001[Music] [Applause] [Music] h [Music] go [Music] [Applause] [Music] what [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] h [Music] all [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] what [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] a [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] a [Music] okay I call to order this special meeting this emergency meeting on December 10th 2020 at 5:45 p.m. roll call Cory Burgess here Doug blutz here here jeie Borland here Brandy de here hey all are present um please join me for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance the flag of the United States of America for which it stands one nation under God for tonight's meeting I would like to do any motions when we vote on motions to please uh let's try to do an order let's go myself uh Genie B Genie Borland Doug
002Diaz we'll just go down the row as it's listed here um okay there are no calls to the public thank you board member and board members for uh hashel meeting uh as I've indicated to you in some emails the circum week have been very very fluid and uh increasing um and uh we don't have so many cases among students uh Active cases among students but we have very high uh and staff six right now but we have 27 employees who are out with serious symptoms of covid and are awaiting testing and we have other employees out for other various other illnesses and other reasons very difficult for us to staff our sites and maintain the mitigation practices that we have at our sites uh and it's just been I asked you to have this meeting
003to consider uh placing our entire School District on quarantine for the 4 days of school for next week might have do we have any questions for D at this time nope all right who would like to begin [Laughter] me um I do have two letters that were dropped off here to the boardroom before we started I would like to read them so the board members can know what hello my name is Richard mlin PE teacher at Bullhead City Middle School I just wanted to say that I believe the school should stay open not for me and my conveniences as a PE teacher but for the students I believe they deserve the best chance and the at the best can get and I believe that is in person some already had the I understand those who
004are high risk should have the option to line I understand there's a risk firsthand as my grandfather passed away in Kansas Sunday I woke up Monday and went to work I did this and yes it was hard and it is still hard every day this week I fought back to never seeing my grandfather again I did it for the students I did it because they should have the best education and I did not want them to miss out I would have needs to stay in person and not fall behind anymore thank you and have a great night the second one is a letter we received from some students at school it reads please don't open because it's easier to learn it's easier and prayer to talk to your teachers online school is much harder to
005learn we need ours can be able to have communication with their teachers and their friends it's not good for we for our health we need our school the letter was signed by 37 students comments I mean Janie Borland I I mean I person agree with the teacher I agree with the students however I think at the time we also need to look at the health and safety of of our staff and the students that are there right now um it's a matter of four days before Christmas break I feel like if we could give ourselves a a three week to get a break from all of this with as many cases as we're having um maybe people will actually listen and stay home in quarantine our biggest are positive in sending their kids to school
006and it's yeah it's we can't control what other parents are doing or teachers that are exposed and going and teachers not knowing and are going exposed I mean I feel like if if it weren't Christmas break we might have a different different line of thinking but with only four days I I mean I think at this time it just go virtual I don't know if new instruction should happen next reteaching and catching up and working on what they've already been doing um because it is hard to learn virtually I don't think there's a right answer at this point m jeie but my concerns here is the decision to close will have a ripple down effect um we need to take into serious consideration what this is going to do to the rest of the community
007and for example I teach at the high school we have finals next week um if we decide to close school how many kids are going to be pulled out of school because they have to babysit how many kids are we going to we going to lose for finals at the high school um that might end up with an incomplete because we're concerned of not being able to staff understand this isn't about how many new cases we have the paper that's in front of me right now shows 10 Active cases in our district 10 um we have had 45 since July of 2020 um that's what 0.2% of the population of our staff and students the Ripple down problem we're going to have here if we do close for that week is going to be catastrophic
008what do we do with teachers that are at the high school for example if we're district and now they can't be there for finals week this is going to create a huge huge problem that we're not considering here on this that we definitely need to take into consideration I think that if our right now is is a staffing issue because we're so short-handed there our Gradebook for the semester is closed so what education do we have or is going on for the last week of of of the semester I mean this could be a great time to work on on this catch-up time but but I for for whatever reason we've we've closed that's that's a week of Education that goes into I guess next semester um I I'm I'm not in favor of closing
