001so at this time i'd like to call the meeting of the dysart unified school district back to order let the record reflect all members are present and we'll continue with item h3 senate president i just want to acknowledge for the record the list of people who did sign in to speak those people are encouraged to email the board if they would like to further express their concerns regarding the agenda item the people that signed in to speak this evening is are charisse booth dale diehl kimberly hyde michelle dillard angelina russo steve daniels colby jorge and nathan friendly thank you madam president uh just giving some more background on this the last regular schedule board meeting during the administration update on uncovered it was the recommendation of the district that we continue with the current protocols
002throughout the rest of the year since then the governor made an announcement that essentially removed any requirements for the wearing of masks in public which brought the mask issue to the front center of attention and since the governor's announcement this has been a very emotional and very strongly debated topic in our community but also in our school district and for this reason it is specifically brought to the governing board for for conversation just to give some some basic information at this point our active cases are very low we are hovering at about five students total throughout the 23 000 students we have about one or two at any given time of adults employees who are reporting active cases we we're continuing to implement the protocols with contact tracing and quarantine as necessary although as i
003mentioned it's very low it is the community once again has seen higher numbers that are not reflected in the theiser community i believe that many of these low numbers are a direct result of the safety protocols that being said i understand that conditions have changed at this point with regard to the number of people have been vaccinated and the recent information released by the cdc about being able to be outside and if you're vaccinated and even gather gathering small groups inside if you're vaccinated so there are it's still as it has been for the last 12 months it's a moving target as new information is released as the health experts continue to weigh in on the various topics all throughout this year administration has received lots of opinion and input about the protocols and the
004the decisions that have been made and while it would be tempting to look at a popular vote and go that direction we have been consistently following the direction of the health professionals the health professionals said the safest place for kids is to be in the classroom and we did that the health professionals said um here are very specific guidelines for contact tracing for quarantines we have followed that these have not been popular decisions for in every case somebody and the board at this time has the monumental task of weighing in on the same conversation and if the vortel chooses there's a recommended motion with two options and that is to either continue the the mask requirement or continue current protocols in place until the end of the school year which is may 20th or to
005discontinue the mask requirement beginning tomorrow the board has delivered these are recommended motions the board can have discussion and come up with a different motion that is some variation of those so with that i'll turn over back to the president to facilitate the conversation a couple questions um i know we talked about this briefly but can you give us an update as far as the air quality filtration systems that we used our coven money for that to put back into our schools to improve the health of our students and staff can you give us an update of where we're at on that yes so um the board approved the use of federal coded relief funds esther monies as what we refer to them as and that a portion of that money was specifically dedicated to
006what we call air scrubbers right air scrubbers are you put a mechanism in every single room where there's a vent or an air intake and these air scrubbers basically ionize the particles make them very dense and they are captured in our in our filtration system our current filtration systems to do a single campus takes about one to two weeks we have already started that the installation of those um but with 25 sites it will take 25 weeks which is about six months yes that is underway and with the um short time left before the end of the school year we are hoping that we can have more access to the schools during the summer there will be some summer school but that's not filling the buildings so we're hoping that the contractors can get in
007during the summer and expedite the installation process before school starts in the fall questions well i'm just i've i did some research um because there's everybody saying science on this side there's everybody saying the signs on this side so what i was finding is as i was looking into these articles and this is not cnn it's not msnbc it's not fox news it's not newsmax or whatever this is like studies done back in 2014 and 2015 over in asia okay because they've been dealing with the mass mandate for so long and what these studies are finding is you know and this was like right after sars is it's finding that cloth masks are only like 90 they have a what was that a 90 penetration rate cloth masks and handkerchiefs medical now have a 50
008penetration rate so um you know just different quotes you know this one these this one article i was reading you know says we know that wearing a mask outside healthcare facilities offers little if any protection from infections you know and then there's there's all these other studies and it says what is less clear is whether a mask offers any further protection than healthcare settings in which the wearer has no direct interactions with symptomatic patients you know and it talks about there's a quote here from yet another study that said a masculine will not prevent healthcare healthcare workers with early coping 19 from contaminating their hands and spreading virus to patients and colleagues so it's talking about all these different variables and one of them even mentioned kids kids wearing masks a lot of times the
009masks don't fit them and so it really doesn't do anything for them anyway you know and not only that but they've got these holes on the side you know and so stuff still gets through skittle still gets through with these kids and they're constantly touching things like they're touching their face more you know and working as an instructional coach i've been in the kindergarten classroom for the past month and i'm telling you like they have a mask mandate at their school but these kinders all the way down all the way down these kinders and it's not because they're just trying to be defiant but they're just kids you know their teacher will try to remind them to pull up your mask pull through your mouth put on your mouth but their day is just nonstop
010and so what's happening is these kids are taking it off putting it at their desk or they're pulling it down to their chin and then they're dropping crayons on the floor picking crayons up putting it on messing with their mask taking their pencils dropping it on the floor picking it up oh hey i want to borrow your crayon and then messing with their mask and not only that but it's let's see surgical masks were also found to be a repository of bacterial contamination so and it says that various respiratory pathogens were found on the outer surface of used medical masks which could result in self-contamination the risk was found to be higher with longer duration of mass use so what these guys are saying and these really aren't opinionated articles is you know this is
011the 24 2015 so this is like way before covet even started and i don't know if you guys are familiar with reading journals and articles and scholarly research and all that but when you're doing a research you typically just publish the results you typically publish the results you start off with the research and you say this is my question and then what you do is you do all the data you collect the data and then you publish the results you don't say well i think it's good or i think it's not good you just say and then one one article said penetration of cloth masks by particles was almost 97 ninety seven percent and medical masks forty four percent so moisture retention reuse of cloth mask and poor filtration could result in increased risk risk
