001all right dr. santa cruz's our backup apologize for that thank you mr. Castellano for our viewers we'd like to apologize for the technical it we know that this is an important topic for you I'll let dr. McCord pick up from where he left off and the question was related to the logistics of getting in and out and parents being available to view that what that event so you want to take it from there dr. McCord thank you doctor Santa Cruz governing board members I will miss would ask do you know why can't parents you know the questions have been asked of us why can't we watch our our student walk across the state what I ate it was the fact that they won't actually get to see anything in particular other than their child walking
002across the stage there will not be a person on the stage physically handing them a diploma as Miss Taylor explained earlier that will be a hologram projected from another room all this is based around the social distancing premise as well as keeping people safe when students exit the vehicle and we'll have a group of them they'll be social distance at least six feet away in a line going through the auditorium and across the stage once they've virtually accepted their diploma they will go to a room adjacent to the auditorium they will take a picture with a professional photographer then they will exit back to their vehicles those vehicles won't be parked in parking spaces they will all be in a line probably two lines out in the parking lot of Mesquite you know they will
003enter their car and then exit the facility as we take the next group mr. Taylor how long do we project again from the car back to the car for a student to take to get through there you're a mute sorry about that when we walked it it was 2 minutes from car to car but with the added just pauses and delay and kind of waiting we estimate 5 minutes total from car to car they'll stop it as sanitation if we can get the video to work they'll stop at a sanitation table and they will have the opportunity to stand in front of a mirror just their half before they walk in just like they would before they left you know the backstage rooms in our regular graduations and then weave through the auditorium up the
004stage like dr. McCoy said back out towards the parking light lot but stopping in a room to get that photo in with their diploma cover and then back to the car so five minutes is what we're estimating if we can keep the flow kind of going which is also part of the reason for only having the senior student get out of the vehicle and back in we have schools that have 800 in some graduates so continuing to be able to film this and do it in a timely manner the more people that are involved obviously the longer it would take as well I have two questions how will the student receive their diploma cover oh okay how will the student receive their diploma cover and also the second question will there need to be someone
005who remains in the vehicle so the vehicle travels well they're gone in the line I'll start with the last question the vehicle will not while they're gone so if the student is alone they will put it in park lock it whatever they would normally exit it'll stay right there but those let's say 15 students would be all getting out from that one line at the same time and obviously then the first person would exit would go on stage first get back in their vehicle drive away second third so that whole line has then exited before the next line pulls in but there's a secondary line like dr. McCord mentioned behind them that those students would then be released out of their vehicle and go in so that it just continues that flow going into the
006auditorium and back to the vehicles that's why they wouldn't be actually parked in the parking lot as far as how students will receive their diploma they they're going to receive most of our schools have their diploma covers already at their sites so the student most of them would receive it that day there are a couple schools that they the shipping is backed up there in a warehouse in Kentucky or somewhere so there's a couple schools where we would have to have a different date for them to get their actual diploma cover but all of the students would have their diplomas their actual diplomas and the program mailed to them after the graduation date so we're going to wait for all grades to post and then we are printing actual programs like we would typically do
007at a regular graduation so that those students would have that as a memory with their names all listed with the you know GPA designations in their vowels designations in there with everybody listed and so forth so they will receive that in the mail with their actual diploma okay and my one more question just follow up on the diploma cover is there someone from the company that will stop those where the students pick them up yes and the the company has ensured us and you'll see in the video if we can get that going that they they will all be wearing masks and gloves and all of those things that are the requirements right now they have considered and kind of thought through all of that so it's it's been pretty impressive working with this company
008they're really on their on their game all right thank you dr. Santa Cruz where mr. J I dr. McCord we when the question that I asked you with his first kind of went down I think probably was not heard by everybody but I the question I asked was about how this company was able to pick us off and if we were the only ones do you mind answering that again just in case it wasn't heard thank you again for that this company works their primary source of income I guess the best way to put it is they worked several events they work for fortune 500 companies Microsoft Intel a lot of the big name companies this is this is that company who was part of and I'll say this you may or may not understand
009what I'm saying or remember it but years ago when they did a hologram concert of Tupac who's now passed away and but they were part of that and at that time that was some very big innovative ways to do a concert and so forward to now they one of the employees at the company was just kind of lamenting about how his kid won't be able to have a graduation just like everybody else because of Koba 19 and they started brainstorming on how can we get of a student and Families the very best opportunity virtually to experience graduation while still adhering to CDC guidelines of social distancing and keeping health and safety at the at the forefront and so they developed this and this how we're sitting here today thank you thank you very much board
010member are we ready to beautiful video you go ahead okay we'll try it again with Sean he's running because I think there were some settings in order for everybody to hear it he had to do some special magic to get it to go so hopefully it'll work this time the first demo video is kind of the explanation of the technology involved and the social distancing plan that the company presented to us and the first one's a little bit longer and as I introduced before I don't know if that was on the livestream or not but they set this particular video from their warehouse in Phoenix so they have come up with the plan specific to mesquite junior high location so that all of our students did not have to drive all the way to Phoenix