009for these four days Mr President yes I I I hear what you're saying I I I really it's we're in a no- win situation no matter what we decide we're not going to make everybody happy bottom line is is that and is that we based on the information that have we don't have enough St help or to keep the children corts correct so if you if let's stay open we have a teacher say a first grade teacher that's gone then those students that are in that first grade teachers class are going to be spread out among the other first grade teachers so now we're mixing cohorts so how kids are we going to inadvertently um put in exposed because we can't staff enough that's my concern okay so I think we should close so the
010concern is a staffing issue um how many staff members are we currently missing at each location sorry uh at sunr um we [Music] have uh an adult uh we have uh uh at and um any more if we were to do any more close quarantine classes there at Diamondback we currently have one covid case and we have five adults six adults I'm sorry six adults on quarantine that does Valley we have on quarantine uh I'm sorry one a positive adult we have three office staff and four on qu Fox Creek we have uh two staff on quarantine and uh no actually three we have a third one today at the middle school we have one adult on um quarantine districtwide and this includes district office Coyote Canyon Transportation chart Wells and ABM and when I
011indicate uh a couple of these that might uh they actually serve in the schools but they're considered a district employee so we have one adult quarantined with family and we have a positive adult um identified today and three other adults awaiting testing so in the over uh in the summary to you today um updated at 2:30 we have six employees in the district with covid 27 employees quarantined or waiting test and then uh we have the number of students that I had shared with you all so we have six Active students and we have 11 students awaiting test results and this is AC that's across the district the issue when it's at a site is maybe only two or three employ employes are absent because of covid there are other absences for flu and other
012illnesses but the ri school is partly what Mrs uh Diaz said of splitting up students but it also means taking uh say pair professionals from the task ordinarily do and giving them additional tasks or shifting their tasks and they're not doing their own jobs and they're helping cover it's created a very stressful situation situation at Sunrise particularly uh and at Diamondback the situation that we had from last week so we have 13 classrooms right if I got that right that we're worried about coverage uh yes so 13 13 class we have enough par professionals and AIDS office help Vice principles superintendent curriculum destruction and office staff to cover 13 classrooms because personally I would rather see us close the district office and move our staff from the district office than displace 2500 kids so it's
013one week it's one week guys we we really have to understand what's going to happen if we close the school and if the like I was saying earli the ri down Ripple down effect this what are we going to do when now that it's been quarantined and closed all of the Employers in this community that now have to provide time off for their employees cuz we closed the school by federal law have to provide time off for their employees if they have fewer than 500 employees do what is the high school going to do because they have enough Subs we can't fill 13 classrooms we have I believe we should have enough pair of professionals AIDS we we pull out of the woodwork so if if we if we need to get office closed and
014move people out of the district office for those 4 days those classrooms to do what needs to be done we can't Genie had a great idea is catch-up work these teachers that are quarantined that are not out are still working from home so they're basically in that classroom watching what's going on for those four days doing that catchup work the grade books are closed the grade books are closed for the semester so what happens this next week isn't tragic and and happens this next week in the big for getting that catch-up time done that instruction can be done remotely in we can fill this it's a mistake if we close this week it is going to create so many this community and it are other sites because of the unknown and there is another option
015four days it's four days option and then we have two weeks off then we can breathe we can St and reevaluate this is the worst time to to do this because it's going to put such a burden on so many things president yes it I I I know I understand what you're saying but it it truly isn't an unknown we unknown last week and we said oh and let's wait the week and see what happens well now we've got more people adults more children that are sick so it's not really an unknown we do have we keep the schools open we're gonna have more people they saying about yeah you're right that you know there may be parents say Hey you know I have take time off for my kids or High School stud I