012of infection and the results caution against the use of cloth cloth masks you know and it says masks have been demonstrated to have a degree of effort have not been demonstrated to have a degree of efficacy that would warrant their compulsory application for the checking of epidemics you know and then one study suggests that basically the masks are a reflective action a reflexive action to panic so you know it kind of questions the using of masks for actual safety does it just make you feel safety so it's suggesting that people are saying just wear masks okay so what these authors did these doctors they researched it they took the controlled study and these are the results so you know and this like i said these are studies done back in 2014 and 2015 before kobit
013was even anywhere so it's not biased it's not opinionated this is just studies medical studies so i i honestly think it would be beneficial if we just removed the mandate and kept it optional because you know a lot of people are saying there's only three eggs though okay but there's summer school you know and we're just going to keep going around this mountain again you know if we don't lift the mandate tonight then it's going to come up for summer school do you want children wearing masks in summer school and then again for next year so i i honestly think it would be beneficial if we lived in the mandate and let it be optional that's much sense based on what i've seen from science we also have choir concerns fan concerts and plays coming
014up as well and for for those that sit on the vista stage like we did last week it's pretty hot on that stage with those lights so for me personally i just i think it needs to be optional one of the things and you were talking about the studies that were done some time ago one of the things that i actually teach cpr and um one of the things i go over with my students is the fact that when we breathe in oxygen we expel co2 and that's the bad air so of course when the bad air is expelled where is it expelled into the mask and so you're breathing back in the bad air and then you're expelling more bad air so it's it's a consistent thing that's getting into your lungs but on
015the other hand i do see that it is only was it 16 days left of school so do we provide that option for the parents do we still protect everybody as a whole because we as a board we're supposed to be flying at this 30 000 foot and it's um it is difficult you're right students will take the mask they'll pull them off they'll oh i forgot and they'll put them back on this has happened all year and um teachers have been frustrated principals have definitely been frustrated um i'm not sure what the happy medium is but i the one thing that keeps sticking in my brain yes there's only 16 days left co2 is bad so it's it's just like should we provide that option for our parents i want to see students walk
016across the stage for graduation i want to see our students go through their eighth grade promotion i don't want anybody else to get sick they're great numbers as far as you said about five cases district wide but that's for our students so we basically have three different types we have people that are against keeping the mandate continuing the mandate or providing that option um but the question is i don't know which one dropping a mandate though still provides the option for anybody to wear a mask true yeah true it does um but i did have one question for you dr kalos if we did drop the mandate or provide it as optional would we still continue the other protocols such as the cleaning such as the other protocols that we have in place right now
017would we still continue those presidents sourcing yes the intent is that we continue any protocols that the word doesn't actively remove off the stage protocol plan can ask some questions first before i kind of voice some of my concerns or opinion um so because i know dr kalash you're more involved with those intimate conversations with cdc arizona department of health for a while it would seem like every day if not weekly is it is it still the understanding that despite the governor's recent action the cdc and the arizona department of health are they have they changed their stance on the use of masks and schools my friends pritchard they have said that if they are engaged in rigorous activity because they should not be wearing masks and so based on that health professional guidance we
018have worked hard to allow students who are at recess and at lunch time the ability to not wear masks assuming that they are running and having rigorous exercise during lunch and recess since the governor's and that was before the governor's announcement since the governor's announcement they still they being the health experts still say that wearing masks is one of many protocols all by itself it's not going to solve the problem but in conjunction with multiple protocols collectively they are effective but are they saying have they said that they agree that masks are no longer needed in schools last night on the news the cdc they interviewed the cdc director and she said that they are still encouraging math indoors they want to continue if you're outdoors that's one thing that they're saying indoors to continue
019to wear now and that was the cdc or the department of cdc um in a sense we could still do the same thing right we could still encourage masks but not make it a requirement who's going to monitor that i mean you send a child to school and parent thinks that child has a mask or the child has the mask in their pocket they put it on and they get to school then they take it off because kids like i don't want to wear them out then something happens how are the parents are we going to have the teacher say is this optional are you supposed to have a mask or not have a mask something happens and they get that parent lines up and they're going to call and say why didn't you make
020my child put his mask on i mean i just i the last few weeks of school why do we want to put that added pressure on our teachers and administrators um if maths become optional because i i hear what ms sends more saying as far in this shape and as far as having it be optional people who want to wear it can people that don't don't have to it's kind of like a win-win but i'm concerned about the fact that those who maybe either live in multi-generational families or have underlying health concerns um and maybe they don't feel comfortable being in a room with people who potentially may choose not to wear their mask and when this first came out to the issue with mask was if i wear a mask i'm protecting you if
021you wear a mask you're protecting me so i could wear my mask but if i'm next to somebody who doesn't want to wear one then i'm really not getting that protection i don't know if they change that because i know it's an ever-evolving thing but basically what i'm one of my questions is is it truly fair all around if we are not going to allow the students who are uncomfortable being next to someone who is not wearing a mask will we allow them to flip back to online learning because they do not feel safe in the school will they be given an option to keep themselves safe and and flipped back to online learning the plan right now is no that doesn't mean that a student can't self quarantine the board has had that conversation
022about self quarantine um that is typically for seven to ten days we have 15 days left and so it would be difficult um i have heard from principals who have said that they have worked very hard to get kids back into school who have been online and they're concerned that they'll go back home obviously we can't stop them from not coming to school they're absent there are state laws regarding the the 10-day absence requirement that they must be dropped but there are ways that people work with the attendance policies and regulations and and maintain enrollment but as far as this the quarantine option i think when we've had discussions about that in the past you said it's really up to the teacher if they want to provide that zoom link if you're not in a
023true quarantine situation so let's say you're you have been exposed to someone in your class but let's just say the simple fact of risk is going to go up some if you're around unmasked people and less than six feet of space and if those people choose to not come to school because they feel unsafe it wouldn't truly be a current team because they may not have been exposed yet but again with that 10-day drop rule how would that come into play because they really wouldn't and as they had a teacher who maybe was like no zoom isn't i don't offer zoom or you know at this time of the year with all the other um demands that are on that teacher it would just be too much for them to have to do online that's
