. There are no easy answers here, only really tough decisions. We are all worried about the health and safety and welfare of our students, our teachers, and our staff, as well as the educational quality that all of our students will be experiencing in the next year. I am proud of this board for choosing to delay an in-person start for at least a couple of months. I think this will allow time to get the online platform up and running and being very robust. I would ask that Dr. Zerbe reconsider a hybrid approach at the end of the first quarter. This would allow for 50% of the students at any one time to be

271in the school building, which is safer for everyone. It also allows for an equal opportunity for most students to be at home and online. Parents could potentially still choose to be all online, and there may be carve-outs and certain groups of students who really, for special education needs, et cetera, who would, you know, be... potentially an all-in-person type of situation. There are other districts around us that have come up with very creative ways of doing this that are not uniform across the entire district. It approaches the needs of elementary school students, middle school students, and high school students differently. And I just ask that we be open to considering that in the future. This has been a very hard process for our entire community. And so I am proud of us. I would like to

272make one more plea to the community at large, however. Our behavior now, in terms of the choice of what we do and where we go and how many people we are with, and using masks, using hand sanitizer, limiting our in-person exposure to other people, will allow us to be in a safer position to be able to actually open up our school. for in-person instruction, hopefully in October. But our actions now will have implications for then. So I ask us all, parents, students, teachers, staff, every member of this community to please keep that in mind, that your actions now will have implications for later. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Sterndill-Feiner. Mark Yoder, Steve and Rachel Kennedy. John Andrews, John Riley, Tricia Lockwood. Oh, you were just there, Mr. Andrews. There you go. Okay, whenever you're ready.

273Good evening again. Thinking back over some of my input to board meetings over the years, I've always protested the Colorado ski trip. And I presume that this year, unaware of the risks, again, the school board will vote in favor of it. And I will oppose it as usual. It seems like things like quarantining in place for two weeks after you fly into Denver is a no-brainer. With regard to Mr. Regina's... contract renewal and pay raise. I find that the pay raise of 4.5% is in conflict with what might be offered to the MEA. And I think the MEA has reason to say, oh, you've got piles of money. You know, give us a big pay raise this year and next year, et cetera, et cetera. So those are just two areas where I wish you'd

274be more fact-based. And I think that the vote this evening relative to Act 34 shows a lack of fact-based decisions that somehow the district has to overcome. Mr. Earnshaw has a career of... making intelligent decisions based on facts. They may all be on financial spreadsheets, but finances can do you in. And with regard to masks, with a lot of mask wearing this year, we might be able to do in a lot of the flu as well as the viruses in their different forms. So again, I've said my piece and... We'll see what happens. And have a good evening. And thank you overall for getting a lot of your feelings and facts out relative to how we have school in the fall. And I wish that there were facts as to what is the experience by

275grade level across the country. And that because life is never risk-free. That's why we all pray for heaven, not knowing when the day may come. Thank you, Mr. Andrews. Good evening. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. John Riley, Tricia Lockwood, Melissa Drozd, Nicole Drake, Doug Drake, Heidi Greenwald, Jim Mollick, Brian Earnshaw. Go ahead, Mr. Earnshaw. Thank you. Brian Earnshaw, Law Providence. Regarding a couple of comments during the discussion about the Act 34 hearing, I realize there's no incremental cost other than KCBA and various attorneys preparing for the meeting, which is probably inconsequential to the overall cost of the project. But with respect to a couple of comments that were made, especially to those of Mr. McGinnis, he mentioned that borrowing rates are extremely low right now, which I agree with. But interest rates are really going

276nowhere for the next year or two. So delaying this project would have no impact on your borrowing costs, which already totaled $54 million. So they would not move by much. And the same thing with as far as contractors and getting work done. We're facing a pretty severe recession coming up here. So those opportunities are going to be there for years to come. Regarding, Mr. Bainis mentioned a bond premium for a borrowing that already happened. A couple weeks ago, I asked a question about that premium. at a finance committee meeting, and nobody could really answer that. And really, the only reason you generate a bond premium, and especially one of that size, which is $2.4 million on a $15 million borrowing, is when you pay higher interest rates than the market rates at the time you

