001all right well welcome everyone uh thank you uh this uh again is the um board of education meeting for january 11th 2021. we've been in closed session for the last hour uh a little more uh charlie if you can call miss drake here mr cook mr roby here mr smith mr westfall president mr kerber here we have a quorum if you can join me for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible thank you very much and thank you to our wonderful i.t team for american flag now we're making progress all right um communications tom uh the president's comments all right um so just a couple of things uh this evening um well really
002uh for one for now i'll save the other comment uh for later when we uh get into other parts of the meeting um but just wanted to uh as many of you know that are logged on tonight um we will be discussing later in the the meeting uh the plan the return plan uh for uh starting um in second semester but as we look to start returning students in person learning again starting next week i wanted to just take a couple of moments and remind our community of where we have been with this uh specifically that we have had a plan since july to return students to school in small controlled groups when it is safe to do so we understand how hard this time has been on everyone involved we really do empathize with
003that still it is also important to note we have followed our plan with the health and safety of our students staff and overall community in mind the plan that we have had in place uh since uh the beginning of the school year was to start in remote as we did on august 31st pushing back the planned start date of the school year to at that time the goal was again to remind everyone was to um you know provide some additional time for us to get ppe in hope that uh things got to the point where we could start in four to six weeks into the school year we monitor those conditions for those four to six weeks if it was safe we were going to start to bring back students in small groups uh that
004that was the plan that plan was begun to be implemented on october 26th with our multi-needs special ed students having coming back into having come back into the building for in-person instruction we continue to bring with the plan was to continue to bring back students every couple of weeks based on conditions we did have to take an adaptive pause in november like dozens of districts around us as the kova 19 positivity rate spiked substantially we had families fill out an educational choice form in early december to tell us if they intended for their students to return to in-person learning or to continue with remote learning uh we we use that feedback as part of our continued planning for dates now we are adjusting some of those plan details in terms of the timing to get
005students back into the classroom safety based on these new time frames for in-person learning for this school year however this is not a new plan this is not a plan that has just been created this is the current implementation uh of the plan that uh again has existed since the beginning of the school year uh which started to be implemented in the fall had to pause and now we'll we will look um with much anticipation to be able to reinstitute uh in-person learning as we go forward so again thank you to everyone having been involved in this uh you know all the work that's been done on the administrative side dr abram and his team have done a tremendous amount of work we owe them a great amount of gratitude for all of that work
006and we will look to share that information later on in tonight's meeting and provide more details then to the community following the meeting and going forward as we approach those dates that will be announced shortly moving on 4.01 board salutes uh does anyone have anything uh for board salutes this evening all right we don't have any special welcomes or recognitions of this evening so we'll go down to 5.01 um public comment uh as we have been doing uh we will continue with the same procedure for public comment this evening the district 202 protocol and procedure to allow two minutes per per person for public comment and up to 20 minutes total for these comments subject to the board president's discretion this is based on the policy we have received uh for this meeting 83 public
007comments uh that's dating back since the december 14th board meeting to avoid any suggestion of impropriety editing etc director of community relations tom hernandez will read these emails in the time stamp order that they were received up to 5 pm this evening which is our published cutoff he'll read the word for word minus any appropriate redactions for privacy uh subject to the stated time limits for each comment and for public comment overall two minutes per comment again and not to exceed 20 minutes total all public comments will then be posted on the district website as part of the information for this meeting with the appropriate redactions to remove personal email addresses and names or information identifying specific students or staff um we to that for this meeting we received uh 83 public comments as i
008said 79 generally in favor of returning to in-person learning for generally supporting continuing and remote learning are the general [Applause] uh i will uh give mr hernandez a heads up when we're um nearing the end of that 20 minutes and uh we will go forward from there so tom if you are good you can start when you're ready all right sir first one is from stephanie youngwood and she writes i'm writing this letter on behalf of my five-year-old daughter when e-learning began i had hoped it would be a short hiccup and to an otherwise successful first year of school for her unfortunately that has not been the case my daughter is struggling my daughter is not learning my daughter is falling behind children need to be in school and deserve quality educations those are their
009rights private schools have been in person with little to no issues states with bigger districts are also back in school if i had the funds i would gladly pull my daughter and enroll her in a private school but unfortunately we are at your mercy my daughter is unenthusiastic about learning loaths zoom and finds every reason to walk away from her computer as she is distracted five-year-olds are not meant to learn this way please open our schools and give us a choice next is from mandy gerhart just watched the board meeting live and wanted to comment that heather drake rolling her eyes the whole time when the public comes from being read was a complete disgrace to parents and students struggling in this district just because a majority of the public comments didn't fit her agenda
010she could have at least listened and tried to sympathize with everyone who put their time and emotions into trying to explain how we can no longer sit back and watch district 202 destroy our children absolutely disgusting to watch and prove she doesn't deserve a spot on the school board another one from amanda gerhart during the board meeting tonight i found it deeply concerning that when the board members were asked if they had any questions or comments regarding the return plan not one of them had anything to say that's okay just sit there in silence while the school district continues to not have an actual plan to get our kids back in the classroom great job guys on continuing to make sure kids don't see the inside of a classroom before the end of the school
011year next from robert sanchez i'm writing to express my dissatisfaction of the lack of professionalism at the board meeting last night particularly board member drake during the reading of the public comments these letters need to be read aloud that's the point of them the previous board meetings in which comments were not read and were not conducted in the spirit of what an elected school board is supposed to represent if board member drake or any other board member cannot handle the public scrutiny brought upon them by their lack of leadership vision or professionalism then they should resign immediately from kelly wegner these children need to have the option to be taught in a classroom teachers are deemed essential i am also an essential worker and encounter thousands of people a day i take the proper precautions