024really not that's really not a guarantee i guess basically is what i'm asking i'm sorry lucy open the door um so it would be easy easy it was a funny word it would be easy to require all teachers to live stream their their lessons every day we can has purchased a livestream cabinet for every classroom for that very purpose if we were to be shut down as a state again we're ready to go live live stream within five minutes um yes that can happen now obviously the quality of that is not ideal meaning we have seen by experience that when a teacher is teaching a class they're not giving attention to the kids who are viewing the the live stream so they miss out on that direct instruction engagement but yes we have said anytime
025a parent requests that a teacher live stream a student could break their arm have nothing to do with perfect if they break their arm and they're at home it's very easy to just flip on the livestream camera again is it funny word but that can be done and then if if mouse become optional if that's become optional if it's largely because we're saying that you know now we're down to just five cases for the entire district then would administration be willing to lighten up on the quarantine policy specific to indirect conduct so for an example true exposure they say is any time you're within six feet or maybe now they change to three feet but either way six three to six feet of someone who is tested positive for covid for more than 15 minutes
026unmasked so if you're a student who again if the board votes to make mass optional and you choose to wear a mask and there is a student within three feet of you six feet of you in your classroom who test positive for coded are we going to still maintain those mass quarantine mandatory quarantines um even for those students who maybe choose to wear their mask that goes back to the question is are we going to continue with the other protocols and the plan would be to continue the protocols unless the board specifically removes protocols from the safety protocol plan so that's enough that's an option the board wants to solve and finally just as far as just my question piece and then after everyone else is done i'll talk about some of the things that
027have been kind of weighing on my mind regarding this decision as far as administration different uh principals even district administration teachers what are you hearing as far as their um their thoughts their comfort levels over the last 15 years of school everything i've heard you've heard as far as the written communication what is fascinating to me is what you have seen the emails some teachers who you might kind of want to be tempted to group all teachers into one opinion that keep keep the mandate in place and that's not the case there are teachers who have expressed desire via emails to the board to me that we lift the mandate and make it optional um there's a lot of teachers who want the other way you would think all parents would want to let the
028mandate and yet there's a lot of parents who don't we did have a meeting with our principals earlier this week and the general census of the conversation was that there's 15 days left let's not disrupt so much when we're doing state testing this week we are doing final exams and students are trying to finish out the year with their end of year activities and if they are no math some parents are going to pull their kids there's the potential some teachers will we'll stop we'll just say i'm done some have said that is why i say there's a potential whether any of that happens i don't know parents may say what they're going to pull their children for one side or the other and they may not um some some uh teachers who said i'm
029out of here may or may not it's 15 days left so to answer your question it's all over the place how would how would that tell that if they went off when parents pulled their kids out they can't do finals at home so and how they do like they're doing testing right now you can't do that at home so they still have to come i mean we have to make other arrangements now for them to do it in a separate room or i mean how would all that work with because of all the things that are happening at the end of the school year my president mrs graham we're doing that right now with our online students who have to take the state test they're coming in the schools have set up a large room
030it might be the media center or cafeteria or the gym and they're spreading them all out i was just at riverview today and observed the entire media center with students 12 feet apart but they were all online kids that were required to come in to take the state test obviously some tests can't be done remotely if it's a performance-based test like ceramics or culinary arts i say never never say never it'd be difficult but uh and more likely than not they'd be required to come in in a separate study to take the test but what about finals i mean when we're talking about the lining like a high school kid right exactly they would have to be other arrangement now we're asking for another which is what we've done for the state test for high
031school so if students not willing to bring their students in school if there could be around people that aren't working that could be an incomplete on their report card until they come in and do it yeah and to the point of summer school the plan was to continue the protocols through the end of the year and then use summer school as the optional trigger point because summer school is optional it's not required and then use that as the transition into the hall how do we work with outside groups right now i know we have a few like religious organizations that use our facilities do we require those outside groups to enforce our mass mandate yes just like so after the governor's order was over did we have anything in between there to where the state
032mandate was dropped but our mandate was still in place um we have maintained our protocols for everyone consistently okay it's kind of like the state farm stadium setting the requirements for us for graduation we don't have choice right and they are requiring math correct um so an example would be the vista show over the weekend that vista so here's here's some of my thoughts then just just keep discussion going um to five of us that are all of us in here there are 15 instructional days left of school i'm particularly thinking about our high school seniors our 8th grade promoters after may 9th theoretically if the students exposed to code in the classroom they'd be excluded from participating in their graduation ceremonies due to quarantine and then also during this time as we've said there's
033going to be our testing that's going on right now that could potentially be impacted i think our numbers are low and and i think our numbers are low because uh i know this is kind of goes on everyone has an opinion about mass i do view that they are a mitigating factor i think they have mitigating factors in place for a reason and i think they've been effective i think they've helped us get here i don't think they're the be all end-all but i think they've helped um the difference is to one of the points of you know when did when does it end as far as summer school you know we could continue to have this i would recommend if the board decided to keep the band-aid in place through the end of the
034year that we revisit summer school and we specifically have a date to do that the difference for me is that summer school students are going into that scenario eyes wide open knowing that okay the board either voted to keep the mandate in place or make it optional for summer school sessions they have a choice they either go or they don't right now students are in their current situation based on the fact that dysart put these mitigating factors in place one of them being masks it's too late for some of them to go fully back into a high school setting that's not even an option for them so really it's not a fair i hate to say it's not fair but it's not a fair balance for all because they're in a situation where they're denied
035an opportunity to make the choice like they all were in the beginning of the semester of you know there was a clear end date of after this date you cannot flip back so we're telling them you can't flip back but now we're taking away a potential safety net that maybe was the make or break for them to decide whether or not they were going to stay in person or not so to me it's just a difference of and even for our teachers and staff i mean they decided to continue teaching and dysart or stay with us because of the mitigating factors we have in place now they still have to fulfill the terms of their contract and maybe doing so in a scenario where they're not feeling safe because they're going to be around others