016I don't know I understand it's a no win situation I we only have to disclose for four days we there are only 10 Active cases but we all in quarantine because they're waiting T because we made them stay home parents came and got them and chose them we have staff that we we we have staff that we told can't knowing any symptoms okay so we don't active in our district 10 as of right now yeah okay so we're you guys are considering closing the school for 4 days for 10 cases and it's spread out throughout the schools this contract the contraction we're getting of this of this disease isn't being linked to what we're talking about we had a we had that problem we had the emergency meeting for just the other day and we
017have no more Uprising in diamond back that's not true Mr President acve cases or recovered cases six employees go home this week with symptoms very ill employees at that site only one has been back okay so Co but there how many employees at Diamond Back are not there that we have that we told they couldn't come back uh just from one classroom one the others that are out reflect on this chart that I I put here on the desk for people information that I sent to you but the the ones that are out where I listed them in the uh information I sent you today where it says they're out on quarantine is because they quarantined their class that's the case at Diamondback we have sick people at Diamondback at uh Sunrise um uh the
018folks that we quarantined uh part of them quarantined but part of them are ones out with covid who would have been quarantined because of a kid situation out because that employee is ill and others are out with symptoms so of the 27 folks that are uh in the that number that I gave you of those 27 employees who are quarantined at least half of them are ill we just listed them all as quarantined as opposed to what they're ill with there yeah and and when it comes down to how that how they that they they mandate what the time off for your illness is or I think it is the the family act when you're sick it does not kick in unless you are Co so you if you have if you are home because
019you have an illness test it's not the same so we're assuming those might be Co because we don't know they're just ill we don't know so we're assuming um we haven't seen any other students been reported to you from Diamondback cuz you've got the two here active all right that have stayed home one of them one of them is new this I had to have a cheat sheet this one because I have it better yes sir good long time but from what I'm hearing and the numbers I uh I'm of the opinion to move uh we show and and I guess we have people that are being sent to school knowing there's covid in the home we have teachers coming to school that are in contact with it because there's nobody to cover classes I
020mean I I don't and that's and that's the problem I mean I had a daughter who was sick last week and I kept her home for the entire week until her test came back negative and we don't have it's not not all staff are being proactive and I think that's where our problem is and we can't fix that no I I agree with that point but I just don't believe the solution is closing the school with four days left to go in the semester four days left and they're going to be apart for three weeks it may give everybody a chance to self themselves and hope hopefully follow the rules next time if they don't like us closing the schools down then follow the rules this is Randy um I was wondering if we could
021urge families that are able to keep their kids home if they could do that we are limited to fill the classrooms and so um I don't know if we could just kind of put a warning out there like please keep your kids home our schools are low on staff um it won't affect their grad his grade book is already in I don't know if that's a possibility we got out uh earlier this week in fact anytime that we uh notify or put out a press release or Facebook media media social media we put that exactly and this week I very specifically said if your children if there's somebody in your home who is ill keep your kids home if you can just keep them home well and we've told we've told anybody we have these
022cases the decision about Diamondback I said if kids are absent we're we're not as an excused absence because we're not going to we're not going to penalize kids when we have these kinds of conditions yeah but I think what Craig you were saying there was asked the parents that can to keep absent whether they're sick or not so you mean for next week whether they're sick or not please keep them home unless you know the parents are going work they have no other option we do have staff that is there they're limited so we need like home whether you're sick or not since who you know their siblings are at high school or their parents are at work um and their kids are not sick and need to come to school I like that idea
023I really like that idea Dr Stewart who sent out that letter asking parents to keep their students home um because of the back did we get a a big response on that no it wasn't the kind of letter where we were expecting a response I mean we simply uh in our social media anded parents that they if anybody in the household tested positive to keep kids because several of our positive kid cases this week have been uh th those exact circumstances where somebody in the house household uh is has tested positive family has been advised to quarantine the whole family and they've not done that uh one of the cases that we schol all last week and um uh you know that causes us concern when you know and then by by The End by