012and have been fine teachers can do the same the mental and emotional well-being of our children is at stake right now this has gone on far too long get these children in a classroom and please get all of the children not just certain grades into a classroom as often as possible it is discriminatory to have some children go back and not others that want to kindergarteners need to be in school just as much as a high schooler instead of being afraid of the virus and running away from it you need to learn to live with it we cannot function this way forever figure something out to get all the kids back in the classroom this is why you are here you have failed the students of district 202. uh the next one is from greg
013colby uh and he says the decision of the sport to keep children forced out of an in-person learning is getting more absurd every week enough already what is your agenda the education and well-being of the children should be first and foremost clearly it is not the wishes of students and parents should be considered they are not the wishes of the teachers should be considered as well this is also not the case as i will point out later one thing became very apparent as i watched your meeting last night the comments in favor of in-person learning far outweighed the support of the forced online policy now you may argue that the comments are anecdotal and not a true representation of the pulse of the community although we all know that is very unlikely but what was
014most striking was the actual content of the letters that were read aloud and many others that were not read but available on the psd 202 website those in favor of in-person learning were full of data scientific studies cvc guidance illinois law and expert testimonials often with corroborating links provided the exact things you as educated individuals should already be keenly aware of and following follow the science is the mantra shoved down our throat but for some reason the board has chosen to ignore it contrast those comments uh with the two i heard from parents who supported the district's policy one was from a parent whose fears arise from having family members of covid and knowing someone who died from it that's anecdotal and not scientific evidence and you as educators should understand the difference i'm certain
015that nowhere in your plan to return will there be a requirement for students to return to in person online will always be an option for that parent or any others who are not comfortable with that option i too know dozens of people who've had the disease me and my family included with little to no ill effects that too is anecdotal and equally irrelevant the other letter was from an individual whose argument was essentially along the lines of thanks for closing the schools because i support the teachers an ironic statement as is evident shortly interesting side note to this one this individual admittedly does not have a child in the district in a district 202 school it is an easy thing to say when you don't have skin in the game the one thing missing in
016any of the policy support letters is any facts data studies etc to support their position why because they don't exist in any credible form the facts recommendations guidance data and studies overwhelmingly support in-person learning and that is two minutes for that one next is from michelle colby below is the definition of what the word plan means feel free to scroll through the definition to see if what you have done matches any of the descriptions and there are several pages of one word definitions and then she continues to say you have said over and over you have a plan it is clear that you do not if you do if you did you would have made a follow-through plan what if the numbers go up what if a child tests positive what if a teacher test
017positive nope the numbers went up and he sent everyone back to square zero i would think by now you would know to ask for help go to other schools that have stayed in person since the beginning and have done so successfully you keep saying we are too big you keep saying other schools are going back to remote well not all of them are and we have never been not remote my kids have been home now almost 300 days they have not been inside of school for 275 days you let the iep and kindergartners go back for two weeks so don't tell me we went back my kids did not and the other 98 of kids did not have a chance to go back i noticed in april's letter after the last meeting that he says
018the district considers guidance from the cdc idph and the local health departments as a resource but wait haven't you said you're following the science in stay one now you're considering guidance maybe it's just a play on words or maybe you continue to fill us with false hope and lost dreams of a fair and high quality education that the residents of district 202 clearly pay for your mission statement in case you forgot plainfield community consolidated school district 202 is a creative school system in the southwest chicago suburbs dedicated to ensuring that all students learn achieve and grow to their maximum potential and that is two minutes for that one next is from samaya richardson with the end of the year approaching and the district not having a public legitimate plan of return or an instructional remote
019learning process we as parents would like to know what's in store for our children next year and of course now we understand that this pandemic is new to everyone but when will that stop you being used as an excuse and allow us to move forward with being one of the larger districts we should have been leading with solutions rather than waiting for something or someone else we as parents have the right to know what this plan is or will be this will also help some to prepare for the 21 22 school year mentally and financially some will want to move since property value will drop as we will be known as the school district that was not prepared others will want to look into private education since those schools have managed to stay open and
020follow a protocol maybe we should consider touring those schools and asking for help with the amount of resources that have been shared through science and media there is no reason we shouldn't be back in the class these are the same resources used to shut us down so why can't they be used to reopen families and teachers should have the right to stay remote if they or their loved ones have underlining health issues that prevent them from working but fear shouldn't be one of them we're nine months into a virus that is not going anywhere and the mental and physical well-being of our children and staff isn't even being addressed is going to take something drastic to happen for district to address and manage this even with a vaccine being distributed no one can or should
021be forced to get it plus it is not being offered to anyone under the age of 16. what will be the district's rules and regulations for this people are just tired of feeling helpless and letting those who do not have children on our district make the decisions how is it fair that you can even be on a board that doesn't affect you personally when will kids come first when will the teachers that want to come back be able to when will the district start accepting responsibility for their actions numbers will go down and the virus might become manageable but this doesn't change the fact that our district was not prepared and failed the children and teachers miserably how will we bounce back academically and that's two minutes for that one next is from suzanne jonkey