011so that is where you will see and he'll explain kind of those things in this one and then the second video is a little bit shorter and it shows the from the viewers perspective of what we would see as a final product again it's not using our kids but it's using their employees to show what the best they can since they don't have a sample video from an actual graduation they created these just so we could use them to try to explain some of these these technological wonders that they're they're planning to do so go ahead John okay we're going to give this a try again either and welcome to our demo my name is Jay Kohler I am the partner and CEO of vx3 and solid-state designs in Phoenix Arizona we know that these
012times have been especially difficult for our graduating class of 2020 and we have come up with a product that we believe is the solution to allow your graduates to the satisfaction of walking and graduating while practicing social distancing keeping everybody safe and having a unique experience that people remember for a long time what you're gonna see here is a product that we've developed in-house that uses holographic technology LED screens high-end broadcast cameras and a lot of ingenuity to get what you're about ready to see so let's go ahead and take a look what you see here is a soundstage that we built in our twenty seven thousand square-foot warehouse this soundstage is actually fully functional and we're able to hold the graduation here and I'll get into the logistics a little bit later on how
013that happens but it's important to know that this product is mobile its scalable and it's repeatable so we could do this all over the valley all over the country if we need to and be able to reproduce the same product as long as we have enough stage for the students to walk across and complete control over the ambient lighting so what you're looking at is obviously a stage and behind me is an LED wall that is any digital backdrop we want this can be a backdrop of your auditorium this could be simply a curtain it could be maybe just the logos of your school it doesn't really matter what it is we could change it up and we could change it up instantaneously and we can even change it through the prop through the program
014if we wanted to let me show you the important part though I'm gonna bring in mark who's playing the role of our Dean or principal in our isolation studio so now what you're looking at is me still on stage by myself but I've got mark in our isolation studio who can see me who could actually talk to me interact with me and it looks like he's right here on stage this is our in-house built hologram technology hey Mark how's it going in the isolation studio it's going good Jake what you doing over there staying healthy and staying isolated awesome so as you can see it looks just like he's on stage with me we're even evil able to interact I could even come up and give social distancing elbow bump if I wanted to so
015this is what it looks like and this is what your people will see on the other side of the broadcast now this could be recorded and sent out it could be live broadcast it could be edited into sections and pushed out the possibilities are pretty much endless and all of that happens in house here with one solution you don't have to go out and try to figure all the IT stuff out we've already got that handled for you so let me show you how it works a little bit behind the scenes we can't have an in-person graduation because of social distancing and health concerns we've developed a system to make sure we have the absolute minimum amount of crew required to run this all of our crew is required to follow certain sanitation protocols before
016they enter the building and utilizing stuff like robotic camera control and IP and IT based technologies all of our texts are spread out throughout the building never having to have physical contact with anybody or each other once the show is underway I'm going to take you into our isolation studio to show you where our colleague Mark was earlier on in the video so here I am in the isolation studio and I'm gonna actually invite onto the stage the very very first graduate of a virtual holographic graduation Pike Towers I congratulations on a great year come and get your virtual diploma congratulations Ike what do you think thank you so much I am excited to be here able to graduate and I'm excited that my family all over the country will be able to see me
017awesome thanks a lot like next I'm going to take you outside to show you how we're gonna manage the people and how we're gonna actually get them in and out of the building here we are outside of our warehouse in our parking lot I want to show you some of the logistics on how we're gonna handle people handle the flow of traffic to make sure nobody ever has to have any physical contact in our case we've got a couple large lots that we could stage people in and we would have radio communication with the people directing traffic as you can see over here we've got some cones set up with our vehicles and they're more than 15 feet apart and everybody would remain in their vehicles until we're ready to stage them and bring them
018in we'll bring them in three people at a time but not three people at a time where they're gonna be close together for example I would be the third person standing out here and the second person is actually going to be inside at our sanitizing station and I'll show that to you now our second staging position is just inside the door in our sanitation station here students could sanitize and we could make sure that the area remain sterile for everybody coming in even though they have no interaction with any people or any objects we want to make sure we're taking every precaution necessary to keep people safe once they're done here their name will be called and they'll be able to walk the stage I'll take you over there now and here's the first staging
019position this is where the student will be when they're waiting for their name to be called it's about 30 feet from our sanitation station and there will be dividers so when one student is coming up and the other is going down they never have any contact and there's an actual physical separator so when they walk up they take the diploma Mads you can see here you can see the monitor in the background that's where they'll be able to see the Dean or the principal whoever is actually giving them the Diploma and interact and they'll be able to see the hologram in front of them as well once they received that they simply walk offstage and they actually walk out of another entrance in our building get back in their cars and depart and their graduation
020is done thank you for watching our demo we think we've got a great solution and a great product to bring some normalcy to a horrible situation that was dealt to us and give the graduating class of 2020 not only something that they're gonna be able to take with them we hope that it's something that will be very very unique to them mark I appreciate your time I appreciate your help how about one more elbow bump just for for fun yes there you go again thank you so much our contact info will be on the bottom of the screen give us a call at anytime looking forward to talking to you and just a reminder this is completely scalable and what you saw is just a model we could take this and adapt it to almost