036that aren't wearing their masks so there's that piece the students and then also that those under 16 can't get vaccinated so you know they're so again i go back to the multi-generational families underlying health conditions the very very sad reality of if we remove mass right now there's a potential for infection rates to go up the corn the mandatory quarantining that could start happening again and the thought of some of these high school seniors or eighth graders who are getting ready to promote be told we've already got another email from someone that they could attend a shadow ridge prior event because they're quarantined and so a lot of these things they could be missing out on when we could just stay true to what we put in place for the next 15 days reconvene is
037aboard talk about summer and at least at that point people can make a decision based on all the facts presented if you don't want to be around someone who might not be wearing a mask then you don't enroll in summer school those are my thoughts i and i'm the first person to say people should have the right to choose don't impose your will on me i get that but it's to the point to where it doesn't negatively impact another and by doing this we are potentially impacting negatively the will of another or the safety of another or at least their perceived safety and i just think we have to look at beyond my feeling of how i feel about certain things we have to look at everybody and everyone has different circumstances so something that
038miss pritchard just said revisiting it for summer school summer school starts wet day again june 6th or 7th whichever that month we have other activities between the end of school year and the start of summer school and we do and i want to make sure that we keep that in perspective correct i feel like if we're going to make any decision for summer school then we should do it either tonight or really soon because there's so much going on you know and if teachers are afraid you know to go in the classroom without a mask well they all had the opportunity to be vaccinated we had a pod you know so if if teachers are vaccinated then it really shouldn't be an issue for them being in the classroom with or without a mask well
039not everybody well you're right we offered it to them but in talking to some people they they wanted to wait until the school year was over because they didn't want to get sick and have to miss school because they weren't sure about side effects because they heard of you know we've all heard of it for the first shot this might happen after the second shot this might happen and i talked to several people they said nope i'm not vaccinating until after school is out and then i'm going to go get the shot and then you know whatever the other thing is we have kids that haven't even been vaccinated i mean some of the seniors maybe but not all of them and we from the very very beginning when this whole thing started i believe
040you have followed cdc guidelines and maricopa county health and we continued that whole thing um it just my biggest concern is the vaccine you're right people had a choice to be vaccinated but they're not and we don't know who's been doctor i mean nobody's going around and checking it's not have you been vaccinated have you you know it's there's no record of who's been vaccinated or not but again the vaccination the math the hand sanitizer the washing of the hand all of that goes together it nothing none of it is the the absolute answer i mean i've been vaccinated but i still wear my mask because i don't want to get in there i don't know if i'm going to get cold if i don't wear my mask i mean this is a very moving
041puzzle nobody knows all the answers but it all you have to put it all together and to your point didn't worry about this and how hot it is up there i have to say i'm very impressed with how creative they were on rather than wearing masks they were face shields one of the plays anyway they were wearing things of the the anyway there were and i thought how creative of them that not to have because they were singing and moving around a lot that they were wearing facial in fact i couldn't even tell until i looked at oh look at that they have face shields on the way i mean i'm very impressed how creative everybody has been with this whole this whole thing i appreciate the creativity too but i don't know particularly with
042theater but i know with some groups it's booster parents it's fundraising it's parents it's children that are you know using their money from their you know their summer job to pay for these masks and these extra you know safety accessories they're not all school provided so i just you know i i don't know for a backward theater but i know that for other groups there palm was an example they had to you know use a lot of their own funds for certain mass that were aia required so just with that um so dr kellis can you remind us how many um kinder we had a deficit in this year i think it was like three or four hundred now present members of the board i think between kinder and first grade it was probably uh
043madam president members of the board this year at the beginning probably down 700 kids i believe probably 350 400 were probably kindergarten first grade okay and do we have any feedback as to why i mean was it maybe because we were going to be requiring their you know five and six-year-old to wear a mask um we don't have any formal feedback we didn't do a survey of them anecdotally we have heard that with everything going on they're just going to red shirts a year and they'll come back next year and hopefully august hopefully when things have settled down but we also have a charter school moving in that could absorb some of that there are again mixed messages some because of the mass because they don't feel safe i mean it's some just don't want
044to deal with it with their littles madam president members of the board i would say uh nsba if you've seen the articles this is a question nationwide everybody's asking the same question so technically i believe school districts are down around 60 to 65 000 students and charters are up about 10 000 um but ultimately there's kids that were here last year and are not here this year and there's no school system we don't know about micro schools you might see the article of the attorney general's now looking into that there's a lot of homeschooling micro schools or just take off a year that is why there's just so much unknown do they all show up the 700 plus show up for the next year plus our growth that's why we're taking a middle ground but
045there's a lot of unknown and uncertainty there at one of the cip meetings i forget the school i want to see marley park but that may be wrong they've had 78 kindergartners come in over the course of the year that they're just starting to come back into the school was it 78 i mean this is after september right but as parents are you know getting more comfortable bringing their kids to school so they have quite a few more coming in i guess i just don't i i'm still not convinced that masks are the best option if kids are constantly touching their faces and breathing in their carbon dioxide you know and we all got the same emails flooding from parents saying just let us choose let us choose and you know there are people out
046there who develop breathing issues from wearing a prolonged mask you know just the bacteria being on it all day even if you just get a fresh one every day i do but just constant bacteria bacteria bacteria you know and you also have to consider kids immune systems yeah we're trying to keep them from getting covered but i mean as children when we eat dirt that's where we get our immune system from so if we're shutting down our immune systems now are we doing long-term damage you know and honestly you know if if i've got four or five studies that say the medical masks have 44 to 50 penetration rate and the cloth masks i mean 90 penetration right it doesn't matter if i'm wearing it and somebody else is not whatever i'm spewing out is