022in response to the recent board meeting where it was stated that we do that we indeed do have a plan i respectfully disagree yes we do have a theoretical return plan but it is incomplete without an actual date for return again many other districts in the area have a date to return parents need enough time to plan for what a hybrid model means to their family schedules i'm sure the bus drivers would like to know a date they can go back to work also the longer you wait to set a date the more valuable in-person time is lost which is a tragedy remote learning does not work for my children in-person learning five days a week is what is essential be a leader and stop hiding in the corner open the schools next is from
023ryan mahlberg a lot of parents are saying that the school board should open schools immediately based on survey results however many of us chose hybrid so that we would have the option of keeping our children remote should the board decide to open schools when the numbers are high our family was one of those that selected hybrid so that we would have the option to keep our kids home in the case that numbers continue to be this high when there are only two choices on a survey one being remote and the other being hybrid i'm sure we are not the only family in the district who chose hybrid so that we could switch our kids if needed people need to understand that decision we also want to commend the board and dr abram for keeping safety
024at the forefront of the decision making while remote learning is not ideal i would rather have my wife a teacher in the district and children healthy and alive next from kelly wegner as i would like my children to go back to school in any capacity i strongly want them in a classroom full time five days a week why is it quote unquote safer for only a couple of hours a couple of times a week just like jumping into cold water it is better to do it fast instead of easing in also it is not discriminatory to have some kids go back and is it not discriminatory to have some kids go back and make the others wait why is one age group's education and mental emotional well-being more important than another every stage of education
025is important you have taken away so much from our kids give them back the chance to be successful in their futures uh next is from angela olsen you have a chance to make right what you made wrong at the start of the school year with the new semester approaching even our healthy children and families are falling into mental health issues due to the extreme measures being taken by your decisions to not open the schools you can sit and try to blame others cdc idph pritzker all you want but other schools are having success with being open and there's plenty of science and research that goes against whatever science and research you are using to justify your decisions i'd like to remind you that the numbers that you have so heavily relied on are continuing to
026be inflated as the same person's positive test can be counted as multiple cases as well as the antigen test getting added into the mix which are not very reliable as well as probable cases yes probable cases it makes me question if you are really paying attention or are just being spoon-fed what the news and unions want you to hear have you ever wondered why these changes with our number tracking keeps occurring i won't go into it here but it's healthy to question and challenge most schools stopped following the numbers for this exact reason i did not appreciate your shaming tone in your last board meeting towards the families and advocates that know what is best for their children and community the conditions you continue to allow are inhumane i am all for choice and giving
027the families that remote learning that work for them that option however for most this is not effective our children are suffering and this will have long and deep consequences if you allow this to continue i see this every day as the area's clinical director i beg you to open your doors for full in-class instruction and giving remote choice to the others we're in the middle of a major mental health crisis we have to stop the teen suicides our little learners have lost their lust for learning and are becoming anxious or aggressive we know children are not learning as much with remote learning where they can social emotional and mentally engage with their peers and teachers these kids need to get back into the classroom school is the safest place for our children our children can
028be we know now because of science and research that schools and children are not super spreaders like the media once attempted to indoctrinate into our minds again i beg you to open your schools the mental well-being of our families and children need you to make this tough decision we are more in danger without the schools open then with them open next is from kevin rogers uh this is what i've been saying someone needs to take up the torch for what is right for the children not the adults who are jaded by politics and self aggrandizement and he links to a story about betsy devos criticizing the 1619 project uh about history and african american history next is from a parent who did not identify who who did not give us a proper name you continue
029to state that it is not safe to open schools because of the risk of covid spreading through the school and causing health issues i want the board and the administrators to take a look at attendance records for each and every school for the months of november 2019 december january 2020 and february 2020 i remember my children stating that many of their classes were nearly empty at times because of the flu i remember seeing on facebook parents posting how sick their kids were and i vaguely remember one school even possibly closing for a deep cleaning now stop and think about that timeline it's very possible that covid was already here and we never knew it throughout january and february 2020 people were reporting how sick they were and yet we're testing negative for flu so perhaps
030it was coveted and you know what the children and staff recovered and life went on and so did school with additional cleaning now as you look at those attendance records compare october november and december 2019 to the same months in 2018 where there are significant differences what about january and february 2020 compared to 2019 i would think you will i would think you will see significant spikes and while we can't prove that it was coded because there was no testing for covid we can see that while there were significant illness there were recoveries did we have students or teachers die from those illnesses not to my knowledge we are living in a state of fear and what ifs by keeping our schools closed again if you don't feel safe don't go the schools need to
031reopen our children need to be given a chance please don't hold our children back any longer look at the data open the schools next is from annie clumsious i am begging you and the board to please come up with a solution to get the teachers and students who want to be back in school back in person we know this will not be all kids or all teachers i'm begging you to please return our kids back to school in person my son is struggling my son loved school he loved being in the classroom he started this year with excitement for beginning trumpet and band he's flailing and flailing at 38 percent now at the end of this quarter my son needs interaction with the teacher in the classroom with peers he's crying every day he's lost
032any enthusiasm he had for learning i'm begging you to help those who want to be back in person to get supported by those teachers who want to be back in person i realize 100 percent of kids won't be back in person i realize 10 percent of teachers won't want to come back in person that helps the issue of space ppe materials which we have sitting around and substitute pool numbers i'm begging you to do the right thing before my son and countless others become a statistic one minute remaining tom all right uh one next one is from andrea schrabat to the board members and the superintendent i'm looking forward to hearing what the plan is to get our children back into the classroom you all have been stringing us along for far too long enough