277close the offer. And that's generally what caused that premium. I'd asked Mr. McGinnis and Mr. Berger to confirm whether that was the case and never heard back. So hopefully he can answer that question. I would hope he'd have an answer tonight for me if he could. And then regarding the whole school reopening, I guess one of the questions I had, I mean, is does that mean you're also going to be canceling fall sports? I can't see how, if you're not going to allow kids in classrooms, how you could have close contact sports such as soccer or football and, you know, exposure in locker rooms and so forth, how that could continue. So I don't know if that needs to be addressed before your next voting meeting or not. And finally, I just want to thank

278Ms. Cancro for being really the... And the voice of reason through that whole discussion about the school reopening plan. And that's it. Thank you. Good night. Thank you. Kristen Sherman. Go ahead, Ms. Sherman, whenever you're ready. Hi, good evening. I just want to state, well, first of all, I want to thank Ms. Reese and Ms. Cancro for supporting choice. Unfortunately, it didn't go as planned and I'm extremely disappointed in that. As someone who works in the mental health fields, particularly with children, I've seen a significant increase in suicidal behavior in children as young as 11 years old. And that is a huge concern for me now that we're all stuck back at home. And I'm also concerned about the children who can't go to school but have to live in an abusive home. That's another

279concern that I have that no one talked about. No one discussed. We're just all worried about getting something that so far data hasn't shown children can really get. Yeah, they can carry it. They might not. They're so back and forth. No one knows what to believe anymore, in my opinion. So all I can say is I'll accept what it is because it is what it is. But I hope that in the future we can think about a hybrid. If we want to go back slowly, start out with a hybrid and then hopefully by spring, we go into fully back to school. I don't think we should even think about opening up school fully, especially when flu season comes, because if COVID is still around, we're not going to be able to differentiate who has what.

280So I think that's something else we need to think about as well. The other thing that kind of disturbed me is everybody was talking about what ifs. What if this happens? What if a teacher gets it? What if a kid gets it? What if, what if? Well, we can't live in a world of what ifs. I can wake up tomorrow and what if I get hit by a car? It happens. It's life. So again, I'm very disappointed. It is a detriment, I think, to the children who are already struggling. I think it's also a detriment for kids who have learning differences, who have IEPs, 504s, GIEPs. So I would also like to bring up, too, I agree with what Mr. Earnshaw said previous. How can you have football or soccer or field hockey if you're

281not having kids in school? So there's another thing that you're taking away, possibly could be taking away from kids. That's another outlet. So I don't think everything was thought out well enough. Also, I agree with Ms. Cancro when she said we should talk to the teachers and get a poll from them as to who wants to be online and who wants to be in person. And we could have made a better decision in seeing what staff would be available. So that's all for this evening. And I, again, thank you all. I know it was a very tough decision. But that's it. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Teresa DiGrazio, Lori O'Neill, Amy Smith, Ngai Thai, Stephanie Marino, Sandy Katz, Nadine Baumgardner, Josh and Molly Anderson. Okay, Mr. Anderson. Okay, Mr. Anderson, you should

282be... Oops. Hi, can you hear me okay? Yes. Yeah, thank you for the opportunity. I had three brief things. Just a thought, it's not clear why we still need to delay the start of the school year by a week with it all being virtual. I think the original drivers were assuming that there was still an on-premise component. So just would ask to potentially reconsider starting the school year on time. Secondly, if there's an opportunity to revisit the school calendar in the spring, it wasn't clear why we still had, for example, some of the school closures, which essentially kept the last day of school intact. We could have finished the school year earlier. We were all essentially on lockdown. We really didn't need those days off during the middle of the school year. And then lastly,

283if it's possible to get clarification here, just because the earlier conversations around procuring necessary supplies for the school, I did hear that there's a commitment to procure the computers for K-2, but in light of all of the other supply chain challenges and that probably every other district in the country is ordering those same computers, is there a real likelihood that we'll actually receive those devices in time for the school year? Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Anderson. Erin McCool, Kathleen Thiel, William Molden. Okay, Thiel. Go ahead whenever you're ready. Hi, good evening. Thank you so much. I know that this was a terribly tough decision for you and there were so many aspects to consider. So thank you for making the decision tonight. I know that some of the debate. had like talking to people

284and stuff like that. And I just want to thank you as a working parent for making that decision tonight, because it's much easier for me to figure out childcare now and figure out how to make my life work now than it would have been August 10th or after, especially with the other school districts around us making the decisions as well. Going into this meeting, I had planned to bring up my concerns about the lack of information for student evaluations and 504s and IEPs, as well as my concern about what to do about staffing concerns when it came to the other school districts that were going virtual and then how that would impact our staff. And I was really glad to hear that address at the beginning of the meeting. So thank you for that information.