047still getting out it's but i i honestly think it would be best just to lift the mandate and leave it optional but what would you say to those families that's my only thing i mean that um there's so many different studies out there and lots of people that emailed would link different studies and i looked at those and there's just an overwhelming amount of information and evidence for whatever the study you know adhered to examining and it's hard to like okay is this a credible group that did the study is that that's why i kind of always go back to what does the cdc say what does the department of health say as kind of like my authority i you know i'm different too i mean since 99 i have been one of my jobs
048has always been in the medical field so i know that that's a hard thing to pull out of me and i know not everybody buys into the medical you know evidence and things but that for me i i do i do put some value into what the cdc and department health says so although there's different studies out there that will kind of tell you mixed things depending on which one you read i just kind of go back to that main authority but aside aside from everyone's view on that i guess my big thing is we do know it's a mitigating measure and if we do take that away which then as a result you know you're increasing whether or not how much or not again that goes back to what study you're reading but if
049the risk is increased and then you have these seniors who have had the year they've had with covid and everything they've endured and then that puts them at higher risk of being quarantined or sick and they can't walk and finish their high school experience just for 15 days of lifting a mandate i just feel like that is such a huge risk for [Music] for 15 days and i just i don't that's where i'm really torn on that i know this conversation would be totally different that this was the middle of the year this would be totally different if the governor had lifted or did what he did on april 19th and we would be having a totally different conversation and if it was the middle of the year i would lean more towards having it
050as an option but for right now i just think that we need to continue and this is my own thing i think we need to continue uh keeping the mast in place it's it's just a short time so what do we say to those people that have been sick and tired of hearing the 15 days to slow the spread and we say oh only 15 days more after we've had like you know how many 400 days um and what do we say to those parents concerned that we're violating their parental rights to have control over you know health care decisions for their child whether or not they can you know they can wear a mask or their shield those all those conversations you know happen in the beginning of the school year you know when
051we were coming back on campus um and it seemed like they got different answers you know from whether it was from administration or their teacher or from the district office on what their rights were in that whether or not they could wear a shield or they didn't have to wear a mask that wasn't very clear and i just think that we need to make this exceptionally clear um i i just think that we need to have a process for parents to opt out if that's what we decide to do as a board tonight to keep this mandate on i think that we need to allow a process for parents to opt out of this because right now we're talking about vaccines and while we can't vaccinate our kids well you know there's a lot of
052parents that never ever want to put a needle in their child and give them a vaccination and who are we to take that right away from them so for us to say that we you know have all this medical knowledge and we're going to honor what the cdc says i thought that we were about local control not a federal agency you know that's funded by federal tax dollars and the bill gates foundation in bloomberg why are we listening to them why are we not listening to our governor you know and then making that decision on her own as the asba says we're all about local control we're big girls and we can make this decision on our own i don't understand that and that's where my frustration is and i feel like we're violating parents
053rights well and what about all those parents no i i my mentality is not okay not okay in any situation but what about all those parents who showed up tonight trying to get in to speak trying to get in to let us know the community's wishes because ultimately we were elected by the community right so either way we're going to make some group of people mad tonight it's just going to happen but honestly i feel like the parents have gone out of their way to show up for us or show up for their kids in our emails to let us know we want this mandate removed i feel like the majority you know and the majority of the emails that i'm getting are from staff members who should have already been vaccinated and if you
054don't want to get vaccinated it is what it is you can wear a mask that's fine but the majority of the emails i'm getting from parents saying please remove the mandate and most of them are pretty nice the majority of what i hear from the community is please remove the mandate we have no problem with people sending their kids to school if they want to like that so my problem is not just you know everything going on not just thinking about two weeks of school left my problem is big picture here so what we keep it for two weeks we say oh just two more weeks just two more weeks and then summer school rolls around oh just two more months just two more months and then you know then it becomes the lockdowns that
055never end almost you know i wasn't on the board but it seems to me like this is a conversation when you talk about local control you didn't have this conversation way back in september or when the when you mandated math was that a board decision it was never a poor decision but there was never a conversation you you're the board you could have asked it to be a board discussion so i mean to say now with 15 days to go where is the local control well we've had no local control until now i mean that we never had an opportunity to have it you can ask to have something put on the agenda always so and i'm not i'm not saying either way i'm just saying but it's a conversation that could have happened way
056back when you talk about local control but so from the very beginning everything has been going along regarding all these guidelines and now we're going to question the guidelines that seem to be what's happening i don't know either way we're going to have people that are going to be very upset either the folks we're those three buckets either way we're going to have people that are going to be upset yeah and you know when you look at them you got a lot of emails opposing but there's a lot of parents that didn't respond i mean that's not the majority of parents within our school district so you always hear from the local ones they've been interested i mean you can't do a survey because it's a little late but a lot of people are going
057to school and begging you know they were talking about bringing please come back please come back okay what's your protocol and they're giving them the protocol and so i think it's a it's a whole list of things that parents are bringing their kids back because of all the protocols they didn't say oh it's because you're wiping the guests down you're washing their hands i think it's because of all of them and those that don't want to wear them they could have way way way back that they would could have gone to high school but they chose not to they chose to put their children in the classroom knowing that we had a math mandate and we can really beat this thing all night long so i am going to make a motion that unless you
058want to talk about it some more but i'm just going to remove that the board re keep the math mandate until the end of the school year may 20th may 20th for discussion purposes i will second or further discussion purposes can i ask one more question further um because uh to ms dunsmore's point regarding the parent right argument that's been brought up have you discussed that with our attorney in regard to this decision and the board having legal authority to make this decision and whether or not it violates any legal rights of a parent uh my prison was richard yes we did consult our attorney who cited the attorney general's opinion on the matter and decided that it is within the authority of the school district to issue such mandates didn't you get an email
059on that yes i wholeheartedly agree with that opinion of the agent so that would be can we share that email with those pianing it wasn't a confidential email worker um corresponds between an attorney and the client is privileged but the ag opinion itself is public but i mean you can tell you can fight opinion sure if you'd like since we're on the topic of it i don't know if this is going to happen but um i i brought it up earlier too are we are we in the position to where we want to addend the uh the quarantine protocol at all if again they're they're defining exposure of unmasked unmasked students is what constitutes an exposure unmasked within six feet for more than 15 minutes as far as are we still feeling like as a