033with the emotional excuses that were presented at the last board of education meeting the fact is other schools in the area have figured out how to get kids back in the schools with great success open up our schools now uh and the next one and probably the last one is from carmen gutierrez as the parent of two psd 202 students i cannot express enough the disappointment in the district's inability to hear all of our voices and make a conscious effort to do what is right we have lost more youth to suicide than covid the district has to be aware by now what this has done emotionally and mentally to our children we've heard time and time again that we are a quote unquote bigger ship compared to neighboring districts however i believe that when students
034are truly at the forefront of the decision making then you would clearly realize the long-term impact this is having on our children and our community enough of the runaround let's put all that ppe that the district received to good use and get our kids back in our schools thank you very much tom appreciate it uh take a break and go get a drink of water and just one thing i i failed to mention before tom began reading those as well uh as i've shared previously all of these uh public comments both the ones that were read as well as the entire group even the ones we did not get to in our 20 minutes are all shared with the entire board of ed uh during each meeting or in advance of each meeting so uh
035we do all have those and uh we'll be able to read those uh uh in their entirety as well um individually so so thank you all very much for taking the time to send us public comments uh we do always appreciate hearing from our community and look forward to continuing to have a public comment uh you know going forward in this format as long as we're utilizing zoom uh as the basis for our meetings and uh hopefully be able to get back into uh in-person meetings with the community as soon as the mitigation structure allows so moving on to item six the consent agenda we just have one item this evening 6.01 i'll be looking for a motion for approval of the certified and non-certified personnel agendas both as presented bob's motion second heather second
036charlie calderon mr smith yes ms drake yes mr westfall yes mr cook yes mr roby yes mr kerber yes item passes thank you all very much so now we can skip on down to uh item 10 for information and i know the item that the vast majority of people that have logged on to tonight's meeting are looking forward to hearing about out of 10.01 the return 2021 plan update with that i will turn it over to dr april and his team thank you mr kerberg appreciate it um yes of keen interest is our update tonight on the return 2021 plan and uh we'll share with uh the public here and the board of education uh a general overview uh i'm i'm aware that really most people want to know when their student is returning what
037date what date is the plan and those types of things so without much further delay uh we will get into the nuts and bolts of this dr wood uh can you uh display the slide show for tonight yes i think is it visible now no it was and then it disappeared oh yes okay there we go here we go all right and to review with folks and then again to get to the uh big part uh and we won't spend too much time on review but as the district has as we have consistently said as part of our plan we have five areas that we use to assist and i want to reiterate assist with decisions uh crafting the plan of return and guiding us um last board meeting in the previous board meeting we
038were at two red indications on two categories we were on two of our categories being under yellow indication and only one under green well with the update as of today two of our categories are green two are red one is yellow again the ones we use and that are under red indications now are the coveted metrics within our county and region our substitute pool green we've got our ppe supplies also our cleaning and disinfecting supplies and those are two different things under yellow continues to be consistent guidance from the illinois department of public health state board of education cdc and our local county health departments as a reminder plainfield district 202 serves two counties but predominantly will but also kendall county dr wood next slide this are is numbers uh of the positivity rate and
039again positivity rate is just one metric but it is an important metric showing community transmission or community positivity rate or region positivity rate and you can see uh where it's been since december 29th we've been tracking that well we've been tracking it the whole time but on this graph is since december 29th it also has the seven day rolling average and then the next graph is really a bar graph uh more of a visual in a picture which really illustrates i believe we believe quite a bit and you can see that the numbers have gone up they have gone down if you look at where we're at now it does appear that we're on a staircase step downward of a trend and with that and also being on the cusp of the vaccine being available
040for educators or those who work in schools and we're classified as uh tier one b of the vaccination rollout we believe that it is possible for us to return to a format of in-person learning now before we get to the to the real details of it uh i understand that this uh the plan that we reveal here or provide the the details on is not going to satisfy everyone for that i apologize it's not going to be full blast back five days a week six and a half hours a day uh and there's several factors and there are reasons why we can't just go back five days a week six and a half hours a day i know that people may not agree with all those reasons or that logic but there are reasons there
041are answers i can't always promise that they're answers people like or that they agree with you'll see that one more set of metrics that we look at or some others from the will county health department or pertaining primarily to will county have to do with the four categories of test positivity rate new cases per 100 000 new cases in or youth case increase and then also new cases period two are in the substantial or red category and two are in minimal or blue and again this comes from the will county health department all of that data is available on their website you can see we've got the data from the 18th of december also december 11th but we've also got it as of today and here we go this would be the timeline and deadlines
042and groups of students returning as we did previously in the fall we will start with pre-k 12 multi-needs and specialized programs they will follow the same schedule as they did in the fall next week we'll be starting with sixth grade ninth grade and grades one through twelve instructional special education students on the second of february pre-k special ed early childhood and all-day kindergarten and then the following groups on the 8th and on the 16th regarding students coming back we would like them all to come back all at once but the phase-in model for space and for monitoring of the positivity rate is what we feel is the best to do dr wood i'm going to ask him our glenn wood dr glenn wood our associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction to give a little bit