024Thursday of last week the child is showing symptoms so you know we know that child was exposing people for a couple uh it wasn't in it wasn't the kind of uh information where for feedback we were just asking for cooperation from parents to principle about their you know on their end difference so we've never taken this stance before you can keep your kids home if you can't with with them or anyone being sick we've never approached it this way before not what not what Brand's suggesting no we've not ever done that but did it did it change the attendance were more did more parents keep their kids home because they were to affect their attendance or because of what was going on did more students stay home well this week we didn't specifically say to
025them that we were not going to you know that we were not going to count them absent but in the I've had probably only five or six phone calls from parents and they've said or emails and I've said you know they've said I'm not and so I've said to them if you're not comfortable sending your child I get that you know you're a parent and in case notify the school that that's why you're keeping your child home that you are uncomfortable with sending your child really fluid crazy circumstances and uh and we will excuse their absence and so then I notified the uh the attendance Clerks and the principal said you know if a parent calls in and says they're uncomfortable with their child being at school right now please please get make that an
026excused absence you know we're we're respecting that that choice by the parents and and this could be a great solution because parents that don't feel comfortable big things here they wouldn't have to worry about attendance issues they don't have to worry about their grades this semester because we already closed the grade book um home maybe they want a longer Christmas break it's not going to be something that would come against them and this also solves a situation with this um in this situation now now that exemption I was speaking of earlier when schools are closed is if you only have five employes or less a large amount of our families here are employed across the river who definitely have more than 500 time off so this really puts them in a situation where there's nowhere
027to send their children when they are okay and now we've created problems where I think that Brandy Your solution is perfect we could it would lower the number of kids it may not be a drastic reduction but it could lower the number of kids have enough pair of professionals and other step in for those classrooms to cover and we can continue for four days after four days we have a two- we window in there that those that aren't feeling good or may need to be tested we're period to know where we're at for a fresh start and it will it will solve it'll solve so many problems thank you any other comments no other comments okay um can we move forward with Direction then to uh direct the superintendent to put out a memo stating
028just as BR just as Brandy said are we okay with that I'm not to to urge them to keep their children possible if not schools are still open there will be no um negative attendance record and um to let the administrators know at their sight that we are okay with them doing review um you know doing holiday projects what we're able to still get those kids that need to be there in school wasn't okay with that so Brandy did you want to make a motion yes I move what I had just stated all right then I will second I'm sorry did you have it's Genie I just I have what I mean that gives parents the option to about the teachers that may not feel comfortable and they don't know who the staff are and
029they don't know who the students are because of you know the health regulations that we can't provide names um the staff that was that was quar takes number from so we've already quarantined and moved staff where there was an issue um if it was a student in their as Dr Stewart was saying earlier what we sent without symptoms quarantining them of those 26 about half employees not necess the of of the exposure that they already had so the other staff would be going to to work like they always do um you'll be going in and doing your class four which even if you decided to quarantine everybody any staff who is not a positive case or who does not have symptoms would be expected to be at work yeah so for the staff their their
030their position doesn't change either way right they would still be at work either way was that the was that the hopefully maybe some of the staff will get their test I had a test and it took four days which is on the long side so maybe by Monday some of them will have their results back in yeah that would be great yeah that would be that would be a blessing in disguise um any's motion um all in favor I Cory Burgess Jeanie I don't I don't know if I I don't know did you need more discussion time I'm not sure more discussion time is going to help I feel like I could I I feel like I can go both ways I I'm going to hope I'm not a tiebreaking vote because I feel like