060district we want to continue this full classroom quarantine if you are not the person who's actually infected with covid as long as everyone's wearing masks is that really a true exposure we want to still quarantine students at this time of the year or what are your thoughts on that as far as working that into the motion at all presidents richard the maricopa county and state work together on the contact tracing and the quarantine protocols it changes we have adjusted our protocols based on their protocols with regard to contact tracing and quarantine so to answer your question we would continue to follow the template flow chart that is online for american county in arizona and does it matter though is was it ever defined as to whether or not it matters if a student is master
061because in our district we're masked so does that change anything as far as the department of health's recommendation as far as a true exposure oh my pitcher to my understanding the mass was never part of the contact tracing or quarantine it was as you described within six feet for 15 minutes or longer within a 24-hour period they've adjusted that that and they said for 10 days they've redone that so that if you get a test at a certain period a certain day and then um if it comes back negative you can return within seven days there have been some minor adjustments along the way but essentially to my knowledge i have not seen anything regarding mass other than the recent cdc guidance on outdoors not wearing masks i just kind of feel like again at
062this time of the year if we're within 15 days they're wearing masks and usually they say exposure is without a mask are we still wanting to quarantine entire classrooms when we have five students with covenant and dysart but i think we can participate either way it sounds well it's not that are we keeping demanding for outside as well are we adjusting the mandate to exclude outside activities for cdc guidelines since we're listening to them um that would based on the motion that's on the table um to continue with the mass protocols we would require them outdoors unless the students are engaged in rigorous activity such as lunch and recess all right well i didn't need to get off topic if there was going to be a change in how we are with an emotion i
063would say that the motion on the table has an expiration date of may 20th which would mean that after may 20th they would it would not be required what are we having what's our next meeting is the implications of may 12 12 so are we are you suggesting we modify or edit the motion to include an expiration date um one just that the motion that's already on the table says continue the mass mandate through may 20th okay so that implies that may 21st there's no longer mandate should we when's our next meeting after the 20th i mean should we should we specify just for people that are concerned about you know is this going to go on or you know what kind of giving them that at least fact-based piece of information like the board
064will discuss this for summer school it's not going to be something we keep pushing off like um until the board reconvene or the board will discuss summer school on x you know date so it's definitely parents can count on the fact and staff can count on the fact that we will be addressing that and well our next board meeting is may 12th well right now it's set to expire on may 20th like the mandate is set to expire the motion was the mandate expires on may 20 20. there was no motion about revisiting it for summer school but can't we make it when miss densmart says future agenda items can't we stay as a future agenda item summers people need to enroll in summer school now really so really the math summer school as a
065future agenda item no but she's saying parents are deciding whether or not to enroll their students now now so if we're going to make this supper expire on this month on the 20th we need to be clear one way or the other whether or not it's supposed to continue for summer school or or if it is i believe it's like football conditioning starts sometime in may or like freshman you know football camp uh madam president the week the school ends on a thursday the following week we start with athletic um camp's athletic conditioning right and bandcamp you start with band camp um there's a theater campaign as well so there are activities and because bands not a sport i mean they don't really get that aia accommodation oh but i'm telling you it's terrible yeah
066being outside marching with your instrument it's brutal it is and to put that mask on top of it is unacceptable and it's really abusive to our kids so the um the motion that says uh to continue the mandate until the requirement protocol mass program until may 20th um again that would imply that after may 20th that's no longer in effect um i would ask okay but i'm probably not going to vote for that either way i would ask that at some point administration be given the autonomy to make decisions based on summer activities i understand that it would be a good conversation for the board to meet again and then make a board vote about summer school and then again in the fall and moving forward there's some wisdom in allowing administration to manage the
067protocols with continued conversation as we have been doing with the board well remember we have a work study session on may 5th also next wednesday that's next wednesday i think because we didn't get to hear people speak tonight and then we had so many emails about people's opinions and feelings about masks that um rather than just letting it expire and then people are wondering well how do i know whether to sign up for summer school are we having math so we're not having math do you feel like there should be some formality and letting the community know okay this is what the boards decided on summer school for mass so then then they know okay do i want to move forward and send my student or do i not um and they can start planning
068your administration can start planning so um so i don't think we should take that matter of order point of order that mrs grant made the motion she could amend that motion and otherwise you would need to carry it's been motioned and seconded you'd have to move forward with the original motion if the person who made the motion still chooses to modify that and become seconded again and that could be emotional why don't we keep it real simple and vote on my motion and then make another motion for summer school you can do that or you could just submit your motion the same sentence okay write it down i will amend my motion to say that the mass mandate stay in place until may 20th and that for summer school summer school because wait a second
069hold on hold that thought because they don't have to wear a mask for rigorous outdoor activities outdoor activity so rigorous outdoor activity would include band no that's not right we're talking about summer school and it wouldn't include the camps happen after may 20th huh can't stop them after may 20th right because i thought that okay we're only on summer school right okay all right here's the amended motion motion to continue the district's mass protocol through may 20 2021 and and that for summer school math by students or just the optional director that maths are optional for summer school and is this for staff or student level it's not a good question um so the difference between summer school is you're not addressing the gap in between so if you say an optional thereafter then it
070addresses the camps that happen before summer school starts and after may 20th if you only want to talk about summer school there's still uncertainty about what the requirements are during that gap time right and also by making the motion now without hearing from the same parents or community or staff members that would have wanted to speak tonight we're kind of making that decision on optional or not without giving them the opportunity to come and speak their opinions so i wonder if rather than making a specific motion of summer school which sounds like according to dr kellis doesn't really capture everything that needs to because we have these other activities going on that we just that we just say that the board will yes maybe can we just put it on an agenda prior to the