285I was really glad to see the amount of detail that went into some of the information about evaluations and 504s and IEPs and that support in the virtual, when we go, now that we're going virtual. I do have some thoughts to share on the subject of the personal reduction that had been mentioned very briefly, but I do want to speak to it. Please be careful when considering that, not just from a personnel perspective, but I've taught virtually for 10 years. And it's more than just apps. It's more than just what your learning management system is. It's contacting families and students is so incredibly important. If you were to ask me what my most important tool was, I would say the telephone. I wouldn't say Nearpod. I wouldn't say any of the other teacher apps or

286Canvas or Moodle or any of those. I would say the telephone. If you find that there are personnel who might be, who you might not know where they fit, maybe have them try contacting the families who you might be having trouble contacting or supporting families in some, there's a lot of supporting roles that are needed when you are virtual. And while it may not be the best environment for everyone, it may be the environment we have now. So it's just a piece of information I really, really recommend because there's a lot of ways to support families and you really have to think out of the box. Also, I wanna just encourage you that there was some talk about the YMCA program and providing supports on our campus while we are virtual for families who really

287do have two working parents. And I just wanna echo that as a supporting member of the community, I am lucky enough to work from home as a virtual teacher, it's a benefit, but I... I do have, I do know of many families who are first responders and essential workers and they're out of the home. And I know that this virtual learning is going to throw them into a loop. So if there is a way to make that happen and to support them, it would be wonderful to have that as well. And I just want to thank you. Thank you so much for tonight. Thank you so much for the thoughts and for the hard decisions you had to make. Thank you, Ms. Steele. William Molden, Teresa Leano. Kelt Roska, Kang Chen, Joshua Nahr, Jen and

288Mike Riddell, Erica Becker, Kelly Gates, Sherry Carter, Yonghong Zhao, Emily Iacono, Nilam Samant, Victoria Alth, Karen Matthews, Evan Burstein, Christina Venezia, Randy Burstein, Karen Lafferty, Latricia Hay. Chantel Ford, Andre Goldstein. Oh, there's Chantel Ford. Okay. Okay, whenever you're ready. Hi, can you hear me? Yes, I can. I would just like to say thank you to the board for making that very difficult decision tonight. I've been on several focus meetings and been following along. And I just have to say that I am one of the parents who was supportive of making the choice for my children and having that choice. And I just felt like it was taken away tonight. And I just hope that the decision to go online for the first marking period that we do, the school district and the teachers do a

289much better job than they did in March with the curriculum and the standards that the fact in school district carries. I was very disappointed in the online school for my child. My child did not, do well and I'm disappointed that we still, our choice was taken away. I mean, the numbers were there as far as allowing the parents to make a choice with online or in person and waiting to see at least till next week to see what the choice, what the outcome was, and even talking to the teachers to see who were going to be supportive of in person and who was going to be in supportive of online and to just stop that in the midst of everything. I'm just really disappointed. And to keep sports, fall sports in place, I don't know

290if I think you need to reconvene and think about that as well, because you can still get all the risk factors as well as just being in classroom as on the football field or on a tennis court or on the soccer field. So I just hope that we do, you guys do a really good job with the... curriculum for online to support all the children who had difficulties with that for the first marking period. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Ford. Andre Goldstein, Brenda Capobianco, Chital Jadav, Christy Schwartz, Kate Graff. Okay. That concludes courtesy of the floor. Do we have any comments from the board before we adjourn? Sorry, just somebody, Mr. Winters. Yeah, there was a couple of questions I think that could be answered. The yield premium was 1.88 versus the other bond that

291was refinanced. It was 1.80. There was a question related to the delay and I believe that was answered earlier related to professional development for both the online delivery and on-premise. And that was the reason for the postponement. of the start of the school. Yes, thank you for clarifying those things, Mr. Winters. Anyone else? I'll take a motion to adjourn. Ms. Drummond on the second. I didn't see a second. Mr. Navarrete, thank you. All right, meeting adjourned. Thank you, everyone. Have a good night.