021any situation not only just here in Arizona but around the country thanks a lot so that was more of the technology and some distancing plan that this video will show you more of a graduation or perspective and again this is the one that they created specifically for us so that we had a better gauge of what the end product might look like hello and welcome back he saw our demonstration on how we're going to do a virtual graduation using holographic technology we had a couple requests to see what the final product would look like for the Ewers at home so we're moving ahead and set up the studio again and we're gonna show you that now what you're gonna see is you're gonna see the actual walking part of graduation the main part students walking
022across stage in real-time and then you're gonna see the same sequence with all the holes cut out and the final touches like lower thirds added in so you could actually experience what the at-home viewer will see with that let's just go ahead and get started and invite our first graduate up on stage mic towers hi congratulations on a great year thank you very much our next graduate is Paul Breen Paul congratulations 4.0 grade point average great job thank you next is our valedictorian aergon Schmitz congratulations they're gone thank you I knew I could do it and our final graduate is Ike towers twin brother Mike towers congratulations Mike thank you and that's pretty much how the sequence would go now you're gonna see it in the actual timing with all the holes cut out final
023touches put on it and this is exactly what the viewers at home will see mic towers my congratulations on a great year thank you very much our next graduate is Paul Breen Paul congratulations 4.0 grade point average great job thank you next is our valedictorian aergon Schmitz thank you I knew I could do it and our final graduate is Pike towers twin brother Mike towers congratulations Mike thank you thank you very much we hope this gives you a little bit better feeling on what the viewer will see at home for the final product if you have any questions please feel free to contact us at any time all right so hopefully that gives you a little bit better idea we will have this presentation posted on our website as well so that if there are
024families that are wanting to take a look at that that aren't watching right now they are absolutely welcome to access those videos and get a little better idea of what we were talking about with the technology and this gives you kind of a general idea of what we are including in all seven of our graduation so you can see that the musical inserts the salutatorian a dress valedictorian principals address the acceptance to the graduates by the governing board closing speakers specific music selections from each school will be provided that this company will be dropping into the final production as far as pomp and circumstance and the introduction and then like we showed you with the specific pools press and logos and the photos that we have attached in this this video so it's as close
025to an actual the end product will be as close to an actual graduation ceremony as as we can possibly make it at this point again this program order in the actual school you know brochure like will be mailed to the students along with their diploma so that they have that to remember and parents can look at it and use that or you know reviewing later on as well I think the last slide just shows kind of our timeline as far as when we sent out our district in-school communication the board meeting and then the timeline for filming all of our schools students at our seniors at mesquite junior high the goal right now of doing a live stream on May 21st for all of our schools at 7 p.m. we will confirm that we have
026to set up some separate youtube channels for each of our high schools and make sure that vx3 is able to project all of those live-streamed at the same time so if anything it'll be some time around there and we will make sure that everybody's aware of that we may have to stagger the time frames but again around that date of May 21st is the the goal right that takes care of our program unless anybody has any additional questions after seeing the videos or anything else doctor Santa Cruz I do go ahead Richard mrs. Taylor or dr. McCord as of May 5th at 7:58 p.m. which is what time it is right now what exactly are were your guidelines based on what the governor gave us so that the parents can know that what what you
027know what we were having to deal with in terms of trying to make this decision are you talking about social distancing guidelines basically all of them I mean yeah I mean I know I'm asking you a lot but you know social distancing and how many people can be involved and why we had to come to this point we are we are recognizing what the CDC obviously they've relaxed those guidelines a bit for you know reopening America I guess the best way to put it so they'll be able to do certain things in restaurants or they can have a limited number of people that can be in there for us we're gonna we're gonna adhere to the social distancing guidelines in terms of being six feet apart making sure sanitation is is correct and again having
028those individuals in and out of that auditorium as quickly as possible to one to make sure the Safety's adhere to - to make sure that the lines flowing extremely well so we can get all of our graduates we have you know 850 with 850 students all the way down to 75 students and so we'll be making opportunity to adhere to those guidelines as we move through just as part of that they'll also the the number of people that can be involved to my knowledge as of right now it's no more than ten at a time am I correct in that I believe you are and that is an area there might be other people in other room that aren't even it same area as the but that's what our goal is right and and and
029what I'm the reason I'm asking this is that I know that there's a lot of things that have happened in the last few hours I just want us to whatever I want our community to understand where you got to this point as of right now that could change tomorrow morning or next week or whatever but as of right now what what we had to deal with what you had to deal with what our district had to deal with is we were going by the guidelines that were given to us by the governor and the CDC am I correct in that you are correct thank you large groups cannot congregate together so we can't fill our stadiums right now according to the CDC and and it's my understanding that you know even like with the major
030league baseball they're thinking about going back to get going back like the 1st of July but at this point right now they're thinking that if they do they're going to be not playing or they're gonna be playing for television revenue not with people and I and I I don't know that could change tomorrow also right but my point in this whole question is we're where we are right now at 8:01 on may 5th I have a question thank you mrs. Taylor the musical selections are those going to be pre-recorded selections that the schools put into the video yes that's correct they're using their own choir their own not to report right now because obviously they can't get together in a group as well but our auditorium managers a nice job of recording all of these