071end of the year and talk about i don't think it's going to change could i make a simultaneous motion you'd have to vote on this one first and then we can have a second one thank you but um so take summer school you're just going to take summer school out it's not because it's not all inclusive it doesn't capture everything that we need to address especially that gap that we'll get from summer activities i don't care i'm not going to move forward but i also want to make it clear that we have the option to lift the mandate after the school year i'm going to vote to oppose it too i just don't want us to lock ourselves in we're not talking next school year we're just trying to get through this school year i
072know i know but my concern is that it'll just keep going it'll just keep going so whatever there will be a new fear a new fear a new fear a new fear i mean just one after the other it just snowballs it's just gonna snowball so may 12th is a board meeting can't you say we can be in discussion on mass mandate after may 20th we'll be held on may 12th will we i'm sorry what they don't have to wear it when they're out we have not made that policy change yet i haven't made the policy change i thought wait a second now it's when they're engaging in rigorous activity or recess right lunch and recess before and after school we don't regulate blood and recess or the times that they're outside unless they're walking
073between classes all i'm concerned about is we're going to be in the same situation in two weeks from now that we are today so i don't whatever we decide i feel like we should at least have a good direction of where we're going for summer school rather than just leave everybody hanging in the wind because that's where you say may 12th then you you say that you're there mandy is going to be kept in place through may 20th that district activities after may 20th beginning may 21st will be discussed at the may 12th inning i mean it's an option i don't know that will address the need for like this can't keep going on and on and on we have to discuss it that's going to pin us down to a date um and then
074that's when we can really think about okay is it summer school is it fall is it what i feel like we're just going to have a repeat of tonight's scenario i mean i'll do whatever the majority goes whatever whatever i'm wrong besides that's fine but i feel like we're just gonna have another repeat of tonight's scenario if we do if we have another vote for summer activities i mean we can do that if that's what everybody wants to do that's perfectly fine but i feel like it's just the process is going to keep coming up the same well i don't think so i think we just right now i just want to get us through the school year we haven't you know i just want to get us through the school year that's it and
075things change i mean we all know that things are the numbers are lower things are changing as we go so we can discuss summer school and then who knows like by next fall i mean everybody is projecting as more people are vaccinating that mass and everything's going to go away yeah there might be another virus that's a whole other story that we have no control over but for now we just have to get through this during school year right and so i definitely don't want to repeat it a regular motion does everybody want to amend that motion or are we going to just vote on mass at the end of the school year i'm just going to say one more thing so at the lab the end of the last school year we didn't have
076this heat we didn't start in the dead of the heat you know in the fall like we normally do because we had that delay our kids are not used to this when these masks get wet it blocks airflow and our kids are going to sweat it's going to block that airflow and i don't care what kind of medical background anyone here has or half a dozen it's a fact and i i've got three kids in the school district i also have one with a chronic health condition with a suppressed immune system a medically chemically suppressed immune system so i know what i'm talking about too and i would even rather have him not in a mask so that his lungs can function properly and i just i take this very personally i'm pretty passionate about
077it and i know we all have our hills that we're going to die on and this is it for me so that's just wanted to say my piece we haven't crossed the hill yet for boundary changes i do a great crystal that i don't want to i don't want to have a repeat of tonight too especially if nothing's got the only reason why i was thinking about having a specified date is just so people aren't feeling like as long as they are appropriate they have a venue in which to speak more directly i just don't like to take those options away from people but i get what you're saying too yes it would be killing it i'm just trying to find a way to appease people feeling like you know we don't want to just
078be out there floating someday in the bike we're going to talk about it we'd be actually giving them that so they'd feel like they were heard and they had that opportunity but um yeah i guess i just don't want to feel like we're comfortable we are continually moving the goal posts you know i don't i don't want to say oh we'll deal with that next time and i understand what you're saying you know you want to get parent input you want to give them a chance you want to give them another chance to come back and tell us you know exactly how they want us to vote you want to give them that other chance i guess i just feel like they're just saying oh we'll deal with it later we'll deal with that later
079and summer's going to get here before we know it it's like like there's literally four or five weeks of may and then bam we are in summer activities and we've only got we've got the 12th we've got our meeting on the 12th and that's the only meeting we have scheduled before all the summer begins okay so okay so at least we have another meeting but i i i don't know if i was if i was that parent i wouldn't want to know i wouldn't want to be i wouldn't want to wait till the last minute to know i don't know that's me but like i said we can we i feel like if that's what we want to do if we want to push those back to may 12th that's fine i feel like we're
080just going to keep going around the same hamster wheel yeah i get that i i don't care either way about that i just uh i do think though it could be a moving target i mean that's why i wouldn't want to say the mathematic would be possibly gone forever um may 20th because heaven forbid things get worse and we're in august and things have gone way way south well i can't say that then yeah let's just always have it optional i mean there's just new information coming constantly like it always was before and i just think we always need to make informed up-to-date decisions on the data that we have so that's my only hesitation we're just saying okay as of the 20th and never have to worry about marrying mask if you don't want
081to i mean when you see the data that we have are you basing it on the five cases we've got or are you talking about our our city our state are talking about the department of health the cdc as far as what their national level well the department of health arizona department of health so at this point now there's a point of order if you want miss grant wants to um proceed with her original motion or she can modify it to um say optional after may 20th that can be done or she can remove her motion from the table but if she wants to keep it as is then it would be appropriate for the mad president to call for the vote so what is the motion would you like me to read i let's
082just i think because there's so much i still haven't figured out whether what what to do about something summerslam if we're going to talk about summer school on may 12th then my motion is going to stand with we will leave the mass mandate in place until in the schools until may 20th now that doesn't say that if if after let's just please don't that there's not another whatever whatever whatever that we can't come back in august that's not for connection in august to reinstate math that's just saying getting us through the school year through may 20th that's promotion so basically we're making this motion just to because it's evie no i disagree with that statement all together this is not easy at all i've done my research as well i have been looking into all