043more information on the schedule and the slight adjustments that we have had to make to our schedule sure thank you dr avril when putting together a schedule uh there's a lot of factors to consider both externally and internally when we've worked with our focus groups which includes teachers students parents and have visited multiple other districts a key thing that they shared with us is you want to have a sustainable plan that you can do the longest we feel what is presented here allows us to do that as far as external factors which determine uh how our model looks one is the illinois state board of education they request 2.5 hours of synchronous instruction a total of five hours of asynchronous plus synchronous work per day for students this model meets those external factors internally the
044biggest factor that we have is related to our transportation and our busing district 202 has triple tier busing which means one bus goes from high school to middle school to elementary to half day kindergarten possibly preschool those type of piece pieces and then back again that being said is the biggest shift in our schedule if you look here which would begin tuesday january 19th so a week from tomorrow we are having all we're going to begin our new schedule we won't be hybrid at that point everybody will be remote but we had to adjust some times based on transportation and our triple tier busing which leads to a little shorter day and an earlier start for high school that is the most significant shift in this and really it's due to our transportation being able
045to provide transportation for over half of the people who requested in-person learning and so as you can see within our schedule that's here we have elementary full-day kindergarten am pm middle school 7 55 to 12 high school 7 to 11 15. during this schedule which will begin on tuesday every single student will be remote initially and so really next week at these levels at these times students need to log in and follow their schedule we will have more specific schedules that are posted on our webpage this is a general big picture component of it but we also want to highlight after the regular school day a big emphasis for us this second semester is taking advantage of this time here to help kids who need more help both online and in person and you'll see
046focuses around that specific schools will have schedules really to engage students in targeted support but then there will still be office hours that are listed another internal factor for us is lunch if you have over five hours of instruction you must provide lunch for students are related to safety one of the first mitigations that it takes in the place is indoor dining and so really we don't feel comfortable going over the five hours for having dining at this piece so when you look at our internal factors of lunch and our transportation meeting the external of the illinois state board of education what we have is a schedule here that's listed that will be posted that parents can follow one other piece is our early bird you will see at 6 23 a.m is when they
047would begin as we go through this and then you know sierra a.m and p.m kindergarten also listed once we do start so we go back and you know february uh first really is when we start our hybrid model but the day and the week will look like this for our weekly schedule it's two days in person it's three days remote you will have one group in person on monday and tuesday then another group on thursday and friday all student schools will notify parents of what group number you're in that information should be available by the end of this week all remote days are synchronous and so every day kids will have synchronous instruction from our teachers and then students in our specialized program you will follow the schedule that you did already first semester so
048our first group will continue to um you know uh specialized programs continue the schedule that they've had overall in hybrid mode what happens is we have class sizes that are under 14 or 15 for everyone most will be less between elementary middle and high school we believe those are safe and then you know sometimes your larger groups your physical education your study hall those may have a little bit larger because they have bigger spaces but we are saying we've looked at the class sizes for all of our students and our schools and we know that we can accomplish this as again our teacher the teacher will teach in person to our students that are here and then they will teach remotely to our students that are synchronously so they still follow this schedule that's listed
049if you have students in front of you and you have students that synchronously are learning um once again as we've done throughout this plan we continue to revisit every four weeks we continue to do updates we look at safety metrics and many additional pieces for that so this is an overview of the plan like we had mentioned is on our website we'll have specific period breakdown for middle and high school you can expect that your students school will reach out to you uh in the next few days and upcoming weeks related to specifics about entering school uh the buses and those type of things so i don't know if there's any questions on on the schedule that we presented here thank you glenn uh and let me just go over the the kind of summary
050slide and then we can open it up for questions from the board of ad uh as as everyone's aware currently or we should be aware uh we are on an adaptive pause currently and all 11 regions of illinois are in tier 3 mitigations it does appear that many of those regions are making progress towards being removed from tier three hopefully that will continue when a community is in substantial transmission or a level of substantial transmission the department of public health does recommend that districts consider the adaptive pause and the strategies include remote learning or extending remote learning uh cancel extracurriculars or sports continue meal programs those things are currently what we're doing we did start as we said earlier in the plan we had tier one students returning on october 26th we had them in
051session for three weeks of school 12 attendance days and then the metrics and the covet environment went in the wrong direction and we started an adaptive pause for all students on november 16th which did curtail other groups returning again we had a plan in the fall for a return we were able to implement a small part of that plan before the covet environment and the covet metrics change were changed and went in the wrong direction before thanksgiving break or just after i should say thanksgiving break we did ask parents to complete the educational choice form for uh what they would uh select for their student on a return between remote or in-person hybrid and using that data in the educational form working with all the scheduling logistics receiving teacher and staff input on a return
052plan it's been updated to reflect what you have all seen tonight and what you will see detailed on our student or on our district website i should say additional content and the plan details will be published again on the website and communicated by our communications department specifically mr hernandez this plan is very similar to what uh geographically many of our neighbors that we touch it did not drive the development of this plan we are a shade maybe later in our start or return to in-person some of that a large part of that has to do with the metrics of will and kendall county specifically will really which the majority of our students reside and come to us from will county but when you compare it to dupage county will and kendall county are higher on
053the positivity rate than dupage county we're hoping that additional week of our return continues to see a downward trend in comparison of regions or or specifically counties as dr wood mentioned the daily start time and in time why did those schedules change well any daily start time and end time is driven by three factors and one of them is busing or transportation another is athletics and another is banned and i've been in it 36 years here 35 years i should say of education administratively those three factors drive the start time and the end time of the school day and that does in this case specifically transportation by january 15th schools will push out information to parents regarding whether a student is in group one or group two we also feel quite a few questions or