031events all of concerts so they're selecting their favorite or best musical pieces some of them have selected pieces that would typically be performed during a baccalaureate operation at a graduation and so it's it will be kind of nice because each pool is able to select which groups or they're using a recording of a concert that been this school year with those particular students that are that are in the graduating class right now something that would be also a nice option for our schools thank you I appreciate that of course dr. McCord you know a side benefit if there is one I concur with your first statement and that was nothing can replace the person-to-person large-scale graduations that we are famous for in this district but one of the things that is a silver lining in
032this particular mode is the fact that time ever if there is a silver lining a parent or parents and family members and their graduate can sit in their living room on the night that would have been graduation and that's assuming all of our timelines are met and watch the event together right there sitting next to their graduate so while that is a benefit it's a small consolation because those families will be together watching listening and virtual form in that event so that's that's a positive I suppose and again hoping that all of the timelines can be met so that in fact we can broadcast all of those graduations on the same evening is that an accurate assessment yes sir dr. Santa Cruz I can also think of another advantage you may remember a couple of
033years when you had to deal with a lot of rain and we won't have to deal with that issue that's exactly true and it was nineteen but it did get cold on one of those evenings dr. McCord back to you thank you doctor Santa Cruz governing board members kind of my last portion of my statement that I think is important that we discuss and Chandler School District came out this afternoon saying that they were going to hold a graduation ceremony that is in person and with the idea and I'll pardon me but I'll read through this so I don't mess it up students will be seated six feet apart on a field and they may be wearing masks the ceremony will be live streaming to allow all guests to see the graduates accept their diploma
034they may be able to accommodate a limited audience however that decision will not be made until more information as a bit and this is something that I think we need to discuss because as you know in education and in the valley and we've heard it because there's been other school districts on the west side that will be attempting to do some face to face graduation type ceremony I think more than likely adhering to the social distancing guidelines once the and of course our emails filled up with suggestions and thoughts and wants from our community our parents and our students and I I think it's imperative that as you know superintendent members of the superintendency as well as governing board that we have this discussion is it something that as a school district would be able
035to pull off well I guarantee we can do anything that was a we're able to do with the guidelines that are set in place but we also have to be cautious and so I'm very interested in hearing your thoughts and ideas related to this mister Jenny's points are well-taken and that is that all of the experiences that we are currently enduring are fluid and they change from moment to moment day to day our our and so what we may say this evening may have to change tomorrow or the following day but could be late could be left open there are lots of logistical pieces that need to be and and implemented related to the supervision related to the distant thing related to any variety of things and those continue to concern me the live streaming
036is no small task in five six different locations for any school district let alone ours and so those are the items that that concern me but I'm not opposed to leaving the option open dr. Santa Cruz may I ask over here dr. McCord I know you just talked a little bit about what Chandler sent out today and I just want to clarify as of what their information is is that they this would be a situation that only the students would be attending the parents as of right now I mean like I said that could change tomorrow but as of what they know right now it would be just the students correct right now we're talking just students with the possibility of course like you said of being able to add a limited number of people
037in an audience and I would believe they'd be social distance as well well my biggest frustration with this entire situation is just the unknown of you know us trying to make sure that we do the very best for our students and you know I think that what you presented with the information that you had and that we had that is amazing is it possible for us to do both you know what I I want to believe in this situation anything is possible of course I would still rely on what the guidance that would come from the governor's office and if he's gonna allow larger groups to assemble with we're still adhering to social distancing guidelines yeah this is something that would be a stretch for us I mean as you can see putting the virtual
038piece together is is a task we had conversations with high school principals this afternoon Miss Taylor and to sum it up they'll do whatever we ask them to do and they'll do it with a smile on their face and and they'll do whatever they can't it being able to do something like this in the first week in June in terms of organizing getting it then yes we would be able to do it but again I don't know what the circumstances will be statewide restriction if tomorrow let's just say you know in that that the governor comes out and says that everything's gonna be okay and you can do whatever we want how could we pull it off so first and foremost we would go forward with our virtual just because I think that is extremely
039important and that isn't known right now that is something that we know that we can do and if tomorrow the governor said yeah we can get out and we can move ordered graduations I still want to move forward with the virtual for the mere fact that he may say that on Wednesday and then on Friday something happens and that gets changed again going back to my statement that I don't want to keep disappointing students but we would be able to do it thank you I think if I can put in my words dr. McCord what I'm hearing and what I'm understanding from from a lot of input from a lot of parent parents from a lot of different perspectives one we we all want seniors to have an experience I don't know I've yet talked
040to anybody that likes the fact that we've ended the school year and likes the fact that we're not able to bring these seniors together to celebrate as a parent many of us have personally experienced the effects of this I don't have a child graduated from high school but I've already missed a daughter's graduation from college ooh commencement was was cancelled it it hurts you know that your child hurts they put a lot of work into this I've had a son who had a wedding planned that wedding plans were set aside and he did he did get married but with eight people instead of instead of the planned party we know as a board how much difficulty that it's personal because it's personal to our children whom we love so to the parents and the students
041please know that whatever decision comes tonight whether we continue the path whether we modify it whether we add something we know how hard this is so now we're looking as a question of certainty if we proceed with the plan that's that the principals and superintendents see is put in place for a virtual graduation we have something that's certain at least we can celebrate your accomplishments it might not be how we want it to be we know it's not how you want it to be then we can go the additional route of discussing whether we hold something in person in our early June at some time we recognize that whatever plans we put in place now are uncertain we want to accommodate and we would be doing that because we care and want the seniors to