031I I see both sides of it okay we we'll come back to you then um uh Doug uh May and then it is I vote Yes Charlene Jeanie vote it's a lot of pressure I I don't I I I wish parents and teachers I I just wish parents and Habit in their home would stay home and not come back and they're not doing that I mean I I don't want to risk our staff I don't want to risk other students I don't I mean we've worked really hard to keep our cohorts separated in I mean how many classes do we already have quarantined right now hang on a second my screen keeps going to sleep Cory canally for me here you go uh let's see it's we have one uh we have one class quarantined
032right now back we have one class right now at Desert Valley oops come on at Desert Valley we have two classes right now now and one that we would quarantine uh if if uh schools are open next week because of uh information we received today so that would be three there at Fox Creek we would have one we don't right now but we would have one because of information received today at Bullhead Junior High we have none right now okay so that's six that was six uh classes Genie yeah yeah no I'm I'm going to have to for the I mean and I'm I'm not a an overreactive parent with this stuff but I feel like I feel like the people in the community our our staff our students our parents are not taking the
033precautions that we've asked to be put in place and I'm going to have to go with no on this one because it's going to mix our cohorts it's going to mix our teachers that's going to put everybody in different classrooms and I I just I'm gonna have to say no yep okay so that puts us at a two yes and three no that motion does not pass what other suggestions do we have Mr President yes I move that we close the um for the last week of school for this last week close all the all the schools Mr President um could I make a comment please yes um Mrs Diaz can you be much more specific than that closing implies that we have nothing going on that that vacation has started is that your intent
034are you are you talking about quarantining all of our schools let let me let me restate that then um I moved that we um as a district moved to online classes for this last week of the semester is that better well it's more precise that helps me thank you may I ask a question yes um if our grade books are closed does this affect our funding if we were to close early for vacation yes it does yeah if we actually closed and had nothing going on next week uh we would not be able to meet the number minimum number of days that we have to okay okay that's what I wanted to know yeah okay it would have a big effect if it well if it didn't affect our funding it would affect my vote
035so it does affect the funding it it will affect our funding we have to have so but I wanted to verif yeah we have to have the number of days and uh and not just for our regular funding but now uh both the ESG Grant and the Esser Grant are tied directly to us having remember when we added that one day back into the calendar so that we were matching last year um because that was required so uh there's a there's a whole lot of uh I hate for this to boil down to money because it never should but there's a heck of a lot of money on the line if we don't if we don't have the number of days we need so we're going to have to make up these days no we
036do not have to make these days no if we closed totally if we closed totally yeah if we're if we're virtual if we're a quarantined and they're learning at home we're not closing and that was that's one of the reasons that I suggested that you say we're quarantining rather than you know rather even than saying that we're going back to Virtual the quarantine allows us to still claim these kids for these days at 100% if we say we're taking them all to Virtual or distance learning now we now we affect that because that becomes the 95 5% funding and I hadn't even thought about that so I'm kind of glad you brought it up reward my I can reward my motion so I have I have a couple more questions before you reward a motion
037I'm sorry guys um okay are we are we required to have a full school day or can we go to half days if we can we shorten the day no because uh because the days are dependent on number of uh uh number of hours per year okay I thought so I just wanted to verify and then my other question is is Will teachers be able to remain in their classrooms like we did at the beginning of the year or will they have to be at home no we'll have them working in their classrooms unless they have symptoms or are have already tested positive so it's an option for them to be home if they need to be home no well if they if they are ill then they need to be home but if they're
038not ill and I mean if they're ill in their home and they feel like working they can still work virtually but everybody else we expect to be at work bus drivers secretaries Paras everybody we'll have them busy are you ready for my re my re motion yes okay I move that we quarantine um the students or should I say district for the remainder of this first semester that work yep do we have a second I second that Borland okay good okay all in favor Corey Burgess nay Genie I'm in a I'm Jeanie Borland I'm gonna vote yes however as a parent I'm opposed to this vote and as a teacher I would probably be opposed but for the safety of our staff and students I'm voting yes Doug yay Brandy I will abstain Brandy deis
039and Charlene yay Charlene be so the motion carries three yeses one no one abstain okay so now we just need a motion to adjourn I make a motion we adjourn Genie Borland I'll second that Corey Burgess I second all in favor I Corey I Genie hi Doug hi Brandy hi Charlene Diaz we are adjourned [Music]