054concerns from parents on extracurricular activities whether they're athletics or non-athletics we continue to follow the recommendations or the guidelines given to us by the ihsa which governs high school athletics clubs and activities when we return to in-person will begin to meet as they are allowed to or under size restrictions depending upon what those are athletic practices or contact days will begin as the high school illinois high school association allows us to oftentimes there's questions on vaccines you know are they going to be mandatory for students are they mandatory for staff currently they are not mandatory for either group we are working with the wilhel well county health department as you know again educators are in classification 1b or those that work in schools and we are encouraging strongly encouraging our staff to take advantage and
055get that vaccine when it's available students will not be required to have that vaccine at least at any point in time although they are required for other vaccines well the requirements of those are in the illinois school code which is made up of laws passed by our general assembly to my knowledge our general assembly has not and is not even entertaining the requirement of a covet vaccine for those under the age of 18 or 16 or students again we have a plan we had a plan we want to be back in person but those timelines to come up with them is one thing sticking to those or being able to stick to those timelines and groups returning is another we monitor the covid metrics in the covet environment we will continue to monitor those but
056on january 25th we look forward to having our first groups of students back i'll open it up now to board members for any questions or clarification that we can provide all right we will take questions now from the board of ed for the administration so lane there's been a couple people who have asked on here and they're good questions about our sixth graders and our ninth graders are they going to have any opportunity to walk their schedules or learn where their classrooms are prior to their first day of school or will that be something that is encompassed in the first day of school we're working with the administration at each of those levels either middle school or high school to develop some plans for those when they do return you'll see that they they are
057in the building first um so they when the ninth graders return and for most of them it'll be their first time in the building or in that high school uh they'll be the only ones there and certainly will have some type of orientation and more details on that will come and will come from the specific high school or specific middle school plane will um the kids still have the same teachers for e-learning that they currently have dr wood can expand upon that a little bit more uh we have done everything that we can to maintain continuity of teachers dr wood yes almost all of our students will have their same uh t you know students will have their same teacher of course you know at the high school sometimes they change courses which would mean
058a different teacher for that there's some movement within schedules just in a natural year you know um where there may be some changes in teachers but um i we're confident our community will be happy with the amount of synchronous instruction with the teachers that they current have currently have unless they're changing uh classes and then uh parents with uh multiple kids in different schools will they be on the same schedule yes we've coordinated that amongst our schools um so you know so we could those students could attend uh school the same day you know there always could be some mix-ups but if they reach out with the school we will resolve that but that's what they've been working on for the past couple of weeks dr wood is there a plan for each of the
059buildings that could be given out to the parents and students on what the expectations are going to be for being in the classroom book bags coats snacks uh also masks whatever yes in addition to planning with our buildings for some transition days as board member drake had brought up uh the plan is that first day the group of students is in that's an asynchronous day for the students that are remote so really the kid the teachers can uh you know go over some of those pieces make sure that safety protocols and the way things operate both in the school in the classroom that they're very clear and have no questions moving forward could you also espound on what would be the maximum number of students in a classroom at the elementary level middle school and
060high school level we've and mrs griffith could do this too but i'll just start under 14 at 14 or under at the elementary 15 or under at the middle school and 14 or under at the high school some of our physical education classes with bigger spaces uh you know have different numbers for that we have looked at that sectioning and we're confident that all of our classes will be smaller than those sizes that i mentioned and what about the buses if uh again with the buses if a child is found to have covet what would happen sure so i can answer that one um so first all of our students will be expected to wear a mask on the bus um we will have as we will follow the requirements for isb for the number
061of students that can be on a bus at one time so the max number of students on a bus is 50. we do believe based on the responses from the educational choice forum that we will have significantly less students on the bus so if a student is diagnosed with covid the recommendations from isb and idph is that the students seated three rows in front three rows behind directly next to and again three rows in front three rows in back would be required to quarantine there is a possibility that we would require more to be quarantined however that is the recommendation right now from idph and isv would that be the same with the classroom situation so the classroom situation is a little different we are the way we are setting up majority of our classrooms
062is that students will be seated up six feet apart nose to nose the current recommendation is that students that would be immediately around the individual that was diagnosed would have to quarantine if that student that was diagnosed was in school on a day that they would be considered contagious so it would not necessarily be the whole class i will tell you though that in um at points that we had a high positivity rate within the community we did receive direction from the will county health department that an entire class would have to quarantine so it really depends on the situations and where our level of community spread is at the time the individual is diagnosed but currently in writing it would be students that would be directly surrounding the student that was diagnosed not the
063entire class [Music] mr smith just to um add on to mina's answer about the bosses if we have a bus situation where a student on the bus has covered that bus will be taken out of service for the day and be deep cleaned on and then after a waiting period will be put back into rotation so we wouldn't continue to use that bus as well nina is it still that willow county is recommending the 14 days or has there been any consideration of the seven to 10. that's a great question mike and i will tell you uh we that that answer the county has gone back and forth on since mid-december so currently um the the required days of quarantine have not changed for an individual that was diagnosed with covid that is still the