042have that experience but it's uncertain because we don't know what restrictions will be lifted I will say up until today 90% of the feedback that I was receiving from parents was we want our kids to be able to get together but you're putting together a plan that's the best plan of any of our neighboring districts in fact I've talked with parents who were in Chandler School District that I know that were we're admitting that that they liked our plans better than Chandler's today there was a switch that happened one of our neighboring districts put out an email saying hey we're going to plan this we know there's a lot of uncertainty many of many parents are taking it as if it's going to happen but one we don't know whether those restrictions are going to
043be lifted how they're going to be I know that that district to their credit is working with the governor's office and the Health Department to try and do it in a way that will be acceptable but their own letter indicates a lot of uncertainty I am supportive of trying to find ways that would enable our seniors to get together if we can do that in a reasonable fashion but we recognize that any plan that we put in place are conditioned on those trigger points as you mentioned dr. McCord that would enable this to move forward I am appreciative of the hard work that's gone in even during this board meeting I've gotten texts and emails some saying this is awesome and something this isn't what we want the community split and that's because we all
044once bet what's best for our children so my concern would be if we move forward with a second optional ceremony that the that you suggested and again I'm in favor if we can pull it off but my concern would be we have to do it soon enough to make it meaningful there are suggestions that we could put out into August or even December the reality is the further we go out if we go out beyond a week or two families start to leave students leave some colleges are going to open some colleges aren't student some some students are enrolled and will begin service in the military some students are going to serve missions as as was mentioned in dr. Castillo's letter more and more time that goes by the smaller and smaller group that we're
045going to be able to get together so my thought would be if we go down that route it's got to be sooner the first half of June than later because we'll never gather everybody together mr. I would be with you on everything you just said and I'd like to add that I think in the letter I sent me this would be an option optional and I'm not just saying necessarily from a districts point I'm talking from the individuals point of view if if there is a family that just says you know what the Virtua is the way to go I'm not interested in this I don't I still think as much as safeguard you put there I still don't feel safe and I don't I don't want my child involved with that that we completely
046understand that and so I just wanted to add that piece into it that this would not be mandated this would be strictly optional for those that wanted to attend what would you like the way in yes please thanks dr. Santa Cruz I guess going along with that last comments um dr. McCord it's interesting we we've received many emails both ways there are some parents who have said please keep the virtual that for health reasons for myself or my children I mean is the best way for us to celebrate graduation this year and then there's others who have said please let our kids get together because there's nothing like seniors being able to get together and celebrate that together so again as we mentioned we're trying to balance the many needs and you know we're trying
047to balance the safety and health of our students with the huge desire that we have to celebrate our students and to give them something to remember is this has been a kind of a disappointing end of this school year nothing that we would have chosen for them I have a senior myself graduating and it's been it's you know another high school students myself and it's been a lot of loss and disappointment as you think about it it's just like everyone mentioned everyone's faced it in all their different all their different walks of their life so I I am I really I think the virtual option when it's gonna come together I think the final product is gonna be something that families will enjoy and appreciate I think obviously the filming of it is a bit
048underwhelming and our students might feel that as they go in but I think to be able to have your grandparents watching and have you know be together as a family in that graduation night have some element of closure in that kind of a way that we can guarantee I'm excited about that and then um again I'm with I'm with my other board members if if we can tentatively set a plan and is it you know do we want to do an actual on the field graduation do you just want to do a celebration on the field where they get together and you know do something I don't know if we can find a plan how they can also have that experience I know that would be meaningful to many many families and parents who might
049take advantage of that in early June and I know that would be asking our our principals our teachers and others too to come back I think many would you know are happy too many teachers I've talked to who have said this has been the worst they want to they want to see that's part of their happiness too is to watch these students graduate students that they care about and to celebrate them that night and that's it's taking it away from all of us so I think the virtual I'm I'm really pleased with how it's going to turn out and I hope that we will be able to go forward with that and support that and then um again as this new idea has come about just with the change yesterday with Governor Ducey opening a
050few things up and all of a sudden there's maybe some leeway and some opportunity that we could maybe gather in a certain way and I I would like us to continue to look at that in and have a have a plan see what we could put together that way thank you would dr. McCord do you have enough information is there anything okay I I really appreciate the hard work that's gone into the virtual graduation obviously there's been a lot of thought and planning and I think that is a good option to give everyone an opportunity to see their child graduate in a way that is more than we had hoped previously I myself I understand how sad parents are I do have a daughter graduating from college we won't be walking her walk across this
051stage we will on Friday watch a slideshow not a virtual graduation but a slideshow and it you know it's it's a little sad and I'm but we're trying to find some things to do we won't be having family over we won't be having friends over and because of the concern about this virus so I do understand you know how disappointed both students and parents are I looked at the Arizona Department of Health website today just to see where we are on April 27th we had 416 new cases and today was our highest day of death so far today 33 deaths have been reported that may not be an accurate number it may take a few more days to get a more accurate number today we had 350 new cases we've been trying to stay home