083of them i feel for every parent who's sending their kids to school but a lot of parents you know again they're looking at the big picture protocol and i understand what you're saying about your son i get that i just think that for right now we've done it for 200 and 150 days 180 and i'm not you know we only have 16 days i'm glad that you feel comfortable making health care decisions for my child i'm not making a health care decision for your child this has been a this has been a protocol in the district since last august september that wasn't my decision i wasn't on the board well it sounds like we're just making it but we keep going around in the circle we've never had a mandate that the board collectively never
084made a mandate i understand that okay we were following one from the governor so we had absolutely no control over it i understand that now we do yeah yeah so he did say it's up to districts thank you my statement stands yeah we're making you're making a health care decision for my child myself i'm making a health care decision for all the kids in the district because like i said we have to fly at that 30 000 foot i'm saying that we should give that power to the parents and give them that choice and again i'm saying that well we can we just have to vote on it let's just vote because we can't confirm about this and then we'll discuss summer school and madam president that would be your responsibility you called for the
085vote well i just said i'm calling for the vote okay so i have a motion by joe grant to motion to continue the district mask protocol through may 20th 19 i mean 20 may 20th 2021 sorry seconded by tracy to saw your sink bills okay vote is online maybe do we need to refresh again uh i don't know mine didn't pop joe i'm still waiting for years did yours come up no okay do you see the votes in front of you does anybody okay so i know you guys don't see it i will read them off do uh don densmore no christine pritchard yes tracy sorry your sink bill yes crystal chefin no joe grant yes motion passed moving on to agenda item h4 oh gosh we still have three i'm sorry dr kelly thank
086you madam president members of the board and cabinet um this is the second read for section 10 there was a request last time the the policy section referring to sex offender notification be modified and you will note that the language that was added says the language added says that it's not a sex offender notification as the child abuse reporting but this responsibility may not or this obligation may not be delegated thank you are there any questions or discussion about this item we'll make a motion to approve the revisions to policies within section 10 10.35 through 10.69 as presented second seconded by tracy sawyer did it come up no not yet oh there it just did okay i refreshed it too oh come on it plays games with you well i don't have my little mouse
087either and i will fly over here okay we have all board members voting yes motion has passed all right and item five dr kellis land president members of board members of cabinet uh this is a second reading for sections one through eight and there was some conversation and i believe section two and three um some modifications have been made um some recommended language has been added and if you want to review that and have the discussion i'll entertain a motion if there's no discussion um i move that the governing board approve the revisions to policies within sections one through eight as presented second hmm there you go okay although members voted yes motion has passed end of age six dr thank you madam president members of the board members of the cabinet and mr dean
088will introduce this item dr dean excuse me because i'm struggling and this evening we bring forward uh to you the calendar recommendation for the next two year walk for 2022 2023 and 2023 2024 it's difficult to believe that we're actually talking that far out but we are the calendar formats that are in front of you follow the same template that we've used for the last several years the template has worked successfully for the district um there are a couple of differences with the two calendars that i want to point out this is the first time that we've been able to balance height balance semesters exactly at 90 days apiece so we're pleased about that additionally we are able to provide a full week of fall break and a full week at thanksgiving as well and
089so those two years have that option and we believe that we found a formula now that will allow that to continue to move forward you will notice that for 2022 2023 um that graduation date is established and that for 2023 2024 is to be determined we have not yet received a graduation date from the stadium for that year and so once we received that we would bring that back to the governing board additionally we are requesting a change to the next school year calendar 2021 2022 which is a very small change and that is to include the middle schools into the day before winter break as final exam days to be on par with the high schools and so we're requesting that change as well as adoption of the other two calendars which would give
090us three years calendar on the books and allow parents the opportunity to look ahead um three years at a time it is our goal to continue to have a process bring forward or bring a calendar every year to continue to have three years on the books at a time which will help parents um as they look ahead to them and i'd be happy to answer any questions i just have one question well yeah um on the next the i can't believe it the 22-23 um is the graduation date now we're into may today this year it's may 19th now it's may 23rd is that because of the whole week at thanksgiving um madam president mrs grant our graduation date is somewhat dictated to us by the venue that we utilize and the venue goes in
091an order to allow schools to choose based upon who's used their facilities the longest out of the six school districts that utilize the stadium we're currently fourth in that list so by the time they get to us there's limited days and we do the best that we can to select a date within our calendar so then you pick that dead work backwards yes okay thank you my question to you dr dean is how did you actually come up with doing the 90 and the 90 because that's very difficult what formula did you use well in working through my dissertation apparently i got a little wiser in math i'm kidding with that of course but we finally uh you know we finally operated from a perspective that that was a priority to us and even ironically
092even an 89 91 day split is not as effective for our high schools as 99 and our teachers really want to see that 90 90 piece so we just were able to finally calculate an opportunity to allow us to get to that point and then again we discovered a way that we could schedule the calendar to get those both of those weeks of break in in the fall which both our teachers and administrators are very thankful for currently with the two days of thanksgiving we have a great amount of absence in those two days and so that's a positive congrats on finding that formula because it's it's difficult make a motion to approve revisions to put um i'm kind of gosh careful the flies careful the flies flying around my nose just keeps sorry want
093me to do it yes okay i know that the governing board approved the adoption of the school calendars for the 2022 2023 and the 2023 and 2024 school years as presented and revisioned to the 21 excuse me 2021 2022 school year a lot of 20. i'm so glad you did that so re-seconded by dawn or joe dawn did it come up it did oh there it is okay the vote passed unanimously moving to item i1 request for future agenda item i have one request and my request is i had a kind of touched base with dr kellis on this um if we could get the traffic lights um update with the city of surprise um with the crosswalk like especially the update with west point and i had also mentioned to him in regards to
094students that and it was a concern with some people crossing over reams road at troya if there is some type of movement with that president would you like that as an agenda item or is an update on the weekly update or um i think it's information that all of us need to know so i would say as an information item school on may um okay i think you got that okay again as just for clarification so everybody's on the same page that given tonight's action that the mandate goes into effect until may 20th and then it is no longer in effect so you're saying that no it's not going to be an agenda item well i'm not saying it isn't that's just for clarification i have a motion by don densmore second by chris christie
095for check madam president the board could stay just a second after we can give you instructions to exit the board voting unanimously