06410 days from the first date of symptoms or from the first date where the the individual tested positive the only dates that changed were for students or staff that were directly exposed so they did clarify that they are recommending and they have said this over and over they are still recommending a 14-day quarantine for anyone that is directly exposed to an individual with covid however staff and students can consider a 10-day we can consider a 10-day quarantine for staff and students who are directly exposed with some very specific criteria so we will look to consider that but one of the criteria that would need to be in place is that if and when they return to the school setting they are required to follow the mask mandate the stay within six feet apart at all
065times so there are it it is a little challenging to reduce down to the 10-day quarantine the seven-day quarantine is not an option for students we cannot even consider that in the school setting so there is some wiggle room and we are looking at the reduced 10-day quarantine and we'll consider if we are able to do that for some students and staff in the district mina the district has been working with the will county health department on developing a plan to provide timeline and for vaccination for our staff members in the district so we are we are in close communication with the will county health department at this time they are providing the vaccine to group 1a which is medical professionals emergency response teachers are teachers and educational staff are in group 1b we are
066in communication with them and we actually just recently surveyed our nurses and our staff about their willingness to get the vaccine as well as if any of our medical staff are willing to actually provide the vaccine and we are putting together a plan for when the county tells us that they are ready to provide the vaccine to staff at this point we have no date of when that might be we have not been provided any direction from the will county health department as to how to set up plans to give the vaccine um however we are working on plans and in weekly communication with the health department dr aerial do you have anything else to share on that i know we've both been in that communication not really other than i can tell you it
067is a not only of myself as superintendent but all of the superintendent school superintendents in will county a keen topic of interest on getting the vaccine available for our staff um and and folks who work in schools it's it's a hot topic of discussion and we have all pledged to the will county health department to for them to just let us know their needs and we'll open our buildings our nurses are willing to assist as our school nurses and many many other school districts in will county and you know we want to we want to get that rolling for sure there are quite a few questions where people are trying to understand what a classroom is going to look like um with students in the classroom as well as some remote are there any any
068way we can try to explain a little bit to the parents as to what that's going to look like yes we do have some videos too that we will post on the website that they can see but generally the kids what happens is the instructional model is the kids at home are projected on the screen and the kids at home are on zoom the kids in the classroom do not have to be on zoom in fact we recommend that they are they don't and now they can still use their computers to do things for google classroom or those type of components of it um but through our one we've bought we've purchased speakers not for everybody but we have uh speakers uh that the kids both in the class and at home can hear each
069other we also know how you can hear through our speaker and projector system so we have a video where to each the teachers can you don't necessarily need the speakers you can do it through our projectors as well that have a speaker thanks thanks glenn and just to clarify for everyone as well all the information that has been presented tonight will be available after this meeting on the district website along with again additional resources that will be put out uh you know in the coming days as we move toward this for both families as well as there will be communication to our teaching staff and support staff you know in the buildings as well to give additional clarification we this is not meant to be an exhaustive uh you know answer to every question here
070this evening i don't think that's really feasible for us to do but we also recognize that there are plenty of questions that people will have so you know we we encourage everyone to again view the website the information that's available there the information will come out from mr hernandez the information will come out from your individual buildings as you uh as as we go forward uh between now and the 25th and then the subsequent dates from there um as well as again for our staff to uh you know await additional information um for you know from your respective building leadership and others across the district so that you'll have all the information that everyone will need to answer uh hopefully every question that someone uh could have would have but but again thank you for
071for all the questions uh you know that i know the community will have and uh again we'll make every effort to get uh all of those uh um answered going forward as well so um additional questions from the board for the administration uh comments uh dr april all 30 buildings are ready and ready to go are yes they are operationally our maintenance staff as we are with in contact with them every day have assured us that filters are up to speed ventilation is occurring as it should um we have hallways designated as one way we have drinking fountains except for the water bottle filling station part disabled traditional drinking fountains all of those types of things and again you know an all exhaustive list we will try to answer in writing all of the questions
072and to mr kerberg's point you know we're receiving questions about what about high school parking permits what about uh you know passing periods all of those types of things this information will be on our website mr hernandez and our communications department do a fantastic job of updating that and and putting as much as he can immediately after this meeting is over and we will parse through the questions or go down the list of questions that we've received in the chat room um i'm not sure i can answer every what if at this moment in time uh regarding everything or every question that's been asked but certainly we'll make our best attempt to do that and i want to thank the board of education for their support in our plan we do want students to return
073our teachers want students to return i'm confident that we're going to get there we need some cooperation from the coven metrics and the community in the spread and all of those types of things but i believe we're going to get there thanks dr april and and again we we certainly as a board of ed understand the the many many many questions that uh all of this return um poses for those uh you know in the community with students uh that are uh coming back to school that you're entrusting to us uh for our staff uh that are are you know taking uh the next step in this process as well so again we we want to be partners in all of this with everyone in the community to ensure that again we get the information
074out that everyone uh needs um but but again that's why we're also giving the announcement today with the first groups um scheduled for two weeks from now so that we you know we'll provide that opportunity to you know get that information out to you to answer those questions and uh and and again you know make sure that we try to put as much of the anxiety at ease as we can for everyone students families staff teachers as we uh move forward with this next step and then going forward really for the the balance of the of the 2020 2021 school year anything else from the board of ed just i just want to reiterate um kind of what dr abram was saying and that is that we all need to do our part um yes