052and keep people from getting sick by staying home we had a 446 cases on April 30th so we are actually going down a little bit and I understand the governor is anxious to reopen things however both the doctor Anthony ouchy and dr. deborah birx have stated that it's it's probably early to open things the fact is that we have a very contagious virus more contagious than the flu and it's can be very severe and deadly more deadly than the flu and even some of the younger people that get this even those who are asymptomatic have had strokes and neurological problems so I think we're talking about something that's really serious and as much as I want to have be able to see a graduation you know social distancing is for those times when we absolutely
053have to go out I'm concerned that something we do as a district not be the impetus of spreading this virus further so I think and we have to also think about our staff I know students are more likely to not have it as severely but we have to think about staff members it would also be involved if we did something later like in June I'm wondering and I would want dr. McCord to check on this would there be a liability if someone chose to come to this optional graduation and became ill later I think we need to check into that and I want to remind us that even though this hasn't been with us very long just for the months of March and April there are 70,000 grieving American families so I think we have
054to take the fact that this is that we're living in a new age and my understanding is that until we have a vaccine and and have that immunity that we mean you know it might be go out for a little while shelter back in place and so I think the idea of you know maybe we'll be able to do something in June we still have the same challenges in June that we have today and I'm not sure that it's the best option to choose to have something on the field with even if we keep people six feet apart so that's those are my thoughts I understand how difficult that is for parents that I think we want to think about what is safe for everyone including students and staff I think it's important to state
055governor Ducey did not we can gather in large groups you know he relaxed some things as it relates to restaurants and hair salons and even retail but and I watched those those those press conferences every time they come on and the order is still stay healthy stay safe stay connected and so I you know I I have a feeling that's gonna be relaxed a little bit over the next couple weeks and that's just me guessing but if I if I'm understanding some things as I read between the lines as we move forward um I can see some of that happening so it might be in our best interest to plan for the best hope for the best and then if if something doesn't happen and we're not able to go through with it but the
056last thing I want to do is continue to disappoint our 20/20 graduates as I know all of you feel the same way but if there's a possibility that we can gather at some point in time in the very near future I think we should be looking down that road and I would I would concur with your assessment dr. McCord and that is India eventualities because this is so fluid that we should plan or the possibility and with the caveat that it will kick and will be canceled at a moment's notice if it isn't viable to do with relationship to liability I I know that you will check with legal counsel that since it is optional and voluntary that anyone who decides that that isn't available would sign a waiver of some sort absolving the district
057of any liability related to that now that's a difficult one to answer but I think it's again being proactive is important but we have plans in place for something that is very certain with our virtual graduation and to proceed with the possibility that things will become opportune for our students and be ready if something is is not necessarily a bad thing to do dr. Santa Cruz can I can I say one more thing please as you know I've been doing this a little bit even longer than you and in my 49 years in education I think this is probably the most agonizing decision I've ever had to make or be a part of and I you know I want our community and our seniors that have worked so hard to know that we recognize all
058of the work that they've done but this is out of our control and and I would just like to say thank you to dr. McCord and the cabinet I think you have done an amazing job of trying to find something it's an alternative and I just I really appreciate it I appreciate the input from our parents and I hope that that there's a way that we can make both things work but I think like everybody else has said we it's day by day it's actually hour by hour so it it's a no-win situation and it's a sad situation and you know we can only try to be safe and do the best because our seniors that are graduating this year are our future in this country Thank You mr. Jenny you know and as the
059days pass the local and national media will begin to broadcast and share stories of all kinds of innovative plans that districts across the country and across the state have implemented to honor the graduates of the class of 2020 served to create the anxiety in our district among our parents and and we would like for our students and our parents to know that we see those stories too we hear that concerns and we share the anxiety and the angst that goes along with viewing any of those stories dr. McCord Thank You dr. Santa Cruz governing board members I just like to thank Marcy Taylor for all the hard work she's running around here making sure vx-3 is taken care of and all of our students are taking care of it huge shoutout goes to our principals
060in all of the fine detail planning and communicating they're doing with our students and our families this is again like you've all set a an interesting time a trying time and we're out there doing something that I think no one's ever attempted before and I I just want to make sure that everybody here had an understanding of what we were doing how we were doing it and what the future may look like if we're able to gather by the beginning of June thank you dr. McCord board members any additional comment question if not we reviewed all three of our work study items and we will adjourn this portion of the meeting move into item 4 which is a brief board business meeting we will ask mrs. Wilson to go ahead and call the roll again
061Laurie would mr. Reid car I am still here miss you daddy Santa Cruz I'm still here mr. president all board members are present you have a quorum so we call the meeting to order and we're at item five and five point zero one appreciation week proclamation dr. McCord you you dr. santa cruz governing board members as you know this is teacher appreciation week and we want to make sure that our certified staff our teachers know that we care about them and we want to dedicate this week to them and so it's actually appreciation day as well so we have a proclamation that we would like to extend to our certified staff and our community and dr. Santa Cruz who would would you like to read this or would you like me to read this I'll
062defer to you dr. McCord thank you here's Proclamation we're ads to make public schools great and we're as teachers work to open students minds to ideas knowledge and dreams and whereas teachers keep American democracy alive by laying the foundation for good citizenship and whereas teachers fill many roles as listeners explorers role models motivators mentors and whereas teachers continue to influence us long after school days our only memories therefore the governing board and superintendent of Guilford Public Schools do hereby proclaim Teacher Appreciation Week May 1st through 8th and May 5th today as national teacher day Thank You dr. McCord and we congratulate our teachers you are heroes in this very very difficult time period remembers anything to add I'd like to add something dr. Santa Cruz I think that our teachers have done an outstanding exceptional
063amazing job under these very trying circumstances and I've heard so many positive comments from parents about how the teachers have gone out of their way and you know having to learn how to teach over the you know the internet in just such a short time is just unbelievable and the connections that they have still been able to keep with their children it's so meaningful and so I think every year for the last 49 I've been appreciative of teachers probably longer than that but I think this year more than any we really need to applaud what our teachers have done because they have been just truly amazing thank you mr. Chetty any other board members giant men and just to echo the comments have been made I have been very pleased and appreciative of how many
064people have made comments about how how this has situation we're in right now has made them appreciate more than ever what what teachers do I think we have a community that has has always appreciated this teachers but I think that appreciation level is at the highest that's ever been and I would just like to say to every teacher thank you for what you do and thank you for your service thank you for the way you serve families and our children Thank You mr. Carr miss Tom freeze yes I'd be happy to add to that I really really appreciate all that I our teachers have done and I really appreciate the fact that we already had technology in place to help them but I know they've had to learn a lot even in the last few
065weeks to be able to carry on with the online learning so hopefully we'll get to plan and open schools in August and be back in the classroom maybe under some little different circumstances but I know that both teachers and students are really looking forward to that just add to what everyone has said but how appreciative I am of the teachers for the way they care for our students a way that they motivate and inspire them and for the way that they're trying to learn and grow and improve always in what they do because because they want to give the best education that they can to each of our students and just grateful for them for the staffs and the principals as well that help help them each day do their work thank you Miss wood
066and so the proclamation is affirmed by this governing board on this Appreciation Day and this teacher appreciation week move to item five zero two school nurses Proclamation knocked in the car thank you doctor Santa Cruz governing board member today is national teacher day but tomorrow is national school nurse day may sing the theme this year school nurses supporting students in times of crisis the proclamation states where as students are the future and by investing in them today we are ensuring our world for tomorrow and whereas families deserve to feel confident that their children will be cared for when they are not at school and whereas all students have a right their physical and mental health needs safely met while in the school setting and whereas students today fades more complex and life-threatening health problems requiring
067care in school and whereas the köppen 19 pandemic has emphasized the essential role of school nurses play in student health and academic success and whereas school nurses have served a critical role in improving public health and in in ensuring students academics best for more than a hundred years and whereas school nurses address the home and community here's where school nurses act as liaison to the school community families health care providers on behalf of the children's health by promoting wellness and improved me health outcomes for our nation's children and whereas school nurses support the health and educational success of children and youth by provide access to care when children's cognitive development is at its peak and whereas school nurses are members of the school-based teams to address the school population and whereas school nurses understand the
068link between health and learning and are in a position to make positive differences for children every single day therefore be it resolved that the National Association of school nurses celebrates and acknowledges the accomplishments of school nurses everywhere and there efforts of meeting the needs of today's students by improving the delivery of health care in our schools and offer gratitude for the nation's school nurses who contribute to our local communities by helping students stay healthy in school ready to learn keeping parents and great guardians effort not just on the national school nurse day but every opportunity throughout the air therefore the governing board and superintendent Gilbert public schools do hereby proclaim May 6 as school Thursday thank you dr. McCord and echoing the sentiment school nurses especially in this day and age Kovach 19 notwithstanding but
069even dealing with young students trauma of all types and to them to school staffs as well you are very much appreciated and we wish you well on teeth on nurses Appreciation Day which is May sick board members anything to say dr. santa cruz i just want to echo that i really nurses are important and it's not just band-aids and tylenol then we have a lot of students with very complicated health issues and they are there to take care of them make sure they get their needs met and as well as our staff if something would happen with the staff member so they are very important um pretty doctor santa cruz i i would like to echo that and i think that everything that was in the proclamation is so true and I think that probably
070we're going to be more appreciative of men in the months to come dr. Santa Cruz thank you I just want to thank our school nurses for the valuable work that you do each day and I am also thankful that we have many school nurses at our campuses that we've been able to keep them they've been an integral part of success of our students and I'm glad that we can have those as qualified nurses at our campuses thank you Miss wood mr. Carr would echo the sentiment that's been expressed and and I think as Miss wood just commented I was going to say the same thing we hope that our school nurses know how much we appreciate them I think this board has gone to great lengths to make sure that we keep nurses even when
071many other districts have we've had to pare back and pursue other alternatives we hope that sends a message to our nurses how much we value them but we also personally say thank you Thank You mr. Carr and so the resolution is affirmed and this governing board extends its appreciation to nurses and our health care workers in our schools after McCord anything else sir move to item 6 which is the consent agenda items I have a motion thank you Miss Humphries is there a second car we have a motion in the second is there a seeing and hearing none then we will move to the vote those who affirm will say and those who didn't is a name and miss Wilson you motion carries you have five I thank you mrs. Wilson when I moved to