075mass will need to be worn in the classroom um but people should be wearing them in public and everywhere else the more we can follow the cdc guidelines of wearing masks and social distancing the faster we can get rid of this thing thank you heather anything else yeah kevin i just want to say there was a question about wilco and as the head of wilco our administration is working with all of the school districts that take part uh with their timelines for return to in-person learning and then more information will be available shortly on the wilco website thank you rod i assume that since the next item on the agenda is welco report an update i assumed you'd be giving us that at that point in time but just before we get there just want
076to offer one last time if there's anything else from the board of ed uh regarding the return plan for the administration i just want to thank them for the work they're putting into this mr kerber dr abram and his administration staff and uh departments have uh put a lot of pain into this and so it's going to work so thank you thank you bob very well positivity as uh uh hopefully will be infectious and uh you know everyone will take that same uh approach as we uh we go forward collectively as a community uh again to to ensure that this that this works all right uh rod um for the vacation report for wilco yeah thanks kevin uh wilco we met on uh tuesday december 15th at six o'clock at the wilco career center we
077approved expenditures presented for payment for december in the amount of 113 755.36 we also uh approved uh our budget amendment as uh we are still waiting for some funds to come from state grants which are slow slowly being processed um and then we also uh have some hosa state qualifiers which are the future health professionals i would like to uh let every boat everybody know that enorma nadim from plainfield east qualify for cpr first aid emergency preparedness events i yet kiss me from playing field south qualify for cpr first aid emergency preparedness events and also medical terminology health science related events majura nadam from plainfield south qualified for dental science health professional events and dental terminology health science related events cameron aquinas from plainfield east qualified for job-seeking skills leadership events medical spelling health science
078related events and sports medicine health professional events and sara reyes from plainfield east qualify for medical terminology health science related events and also our wilco students of the quarter joseph stewards auto service senior at plainfield central elvis lenby landu computer technology junior at plainfield central cassandra celinski criminal justice senior at plainfield north ethan herner criminal justice junior at plainfield north francis rose deset early childhood senior at plainfield central keegan daly fire science junior at plainfield north ashton macnasky game design senior at plainfield central jessica divis welding one senior at plainfield central stephen moreno welding 2 senior at plainfield east i'll pass these along to you tom so you can put them on the website that's my report kevin our next meeting will be on thursday january 21st thank you rod and behalf of education congratulations
079to all of those student accomplishments great to hear that all right uh we have one additional four information item so 10.04 other and this uh relates to the resignation that we have received from a board member um joette doyle and so um i have a letter to read from her to the board of ed and the community it states it is with great sadness that effective immediately i am resigning as a member of the board of education of plainfield school district 202. over the past six months i have had some significant health issues that have changed my ability to be a committed and productive board member my health journey is far from over and going forward i need to concentrate on my health and caring for my family i will be forever grateful to my
080fellow board members dr april the administration staff and the community of district 202 for the opportunity to serve and work to provide the best education to the students of our district i've enjoyed my time as a board member and will miss everyone thank you much for your understanding respectfully joette doyle so um just as a a few additional words uh on joel joette was elected to the board of education in april of 2019. she worked hard to learn how a very large governmental system works and quickly made valuable contributions to the board's work we certainly understand and on behalf of the board of education we applaud mrs doyle for her courage and thank her for her dedication hard work passion and service to district 202 most especially though we wish her a speedy recovery and
081good health going forward mr hernandez will be publishing information tonight about the process to fill mrs doyle's seat through the end of her term in 2023 but just uh to provide a synopsis of that by statute the board of education has 60 days to fill the role with our appointment so the information will go out uh shortly from mr hernandez uh into the community asking for those that are interested uh in um seeking uh the not the the appointment to this seat to submit their information the emails must include the applicant's qualifications and statement explaining their interest in becoming a board of education member and why they would be an asset or valuable member to the district 202's board of education the deadline we have set for uh these uh for for these uh um
082statements to be submitted to us is january 22nd and our expected appointment would occur by the february 22nd scheduled board of education meeting again we have 60 days to fill the role with the appointment by statute uh you know we will identify the proper candidate candidates that we would reach out to for additional information and uh share the the next steps in the process with them uh going forward uh over the next uh month to uh 45 days or so and then again look to make that uh appointment um by the february 22nd uh regularly scheduled board of education meeting so um again thank you to joette for all of your uh contributions to the board of ed we regret that you will no longer be able to serve with us and we do look
083forward to the opportunity to fill the seat uh going forward and that again that person that is uh appointed by the board of ed will serve the balance of joette's term which will go until the election in the spring of 2023 all right [Applause] that is all we have we don't have any unfinished or new business so freedom of information status report dr abram yes we have received three freedom of information requests since the last board of education meeting number one from raj payla community member for materials regarding budget and expenses that was received on january 4 it was withdrawn on january 4. secondly we have nora dalton a community member for materials regarding someone named dr abral in his contract that was received january 4 withdrawn on january 4. uh just as a point
084of interest my contract is and has been on the district website ever since i became employed number three siegel rothman retained equity llc for materials regarding uncashed or unclaimed checks between january 1st in of 2017 and june 30th of 2020 that was received december 20 and due january 22nd 2021 that is in progress thank you dr april um 14.01 announcements and scheduled activities we have monday january 18th martin luther king jr birthday we will not be in session in recognition we have remote committee meetings on wednesday january 20th 2021 6 p.m for curriculum in tech 6 p.m on site and finance next board of education meeting will be held remotely on monday january 25th 2021 6 30 for closed session 7 30 for miss drake yes mr westfall yes mr cook yes mr robbie yes
085mr smith mr kerberg yes we are adjourned thank you all very much and have a wonderful evening