072action item point zero one student devices dr. McCord thank you dr. Santa Cruz governing board members item seven point zero one student devices for fiscal year 2021 it is recommended that rwq 20 - 122 Chromebooks student devices for fiscal year 2021 according to the following responsible and responsive vendor CDW government LLC technology services is seeking to purchase Chromebooks use in the upcoming fiscal year the district intends to purchase approximately 7,000 Chromebook as well as associated provisioning asset tagging and extended warranties for vendors responded with pricing to the Chromebooks associated services and the extended warranties all four vendors were considered responsive and respond of all technology services and conduction with purchasing department requests the approval of the utilization of the Mohave purchase contract 1:5 I - cdw-g - 1 0 0 - for the purchase of
073Chromebooks for students use including associated services and 4-year extended warranties for each Chromebook from CDW government LLC the contract will be in effect for one year with the implementation beginning upon award the approximate cost is two million three hundred twenty three thousand seven hundred forty-one dollars and that will be coming from fun 631 out of we have mr. Castellano here if you have any questions thank you dr. McCord governing board members item seven point zero one is before you you have heard the rationale is there a motion thank you mrs. humphreys is there a second second Thank You Jenny there is a motion and a second is there a discussion on item seven point zero one I did have a couple questions for mr. Custer um what grade levels are we giving these Chromebooks to
074I know that seventh grade definitely students are receiving a new Chromebook what other grade usually receives an in Chrome but dr. Turner Cruz members of the board dr. McCord ah yes good question John and thank you all for hanging in there earlier for a little blip appreciate everyone's patience with that um this will be for our incoming ninth graders as well as our seventh grade so our refresh at this point how we've timed that is that incoming freshmen get a new device and then they keep that device throughout the remainder of their high school career and then at the junior high we rotate the devices around more years where we replace them so this here is actually a a year where we're replacing the seventh grade devices thank you comment questions board member yes dr.
075Santa Cruz if I may um mr. Castellano I I was gonna ask you so are these updated in any way from the Chromebooks that we have are is it similar to what what we've been purchasing in the past they're pretty similar they have newer processors obviously those change over years so this has newer processors in them this year we're actually going to change brands to a different device so every year we spend a lot of time discussing that and then we talk with the students why not see if there's anything different they would want but we're gonna stick with a very similar device but it is a different brand some of the reasonings for that is availability of parts more accessible and we also have our last year if you remember we started a for
076an outside service that's repairing these devices so they also work this is this brand as well oh that's why we've chosen to switch brands and what which brand is it these will be Dell devices but there'll be similar size and similar functions yeah almost exactly the same form factor we hope a little sturdier great let's see I also was gonna ask about the bond oh you know what let me just ask one more thing so will they work seamlessly so some students will continue with their Chromebooks and then these others now will help Dell it should be seamless in all the you know the Google classrooms and all the things that we operate with well we'll just Davis yeah absolutely it's a chrome operating system on the devices so exactly the same okay so this
077is from the bond fund and this was the 2015 bond correct and we had in there as part of the technology that we had as we went out for that bond was to go for things like this yeah absolutely it falls the letter of what that bomb was passed for we're getting toward the end of that technology bond or that money that we have toward technology spending in that bond aren't we yeah getting close so what's our plan for the future for because we're gonna need to continue to refresh right absolutely um yeah I I we have a plan that's planned out from another five to seven years from now so and Bonnie I'm gonna let mrs. Betts jump in with that her and I work together and she knows the plan that we have
078laid out for the Refresh but mrs. Betts I'll let you answer that piece of it if you will bett Thanks thanks John so so Ms wood one of the reasons why we put off that last eight million dollars of bond spend on the 2015 bond was to be able to continue the commitments that we've made with the Refresh is over the next three years so so we waited another another year year and a half to sell that last eight million dollars which about three million dollars is designated for technology so we are monitoring that and ensuring that we are meeting the commitments and the refresh cycle that was planned back into that team another question about the warranty if we have a warranty if we're buying extended warranty for these Chromebooks will that mean that
079they will be repaired under the warranty by the company or how does that work yeah great question so um yes that that's exactly what it means these devices will have a four year warranty on them so it will cover the life of what they're expected that's cover and then we always still cycle these down to our elementary schools so the current senior devices and the current seventh grade devices that will be refreshed will be able to get another year of use out of those at our elementary sites oh that helps us refresh with elementary sites at least for that extended amount of time that we can get out of the de life of the devices all right thank you welcome members any other questions miss wood that's the question that I always ask what's our
080long term plan I I think the as was commented earlier in the meeting the availability of this technology allowed our district to come up to speed very quickly and to do some things that some of our neighboring districts haven't done so it's been a real blessing that's in place too miss woods question and has been responded the long-term plan is really important so that's so that we we don't take something away in the future that we get used to thank you mr. Carvin point well made any additional commentary any additional question hearing and seeing none then we will go ahead and those in favor please signify by saying aye I'm saying nay mrs. Wilson would you please hold for president motion carries bye-bye thank you mrs. Wilson okay we are now at item 8 the
081journey this brief board meeting is there a motion for adjournment Thank You mr. Chetty mr. Carr were you about to say something I was about to make the motion but I will instead second thank you I suspect there is no discussion with that in mind we will take voice boat without polling the board all those in favor of German please signify by saying aye I hear five eyes we are adjourned thank you everyone have a safe night thank you thank staff board members everyone